Galciv v MOO3
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I have played quite a few hours of the Galciv beta and MOO3 and offer the following observations:
1) I like designing ships and seeing how they perform in combat, especially in combination with others ship designs. Galciv does not have that feature. MOO3 does, but the combat animations are so small it is difficult to tell what weapons/defenses are working well or not. I understand that the Civilization-type combat is a design decision and not a defect, but I would really like to see the ship design/tactical combat option added to Galciv with perhaps a "quick combat" option like Age of Wonders has and Warlords 4 will have. I realize that means some serious AI programing, but why not ask?
2) MOO3 has one of the most frustrating interfaces I have ever seen. Many clicks are needed to perform the simplest and most routine tasks. Not so Galciv, which is much more intuitive.
3) MOO3's so-called "manual" and "encyclopedia" are also among the least informative I have ever seen. They tell you everything you can figure out for yourself, and nothing you need to know from a manual. Galciv's beta documentation is far superior.
4) MOO3's AI colonizes well but that's pretty much all it does well. The MOO3 AI does a reasonable job of managing economics on a colony, but it always wants to trot out troop ships and single ground units even from planets that can spit out 5 or 10 ground units in short order, and which should be building larger ships. You have to go through the build queues every turn an purge unwanted units (which takes time given the poor user interface) Galciv's "governor" build queues are a much more intuitive and responsive way to avoid late-game micromanagment. Galciv's "enemy" AI is so far superior from MOO3's that it is not a comparison.
5)MOO3 has multiplayer and Galciv does not. So what. I can't imagine many people having the time and patience to play the 300-400 turns you would need for a MOO3 multiplayer game. Who can take off a week just to play a game?
With some improvements to the AI, MOO3 could actually turn out to be a reasonably good game. However, the Galciv beta is already a much better game overall, and I would expect the gold version to be ever more superior, let alone the year's worth of updates and improvements that can be made with the benefit of lots of user feedback.
1) I like designing ships and seeing how they perform in combat, especially in combination with others ship designs. Galciv does not have that feature. MOO3 does, but the combat animations are so small it is difficult to tell what weapons/defenses are working well or not. I understand that the Civilization-type combat is a design decision and not a defect, but I would really like to see the ship design/tactical combat option added to Galciv with perhaps a "quick combat" option like Age of Wonders has and Warlords 4 will have. I realize that means some serious AI programing, but why not ask?
2) MOO3 has one of the most frustrating interfaces I have ever seen. Many clicks are needed to perform the simplest and most routine tasks. Not so Galciv, which is much more intuitive.
3) MOO3's so-called "manual" and "encyclopedia" are also among the least informative I have ever seen. They tell you everything you can figure out for yourself, and nothing you need to know from a manual. Galciv's beta documentation is far superior.
4) MOO3's AI colonizes well but that's pretty much all it does well. The MOO3 AI does a reasonable job of managing economics on a colony, but it always wants to trot out troop ships and single ground units even from planets that can spit out 5 or 10 ground units in short order, and which should be building larger ships. You have to go through the build queues every turn an purge unwanted units (which takes time given the poor user interface) Galciv's "governor" build queues are a much more intuitive and responsive way to avoid late-game micromanagment. Galciv's "enemy" AI is so far superior from MOO3's that it is not a comparison.
5)MOO3 has multiplayer and Galciv does not. So what. I can't imagine many people having the time and patience to play the 300-400 turns you would need for a MOO3 multiplayer game. Who can take off a week just to play a game?
With some improvements to the AI, MOO3 could actually turn out to be a reasonably good game. However, the Galciv beta is already a much better game overall, and I would expect the gold version to be ever more superior, let alone the year's worth of updates and improvements that can be made with the benefit of lots of user feedback.
I have no children and I am sure they are eternally grateful. Good night all.
