One thing I'd really like in this game . . .

from Stardock Forums
Ok, I posted this before, but since there is discussion of addon, expansions, etc. this is what I want - the ability in setting up a game to control galaxy shape and star distribution (like you could do in BOTF). Personally, I don't like the GalCiv model where stars are clustered and scattered over the galaxy, with large empty sectors. I prefer a more even distribution of stars, which is the way I've seen it in most space 4X games. That's just me - but it's what I want.
419 views 12 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
PS, I also hate that the AI knows where all the good planets are. I understand that is supposed to be due to the backstory of the game (but that still makes no sense to me - travel was limited by stargates, so how did they ever find these planets without stargates at them), but even so, I find it annoying, and an advantage that I don't think the AI is due - I get tired of just getting beat to a nice world I just discovered that the AI NEVER found on it's own, but sent a colony ship to because it knew the world existed.

I also think ship ranges are too long early on - again, I hate the colony rush the AI puts on, taking planets in sectors that are much closer to me - but again that I can't get to before the omnisicent AI gets there. I guess I'm grumpy today since I got up early and couldn't go back to sleep :(

Grifman
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
Well, perhaps they found these planets the same way our scientist are trying to find planets today. By taking a spectrogram (not sure if its a correct translation from swedish) and analyze the contents of heavy metals in the star, and thereafter trying to see light changes in the star wich can indicate a planet. The size of the star is also important in finding planets.
There is a reason why the inner planets of our solar system is solid (mars, venus, mercury, earth) and the outer planets are gas giants (neptune, jupiter etc.) The reason is that when our sun was created it threw enourmous amounts of material into space, the solarwinds pushed the material outwards. The heavy materials (metals) was harder to push due to their mass and didnt go as far out as the lighter ones (for example hydrogen), this resulted in that the planets closer to the sun consist of more heavy materials than the planets further out. The races in GalCiv surely knows how to find planets as they have been sentient for much longer than the humans.

/Andreas
Elemental: Reforged
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
I like the focus on five standard major AI opponents (alien races), however, I wish that the the five could be a random selection of 8 to 10 races, each with its own AI and race specific quirks.

Example: Occassionaly one of your Five opponents would be a Borg Like Race that does not have to worry about Influence or dissent.
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
Does the human player also know the location of all the high quality planets, or just the AIs?

--Soulfire
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
I agree to an extent about the AI knowing the locations of good planets/resources, but after a while I came up with a good scouting and colonization system that pretty much nullifies AI's advantage.
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
The Human player can research a tech fairly early which shows yellow stars on the mini map. These usually have good planets around them.

Paul.
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
I guess this a trade-off between realism and play-balancing. Personally, I'd like to see a game which didn't rely so heavliy on physically sending scoutships for exploration. It would be nice to have a greater variety of astronomical techs which aid in exploring the universe. After all it is much more efficient and (in the real world) we know a lot about our universe without ever leaving our solar system. Even cheap unmanned probes would be a welcome addition. The tech pointed out by Solitare is a start. By the way, I've never played the game, so take my comments for what they're worth. :notsure:
Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top
Or you can research and build Eyes of the Universe which will vastly increase your sensor range.

~SDC~
Reply #11 from Stardock Forums Top
The back story says the other races had been sending out unmaned probes (they had to be sublight, but I don't remember that in the back story) for millenia and mapping the galaxy from the returned data. After all, how else would they have been able to establish contact with other civs and talk them into building stargates?
Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top
I agree with LifeWish about play balance vs realism. Play balance is critical to the game while realism adds to the experience but is not really critical.

On the other end of the scale, the same is true of the AI from what I've read. The AI is penalized on the first 4 or 5 levels of intelligence. Not realistic but without the penalties you (I) would usually lose even at the lowest intelligence levels.