Anyone played Space Empires 4? Is GalCiv similar?

Well from what I've read, GalCiv isn't SEIV with better diplomacy. Ship to ship combat, designing ships'll be less interesting. The diplomacy model seems to be leagues ahead of SEIV's though. None of that "Your growth is astonishing", and "Mineral planets are the best" crap

I also like the fact that it's possible to win without resorting to all-out force. No more Phong/Eee, partners for 5 years, all of a sudden declaring war on you just because you happen to have a higher score.

Reading the articles in the Encyclopedia section, and the game reports posted here should give you a decent idea of what the game's like. I liked what I read enough for me to (perhaps foolishly) be willing to purchase this game on faith

Below is a copy pasted blurb from the GoneGold forum. If you check the MOO3 forum, and do a search you should be able to find some GalCiv threads as well.

Copy pasted post by Edan over at GoneGold (March 3):
GalCiv (keep in mind, I haven't played in about a month, so a few things may have crept in.)
- dated graphics/music
- no tactical portion
- no designing of ships
- no multiplayer
-/+ Can only play human (but you can change some settings to make it diversified)
-/+ Random positioning (which can effect your chancs in the game.
-/+ Only looked a little bit at the Galciv forums, and they seemed active.
-/+ Theres a UN (or whatever) along the lines of the one in MOO3, but it's a lot less ambitious (pretty much, you just meet from time to time to vote on some referendum, and you're always in the senate, even if not everyone else is)
+ a number of ways to win (ie, conflict, greatest influence, etc)
+ intuitive/easy to learn interface
+ few bugs
+ balanced well
+ government system (ie, if you have a democracy, you have a senate consisting of 8 parties. If you don't have the most members, you lose bonuses)
+ very good AI
+ 5 map sizes, with the largest being very large.

I have to add this point for people who read this thread that aren't familier with the game: I would say that some of things described above as a minus are acutally a plus for the game design. For example, no multiplayer and only being able to play as human are by design to allow for a richer, deeper single player experience. These are (from what I've read) deliberate design choices. It's like saying the new Mazda RX8 isn't that great because it can't seat 7 people.

I like SEIV a lot. I'm not particularly picky about eye-candy, so its less-than-impressive graphics don't bother me--besides, since they're all bmps, you don't have to be a programmer to make your own, which is a lot of fun. And, of course, it has multiplayer capability and it lets you do things like designing ships, which are also pluses, and which you can't do in GalCiv.

However, GalCiv does many things that other games don't do, or don't do nearly as well. The diplomatic aspect of the game is good enough that you can forget you're playing against computer AIs. And the AI is certainly among the best I've ever encountered. GalCiv focuses on the big picture of building and running a galactic empire, as opposed to the more micro-management approach of SEIV, but it does so while still giving you plenty of opportunity to make meaningful decisions, unlike what we've heard from the legions of disappointed MOO3 buyers. In many respects, GalCiv is what MOO3 was supposed to be--galactic conquest on a large scale, without the tediousness of administering every planet and ship in minute detail. Even though you operate at the higher levels of decision making, you still feel like you're in control. It's much more satisfying than the experience people are getting with MOO3--at least according to what's appearing on their discussion boards. And GalCiv's interface is MUCH easier to work with.

So, it's a highly different perspective than provided by SEIV, but, if you'd like to be able to concentrate more on major decisions, it's a good choice--probably the best one available. After all, we don't need another SEIV--we've already got a perfectly serviceable one. We want another 4x game that is different enough to make it worth shelling out the money. GalCiv is worth it.

SEIV has lots of interesting techs.
Lots of options.

But it tends to get a little dull I found.
Because the only real choice is `kill everyone' it doesn't have much staying power.
Same routine over and over, same results.

I like being able to remove star lanes and add them that's fun.

I also like that your civ gains experience the more games you play with it; although I don't know what actual effect that has.

It contains good stuff, good work, good ideas.

SE4 and Galciv do not compare. They are not the same game or extensions of the other. Between the two
1) SE4 is much more of a conquest game where Galciv has more balance between the methods of winning.
2) ship design felt more to me like just being there for the people that wanted it. I was unable to see any benefit to it. Galciv has another form of ship design, mods that can be done before you start a game, that the human and AI players can use equally.
3) In spite of having build queues I found SE4 required very heavy micromanagement. Galciv has the build queues and governors set up very neatly, minimizing the micromanagement needed.
4) SE4 was so straight line in its game play as to be boring. Galciv has lots of things that happen randomly. While this can be disruptive at times, it never seems to be overwhelming and adds a touch of the unexpected.

And I could go on.

~SDC~

Here's a question that may sound dumb: Is GalCiv turn-based? Like MoO3 turn-based?

Also what does "no tactical portion" mean? No TB combat?

Yes GalCiv is turned based - you move your units, manage your planets, etc. Then the next player does this, and so on until it gets back to you.

No Tactical portion - Combat is handled by moving one unit onto the square of an opposing race's unit. The two units then have a fight automatically. You are not involved in the fight. Think Civilization.

Sith

SE4 to my opinion was the best 4X game released so far, but Galciv will be taking over this position with the Gold release, I'm sure. SE4 allows to play gigantic universes (limit is 255 Starsystems! with several planets per system), but I have to agree it get's boring playing these immense universes because it takes so long before something interesting happens. Both games are TB (thank God for that!).In Galciv (beta) almost every turn something happens, because surveying will lead to whatever discoveries, or other empires contact you, or a universe wide event happens and so on. Which makes playing the game very nice indeed. And we all know by now the Gold Release will be soo much better than the Beta, and we get the Bonus Pack, and later........It is soo much important the game si and will be supported big after the release. SE IV had something like 49! updates after the release (of course some bug fixes, but mainly things added to make the game more interesting and challenging). Brad seems to even improve this fantastic after sales and as far as I know is the first one who focuses on keeping the customers happy rather than copy protection or releasing a game only for profit and worry later to patch countless bugs found by players or modders.

And Brad's focus on keeping customers happy is a continuing one, that has a nine year + running streak.

~SDC~

"No Tactical portion - Combat is handled by moving one unit onto the square of an opposing race's unit. The two units then have a fight automatically. You are not involved in the fight. Think Civilization."

Sounds fine to me. I'd rather have that then the MoO3 combat, which I always leave to the computer now anyway.

I see a lot of people mentioning Space Empires, the reason I asked whether GalCiv was turn-based was because I thought everyone was actually referring to Starships Unlimited (I always get SE and SU mixed up), and I think SU is real time (pausable).

I have had great enjoyment playing SE4. I loved the ability to build Ring- and Sphereworlds around stars. When playing at maximum difficulty the AI could be quite difficult altough never impossible. The ability to design ships was actually very interesting and made all the difference. When playing-by-mail some of the ships devised by your human opponent were great fun. Kamikaze fleets on your starbases and whatnot. The AI is not that inventive.
The micromanagment could get very annoying, but not necessarily if you planned well in advance. What was very irritating was the "Evil Empire" setting in the game. Everyone declares war if you own 30 % of the galaxy or something. As far as I can see, Galciv is set to be a game which satisfies the missing element in SE4, which is a good storyline. A shame I live in Holland and don't have cable

WRT to the "evil empire" setting in SE4, that can be disabled (or at least it could in non-Gold) by changing the "MegaEvilEmpire" settings.

SE4 did bog down with micro if you wanted to play anything near optimal in a long game, however. Going back and replacing production facilities with Monolith IIIs once those and resource converters were available was hellish. So, for that matter, was making sure every system had the system-wide computers, and putting atmosphere converters on every domed colony as well.

*sniff* I always hated Civ-style combat. SE's combat wasn't so great, but MOO1's was. I always liked MOO1 in a large part b/c there were a lot of strategic and tactical decisions tied up in your fleet. *sigh* Oh well, GalCiv still has plenty of other redeeming features, even if combined arms doesn't exactly enter into the equation...

What do you mean there are few tactical options!!???? There are a whole buttload of options. Say, you want to attack a system. You have to be careful and plan your assault well before you attack, because, at least in Civ, the AI is ruthless, and will exploit every opportunity. End of story.

"I always hated Civ-style combat. SE's combat wasn't so great, but MOO1's was. I always liked MOO1 in a large part b/c there were a lot of strategic and tactical decisions tied up in your fleet."

This was true and I liked it too, but there is something else to consider. In MOO1 (and most other games with tactical combat - especially where you design your own custom units), there are many ways to exploit the enemy AI and win battles against VASTLY superior fleets simply because the AI can not use or counter those strategies as a human player would.

It can be fun to win those kinds of battles, but there is also something to be said for keeping the difficulty of the game more balanced by ommitting it. Yes I know you can say "well they could just make it an option", but how many human players tend to turn OFF an option that makes them vastly more powerful by having it on (without making them feel like they are cheating)? In fact, players who even choose not to CHEAT for an advantage are pretty rare. Besides, there is just something about "turning OFF options" that makes you feel like you are not getting "the whole game". Just my opinion I guess...

--Soulfire

The advantage to tactical combat is: you get to see what technology does for you, and your maneuvering of ships and deciding on targets can and does affect the outcome of the battle. Just because some players 'cheat' (here, it seems described as using weapons and the rules of the game to your advantage, which doesnt seem like cheating to me), doesn't mean that the better-ever AI in GalCiv couldn't be programmed to 'cheat.' and level the playing field.

For me, no ship design and no tactical combat is really too bad, especially in a game designed for single player. But that doesn't change my opinion that GalCiv is the best 4X since MoO2, and in many ways, better.

I used the tactical combat and ship design in MOO2 and, while it had depth, the depth was in those two features, not in the overall game. I think that those of you that haven't tried Galciv yet should give it a try (ok, you must wait until 3/26) and try out what we have been talking about. Then see what you think.

Galciv is not MOO. It was never intended to be (GC/os2 came out before MOO did, in 1993). And isn't it nice to have more than one game with different characteristics that will give you a change of pace?

~SDC~