Alfonse

Reply to Why this game bores me silly, yet I can't stop playing. in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

I think the most basic problem with the game is, as has been said, that the only thing that ever changes during the course of a game session is numbers. There are no unique abilities, no strategy-altering breakthroughs, no asymmetry at all. And there it is. You have just summed up the major gameplay

Reply to Newb Question: Middle Mouse Button? Er... I don't have one... in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

In most mouse configuration tools, there is a way to set what a mouse button does. The left mouse button is usually set to do the thing called "Left Mouse button". The same goes for the right mouse button. What you need to do is set one of your mouse buttons to do the thing called "Middle Mouse button".

Reply to GalCiv 2 vs MOO3 (A Comparative Review for all 4X Gamers) in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

However, the saving point of GalCiv 2 is that you can research INDIVIDUAL technologies, which is a big plus. Bigger isn't better. This isn't a race called "Who has the biggest Tech Tree?" This is about good game design. Personally, Civ4's tech tree is superior, precisely because it d

Tech Tree in HTML Form in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

I have taken the GalCivII XML files and I have processed them with XML tools to generate hundreds of well-indexed HTML. Currently, the HTML has not just the techs, but the ship parts, starbase modules, and planetary improvements covered and hyperlinked. You can link from one tech to the tech that requires it or the one that it requires. There are some improvements to be made (you can't go from one module to the one that requires that module, but that's

Reply to GalCiv II v1.1 Dev log in GalCiv Journals GalCiv2 Forums

Sick of messing with what's in a given tile? Holy Trigger Roseblood Her Majesty Yes! Can we upgrade from this screen too? That (and the selection bugs/nonsense) has been my biggest problem with fleet management. BTW, can we get some automatic renaming that happens when you upgrad

Reply to Yor are Overpowered! in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Ok, there are two issues going on here, and the most important ones are getting drowned out by the lesser ones. First is the "Yor are more powerful than others" issue. I don't really think this is deniable. You can debate the degree to which the Yor's advantage is curtailed by the fact that everyone seems to want to kill them for no apparent reason. The Yor AI may not actually bother much with yoking their advantage. That's StarDo

Reply to Diplomacy: How can I make demands? in Diplomacy GalCiv2 Forums

The way Rome: Total War did demands was that you would "offer" something called "Accept or we will attack". Maybe the developers could look into something like that. An offer option that, while it might allow them to accept the current offer, damages your reputation with the particular AI.

Reply to Yor are Overpowered! in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

specialize your species towards it or just dont play with them as is so often said on the forums for WoW, Its fine learn to play. That's the thing: you can't create a custom race that is the equivalent of the Yor. You can't replicate the Yor's logistics bonus or their miniturization bonus.

Reply to How to compete with Civ4 in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Seems to me that the game is already one of the best selling currently out. I don't think competing with other games is an immediate worry. Bragging about GC2's sales might be more meaningful if this weren't the traditionally slow months of game sales. Which is probably why StarDock released it at th

Suggestion: Practice mode in Ideas GalCiv2 Forums

What would be great is if GalCiv2 has a special practice mode. In this mode, there are no victory conditions, no AI enemies, nothing. You start with a vast sum of money, and you can choose which techs to start with. Then, you just get to play around with planets. This mode exists to do things like test out build strategies (ie, determine, given a class 10 planet, what's the right build to make it a heavy producer or an economic mecca, etc).

Reply to Starship-Battles in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

There's enough to do in GC2 to have to worry about tactical battles as well.

Reply to which weapons? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

which, come to think of it, may make sense for shields and armor, but not so much for ECM equipment. Oh well Sure it does. ECM makes it more difficult for an enemy to target you with their weapons. Granted, they can still use their eyes, but using your eyes in space combat is not as accurate as using

Reply to Influence Starbases in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

I'm still unclear about where influence starbases should go . Do we put them near planets or towards where we want to project our influence? Do influence starbases generate influence or help planets generate influence?

Starting a new game in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

It'd be nice if the game automatically saved a copy of any new game (generated map and starting condition), such that if you liked the particulars of a map or the starting locations of your race (maybe it gave you a challenge?) you could replay the map again to perfect your strategy.

Reply to Copy protection follow-up in GalCiv II News GalCiv2 Forums

Link What did I tell you? Penny Arcade has your backl!

Reply to Thank you Brad Wardell - a letter sent in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

The research that I have done and the things I have seen leads me to believe that it has less to do with piracy and more to do with the increasing difficulty we are facing with the copy protection systems on PC games. Huh? Nonsense. No, the reason for the decrease in PC game sales are the i

Reply to STARDOCK DESIGNERS - Please consider making a MOM type game for your next enterprise... in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

The only real similarity between MTG and MOM was that MOM used pretty much the same 5 color magic catagories (green = nature, white = good, black = evil, red = chaos, blue = sorcery?). And of course the same general kind of spells in each catagories. But after that the games were utterly dissimilar. I

Reply to Implementing player suggestions in GalCiv Journals GalCiv2 Forums

Say I have 10 MP's and 5 RP's. I'm restricted to spending at most 10 bc (in the case of choosing 100% spending, and a 100%/0% breakdown). If I'd like to fully fund everything, and pay the bills via, say, selling off techs, I am constrained from doing so. I am likewise constrained from fully utilizing my labs without shutting down

Reply to My Wish List in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Add more types of systems to ships. I want to have cloaking devices on my ships that make them always attack first. I want EMP launchers that have a chance to disable enemy ship defenses or weapons. I want displacement devices that cause enemy weapons to miss a % of the time, and targetting computers. I want to be able to place a

Reply to Copy protection follow-up in GalCiv II News GalCiv2 Forums

Personaly, I feel no discomfort for the types (me included) who want to play the game without the CD in the drive, but can't because the game won't run. Now, I'm against strict measures that cause the computer user significant problems in addition to having to play with the CD in the drive. The problems with StarForce aren't that it's difficult to circumvent (or, at least, my problems with StarForce); the problems are that in order for them to make it

Reply to STARDOCK DESIGNERS - Please consider making a MOM type game for your next enterprise... in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

Elementalist Elementalist? Oh God no. Anyone who thinks about using names like that should read about the most Epic high-fantasy series ever conceived: Link If you read through that wiki and still think that using elements in fantasy is

Reply to DRM / Starforce vs. Frequent Updates as a means of Copy Protection in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

I prefer neither. Both systems are broken and will not stop hackers. The StarDock method is not attempting to stop hackers, so calling it broken with regard to that is inaccurate. The StarDock method "encourages" non-pirating behavior, rather than discouraging pirating behavior.

Reply to DRM / Starforce vs. Frequent Updates as a means of Copy Protection in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

It's far better to have no copy protection on the CD in terms of support. Ubisoft made us put copy protection on the Political Machine and it was a support nightmare. A fair point. However, while you were in your nightmare (as support and maintainance often are), the game designers were able to move

Reply to Implementing player suggestions in GalCiv Journals GalCiv2 Forums

If some hang-up about doing so is impeding one's professionalism, as it seems evident here in Frogboy's case Wow. Just... just wow. I don't even know where to start in on explaining the arrogance and the ridiculousness of this perspective. You're StarDock's customer. You purchased something

Reply to Implementing player suggestions in GalCiv Journals GalCiv2 Forums

Yes but there are totally hardcoded. They could literally be implemented as an IF THEN statement. You're not, for instance, doing things that are going to build up these values. Note: I'm going to compare GalCiv2 to other games. The reason for this comparison is not to say, "Do exactly wha