Going back to the old Gal Civ 1 system should radically change the ship design strategy. In the current system I tend to go for offensive power since if you attack first you can often wipe out the entire defending fleet before they got off one shot.
For starts I doubt people will fork over $20 just to enable MP in Gal Civ 2. You need to add much more content to expansion pack to make it worth the money.
Influence does a few things: 1. Increases the border for your side 2. Give you more voting clout in the United Planets(extremely useful) 3. Allows you take over planets without firing a shot. Influence is related population just like taxes. You can research different techs to modify you influence stat(yellow tech) and can also build buildings like cultural centers to increase the influence produced by each planet. I believe a
The Orbital fleet manager allows your ships in orbit to fight as fleet instead of fighting solo. There's also another buildings that increases the defense stat of your ships by 25%. A few wonders also give ships in orbit a massive increase in stats. Build them on high PQ planets that you can't afford to lose if possible.
I read about the game first in the gaming forum at somethingawful.com. I would definately recommend the game to people who enjoy turn based strategy games or prefer games with loads of depth. Besides being a really solid turn based strategt game, the developer support has been top notch and I really enjoy the ship design feature.
I just hope the Stardock Gal Civ 2 team will add in some additional art content. Probably the main change would to be give each race unique ship designs. In the current system certain races like the Arceans and Terrans have the exact same ship models.
Bravo Stardock for trying a radical approach to software piracy and DRM that big name companies did not have guts to try. Looks like other companies such as Ubisoft are now following your example and ditching Starforce.
I think Gal Civ 2 exposed the argument that DRM such as Starforce is required for a game to sell well. I know many people I talked to about the game were won over by the lack of DRM. Congrats to Stardock for giving the concept of no DRM in PC games a try and encouraging other companies such as Ubisoft to jettison covert,intrusive DRM such as Starforce. I predict a link to torrents of HOMM 5 by a Starforce employee in the near future.
The ad should mention how Gal Civ 2 has no sneaky DRM like Starforce. This alone will win many people over.
Just a small suggestion, Color code the different types of buildings in the colony manager screen. In the current system it's tough to see the fuction of each building, especially when you get new buildings. For example color code science buildings blue, farms green and industrial buildings red in the build menu.
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On the lower difficulty levels the AI does dumb things like sending out transports without escort. On high levels the AI mixes the transports in with a few fighters for protection.
Just a small request. Gal Civ 2 needs unique ship models for every race instead of the current system where the same races share the same ship models. Some more sound effects for the different weapons and more eye candy on the strategic map would help as well. Just put some nebulas and asteroid belts in to make the map seem less empty(maybe make them give bonuses as well). Also change the texture map as planets develop similar to to how cit
A few things I would like added in the next Gal Civ 2 patch: 1. Unique ships for every race. In the current version different races share the same ship models 2. Make defense a bit more useful. 3. More art and sound effects. Each weapon should have a unique sound effect 4. Add in a Zone of Control concept to the galaxy map(you can't fly past the other side's ships without a fight) 5. Add in small descriptions for the things in