Pnakotus

Reply to Ship Design/Style Converter for GC2:TA? in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

They *are*? Wouldn't changing them mess up the basic races? Anyway, thanks for the pointer: I'm off to dig around.

Reply to Ship Design/Style Converter for GC2:TA? in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

That's awesome news. Rebuilding 100+ designs wasn't my idea of fun, but I have plenty that could really benefit from the animation functionality. The changeover from the old system to the 1.3 system, being unsupported to my knowledge, was enough to put me off DA for months after I bought it. Forcing people to use hackish workarounds to get the base three starting ships changed is pretty disappointing. It even appears to be a legacy problem (back from DL when it was just 'ship style 3

Reply to Ship Design/Style Converter for GC2:TA? in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Really? Will I have to copy them manually to wherever TA looks, or will it natively read from DA sources? I dimly remember DL -> DA being quite a task for moving designs. The beta doesn't use DA designs natively at least. If they're supported, that's awesome. Did they ever fix the 'style not working for player unless you do a bunch of hackish workarounds' thing?

Ship Design/Style Converter for GC2:TA? in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Will there be a way to import older ship designs and styles into TA? I guess they'd need to have neutral rotation information added, but a small applet should be able to convert and move them. I have 7 custom races with ship styles, and the idea of hacking xmls or making all the ships again does not appeal. I'm not sure if DA ever got a tool like this. Perhaps the editors that TA comes with will be back-compatible with older designs and styles, and able to write them out as TA-compatible one

Reply to Your ideas for the next update! in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

I think the game itself is fine, but the engine and UI need work. I think many of the big gameplay changes should wait for a later game, while SD concentrate on polishing GC2. Pregame setup is fiddly, uninformative, and unfair. *Tech customisation - something many players never do, it's that important - involves eight million clicks. Display the point value of the tech next to it's name, problem solved. *No way of really knowing how the different map options inter-re

Reply to 1.6 beta 3 now available on SDC in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

Am I a complete noob, or have all my savegames and design templates gone? The samegames don't really bother me, but since adding ship designs is so much more difficult in DA than DL I'd like to know how to get them back.

Reply to GalCiv 1.6 Betas about to begin... in GalCiv Journals GalCiv2 Forums

I'm downloading the newest builds now (250mb heightmaps lol) but I'm somewhat disappointed to see that custom maps still don't have thumbnails. Looking for 'that one with the spirals' is impossible. I'm not asking for dynamic thumbnails that change as you alter map settings (which would be neat), just a single thumbnail per custom map to show you what it is. No start positions, no big hints, just something identifiable. I was surprised when there were no such thumbnails (forcing everyone to

Reply to Tell us what you'd like in Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar 1.6! in GalCiv II News GalCiv2 Forums

Most of the things I really want to see have been mentioned - making the Base/Custom races fair again, controls on 'tech revealation' in diplomacy, and UI tweaks to reduce the amount of clicking (suggested here ) Also, a design import/export system would make working with ship designs much more accessible than it is right now. Making the game easier to play is probably my biggest suggestion, and there are a few places wher

Reply to DA 1.5 Race Abilities in Bug Reports GalCiv2 Forums

It isn't a 'big advantage' that they start with higher bonuses that will take several techs to catch, like +50 dip?? I want fairness - this is why the low-cheating AI is such a selling point - so why not have an even playing field *like GalCiv2*? And why is it now impossible to play Killer Humans instead of Diplo Humans, whereas before I could make the Drengin nice researchers or the Altarians pacifists? The game's flexibility has decreased. What benefit did the game get out of losing fairne

Reply to DA 1.5 Race Abilities in Bug Reports GalCiv2 Forums

So it's an advantage that you can do with custom races what you can do with normal races... but the normal races get more? Sure, if you pick Yor and decide to take dip bonuses you might have less points to 'spend', but you've still got more picks worth of bonuses than if you chose custom. If you *appropriately* choose your normal race, you can start with both MORE PICKS and BIGGER BONUSES than is possible for customs. This is unfair. Frankly, that you think 10 vs 15 is 'a lot fewer'

Reply to DA 1.5 Race Abilities in Bug Reports GalCiv2 Forums

Just pick an official race and tweak their abilities, name, portrait, etc. Viola, custom race with all the inherent abilities PLUS your bonus points. Theres no real difference in the end result as a "unique" race, other than you get more stuff. The only reason to be an actual "custom race" is to get to (exactly) pick your starting techs, but its rarely worth passing up the native race packages. So requiring a longwinded, non-native workaround

Reply to DA 1.5 Race Abilities in Bug Reports GalCiv2 Forums

So, I need to use workarounds because the builtin races are 'just better'? I'm supposed to manually edit custom races to keep up with the 'way better' builtin races? I should try to counter the huge advantage they have instead of playing in an even field? I don't see the logic behind 'builtin excel at one thing (when they have half a dozen unmatchable bonuses) but customs can spread out (when they have less total points and can never match the builtins in individual bonuses)'. <br

Reply to Time ship? in Modding GalCiv2 Forums

Well, ST uses 'many worlds' anyway, so you're really creating a new branch not changing the 'original'. This is probably why time travel isn't used to solve wars etc, because creating a new timeline where you win doesn't help the guys in the original timeline. But 'temporal shields', ie shields that protect you from the very idea of cause and effect, consequence and logic, are utterly absurd. Sure, ST is pop stuff, but that's just waaaay out there. <img src="http://images.stardock.com

Reply to Ships range in Modding GalCiv2 Forums

Someone should slap it in the library so lazy people like me can do it. I also yearn for MoO-style short ranged ships.

Reply to DA 1.5 Race Abilities in Bug Reports GalCiv2 Forums

That doesn't balance it at all. In the Yor example, they can start with a soldiering bonus higher than any custom race can choose (by adding the highest bonus available to their pre-existing bonus). I'd have no problem if everyone ended up with 15 points of bonuses all up, but that doesn't happen, and the existing races can get higher bonuses than anyone else. In GC2 everyone had 10-ish points of bonuses and full customisation, now the existing races have 'inherent abilities' but you can stil

DA 1.5 Race Abilities in Bug Reports GalCiv2 Forums

I'm not sure if this is a 'change' or a bug, but the documentation doesn't mention it. The existing races recieve their racial bonuses *and* give you about 10 points to buy new ones. This means that custom races are significantly disadvantaged and it's possible to start with huge bonuses (for instance choosing Yor, getting a big soldier bonus, then buying a new soldier bonus). I checked GC2, and it wasn't done that way: the existing races had their points pre-allocated, and you could get 'ref

Reply to Time ship? in Modding GalCiv2 Forums

Remember, they had shields that protected them from *logic*. That's not 'bending the rules', that's fairy-tale nonsense. What you really want is a Time Control Room. Monitor all of history and throw out time loops and edits at the press of a button. Repair First Law damage. Save the world!

Reply to Why has stardock not created a map editor for GC2 & DA in Modding GalCiv2 Forums

This may shock you, but your ignorance doesn't bother me at all. It's just funny to laugh at illiterate people on a text-only medium like this. I thought there were new custom maps already? The Library has a few up. How'd people make those without an editor?

Reply to Why has stardock not created a map editor for GC2 & DA in Modding GalCiv2 Forums

Wow, I've never seen AOL babies respond with abuse before! Wait. It's our fault you're illiterate? And they need custom map thumbnails before a map editor. SO THERE LOLZ PH34R M3!!!111

Reply to DA and UI in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

I've created example images to illustrate what I'm talking about. The 'tech info' tooltips were a patch-added feature I believe, so it could always use a little polish. The tech-select screen is one most people probably don't spend a lot of time looking at, but it's very simple to make it much more n00b-friendly. Showing the cost on the 'tech banner' makes getting the best-fit tech choices less of a c

Reply to DA and UI in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

Knightsedge, that's exactly what I'm talking about. Of COURSE you can work around it, but that very workaround is a failure of the UI. It's irritating and it shouldn't exist: it's not like you have to carefully choose between two options: zero pop simply will not work, and you just wasted your time. The ability to drag to zero only performs one function: to prevent you launching empty. Thus, what should be a one-click function requires far more attention and use of the arrows than should be

Reply to DA and UI in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

Yes, I noticed the 'launch direction' thing, and it's pretty neat. I'm less interested in game-changes than play-changes: Stardock is going to make the game they want, and I'm going to like it or not. Either way, it should be as easy to use and play as it can be. It's pretty sad that many people don't appreciate how important the UI is to any piece of software - of course Stardock have plenty o

DA and UI in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

I've recently started playing the DA beta, and it's lots of new content and long-awaited features and fixes. However, when starting a new game, I notice some UI niggles that still exist. A quick search suggests they haven't been mentioned (at least recently). - Tech information display, particularly RU. When choosing your starting techs, you have to click on a tech to select it, then remember how many RUs it is to fit it into your starting set. When you right-click on a tech in a t

Reply to My Thoughts on Custom Opponents in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

Random customs, with the ability to save them and keep ones that were interesting (yes, that means you have to be able to save them after the game has started, or even at the end) would be awesome.

Reply to Space Rangers 2 in Space Rangers 2 GalCiv2 Forums

The best way to start is to get piles of money: the best way to make money is trade. Start with a tradeship, pick at least engine and tradeskill. Take everything off it except the engine/fueltank. Do a google for 'plan' to see if you can see any good trades where you start, but as quickly as possible you want to fly to a business base and take out the largest loan you can and do a business study. This will leave you with several profitable routes and a pile of money. Simply t