FarAway Galciv

Reply to A Plea: Rich P vs E in War of Magic Stardock Forums

I actually like the idea of having a "wildness slider" which allows you to set just how rowdy your Neutrals are. I also like the idea of having certain types of things (structures, characters, etc.) that might decrease (or even increase?) the wildness of a countryside. Spawning monsters is the most obvious and easy way to do it, but even having some terrain features that can be a bit of a mixed bag makes for some very interesting possibilities. One game that does an intere

A Plea: Rich P vs E in War of Magic Stardock Forums

I'm so jazzed about this game, but I do want to put one major plea into this game that would be a bit of a departure from the GalCiv games: Can we please have a major Player vs. Environment component to this game? One of the things that was so great about Mom was the constant need to balance my competition with the other players versus my competition with the "neutrals" around me. Having Elemental Nodes and Wizardry towers that remained unconquered--and churned out raiders

Reply to Importance of Making Tradeoffs in War of Magic Stardock Forums

Getting back to the original post, I think Tradeoffs are key in any gap. Managing around weaknesses and gaps in my abilities as a player is one of the most fun parts of any wargame, but most games have abandoned this largely by the late mid-game at best. Leaving a hole in my unit selection and/or kingdom abilities enhances replayability, and makes me work to discover different ways to win the game.

Reply to Magic schools, life, death, and attitude in War of Magic Stardock Forums

I definitely hope they steal a page from the Dominions book and make lots of spells dependent on more than one school. That enhances replayability infinitely more than a "more or less single path" tech tree for magic. Adding "alignment" as an axis to your spell research tree does sound cool--I'd love to have a difference between "needfire" (extra damage to demons & undead) and "balefire" (causes rotting burns to survivors), but if you aren't careful, you just end up

Reply to The Riftwar Cycle??? in War of Magic Stardock Forums

Why do I feel like I just got a joke that's been right in front of my nose for... about 5 years now? So long as we don't have any planets in GalCiv that are named "Jimmy the Hand", I think we'll be OK.[e digicons]:zoomba:[/e]

Reply to Looking for a good fantasy strategy game in Strategy Stardock Forums

I think the [I]Dominions [/I]series is the best fantasy TBS that's been released in recent years, but no campaign settings. And, as has been mentioned before, it's not very accessible. For those who have the gumption to unpack the gameplay, it's like crack. The [I]Civ IV: Fall from Heaven[/I] mod is free, for anybody with the original Civ IV or CIV:BTS (BTS version is a bit more full-featured), and is EXCELLENT. IMHO, it suffers from some of the same challenges as the original Civ IV

Reply to C++ Runtime error in Technical Sins Forums

I wish I could. I get the same error. I've tried searching the forums, and I see a bunch of mentions of a C++ Runtime error, but when I click on the link, it just takes me back to the topmost forum page, which kinda seems to defeat the purpose of a Search function to me... :) I'm sure it's an interface/operator problem or somesuch, but I sure wish I could see those threads. The two most likely culprits are both cited in the Technical FAQ: There's a Vista incompatibi

Reply to Brad - Can we can get an update on not-MoM? in Games in Development GalCiv2 Forums

Ahhh, my kingdom for a magical measuring stick that assesses "scope", "depth", and "variety of gameplay"!! :D The Dominions series is a great game system, once you pull yourself up the rather formidable learning curve. It's so open-ended, you can wander lost in the forests of gameplay for weeks without figuring out what leads to success. But it's a great game series. It doesn't have the polish of most major releases, but the development team is a 2-man group, so it's hard to

Reply to Dominions 3 the awakening vs. Master of Magic vs. Age of wonders in PC Gaming GalCiv2 Forums

Hard to compare, but all 3 are very good games. Master of Magic was the absolute classic for its time. Great game, innovative and absolutely captivating portrayal of a 4x TBS fantasy game. The player-vs-environment aspect of MoM was perhaps the best of any game I've ever played. The varied schools of magic and racial bonuses gave it great replay value. Age of Wonders was a very promising system, but it only really reached its fruition after multiple patches to [I]Age of Wond

Reply to Do you still play Civilization IV? in Strategy GalCiv2 Forums

I just downloaded the Fall from Heaven mod for free off the website below a few weeks ago, and have been playing it furiously ever since then. Great mod, and the best bit of free content I've seen for any game in a LONG time. In a class w/Dwarf Fortress, but with a better UI!! Seriously, if you enjoyed Civ IV much at all, check out the download (either for BTS or the original, vanilla Civ IV) at: [link="http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=171398"]http://for

Reply to Adding quests / story arcs to Gal Civ series in Game Ideas GalCiv2 Forums

I've often thought this would be a great way to add some "flavor" and storyline to the one-off campaigns. The "Good vs. Neutral vs. Evil" choices are interesting, but at the end of the day, the stories end up feeling like window dressing for what amounts to an adjustment in the spreadsheet underlying most of my racial abilities.

Reply to Is Stardock making a Fantasy TBS game? in Strategy GalCiv2 Forums

Arkanciel, you make a lot of interesting points. On the unit progression front, Warlords IV actually did a pretty good job with that. The production was so rushed and the development so botched that it didn't shine through in the initial release, but Steve Fawkner has worked with a few volunteers to release some patches "on the side" that have fixed a lot of those problems. Two years after shelving Warlords IV, I downloaded the latest patches posted at www.warlorders.com, and

Reply to Sunny days and game development in GalCiv Journals GalCiv2 Forums

Nice pic of the surroundings. So, like, in Michigan, don't you have to call them "Icelands about half the year? Sorry, went to college in Minnesota, the whole genre of "Lick the Stop Sign" jokes never grow old... Watching cultures evolve on various Internet bulletin boards is an interesting thing. The Internet, as a medium, is conducive to lots of insecure guys acting like total twits

Reply to No Ingame videos in Vista in Space Rangers 2 Stardock Forums

I didn't even know there were videos in the XP version of the game? When people talk about "in game videos", what are they referring to? I swear, I looked through all the options and couldn't find a setting to turn it on, but maybe I'm just slow...

Reply to Recommendable TBS games? in Strategy Stardock Forums

SMAC (Alpha Centauri) is an oldie but a real classic! One of my faves. Steel Panthers World War 2 is a free download, and it is pretty impressive. The volunteer developers at Camo workshop have done a great job of polishing it up! If you're willing to play a TBS w/a very strong Role Playing element, Space Rangers 2: Rise of the Dominators (available here from Stardock!) is a lot of fun. Very light-hearted and whacky, but fun! The old Combat Mission series was

Reply to Is the game industry hopelessly broken? in Game Developers Stardock Forums

This thread's been moribund for about 2 years, but I was intrigued by the post, so thought I'd throw my two cents in (the same debate still plays out in the gaming industry). I do think that, as the art requirements have made it more and more expensive to produce a commercially viable game (economists call it "higher barriers to entry"), the frequency of risk-taking--and thus the quality of innovation--have both suffered. It's sad, because at bottom, the best games I've ever played are

Reply to Gamers? Programmers? Help! in Game Developers Stardock Forums

Judging by the computer problems you're having (won't shut off and the hard drive is very loud), it sounds like there may be some hardware issues. While that's a pain, it's probably worth a call to the store where you bought it to see if they can fix those two problems. I won't say that either problem definitely will kill your PC, but neither one is a good sign, and either one could kill it. Especially the unwillingness to shut off is just a plain malfunction. No way to kno

Reply to missing codes...please help in Space Rangers 2 Stardock Forums

I'm not a Stardock guy, but the boxes were distributed by a different company. Stardock didn't have the original distribution rights, but only picked it up a few months (6 months?) after the game debuted. For the boxed versions, StarDock didn't get a penny's revenue. StarDock first offered it on their site at the $20 price tag, as opposed to the $40 Retail price that it originally hit retail establishments for in the US. As a result, they don't really support the boxed versio

Reply to Stardock Society in Games in Development Stardock Forums

It's always sad when an anticipated title doesn't come out, or doesn't come out as soon as I had hoped. Frankly, the StarDock guys and gals have done a good enough job with the stuff I've seen them release that I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, in terms of their prioritization decisions and such. Stardock is privately owned, so they don't release annual reports or such, but I'm pretty sure that, even with the commercial success of GalCiv2 and now Dark Avatar,

Reply to Is Stardock making a Fantasy TBS game? in Strategy Stardock Forums

Thanks, Winnihym, you did a better job of articulating my point than I could on the Player-vs-Environment theme! It's a good way to keep a game engaging and interactive early on, without forcing "same caliber opponents" into your backyard right away. I guess we have it from the horse's mouth that they have no plans to use GalCiv's game mechanics for a fantasy game. Did I mention that a huge variety of novel magic weapons makes fantasy games way cooler, too? <img src="http://i

Reply to Starship Tycoon in Strategy Stardock Forums

SR2 is freakin' awesome. I haven't played either of those games you mentioned, but if you want a fairly open-ended space adventuring game where you can play as a merchant (or a pirate, or a fighter jock...), it's a very good game. Intereseting back story and a totally over-the-top atmosphere to the game, but good clean fun. For $20, how far wrong can you go? I heartily recommend SR2. Not only do you get to do all the "buy low / sell high" stuff, but the decisions you make se

Reply to Is a 1.8 Ghz Dual Core on par with a 3 Ghz single core? in PC Gaming Stardock Forums

Tom's Hardware is a great site. You can also find some good articles there, which help you to understand exactly what some of the more arcane specs mean for each of the various components. It's a lot less user-friendly than PCWorld, but equally practical, and usually more timely (PCWorld does a "state of the industry" on various subcomponents about once every ~9 months, Tom's seems to do it a couple times a year).

Reply to Is Stardock making a Fantasy TBS game? in Strategy Stardock Forums

I'd second the comment on tactical combat being a must-have for a Fantasy TBS game. In a game environment like Gal Civ, delegating combat decisionmaking to the AI is totally compatible with the gameplay--it fits fine with a "competing societies collide" kind of theme. But not being able to issue orders to your heroes in fantasy combat? That'd just be too much of a departure for the genre. Ever since LoTR , fantasy has been about the individual characters. One

Reply to Space Rangers 2 Discussion in Space Rangers 2 Stardock Forums

Yeah, what he said! It sometimes also works if you go to planets that have just been attacked by the Dominators, but it's more likely if they've just been liberated.

Reply to I don't have what it takes anymore in Real-Time Stardock Forums

I think this is an interesting discussion around why we play games. Different folks play for different reasons. Some folks, and especially younger gamers, just play to win. For those of us who have competed (with ourselves, with our computer, and with other players) longer, that alone is seldom sufficient anymore. I do like games that genuinely allow different paths to victory. This is one area where Dominions 2 was actually a decent game. They needed some nerfing around th