Why to Buy GalCiv2

[Sirian]

My greatest fear for GalCiv2 was the "Dread Lords". Nothing would ruin the game more certainly than to copy the Master of Orion II "Antarians" gameplay concept.

Apparently, the Dread Lords are only part of the Campaign, where their story line may indeed be a fun one. (I have only been playing single games so far.)

The fact that Brad had the design restraint and good judgement to leave them OUT of the basic game is BY ITSELF worthy of your financial support. (If we want more and better games of this type, then we have to support franchises that are moving forward, even if some elements are not ideal. The same is true of Civ, where I won't hesitate to say that many things could still be improved. Games can only make so much progress in one iterative cycle.)


I am having a good time playing GC2. The "roach race" to spread out to every planet in the game's opening is not much varied in the strategy department. Civ4 and MOO1 are the only games that managed to preserve some of the territorial expansion for much later in the game. Civ4 does it by limiting your empire size in the early going, and MOO1 does it via "hostile environments" planets which require tech advancements to settle.

Beyond the Roach Race™ lies a good strategy game, though. The thing that drove me away from GalCiv1... Well, if you don't already know what that was, then you're better off NOT knowing. Think of it as spoiler info (and don't go looking for it, and if you do know, don't show off by talking about it here, where it may spoil things for others.) THAT issue seems to have been improved in this iteration. How much improved will take some time to tell.

Finding out that there is no more waste with Starship Construction does help a lot. Also, the admittedly flawed overflow with research is much better than pure waste. There have been times when I've been able to reduce micro as a result of knowing where the overflow beakers will be going.

Civ3 was more of a mess on first release than is this game, and we at RB got a lot out of it, thanks in large part to Soren's effective patching process, which drew heavily on fan feedback. Soren is "only" an elite designer and programmer, though. Brad is CEO of his own company, which is a good thing to be as a designer, because you can do things like say, "Hey, we're going to keep patching and updating this game for a lonnnnng time."


OK, enough bloviating for now. I have to get back to my current game, where the Roach Race™ has recently concluded and things are starting to get really interesting.


- Sirian

[Majromax]

Any chance of you writing up one of your GC2 games before long so we can see your opinions in action?

[Yosh]

I've been playing GalCiv2 for a bit now (waiting on the next CIV patch), and I'm finding that I'm really enjoying it. I'm extremely spoiled on CIV interface, so there are a lot of elements with the GCII interface that really bug me, but I absolutely love how Brad Wardell is so responsive to his consumer (fan) base!

I finished the campaign the other day, and I do have to say that it was a ripping good time, if not a bit short (and a bit easy on the "normal" difficulty level). I won't give any spoilers on the story for that, but suffice it to say that there is plenty of room for more campaign stuff in the planned bonus/expansion pack.

That being said, I have come to appreciate more and more and more the CIV tech trading system. In GalCivII, there is no limit to tech trading. None. Thus, it is possible to basically buy off the AI's research quite easily - a fact made more easy by the immense amount of swapping the AI does among itself. Where's Arathorn when ya need him? This is an easy way to catch up on basic techs, but it will not get you many specialized/advanced techs that will give your military an advantage.

I love the shipyard system. It's fun, intuitive, and adds a new dynamic to gameplay that gives me quite a kick!

Overall, I would recommend buying the game also. Not just because it is a fun game, and despite it's non-CIV-ness, but also because I have developed a lot of respect for Stardock and Mr. Wardell, and I believe that he and his company deserve support and praise from the gaming community for their company ethos.

[Sirian]

Any chance of you writing up one of your GC2 games before long so we can see your opinions in action?

Probably not any time soon.

Besides, what do you really need to know? Roach Race mechanics? N-fer trading mechanics? The land grab is as much as you can as fast as you can, except on huge maps with oodles of planets, where you have to pause and get some military in there before they start hating on your weak self. The tech trading is standard fare: the AIs stay bunched in a tight pack, and you can rake them over the coals by selling ONE of your monopoly techs to every buyer in the galaxy at the same time, parleying it in to grabbing most or all of the non-weapon techs the AI is willing to trade (at all) and cleaning up loads of cash from other civs. ... Well, OK, it's a LITTLE more intricate than that, but not by too much. ... This is why I advocate the less tech trading the better, and why Civ4 pushed pretty far in the other direction, restricting trading opportunities and options.

I will say, the AIs are building wonders on higher difficulties. Once you get your espionage level up to High, you can look at their planets and see what they are doing. ... Overall, the AI for social engineering could be stronger. (Then again, I know first hand that it's not a cakewalk to improve such AI.)

The fewer spoilers you get from me, the better.

The diplomatics are improved. The planet specials and events do add some variety to your worlds, creating some that specialize in this or that, and then you need to balance the whole to your particular aims and opportunities.


Oh, and the AIs are also building FASTER COLONY SHIPS on higher difficulty, too, so the player's "speed advantage" is not as strong as it was on lower difficulty. The AIs are quite good at the Roach Race, even if they do have spoiler info about where the habitable worlds are located. So it can be interesting tactical exercise to see how much you can grab.


It is harder than ever to get mining starbases going, in large part because the minor civs will grab a lot of the resources now. Of course, that means they are "protecting" them for you from the majors, and you can (perhaps too easily) assemble a "takeover force" and alpha strike the minor and all his starbases simultaneously -- when you're ready. Don't wait too long, though, or play it too peaceful, or another major will swoop in and grab your prize!


- Sirian

[Sirian]

One of the areas where GalCiv excels is the culture/influence system. The system is based on "present time influence" more than it is on "all culture accumulated ever in history" and this works very nicely. The ability to exert strong peaceful influence even over areas where your rivals have always dominated, if you concentrate on it (at the expense of other things) is really pleasing. It's the one core system that is flat out better than its Civ counterpart in every measurable way.

At the expert level, the system does have a few issues, but I won't discuss those at this point.

I'm actually not looking forward to regrounding in to the Civ culture system with the new patch.


The space battle eye candy is really top notch. The battles are not all that complicated or fancy, but they are pretty to watch. More so, your custom ship designs are shown in all their glory, so if you invest any effort in to the look of your ships, you are naturally going to want to see them flying, shooting, killing (you hope) and dying (you hope not).

GalCiv is also rather strong in the "strategy vs tactics" area. Really, if it just closed a few loopholes, upgraded the interface (less need for micro, plus streamlined functioning on highly repetitive tasks, etc), and invested significantly more in to the AI (not making it "play better" but making it so that the AIs don't all end up playing so similarly to one another) it could be really great.

My complaints are mostly at the upper end of gameplay skill. There are levers to pull that will render parts of the game so incredibly easy that you have to pump up the AI to max just to get a fight. (I am playing my first Max AI game already and off to a grand start, although I drew a VERY lucky bonus on my home planet that sped my progress considerably.) However, these issues are only quickly evident if you read the spoilers of top players. (It took me several months to figure them out in GC1). So really, it's a great game to buy and play in isolation, rather than talking too much about it. You will get more out of it if you avoid "learning too much" about those levers that I mentioned above.

There are also some great features for setting up different strategic leans. You can customize an enormous number of things for your game launch. There is now even a TECH SPEED lever, which was not in GC1 that I recall, and goodness only knows what effects that might have. (It could be very interesting to play on slow or slowest tech pace.)

There's also an interesting new vector in the planetary economies that has to do with building types that upgrade. The old, Civ-style way from GC1 was "one of each building type on each planet". Now there are about five or six basic building types with later generations REPLACING the same buildings from earlier, but after spending more on them. It does create a lot of flavor on the planets in terms of specializing them in various ways.


- Sirian

[LKendter]

I'm actually not looking forward to regrounding in to the Civ culture system with the new patch.

Are we giving out hints about upcoming Civ4 patches here?
Sounds like a hint for a change in how culture works is coming in the next patch.

[Sirian]

Are we giving out hints about upcoming Civ4 patches here?
Sounds like a hint for a change in how culture works is coming in the next patch.

No, just a general recognition of the Civ3/Civ4 cultural system vs the GalCiv system. The significance of the next patch is that that is when I will kick off Epic Two, etc, and get back in to playing Civ4.

- Sirian