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Lord Herman
2007-01-20, 08:29 AM
Does anyone else play GalCiv2?

Myself, I play the game on and off. I occasionally play a metaverse game, although I never pay much attention to my score.

My favourite race are the Iconians. I always like to play a tech race, and their story is quite nice, too. In fact, I love how every race in the game has a story that also involves the other races.

Is anyone getting the Dark Avatar expansion? I've preordered it (a few days after the beta ended, unfortunately). From what I read, the amount of new features and the change in gameplay almost make it a sequel, rather than an expansion pack.

Oh, and would anyone be interested in starting a metaverse empire? If we can find enough OOTSers who play GalCiv2, that is.

Om
2007-01-20, 12:00 PM
I was thinking of picking this up the other day actually. Is it any good compared to the likes of MoO?

Artanis
2007-01-20, 01:08 PM
I was thinking of picking this up the other day actually. Is it any good compared to the likes of MoO?
From what I've heard, it's supposed to give Civ4 a real run for its money, for what it's worth.

RationalGoblin
2007-01-20, 01:12 PM
Hey, I play it to! I prefer the Yor, as I love machines.

Metaverse empire? Explain it to me.

Nerd-o-rama
2007-01-20, 01:13 PM
Got this game last week from a friend. It has already decreased my GPA by about 0.2. Crazy addictive.

You like the Iconians, Lord Herman? Funny, I'm a big fan of the Yor. I renamed the leader to HK-47, though.

Also, Technologist government for the win.

Heh, sim-yor-ninja'd.

RationalGoblin
2007-01-20, 01:19 PM
Hk-47? Awesome.

And for the technologist government, I almost always pick that. My brother plays WoW a lot, so I can't play it much, but I could get on today. So, as I said before, how do you play a metaverse game?

EDIT: Adanedhel9, I usually create my own race too, but If I don't, it's usallly the Yor.

adanedhel9
2007-01-20, 01:27 PM
I've had GalCiv2 for a while. I play it on and off. I typically customize my races (I'm a creator; I have to do it my way), but I typically focus on trade and research.

Oh, and I've never done anything with the Metaverse.

Lord Herman
2007-01-20, 02:42 PM
I was thinking of picking this up the other day actually. Is it any good compared to the likes of MoO?

In my opinion, it's the best turn based strategy game since MOO2. But I'm still waiting for a true MOO2 sequel.


Metaverse empire? Explain it to me.
...
So, as I said before, how do you play a metaverse game?

A metaverse game is a quasi-multiplayer game. In short, the game logs your score and some stats about the game you played, and it uploads it to a ranking list thingie. You can start a metaverse game by clicking 'metaverse' in the main menu.

You can also join an empire, which is a bit like a clan in other games. Your score is added to your empire's total, and there's a ranking list for empires. So what I'm proposing is starting an empire with all the GalCiv2 players on these boards.


You like the Iconians, Lord Herman? Funny, I'm a big fan of the Yor. I renamed the leader to HK-47, though.

Statement: HK-47 is the awesomest droid ever.


Oh, and I've never done anything with the Metaverse.

You should. The only difference between a normal game and a metaverse game is that your score is kept.

Om
2007-01-20, 02:53 PM
In my opinion, it's the best turn based strategy game since MOO2. But I'm still waiting for a true MOO2 sequel.High praise indeed. I just saw the game on the Paradox Interactive forums (the European publisher), I don't suppose you know how they compare to other Paradox games?

Lord Herman
2007-01-20, 03:24 PM
I'm not sure. I don't think I've played any other games from Paradox. But I can tell you that although Stardock is a small and relatively unknown (until the Starforce incident, that is) developer, it made a game that is better than most high-profile games that are released these days.


In other news, I decided to go ahead and create this empire of ours. It's called 'The Empire of the Stick'. It's invite only, so anyone who wants to join should PM me (and tell me their Metaverse username), and I'll send them an invitation. Anyone who posts here is welcome.

My computer exploded just after I confirmed the Empire's creation... an omen?

madfool2
2007-01-20, 03:46 PM
I normally play as any race, and always create a trade empire that seems weak, but then ends up conquering the universe.

RationalGoblin
2007-01-20, 09:27 PM
Ok, but I need to create an account. I'm gonna research all the way to immortality!

EDIT: Uh... I can't create an account...

angry_russian
2007-01-21, 08:42 AM
To me, Galciv2 was a huge disappointment. Before release Stardock bragged a lot about how good their AI was, devs posted cool game examples where they explained in great detail how the AI owned them.

But really, the AI sucks. I don't think I've seen such an incompetent and inflexible AI. It performs more like a bunch of poor-written scripts bundled together than like a cohesive entity.

The worst side of the AI is tactical combat. Seriously, I don't think I ever saw it do anything smart there. For example, if I leave my fleet parked next an AI-controlled planet I'm at war with, the AI will not launch its ships, form a fleet and counterattack. Instead it will wait for me pick off its ships in orbit one by one. Heck, I can even leave my undefended transports next to their planet and more often than not, the AI will stay put and do nothing.

Sure, the game is challenging but I find that the challenge is provided by the game mechanics, not the AI. I mean, I spent most of the time in game developing my empire, trying to get the economics to work, increasing my production and research capabilities. Then when it's time to take on the AI, it offers no challenge whatsoever. Kind of disappointing.

Lord Herman
2007-01-21, 09:13 AM
According to the devs, the AI is a lot smarter in Dark Avatar, especially if you turn on the extra CPU power thing. And the AI's failure to intercept transports is a known issue. I believe they've fixed it for the final build of DA.

Dragor
2007-01-21, 11:59 AM
I want this game so much, but I can't find it in stores.

Lord Herman
2007-01-21, 12:08 PM
You can order it from www.galciv2.com (http://www.galciv2.com). Alternatively, you can wait a few weeks, and buy the gold edition (galciv2 + expansion), which will be available in stores.

Artanis
2007-01-21, 12:08 PM
I want this game so much, but I can't find it in stores.
If you don't mind ordering online:
http://www.galciv2.com/Purchase.aspx

Om
2007-01-21, 01:30 PM
I'm not sure. I don't think I've played any other games from Paradox. But I can tell you that although Stardock is a small and relatively unknown (until the Starforce incident, that is) developer, it made a game that is better than most high-profile games that are released these days.Hmmm I've ordered the latest Paradox game, EUIII, but it might not run on my PC. If not I think I'll get over my disappointment with GalCiv. I've been reading some user AAR's (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=325) and it looks like fun.

Green Bean
2007-01-21, 01:40 PM
This game looked cool, so I bought it.



It turns out that you can't run a brand new game on a five year old computer :smallfrown:

DocZoid
2007-01-21, 01:41 PM
High praise indeed. I just saw the game on the Paradox Interactive forums (the European publisher), I don't suppose you know how they compare to other Paradox games?
It is not anything like Paradox games. The closest comparison is Civilization 4 and Master of Orion 2.

GC2 is pretty good, I preordered it and all, but honestly I have not had it installed for quite some time. It just didn't offer that..I dunno..that certain something that makes me keep coming back to games. Civ 4, MOO2 and Paradox games all have that missing ingredient.

But hey, Om, I definitely enjoyed it for the first little while I had it and it's quite conceivable you would keep coming back to it. Then again, EU3 is just being released (I will make a thread for it in a moment), so that will probably suck up your time :wink:

Nerd-o-rama
2007-01-21, 02:39 PM
Well, it's a little like Paradox games in that it's Grand Strategy, but you're right. It's closer to Civ III and IV than anything else I've played.

And what it's missing, and what most 4X games are missing, is replayability. Each individual game (outside of the odd little Campaign that GC2 has) is fundamentally the same, the only differences being the (infinite) amount of choices made by the player and AIs, and random factors like map layout.

Tzekan
2007-01-21, 03:31 PM
I love this game!

My Thalan forces are doing well in game, though i should really sort out the Metaverse thing... I always pick the Thalans for their Uber-homeworld a military production bonuses. They just seem so much more powerful at first, not having a poxy class-4 planet is so much better.

Of course, research is always the focus...

Empire of the Stick? As soon as my metaverse works, i'm in!

J_Muller
2007-01-21, 04:00 PM
From what I've heard, it's supposed to give Civ4 a real run for its money, for what it's worth.

I have both. They're about the same as far as quality goes.

I prefer Terrans or a custom, personally. I've just started playing against Bright opponents.

DocZoid
2007-01-21, 11:46 PM
I prefer Civ 4 by far. Nothing beats multiplayer with a bunch of friends..
GC2 would benefit greatly from having MP.

RationalGoblin
2007-01-22, 10:38 AM
Alright, that's annoying. It says I have am unrecognized response when I try to log in my account. Whould anyone help with this?

Thervold
2007-01-22, 11:35 AM
I played this off and on. Although I've had the same game on a huge/abundant/abundant map going on for months now. I tend to play a customized version of the Drath. Has anyone bought DA and can tell me if it's worth it to add to my existing game?

Lord Herman
2007-01-22, 11:52 AM
Alright, that's annoying. It says I have am unrecognized response when I try to log in my account. Whould anyone help with this?

Do you have a software firewall (windows firewall, for example)? You might have to put GalCiv2 on the accepted programs list.


Has anyone bought DA and can tell me if it's worth it to add to my existing game?

From what I read on the GalCiv2 forums, the expansion is pure awesomeness. I'm particularly looking forward to the hostile planet environments, asteroid mining, super race abilities, and of course the new races. The change list on the Dark Avatar page of GalCiv2.com is quite huge, and lots of the newer changes aren't even on that list.

RationalGoblin
2007-01-22, 02:17 PM
And where would I find the firewall? Sorry, I haven't had a much of a problem with it before.

Dragor
2007-01-22, 07:17 PM
I prefer Civ 4 by far. Nothing beats multiplayer with a bunch of friends..
GC2 would benefit greatly from having MP.

Hotseat is a bit annoying when you've got 4 people in a tiny room with one chair, though. The seat does get really hot because everyone's hopping off after immidietly pressing Enter.

Anyhow, on topic, I may just get this game. I have a lack of space games.

Lord Herman
2007-01-23, 11:19 AM
And where would I find the firewall? Sorry, I haven't had a much of a problem with it before.

If you are using Windows Firewall, you should go to Control Panel (in the start menu), open 'windows firewall', and go to the 'exceptions' tab. Click the 'add' button, and select the GalCiv2 executable.

But the firewall being the problem is just a wild guess. Normally, your firewall should have given you some kind of pop-up window the first time you started GalCiv2.

If you keep having trouble, you ask for help on the GalCiv2.com forums.

Justwar.
2007-01-23, 02:24 PM
Great game. There are a few things that annoy me however.

While I have to explore the galaxy the darned AI knows exactly where everything is located. They far to often grab up all the anomilities, resources and worlds before I can do anything to exploit them myself. If you are not careful you can get boxed in before the game even really starts. Also if you happen to start in a location to far away to easily reach other habitable systems the game is over before it begins.

Curse the darned AI. I always find myself at war when my rage at finding a world I sent a colony ship to is beat out by several turns by an AI ship.

Then there is the economy. Sometimes there seems to be nothing I can do to make my empire stop loosing money. Max out trade routes, research and build every cash making building, or just stop building anything and raise taxes, nothing seems to work. I just have to quit the darned game and start again. I find it puzzling. I will play the same type of game and in one my economy will crash and make it impossible to continue and in the other everything is fine and I have no trouble. It is maddening.

Overall it is a ton of fun. Nothing beats customizing your own ships with tons of flashy hull pieces.

RationalGoblin
2007-01-23, 04:48 PM
Ok... it still didn't work... I guess I'll ask for help on the galciv2 forums.

Lord Herman
2007-01-24, 05:17 AM
Great game. There are a few things that annoy me however.

While I have to explore the galaxy the darned AI knows exactly where everything is located. They far to often grab up all the anomilities, resources and worlds before I can do anything to exploit them myself. If you are not careful you can get boxed in before the game even really starts. Also if you happen to start in a location to far away to easily reach other habitable systems the game is over before it begins.

Curse the darned AI. I always find myself at war when my rage at finding a world I sent a colony ship to is beat out by several turns by an AI ship.

Then there is the economy. Sometimes there seems to be nothing I can do to make my empire stop loosing money. Max out trade routes, research and build every cash making building, or just stop building anything and raise taxes, nothing seems to work. I just have to quit the darned game and start again. I find it puzzling. I will play the same type of game and in one my economy will crash and make it impossible to continue and in the other everything is fine and I have no trouble. It is maddening.

Overall it is a ton of fun. Nothing beats customizing your own ships with tons of flashy hull pieces.

If you think the colony rush is annoying, you should like the expansion. Half of the planets now have a hostile environment. You need to research the appropriate technology to colonize them. Ergo, less colony rush.

You're right about the economy, though. It can be quite puzzling at times. I preferred MOO2's economy; you knew exactly who was doing what, and how much you were getting.

Thervold
2007-01-24, 11:28 AM
To handle the economy, basically you have to take a large number of your high pop planets and build nothing but farms, entertainment, and money buildings on those. Maybe a few factories to get things up and running. But early game, before that is really possible, you must rely on anomalies to fund most of your projects. It can be tough if you happen to be unlucky and get few if any money anomalies.

Artanis
2007-01-24, 12:02 PM
Great game. There are a few things that annoy me however.

While I have to explore the galaxy the darned AI knows exactly where everything is located. They far to often grab up all the anomilities, resources and worlds before I can do anything to exploit them myself. If you are not careful you can get boxed in before the game even really starts. Also if you happen to start in a location to far away to easily reach other habitable systems the game is over before it begins.

Curse the darned AI. I always find myself at war when my rage at finding a world I sent a colony ship to is beat out by several turns by an AI ship.

Then there is the economy. Sometimes there seems to be nothing I can do to make my empire stop loosing money. Max out trade routes, research and build every cash making building, or just stop building anything and raise taxes, nothing seems to work. I just have to quit the darned game and start again. I find it puzzling. I will play the same type of game and in one my economy will crash and make it impossible to continue and in the other everything is fine and I have no trouble. It is maddening.

Overall it is a ton of fun. Nothing beats customizing your own ships with tons of flashy hull pieces.
They claim that the AI is just as blind as you are. The devs even supposedly abuse this fact in a couple of gameplay journals. They could be lying, of course, but I kinda doubt it :smallwink:

How many AIs are you playing against? Because if you're up against a ton of AIs, you're just one civ in a whole mess of 'em going after the same stuff (habitable planets, resources, and anomalies). Maybe they focus their tech more towards getting that stuff. Also, it might be their starting techs: different races start with different techs (i.e. only the Humans do NOT start with Stellar Cartography by default), which may allow them to jump the goodies first.

Nerd-o-rama
2007-01-24, 02:18 PM
Actually, the AI can see anomalies in the fog of war without exploring for them first. However, you can abuse this as much as they do by setting your flagship/surveyors to Auto-Survey, and turn the tables on the cheaters.

Martok
2007-01-24, 09:09 PM
In regards to the AI magically finding and colonizing worlds before you do:

The guy who programmed the AI, Brad Wardell (who's also Stardock's owner), has stated that that the AI supposedly has an algorithm that allows it to intelligently "guess" where the good planets are, even if it hasn't done any surveying of the area first.

In regards to the game itself, I really enjoy it. I understand why GalCiv 2 doesn't appeal to everyone; but for me, it's the funnest TBS game I've played since Medieval Total War. (And that's high praise indeed.) :smallsmile:

Justwar.
2007-01-24, 09:33 PM
Ahhh...."intelligently guess" I don't care what he calls it, it still feels like cheating. Bugger the AI anyway. It makes me feel justified when I destroy their resistance and enslave their people.

Thervold
2007-01-25, 11:31 AM
I have actually seen AI flagships pass by anomalies that my scout ships found, so I think there is something about it needing to "find" them first. But the computer likes to make a number of scout ships, allowing them to find good planets, anomalies, and mining resources quite quickly. I tend to research towards upgraded engines fairly early as to give my flagship and scouts an extra movement, and it seems to be enough advantage to even the playing field on mid-level AI settings.

Martok
2007-01-25, 06:57 PM
Bugger the AI anyway. It makes me feel justified when I destroy their resistance and enslave their people.
Well I generally feel justified of that regardless. :smallbiggrin:

Dragor
2007-01-30, 12:55 PM
I got the game last Saturday, and I'm enjoying myself. The ship design is incredibly funny- making uber spiky, really scary trade ships is hilarious...

At the moment I'm playing a peaceful, influencial trading nation. Just to secure some more planets, I sort of, erm, mopped up the innocent little civs. I'm sure they deserved better, but... I needed those planets!

Martok
2007-01-31, 08:41 PM
Bah! I eat the minor races for breakfast. :smalltongue:

My toungue-in-cheek comment aside, though, how I deal with the minors really depends on variety of factors: What the circumstances are, which race I'm playing....and perhaps most importantly, which minor race it is. The Snathi, for instance, disturb the hell out of me; and I usually move to destroy them as quickly as possible!

Minor races are good for buying my technology - although I almost never sell them military hardware - and make for profitable trading partners as well. If good planets are hard to come by in my game, however (and minors always occupy choice worlds), I might then do the "evil" thing and conquer them.

Dragor
2007-02-01, 02:30 AM
Bah! I eat the minor races for breakfast. :smalltongue:

My toungue-in-cheek comment aside, though, how I deal with the minors really depends on variety of factors: What the circumstances are, which race I'm playing....and perhaps most importantly, which minor race it is. The Snathi, for instance, disturb the hell out of me; and I usually move to destroy them as quickly as possible!

Minor races are good for buying my technology - although I almost never sell them military hardware - and make for profitable trading partners as well. If good planets are hard to come by in my game, however (and minors always occupy choice worlds), I might then do the "evil" thing and conquer them.

Ha, I generally swallow all minor races- on another note, the Altarians have just lost their home planet to my four fully upgraded Influence Starbases, near a planet with solely Embassies on it. Needless to say, they weren't happy bunnys...

Artanis
2007-02-01, 10:11 AM
Just got the game about a week ago. So far, it's as good as it's been hyped to be.


Regarding the minor races:

As long as they know their place in the grand scheme of things (namely kissing up to me and giving me money), I don't mind letting them live. Sure, they have good planets...but I haven't played on a sparse enough setting yet for that to make it worth going after them in lieu of stomping some major race with LOTS of planets and a pathetic military.

Of course, it becomes a whole 'nother story if they decide to get uppity. That's when papa Arty has to take little Snathery out behind the woodshed and show him why it's wise to respect your betters :smallcool:


And speaking of beat-downs, has anybody ever had the Drengin become an actual threat? They've been amazingly good fighters in every game I've been in (often having a 5:1 or better kill ratio against the other AIs), but they always somehow manage to piss off EVERYBODY and get zerged by four or five guys at once. This puts me in the odd position of having the best course of action be to actually help the "super ultra mega dangerous Drengin who will enslave you and eat you" with gifts of everything from cash to fleet-slaying Battlecruisers :smallconfused:

Justwar.
2007-02-01, 01:43 PM
:smallsmile: The poor Drengin, they do get picked on by the other AI run races. Most of the evil races seem to have a hard time of things. I have never seen them survive long enough to become a power. Those Altarians and other good guys just swallow them up before they are ever a threat.

This reminds me of an effective tactic that was a great fun.

One of the AI races came begging for help because they were being attacked by one of the good guy races. I was busy researching and doing other things so I did not want to get directly involved so I was about to tell them to get lost. Then I noticed that I could give them ships!

I had a ton of ships that had been made obsolete by my research and no real cash to upgrade them. So I flew the ships to the border of the AI's empire as close as I could get them, and I gave every last one to them away.

Now that was fun. I ended up waging a proxy war through another empire against the Altarians (who were gooing to be a problem for me later). Once I ran out of old ships to give away I even built new ones (with my finest outdated technology) and gave them away as well. It became a major industry for me. I cranked out warships, troopships, and I even built a starbase or two for my new "friends". I became the arsenal of evil.

It worked rather well, allowing me to continue to research and build without having to fight a war. My new "friends" loved me and gave me regular gifts of cash while they fought off the Altarians. And that was not even the best part. Eventually I turned my focus back to conquering the galaxy directly. Before I went to war with my former "friends" I found our relationship was so good that they were willing to give me several planets without me having to fire a shot.

When they would give no more, the war started. Stunningly, the outdated junk I gave to my former "friends" was no match for my new state of the art warfleets. I swallowed them up with hardly a fight and then went after the weakened Altarians.

I was a little sad to see my "friends" go, but I just told myself that I assisted them so well that their people joined me out of gratitude. If only the rest of the galaxy were as enlightened as my new slaves....errrr I mean subjects.

Dragor
2007-02-01, 03:01 PM
Ha ha, I like your style.

However, in my game, influence is the key- the Galaxy has developed into a very tense place. Alliances have been made, and if I try to go to war with one person, practically all other races join in. To avoid this, I've been slowly encroaching on their territory, destroying minor races as they come and developing an influenctial empire.

I can't upset the balance of things by declaring war (despite having Ships of Ultra-Blasto Death) and so can only do so when defeating minor races. I've let the Scottlingas and Dark Yor live, because they developed way too fast for me to mobilize against them. However, when a new race comes by, it's "Hello, give me your home planet!" and they've gone, usually in the matter of 10 turns.

Thervold
2007-02-01, 05:37 PM
Yep, once alliances are formed, it's time to start building influence starbases close by planets you want. It usually will cause a ding in relations with whoever owns the planets you're trying to flip and it takes some time, but it sure beats going to war with them and watching as they pull in all their allies.

Winter_Wolf
2007-02-04, 05:54 AM
I've had the game for a while now, and played many a game. I can't get into the campaign it shipped with though. I kind of hate having a supposedly ongoing story where I have to redo ALL my research on every new map. I mean, if it's really an ongoing story, why would my team forget everything they've learned just because I'm playing a different map?

Does anyone play as a good civilization, after they research xeno ethics? I played exactly ONE good civ to completion, but found that being evil is just so much more rewarding. I'll dip into neutral every now and then, but I make extensive use of starbases. I find it great fun to have about three "death star" type influence bases sitting next to another race's homeworld. When I'm feeling like a real SOB, I might plant a military base stocked to the gills with ship-assist mods. I usually don't go to war until after I've got the expensive tech backing me up, so I have the resources to crank out 20+ modified constructors every three turns.

On another note, despite trying to tinker with customizing the races via the XML sheet, I can't get it to work at all. I've alternately tried placing files in the Mod folder and editing the main XML file (with an original backup handy!) but the game just ignores it every time. Is there some really basic thing that I'm overlooking here? You know, sometimes I don't want a fair game, I just want to annihilate the opposition. Giving myself a class 26 homeworld would also be a fun diversion.

J_Muller
2007-02-05, 02:14 AM
I mostly play neutral.

In my current game, the first war just started. It's the Altarians against the Drengins, and I'm stuck in the middle as the neutral, but militarily powerful Terrans. No, literally, my planets are between the Drengin and the Altarians.

Artanis
2007-02-05, 12:07 PM
I usually take Neutral when I hit Xeno Ethics. It's mostly for the free terraforming (it's fun taking a planet and watching its PQ nearly double!), but the soldiering bonus when invading non-neutrals, the approval bonus, and the access to Neutrality Learning Centers are also big plusses.

Good's bonuses kinda...well...suck, and Evil's are situational.

Thervold
2007-02-05, 04:11 PM
Playing good aligned works when going for diplomatic or influence wins sometimes. The unique techs give global bonuses to defense, raising your apparent military might without spending extra money. Good races tend to last more often to the end game (see Dregin above for what happens to evil races more often then not), so it helps build relations with them. In general, I go neutral if I want a research win and evil for military conquests, but of course, none of those are set in stone. Evil can be good for influence wins, as you can simply take over opposing planets with cheap influence starbases or by just squishing them.

Lord Herman
2007-02-09, 03:17 AM
Just a quick reminder: if you're looking for an Empire to join, PM me to join the Empire of the Stick.

Artanis
2007-02-16, 12:51 PM
Anybody get the Dark Avatar expansion? It's one HELL of an upgrade, especially for the AI. In DL, I could roll over Tough without much effort, but in DA, the AI puts up a good fight in Challenging and Tough is leaving me fighting for my very life!

Toastkart
2007-02-16, 03:53 PM
I downloaded it last night, although i'm still a new enough player that I'm still playing on normal difficulty. I like a lot of the new ship design pieces, and others just don't make much sense.

S.ilver
2007-02-16, 09:48 PM
Hmm... I'm thinking of getting DA sometime (although probably AFTER my exams are done, I don't want to kill myself :P). Is it really that great of an upgrade? Although I don't doubt Stardock's ability to produce quality content, does it change the atmosphere of the game enough to bring more replay value in?

Winter_Wolf
2007-02-17, 03:22 AM
From what I'm reading about DA it sounds like it adds a lot to the game. Needing to research tech to colonize different kinds of worlds is a very cool addition which I always felt was missing from the original CG2. Of course there seem to be a (small) number of bugs popping up on the GalCiv forums, but they appear to be mostly situational or irrelevant to my system specs.

Although I still think they're a little stingy with the customization points, and I haven't been able to implement a workable 15 point system.

Artanis
2007-02-17, 08:46 PM
Hmm... I'm thinking of getting DA sometime (although probably AFTER my exams are done, I don't want to kill myself :P). Is it really that great of an upgrade? Although I don't doubt Stardock's ability to produce quality content, does it change the atmosphere of the game enough to bring more replay value in?
It's definitely a hell of an upgrade. I personally feel that it's worth every penny.

S.ilver
2007-02-23, 06:25 PM
Erm... one final question. I already own GalCiv2, so I'm looking to get just the expansion. From what I can tell, it's not in stores, so I have to order it online, correct?

Artanis
2007-02-23, 08:05 PM
Yes, if you want just the expansion, then you have to get it online. However, if you buy the "Gold Edition", I believe it has a $10 rebate for anybody who already owns the original.

Artanis
2007-02-26, 03:41 PM
Whoo! The Empire of the Stick has cracked the top 50!

S.ilver
2007-02-26, 07:02 PM
Still some ways to go though. We need more members :smalltongue:

Lord Herman
2007-03-01, 05:14 AM
Wow, we're pretty good. And by 'we', I mean you guys. I don't seem to be contributing much to our score.

Oh, and we now have a logo.

Thervold
2007-03-01, 01:04 PM
I've just been slowly raising the difficulty from game to game. Although I still don't know what actually contributes to score. My last game felt like it went better then the one before it, but I got a much lower score for it. However, I do know that the Metaverse score is (sum of scores (with a 5% reduction every month to a floor of 65%)/(num games played ^ 0.4). So as long as you always go as good or better then your previous games, your Metaverse score will go up.

S.ilver
2007-03-01, 09:01 PM
Hmm... well it seems you need to control a large part of the galaxy to achieve a relatively high score. My last game I controlled only around 1/3 of the map, and I raced to a tech victory, but got a sappy bad score anyways.

I think I'll just crush the enemy with military might instead. Seems to give me more points (see Yor game before that), although nowhere near Thervold's point count :P.

Artanis
2007-03-02, 12:15 PM
Cool, they released the first patch (http://forums.galciv2.com/?aid=145739#1143254). I'm going to have to fire the game up right away once I get home to see how it plays out.

Also of note, one of Stardock's forum moderators has set up "AltMeta" (http://altmeta2.thegalacticcore.com), a VERY highly-respected alternate metaverse that takes normally-submitted metaverse games and computes a player's total score differently*. In this one, we're in the TOP TEN!


*Instead of the arcane mumbo-jumbo of the normal metaverse, AltMeta gives you your full score for each game regardless of how many you've played, but depreciates the score of that game by 1/6 for each month that goes by. So instead of punishing people who play a lot, on lower difficulties, and/or smaller maps, it knocks inactive people out of the top ranks for more active players to replace.


Edit: Linked to patch changelog

S.ilver
2007-03-02, 01:45 PM
Wow... that's messed up... We're 10th place on that listing? :smallconfused: Ok, I guess that means its time to play more games!

Thervold
2007-03-08, 11:30 AM
Check again. We're now up to 21st in the MV and 8th in alt. Go Sticks!

Thervold
2007-03-19, 11:24 AM
Curious, have any of you tried out Dark Avatar yet? I'm still on Dread Lords and I'm wondering if I should get the expansion.

Artanis
2007-03-19, 11:49 AM
Curious, have any of you tried out Dark Avatar yet? I'm still on Dread Lords and I'm wondering if I should get the expansion.
Get it. Get it now. :smallwink:

Dark Avatar is definitely worth it. It adds a whole ton of features, and fixes a lot of what little was wrong with vanilla GC2. Best of all (IMO), the AI is worlds above what it was, with many players (including me) dropping one or two difficulty levels because the opponents are just so much smarter.

Lord Herman
2007-03-19, 01:43 PM
Dark Avatar is shiiiiiny. My favourite feature is the customizable computer opponents; this allows me to set up a Star Trek-themed game that's still metaverse-legal.

Muz
2007-03-20, 12:21 AM
Get it. Get it now. :smallwink:

Dark Avatar is definitely worth it. It adds a whole ton of features, and fixes a lot of what little was wrong with vanilla GC2. Best of all (IMO), the AI is worlds above what it was, with many players (including me) dropping one or two difficulty levels because the opponents are just so much smarter.

Could I bug you for more of a list of what it fixes that was wrong? (Not doubting- I'm just looking for details from someone who's actually played it.) :smallsmile:

Artanis
2007-03-20, 09:12 AM
Could I bug you for more of a list of what it fixes that was wrong? (Not doubting- I'm just looking for details from someone who's actually played it.) :smallsmile:
It's been a while since I played vanilla GC2, but a few off the top of my head...


1-Engines.

In vanilla GC2, it was insanely easy to get ships that outright broke the AI because they were so fast. The AI simply had no way to deal with 25-move warships or 45-move transports, and if you went hardcore with the cheese, wars could literally be won in two turns or less even when your ships started in your own territory. In DA, engines are big and expensive, making every point of speed precious, and the engine techs themselves more worthwhile simply for the innate speed boost if nothing else.


2-Big/Small ship balance.

In vanilla, you could win a war by making one - LITERALLY one - big ship loaded down with defenses and sending it in the enemy's general direction, knowing full well that they couldn't do a d*** thing to hurt it. At one point, I recall naming a class of Dreadnought "Nation-Killer" simple because that's what a single one of them could do, without a scratch, because its defenses were so thick. Likewise, a swarm of fighters would take forever for that dreadnought to take down because it could only shoot one at a time...a fact that came in mighty handy when fighting Dread Lords.

DA, however, changed the battle system to be a bit more realistic on both fronts. If a ship kills a target with firepower to spare, the rest of that firepower will be directed to the next target in line. Likewise, enough firepower will batter down even the strongest defenses, giving swarms of smaller ships a fighting chance against mega-shielded capital ships. They're still working out the kinks in the balance between attack and defense, but it's fundamentally a much better system now.


3-Tech Tree.

The tech tree's look has changed a bit. Instead of having a separate box for each specific tech, it now groups similar techs together as subsections of a single box. For example, instead of 5 boxes for Laser 1, Laser 2, etc., there's just one box with 5 sections in it, with the first corresponding to Laser 1, the second corresponding to Laser 2, etc. The overall mechanics - i.e. prereqs and what shows up on the diplomacy screen - are identical, but it makes it a LOT easier to navigate the tech tree now.

Example Pic (http://www.galciv2.com/darkavatar/screenshots/final/index.18.jpg)


4-AI.

The AI is much improved. It was already pretty good in GC2, but would sometimes do boneheaded c*** like putting a Tech capital on a Precursor Mine (the +700% Production tile). Even if they hadn't improved the AI as much as they did (and believe me, that AI is a LOT better in DA), getting it to stop doing stupid stuff like that is a definite improvement.


5-Minor annoyances.

-DA lets you build lower-tech versions of improvements on planets, so no more waiting 600 turns for a brand-new colony's first factory to get done just because you stole Industrial Sector during an invasion.
-You can now choose where ships are launched from a planet, instead of them automatically coming out the lower-right regardless of what you want.
-AIs that surrender put a bit more thought into who, exactly, they surrender to.
-Constructors and Starbases have an animated line showing the edge of their area of effect, making it much easier to figure out what it covers and what it doesn't, especially for races with darker colors like the Yor.
-They added a bunch of ship components, and added the ability to add a ship design as a "template" so that in future games, you won't lose a really really cool-looking design just because you forgot to save it before you put a Doom Ray on it.
-They improved the graphics, and did so in such a way that it actually IMPROVES performance at the same time.
-They added a bunch of stuff to customizing races. Everything from being able to choose the name of a custom race's homeworld all the way up to being able to create a custom opponent from scratch...which you can then play against!

Muz
2007-03-20, 10:18 AM
Details! Thank you for the great (and helpful) response! :smallsmile:

I may have to wind up getting this after all...