Features coming soon to GalCiv

[Pyrkaige]

There was some interesting info from Brad in a We Love GalCiv type of thread in the GalCiv forums earlier regarding what we might be seeing added to the game soon:

Thanks guys, we really appreciate your support. It's been great fun and we have some really exciting things coming up for next week such as:

+ ability to toggle between planet list and mini map when looking at a planet.

+ ship automatically leave orbit option

+ some new events and technologies

+ Possibly some [?] buttons by things such as approval to help you understand why a certain value is something. I.e. explain how you got to that number.

+ AI enhanced further

It all looks great; it's rather amazing to see the level of support that Stardock is putting into the game. Many other game developers could take a note or two from their book!

If anyone sees any more notes from Brad or others in the know on what is coming, feel free to post them here. It's a bit hard sometimes to try to find real info on those boards when sifting through the multitude of posts.

[vmxa1]

Two others were doing that sort of support before this:

Andrew of Starship Unlimited
Aaron of Space Empires

All were/are very responsive.

[Fried-Psitalon]

You can actually SEE some of the threads here on Apolyton referring to these things. The idea that we might be having an effect on Game Development is very cool. (Okay, not just us, but still.)

YAR!

[Pyrkaige]

New features mentioned today by Brad on the GalCiv forums. Given how quickly the topics on those forums roll to the bottom, I'll post it all here:

Regarding updates, actually we have a BUNCH of updates internally but we can't release them until the stand alone 1.02 patch goes out.

Stand alone patches have to go through Strategy First's QA after leaving our QA (which is one of the reasons why stand alone patches are less common).

There's been a bunch of AI stuff including having the AI become more aware when it's cause is hopeless so that the end game portion the AI will just surrender more often. Plus more intelligent tactical generaliship. The diplomacy internals have been rewritten which is where most of the non-sound driver related crashes come from (though in fairness, 95% of crash reports are, unfortunately, due to the sound driver incompatibility).

But we have also rewritten our internal MP3 player so that it will work even when it's not Microsoft's MP3 player codec.

So the next update is going to be a pretty big deal.

More update goodness on the way! He also mentions the new tool for making ship models that was just released; the graphically talented among us will no doubt put that to good use.

[H Tower]

is there any modablity in this game? I haven't seen anything about an editor, or events or stuff like that.

[LDiCesare]

HTower, there is modability. You can look at one of the files (Data/invasiontactics): it gives exactly all you want to invade a planet: standard, core detonation, etc. are all detailed there. I didn't touch it yet, but if you want to add a new way to attack a planet on ground, you can. I bet there are other files lurking somewhere. I didn't look for them, though, just chanced upon this one.

[unic]

There are lots of other text files in the Data directory - just have a look around. There is also a ships encoder available - see the 'Mods' forum ( http://www.galciv.com/forum.asp?BID=GM ) at the official site for more info about that.

As far as I know, there's not much documentation for the various files from an official source, but with developers being active in the above-mentioned forum, I think modding is likely to get started by fans anyhow

/unic

[H Tower]

I don't actually own the game, i'm overloaded with school stuff right now, but in a month all of that will be done. I'm trying to decide between Moo3 and GalCiv for a summer purchase

[The Templar]

Originally posted by H Tower
I don't actually own the game, i'm overloaded with school stuff right now, but in a month all of that will be done. I'm trying to decide between Moo3 and GalCiv for a summer purchase

I own both, and have played both. I like GalCiv much better. Of course MoO3 might vastly improve with a patch (but that would have to be one hell of a patch) ...

[Nirvana_CN]

Well that patch is out Templar, QS admit the modding community had already done most of what they have changed, they say something about a Code patch later in the year to fix other problems...im not savvy enough to know what the difference between a Code and Data patch is.

[korn469]

i think a code patch changes things and fixes bugs, while a data patch just balances in game values

so
code patch=fixed ctd bug
data patch=nerf various units

[campfreddie]

Yeah. It seems like we'll be waiting a while for the code patch.

The official MOO3 bugs forum has a list of the changes for both the code and data patches, which is updated once they manage to fix each problem.

While both look like making some much needed changes, there has not been any mention of QS having fixed the PD bug or the horrible diplomacy. They say that they will though, so I still hold out some hope.

I'll have to see what people make of the data patch. If it's better than the user mods then perhaps QS will turn MOO3 into a good game via code and data pacthes.

If it's worse that the combined user mods then (IMO) QS are just incompetent fools who don't deserve our money, trust or support.

For HTower: As far as MOO3 or GalCiv is concerned. From all the comments on all the forums it seems that Galciv *is* a good game that *is* being improved by constant patches and updates. MOO3 *might* be a good game that *might* be improved by patches. They both seem to have good modding support.

[Pyrkaige]

More upcoming changes to GalCiv mentioned today for the 1.03 patch in development.

Some of changes are mentioned in the Encyclopedia, that are specific to 1.03:

In the article on How Influence Works:

Sector Influence

Changes in GalCiv 1.03:
Starbases were proving to bee too powerful as a way to spread your civilization. So now we take into account how far away your nearest star system is too. Before, it was "whichever is closest". Now it is "whichever is closest" averaged in with how far your nearest star is. And we made it expensive to colonize crummy star systems to where it costs large amounts of maintenance to maintain life support. $5 per turn for less than class 15 and 10 X the government level if the quality is less than 10 (so a federation colonizing a class 4 planet to extend their civilization's influence would be paying 5 + 10X4 per month = 45 per month).

So it sounds like it'll be a bit harder to pressure other civs just with starbases and not actual planets.

Other changes listed in the Economics article:

How Improvements add to productivity

In GalCiv 1.03, we found that players found a loophole. While production itself was capped, the bonus production was not. So in 1.03 we changed it to that if bonus production >3 X the planet quality, it would start to get penalized. What was happening is that players would simply build dozens of star bases and just keep cranking up their production to ridiculous levels.

How starbases add to the mix

Starbases are similar to improvements in this regard except that in GalCiv 1.0 half the bonus production is given as free. Just remember though, in 1.03, after that free production is greater than 3 times the planet quality it gets penalized.

This should help keep starbases from being too powerful when people stack up 10+ in one sector. It remains to be seen if some of the other benefits that can be stacked (ship speed, trade bonuses, etc.) will be penalized at a certain point, as well.

There is also a funny screenshot of a new Technology Navigator that will be coming with the free expansion pack to be released in June, which should help dealing with shuffling through all the techs in the game.

[civer3]

Since the players are severely penalized in the new patches coming up without any new bonuses being given, I will simply not download or use any of them. As most worlds, below 15 are already a pain in the butt to colonize, to further penalize the player for colonizing those worlds is simply put unfair as the AI colonizes the worlds faster than the player ever could.

The economic strain of supporting all the maintenance is bad enough already. The game I'm playing is quite bad already. I 'm at war with the most powerful civillization and the remainig galactic power is rather hostile to me. Trade is nearly impossible in this situation. I would much rather build up a self-sufficient empire given the situation without being dependent on outside trade.

The fact than I'm fighting more than two civillizations at one time is rather awful and putting quite a strain on my pocket book. I have already increased my taxes to the point of no return. The expenditure has been severely reduced cutting down the amount of research and production that could be attained. Also, strategic use of certain star systems in the game would be severely hampered. The starbases penalties being imposed are also unfair as they take time to build up and they can quite easily be destroyed. I lost quite a number of them in the games I played.

[vmxa1]

This is my complaint, we should be able to make self sufficient empires with out massive tech deals or extortion.

[Garth Vader]

You can do it without deals, but you need trade.

I do think there should be some kind of change. In my last game I was building the neural net at two planets. It gives 10% econ bonus. The two planets were making like 84 and 95 income. I checked after I built the net and they were making 84 and 96.

So I vaguely remembered something about income and production being capped by planet quality, and after a quick check on the website I saw that extra income after 4x the planet quality is heavily penalized. Those planets were class 21 and 24.

So I don't see any point in building most buildings. Morale just raises your max population. I was making my limit in cash with no morale buildings and not even all the econ buildings! So building them would just cost maintence with no benefit.

[Pyrkaige]

A lot of that all depends on how you play. GalCiv certainly isn't Civ3; you can't just build every social project in every planet and expect to be able to easily support it. On my current gigantic Masochistic game, though, I've only had 3 trade routes for the entire game, and haven't traded techs or anything else since the start of the game. My economy in this game is not great, and it would be better if I'd gotten more money from outside sources, but I'm still doing fine. You just have to choose what you build, and be careful to keep your people happy (and therefor productive.) Check out the strategies forum here and on galciv.com for more info on doing that, if you're having problems.

[bonscott]

My last game I stopped trading with the other major races about half way through. I traded with the minor races exclusively and made a killing.

[The Templar]

(1) Build starbases with max trade enhancers along trade routes. I usually build one line of starbases and run all of my trade routes down that path.

(2) I always have excess industrial capacity. I might be using only 25% but I'm still pumping out the ships.

(3) The game does need more quality enhancing improvements though.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by The Templar


I own both, and have played both. I like GalCiv much better. Of course MoO3 might vastly improve with a patch (but that would have to be one hell of a patch) ...

I have to agree - MoO3 is on the way to being shelfware for me, GalCiv is different every game, and is the most fun I've had in a single player 4x game since the original MoO

[Felch]

Originally posted by Pyrkaige
GalCiv certainly isn't Civ3; you can't just build every social project in every planet and expect to be able to easily support it.

So that's what I've been doing wrong.

Actually I don't seem to be doing that badly, but I do always just queue up all the social projects in the governors and have ever planet build anything it can regardless of size. Will this strategy break down past Normal?

[Pyrkaige]

Originally posted by Felch X
...I do always just queue up all the social projects in the governors and have ever planet build anything it can regardless of size. Will this strategy break down past Normal?

Well, I don't use governors, but you certainly don't want to build every available social project on all your planets. A good example are all the projects that increase starship abilities. The best strategy often relies on having the top 5-10% of your planets in planet quality & production turn out your starships, and just build constructors on the rest of your planets. So all those +starship social projects are just wasting cash better spent elsewhere. There are also some social projects that are almost never worth building (Cultural Exchange Center, Multimedia Center, Virtual Reality Center, etc.) simply because the upkeep costs are so high compared to what they provide. At 4bc a pop, if you have 20 planets with something like the Cultural Exchange Center, you're putting out 80/turn that is almost certainly better spent raising your production rate. (Granted, with that social project you get a bit of the cost back since it's +economy, but it's almost never worth it.) Personally, I always end up with 10-12 social projects unbuilt on non-shipbuilding planets by the end of the game, and 5-6 I don't build on any planet. You'll probably be able to grow faster if you do the same.

[Felch]

Okay, cool, I tend to just ignore micromanagement entirely with the governors. I play gigantic abundant, so before I figured out how to use the governors, I was swamped with a huge number of planets every turn finishing their construction.

I do see your point though, and it's very clever. What I do now is have every planet build whatever I need at that time (constructors, dreadnoughts, overlords, whatever) and maybe a couple building things like freighters or transports or some of the more specialized units. I can see how this isn't very smart, but usually I'm too lazy to really try hard to play the game.

[Pyrkaige]

For anyone who missed the announcement, here's the latest info on the upcoming patch and expansion pack:

Tuesday, May 06, 2003 - GalCiv Development Schedule Update

The stand alone 1.03 update is currently going through Strategy First's quality assurance testing. Once it completes that, it'll be available for download.

Next week some of us will be at E3 so there won't be any updates next week. A beta of GalCiv 1.04 will likely show up either at the end of this week or early next week.

Version 1.04 will include:
+ More stars in the galaxy
+ Some new United Planets events
+ Some bug fixes
+ Significant AI update. The lower level AI will be more active but make more "mistakes". The higher level AI will play even more intelligently with quasi-fleets, build up for war, one AI player will really focus on star bases, and more.

Meanwhile, at E3 we will be announcing Galactic Civilizations: Expanded Universe. The FREE expansion pack for Galactic Civilizations. Just because it's free doesn't mean it's light on features either. Here's a small taste of what's going to be in the expansion pack:

+ A host of in depth linked events
+ The Technology Tree Navigator
+ Hyperlinks in the game to get to detailed Info
+ A BUNCH of new technologies for both good and evil
+ New Starships for both good and evil players including the Death Knight unit.
+ Updated graphics
+ Rally Points
+ Much more powerful Governors for easing late game micromanagement further.
+ The Arnor minor race
+ A bunch of new random events and United Planets issues
+ A ton of new anomalies that visually look very very cool and do some really crazy things.
+ Lots of AI updates
+ More story based events to give more information on the back story on GalCiv.
+ Lots of new AI behavior in diplomacy.
+ New cut scenes

The Expansion Pack will go into beta in June and be completed sometime this summer. It is free for all owners of Galactic Civilizations / Drengin.net users.

Lots of exciting stuff. Since GalCiv 1.0 we've added many thousands of lines of new code to the game based on player requests, the expansion pack will be even bigger than everything we've done so far.

Have fun!


Reported by Admin Frogboy

[vee4473]

i guess they don't like my idea of zoom levels on the main gameplay area.

[asleepathewheel]

Originally posted by vee4473
i guess they don't like my idea of zoom levels on the main gameplay area.

I've been trying to figure that out. Is there no way to zoom out the main screen? I can't stand scrolling all over the place trying to see whats going on.

[vee4473]

if there is some hidden zoom function for the main screen, i wish someone could fill me in.

I agree that panning all over the place to see things gets annoying.

[LDiCesare]

I just wish there was a map editor. I'd hate to have to crack the .galaxy files and try to hand edit them to make a scenario...

[Pyrkaige]

A little patience might be in order, or there may not be some of these changes implemented at all. There are always more features that it would be nice to see than there is time to add. I'm just guessing, but I would imagine that something like making the main game screen zoomable would take quite a bit of work compared to, say, improving part of the AI. I view these patches so far, and most of the expansion pack, as "building on the basics". That includes new stuff that a lot of people wanted (hyperlinked info, real tech tree, rally points, etc.) as well as overhauls and improvements to the basics, such as the game AI. As far as modding and scenarios go, I honestly can't imagine that there will be serious modding until/unless there is a "Scenario" type of option, ala Civ3, that allows people to install mods outside of the main game data folders. So, there's definitely work that could be done in some of these areas, but overall the additions and changes have been rather impressive for a company that isn't getting any more money for supporting this than anyone gets from a stand-alone PC game.

Or, to put it in perspective: If the expansion comes out mid-summer, it will have taken approximately the same amount of time to get all those changes as it took Firaxis to release the second patch to Civ3, which was still trying to fix the corruption fiasco.

[vee4473]

I don't expect any type of zoom function to be in a patch.

I didn't think it would be out of order for the upcoming x-pak though. Then again, I know diddly about programming so maybe it's harder or more time consuming than I know.

The list above admits that it is just a taste of the x-pak, so who knows...