I think ground combat is handled pretty much the same way as it was in Gal Civ 1. You choose from a set few tactics, all of these affects your chances of winning, bigger chance of winning generally means more loss in planet quality. Then it's just to pray, you have no further control of planet invasions, unfortunately. Either all of theirs or all of yours are wiped out in the battle.

Sorry Leviathion, the game doesn't feature tactical combat.
Once the battle starts, you can't influence it anymore.

I don't think that's a bad thing, since in many other games you can repair stupid strategic decisions by simply owning the AI in tactical. I have yet to find a game where the AI defeats me when numbers are equal (or even in his advantage).
No such cheap tricks here. It's truly a strategy game.

There are a few factors besides numbers that determine the outcome though. Luck, technology level, or options like orbital bomberdment can give you the advantage.

If my information is incorrect, feel free to design a "Silent Archer sucks" ship once the game is released

Edit : Oops 10 minutes too late. Shouldn't have gotten that snack in the middle of writing my post hehe.

I think the planetary populations structure/invasion system should be more in depth and complex.

I agree with you 110%

I just can't figure out how is it that a complete planet's population can be destroyed in just 1 turn!!!
There should be some other factor like in the Civ series or something similar like possibility of a rebellion later on from remaining population, or some kind of mind control, or if u dont protect newly conquered planets a possibility of escaping slaves from my newly built mining facility because if only the military and the drafted taxpayers are fighting i just cant understand how can u kill all of them if your using normal tactical invasion, i do understand them to be killed if u throw a huge 1000 feet wave or some flying scouting robot or a meteor hitting the planet , but normal tactics?? how can that happen??shouldnt be hard to add either...

And this could add a LOTT of fun to the game. Cant wait to atck that minor civilization to enslave them for production buahahahahah!!! j/k

just my 2 cents

Monclova34

Since when is the taking of cities complex in Civ games?

I think that Grahamofboro meant *after* the city had been taken. In Civ games you have to deal with the newly captured populace of the city. They still have allegiance to their former nation for some time. This can lead to riots or "flipping" back to the previous owners. It can mean very low morale (unhappiness in Civ) and overall less productivity.

I have an idea that i mentioned earlier. Why not have land battles like risk? Youv'e already got the map with all the squares on it. The "military screen" would show you how many troops in each square. YOu could attack from these squares or defend from them. Know how you talk so much about sharing Solar systems? This way you could share PLANETS.

Years and years of total rebellion in a captured city? Seems a bit overdone to me.

It's just a system that emulates the difficulty in conquering foreign/alien races and subduing them. It seems like it would address some of the above concerns of wiping out millions of people in one invasion. Don't get me wrong, I am not an advocate of realism... I don't play games for reality, that's what life is for! On the other hand, it is nice to have strategic factors to balance things like military power. Anyway, it's not part of the game and that's that.

Why not have land battles like risk? Youv'e already got the map with all the squares on it. The "military screen" would show you how many troops in each square. YOu could attack from these squares or defend from them. Know how you talk so much about sharing Solar systems? This way you could share PLANETS.

I dont know about sharing planets with another Civ. That would be really annoying and just add more micromanagement to the game that would, in my opinion, lower the overall quality of the game. Something more practicle and sensable would be more welcome.

Even just a minor change in the way the invasion is calculated would be great, because from looking over the forums these past few months, one of the biggest problems with the current invasion system is that it is very unrealistic and, in some opinions, just plain brutal. Being able to kill 6 billion people (roughly the current population of earth) in just a week through normal tacticle combat is just ridiculas. The murder of every single tax paying citizen, but the homeless are spared. Its kinda funny if you look at it that way. It should just be a percentage of the population (IE; the planets ground infantry and local militias that are willing to fight). Im sure something better could be thought up that would make it more interesting and interactive without adding unwanted MM, but I'll leave that up to the experts.

Planetary Invasions is more than likely one of the least liked features of GalCiv. It needs a major facelift, and many people were really disappointed that it didnt come with GalCiv 2. I think that the Devs really need to address this in future updates/expansions, but Im sure it is already on their list .

"I just can't figure out how is it that a complete planet's population can be
destroyed in just 1 turn!!!"

Haven't you ever had baked Dregnin? It's great - tastes like chicken!

I feel that only a percentage of a population should be allowed to fight for the defending planet. Different races could have different percentages.

Also, a personal wish for me would be to overhaul the actual invasion. For instance, at the actual invasion, the world screen should show with all the inhabitable squares. Depending on the size of the attacking force in relation to the defending force, you can select up to 4 squares to invade (more with proper research). Your troops would be split accordingly.

Each square has it's own advantage factor for the defending troops. If a valuable military production upgrade has been built on a square, the defenders would have a higher advantage factor because there would be highly trained soldiers and the best equipment guarding such buildings.

Empty squares would have the lowest advantage factor.

While a planet is being fought for, it can still be taxed and build things, only at a greatly reduced rate.

The longer a fight goes on, and the more territory the attackers gain, the more the planet's morale drops. Once it drops below a set threshold, the planet surrenders.

You could maybe have a combat management screen similar to MOO3 to make it easier to manage the invasion and/ or defence of multiple worlds (*gasp* yes I actually liked some elements of the game).

This is just the bare bones of my idea but it's what I would LOVE to see in Galciv2.

I know it's not ever going to happen though, as I'm imagining it would require a LOT of work on the dev's part to implement.

Personally, I feel that the planet invasion procedure is perfect as it is. People are asking for too much control and they don't realize that it'll take away from the gameplay. Have you guys played Supreme Ruler 2010? It's so detailed that I can't really get into it that much.

I too would be happy if they only introduced the percentage idea.

My invasion idea is just a little fantasy I know will never be realised in GC2.

Probably for the best too, I'm the kind of person who'd end up putting it all to auto resolution once I'd played with it for a while anyway.

Seriously, consider 2 things-

1. You can't invade until you have achieved total air/space superiority. The inferred tactical advantages are overwhelming.

2. You are at war with a race of beings with whom you have very little in common (Objectification of the enemy will be MUCH easier than with another human - and quite frankly [& unfortunately], we humans have very little trouble doing that) AND they are fighting for their homes, so the concept that every buck, doe & fawn will be implacable opponents is one that you probably should take as a given. So the idea that any population that is left after the fighting would join your civilization is a bit far-fetched. At best you would have to intern them, and hopefully be able to have population swaps after peace has broken out.

The objective of the invasion, after all, is to acquire the planet for your empire and people.

If you want to acquire the planet with a friendly population, use influence conquest.

That said, 1 week to totally conquer a planet militarily may be a bit quick. GC1 was a month. Maybe a sliding scale of conquest time to invasion technique (trade off damage vs time) would be workable and add another high level decision into the mix.

Years and years of total rebellion in a captured city? Seems a bit overdone to me.

mmm...Heard of the US occupation in Iraq?