Why isnt there Specials to add to ships or Upgraded weapons?

All the "cool" stuff has one very specific problem. It's hard to code AI for. Every one ends up being a special case for the AI, and once you add too many of those, the whole AI falls down and goes boom. I'd much rather have a simpler system that the AI plays well than a complex system with bad AI.

Not to mention that complex systems like MoO2s really boil down to half-a-dozen builds that 'work' and a whole bunch of useless crap that clogs the tech tree, cripples the AI and makes ship designing even more annoying.

One thing I do want, however, is 'large' type weapons. Phaser3 is fine, but I want to be able to mount 'large' Phaser3s.

I hope in a future expansion they can add in those Special Weapons like Master of Orion had, it made it very interesting. The again, the Ai will need to understand how to use it.

This is were MOO 1, 2 does beat GalCiv2. Special Weapons and tactical combat. But GalCiv2 has better Ai.

All those specials and upgradable weapons made all the combat fun of MOO2. GalCiv2's laser1, laser2, laser3, laser 4, laser 5 is pretty lame. I havent even gotten a new beam weapon yet and the game is almost won by conquest.

The GalCiv 2 buid system does lack a certain flavor. It's flexible, intuitive, and stylish, but it doesn't feel "sci-fi" enough. A nice addition would be customizable weapon names; it wouldn't require any change in AI tactics or rebalancing, but it would add some extra personality.

Maybe they should spend 2 days and write an actual tech tree rather than using placeholder names and dialogue?

The 'I don't take this seriously' humour wears thin after a while. I'd like to see an explanation of what I've recieved for pressing the end turn button 20 times for 'Total Majesty' other than:

"Some peoples farts really don't stink."

Theres also more than a few techs were the entire dialogue is just "This is better than before, marketing has the day off."

Wow...great...

This kind of dialogue creates an environment where the player is encouraged to think of tech advancement as "Laser +1, +2, +3" rather than "Cool laser" and "Cooler Laser Diode something-a-wacky". When you read some of Stardocks AARs, the text is full of interesting names and other made up stuff, why not spend the 48 hours it would take to add some of this into the game?

When you read some of Stardocks AARs, the text is full of interesting names and other made up stuff, why not spend the 48 hours it would take to add some of this into the game?

Part of this is for accessibility. Alpha Centauri had some very interesting tech names, but people didn't know what any of it *did*, until they had played the game 20 times. In terms of conveying game effects, the tech names in GC2 do pretty well. Laser III is a miniaturization of Laser II, while Plasma has a damage boost over Laser V.

Myself, I think I'd prefer more technobabble names and serious-sounding descriptions, as in SMAC, but it's simply not correct to say things are the way they are because they couldn't be bothered to do better. The names are the way they are by design.

I agree with Caael. Missing all the specials and weapon upgrades is a huge letdown IMO. Whats wrong with adding specials to the modules menu. Laser 2 research should also allow Laser 1 heavy mount, or inflict more damage than laser 1. It shouldnt always be about, ooh, it takes 1 less space. Also, damage ratings of 1, 2, 3 should be more specific and tell you how many hit points it takes out. Armour and shields should reduce a % this. If it is 1, does armour reduce it to 0? I think MOO2 had ship design perfect.

eh there are some moduals, I know its onyl the basic stuff. But honestly to me it doesnt matter. I liek it the way it is. In Moo2 lot of the crap never got used anyway. Plus try to teach AI to use it... good luck it will either suck at it or it will be very good at few designs, but if you mod the game the ai will explode. You either have good ai or you got fancy shmancy special weapons....

Ill take the fancy shmancy weapons any day and crank up the difficulty to impossible

Also, damage ratings of 1, 2, 3 should be more specific and tell you how many hit points it takes out.

Uh, the damage rating *is* how many hitpoints it can take out. A heavy-mount Laser I would be either be pointless, or totally supercede Laser II.

The thing to remember about the GC2 combat is that it adds all the weapons of one type on a ship together into one big shot. It is as if it were one big cannon. Also, all the defences of one type are added together as if it were one big shield generator. Putting 5 lasers on a ship in GC2 is not like putting 5 lasers on a ship in MoO2, it's more like one laser that's 5x bigger. The MoO2 heavy mount was trading damage per space for better range and penetrating power. In GC2, damage per space is what gives you penetrating power. (and range doesn't exist)