GalCiv2's replayability

My feedback and suggestions

from GalCiv2 Forums
There have been a lot of posts on how much effort is being devoted to making GalCiv2 a fun gaming experience. Which is fine if you are going to play a single game or a couple games, but, is it still fun many, many games later? What I want to do is give some feedback on some of the setting and features I find tedious and rather annoying after many, many games.

One of my biggest complaints right now is ship construction. I take the time to build a line of ships, one, an upgrade from the previous. But unless I have all the research done for a particular ship, it would show up in the list, but it is real hard to figure out what is needed to build a ship. The tech tree will give you an idea, but things like miniaturization is not listed. I would like to be able to see all my ships even if I can’t build them and see any and all research needed in order to build them. It would be even better if I could just say "research ship" and the necessary technologies would be queued up for research and not bug me ever few turns to pick my next research project.

Speaking of research, I would like to be able to click on any visible technology in the tech tree and again not get any "pop-ups" until the research up to and including that technology is complete.

As for other "pop-ups" like the ones that have you choose "good-neutral-evil" options. I have fun reading them and all, but I find it a little sloppy when I get the same one twice in a row and annoying when I get it three times in a row. How about an option to answer same question the same way for the game or better yet only ask the question one time. Once all those type of questions get asked don’t ask any more.

I would like to have a log of what is going on in the universe. Too often I’ll have one of my worlds invaded and afterwards I have no idea what world I was dealing with. The name flashed on the screen before the battle, but I still have a hard time figuring where it was and what the result was (did I lose any buildings, how many people did I lose…). I’d also like to have in this log the activities of the other races (such-n-such just invaded so-n-so’s world) and if I have some espionage, the activities between the other races (such-n- such just traded x research for y amount from so-n-so). I’d also like to be able to save that log after the game is finished.

Lastly I would like a better way of organizing planetary improvements. I often find myself search through the list because after a few researched technologies the name and icon of the improvement has changed a couple of times and I can’t find the old name in the list. Even if you could color code the improvement similar to how tech tree is (research buildings would be outlined in blue) it would be easier to see in a long list.

Anyway these are a few of the things that I would really like to see enhanced and I believe they would greatly increase the game’s replayability. Hopefully others will add ideas here and maybe someday soon get a patch more focused on this part of the game.
4,322 views 3 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
I would like to have a log of what is going on in the universe. Too often I’ll have one of my worlds invaded and afterwards I have no idea what world I was dealing with. The name flashed on the screen before the battle, but I still have a hard time figuring where it was and what the result was (did I lose any buildings, how many people did I lose…). I’d also like to have in this log the activities of the other races (such-n-such just invaded so-n-so’s world) and if I have some espionage, the activities between the other races (such-n- such just traded x research for y amount from so-n-so). I’d also like to be able to save that log after the game is finished.


A bump for ya -- I agree, an activity log would be a great addition.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Lastly I would like a better way of organizing planetary improvements. I often find myself search through the list because after a few researched technologies the name and icon of the improvement has changed a couple of times and I can’t find the old name in the list


Well, the old ones are removed. That might explain it. Most are fairly simple, it's obvious stock exchange is money, manufacturing center is manufacturing, xeno farming food etc. The research screen shows what improvements you can build, and that's colour coded.

Speaking of research, I would like to be able to click on any visible technology in the tech tree and again not get any "pop-ups" until the research up to and including that technology is complete.


Well, most people like the humor involved in the pop ups. They put effort into writing it, you could at least read it. Although the idea itself I like (Click on doom ray, don't bother telling me through disruptors)
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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Well, the old ones are removed. That might explain it. Most are fairly simple, it's obvious stock exchange is money, manufacturing center is manufacturing, xeno farming food etc. The research screen shows what improvements you can build, and that's colour coded.


No, no. I get what is happening. I was commenting on how an "Enhanced Factory" is at the top of the planetary improvement list, "Manufacturing Center" is in the middle, and "Xeno Factory" is at the bottom. Between Factories, Research, Farms, and all the other improvements then there is no consistent location in the list where you will choose a particular type of improvement. I just find it tedious searching for the building when it keeps moving around in the list.

Well, most people like the humor involved in the pop ups. They put effort into writing it, you could at least read it.


And I agree with you 100% the developers did a great job with their descriptions. But I was suggesting that after your 10th or 20th game and after researching "laser I" 10 or 20 times, maybe I've already got as much as I'm going to get reading the pop-up screen.

I'm going to add a few more things that would be nice to have automated.

If I'm trading with another race, and for example, want to buy a few of their researched technologies. After I have picked what I want, it would be nice that if when I click on my credits it would auto set to the minimum need buy what I have chosen. I can play with the slider bar and fine tune the amount manually, but why? If the race is willing to sell and I have enough credits, why not just set the amount in the box when I first click on it? Again this probable sounds petty, but to me its just another tedious event in the game.

And... when I'm building a bunch of improvements on a planet, like when I first colonize it. Could you make it so after I choose an improvement and the little build square advances to the next available tile, the square moves to next is a non specialized tile. If I want to put a building on a square that gives me a bonus I'll choose the square myself. I keep fighting with the build screen because after place an improvement the build square keeps jumping to a tile with some bonus I don't want to use right now and the are 10 other non-bonus tiles it could move to.

And again these are just little things that makes my games a little tedious. But I still enjoy playing