Ship battles in Galciv II

The battle mechanic

from GalCiv2 Forums
Firstly, a VERY nice hello to you all. Secondly, don't be alarmed - I didn't come to flood the forum. I read mostly all I was able to find on Galactic Civilisations 2 and quite some on the first iteration (that I didn't play). I'm also one of those who suffered incredible dissapointment becouse of MoO3. When i read about Galciv II I was surprised to find exactly what I was missing.

Now, to make this story short; I like mostly all I read about this game and only have one question; has it been at any time considered to implement space-battles in the style of Nexus:The Jupiter incident? That's the game that was supposed to be Imperium Galactica 3 but ended as a tactical space fleet simulation.

Nexus has the best and most immersive space battles EVER seen on any sort of computer, but it has no grand-scale strategy at all. That's why it is just not what I was looking for and I don't recommend the game to anybody who is into empire building (which is what GC2 is all about). Anyway, the crossbread of GC2 and Nexus would defintiely be one of the greatest games of all times, so I just stopped to ask if that game is familiar to the developers of GC2 and if such combat was ever considered for any of the GC iterations.

I believe the Nexus engine already includes everything your system of shields/weapons would need.

Please don't take this post as an insult or anything, I think GC is already more to my liking than Nexus could ever be. And I intend to buy this game as soon as it hits the market.
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Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
There have been many, many articles on this subject and the answer on this one is basicly a "No". As far as I can tell this is because GC1 & GC2 are/were always intended as strategy games in the vain of the Civ games, in which you have the option of more than one way to win, not just through military might. In other words it's Civ(IV) for space not (Rome:) Total War for space... As to the MoO3 stuff I recomend you read this https://www.galciv2.com/Forums.aspx?ForumID=164&AID=88762 That should answer all the MoO questions...
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
Interesting read. Thank you for the link.

As I read in the GC2 manual (3. edition) the battles already are kind of GC2:TW, except that they happen in turns. This is also not that much different from TW battle engine, really. It calculates attacks (one attack and as many defences as the attacks on the soldier) in turns as well, except that it does it for each soldier individually.

And the battles need not be player led. Nexus has AI quite well done and it's system would be capable of making unparalleled cinematic battle viewer for GC2. If you'll download the movie demo of Nexus you'll see what I'm talking about.

But if this was talked about many times, I apologize for bringing it up yet again.
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Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
GC2 has fleet battles that sort of fit the bill you're talking about.

A fleet is a collection of ships grouped together as a single unit on the game map. You move them as a single ship and generally have an easier time managing your ships this way.

A fleet battle occurs when two fleets meet up (has to be two fleets, can't be a fleet vs 1 ship). The results of the conflict are decided, and then you're treated to a re-enactment of sorts. You see the two fleets fly around, exchange shots, blow up etc... You don't control any of it (but you can pause, rewind, fast forward and change the camera positions) but you do get that cinematic feel.
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
Ah, I'm sorry I was assuming you meant the ability to control your ships, as in Nexus, which I have played and agree it is a fine tactical space sim (with a reasonable story etc). Which is why I mentioned the Total War series as that's an example of the meld between strategy, Civ(IV) type stuff, and tactics, Nexus, Homeworld, Red Alert etc... As you have your turn based strategy, then you can do the tactics (i.e. so called real time strategy) when your armies meet (or of course you can just hit the button to let the AI sort it out)...
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
My understanding is that the whole point of cinematic fleet battles is

1) You can see how effective your own ship designs are, how effective they are with other ships in the fleet, what improvements you can make to your existibg designs etc.

2) They look pretty
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
Ok, this will be my last post, since I have nothing more to say really. GC2 is going to be an awesome game that I'm sure I'll fall in love with.

But for the record - untill you've seen Nexus battles it's just no use talking about cinematic feeling. When the movie demo came out, most of the fans (we were tracking the game since the moment it was announced as IG3 and promised to be an empire-building game) simply watched the movie for long periods of time.

The demo movie is much, much better than MOST sci-fi movies. Those made for or cinemas. The game is absolutely gorgeous but IMO it's a waste becouse it lacks the depth of an empire.

Thanks for your time and I apologize again for bringing a chewed-up topic up.
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
Zoomba, I believe one of the settings allows for Fleet-vs-single ship cinematics.
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
Popup: Good to know... I want more cinematic conflicts
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
You can even have 1 v 1 ship combat.