In other words, it's being anti-Social Looks like a cool game/idea. I believe some of Stardock's lower priced games include aspects they'd like to see in Society, but that's a huge undertaking and they're doing it the smart way- divide and conquer. I also believe the next version of Political Machine will be out this next year, just in time for the next presidential race. I'm sure that
I've also found if you're on an anomaly-rich map, build survey ships ASAP. I've even bought them outright as they'd typically find more than enough cash to justify their purchase, and several anomalies improve your economic bonus, so that helps. Toning down spending/versus savings sure helps. I try and keep my approval rating near 100% near the beginning of the game which makes population increase more quickly, so while I have a negative income to start with, I'll get a faster populat
GalCiv2 Forums
I saw in the review: The new civs and the civ creation tool add a lot of replayability to the game. Picking your new race's abilities, weaknesses, government, overall aesthetic and so forth really lets you tailor the experience to your own tastes. Picking weaknesses? This is the first I heard of that. I went to look at Brad's Guided Tour of Dark Avatar and didn't see anything that mentioned how you could customize your race, o
This was the first time I'd seen the streamlined tech tree and I'm a big fan. Is there a slightly higher-res version that's a bit more clear? It's tough to read the names of some of that stuff. It seems like the AI vs. AI tests require quite a bit of analysis to see their effectiveness. It would be interesting to see a rating system (perhaps for players, too) similar to what you get at the very end of a game that might provide a better indicator for effectiveness (or the why portion
I bet the hard part comes in being able to track everything the AI has done over time. With even 4 AI players keeping everything they do over time straight would be very tough!
Thus prompting your next post I see. Sweet. Looks like the Drengin AI is pretty tough, despite mistakes.
And along those lines, could you do smoke testing? For instance, load up the same Universe with the same "human" player that is scripted and see how the AI reacts to it over time and based on various tweaks? You'd have to be careful since you don't want the AI to only be good at defeating players in one map and scenario, but it would show the level of randomness and luck for various outcomes and also show (over time) the effect of your AI modifications. Also, is is really fair to say
This is indeed very impressive and I like some of the added strategy, such as diplomatic discussions and the way things are handled on conquered civs. Are there any plans for a power-plant style for money generation (and not just population)? Having increased research and production is all well and good, but without cash to pay for it there's not as much value. Is the Epic Generator still in on this build? No word on its future?
Yeah. It sounded like that quite a while back. Will logging still be on, though? That'd be helpful to the community and not a complete loss. Thanks for the info. Good luck on polishing!
So, when do Stardock staff take time off? Geez! You guys are intense. It will be interesting to read more of your exploits these past few weeks. There have certainly been a lot good ideas floating around in the forums recently regarding DA.
Everyone must have had last week off. Not that I blame them since the week of Thanksgiving was very busy. I will be interested in hearing more about the EG since it's been a couple weeks and that was when a decision about its readiness would be made.
This must be the calm before the storm. Or something.
Any word on the future of the EG? This is a pretty hot topic with a variety of opinions on all sides of the fence and any update on this would be great.
I agree with what others said as well- not being able to speak to other civs often is fine as long as: 1. It's not always a fixed # of turns regardless of situation. Varying based on friendliness, major events, etc. is a great idea. What about displaying the time until you can speak again in number of turns/weeks (to save clicking)? I'd shade out their pictures if you don't do that already. 2. The computer is also held to the same restriction, both for other AI units and t
Some concerns with Super Abilities: 1. How the AI will handle these seems both difficult and time-consuming. 2. How can I easily tell what Super Ability my opponents have? That could make a big strategic decision on how I deal with them. 3. Many of these just seem like bigger multipliers. Some are unique, but it seems like just giving more Ability points would accomplish the same thing. Some other examples of ways things could be special that might not ca
Perhaps New World Order would be better? I like the descriptions very much. Clever but informative.
I'm sure there would be plenty of chances to throw in that wacky humor Gal Civ has been known for with content creation and that would be pretty dang enjoyable to read. Here's another thought- What about post Expansion pack release patching? Gal Civ 2 implemented quite a few new features post-release, so perhaps the Epic Generator could be one of those. Again, it's a massive undertaking, but if it'd free resources now that could be diverted there later if time permits, great. I stil
Something that came to mind during this discussion is apparently you can have your Xbox 360 create it's own blog. Here's an example from someone I know: http://www.360voice.com/blog.asp?tag=JLDeano Tying this into the topic at hand- a lot of this topic is taking data (in this case from an Xbox) and applying AI to it. But, you can already see that it is repetitive quickly. I would imagine the Epic Generator would be that way, too. However, again, let the community take the d
I'd vote for leaving in logging and letting the community mod that themselves. However, if the logs aren't in there that will never be possible... Along those lines and something that was mentioned earlier- it'd be nice even if there was a feature just like auto-save that would snap a shot of various aspects of the game (perhaps configurable) every X # of turns. That way you could go through that file later, pull out the graphs and pictures that were worthwhile and create your own epi
Brad- Aren't you a new father? Add that to your list of everything previous and your level of weariness just increased 10-fold. I've got two young ones, so I can empathize with you there! I think there's like an inverse correlation between the amount of gaming one can accomplish and the amount of time required by kids. I'm not complaining- I love my kids and spending time with them, it's just priorities have to change (or should, anyway).
I've played gigantic, but only at above normal. At that point I had over-colonized the computers, so it was more of a matter of when I won instead of if, but I did go for an Influence win, so that took much more effort (and planet micro-managing). Propulsion techs are crucial for that strategy in a gigantic map. I can only imagine how if the map was mostly populated and at war how complex and crazy every turn would be on gigantic! I hate to say it, but if the AI really breaks
Thanks for the dedication you and the team put in. Hopefully those in the beta will be able to take some of the burden off of you for the play testing and you guys can concentrate more on game mechanics, AI, and bugs. I'm sure the beta of DA will be rewarding, from everyone's standpoint. I am a bit concerned about the pacing as well. Between the restrictions on colonization, reduced industry, and now increased espionage, turns may start taking a bit too long. I'll save that judgment
Things have been pretty quiet on the Gal Civ site. Everyone must be hard at work putting those finishing touches to the beta. Hopefully we'll hear more soon...
I'd have to also agree with the comments above. This does seem to be a feature that encourages micromanagement, of which there's enough already. It's an interesting twist on planet specialization, but I'm not a big fan of having to focus and unfocus planets to start with, so this isn't too appealing. Could we request a method for filtering/categorizing build lists on planets in DA? Late in the game when you have many options of things to build, a list of 20+ things to build on a new
It's probably not necessary for the Stock Exchange to have a further boost since the Morale generating techs are more effective. I still need to download 1.4, but hopefully this weekend. Great job, Stardock!