Just picked up Galactic Civilizations
 

This is the same genre as Masters of Orion 3. I will post here as I play the game and give my impressions for anyone interested in 4x Space sims.

In the last month, I have purchased Starships Unlimited, MOO3, and now Galactic Civ. StarUnlim is very limited and didn't hold my attention very long. MOO3 removes the player too far from gameplay as to feel like one is spectating instead of playing. As for GalCiv, I have only played a few dozen turns, but already I have a far greater understanding of play than a week with MOO3.

I will be paying close attention to the highly touted threaded A.I., and see if it lives up to its expectations.

Personally, I am looking for a chess-like game that has easy, well-defined rules that can be, like chess, replayed many times with many different outcomes. Everything I have read on GalCiv is that it provides exactly this.

Very interested to hear what you think of this game. I'm not a spacey-game fan, but I think this one sounded pretty interesting. Eagerly awaiting impressions.

I'd be interested in your opinions on the United Planets and the domestic politics and how they are implemented in the game. The political part of the game is what I find most intriguing, while only a small part of the game I'm curious to see how it will fit into the overall game.

Bonegavel,

What are the minimum hardware requirements?

Me want impression/review. Please. :)

Im very interested as well.

Count me in as an interested party. With the disappointment surrounding MOO3, we 4x fans need some good news.

Count me in as the interested type.

Disappointing news about MOO3, I was such a big fan of MOO1 & MOO2.

Box says:

Pentium III running at 600 MHz as a minimum and 500 MB disk space for all multimedia features to be installed.

I'm running it on a P4 2.533 GHz machine and it screams along nicely. :-)

I will be playing it extensively this week and will post as much as I can as often as I can.

Oh well... :(

UPDATE

Wow. Unlike MOO3, you are an active participant and make the choices. The tech tree is reminiscent of Civ. There are different areas to delve into and you can easily see what the different paths will give your civ. I can easily see many games spent just trying different combos of tech research.

I don't read manuals (maybe this is why MOO3 is killing me) and i already feel comfortable with things. I easily figured out how build colony ships and colonize other planets (something I was unable to do in MOO3).

There are some Ultima-like morality choices to make from time to time. You can either be Good, Neutral, or Evil in your choices. Each choice has a consequence.

I didn't mean to post so little, but I want to leak this out as it hits me.

enjoy

There is a good review of Galatic Civialzations at gamespot. I've always been a fan of Space sims. I have MOO 1 and 2 and Space Empires 3 and 4. But after i read the bad reviews of MOO 3 i was pretty disappointed.

Just heard about this one a couple of days ago...

All the reports of outstanding AI, good game design, emphasis on the single-player game, and fun decisions were too good to pass up on this game: I just picked it up this afternoon. I'm taking a short gaming break this weekend, and will try to post some impressions. If things go really well, I might do a short mini-dynasty with a small galaxy.

There's an extensive triple review here. It doesn't delve too much into the AI, but from all reports it is outstanding, and plays with a very human feel to it. Each of the 6 alien races has their own, individually coded AI. Here are some gameplay examples written by the designer. The "Developer Humbled" one sold me on the game. I'm also excited by the fact that the tiny galaxy games can be played in an hour or so, and small apparently take only a few hours. Life's busy, and it would be nice to play an entire turn-based game as a quick break.

Sachmo,
Depending on your system, you might still be ok with this one if you're close to the system specs. In that above review, one of the reviewers says he's running it on a P3 850mhz with no slowdowns at all. I think I've heard a couple of other people say they have no problems running the game on lesser setups. I'll be running it on a P3 800mhz and will post if I have performance troubles. The company really seems to have their act together and the system requirements may be more for the "huge" galaxy setups, which result in massive games that would probably choke the life out of lowly computers. Knowing how much you like SEIV, I think you would love this game (if it's anywhere close to it's hype), even if you are restricted to playing on the bottom three or four galaxy sizes.

Thanks, GB, but I am running a PII 300 (yes, that's a 2!) so I doubt it would even boot up. I'll just live through you guys until I get a new computer...in a few years... :D

Yeah, it does sound like that system might be a stretch.

Diapers are expensive, aren't they? You know, if you use cloth diapers (on your kid, that is) for a year you'll save enough for a new computer. Not that you'd have any time to use it, seeing as you'll be busy doing two loads of poopy laundry every day, but it's a thought, I guess.

Firing up the game now...

Yes, babies are expensive, and since number 2 is due in August, it's only going to get worse! :)
The other issue is that my computer is still running just fine, and I don't really have a need to upgrade right now. Eventually I will, but for now I'm ok. The good news is that a Fry's is opening right by my house, so when I am ready to upgrade, I'll be able to do it relatively cheap!

Initial Reactions...

So far I give it a +4, meaning that I went to bed 4 hours later than I wanted to (4AM instead of midnight). Given that I knew I needed to get up at 6:30AM, that's a pretty good start for the game. Definitely has the "just one more turn" force in it. The analogy of Civilization in space is right on the mark. I haven't played nearly enough to make a final judgement, but so far so good.

Random thoughts...

Just to try to figure out how to do stuff, I'm fumbling through a small galaxy game with all 5 opponents set at beginner (one above the lowest level of idiot). There are also a couple of minor nations involved, so altogether there are 8 civilizations in this particular game. The beginner AI isn't putting up much of a show so far, but that perhaps is to be expected given that it's only one click above idiot, and there are six or more AI levels, if I remember correctly. After about 20 years of game play I am far in front of the pack in all measures of achievement: population, colonies, economy, culture, military, research. They were slow out of the gate, and by the time they got going, I had colonies on the best empty planets in the galaxy. The key in the development stages however, was getting a colony on a huge fertile planet that is far and away the best planet in the galaxy. If this planet had been close to one of my opponents, I'm not sure if I would have as big of a lead.

Now that all the good stuff is claimed, it's time to start either eliminating civilizations for a conquest victory, strengthening culture for a cultural victory, or making alliances for an aliance victory. It's also possible to get a "research victory", but the game status screen says that I'm 65% of the way to a cultural victory, 55% of the way towards a conquest victory (I own a lot of the galaxy), and only 2% of the way towards a research victory, so that does not seem to be the way to go right now. I went to bed at the point of trying to decide whether to attack some of the evil civilizations or go on a massive, peaceful, culture spreading spree. I was hoping to try the alliance route, as I've got some friends out there, but I can't figure out how to offer alliances yet.

Fun stuff, in no particular order...

Trading between nations is very well done, and you can trade all kinds of stuff, in all kinds of creative ways. Because I don't know the value of things, it's hard to tell how good the AI is at this, but I get a sense that it knows what it's doing. One neat thing is that your diplomatic and military strengths (two different concepts) affect the deals you get.

The scope, scale, and flow of the game work very well. There are lots of fun choices to make, and so far, little micromanagement. Managing planets is getting a bit tedious now that I have a dozen or so of them, but I have yet to mess with the Govenors, which look like an excellent way to solve the micromanagement issue.

There's lots of stuff to find and explore. The research tree seems deep, rich, and well thought out. Everything seems to fit together. This is a game that doesn't overreach, and tries to do the things it does well, rather than trying to do everything.

Other stuff...

Still haven't fought any battles yet. My opponents left me alone during the beginning of the game, and now they're scared of me. However, combat (from what the manual says) and ship design are simplified compared to MOO2 or SEIV. The "think Civ, not MOO2" concept is the best way to imagine this.

The graphics are adequate. There are some neat cut-seen movies that add to the feel of the game, but otherwise not much eye candy. I don't need much to keep my happy graphic-wise, so your mileage may vary here.

I played the game blind, without looking at the manual for more than a minute, and for the most part could figure out how to do things with the help of some random clicking. However, I'm not sure yet how to do quite a few basic things (e.g. I have the technology to "make alliances", but I see no way to offer an alliance to a friendly civ in the diplomacy/trading screen). Unfortunately, the tutorial in the game isn't much help (it's not really there, from what I can tell), and reading the manual didn't clear up any of the questions I had. Other people have mentioned it, but the game and manual really need to give you more information on the technology tree. Although some of the choices are intuitive, you really don't know what are particular choice will do for you. Fortunately there seems to be extensive help on the internet.

Anyway, I should be back to the game sometime later, and will post more. I'm curious to see how the AI plays at more legitimate levels, as this will be the key factor as to whether the game gets a thumbs up or down. First I want to finish my current game, as I have seen a couple of interesting moves by the computer in the last couple of years, and I want to see what happens.

Dola...

Sachmo,

Me too on the second baby. Number two is due in October!

I read the manual last night, and you might want to check over at the website (www.galciv.com), about wheter the game will run on your system. The manual says this...

Q: I would like to run the game on an older computer. Is there anything I can do to do this?
A: Yes, most of the hardware requirements...revolve around the multimedia. You can delete the .BLK files and this will remove the videos. Some parts of the game may look static or strange, but it will allow you to play on an older system. Check (our) website for other tips.

I hear this company will go out of their way to help a customer, so firing off an email to them might be worth a shot if you're interested in the game.

Like others said, I'm interested in this game too, especially after the failure of MOO3. Gamespot gave it a pretty good review. (8.4) I might try it. Graphics and sound are the only categories that brought the overall score down and those are two areas I really don't care about. Sports sims get the same treatment in their reviews.

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/galacticcivilizations/review.html

Congrat, Zilla!! Fatherhood is the best job in the world, IMO.

I think I will send them an email and see. That would be cool if I could play it. Very, very cool. Keep the reviews coming, guys!

Sachmo, just noticed this on their discussion forums :


So maybe theres hope.

My opinion of this game is rising fast.

I finished that first game, playing against the standard opponents set at beginner in a small galaxy, and ended up winning via cultural victory. I allied with the Slug things (the Yor maybe?) and rolled over the Evil Apes (Drengin?) and Beserkers (Evil Robots, forgot the name). Not much of a fight on beginner. At this point the jury was still out.

Started a new game, same basic set up except that I set all the AI opponents to "normal", and gave myself what I think were some lesser abilities.

Wow! What a difference! The AI has come to life. It agressively builds and expands, and seems to come out of the gate with a solid starting strategy. I grabbed what I could nearby, and managed to grab a small edge in colonies mostly by accepting weak 13- and 14-rated planets into the fold. But the galaxy real estate has gone fast. Now I'm racing the other AI's for those resource points, but I'm losing more than my fair share here. There have been two or three times when I arrived one month (one turn) too late. Bastards.

Basically, this one is anyone's game. There's an empty gap with no planets right down the middle of the galaxy. The two evil empires have the entire west side of the galaxy to themselves, and the Evil Apes (Drengin) have built themselves a formidible position. The other two good civilizations, the neutral civilization, and I are crammed into the east side of the galaxy.

My plan is to set the foundation for an east-side alliance to combat the Evil Apes, who I think would crush any one of us separately. To that end, I'm trading techs with the good civilizations and starting to set up trade routes to foster further interdependence. I've got relations up to "friendly" so far with the other two good civs. I'm hoping to have at least a three-civilization armada ready to wipe the Evil Apes out if they come across that no-man's land in force. Got to hurry though, as there's not much unclaimed stuff left in the galaxy, and I've got to believe that we're heading for a military buildup in the galaxy in the near future.

I've got a better handle on the interface now, and that is making things a lot easier to manage. The Govenors make the planets pretty easy to manage, so far. As I've learned the interface, I've realized that it's pretty easy to get the game to do the things you want it to do. There are some annoying design decisions (launching ships, no rally points for ships, etc.), but nothing too annoying yet.

I really like the diplomatic model and the fact that there are four viable ways to win the game (research, cultural, alliance, and conquest). It gives you a lot of options for creative play.

Still not 100% decided on this game, but it has been a blast in this second game so far. It is definitely a game that makes you think hard about the decisions you make, and gives you lots of fun decisions to make. The tech tree is incredible.

kind of a tangent, but there's an interesting set of articles by Brad Wardell (Gal Civ designer) at Avault about making money via the internet.

it's a 4 part series (about 6-9 months old) - really good reading

Thanks a bunch for the in-depth commentary, 'Zilla. I have already added this one to my must-have list, in part because of what you've said in this thread. :)

I followed the beta quite closely and the game looked like it was going to be a good one. The problem is right now there are too many good games and not enough time. :(

I just received Europa 1400, Freelancer and CM4 is on the way. I need to quit work so I have more time to play games. :D

I downloaded it yesterday and installed it last night... Wow what a relief, is game is cool... THanks infogram for putting out a fun game, MOO3 is very complex, Civ3 is kinda boring, is game has it all...

In my first game, my Civ was totally wiped out in less than 30 turns, but I'll tell you it was very fun... In my next game, I think i'm going to turn down the opponents difficulty down to sub-normal, I had them all at normal....

Does this read to anyone else like GalCiv is both very complex and kinda boring? :D

Sorry, maybe it's just me but this made me actually LOL for some reason.

Yes. Yes, it does. Heh. :)

By the way, it was mentioned in the impression thread on GoneGold that you can find some good information at the JavaScout's website

So far so good. Just finished the second game. Got an alliance victory that went "roughly" according to plan.

There is some cool stuff in this game. I was fighting a see-saw battle with the Evil Apes in the Evil Robot's home sector as part of a three-civilization alliance against the Apes, when all of a sudden one of my allies, the Utopians, declare war on the Robots. I have to jump in, but now I'm in deep shit, as all the Evil Robot ships come pouring out of their systems after my ships. I retreat out of the sector at full speed with my precious but badly outgunned warships, but this leaves a slew of lumbering battleaxe ships bearing down on an advanced spacestation that I had set up in the sector, and I've got three expensive, full, and god-awful slow transports full of troops surrounded there as well. Things looked grim--I'm about two turns from losing the spacestation and all the transports--until I manage to sneak in a construction ship into the spacestation that allows me to build some kind of a wave-jamming module that slows down enemy ships in the sector by one move per turn, effectively freezing all the slow enemy ships where they are. They were scattered all over the sector as they closed in on my spacestation and transports, so now I turn my fleet around, go back in, and rip them apart one-by-one. Within a year the whole sector--the heart of the Evil Robot empire--was cleared of enemy presence. Warm up the fat lady! Game over! What a rush seeing a crushing disaster get turned into a decisive victory with just one small ship adding one small feature to a spacestation at literally the last second. Cool stuff, indeed. Well worth the price of admission.

The AI was respectable on the normal level. It did do some questionable things, mostly along the lines of not pushing advantages and not using ships effectively, but that may just be part of the "normal" level. I'll try moving up a notch in the next game.

One of the things that I did like was the fact that the game throws things at you to keep you on your toes even in the endgame, when normally these games are just a matter of time if you've got a big lead. First, I got a message that the Yoda Slugs (the Yor) developed some ancient technology that would allow them to grow infinitely stronger very quickly, and that I should eliminate them before it would be too late. They only had one system left at the time, and they had been a willing minor ally, so I left them alone on principle. The game didn't go on that much further, but I wonder what would have happened if it had. Also, a massive space shark popped in to the galaxy and wraught some havoc. Lastly, the Yoda Slugs found a huge space craft from an ancient civilization on one of their planets. Had they been an enemy, it would have been tough to take out. Even though I was reasonably certain I would win after that major battle ripped the guts of the enemy and gave me a decisive advantage in planets, tech, etc., I never felt 100% comfortable with the lead until it was all over. Good stuff.

I also like the scale and scope of the game a lot. So many games today try to do everything, and end up falling far short. This game tries to stay within its limits and provide a solid single-player challenge. I'm still on the fence, as the AI at the normal level looks very beatable, but I'm guessing that it will be a tough fight at the next levels up. If it is, this game will get a solid thumbs up.

Dola...

Aarrgh! Stayed up all night last night playing this damn game. +8 on the bedtime rating scale...

Played a small galaxy with AI opponents set to "bright"...

Not sure the AI accolades are all that warranted, at least at this level. It wasn't too much of a challenge to beat the game, once you get past the opening. The AI opponents still seem to do some questionable things at the bright level, and the path to victory was straightforward.

Having said that, the AI has played an outstanding opening game the last two games, and I'd think it would be very hard to win if you fall behind at that stage. I'm also going to guess and say that the people that are reporting losing against the lower levels of AI are falling behind in these first couple of years, when the computer expands agressively and effectively.

However, I'm encouraged by the fact that this was still only level 5 of 8 with regards to AI toughness. "Intelligent", "Genius", and "Incredible" are still waiting. At the "bright" level, the AI is definitely more devious than at "normal" level (one of the civs fought a solid losing war against superior forces at the end of the game), but there seem to be basic strategies that would work consistently to beat them. I'm hoping at higher levels the AI uses diplomatic trading more agressively, coordinates attacks better (it tends to attack by sending clusters of unguarded transports at you), attacks more decisively (a couple of strong civilizations had weaker civilizations on their knees and yet they took forever--if they even tried--to invade systems), and has better geopolitical awareness.

If I had to say thumbs up or down given what I know now, I'd say thumbs up, but I need to try the next levels up to give a final verdict. The game really is a lot of fun; I've gotten my money's worth all ready. Even if this were the best the AI could play (and I don't think it is), there are a number of tweaks you could make in the game settings to make the game much more challenging. However, I'm hoping that the AI plays better at the higher difficulty levels. Unfortunately, I won't have time to check it out soon, though. After three days of playing, I need to get back to real life (and catch up on sleep).

Thanks for your updates Godzilla. They're great.

Curious about something GB, have you played around with the recent "un-official" update in the Gal-Civ forums? Other than some minor fixes and gameplay tweaks, the AI was supposed to have gotten a good boost. I've yet to try it out as I'm still getting my ass handed to me on "normal" while in the feeling out stage of the game.

Ok, now I am getting really confused on what game to get next.

Space Empires IV
SuperPower (only $20)
Galactic Civ (downloadable)

After reading this thread it appears that Gal Civ is quickly moving up the list to number 1. It may be very difficult to stop myself from getting this game in the morning.

It is obvious that Gal Civ is better than MOO3 but how does it compare to SEIV?

BTW, is there a demo available. I was unable to find one but read something about it? Thanks.

Random Strategies...
 

In case people are interested, I posted this on a different board, but thought some people might be interested here...

These are some random strategies for success that worked well in my first two “real” games (at normal and bright AI levels with a small galaxy). Not sure if these strategies will work equally well against higher levels of AI or in different galaxy sizes, or even if they really are good strategy (I’ve only played three games, and still don’t have a good sense for what’s going on).

(MIGHT BE CONSIDERED SPOILERS…)
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1. Successful, aggressive expansion seems to be the key to survival. The AI’s at normal and above expand lightning fast. It is imperative to get more planets than anyone else. What you do in the first twenty turns can go a long way to insuring victory. To open fast you’ve got to get as much money as possible devoted to building colony ships. There are some tricks you can use to do this. First, crank up your taxes at the start of the game to the point where your approval rating is at or less than 60%. Your initial rate will give you too little money. Second crank up your spending to 100%, even if it means burning heavily into the 1000bc buffer the game gives you at the start. Third, crank up the percentage of these funds devoted to building ships. I don’t remember the exact figure, but I think in the last game I set my ships, social, and research numbers at somewhere around 80-0-20 for the first few turns. This will give you rapidly accelerated colony ship production. The key is that you only need to do this until you’ve cranked out enough colony ships and constructors to support your expansion. Fourth, get all planets making colony ships and buy these ships when it makes sense to do so, but use the lowest initial payment so that you spread your debt out over the longest amount of time. Do this sparingly, though: I would think a 50bc debt load each turn could kill you in the middle game. In the last game, I accelerated construction on one colony ship and one constructor to insure that I got a contested resource point and a distant colony. That left me with a 14bc stream of debt for effectively the rest of the game, but there are things you can quickly do to offset this, and 14bc late in the game is chump change if things have gone well elsewhere.

2. Once you realize you don’t need any more colony ships or constructors, switch to a research heavy spending rate. I went to 30-15-65, or something like that, and even switched down to 0-45-55 once I had a some planets loaded with “constructor build bars that were almost full” (these can be converted to warships with no loss, so you can stop production fully and yet be ready on a moments notice to fight a large war if you need to). The key is to get a couple of techs that your opponents don’t have. Once you do that, go trade them, preferably to the good civilizations (who should now have less planets than you do and can’t keep up research-wise). Aggressively trade for other techs, and keep track of the value of techs so that you aren’t getting screwed. Also, use your brain here and don’t give good military stuff to the Drengil, who will use it against you later. At least at the bright level and lower, the AI isn’t aggressively trading tech, and this will give you a large tech lead over the other nations if you do it right. The key here, though, is to be sure to tweak the trades by asking for cash, and spread it out over 50 turns. An AI will pay a lot more money if it is allowed to spread the payments out over a longer period of time. Also, sell techs that for similar income streams. In the last game, I quickly had that negative 14bc stream from expansion covered with a positive 24bc income stream for 50 turns from other countries’ payments to balance tech trades.

3. As the game moves on, adjust tax rates to keep happiness about 60% (set happiness higher if you need to spur population growth, I think), and adjust spending to keep your total about 100-200bc in the black. It’s important to keep your eye on this, as you easily can be burning a 75bc debt per turn later in the game if you aren’t careful.

4. In the expansion, prioritize on identifying systems for your colony ships. Don’t chase after out of the way anomalies early in the game. You can build another survey ship towards the end of the expansion period to try to get some of these. The exception is the floating metal, but even then I would still probably prioritize on system exploration. However, the metal spots have the potential of adding a weapon rating to your survey ship. If you get attack power with your survey ship early in the game, you now have the capability of dramatically weakening the expansion of a neighbor that is competing for systems. If you can take out one enemy’s colony ships and get a couple of systems because you found one of these things (and you think he didn’t): DO IT! A two or three planet lead in this early stage will make your life so much easier later, and winning this war can pay huge economic dividends a few years down the road.

5. During the expansion period, concentrate on getting into as many sectors as possible so that you can keep expanding. If there are two good planets around the same solar system, save that second planet for later, as once you own a system, no one else can grab a planet on the same system (“system”, not “sector”). Grab 14-rated planets (maybe 13-rated if that's the only option) if it is a good way get a foothold in a sector to allow further expansion. At the bright and lower levels, the AI isn’t doing this, and it weakens its opening. Get these planets building soil improvement right away, and then add habitat improvement once you get the tech for that (usually you can trade for this one early on). Be careful though. Too many of these planets will put you in the hole economically, as each one seems to carry a 7-10bc debt with it until it gets to level 15, which appears to be some kind of a break even point. Get only ones that will allow you to get to the next galaxy and continue expanding. Come back and grab more if you have leftover colony ships and can afford the debt.

6. If you are winning a war against an opponent, they will come to you for a peace deal. Never take it straight up unless you are absolutely desperate to stop the war. At some point (it might be the first time, might be later), they will let you can add cash (and maybe tech) to the deal and they will still take it. At this point, it is very likely that they will accept a peace deal that includes massive payments over 50 months. In the last game, I found a weapon upgrade for my survey ship during the expansion, weakened one opponent’s expansion with it, and then got a peace deal from them a couple of years later that paid about 90bc/year for 50 years during the middle five to ten game years.

7. Get the trade tech, make freighters, and set up distant trade routes with good neighbors.

The goal of all this is to survive the lightning expansion with more planets than anyone, have a positive income stream from payments from opponents, and have the tech lead within a few years of the expansion period’s end. Once you get this slight edge in planets, tech, and income, you can add more resources into more research, which will give you a larger tech advantage that you can use to build a solid economic lead. With that, it should be easier to deal with all the stuff the game throws at you.

Hope that helps. Again, take all this with a grain of salt, especially the exact numbers, as I’m doing it from memory, and have a lot still to learn about the game and how it works.

Cougar: I think you'll like it!

Sachmo: Thanks, and congrats to you too!

Barkeep: Thanks. Glad you like 'em.

Elim: No, I haven't downloaded the update, but I may try "just one more game" before I go back to writing my thesis. Time to try the "intelligent" level, which is the AI at full-tilt without any advantages. I've learned that apparently the "bright" level isn't full strength. I'm not sure the upgrade addresses the "tech whoring" strategy though, but maybe the highest level of AI does. I found a couple of posts on the GalCiv boards from other people who claim to be winning easily at the upper levels (bright and intelligent) by using this strategy. I think they are telling the truth, as selling and trading tech gave me a huge advantage in my last game. The key is getting through the beginning in good shape. That's where most people seemed to be getting creamed.

If it turns out that you can always win by trading and selling tech, I might just make up a house rule limiting the amount of tech I can trade. I would think that would make the game instantly more difficult. But I'm hoping the game can be played straight up and consistenly be a good challenge.

Also, for those playing...

I haven't used it (and probably won't), but pressing "Control-N" at the start of the game will give you a new random galaxy. Could be useful if you don't like your initial spot in the galaxy.

Downloading update now...

Damn it. I'm hopelessly addicted.

hehehe.. Same here, GB. I'm still getting pretty banged up at the early levels, but its my own fault. I'm normally a slow starter in these games, as I take a more RPG approach to playing. As you pointed out earlier falling behind early on can really hurt you, especially if you run into the Drengin early on.

Funny thing is, I don't mind. I actually love it and am holding myself back from going into "pure gamer" mode to beat the game. I'm about to start a new game on a "gigantic" map and "occasional" habitable planets. While I plan on running my normal smaller games alongside, I'm hoping I can get a nice and immersive long term dynasty like game going with those settings like I used to in SEIV.

I'm actually starting to poke around the datafiles now (all nice and easy to decipher text files) to begin work on creating my own little fictional universe/plotline to play in.

My understanding was you could "upload" your games and the AI will be adjusted to use your tactics against you, is this correct? If so, it seems that should eliminate any unfair advantage you may have right now.

Eilim,

How does GC compare to SEIV?

I actually had typd up a long post earlier about that but deleted because It was hard for me to sum up. Both are great games. I'd say if your more into the tactical side of things (atleast when it comes to combat.. such as ship design, and specific battle strats) and don't mind micromanaging go with SEIV. If you don't mind a more abstracted combat and a more overall strategic game in the Civ vain (along the lines of Civ2, never played Civ3.) I'd say go with GalCiv.

Ofcourse, if you have the spare cash, get them both, their both great games. :)

I'm skeptical. I know they mention this, but I get a sense that it's something they would like to see happen in the future. I don't see how it could be close to working now, or more efficient (now) than simply telling the developers the problem exists. The strategy has to be coded, and that's going to involve human programming.

The thing here though, is that if the AI repsonds with the same tactic, you've created a whole set of new problems with gameplay: the tech tree unfolds too fast (since everyone is trading tech, the rate of discovery goes much much faster), and getting a tech lead becomes impossible (everyone trades tech to each other, no one gets a lead, techs only advantage is a cash stream). I don't know many of the details, but I understand this was a huge issue in Civ 3. I would much rather see them look at ways to limit human tech trading than see the strategy be picked up by the AI.

Is this game available at EB or Babbages? Or is it downloadable only?

EB + Amazon + CompUSA + GameStop

Purchase

Thanks Eilim. I will end up getting both but I think GalCiv will be first.

I had thought it was already in place. I vaguely remember some of the beta testers commenting on it. I may be way off base, because I haven't looked into it recently but I had thought it would "analyze" your games and determine how best to respond to various tactics (not necessarily use the exact tactics you used, but pull from other games what other gamers did to counter tactics like you are using). Kind of like some huge database or something. Of course, that doesn't remove the need for tweaking, etc if there is a flaw in game balance.

Just went to GameStop and picked up a copy for $42 including tax. Now it's time to get addicted.

From what I understand, the game keeps a record of your "general" strategies and tactics. It wouldn't make sense to record your exact dealings each time and use that for the AI, as no other player would ever choose the exact path as you.


Here is a direct quote from the online manual:


So, it seems that the game is downloading the info behind the scenes and implementing the logic of the other players.

I think recording actual player's tactics and using that in the AI is brilliant. Especially when the computer opponents play by the exact same rules as the human (as they claim).

FWIW, I had a blast with it this weekend playing GalCiv, and if you look at my score in the Metaverse (handle: BoneGavel) you will notice that I am horrible at the game, but still having a blast. To me, this is the mark of a great game; you suck at it and lose, but still have a great time.

One of the few things that is pissing me off is the fact that too many people keep asking me for money. Now, if they are friends and need some cash and I have plent to spare, no problem. But, they always ask when I have negative credits (usually around -300 to -500). When your friends ask and you reject it because you have none to spare, they get a bit peeved. I could see it working like that some times, but for the most part your "friends" should understand and stop asking, or let you respond with "hey, I would love to but I have -790 credits right now and am running a deficit every month".

Another thing that would be nice is the ability to equip ships with different arsenals. I realise that doing this and keeping track of the different abilities of your ships can turn out nightmarish (like Sid M's Alpha Centauri), but I would be confident that StarDock could pull off a simple, yet effective way to manage this.

enjoy

Thanks for the info on the AI BoneGravel. I couldn't remember exactly how it worked, but I remember being impressed with the overall concept.

No problem :-) and I agree.

It is a shame that MOO3 and GalCiv couldn't somehow be combined, as there are aspects of both that would add to the others gameplay. I must say that I love the 3D, rotatable map from MOO3.

I picked this up this weekend.

My box is only 500 MHz, 128 MB RAM, which is below the listed minimum requirements. It seemed to run fine with a Small universe, as long as I closed all my background progs first.

I was up till 3 am last night. Although I'm still in my first game, I'm really digging this game so far.

Guess I'll have to break down and get it. I have no idea when I can play though. :(

This is the best gaming purchase I have made since discovering CM. Just don't sleep for a while and you should be fine. A definite contender for my most fun gaming experience of 2003. I can see myself playing this game for a long time.

I feel this way in a large part because of what really is starting to look like exceptional computer AI. The graphics are only fair, and the UI has some issues, but it is rare when a computer AI is challenging, and this AI really seems to play a good game. I still need to play a bit more to be 100% convinced, and there's definitely a couple of goofy things, but overall it seems very solid. It's phenomenal at managing its economy and researching. I can't even come close to keeping up with the slug-thingies. They breed like rabbits and build like ants. I have no idea how they do it.

And now that the tech trading loop hole has been plugged by the newest patch (1.01a), the game's AI is really starting to shine. I had a game half won pre-patch at the "intelligent" level, but now that I've patched the game I'm hanging on for dear life. I think I'll still win, but given the big lead I had, it should have been easy. I do know that there is no way I could win at this level if I tried a new game post-patch, and the AI isn't even cheating at this level. Yikes. Back down to the lower levels for me after this game.

The comment about having fun when things are going badly is really on target. It's simply a fun game that makes you think, and think hard. Great stuff. I like how you can finish a tiny galaxy game in a couple of hours too.

BoneGavel: Thanks for the info on the reported scores. I stand corrected. It sounds like they've got the concept a lot further along that I thought. Seems like a neat idea. Be interesting to see how it turns out with the downloading player strategies.

Some final impressions in numbers:
AI and challenge: 9
Gameplay: 9
Graphics: 6
Sound: 3 (there's an MP3 player, otherwise 1)
Interface: 6
Support and potential for improvement: 9
Overall: 9+. Potentially a classic.

Final verdict: Thumbs way up if you like strategy games that make you think. The only people I've seen unhappy with their purchase are the ones who need good graphics, ship-design, or tactical combat in order to be happy with a space strategy game. Everyone else seems to really like it.

Thanks Godzilla Blitz for the excellent input. One Question:

Where did you find the v1.01a patch? The website has it listed as v1.01 and that is what my game reads when I load it up. Are they the same or am I missing something? Thanks again.

Couriers: The patch is available via their Stardock Central program that you download. I believe you need to download that program first, install it, then register it, then the Stardock Program will update your program once you select update. The process is a pain, unneccesarily complicated, and was full of problems when I got my udpate yesterday. I think the theory is that this will prevent piracy (you can't get the updates unless you've registered the game, etc.); seems like all it's doing now is creating major headaches. I imagine though that they will get it fixed soon.

I know they were working on it today, and the situation changes by the hour (they work hard over there), so I would suggest going over to their website forums (www.galciv.com) and seeing what the situation is like now. There have been a couple of sticky threads at the top talking about updates. I believe that may even have released another update today (1.01A).

I'd help you more but I'm on a Mac tonight and for some reason it doesn't load their forums correctly.

Thanks again for the info Godzilla Blitz. I just installed Stardock and upgraded GalCiv to v1.01a so everything looks good so far. I haven't had the time to play my first game yet since purchasing it yesterday but tomorrow should allow for some free time in the evening. Glad to hear that you are enjoying it as much as you are.

Now . . . we've allowed y'all time to get used to the game. I do believe we need some dynasties.

Please? Pretty please? :)

I think I'll just wait for the upcoming Galactic Civilizations II they have just announced.
It sounds a lot better!
;)




But seriously, you all have talked this game up enough, that I am seriously considering buying it. I have absolutely no time to play, so the chance to run a small galaxy game in just a few hours really intrigues me.

LOL. I honestly thought that you were being serious until I looked it up for myself. :)

Has anyone had any experience with the downloads from the official site in regards to addons? So far they include:

Event - Cryogenically Preserved Precursor
Event - Dangerous Animals
Event - Hostile Aliens

Anomaly - Courage

Technology - Smuggling

Do these need to be installed separately or are they included in the patches? Are they worth bothering with?

Thanks.

Daedulus: I was thinking to try one, but I had to stop playing for now. I have to submit my thesis in 20 days. I thought I could play the game during writing breaks, and I tried the "I'll only play for 15 minutes then I'll get back to work" strategy yesterday afternoon. 6 hours later I was still at it. Damn. Another day shot to hell because of this game. So I promised myself I won't touch the game until I'm done with my school work.

Couriers: No clue on the extra events and stuff, although I thought I remember running over an anomaly that babbled something about courage, so maybe they're in the game if you downloaded the bonus pack? You find out anything?

GB,

I just added each one to the appropriate directory. There wasn't any message about overwriting any existing files so I would guess that they were not already included and I already had the latest patch installed. I figured that it couldn't hurt to have them added. Unfortunately I still have not found the time to sit down for my first game. I have owned the game for 4 days now and have not played it even once. Hopefully that will change soon.

Also, they just added a separate Mod section in the official forum with instruction on how to create new technologies, anomalies and events so we should be seeing many more over the next several weeks. The modification possibilities for this game are incredible and should help to prolong the replayability for quite some time.

bump. (long post)


Who said a Tiny galaxy game would only take a couple of hours? I just finished a game that lasted about 14 hours, played over 3 days.

I started with the pacifist party, and loaded up on diplomacy & influence bonuses. I was planning on playing an evil diplomatic game & going to go for the cultural victory.

I got a terrible start, with Sol being the only star in my sector. Had to outrun the Arceans to even colonize a second star. I settled on a couple of class 14 & class 13 stars & the colony rush was ended.

The Drengins (evil apes) had the best starting position (4 livable stars in their home sector), and pushed that to a huge starting advantage. The Alexians and (good E.T-like race, I forget the name) surrendered early, to the Arceans & Yor, respectively. The Yor were already decimated, and we took the former (E.T race) stars in a sneak attack. The Yor, reduced to their home system, surrendered to the Arceans soon after.

Meanwhile, the Drengins were getting tribute from everyone. Finally, the Drengins & Arceans went to war. Straight up, the Arceans were no match, but we covertly supplied them with techs & starships, all the while paying Drengin tribute to avoid being sucked directly into the war. The Drengins did declare war once, but we took out their trade routes, and they decided they were better off having us as trade partners.

Even with our covert help, the Arceans were slowly falling, until we traded them Battleship tech. With the new capital ships, they slowly turned the tide, until the Drengin were reduced to the 4 systems in their home sector. At this point, we were still trading with the Drengin & Arceans, and the Drengin's economy was reduced to the point that 70% of their income was from trade with us.

At this point, being the sniveling, evil race that I was, I decided now was the time to take advantage of things. Under the guise of helping out the Arceans, we declare war on the defenseless Drengins & take 2 of the systems, while the Arceans, having done all the work, took the others. (hehe) Obviously, this annoys them, and our relations slowly plummet.

Thus, it was down to us & the Arceans. Meanwhile, we're building up a huge cultural advantage over them, and their 2 former Drengin systems defect to me. This proved the last straw, and they declared war.

War continued for about 2 years, with them having a huge military advantage--due to their tech advantage, it took 2 of our dreadnoughts to match with one of there's. At one point, Earth was left defenseless, but our lone Battle Hammer managed to take out the invasion troops that were enroute via unescorted Combat Transports.

Eventually, we agreed to a Peace Treaty, with neither side getting any payment. We still had a huge influence advantage, and soon after, 2 more of their systems defected. They declared war once again, but this was a last gasp, as they were out of funds & we controlled 13 of 16 sectors. We invaded & took over all but their home system. We had enough influence for a cultural victory by now, but we had something else in store.

--
Lord Vega sat within his palatial estate. His Arcean subjects were scrambling about. He thought back to how he ended up in this predicament. The Humans were so weak, so feeble, so... morally repugnant, but somehow he had lost to them. He realized now that he had been manipulated during the Drengin Offensive, he had been manipulated all throughout their "agreement."

The once-mighty Arcean Empire had been reduced to only a single star, his colonies had defected, his shipyards destroyed, his coffers were completely empty. Vega, with his tail between his legs, had contacted the humans and begged for peace. His response was "Of course! Peace will be obtained by your total surrender." A member of a proud race, Vega had ordered the build up of traditional defenses and mobilization of the entire population. The 30 billion people had answered and built up for assumed assault. "If they want this planet, they'll be in for a helluva fight." Rumors had drifted in that the Humans were constructing a starbase with innumerable offensive power; a starbase capable of destroying an entire solar system. This so-called "Terror Star," his technologists had assured him, was scientifically impossible, and merely propaganda spread by his enemy. As he looked up into the sky and saw the humongous satellite, he wished he had more time to have his scientists flogged.

As the Terror Star charged, and the Arceans below panicked, prayed or whatever people who know their fate is sealed do, Vega merely sighed and wondered, "But we were supposed to be the good guys!"


I love this game!

LOL. I still haven't had the time to play my first game yet. Excellent post btw.

NevStar: Nice write-up! Sounds like you had a fun game! Congrats on the victory!

14 hours for a tiny galaxy? Yikes! I might stay away from the gigantic ones if I were you!

One of the things I like about this game is that the AI opponents will do to the human opponent many of the same things that you did to them in the last game. In my last game, I had what should have been an easy campaign against an enemy civ, but every turn there would be a couple of enemy warships pop into the warzone from out of nowhere. I finally came to the conclusion that another AI civ was funding my enemy's war effort by giving them ships. Crafty bastards.

It really is a fun game, though, isn't it?

I'm going to have to get this once I move out of the house. It sounds like it'll be a lot of fun and it's not like I won't have the time...

Boy do I stink at this game. I am playing on beginner and still can't gain a good foothold on a galaxy. Normally this would squash my desire to play a game, but like chess, it only makes me want to try harder.

My predominant strategy is to buy as many colony ships up front and colonize as many 15+ planets as I can. Normally within a dozen or so turns I can colonize between 3 to 6 solar systems in a Large Galaxy with Tight Clusters and Abundant Habitable Planets as the setting.

From there, I soil enhance every planet and if I'm far away from others I research Engine Tech and Sensors. If I'm surrounded by others, I mix in some Weapons Tech so I can build Corvettes as soon as I see somebody's military getting out of hand (if a culture has a boom in military might, you can bet they will be asking for tribute in exchange for not wiping you out).

My problem, as it stands now, is that I have a hard time increasing my population. I think it may be due to a lack of morale that is generated from my form of government and lack of social projects.

Also, the games where I bust out of the gate as a trade mogul and increase my coffers, the damned United Planets slaps me with monthly charges or tariffs.

I'm still trying to find a solid Technology advancement strategy, but I find myself forgetting what Techs get me what. I don't know if I'm just dumb, or the lack of tech tree in-game hurts me. I really like the tech tree in CivIII that lets you select an end goal and the game automatically pursues the proper base-techs. Oh well.

There is so much to this game that I find myself discovering little nooks and crannies each game. For instance, it wasn't until my 7th or 8th game that I realised I could build transports to send troops to other planets for conquest. I also discovered that you can spend money for destabilisation of governments and espionage. I also found the star-ship automation options that lets for set-and-forget my exploring ships while I concentrate on driving my economy into the ground. :-)

enjoy

It's great to hear such positive remarks away from the official forum. On top of all the excellent user reviews the developers just announced an expansion to be released in June absolutely free of charge to existing owners of the game. This has got to be the best development team that I have ever seen.

BoneGavel: I have heard the "propaganda" slider on your planets can do wonders for population growth. I think you access it from the details window on the planet screen, but I might be wrong about that.

As far as the tech tree goes, if you haven't checked it out yet, that JavaScout site is helpful to have handy when you're playing. You can alt-tab out of your game to look at it, then click back in and you're off and running. Makes tech decisions a lot easier.

And oh yes, transports are a very good thing. :)

Thanks for the propaganda tip. I'll have to look because I see the other race's populations bloom like red tides while mine languish in mediocrity.

I do have JavaScout's site bookmarked, and I even tried to print out his tech tree. Needless to say, it didn't work too well and I hate alt + tabbing to look. It really should be in-game.

I may take a stab at putting my game experiences down in a dynasty. It won't be good, but it may show people what the game is about.

Need Help.

I picked this up the other day and I am in my first game. The galaxy is 5 X 5 which I think is too big for a first game. With the AI INtelligence is low, I have a huge economic, research lead. I attacked one of my neighbors stars. However, after the first round, I couldn't attack any more but I couldn't capture it either. What am I missing. I found only 2 planets with 3 stars, but I have 5 starbases.

Todd

To take other planets you need to build transports and then attack an undefended planet with them. To get transports, you need to have the required technology. I forget which one right now, but it's pretty likely you already have discovered it.

Once you've got the required tech, you go to your military production slot and select "Transport". When it gets finished, you launch, move the slider to select how many soldiers you want on board (usually filling it up is the best move), and off you go. Bunching a few transports together for a large invasion seems to work better, and is crucial when invading larger planets. Just drive the transports onto the planet your want.

Thanks Godzilla Blitz.

Because I wanted to see the outcome, I stayed up to 4 AM and finally won with a Cultural victory, which says something about the game. I didn't know about the transports, so I stayed at war long enough to convince them to give me planets as part of the peace settlement. I had a couple of planets defect to me and i ended up controlling 24/25 sectors.

I will start again tonight and bump up the intelligence from beginner to maybe 1 below normal.

The one thing that I need to learn is research orders and build orders because the star vernacular is new to me.

Todd

No problem! Congrats on your victory!

GB,

I printed some of the stuff from the Encylcopedia last night. If I had only read it, I would have gotten 2 more hours of sleep.

Really looking forward to playing on a harder level.

Todd

I'm REALLY considering picking this game up. I've never actually played a game like this before so would anyone care to let me know what I should expect? Specifically, how does the turn-based system work? Is it as simple as I make a move, they make a move or is there more involved?

And also, is this a game that can be played online or is it solo only?

Thanks,
Neuqua

Nequa,

Solo only.

Think of it like a game of checkers or chess where you can move all of your pieces on a given turn. Various ships can move X number of spaces. The best thing about this game is there is almost no delay while the AI makes it moves.

Tod

I'm kind of coming back to earth on this game. I took a break from work today and finished an earlier game that I had started. Saw a few things about the AI in the late game stages that made me wonder if the AI is really all that hot with regards to overall strategy and military tactics. It is clearly phenomenal with its economy, research, and expansion, though, and I still highly recommend the game. With the strong support for the game, I think it will probably still get a lot better too.

The game just went on GoGamer's 48-hour Special

$29.99 plus $5.99 shipping (for up to 3 games).

Get 'em while they last.

Oh just great...right after I buy for $39.90 ... oh well.

When I first got this game about a month ago, I quickly put it off to the side. I had also gotten CM4 but that got put off to the side too (until EP3 comes out, that is).

I quicky forgot about it. Well, I decided to put it in the other day and I ended up playing all day. When I first played it, I just didn't like how simplistic it was. But after playing for awhile, I see why. It does have an incredible balance to it.

I played two games on tiny and lowest AI settings to get used to the game.

The first one, I played as a trading nation. I tried to stay nuetral the whole time, not getting involved in conflicts and trying to do the right thing for all of the "situations" that came up.

I ended up colonizing half the universe because the AI was on the weakest level and didn't "land grab". I built up an econmic powerhouse and eventually won a cultural victory.

The second I played as an evil war-monger society. I took over 2 of the civs and the evil apes took over the rest. Two minor races still existed. The Alexians and the Caronoids (???). I teamed up with the Alexians to take out the evil apes. After I took half of the evil apes planets, I signed a peace treaty with them.

I didn't finish that game, and I probably won't. With such a weak AI, it is not just a matter of time before I take them all over, so I'm not going to finish.

I'm going to up the galaxy size by 1 and the AI by 1 and keep on playing.

In short, the game is cool, but not the end-all be-all of the Space 4x genre.

I was wondering if anyone has tried the new enhancement pack that is available (free). Any changes to the game play? Good things? It is worth going back and revisiting this game now?

I have. I've been playing it alot lately, but I attribute that more to a temporary interest in Space 4x games and not the enhancement pack. To be honest, I haven't really noticed any changes. It plays pretty much the same.

I've already put the game aside after about a few days of play. The same old problems still get me (I think the combat system is way too simplistic, for one).

They recently released a major patch for this, 1.2. I'm downloading now and think I'll give it a whirl.