GalCiv Dead?

[Vince278]

Correct me if I'm wrong but looking at the number of posts a day it seems to me that interest in GalCiv has died out faster than interest in MOO3. (Just an observation. Not trying to start something. )

[anofalye]

Hiya!

Well, for me it remain my top game for 1 week only, but MOO3 never been on top, no idea for others, yet...I will play this game for a LONG time, but here and there, not in a rush.

Are the chatty players representative of the many? Maybe the Metaverse can be of help to you, althought, I will never play there as long as I don`t find Masochist level just home to easy...there is no point in my crowding the place and lagging it and not shining, if I show up in metaverse, I will try to shine as much as possible!

[Finarfin]

I played GalCiv exclusively for about a month but then interest in it just kind of faded for me. I can't put my finger on what it was, but it just seemed to lack some quality that kept bringing me back. In fact, I stopped playing it and started playing Civ 3 again, a game I never thought I'd be playing again. In fact, I'm even considering getting the expansions.

[Romanus]

I bought GalCiv and MOO3 around the same time. While GalCiv was easier to get into and fun for a while, I always came back to MOO3. Once the patch was released, I have to say MOO3 is a more enjoyable experience for me. Still far from perfect, but a load of fun. A mod here and there, its fun. My main issue with GalCiv has been that it doesnt beg me to play it. Civ3 and MOO3 are addictive, GalCiv just isnt.

[Romanus]

I will say this in defense of GalCiv.....most people are probably playing as opposed to posting about it. It didnt give users a fraction of the reasons to post that MOO3 or even early Civ3 did.....GalCiv was a much better product on release than the other two.0

[Harry Seldon]

I like it. Too busy playing to post too much. I'm still around if someone has questions, though.

[bonscott]

It's summer time. Between family outings and yard duties the time to play for me is far and few between. I still love the game though.

I've been itching to play Civ 3 again though. Been about 6 months since I touched it which has been a good layoff for me. I'll probably get it's expansion.

[Kuciwalker]

I don't have any suggestions for stuff to add, because it's already perfect (well... almost)

[Kuciwalker]

WAIT! I found one!

When you are Close with another civ, and you give them a gift, the first word of what they say is "You", but the 'o' is capitalized

As in one game I kept having to give back this city that kept flipping to me that I didn't want, I noticed this a lot

Actually, that is an important suggestion: let you "rebuff" the rebels when a system flips, like you can in civ3. This way trade routes don't get destroyed.

[ravagon]

Originally posted by skywalker

When you are Close with another civ, and you give them a gift, the first word of what they say is "You", but the 'o' is capitalized

Bah! Critics ....
I'd like to see your first attemt at translating Drengin.

[Vince278]

Originally posted by Romanus
I bought GalCiv and MOO3 around the same time. While GalCiv was easier to get into and fun for a while, I always came back to MOO3. Once the patch was released, I have to say MOO3 is a more enjoyable experience for me. Still far from perfect, but a load of fun. A mod here and there, its fun. My main issue with GalCiv has been that it doesnt beg me to play it. Civ3 and MOO3 are addictive, GalCiv just isnt.

Thats about how I feel. I'm still playing MOO3 and will probably go back to Civ3 afterwards if something else doesn't comes along. The next game I expect to buy will probably be UFO Aftermath (currently due out Dec 2003).

[bonscott]

I usually check all my regular message boards at least once a day. I have noticed in the past week or so a marked decline in messages on the galciv.com forum. Used to be at least 2 pages of posts within the past day. Now there isn't even half a page.

I'll bet it's just summer and many of the kids and colleage students that played a lot are outside doing stuff (imagine that) and thos "older" players have families.

Or maybe the game is indeed getting old for some people. Who knows. I'm sure the expansion pack will breath more life into it later this summer.

[Harry Seldon]

Look at the other Poly forums, too. The only forum groups with any activity are OT and RON.

[LDiCesare]

What made Galciv have a lot of posts was, I believe, the constant tuning and ai improvements made by Stardock. Now, we have to wait for the Xpack. If you look at galciv.com, you'll see many posts were about the scoring system, some bugs/behaviours which have been fixed or are better known, so there are less people posting about that kind of topic.

I think there is, however, a decrease in the attraction galciv has upon us players. To me, the reason is twofold: Replayability and Difficulty.
Despite all the hype, Galciv has a rather average replayability. You can choose tiny, average or big maps (with variations), more or less clusters and starting abilities, but this only gives a dozen different map types, with the corresponding strats.
About difficulty: the maso level is too hard even for the best players (maybe not to be won, but to be enjoyed) while crippling is piece of cake for the same.

The library, which adds 'mods', actually only new scattered events or techs doesn't help much because you can't do real mods like what's been done in CtP2 (some hard coded stuff, the research path of the ai and a few abilities like getting diplomacy...) nor scenarios like in civ2.

I still play the game, but not as much as I used to, but am eager for the expansion pack to get out.

[vee4473]

I was going to say that one drawback to galciv's customization is that it lacks what a land based game like civ has...the ability to choose islands/continents ect...

But then I thhought that galciv's options for custers and stars tries to compare.

Meaning that maps with few stars could be compared to an island map in civ.

anyway, after thinking about that, I realized that the graphics and combat are what I have a problem with.

I like the game and I really think it looks good, but as I have said before in other posts, I seem to have a gene in my body that tells me "space games must have luscious graphics and tactical combat!"

I understand that many will read this post and say "blasphemy!, gameplay rules over graphics everytime!"

My last word for now is that I am starting to think that even though this type of combat works in civ, for me, I just love the tactical combat in a space game.

It's a sticking point.