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Strategy games, particularly in recent years, have tended to increasingly focus on the military aspect.
That is really no surprise -- as graphics get better, the temptation to focus on warfare becomes ever-greater.
What we wanted to do in Galactic Civilizations II is make sure the game does indeed provide the cool visual elements of an intergalactic war -- ships battling it out with particle beams and subspace mass drivers.
But we also wanted to make sure players could win through other means as well.
For example, the diplomacy in Galactic Civilizations II is something that a great deal of time and energy has been put into. You can, essentailly, manipulate your way into victory if you build up the necessary diplomatic and political abilities through research, trade, and shrewd negotiation. I have played games, even in the beta, where I've never had to fire a single shot. The galaxy itself was on fire with battle as I manipulated vast alien forces. I call this the "Palpatine" option.
Another example is the influence path. That is, I win them over through my immense cultural influence. I research technologies that make my culture that much more potent and then spread it across the galaxy.
Those of you who have played Civ IV are probably familiar with culture. But in GalCiv, influence is handled quite a bit differently. You can expand your culture far away from your nearest world through the construction of starbases which magnify and spread your influence anywhere. Obviously, computer players will be aware of this kind of tactic but with the right handling of things, you can beat them down non-militarly by playing your hand with some subtlety.
Overall, the goal is to provide a game where the strategic options are many. We learned a lot from Galactic Civilizations I and we wanted to greatly expand on what we had so that it could be a strategy game that as many gamestyles as possible.
That is really no surprise -- as graphics get better, the temptation to focus on warfare becomes ever-greater.
What we wanted to do in Galactic Civilizations II is make sure the game does indeed provide the cool visual elements of an intergalactic war -- ships battling it out with particle beams and subspace mass drivers.
But we also wanted to make sure players could win through other means as well.
For example, the diplomacy in Galactic Civilizations II is something that a great deal of time and energy has been put into. You can, essentailly, manipulate your way into victory if you build up the necessary diplomatic and political abilities through research, trade, and shrewd negotiation. I have played games, even in the beta, where I've never had to fire a single shot. The galaxy itself was on fire with battle as I manipulated vast alien forces. I call this the "Palpatine" option.
Another example is the influence path. That is, I win them over through my immense cultural influence. I research technologies that make my culture that much more potent and then spread it across the galaxy.
Those of you who have played Civ IV are probably familiar with culture. But in GalCiv, influence is handled quite a bit differently. You can expand your culture far away from your nearest world through the construction of starbases which magnify and spread your influence anywhere. Obviously, computer players will be aware of this kind of tactic but with the right handling of things, you can beat them down non-militarly by playing your hand with some subtlety.
Overall, the goal is to provide a game where the strategic options are many. We learned a lot from Galactic Civilizations I and we wanted to greatly expand on what we had so that it could be a strategy game that as many gamestyles as possible.
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