Review-in-Progress (Open Thread)

[yin26]

MojoJojoUK: I thought that was an excellent post, in fact. Looking forward to more!

[Gufnork]

I agree, a very good post. Just have one comment:

5)One of the reasons for the funny economy is to give the AI an advantage because it can micromanage it nicely.

That's the problem. It doesn't micromanage nearly as much as I do. There are many things the AI should do better than me simply by being better mathematicians, but it appears they don't even try to do that.

[ChaotikVisions]

Well, I could go on and on about my games since I got it, but instead i'll talk about the tech thing. Part of the problem with the AI going only after Military tech is that there is 47 thousand(exaggerated, I know) military techs split up. Drop all the 2/3/4/5 military techs and increase the tech costs. Instead link the reduce size to minuturization like it should have been in the first place. Then make the AI less likely to want to trade military techs.

You'll then (theoretically) have a slow advancement of military technology that the AI generally doesn't share with all their possible enemies. That would probably take alot of tweaking to get it just right though. So maybe the idea of making techs take a turn to research after buying it like someone said. Universal translators or not understanding the scientific equasions and ideas of an alien race are gonna take a bit of work.

Have each tech require 1 week of research, with only one of these techs being translated at a time. That at least slows down getting all the techs you need at once. It might also be best to always require the pre-requisite techs before you can trade for the higher ones and only allow one tech to be traded be turn. This will go a long way to keeping super powers super and keeping the weaker civs down.

So what about a new type of a treaty? An "Arms deal" or such where a civ can negotiate a number of turns to provide hulls/weapons/defenses/etc... For that number of turns the civ receiving the deal can build ships using the others technology. Its realistic and could help when you want to keep other civs alive or are begging for help from an allie.

[Mart]

Good thing was prototypes in SMAC. I loved the idea and still do. It gives a lot more to meaning of a technology with military application. Galciv might have it too

[MojoJojoUK]

There is a similar effect to prototypes in GC2 - since most improvements only shrink component sizes slightly, it takes quite a few improvements before it's worth redisigning a ship.

[Mart]

In this case it would be good to have an indicator how much is to improve in a given design. Is there anything like this now? I haven't seen it so far?

[MojoJojoUK]

No, there isn't. I often find myself updating a design to see if those two extra levels in lasers etc have gained me any improvement, and often find that there is no practical benefit.

[Solver]

OK, it seems that now the Critic Strike Team (TM), composed of Sirian and yours truly is completely immersed in Oblivion and away from GalCiv2 .

[DaviddesJ]

Originally posted by Solver
OK, it seems that now the Critic Strike Team (TM), composed of Sirian and yours truly is completely immersed in Oblivion and away from GalCiv2 .

If only I could derive some tangible benefit from having no interest in Oblivion.

I tried Morrowind briefly, and it seemed super-tedious to get started. Maybe I didn't give it enough of a chance.

[yin26]

If you haven't already, check out the change log for the upcoming patch: http://forums.galciv2.com/index.aspx...164&AID=109552 Mighty impressive. Just a small list of items that I've been watching for;

+ AI tech trading rewritten so that it doesn't do sweetheart deals. Tech trading somewhat rarer now as a practical matter. May need to be balanced so that human player doesn't get too much of an advantage.

+ AI adapts economic strategy based on whether the new "disable tech trading" option is on.

+ AI generally better at picking techs based on new algorithm for evaluating galactic state.

+ Drengin AI a LOT smarter about what they research.

+ AI, in general, values research more than it did previously.

Here's the thing: If you drain a population down to only a few billion, it'll take you a very long time to recover. Say goodbye to mass colony rush. You'll need to be very careful or else you could end up with a vast empire of tiny populations producing no money while smaller empires grow beyond you and conquer your weak but large empire.

+ Nano Rippper damage changed from 8 to 6.

Tech trading and tech research were in need of a lot of attention, and Brad gave it. Perhaps the biggest news is Brad's attempt to stop GalCiv2-style ICS -- if speading too fast really does leave you with "a vast empire of tiny populations producing no money while smaller empires grow beyond you and conquer your weak but large empire," then the game dynamic will change dramatically for the better.

All I can say is "Wow." O.K., the cynics will cry that these issues should have been fixed before release and what we are seeing now is just a true 1.0 release, but I just see this as Brad getting two things a) feedback from tons of fans and b) more time to work on things, many of them I'm sure he would have loved to have ready before release...at least he's getting to them!

[yin26]

Originally posted by DaviddesJ
I tried Morrowind briefly, and it seemed super-tedious to get started. Maybe I didn't give it enough of a chance.

That was my reaction, too. I can tell you the Oblivion is MUCH better!

[DaviddesJ]

Originally posted by yin26

That was my reaction, too. I can tell you the Oblivion is MUCH better!

For real? I was expecting "more of the same" (i.e., everyone talking about Oblivion seems to have loved Morrowind also).

Sorry for highjacking the thread.

[Solver]

So far, my thoughts about Oblivion are that it is everything that Morrowind is, but better in every area where Morrowind lacked.

The patch changelist looks very sweet, Brad is obviously listening to input .

[yin26]

Originally posted by DaviddesJ


For real? I was expecting "more of the same" (i.e., everyone talking about Oblivion seems to have loved Morrowind also).

Sorry for highjacking the thread.

I posted an answer in the Oblivion thread, here: http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...10#post4344410 Join us!

[Gufnork]

Oblivions menus are worse, other than that it's only better and in some ways much better. I really liked Morrowind, so my opinions might not be shared by non-believers. I think one thing that's important to do is to throw away your expectations. It's not Diablo or Final Fantasy. Then again, you can play it like that if you want.

I'm not 100% sure on how this mobs levels with you works, if different mob types have a max and minimum level then I'm all for it. Otherwise it might get annoying, having to fear mudcrabs at level 60 isn't exactly something I'm looking forward to.

Back to GalCiv:
+ Ship level doesn't add as much to max HP.´
+ Population growth fixed dramatically.
+ Logistics change: Large ships now use 6 logistics (was 5). Huge ships use 8 (was 6).
+ Nano Rippper damage changed from 8 to 6.
+ Cost of some high level buildings substantially decreased.

Some things that immediatly made me happier. That and the gazillion of AI tweaks, we'll see if it can provide a challenge now. I think I'll wait until it's released in it's finished form (ie not beta), I've got plenty of Oblivioning to do.

So, how much of a handicap should I give the AI? I'm thinking no tech trade and a crappy race to give it a chance. What do you think is fair?