Ask Wardell Your Questions... Literally!

[DanQ]

Between late November and mid-December of last year, Stardock Systems Founder/President Brad Wardell was audio interviewed three times on the then up-and-coming Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords title by Apolyton Civilization Site (ACS) Co-Owner/Administrator Daniel "DanQ" Quick [see related stories]. Now more than a month since GalCivII's release, ACS wants your questions for Wardell to constitute the planned fourth and final segment. Post, and attach, them to a post in this thread.

As alluded to above, post an audio file attachment of you asking the question for and to Wardell as well as typing it out here. Use MP3 format at 64kbps in mono format. While an audio version of the question is not necessary to be considered, it is preferred and may be given presedence over those that are missing one particularly where there are others that touch on the same subject matter.

It is also recommended that would-be questioners review the earlier installments in this Game Developer Series as served through Apolyton Civilization Site Radio (ACSR), Apolyton's radio service. All questions should be submitted on/by April 3, 2006.

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Dan; Apolyton CS

[tetley]

My microphone isn't working, but what I want to know is this:

What kind of analysis/thought process went into the population growth and tax calculation formulas? Is it more of a brute force method i.e. try one, playtest it, and see if it works? Or did you put some advanced math and economic theory into it?

Are there other formulae you're playing around with?

[Nimitz]

Its great that we get to ask some questions about this game.

Question:
I was just wondering given how well the game has been selling, exactly how surprising to you was it that its doing this well and what you you expecting it to do in sales to begin with?

[DanQ]

We're in need of more questions, folks! Keep posting away.

Thanks, tetley and Nimitz, for your contributions.

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Dan; Apolyton CS

[Colonâ„¢]

Well, I am wondering how they can afford to continuously work on the game the extend they're doing, and still sell the game at a low price. If it's still profitable, then why don't we see this kind of dedication more often? Would they still have been intensively working on the game if it hadn't sold this well?

And secondly, since GC2 is sort of meant to be the definite space 4x4 game, do they feel there's any purpose left in releasing another follow-up at some time in the future?

[DaviddesJ]

Originally posted by Colonâ„¢
And secondly, since GC2 is sort of meant to be the definite space 4x4 game, do they feel there's any purpose left in releasing another follow-up at some time in the future?

Who said it was supposed to be "definitive"? There are many other ways to do a "space 4X game", and I don't think that Brad or anyone else would say that the success of GC2 would mean that other approaches aren't worth pursuing. E.g., GC2 has a 2D star map, and there are good reasons for that, but it's also very possible to do games on a 3D map, or games on a wormhole-style map (point-to-point movement between systems), etc. And those have merit also. There's plenty of room in the "4X" space for several different approaches, leading to a variety of games.

Plus Brad has already said that there are bunch of things he would have liked to be able to improve and looks forward to trying in GC3.

[Spoot]

I am wondering if there will ever be a ground combat that is more interactive, like that of Imperium Galatica II ?

[booje]

Modability

Hi: If I wanted to add a feature to the game like bonuses for placing adjacent similiar structures on a planet (e.g., research center next to reseach center gives each a 2.5% output bonus), is this modable?

Thanks for a great game!

[Schrademan]

1) Will players be able to mod custom random events and custom colonization events?

2) What factors and decisions led you to want to decision a space 4x strategy game back in 1994?

3) Besides the asteroids idea, are there any other you wanted to put in GalCiv 2 that ended up not making it into the release?

4) If yes, what happened that made you have to abandon those ideas?

[Ranty]

Hey Brad thanks for spending the time, I really like your game.

My question is: Do you think it is still possible for a person to set out by buying "Learn C++ in 21 Days" and eventually end up successfully making independant games in the way that people like yourself have in the past?

[Master Marcus]

Custom games play marvelously, but I find GalCiv2's Dread Lords campaign to be overly tactical ''hide and run'', in the not-much-fun side of things. Always have to flee and avoid said Lords, to be finally beaten at normal difficulty level and poised to play the-then-overly-easier alternate missions. This is not fun when I can play epic maps with Intelligent & Gifted AIs ( on the way to try Genius ).

So my main question concerns the hypothetical expansion's campaign : if you intend to make another one, can you please try to tweak it to be less tactical behind the lines with some kind of still powerful ''DreadLords-Precursors- like'' , but beatable in the long run ??? ( As if we were playing an epic custom game, we shouldn't be losing it just because we miss the tactical speedy thing ).

[fsk++]

Would you consider posting good hobbyist/freeware games to Stardock Central? Why not include games like Nethack and Angband and Grid Wars? Why not let hobbyist game developers have their game distributed with Stardock Central?

[sixtyfour]

Question for Brad:

When you move the cursor to the edge of the screen, the map will scroll as appropriate. However, if you put the cursor in a corner of the screen, nothing happens. I've reported this "diagonal scrolling" bug a couple of times, any idea when it is going to get fixed?

[RGBVideo]

Re: Ask Wardell Your Questions... Literally!

Originally posted by DanQ
All questions should be submitted on/by April 3, 2006.

Given that this date has now passed and the first thing most newbies read when they visit Apolyton forums for the first time is the text located at the start (upper left part of the screen) of the page, wouldn't it be wise to remove the link to this thread from the "Today on Apolyton" -section it occupies on the top of ACS-logo?

[DanQ]

Re: Re: Ask Wardell Your Questions... Literally!

Originally posted by VJ
Given that this date has now passed and the first thing most newbies read when they visit Apolyton forums for the first time is the text located at the start (upper left part of the screen) of the page, wouldn't it be wise to remove the link to this thread from the "Today on Apolyton" -section it occupies on the top of ACS-logo?

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...59#post4362259

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Dan; Apolyton CS