Exclusive Galciv Screens, Part 1

[MarkG]

check them out!

http://apolyton.net/dir/index.php?t=sub_pages&cat=251

[notyoueither]

Holy Poo! That looks good.

[Urban Ranger]

Hey, is that a starbase in deep space in screenshot one? I like to have those.

[Zoid]

Is it just me or does it look a LOT like MoO2?

[Locutus]

Yeah, that was my initial thought as well...

[moomin]

To be fair, while arguably the GalCiv graphics are simpler than the Moo3 visual offerings, I personally like the GalCiv style a lot more.

[Mark_Everson]

Looks pretty cool! The depth of the game comes through in the screenshots.

I've been following GalCiv for about a year now. Mostly the design discussions on the Stardock forums. Some things I liked some I didn't. But on balance. . . seems pretty solid.

I remember back a decade ago hearing how the previous version had really good scripted AI. Good AI is Always appealing! I would've participated in their open beta, but my comp is pretty slow these days. But I'm going to get a new one soon, so I'll be able to see for myself when its released. Can't wait!

Thanks for opening the forum BTW, Very timely. Although I think you should've waited a few weeks just to cheeze off GP!

[TCO]

I've been thinking that we needed this for months now. But glad to know you guys lurve me.

There are some great essays by one of the GalCiv guys on game design. I will dig them up.

[moomin]

You'd do us all a favour digging up anyything and everything by Brad Wardell you can find. He's great.

[Draginol]

From a gameplay point of view, GalCiv is very different from MOO. It's more similar to the Civ style of games.

For instance, there are no "star lanes". Ships can travel anywhere they'd like.

Also, GalCiv has no tactical combat, it's all at the strategic level.

[notyoueither]

I've been wanting to play GalCiv for years. I went so far as preparing a computer to install OS2. Got distracted...

I am very glad to hear that it is near to Windows PC.

[Zoid]

Originally posted by Draginol
From a gameplay point of view, GalCiv is very different from MOO. It's more similar to the Civ style of games.

For instance, there are no "star lanes". Ships can travel anywhere they'd like.

Also, GalCiv has no tactical combat, it's all at the strategic level.

Well, I haven´t actually played it (yet). I just commented on the looks.

[LDiCesare]

Originally posted by Draginol
From a gameplay point of view, GalCiv is very different from MOO. It's more similar to the Civ style of games.

For instance, there are no "star lanes". Ships can travel anywhere they'd like.

Also, GalCiv has no tactical combat, it's all at the strategic level.

There are no starlanes in MOO. In MoO3 yes. MoO2 I don't know.
As I understand, the focus in MoO is more on building ships and ship-design, whereas in GalCiv it should be more on empire management (of course both have techs to choose from, strategic considerations on which planet to colonize, whether to be peaceful or not etc.), with an emphasis on different kinds of victory available?

[Draginol]

Probably one of the biggest things about GalCiv's gameplay is that there are really multiple paths for victory.

And I mean REALLY multiple paths. You know how often times Game X will make that claim but when it comes down to playing the game, it's either almost impossible to win through any other path than conquest or it's just very tedious to win through any other method than conquest.

In GalCiv you have cultural conquest. Civ3 has culture in it too but the two models aren't similar other than using the term "culture". IN GalCiv civilizations have very measurable culture power and can build star bases that magnify their cultural influence in a given sector. If you get enough, alien star systems under your sway will defect.

But it's not vague stuff, players can see the actual cultural statistics in a sector or globally so you can see how close you are to succeeding and galactic sector ownership is based on this influence.

So for starters, you have the usual "conquest" method or you can play the game in a quasi-sim city fashion and build up your civilization's non military assets and try to conquer the galaxy culturally. I.e. building constructors and sending them to star bases to upgrade them.

You also have the technology victory. While the GalCiv tech tree is huge, it's not infinite. If you get to the right technologies, you can literally moe to the next level of existence and win that way.

There is also a political victory. That is, ally up with other civilizations and win that way.

There is NOT a "vote yourself winner" in the United Planets. We chose not to do that since we felt that it is a little anti-climatic to just win or lose because someone got enough votes on a dialog. The United Planets is very powerful though and can make significant game play changes based on the resolutions that are passed.

[Urban Ranger]

It doesn't really look like MoO 2, it looks better.