Questions from a concerned would-be buyer

[Neuromancers]

"Quick question: how is logistics handled? Is it possible to defeat an invader by cutting off its supply route?"

Yes it is possible!

As Brad explained earlier, ships have ranges on them (how far from friendly star systems OR STARBASES they can travel).

Simply invade/destroy their nearest friendly system/starbase and the invading ships will have to move back to what their range allows them.

Whether this tactis is effective depends on the size of the galaxy. If they are your close neighbours, it's very likely that your systems will be "in range" for most of their ships. You (and the AI) can also do research that gives you ships with greater range and/or increases the range of your existing ships (newer engines).

I'd also like to mention that IMHO the AI in this game is likely to become the best so far, in a space strategy game. I win Moo2, HUGE, Impossible 95% of the time, but I've been having serious trouble with the AI in Galciv. Brad has also said that the AI will "learn" from the best players through a metaverse where players can send in their results.

[Draginol]

Let me elaborate on that.

There's an old saying: Tactics are for amateurs, logistics are for professionals.

We wanted players to be able to win by screwing up their opponent's logistical base. But we wanted to do that without the game becoming painful.

For instance, you don't want to force players to have to deal with things like delivering food and fuel and weapons to distant fleets. That gets tedious and frankly, would make the AI a total bastard to deal with because the AI never would get tired of zinging your supply convoys and such but human players would get sick of it.

So we went to the drawing board and tried to find a way for us to highlight logistics AND the fact that the AI plays by the same rules the player does. And so we came up with two things:

1) Trade ships.
2) Star bases logistics.

A lot of your income comes from trade. Some people have poo-poo'd the trade in GalCiv saying it's "simplistic". But it's not. It's only simple to create a trade route. But a lot of thought has to go into how to create them.

That's because when a freighter reaches a destination, a trade ship is created and it travels back and forth. Th eamount of $$ you get from that route increases as the trade ship progresses.

So there's two things you can do in this from a logistics point of view, you can starve their trade by taking out those trade ships.

And you can take out star bases that support them. I tel you, this is one of the funner parts of the late game tactics part for me. The AI in beta 5 (not released yet) is really good about building a line of star bases where its trade routes go and building them up to give bonuses to trade ships that pass through those sectors. You can really cripple a player if you can make surgical strikes on key sectors. If you don't plan well the AI will squash you but if you can nail the right star bases right away, you can gain a real advantage.

In on game last night the Altarians were taking the culture path to victory (I knew this also because I was in the debugger and knew which strategy they were going after but I digress ). I could see them building up culture star bases and slowly growing them outside their main territory. I could also see them going after the influence resources and building them up.

The Drengin also saw this and informed me that they believed the Altarians were going to soon declare war on me and then them. So I built up a strike force and attacked those key star bases. Within a couple turns their influence had dropped to far less than mine. And the Drengin and I were able to eventually beat them and win the game.

But that was something that was really fun, even as a developer, because I realized that there were many different strategy choices available to me than the usual "attack planets and invade, repeat." Which wouldn't have worked anyway since those star bases provided +8 attack to their forces.

[notyoueither]

The AI comes and tells you that so and so is persuing such and such a strat and 'we' should gang up on them?

[Jamski]

I love it, the AI is helping you beat itself. Now that sounds cool. I'm not sure I could trust it though.

From what you're saying, Brad, it sounds that the game will be a lot like the original Civ, at least in terms of combat and movement, and the trade routes are simply a bit less abstracted than in Civ1, in that the actual trade ships can be seen and attacked. Bearing in mind that Civ1 was better that both Civ2+3, IMHO, do you have a feeling of going "back to basics" and correcting some of the excesses of the later Civ games. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I have the feeling this is really a game for game puritans (and there's a lot of us about) for whom its more important that the game plays well, than how it looks, or how realistic it is.

I'm full of anticipation.

-Jam

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by War of Art
I'm full of anticipation.

Ditto.

[Draginol]

Well taking a few steps back, the real goal here is to create a game in which you are the leader of a civilization. And as a result, try to abstract things and include things to a strategic level as opposed to a tactical level.

So what does that mean?

Basically the game mechanic is simple but the strategies involved with them are complex. Sending a freighter to a star system is pretty simple to do.

BUT deciding where to send the freighter takes some real thought. The further I send it, the more money I get from it IF it completes its trade route. On the other hand, if I send it on a nice short straight path I can build up a ring of star bases along the trade route and really crank up the money I get from the trade route.

[Asmodean]

That last little piece of info from Draginol is pretty important. In my current game my manufacturing capital is located near the center of my empire. Therefore is is the ideal place to build constructors (the space ships that build or upgrade starbases). That planet is building nothing but constructors, and I can't wait to have my trade routes backed up by starbases all the way.

Now we'll just have to see if I can protect them too.

Asmodean

[Draginol]

With the additional month of development, I'd like to try to add more types of star base modules. The star bases really have the ability to generate a lot of interesting strategies. The only real limits are making sure the AI does it.

As you can imagine, it wasn't trivial to get the AI to coordinate not only the right time to build constructors but to place star bases in intelligent spots and know what and when the right module to add to it was.

[Sarxis]

Man, from the things you guys are saying, I am going to have to check into this game for sure now.

But an additional month of development is always nice- add some features please

[Harry Seldon]

This game sounds fantastic. I don't know that I'll rush out and buy it on day one, but I definitely want to hear more about it.

[pg]

wow, if all this is true galciv is going to be great. i wish i'd heard of it before. sounds like galciv could be a real revolution - more than just a convoluted evolution like the civ games. at worse it sounds like a substantial evolution. i love games which break new ground!