GalCiv 2 - The 20 Day War

[Calistas]

Originally Posted by scharmers

And, of course, "Hole in the Wall" is the same, only there's no hole in the wall.

I lost that game - stations just cost so much to keep going and the other networks didn't like me crowding out the airwaves... :(

[Calistas]

Something else I don't get. I find it really hard to translate "what I see on the map and mini-map" into "That is this race, that is the other race, I'm at war with those guys, crap, that's a big enemy fleet coming for me!"

What am I doing wrong?

[moss_icon]

Originally Posted by Unicorn McGriddle

Dammit moss, don't you die on me! Qt3 is a great resource for learning a game like that. Start playing, accumulate your questions, then post your questions. We'll have answers and advice, because we love Galciv 2 to death. Which reminds me, I should really make the time to play some more Galciv 2.

Haha, thanks. If I can convince myself to suffer the growing pains I'll give it another shot.

[Wader]

So, reading this thread has got me really interested in playing this. Is there a version I should get to start with? Do the expansions add so much that a beginning player would be best to start without them? Or should I just try to get all of them at once?

[Matt Bowyer]

Originally Posted by Wader

So, reading this thread has got me really interested in playing this. Is there a version I should get to start with? Do the expansions add so much that a beginning player would be best to start without them? Or should I just try to get all of them at once?

I'd say get all of them at once. Twilight of the Arnor adds great flavor to each race, and makes them feel unique and full of life, unless they're, y'know, robots or something.

[Naeblis]

Originally Posted by Wader

So, reading this thread has got me really interested in playing this. Is there a version I should get to start with? Do the expansions add so much that a beginning player would be best to start without them? Or should I just try to get all of them at once?

Buy the endlees universe pack, it's the two expansions together and made standalone.

And no, you won't miss the original retail game with the expansions. The games played with the expansions is just the same as the original game, but with added stuff. You only will loss the original campaign, but nobody plays the campaign in a GalCiv game. And even if you like them, the campaign in the first expansion is better.

[Wader]

Originally Posted by Naeblis

Buy the endlees universe pack, it's the two expansions together and made standalone.

RPS said that the UK release date for this was recently, but is it available in the US yet? I dont see it for sale on the website.

[Naeblis]

Dunno, i am european, in fact i usually buy my games in british online shops like play.com. :)

[slikster]

Seeing as we are up to day 21, I have to say... This is supposed to be the twenty day war! And, and, and... You still have half the galaxy to conquer! Talk about leading a guy on.

[DavidKaye]

Actually, that was the last one. This is a different game he is documenting.

[Unicorn McGriddle]

Originally Posted by Calistas

Something else I don't get. I find it really hard to translate "what I see on the map and mini-map" into "That is this race, that is the other race, I'm at war with those guys, crap, that's a big enemy fleet coming for me!"

What am I doing wrong?

You can identify the races by their insignia (an icon which appears next to every planet they control when you're zoomed in and in place of every planet they control when you're zoomed out), and by their color, which appears on some interface elements, on their ships, and on the border of their empire. If you turn on regional control display in the minimap (there are buttons right next to it for controlling display modes), then in all space you've explored, you'll see solid colors indicating zones of influence; this is extremely helpful in conceptualizing the lay of the land. To determine which planets are important, particularly in the midgame, there are settings which display each planet on the minimap as a circular footprint corresponding to production, influence, or population.

The most useful single screen for understanding diplomacy among the races is the foreign policy one with colored lines indicating diplomatic conditions. Look at the minimap, then look at this, then look at the minimap again. You can also check the stats screen and compare any two races to each other or look at long-term power graphs (especially the military one). Reports on enemy empires will include detailed breakdowns on how they feel about you and why -- e.g., we are too big -, we have ships on the border --, we share an ideology +, our diplomatic advantage ++. Espionage can reveal more, such as pipping all of a race's ships on the minimap.

[Pentadact]

For reference:

Originally Posted by MattKeil

The 20 Day War

That was the 20 Day War, this one's called Plan B. It takes place in a galaxy half as big again, and is therefore roughly half as long again.

-

[slikster]

This isn't the first time I've been an idiot.

[Staff Sergeant]

Originally Posted by Pentadact

For reference:



That was the 20 Day War, this one's called Plan B. It takes place in a galaxy half as big again, and is therefore roughly half as long again.

-

Half as long again? At the rate you're conquering, you'll have to entrust the responsibility to finish the blog to your next of kin in your will.

[Lh'owon]

Originally Posted by slikster

This isn't the first time I've been an idiot.

Thank you for being an idiot because it saves me from admitting that I too made that mistake. No one need ever know.

[MikeJ]

Whoa, what happened to the vow to be peaceful? Photonic Torpedoes don't sound very peaceful, even if you call them Peace Bees.

[quatoria]

Originally Posted by Mike Jamieson

Whoa, what happened to the vow to be peaceful? Photonic Torpedoes don't sound very peaceful, even if you call them Peace Bees.

As opposed to the 'Terror Star', which was just a solar radiation research platform!

[KieronGillen]

Originally Posted by ~EFG~

Half as long again? At the rate you're conquering, you'll have to entrust the responsibility to finish the blog to your next of kin in your will.

It's actually all written already, and available in the form of a book on the new issue of Gamer. So even if Tom dies, the blog will carry on. As is only right.

KG

[Pentadact]

Originally Posted by KieronGillen

It's actually all written already, and available in the form of a book on the new issue of Gamer. So even if Tom dies, the blog will carry on. As is only right.

KG

Shh, you're spoiling the spontaneity. Everything's gone to gosh darned heck in the new entry - who knows if I'll get out of it alive? NO-ONE.

-

[mystery]

You know what I need in games this large? A Governor system that goes beyond "automatic upgrades" and "automatic terraforming".

For example, I tend to swing Evil, and one of my favorite buildings is the Brain Washing Center (+20% on Influence, +20% Econ). I'd like to have one of them on all of my planets. I'd like to be able to just say "Please add one of these to the queue for each of my planets that has the space and that doesn't already have one", and leave it at that.

Instead, I spend at least a half-hour going through each and every planet, clicking on the same icons, adding it to the queue.

While I'm grumbling about things, I'd like to have a "saved queue" feature like Civ. If I queue up a bunch of buildings, I should be able to hit Ctrl-F1, and save that queue for loading up a new planet. Sure, buildings that need to be put special places would need some tweaking, but this would go quite a long way toward getting in and out of the planet editing screen and back into the meat of the game.

I'd also like the "automatic upgrade" feature to cross faction boundaries. If I get a better researching building from a tech trade with another race, I want my existing tech buildings auto-upgraded. I'm left to going through each planet now, and upgrading them manually.

[Morberis]

Originally Posted by mystery

You know what I need in games this large? A Governor system that goes beyond "automatic upgrades" and "automatic terraforming".

For example, I tend to swing Evil, and one of my favorite buildings is the Brain Washing Center (+20% on Influence, +20% Econ). I'd like to have one of them on all of my planets. I'd like to be able to just say "Please add one of these to the queue for each of my planets that has the space and that doesn't already have one", and leave it at that.

Instead, I spend at least a half-hour going through each and every planet, clicking on the same icons, adding it to the queue.

While I'm grumbling about things, I'd like to have a "saved queue" feature like Civ. If I queue up a bunch of buildings, I should be able to hit Ctrl-F1, and save that queue for loading up a new planet. Sure, buildings that need to be put special places would need some tweaking, but this would go quite a long way toward getting in and out of the planet editing screen and back into the meat of the game.

I'd also like the "automatic upgrade" feature to cross faction boundaries. If I get a better researching building from a tech trade with another race, I want my existing tech buildings auto-upgraded. I'm left to going through each planet now, and upgrading them manually.

Take a look at the 2.0 patch thats coming out I believe they address you're complaint a little bit.

http://forums.galciv2.com/324375

[Staff Sergeant]

Pentadact is a fucking tactical genious when it comes to this game.

[Drastic]

Ha. I love that he parked a Starfucker by every single soon-to-be-target system in the game. I still have fond memories of winning a MoO game by allying with every other race just long enough to park Genocide Fleets over every alien world and over the course of one long turn destroying them all. Go Space Bunnies!

[Morberis]

Originally Posted by Drastic

Ha. I love that he parked a Starfucker by every single soon-to-be-target system in the game. I still have fond memories of winning a MoO game by allying with every other race just long enough to park Genocide Fleets over every alien world and over the course of one long turn destroying them all. Go Space Bunnies!

Do we know what difficulty he's playing at?

Regardless he does come up with rather innovative strategies.

[Pentadact]

I just put up the final entry:

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...344#FinalEntry

Thirty-five hours of play, six hundred and fifty billion people dead, sixteen game years gone by, fifteen thousand words written, a month and ten days in the uploading, and it is done.

Brad and friends: please, take your time with GalCiv 3.

-

[Staff Sergeant]

Originally Posted by Pentadact

six hundred and fifty billion people dead

You have brought peace, to the Emp-... Universe!

[Morberis]

Wow magnificent man.

[KieronGillen]

That final move with the Terror Star was inspired, man.

KG