Gamespy LOVES Galactic Civilizations 2!

[Naked_Lunch]

<strong>[ Game -> Review ]</strong>

<p>In a rare display of intelligence, <a href="http://www.gamespy.com" target="_self" title="LOL">Gamespy</a> has given <a href="http://stardock.com/" target="_self" title="sss">Stardock's</a> neato 4x space game an outstanding 4.5/5, calling it <a href="http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/galactic-civilizations-ii/693427p1.html" target="_self" title="dd">"the true heir to Master of Orion's legacy."</a>
</p><p> </p><blockquote>In the end, though, the lack of multiplayer and the steep learning
curve are mere quibbles when placed against the sheer joy of finally
getting the best of those damned Humans (or Arceans, or Korx, or
Drengin&hellip after they've kicked you around for a little while. Stardock
took a real chance in 2003 when they released an old-school turn-based
strategy game, a genre most other game companies have given up on. If
that game wasn't perfect, it can be seen in retrospect as a necessary
stepping stone to the gameplay wonder that's currently running on my
desktop computer. <em>Master of Orion</em> is dead. Long live <em>Galactic Civilizations II</em>! </blockquote><p> </p><p>Damned right. Now go and get the game, you BNOLs.</p><p>Interesting Note: It seems that <a href="http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/925349.asp" target="_self" title="sss">GalCiv </a>2 is the most popular game on <a href="http://www.gamerankings.com/" target="_self" title="sss">GameRankings</a>, with a rating of nearly 90%! Awesome! </p><p>In case you were wondering, yes we're doing an OFFICIAL Tcancer review of this. Stay tuned. </p>

 

[VasikkA]

I ordered this baby yesterday, so I'll be able to verify its awesomeness soon enough.

4.5/5

Isn't that basically a 0 to 10 scale in disguise?

 

[S4ur0n27]

\o

 

[Greatatlantic]

4.5/5

Isn't that basically a 0 to 10 scale in disguise?

I don't think so, among other things it allows them to grade games like movies, which means less numerical inflation (3/5 still means a game is playable and will appeal to some audiences, where a 6/10 is usually thought of as trash, for example). And unlike certain other review sites, they aren't scoring it into the tenth of a decimal.

Anyways, Gamespot also has their official review: http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/gal ... eview.html . It is equally positive and gives the game 9.0/10.0

 

[Jason]

I think this and all the unexpected sales prove one thing: THE NERDS HAVE FIGURED OUT HOW TO BREED AND ARE TAKING OVER.

For the less nerdly, Brad Wardell has written a beginner's strategy guide for the game. It kind of demystifies some of the mechanics and choices to be made.

 

[kingcomrade]

Thanks for that, GalCiv2 has been stumping me for a while now and that helped a little.

 

[VasikkA]

I think this and all the unexpected sales prove one thing: THE NERDS HAVE FIGURED OUT HOW TO BREED AND ARE TAKING OVER.

Unfortunately, nerds come in both sexes nowadays.

For the less nerdly, Brad Wardell has written a beginner's strategy guide for the game. It kind of demystifies some of the mechanics and choices to be made.

Are you implying gamers today have such a low attention span that they need to be informed of the game's mechanics beforehand instead of discovering stuff by themselves? Oh, nevermind.

Well, anyway, learning a game is half the fun. Beginners guide, hah. It should be called a 'in-case you missed something' guide for GalCiv veterans.

I usually play the tutorial if the game's WTF factor is too overwhelming. Can't really say anything about this game, but hopefully that'll change on Monday. :twisted:

 

[Astromarine]

what's stumping you KC? I could help

 

[Greatatlantic]

what's stumping you KC? I could help

Any advice for getting started? The start for me is just a mad dash to build colonies, then I inevitably find myself lagging behind in areas of research and economies, all before I start building a military. Then soon enough along comes the Drenginor another race and wipes me out.

Plus, is it just me or does this game really favor the attackers in ground combat?

 

[kingcomrade]

Same here. I spread at at first to try and find planets, but the computer finds them all before I do so I end up with Mars (or it's equivilant) and maybe one more planet that I got lucky, sending my scout in the right direction. Then I lag behind in pretty much every area except research.

The game I was just playing was a 150+ turn war with all of my neighbors which hasn't seen ANY sort of resolving at all, except I recaptured, after 40 rounds, a planet they snuck in and captured (NL asked me earlier why I thought this game was slow...). I had made a military base with lots of upgrades so I pwned, generally, as long as I was fighting inside of that sphere of influence, but attacking outside of that sphere usually got me destroyed fleets, as the computer always always had better ships.

Invading planets was hit or miss, usually I'd need like 4 dropships with 2 pods each to capture a planet (not to mention I always manage to snag the worse possible ratio).

Mainly, I'd like to know how to configure my planets. Right now I'm doing two planets mostly filled with factories, these churn out construction ships, the Mars planet I put 1 farm and the rest Markets, and if I have another (I've never had more than 4 planets in any game) I fill it with research stuff (if I don't, I usually switch Earth to research once my second planet gets a few factories). This is obviously not giving me the results I want, as the computer ends up with fleets of ships, superior economies, and about the same research level. I usually play with economic bonuses, happiness bonuses (so I can tax! woo!), military bonuses, and research bonuses.

Plus, is it just me or does this game really favor the attackers in ground combat?

Only if the computer is attacking :evil:

Any advice for getting started? The start for me is just a mad dash to build colonies, then I inevitably find myself lagging behind in areas of research and economies, all before I start building a military. Then soon enough along comes the Drenginor another race and wipes me out.

My best advice here is to build a military station and upgrade it with all sorts of supplementary bonuses and some weapons.

 

[Astromarine]

The way I start usually is to go to the economy screen, put spending at 100%, raise taxes just enough to make approval a bit over 50%, and *maybe* up research a bit.

The key to a good start is rush buying, and ship design. I have a custom colony ship I use that has 1 more speed than the default. That can be done with starting tech. Also, each colony ship costs about 990 bc, you start with 5000. So on the first turn I send out the one I start with, then buy a second one. Also, I go into Earth, set up my building plan, and immediately rush buy a factory, costs about 440. Then next turn do it again. Until my 5000 are gone, I'm rush buying everything in sight. Especially important is rush-buying a first factory in any planets you colonize.

Building farms in class-4 planets is useless. You don't have room for morale buildings, and, more importantly, you're getting very limited benefit, because low-class planets have hardcoded pop limits. What I do with mars usually is buy a starport and factories. makes for a nice constructor base when it's focussed on military prod.

Other than this, I'm not sure what else to say about the really early start. I'm not perfect on it, as yesterday's ass-raping by the "Intelligent" AI proves. But I usually can get close to 6 or 7 planets if there are that many

Thing about Galciv is that the game runs in stages: goldrush, where people scour the galaxy for planets. then the settle and build social structures, where people get an industrial and economic base, as well and start on research. And the war phase, where the consolidated empires try to knock the crap out of each other. I'm thinking you guys may be botching the second part, which is the hardest IMHO. You gotta advance as much as possible, while making sure you don't get too far behind in military buildup, or you'll just look like a fat juicy target.

My best advice would be to left-click on an empty area of space, to get the "chart" view, then select military. As soon as that chart shows a sign of life, it means the AIs are building attack ships. If you don't have a plan by then, and you're playing versus decent AI, might as well restart.

 

[kingcomrade]

Your opening gambit sounds almost the same as mine, only I rush construct only 1 extra colony, as I play on maps which don't have very many planets (the largest empire usually as 4-6 planets). I do rush construct factories and I do design a new colony ship from the get-go.

I was playing a game last night where I did considerably better, but I'm still having trouble with offense. The AI likes to build these improvement things over resources, and then upgrade them to like 20 attack and I have no way to destroy them. I did manage to conquer all of their planets except their "Mars" planet because I ran out of dropships.

I love the moral bonus that you can pick when you are designing your civ, it allows me to tax much more than usual. I generally play an "evil" civilization, though I prefer the term "ruthless."

I think I'm playing on standard difficulty. I think some of the enemy civs are set to sub-intelligent, though. I'm still learning the game, though.

What about big planets? Should they be industrial bases, or should I put farms and economy buildings there (which I think would make my construction bases build faster, I'm not sure of the mechanics)? I think you're right about Mars, when I load my game I'm going to turn it into a construction base.

Also, just curiosity, what weapons do you use? The AI invariably goes missile then beam.

 

[Jason]

There's an interview with Brad Wardell at Gameplay Monthly. And he plays World of Warcraft!

Plus, there's an expansion on the way eventually.

(it might be time for someone here to set up an interview)

 

[VasikkA]

Well, I got the Limited Edition and all this week but the fucking thing wont install. I'm so hatemailing Paradox right now.

 

[Jason]

Did you do the direct download thing through Paradox? If so, did you install that required 3rd party software (Ztorm) first? Ztorm also requires the .NET framework to function.
Here's a thread about the Paradox download situation.

 

[Naked_Lunch]

That's what you get for paying for the game and supporting the developer.

 

[VasikkA]

Did you do the direct download thing through Paradox? If so, did you install that required 3rd party software (Ztorm) first? Ztorm also requires the .NET framework to function.
Here's a thread about the Paradox download situation.

No I bought the game from a store. It's a nice, heavy box with 'limited edition' on it. I get a weird error message when I put the cd in my dvd drive. The autorun image opens, but pressing Install freezes my computer(pressing readme and the links works fine). Same thing when I access the disk and run Setup. Apparently, they've put me on a waiting list for technical support, we'll see what happens.

EDIT: here's is the error message I get - roughly translated: "The object schedule.exe, which this shortcut is referring to, has been replaced or is missing. The shortcut does not work properly anymore. Do you want to remove the shortcut? Yes/No"

Any ideas?

 

[mathboy]

Can't you try downloading it from their page using your serial number?

 

[VasikkA]

I'll look into it tomorrow. I haven't the faintest idea what the problem is. The error message makes no sense.

 

[Jason]

Schedule.exe is usually just a task scheduler or something used to register a product in the different programs I've seen it in. It doesn't seem vital. I would probably just say yes to delete the shortcut and see what happens. Of course, I'm retarded so you probably shouldn't listen to what I say.

If you have 2 optical drives, try installing from the other one (maybe a path issue). And make sure your desktop resolution is 1024x768 or higher and your drivers are updated. That most likely has nothing to do with it, but that's what Stardock will say first.

 

[VasikkA]

Well, I did the unthinkable and listened to you guys and downloaded it via Stardock Central(thanks mathboy).

The narrator is horrible, but I'm hopeful of what the rest of the game turns out to be.

 

[Jason]

While we're waiting for Astro or Pat or whoever to do the official TC review, here's an assload of other recent GalCiv2 reviews:

Orion Sector
Killer Betties (?)
IGN
Strategy Informer
GamePlasma
GameDaily

If you're too lazy to read them, here's the recap: they liked it.
Also, VasikkA should post his impressions once he figures out how to install it.

 

[Nicolai]

Naked Lunch said that his review will be done by tomorrow.

Word on the street is that it's quite "tits".

 

[Naked_Lunch]

My review of Space Rangers 2, perhaps.

 

[Nicolai]

Same thing, really.