Developers we could use your opinion

I can pretty much guarantee that the developers are fully aware of these threads and read each and every post. But direct feedback, like this is good or that will never happen, is going to be pretty rare.

It would be nice to have some feedback from the developers although it is pretty rare.

I don't know, I seem to recall them adding their two cents to a few of the more involved threads. Maybe their just biding their time.

I think it's that they don't want to prejudice the discussion with their own opinions. Yes, they do add their two cents in some threads, particularly if they start to wander into inappropriate areas. The speed with which this can happen indicates how closely these threads are monitored.

Yes of course it's good to have feedback. I'm just suggesting to those that may find a lack of feedback discouraging, that their input is both noticed and appreciated.

Yes of course it's good to have feedback. I'm just suggesting to those that may find a lack of feedback discouraging, that their input is both noticed and appreciated.

interesting.......

Feedback would be nice, but I'm confident we get read and I'm far more interested in seeing the results of dev time spent coding after reading here.

I'm just suggesting to those that may find a lack of feedback discouraging, that their input is both noticed and appreciated.

Man I just pictured Kryo giving us all a thumbs-up while never tearing his eyes off his work.

Which then made me think about Office Space. *happy thoughts*

My biggest fear with the multitude of "suggestion" and "improvement idea" posts is that as Developers the folks at SD will start taking offense, and become bitter themselves. Because sometimes even when things are constructive, as a creater, you get discouraged. And thats definately not the intent.

Hehe, man I just picture a bitter Stardock making Galciv 2k8 Hip-hop Edition or something...basicly the same game, just crappier then before, maybe with better graphics, and a really unfitting soundtrack. I think hell would freeze over. And EA would rule the new hell on earth. Hehe

Kryo, gotta admire the sheer efficiency. In my workplace, we call that "leveraging old content," and you got a mighty big lift for one drag and two clicks!

I think people will be shocked at the next build. It's significantly different and based largely on feedback.

The problem si that hwen you're putting in 90 hour work weeks it's tough to find time to chime into these threads.

I've been commenting on some of them.

I will say that espionage is not really open to discussion as it is something I (as the game designer) feel very strongly about.

However, we now have counter-espionage in where players can build a counter-espionage building on their planets to keep agents off if they so choose. 

In the classic game, Twilight Imperium, having agents on your worlds was a fact of life and it worked out well because players had to get used to finding out what tolerance for disruption they had. 

Moreover, it creates an incentive not to get too far out and front. It's certainly a drawback to the player who plays on the gigantic galaxies holed up in a corner building the mega fleet because the other players will tend to gang up on you.

One of the major changes I've put in is that difficulty level now affects how much spying is going on. My view is, if you're playing at a high level, then yea, expect there to be agents. But new players will likely see relatively little of it.

We also changed it so that your diplomatic relations are taken into account.

But the next beta will likely bring angst for some players. While we did indeed add the "disable super abilities" option, I think people will definitely want to use them. They're just too cool not to have now that they're getting fleshed out. 

I played a game tonight as the Korx as the Super Trader and was making $1k PER WEEK in trade revenue on a medium galaxy. Now before someone says "cheese!" bear in mind that we've changed it so that races don't necessarily have such great abilities elsewhere. The Korx, for example, are terrible at research. So even as I had plenty of money, I was having to put all my efforts into research and using the money to fast build improvements and ships to enact my influence take-over strategy.

In another game, I played as the humans who have the super diplomacy ability which makes it much easier to get good trade deals. I was able to get all kinds of things in negotiation.  But ultimately lost because I made the Drath mad at me and they paid off other races to go to war with me. Lesson learned: Keep the Drath happy.

The Altarians are really tough too now because if you try to zing them, others will tend to come to their aid.

Engines have been heavily tweaked and that will no doubt cause some angst (to which I say "if you want to move at 80 moves per turn, just edit the XML file to make engines go as fast as you want). But they feel a lot better (a lot mroe fun) I think.

I know it's a little OT for this thread, but since your mentioning the next build features. Any word on the future of the Epic Generator?

Looking forward to the updates  . I'm already purposely limiting my speed in my current game, so I can adjust.

The Korx, for example, are terrible at research.

Here's a question revolving around that, which is not specifically directed at you:

Is there a specific modifier giving different civilizations weaker abilities in some situations? I know that some civilizations are being described as being weak in some areas, but I don't see anything that hints at exactly how big the difference is.

It's OK, they should be working on our game, not wasting time on the forums anyways.

Back to work, slaves .

Hey! where'd you get the devil smily? It's not in my smily dropdown/list.

Hey! where'd you get the devil smily? It's not in my smily dropdown/list.

Offsite image, just like a screenshot.

ahhh... Never thought about doing that. Thanks for the reply.  

I will say that espionage is not really open to discussion as it is something I (as the game designer) feel very strongly about.

It's good to see some conviction in a Developer against fan comments... but because of the very nature of how the system currently works... this feature alone could very well make or break DA, so I'd advise you to at least keep an open mind about the Espionage system.

However, we now have counter-espionage in where players can build a counter-espionage building on their planets to keep agents off if they so choose.

Don't take this the wrong way... but you might as well just disable the Espionage System and lower the planet quality of all planets by 1... it would accomplish essentially the same thing. It's a good idea, certainly, but for a (moveable?) Super Project, not something that can be built on every planet...

Another way to look at it... if your the top dog, not having these buildings would be stupid, otherwise your planets are going to be flooded with spies.... and as a bonus, you get to use all your spies to disable the ones on the lower end even more.

On the flip side, these things would only be marginally useful to someone on the low to mid spectrum of power... they aren't getting as many spies sent to them anyway, and can probably afford to just use Agents to nullify them and still have enough agents to send against others...

Again, I just want to say that I'm really enjoying the espionage system so far. I can deal with some agents on my planets, as long as they aren't disabling key planets/buildings... and, in my last, game I did exactly what you said, I purposely avoided being the top civilization until I was sure I could take the agent flow that came with it. Instead... I manipulated the power flow from behind the scenes.

Great to get some update on where things are going! Frogboys reply really put my mind at ease It is also understandable that its your game and ultimately your choise what to do with it.

Iam glad that our discussion has some effect in the course of development ps. I think I´will like the new slower pace (engines) of the game.

will say that espionage is not really open to discussion as it is something I (as the game designer) feel very strongly about.

This I fully understand, it is your game, your vision not ours. But that wont stop me from throwing my ideas out.

Anywho, good job so far overall, I love watching this game evolve.

I will say that espionage is not really open to discussion as it is something I (as the game designer) feel very strongly about.

You don't believe that. I think you're stressed from the clusterfrak of idiots on this forum that don't know their ass from a hole in the ground.

Perhaps you meant "unless your idea is REALLY good, we're not changing our objectives."? That's more in line with what most players see as the company philosophy.

Don't take this the wrong way... but you might as well just disable the Espionage System and lower the planet quality of all planets by 1... it would accomplish essentially the same thing.

The reason some people feel this way is because there doesn't appear to be sufficient boundaries or any strategic framework beyond slowing down the game. It doesn't need to be that way. The new spy system can be a strong, robust feature that players love.

GW Swicord proposed a good idea that I expanded on in
this thread.

Connect spies to trade, research, ship building and miniaturization to keep them from getting out of control too early. People who invest in the right areas get more spies. Spies require movement in the space-time continuum. I, and a most players, would have no more issues with spies under a setup with boundaries and strategy.

Engines have been heavily tweaked and that will no doubt cause some angst (to which I say "if you want to move at 80 moves per turn, just edit the XML file to make engines go as fast as you want). But they feel a lot better (a lot mroe fun) I think.

Do you intend on incorparating this into the next plain version of GC2 ?

I'm having fun in a war with the Drath using "slow" ships on a gigantic map.

Large battleships with speeds of 20 take a few turns to move into position. Waging war like this requires planning and a bit of luck because reinforcements might take five weeks or more to get to the front line.

80 speed is cheese. Or it seems so. The game is over long before those speed capabilities so it makes me wonder if Metaverse players are camping to pad the score and make ridiculous ships.

battleships with speeds of 20

I believe Frogboy would call speed 20 "cheese." I think he said somewhere that 6-8 is what he thought of as reasonable top speed.

I'm not holding my breath, but I think Mumblefratz has a seriously good point about map scale and speed. Perhaps the actual speed is not so important as is the number of turns required for a straightline trip from one side of the galaxy to another. (I've no idea if it is easy, hard, or impossible code-wise to link a factor like engine size to map size.)

That said, if Brad thinks us big-map speedboaters need some regulation, well I'm sure we'll manage to adapt somehow. But it'll surely mean *way* slower development of starbases, especially those precious, delicate, distant resource mines. But that's another thread...

Swicord I think you're right on all points there. I personally would like something around 20 to be a more normal speed, but I don't think that's what'll happen.

In GC1 a giagantic map took ages and ages just to move your ships to the enemy. (and got very tedious)

Another way to go would be to make autopilot faster than moving manually along with the overall reduction in speed. If you broke the auto-pilot path, you'd get a movement penalty. This would allow you to get your ships somewhere far away quicker, but not allow for all the moving / attacking we see now. This is probably too complicated tho...

I believe Frogboy would call speed 20 "cheese." I think he said somewhere that 6-8 is what he thought of as reasonable top speed

If 6 to 8 is the speed, then you may as well just put in stargate type of travel that only allows movement from system to system. This is the kind of movement that the AI can deal with. Restricting speed to this ludicrous value on a map that's 240 parsec's across is an admission that the AI can't really hack an open movement system.