(Negative) abilities.

from GalCiv2 Forums
Would that make sense to some degree?

The multiple handicaps (events, losing election, customized "numbers") come from within play - afterwards, when your race's destiny has been sealed up.

Say, for example, a custom race has been defined with a --Minus 5%-- slot to its Economy at the config process. While calibrating the points pool, also; since the maximum is TEN, some negative abilities would actually have their effect(s) compounded to the remaining points.
Thus, creating a very interesting situation when the race must climb back to regain normalized status.

Sure, the AI intelligences or difficulty settings can represent similar variations, but i'd rather get the handicaps from negative abilities right from their respective *.raceconfig's.

Possible (even probable, code-wise... for gameplay balancing reasons!) or simply pointless feature/suggestion?

- Zyxpsilon.
9,463 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Choosing disadvantages in certain areas in order to free up points for other abilities is something I miss as well. I'm sure it can be modded in, but a single negative choice in each category in the official game would be nice.
Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top
A lot of games have implemented this and I enjoy the feature but I am a rules munchkin.


This sort of encourages abusive min/maxing where you take as many negatives as possible in areas you had no intention of pursuing in the first place.

Don't ever negotiate? Take as many Diplomatic "handicaps" as possible. It won't make any difference anyway.
Elemental: Reforged
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Yes, min-maxing is a valid concern. That's why I would propose only one 'tier' of negatives, not several like there are for boni. One tier would be enough to create an interesting racial background and free up some points without giving way to a Space Empires-like min-maxing game.

Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I wouldn't expect to see this in the base game, but Cari has fixed some bugs relating to negative abilities in TA so it should be more feasible via mods.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
A single level of negatives in some categories would possibly mean the following variations to both the impression a player has about races and whatever influence they'd have within gameplay;

- Courage; Brave or Shy (Do i read - Good & Evil alignments, indirectly!)

- Research; ... or Dumb! Although, the slow option has the same effect. But, it isn't ---on--- the race definition screen to look at.

- Social Production; ... or Strike. Workers negotiating a new bargain agreement.

- Economy; ... or Recession/Inflation. Well, if YOUR starting condition shows that low of a bcs pull (even if only by taxes), you'd have to compensate with other things.

- Morale; ... or Bored. A pretty much stagnant population at first without any intentions to approve of your methods via ratings--- unless-.

Etc.

The trick is not to perceive this as a way to gain points to spend somewhere else (since, all things being relative... the overall adjustments limit the number of decisions to make, already) but rather as a "feeling" of more competitive startup conditions to cope with.

In any case, negative abilities would probably NEVER be selected by anyone wishing to have at least a worthy edge in specific areas - instead of running away from another (new) challenge. Otherwise, the balance would tilt to show incredible factors and VERY weird activities from what anyone is used to experience.

- Zyxpsilon.

Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Hmm what if the negative attributes COST you attribute point, rather then freed them but gave bonus points at the games end.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Well, after exploring the library (AFTER this post was initially made)... i found a whole group of "modding tiny stuff" which do exploit the exact same theory about negative abilities.

Which proved to me one important thing, some ideas are (and really have been long before i took GC2-DA for a ride all by myself!) pretty common around here.

- Zyxpsilon.
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
yes there is a mod for neg abillitys it makes the game abit funner in my opinion.