The new planet invasion screen

from GalCiv2 Forums
Hi all!

I am not sure if this has been asked before, I searched but was not successful...

I preordered the Galciv TA expansion, downloaded it, upgraded it to the latest version and started playing this morning.
Now to my question: I remember that in the planetary invasions in the dark avatar expansion the armies marched from the sides into the middle of the screen, firing at each other. Because of the not so good models (especially the ugly tanks), their movement animation and their weapons I just could not favour the graphical presentation of the ground invasions of this new game compared to the one which was used in the old Master of Orion 2 which had a lot of atmosphere in his ground battles but thats just my opinion.

Now one of my planets got invaded in the TA expansion and I really liked the "Camera look" on one of the besieged cities on top of the screen, especially with this snow effect because of bad and improvised video-connection to the front line.
But now finally to the point of my posting: the 3d animated "battles" at the lower half of the screen are replaced by a proportionally stretched view on the planet as you see it while opening the building screen. There are some differently colored flags on some planet improvements which flicker now and then in combat.

Is this window just a place holder because TA is still beta and is replaced by an improved presentation of the battle as in Dark Avatar or is this the final version of it?
If yes what is this flickering of the flags meaning?
What is the intended benefit of this new presentation over the one used in Dark Avatar?

Thx for reply in advance,
Hrothgaar

P.S. Sorry for my bad engish but its not my foreign language :-)
8,165 views 9 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I think this is the final look of the invasion screen. I do not really like the flags either. It looks strange, i would rather have the old animation in a small window plus the new videos than this one. But its just a matter of taste.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I cant tell you how much I wish that you are wrong...

I searched the "General" section of this forum a bit and found this topic:

https://forums.galciv2.com/176081

where one replier said it is a bug but I fear he is referring to the black video section which you can see on the screenshot.

My main problem with the animated battle in Dark Avatar was its "sterile" look so I could never really get in positive touch with the ground combat animations but I tried :-) This caused for me this lack of atmosphere I mentioned above but viewing the planetary building map while watching a few flickering flags is so abstract that you loose total touch with the ground forces.

The two invasions I faced were of a smaller scale with 1000 invaders and 6000 defenders so maybe these flags represent territory in the hands of one or the other faction so they simulate the "tides of battle" going back and forth until one side has not enough power to withstand and is overwhelmed by the enemy but I didnt recognize a change in their positions because the involved forces were to small.

This is still the beta and I really hope they have something in mind with this part of the game besides toning it down and just remove what was criticized by some gamers in the past and replace it with something much worser :-)
Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
That is exactly what i wrote somwhere else here. The flags just make the battle too abstract, you have not the feedback you would want from a battle. Those toysoldiers did that job better...
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
But the new screen looks a lot prettiers, with the different improvements and everything. Plus, the dreaded ear-drum-busting sound effects are finally gone.

Overall, I like the new screen a lot more than the old one.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
... but the videos are pretty good.
I think the flickering flags represent the group that is fighting at the moment.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I sure do appreciate SD's hard work on TA, but I think the screen could use a little help as well. At the very least, it would be nice if the graphics could be made to look more 3D and less 'skewed'. There is a little too much texture stretching as it is.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I think I am with you in all points,

1.) The new videos look great
2.) I am also happy that these strange annoying sound effects are gone

but

3.) This extreme texture stretching of the "planet building screen"-map simply looks a bit (and dont take this as an insult please) improvised and unfinished.
Also I ask myself as a player what information the flashing of these flags should give to me. Presenting the sqauds which are fighting is a bit strange because sometimes they are located on the opposite side of a planet (if thought of the map as a ball).
So soon before release I fear there is no time for changing the combat presentation but with only minor changes I dont know how to improve this so only two small suggestions come to my mind:

1. Lessen this extreme texture-stretching look of the "building-screen"-map so it dont look like forced into a spot where it does not belong to.

2. Drop the flags completely - that is if no other information is connected to them except which region is fighting while other regions does not.
If you have to make it abstract then maybe do it in a way which adds a bit of additional information to the player in putting some kind of progress bar which is colored in the colors of the two fighting factions (i.e. left half red, right half green if red and green are fighting each other) and moves back or forth in presentation of how the invasion or the defense is completed.

(By the way have you ever thought of the idea of putting the picture of the race leader next to their logo? Was this left out for a reason?)

All in all I really hope that some of this combat presentation could be a bit improved to get us a bit more in touch with our ground forces again but to be honest I dont have many hopes for it but hope dies last I think :-)
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I think the flashing flags are a bit disappointing too. My only irrations with it is that:

1. Is there only meant to be one video, I remember reading sometime back that there was going to be many videos represting exactly what type of invasion you were doing.

2. In DA the two Advantage bars, dropped. However now only the opponents bar drops, which irrates me a little, beacue now I actually have to look at the numbers to see how well I'm doing.

3. Is there any chance for a video or something for when you conqure a world with spore ships. Because it seems anticlimatic for the ship to just touch the world and for it to instantly 'convert'.
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The part that bothers me the most about spore ships is that you don't get taken directly to the planet screen the way a successful invasion does. Rather frustrating, especially if you left one on autopilot - you could take a planet without even knowing about it.

If this has been fixed in the last few betas, please disregard. That darn Sins game took all my GalCiv time recently  :NOTSURE: