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Galactic Civilizations II: v2.0: A Guided Tour...

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Galactic Civilizations II: v2.0: A Guided Tour...

from JoeUser Forums

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Playing at very high resolution...

Note that the ship designer can now be accessed from the main menu.

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Nothing really new here, I just think it's cool. ;)

 

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Here's one of those ironies. The feature of being able to randomly pick races and randomize intelligence came out in a post-release update which, I think you guys would agree vastly increases the replayability of the game. This is precisely why games should always have a post-release budget.  On Demigod, incidentally, Stardock has a budget for post-release updates as part of the project development cycle.  So it's not just some thing we do, it's a big deal to us.

 

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2.0 continues to improve on the graphics of the game such as the new star port graphic.

 

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If you look back at the original release of Galactic Civilizations II from 2006 and how it looks in v2.0, it's a night and day difference.  Even without updating the engine, this shows how important it is to not abandon a game after release or shortly after release because you can really help a game become timeless by just updating the graphics.  These graphics should remain pretty good for quite a long time (at least until 64-bit gaming becomes common).

 

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Asteroid fields, introduced in Dark Avatar, how did we ever imagine GalCiv without them?

 

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This is what wide screen was invented for. :)

 

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Super Abilities were introduced in Dark Avatar which gave us Spore ships. Whohaha!

 

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New in 2.0: more explicit listing of costs. Seems obvious in hindsight.

 

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2.0 expands the espionage features based on player requests. Dark Avatar users also get this feature as part of 2.0 (though we hope they all upgrade to Twilight of the Arnor!).

 

 

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This is something that was introduced in Twilight of the Arnor. Instant detailed access to  what a given tech gives. THIS is why we have open beta programs. Kudos to GalCiv players for not just thinking of this but designing this.

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Thanks to I-Mod productions, a group formed of GalCiv players, the battle effects of the game got better and better.  People might wonder what the difference is between an "indie" developer and a non-indie developer. Here's one difference: The indie developer has the flexibility to integrate the best and coolest stuff into the game regardless of where it came from.

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New in Galactic Civilizations II v2.0 is the Governor creator. Players can now create their own governors who will automatically place particular planetary improvements.

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Then on the details screen on the planet screen you can assign whatever governor you want.  This feature alone makes 2.0 pretty killer. 

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The governors in 2.0 have gotten a lot of attention to make late game automation a snap.

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The AI is just as much of a sore loser now as always. But a bit smarter now. ;)

84,180 views 38 replies
Reply #26 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Re SDC availability, just past 1600 today, Seabass said in another thread that 2.0 would be Impulse only. But in a late September post, Boogiebac had said we would see the gold bits on SDC. I'm hoping it is internal miscommunication and not that they waited until release day to let us know the plan had changed.

Reply #27 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

I know next to nothing about Impulse and have been using SDC to update all expansions of GalCiv2 and frankly it's pretty seamless and unobtrusive, so I would hate at this point to have to switch gears and be forced to download Impulse in order to get 2.0, especially as I recall the final version was promised as a download from both SDC and Impulse with the beta being an Impulse *only* release.

I'll gladly download and use Impulse as my source for updates and patches, but only upon hearing of the final demise and reading the obituary for SDC.

ObjectDock - Access shortcuts and frequently used applications from an animated dock.
Reply #28 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

I just want to add another voice to those asking that this update be made available to those unable to use Impulse.  I've got a Windows 2000 computer which will not run Impulse, and I'd really looked forward to this update being made available on SDC, as we'd previously been told it would.  Thank you for your consideration!

It looks great, I just wish I could install it :).

Reply #29 from Sins Forums Top

DL and installed - its all good!

Reply #30 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Last evening, in another thread, Brad said that 2.0 on SDC was no longer going to happen. It is apparently a problem with all the different possible SKU combinations for GalCiv2.

I'm on the outskirts of the Impulse resistor crowd--it is not a technical problem for me, just "attitude," I guess. I was very cranky about it yesterday, but I woke up this morning remembering that 2.0 is a *free* update and the Nth example of how Stardock goes above and beyond when it comes to their game customers, at least as far as the game code and customer service go.

So I'm going to wait on 2.0 for a while, keeping an eye on Impulse threads for signs that setup problems are diminishing, and hopefully that the app has been tightened up considerably in terms of its thousand-fingered approach to net connectivity. I'm on track to drool shamelessly about Elemental until the first beta, but that pathetic pleasure plan will fall apart if I can't drag myself onto the Impulse bandwagon.

Reply #31 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Quoting GW, reply 5
Last evening, in another thread, Brad said that 2.0 on SDC was no longer going to happen. It is apparently a problem with all the different possible SKU combinations for GalCiv2.

I'm on the outskirts of the Impulse resistor crowd--it is not a technical problem for me, just "attitude," I guess. I was very cranky about it yesterday, but I woke up this morning remembering that 2.0 is a *free* update and the Nth example of how Stardock goes above and beyond when it comes to their game customers, at least as far as the game code and customer service go.

So I'm going to wait on 2.0 for a while, keeping an eye on Impulse threads for signs that setup problems are diminishing, and hopefully that the app has been tightened up considerably in terms of its thousand-fingered approach to net connectivity. I'm on track to drool shamelessly about Elemental until the first beta, but that pathetic pleasure plan will fall apart if I can't drag myself onto the Impulse bandwagon.

For what it's worth, I was in the same positional mindset you are some months ago, and Impulse has drastically improved, in my eyes, since then.

Even though I can't get it restore archives at the moment...(which appears to be a fluke).

Reply #32 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Impulse is easy to use.  Install, it will autodetect all the games you have and then simply go to the Update tab and update any games that have them.  Don't run Impulse again until there is another game update.  It can't be any easier.  I don't understand why people resist it.

Reply #33 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

I don't understand why people resist it.

Then you're probably not reading the right posts around here. For most of us, simple praise of Impulse won't help any possible transition. We need targeted persuasion, or at least some sympathy along with a specific scoff of one of our complaints. But that doesn't really belong in this thread.

Reply #34 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

I like the screen shots.  What is not clear to me is how much of the 2.0 release is just in TA?  Do the changes show

up in DA and DL?

Reply #35 from Stardock Forums Top

We get an instruction manual now!  Many months late but I'll take that over 'never' any day.

Impulse causes my Vista machine problems, too.  Seems to work better if I log out then log in as an administrator.

And yes, amazing updates to do for free!  Stardock and CDProjekt games will be looked at with much greater interest for years to come, even if I can't spell the latter's name correctly.

Reply #36 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Quoting GW, reply 8

Then you're probably not reading the right posts around here. For most of us, simple praise of Impulse won't help any possible transition. We need targeted persuasion, or at least some sympathy along with a specific scoff of one of our complaints. But that doesn't really belong in this thread.

Ummm, ok.  Sure.  If you want persuasion then how about it's the only way to get patches?  :P

Seriously, you install it, you run it, you update your games, you close it never to see it again until a month later to check for updates again.  Same as SDC. 

Oh well, your choice.

Reply #37 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

I like 2.0. It's really fun prehas Stardock should consider making 3.0?

Reply #38 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Quoting Emperor_Seth, reply 12
I like 2.0. It's really fun prehas Stardock should consider making 3.0?

The last formal word I've caught says that 2.0 marks the end of significant dev time for GC2. But those folks are compulsive coders who play the games they make. I doubt something as "major" as the 2.0 release will happen, but who knows what they might end up doing with the occasional patch. The Elemental project is based on engine work that's aimed at the eventual project for GC3. Maybe occasional tweaks for GC2 will be a natural byproduct of the work on Elemental.