More GalCiv II updates

from JoeUser Forums

So there's going to be a GalCiv II v2.01 soon.

Normally, this time of year, I would be playing a new PC game. But right now, I only buy new games from Impulse. I'm currently looking at The Witcher and Sacred 2. I'm going to get World of Goo this weekend for me and the kids.

But this past weekend, I played Galactic Civilizations II: Twilight of the Arnor which some of you know I helped develop and wrote the AI for.

And when I play, I always have the debugger open and so came up with some changes.

1. I made it so that tourism revenue grows slowly with time. Late game, I just don't like hitting the wall in terms of what I can do.

2. I made Terror Star techs a lot cheaper. Terror Stars are pretty powerful but so are Spore ships and they don't cost that much.

3. I made a new planetary super project called Fleet Command Centers that you get on Interstellar Construction. Once built, all your ships in orbit will work together as a fleet when any of your planets are attacked. This eliminates the old orbital fleet manager improvement.  I found it just too cheesy that I was able to go to a civ's capital planet, knock out their defense one by one with my mega fleet and take it which can often cripple an AI player.  It's too hard to defend against and too unrealistic so I changed it.

One of the best changes in 2.0 that I didn't really realize was going to make the game so much better was the change in weapon tech costs. It is now quite difficult to get up the weapons tree. Combined with other techs being less expensive (the removal of the big late game tech penalty) and you really end up having to seriously look at other strategies.

I've seen the AI start to finally build up influence starbases and economy starbases because the path to victory wasn't so obviously a simple climb up the weapon tree.

So this update should show up this week I think on Impulse. It should go along with the update for the European expansion bundle "Endless Universe" so that they can update via Impulse as well.

92,757 views 46 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Updates and upgrades from yourself are always welcomed with open arms :)

 

Many thanks!

Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

I really agree the fleet orbital manager technology.  That one change makes ton of changes to my stragey mostly I might try to defend my planets now!

Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

My, will these free updates ever stop... :o

Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Brilliant! That might take invasions to a whole new level.

 

Any chance of allowing Terror Stars to benefit from fleet speed modules?

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

Awesome, keep up the great work.

 

About Orbital Fleet Manager, Fleet Command Centers and the likes, I think it shows a greater problem.

 

A human player usually has only a few ships with good defense guarding the border, the planets themselves are usually pretty much undefended. In most of my games, I have at most a dozen fleets for hundreds of planets.

The AI on the other hand spends a lot of resources building mediocre defenders on each and every planet, tons of it. All getting picked up by the human's superior fleets one by one.

The AI should use its logistics slots and get all those ships off the planets into fleets closer to the borders. It doesn't matter if there are no ships in orbit on the core planets if there's enough force at the outer planets to kill off each and every incoming transport.

Incidentally, the race I have most problems against is Drengin, they can build up a huge amount of non-orbited ships due to their super ability.

 

My games usually work like this:

1) Agressively expand

2) Build up economy

3) As soon as first race declares war on me, start heavy combat research, before I do barely any at all.

I try to quickly get some medium sized ships with crappy weapons, but still with more defense than my enemy has weapons on their ships. As a result, a tiny amount of ships kill wave after wave of attacking ships and will eventually start pushing back.

By then I can already focus on improving the other aspects of my empire again, only doing further combat research if I notice my strong ships get damaged. The increase in weapon tech costs made the game a lot easier for me.

 

Suggested changes for the AI:

- Ships in orbit are only useful if in range of transporters. Don't keep ships in orbit at planets that are more than two turns away from an enemies transport.

- Stop building useless cannon fodder, build better ships. This isn't Civilizations, a space phalanx cannot possibly take down space tank. The AI doesn't seem to recognize this yet.

- Recheck ship orders every turn. Far too often my undefended transports (I'm lazy at times) can just fly past enemy fleets. If ship can attack undefended transport in the same turn, cancel all other orders and go take it out, Also goes for all defenders in orbit, unless there are multiple transporters and not all can be taken out.

 

 

Edit: Flagships. AI should just kill any hostile flagship in range. AI rarely does it.

Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

So this stuff is coming for next patch? Can we get the Arnorian shipstyle too? It was promised for 2.0 but you didn't have time to implement it right? Oh and can we get player usable dreadlords style too?

Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Can we get the Arnorian shipstyle too? It was promised for 2.0 but you didn't have time to implement it right? Oh and can we get player usable dreadlords style too?

Unfortunately, the answer is no to both your questions.  We just don't have the time to do it right now. 

Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

One of the best changes in 2.0 that I didn't really realize was going to make the game so much better was the change in weapon tech costs. It is now quite difficult to get up the weapons tree. Combined with other techs being less expensive (the removal of the big late game tech penalty) and you really end up having to seriously look at other strategies.

 

Wow, that explains why it now takes me forever to get to Laser III.  I thought it was only because I was playing on a tiny map.  (I usually play on Large or greater.)  I had to completely change my strategy playing as the Yor.  In the game setup, I had disabled tech trading in this game so I had to play with only the techs that the Yor get.  Considering they have almost no diplomacy and don't have an influence starbase tree, I have no choice but to try to outproduce the AI and get as many attack ships as possible.  The trick is, now I have to do it with dinky doodle weapons instead of trying to go straight for Laser V in the early game.  I also found myself researching miniturization and larger hull sizes a lot earlier in the game to make up for the lack of stronger weaponry.  Time to throw out the old play book and start from scratch.

 

Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

On the plus side, because those weapon techs take longer to research, warship designs will last a little bit longer.

Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Quoting pndrev, reply 5
Brilliant! That might take invasions to a whole new level.

 

Any chance of allowing Terror Stars to benefit from fleet speed modules?

Considering the bug where they did was fixed, I'd bet on no.  :)

No offense intended.

-

Any chance of terror stars being destroyed upon use?

Hey, I can dream, can't I?

Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top

Nice! Good job there Brad! Keep up the good work!

Reply #13 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

So *your* the guy that broke my game and made the AI's start doing the same stuff I been doing.

I noticed their planets were getting better developed when I invaded - {G}.

Jonnan

Reply #14 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

With the new wep tech cost I've seen a real plus to spys and anti spy measures. I'm at mid game and I just got into wep research, When war was declaired on me. I have spys on thier home world and maybe due to luck I just stole thier next to highest weapon system. This coupled with a high defence ability and strong economy will cause a bit of a panic when I start launching Better cruisers than my opponant. This small change to a tech costing system coupled to the new spy system has really increased my game enjoyment. Keep up the good work.  

Reply #15 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

3. I made a new planetary super project called Fleet Command Centers that you get on Interstellar Construction. Once built, all your ships in orbit will work together as a fleet when any of your planets are attacked. This eliminates the old orbital fleet manager improvement.

Ah, thank God. I never bothered with Orbital Fleet Manager, I found it too tedious. Hopefully this will make everything easier!

Thank you!

Reply #16 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

I was wondering why wep tech was getting so costly...

Reply #17 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

So ah, what exactly will happen to the Hyperion Fleet Defence Super Project, or is that being rolled into the Fleet Command Centers SP?

Reply #18 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Quoting idunno116, reply 16
I was wondering why wep tech was getting so costly...

You can blame me-I think Brad had already planned on it, but I made a point of asking for it (although this wasn't any of the three implementations I thought he might use).

Good question, Marvin.

Reply #19 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

My, will these free updates ever stop...

Flash forward to the year 1012: Stardock announces that GalCiv II 5.0 is indeed under development along with GalCiv V 2.0, GalCiv IV 3.0, and GalCiv III 4.0. The Emperor of the planet Stardock was overhead muttering "I'm always finding something new to tweak, so I'm keeping my holographic issue resolver turned on while I play it." Stardock has also renewed its policy of never constructing a Copyright Defense system, saying "it just makes sense that people aren't treated as enemies."

In the meantime, the armed conflict between EAG (Everybody Against Gaming, formerly known as EA Games) and Microsoft escalates as Microsoft discovers that EAG's newest shaped charge Copyright Defense System bypasses Microsoft's User Protection System in ways that could be lethal. Hackers have announced that they had already bypassed the system while it was in the planning stages. Microsoft confirmed the hackers' story, but recommends upgrading to the newest version of Walls, which includes energy shields instead of armor. Some armor plating will be kept for backwards compatibility with the Norton Missile Defense system.

Stardock has also added "the pursuit of happiness" to their Gamers' Bill of Rights, in addition to their previous amendments of life and liberty. Many believe that this will be a great step forward for people everywhere, even though the head of EAG has been overheard saying "I bet half of them have access to a game."

Reply #20 from PolMach Forums Top

Flash forward to the year 1012: Stardock announces that GalCiv II 5.0 is indeed under development along with GalCiv V 2.0, GalCiv IV 3.0, and GalCiv III 4.0. The Emperor of the planet Stardock was overhead muttering "I'm always finding something new to tweak, so I'm keeping my holographic issue resolver turned on while I play it." Stardock has also renewed its policy of never constructing a Copyright Defense system, saying "it just makes sense that people aren't treated as enemies."

In the meantime, the armed conflict between EAG (Everybody Against Gaming, formerly known as EA Games) and Microsoft escalates as Microsoft discovers that EAG's newest shaped charge Copyright Defense System bypasses Microsoft's User Protection System in ways that could be lethal. Hackers have announced that they had already bypassed the system while it was in the planning stages. Microsoft confirmed the hackers' story, but recommends upgrading to the newest version of Walls, which includes energy shields instead of armor. Some armor plating will be kept for backwards compatibility with the Norton Missile Defense system.

Stardock has also added "the pursuit of happiness" to their Gamers' Bill of Rights, in addition to their previous amendments of life and liberty. Many believe that this will be a great step forward for people everywhere, even though the head of EAG has been overheard saying "I bet half of them have access to a game."
Funny stuff!

Reply #21 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Does anyone else think that the Fleet Command Center will be the first priority target in any invasion, thus instantly reducing an AI's ability to resist? Plus the part about it being a super project and not being able to build a second should something unfortunate happen to the first? Perhaps the organizational benefit should be attached to the tech that enables it, and not a highly vulnerable building?

Reply #22 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

I agree, there's no particular reason why such a system would suddenly stop working on every colony.

Unless it was *dramatic pause* jammed.

Reply #23 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Man, I wish I could post an Ackbar ASCII right now...

Reply #24 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

It's . . . Raspberry . . .

 

LONESTAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Reply #25 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Quoting WIllythemailboy, reply 21
Does anyone else think that the Fleet Command Center will be the first priority target in any invasion, thus instantly reducing an AI's ability to resist? Plus the part about it being a super project and not being able to build a second should something unfortunate happen to the first? Perhaps the organizational benefit should be attached to the tech that enables it, and not a highly vulnerable building?

QFT.