Alpha 3 Feedback on one playthorugh

from GalCiv3 Forums

I did one partial play-through with Alpha 3.


I have several observations, potential bugs etc. I'll start with an annoying "bug" I'll call it. You cannot, as far as I can tell, destroy an existing building. I also noticed that when you are upgrading say a Research center to a Research academy and click cancel, the building is destroyed and the academy "greyed out icon" is still on the map but with the FULL build time not the upgraded build-time. If you cancel this process the square on your planet is rendered empty.

You cannot re-route a ship mid flight. Any alterations to it's path happen after the ship reaches the destination, so I end up exploring 1 square at a time so I can change direction with my left-over movement points if I see an area of interest. THIS IS TEDIOUS.

You can still accidentally colonize the same planet twice. I have done this with move commands that compound at the colonization. I just cancel the 2nd one to avoid any problems.

 

Observations:

The Shipyard is VERY vulnerable. So much so it cannot be defended. Except for surrounding it by ships. I would suggest that a player can have a shipyard once they have a starbase sponsored by a planet. The starport is tethered to the starbase and shares it's defenses. A shipyard should also be closer to a planet. Connecting it over larger distances is kinda stupid. It should be within 1 space of a starbase and the starbase can be connected by up to 2 tiles or something.

Starbases designed to push borders, harvest resources etc. are an entirely different beast than a starbase designed to facilitate orbital industry in the form of manufacturing of ships.

Currently I can spam shipyards and spam constructors so I have shipyards galore and starbase galore quite quickly. Space infrastructure should be developed and planned not spammed. It takes a lot of resources to conduct industry in space. EVEN if say we argue that nanites build shit they still need raw resources, personel, power, and time.

 

When I put star freaquency to abundant and planets to the 2nd highest and then habitable to occasionally I literally had only 12 habitable planets in a large galaxy. Most of these had a population limit of 5-6

 

We should be able to upgrade through tech our starting building. it is the only building that cannot be upgraded. It can be the vehicle through which we specialize a planet's production. It can be changed but takes a long time, augmented, modified etc. Keeps specialization and customization localized into one building to a degree and keeps it simple and fun.

Events can also focus around these founding buildings on our colony worlds. Random events can give a planet a bonus, penalty,  etc. our choices can influence these changes as well.

 

I'll do another play-through in a while and see what else I see and perhaps take the game a bit further.

 

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Reply #1 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

When I put star freaquency to abundant and planets to the 2nd highest and then habitable to occasionally I literally had only 12 habitable planets in a large galaxy. Most of these had a population limit of 5-6

Good point.  I modded GC 2 to improve planet quality for all races at the start, and created 3 "planet quality improver" improvements.  One upgraded planet quality by 3 and another (at a later tech level) by an additional 5.  I also added a superproject that would turn one entire planet into usable tiles (like Corusant in Star Wars).  Having the ability to upgrade usable tiles on any planet to make it better gave a reason to colonize low quality worlds.

I hope in GC 3 that terraforming will work this way, making more tiles available than what we start with.

I do believe that homeworlds should start with a higher quality.

 

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Reply #2 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

As far as the shipyard, it really adds to the game play and is a great addition.  Yes, it is very vulnerable and the planet defensives should be enhanced for GC3.  If you can put all those defensive/offensive capabilities in a space station, they should be available to the planet; be it a projection shield from the planet or string of satellites orbiting around the planet.  It should be the equivalent to cannon at a fort to a port, mining of a harbor, or air defensive system for a country; as technology advances, so should the planet defensives/offensive capabilities to include the shipyard in orbit. 

With the shipyard capability, there also has to be a better way to manage them.  In GC2, the governor’s page provided a list of ships being built by planet and you are still working that interface.  However, quick access to the right of the screen should have a tab for shipyards.  It should go along with the planets, ships, space stations.  It provides a quick view of the shipyard, type ship in it, days remaining, and rate of construction.  When you select a shipyard, it highlights it on the map.      

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Reply #3 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I also think the building interface in the shipyard is not very intuitive. Why isn't it just like the planets? I should be able to queue multiple ships, see them in a queue and cancel them. As it stands you pick one ship then it builds it over and over unless I choose to build nothing.

Reply #4 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Alpha, I keep thinking we are in Alpha. Its ok for it to be ugly, buggy and hexes.. We are in Alpha..the disclamer says NOT FUN!! 

Anyway little things like the interface, UI and ship movement are all Polish which Stardock and Brad in general are famous for doing well. I do not think the 'wavy' ship movement will make into release but we will see. 

Reply #5 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting EvilSalmon, reply 3

I also think the building interface in the shipyard is not very intuitive. Why isn't it just like the planets? I should be able to queue multiple ships, see them in a queue and cancel them. As it stands you pick one ship then it builds it over and over unless I choose to build nothing.

This is something being considered. The last dev stream explains a lot.