Heroes for your fleets

from GalCiv3 Forums

Have been through about 30 games of Galciv3 and really enjoy the game from a strategic standpoint.  I think what is missing to make a truly addictive experience is something to make the player emotionally connected to their world or fleets.  I personally find that I enjoy the planning and strategy, but I dont really care if I lose a fleet or certain planets...it becomes a numbers game.  The game ends up feeling a bit shallow in certain cases.  For example, if you look at what are considered to be one of the great 4x turn based games...Heroes of Might and Magic (the earlier games) you have exactly what you have with galciv except the additional layer of heroes on top of your army.  These heroes ultimately become what you are attached to, not the stack of 100 ogres.

I am wondering if it would be fun to implement fleet captains/admirals that have a personality and can "level".  They provide bonuses and have special abilities they can use perhaps (maybe you select something before combat begins) to throw in an added surprise.  Maybe you have one ultra powerful admiral in your empire, with 4 or 5 lesser captains.  Each is attached to a specific fleet.  You could have fallen enchantress style events/adventures as you explore to level these characters up.  I think this would add incredible depth to the game, replayability and battles.  Understanding you are going up against the enemies admiral who can throw things at you that arent readily apparent, etc.  You know you are in for a tough and interesting fight.  While I truly enjoy the Galciv world, it lacks some personality for me.  Eventually you know you have the numbers and it just becomes a matter of mashing buttons.  Give me things to be emotionally attached to and I think you have a world class game.

Just my .02...thanks for reading.

5,652 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I had mentioned this in previous posts. As of right now we get an 'experience' to ships via kills. This is expanded in Horemvores GST mod to be 'ship components' that you can install that improve everything from attack, defense, movement, range and sensors. 

I had hoped (and still do) that after Crusade lands that we will get a DLC that brings movable admirals to our game. Such is the case with Distant Worlds which can be moved from fleet to fleet and improve things the same as ship components do in the GST mod. Ideally we would get some 2D pictures and a quick background and a 'flavor' that admiral likes. While this likely does nothing for diplomacy,  such cosmetic additions would add to the game and bring more 'life' to our living galaxy. 

Reply #2 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I am sorry to be ignorant, but can I ask what Crusade is?  I dont have a modded galciv...just vanilla with a few of the DLC.  Maybe I am missing some what might be considered crucial mods?  (Although I always worry about stability when modding games). 

Either way - to your point about flavor...I agree completely.   I have also played games where you do build up your leaders, but as they age, their characteristics change and eventually they die.  I really like this idea of your valuable admirals can be lost/killed by: accepting an adventure or scenario they dont succeed in (fallen enchantress style), they are killed in combat or they simply age and die (this would have to be a fairly long process).  I really like the idea of succession planning...it adds another strategy wrinkle.  My aging uber admiral or a maybe less skilled, but younger captain who can be with my best fleet for a long time, etc. ( I think the aging leader aspect I first saw in Rome Total War...maybe)

Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Reply #3 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Crusades is the next big Expansion, well Expandalone. (Expansion that will contain vanilla too)

EDIT:

There are no crucial mods per say. There are mods that enhance playability/gameplay though. Like:-

 

GRM

AI Tweaks

Planet Diversity

Informative Diplomacy

Herewards Mods

Enhanced Ship Leveling

Enhanced Terraforming or Terraforming Plus.

 

All these mods are stable. Very Stable.

Reply #4 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

The best example I seen to my opinion was great people in civilization 4. Heroes sounds nice. From my viewpoint mercenaries were supposed to do this, but being able to move my leaders to different fleets sounds nice. 

As far as a living breathing galaxy ie distant worlds. I think larsenex was talking about. It ould be nice to see airliners coming and going to and fro planet, but just one request could you have some different color, or something, so I could distinguish them different from other ships. There needs to be an option to shut this off for those who would not like this. Personally I would leave this on. Are you talking about ground battles. Here it is inferior to two which needed improvement over that. 

Toying with an idea of private sectors. This may be decided by kinds of goverment, or ideologies. With ideologies you could add each tech together to decide which on you use most. You could add points in each one to decide which you choose the most. You could have a seperate improvement list for the private sector picking unimproveed tiles to work with random, or needed buildings. from a seperate list, or the same as the player, but privately controlled. Maybe even building ships for themselves. Ie uncontrolled scout ships which will still reveal unexplored tiles. Since it is private the player has no control on it, or pays maintenence. This could also be done with private constructures, and survey vessels. Have a seperate private tech tree research based on above criteria. This would only bepartial randomization, and has nonthing to do with player involvement. Only the private sector.