Frogboy Frogboy

Get ready for a lot of bitching

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Get ready for a lot of bitching

from GalCiv3 Forums

Last month, CariElf, the lead developer of GalCiv I and II rejoined us.

Later this month, I rejoin the GalCiv III team.  In effect, it'll be a reunion of the GalCiv II team as we take the game to the next level.

But before we begin the series of GalCiv III updates that leads into the big expansion, let me offer you the same advice I've tried to give others here:

If you want to succeed, you must slay the three F's: Friends, Family, Faith.  

And in the spirit of that credo, my journals are going to take on a much darker tone.

Now, I know many (most) of you like Galactic Civilizations III.  It is very polished and it plays really well and has a good user experience..most of the time.

But I'm not joining the team for those reasons.  I don't care about any of those things.

When I wrote the original GalCiv for OS/2, I wanted to make an AI game.  I only let people play the game because I needed your money for my AI work.  Frankly, the game would be a lot better if there were no humans at all.  You're just too...slow.

I have a lot of complaints.  I don't like the late game experience of GalCiv III.  I don't like the AI's war fighting "strategy" (if you can call it that).  I find the game too slow late game.  Anyway, my point is, I'm old and I'm back on GalCiv which is where I like to be.

But I'm not going to sugar coat my work.  If you want to read marketing fluff, you'll want to avoid my journal entries.  

I still think GalCiv III is the best space 4X game currently on the market.  But that's mainly because I'm not happy with any of them right now.  If I could combine the presentation of ES 2 with the features of Stellaris with the rest of GalCiv III it would still be...ok.  But let me tell you what is wrong with these 4X games (looking at you Civ VI):

  1. AI. It aggravates me that no one cares about AI anymore.  You can get a 90 review score without decent AI.  
  2. Statistics show that most people play these games as Simcity style games. Well, they're not.  I'm happy to make a space Simcity game but STRATEGY games should be about strategy.
  3. I hate the economic systems of these games.  All of them.
  4. I'm annoyed with the new MOO game.  You know the secret sauce that a new MOO game could have had (did you know I bid $2 million to get the MOO IP?): It's not the battles, it's the fact that they put a lot of effort into having different species mixed together.  Simtex got this back in 1996. GalCiv should steal this.  We won't be for the time being but good grief, what a great game mechanic.
  5. Espionage.  Won't make it until the expansion. But gotta have that.
  6. Politics.  I am probably alone on this but it's a big bugaboo with me that we don't have more politics in these games.  Did you know the original OS/2 version of GalCiv back in 1993 had political parties, elections, etc? And I wrote that by myself. That's how big a deal I considered that game mechanic when trying to run an intergalactic society.
  7. Food.  Seriously. ARRGH.  This should be a global resource.  The idea that planets need to be self-sustaining in food is absurd.

That's just off the top of my head.

Like I said, GalCiv III is the best of the 4X space games on the market right now imo.  But without significant work, it's ripe to be knocked over and it'll deserve it.

So sit back and avoid my journal entries. It's going to be quite a ride. :)

 

355,614 views 53 replies
Reply #51 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Lucky_Jack, reply 50

Which raises another question, why can't we capture shipyards?

 

Why can't we capture ships?  Or Starbases?  Boarding missions would be an awesome addition.

Reply #52 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Hey Frogboy, glad to see the old gang is getting back together and glad to see that this game is going to remain a priority. I invested in being a founder because I trusted you guys mainly because of my experience with Elemental. I saw that when you guys see that a game is not up to snuff, you put it right. I liked GCIII at release, but it never grabbed me the way GCII did. I think it is very positive that you look at this game and say, "good, but not good enough," and am very excited about the bullet points you put forth here as I agree with every one of them, but am especially excited about the idea of politics.

Would you mind expanding some on your distinction between Simcity and strategy as it applies to GCIII? How you build up your infrastructure is a strategic choice, so when you say you want more strategy, are you referring to more conflict (both military and diplomatic)? One thing I have noticed is that it tends to be relatively easy to get to a stasis point in this and many other 4x games where you don't really have to interact with other factions if you don't want to, is this the problem?

Star Control: Origins
Reply #53 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Lucky_Jack, reply 50


Quoting mrblondini,
reply 49

One aspect of politics I'd like to see is when one of your planets is on the verge of flipping to another culture, any ships built in that planet's shipyards attack any other ships built at any of your other shipyards (basically Planet Zorka declaring war on every other planet in your kingdom and then immediately the race Planet Zorka flips to declares war).

Or, alternatively, for a few turns suddenly that fleet from Planet Zorka just will not do what you tell them aannnnnd suddenly they're Drengin red and, gee, those missiles sure made a mess of your 5th Fleet...

 

 



So you want to have it start an instant war, with all of the consequence there of? I would find this too unrealistic. Perhaps the ships could just change sides with the planet, and then the receiving side could decide whether or not to go to war.

Wait a minute!! Shipyards can have multiple supporting planets. What happens with the other planets supporting the shipyard? And should the shipyard also change sides? Even if it has other planets supporting it that are not changing sides?

Sorry, but this idea has too many unresolved questions that need to be worked out.

Which raises another question, why can't we capture shipyards?

 

Good thinking. The multi-planet sponsorship model never occured to me to be a problem.

Yes, an idea that would end up too messy to implement and - even if it could be implemented to take into account multi-planet shipyards and the consequences (which planet gets which ships etc?) - I accept it'd be a disaster to play with.

Suggestion withdrawn...But I like your capture shipyard idea although I see something like that in the espionage system - using a spy to disable/destroy a shipyard/turn a shipyard to your side.