GalCiv Journal: September 2017

from GalCiv3 Forums

The big GalCiv III v2.5 update went out.  Most people like it.  Not everyone of course (it breaks save games).  If you're liking it, you know the drill "Like and Subscribe" as they say on YouTube or in Steam's case, please leave a review.  Even if you've left a review in the past, you can delete your old one and leave a new one which will have the "Recent reviews" which matters a lot (a lot more than it should imo but hopefully Valve will update their algorithms in light of recent review abuse on Dota2 and other games).

Anyway...

Playing with the look and feel

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I changed the nebula background brightness so that other things pop a bit more.  I also made the fog of war much darker.  You can change the numbers in colordefs.xml and galciv3graphicsdefs.xml and starboxdefs.xml if you want to play with these things for yourself.

A citizen for you

In the next update, Crusade owners will get a free citizen.  This way, at the start of the game, they can make some tweaks to their economy.

 

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This also goes for various technologies.  For example, research Diplomacy and you now get a Diplomat.  This should make cultural influence victories a bit more realistic again (in 2.5, the AI got a lot smarter about detecting aggressive influence star bases).

 

More Trade

We're slightly decreasing the amount of money from trade routes but substantially increasing the number of trade routes you can have.  This makes trading empires a lot more interesting.

Balance

It's no secret that I play GalCiv III a lot.  Since joining the GalCiv III team back last Winter I've put over 1600 hours into the game -- and that's just STEAM hours (my programming hours don't get counted).

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And each time I play I find something to improve.

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Evil will always triumph because good is dumb

Many of the colonization events are getting a slight rework whereby the "evil" choice is somewhat more profitable than before.  Also, the Malevolent ideology tree in Crusade is being tweaked to give a general bonus in negotiations rather than focusing on minors.

Today's notes:

  • Increased number of trade licenses that techs provide
  • Tiny hull cost increased from 20 to 25
  • Tiny hull maint increased from 1 to 2
  • Tiny hull acceleration increased from 0.2 to 0.3
  • Tiny hull max speed increased from 0.2 to 0.3
  • Small hull cost increased from 30 to 40
  • Small hull maint increased from 1 to 2
  • Medium hull maint increased from 1 to 2
  • Large hull cost increased from 150 to 250
  • Large hull maint increased from 1 to 2
  • Huge hull maint increased from 1 to 2
  • Huge hull logistics cost increased from 12 to 15
  • Starbase maint increased from 1 to 3
  • Trade Route income reduced from 5% of planet income to 3%.
  • Snathi get 4 instead of 3 trade route licenses with Xeno Commerce in order for Stardock to survive their inevitable culling of Earth.
  • More typo fixes.
  • Bureaucrats get 10 instead of 25 bonus administrative points. (Crusade)
  • New Improvement: Diplomatic Corps. Lets player train Diplomats. (Crusade)
  • Players now start out with a leader. (Crusade)
  • Rework to various colonization events to give the evil choice more goodies because evil will always triumph because good is dumb.
  • Awe trait now provides benefit to all civs rather than just minors since you don't trade with Minors in Crusade
  • Interstellar governance now provides a leader upon researching (crusade)
  • Republic government now provides a ldeader upon researching (crusade)
  • Democracy tech now provides a leader upon researching (crusade)
  • Star Federation tech now provides a leader upon research (crusade)
  • Various high end diplomacy techs now provide a diplomat (crusade)
  • Cultural Influence tech now provides a celebrity (crusade)
  • Xeno Economics now provides an Entrepreneur upon researching (crusade)
  • Ephany now costs 2 instead of 1 Spice
  • Central Bank provides 1 wealth instead of 100% wealth (was a bug)
  • Central bank provides 1 wealth per level
  • Starports now cost 1 maint
  • Xeno Farms now provide 0.5 food per level instead of only 0.3 (along with all the upgrades) (crusade)
  • Various recruit projects on planets cost less but now require a special resource. (crusade)
  • You can now recruit celebrities but you cannot yet eject them into space (patience). )crusade)
  • Treasure Hunt mission is now available at start of the game. (crusade)
  • Prototype hyperdrive base cost increqased from 8 to 50 (duh) (Crusade)
  • Beam weapons use slightly more mass (crusade)
  • Plasma weapon cost increased from 60 to 70 (crusade)
  • Phased cannon cost increased from 70 to 90 (crusade)
  • Rapid recharger mass dramatically reduced but cost increased from 12 to 32 (crusade)
  • Energy Accelerator mass greatly reduced but cost increased from 23 to 50 (crusade)
  • Shield leach... (crusade)
  • Harpoon cost reduced from 80 to 60 (crusade)
  • Photonic warhead cost reduced from 150 to 90 (crusade)
  • Triton missile cost reduced from 250 to 120 (crusade)
  • Photon Torps reduced from 300 to 120 (crusade)
  • Kinetic weapon mass substantially reduced across the board (crusade)
  • Kinetic weapons damage slightly increased (crusade)
  • Quantum Driver cost reduced from 120 to 90 (crusade)
  • Singularity driver reduced from 140 to 90 cost (crusade)
  • Rapid reload and other special modules have their cost increased but their mass decreased. Idea is that special modules should be used by wealthy civs. (crusade)

More to come...

208,991 views 27 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I really do appreciate all this work, honest, but could you PLEASE focus on bugfixes for a bit longer too? It's getting very frustrating for me. Apologies if any of these have been addressed already:

 

FlickMontana was still having the No Genocide Ships error. I know a fix went out already, but no one else has chimed in yet either way so I'm still worried.

 

Quoting Bakka, reply 64
Planet built shipyards do not consume administration point where as building shipyards with constructor doesn't return your administration point.  Is this correct?

Unconfirmed-Upgrading A survey ship consumes another administration point.

Unconfirmed-Upgrading a survey ship to a none survey ship you don't get your administration point back.

Unconfirmed-The behavior of administration points with mercenary colonizers is funky. You need two to buy and after colonizing you get 2 back instead of what I expected 1 back ( 1 point taken for the settled planet)

 

Quoting Bakka, reply 65
Tech Militarization:
     Enhanced lasers- needs Elerium. Nice but hang on I haven't even got lasers yet.
     Sparrow Missiles- needs anti-matter.
     Basic Railguns- Description says needs Thulium but is see no evidence of that in the ship designer.

Tech Weapons Systems:
     Lasers-Description says Increase beam attack? Increase from what The "enhanced laser" is the same attack

Tech Harpoons:
     Prototype Antimatter Missile-Why prototype? already have the sparrows that use antimatter. Do cost less than Stinger. Suspect these weapons are linked to the wrong tech.
     Harpoon-more bang for your antimatter over the prototype but cost more and slightly heaver.

 

May just be a display thing, no idea if the stats are working in combat or not. He has several of these posted:

Quoting Chibiabos,
Inertial Dampeners ("Increase damage done by all Kinetic weapons in fleet.") shows up as an Ability for the ship when you add the module, but no actual effect is shown on the ship's Kinetic attack (yes, I have base Kinetic weapons equipped).

 

I know you know this one already lol:

Quoting Frogboy, reply 3
Basically, what is happening is that something will advertise its base mass but what it actually uses applies all the various bonuses you have.

What I think the UI should do is update the advertised mass to be what it will actually use and then put into a tooltip what it would have orignally consumed without your tech.

 

Quoting pshaw, reply 5
Quoting Publius of NV,

reply 4


Quoting pshaw,


reply 3

 

Have you seen that recently? We put a fix in for that a few months ago.
EDIT: I mean all support ships flying through the battle with no one firing.


Yes, that's part of what I was reporting in the original post.  It's happening in my current 2.5 opt-in game with The Ysengard never firing but being out front.


Well foo then.  I'll ask someone to look into it.

 

 

Base Game 2.5:

Quoting LunarMongoose, reply 8
The ProtoSurvey *blueprint* still has "<ShipHullType>Small</ShipHullType>" from 2.33, but all of the ProtoSurvey *ship designs* in ShipClassDefs.xml have "<ShipHullType>Tiny</ShipHullType>" since this is your new combined master list that's even mentioned in the 2.5 patch notes. I'm not actually sure whether this will cause a problem in-game or not lol, but I assume it'd be safer and better to have them both match?

SoundPackager - Customize the Windows sound scheme
Reply #3 from LittleTinyFrogs Forums Top

You can assume that bug fixes go in as well.  I fix them as I find them personally but bug fixes get assigned and handled by other members of the team.  

If you look at release change logs, you can find that bugs, balance updates, UX improvements happen as routine.

Reply #4 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Thanks for the update Frog, appreciate the work, and I enjoy reading the progress.

Also updated my review for you.

cheers

Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top

Thanks for all your hard work! This a great game, and getting better all the time!

Reply #6 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Evil will always triumph because good is dumb

Many of the colonization events are getting a slight rework whereby the "evil" choice is somewhat more profitable than before.  Also, the Malevolent ideology tree in Crusade is being tweaked to give a general bonus in negotiations rather than focusing on minors.

How is ideology balanced?  Apparently this is a response to the increased value of influence in benevolent or pragmatic paths?

Reply #7 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

How is ideology balanced?

I agree.

The Malevolent tree is already way stronger as it is, and most of the Benevolent and Pragmatic trees are worthless.  People have been saying that before (including me), so I didn't bother saying it again.

Plus, this means skill in negotiations is no longer Pragmatic's strong suit.   Malevolent gets that, too.   And I have finished the entire Malevolent ideology tree twice now, but there is no practical way to finish the Benevolent and Pragmatic trees--meaning you can't really get those Steam Achievements, without adding some +1000 benevolent ideology events in a mod.

Reply #8 from LittleTinyFrogs Forums Top

Quoting tetleytea, reply 7


How is ideology balanced?



I agree.

The Malevolent tree is already way stronger as it is, and most of the Benevolent and Pragmatic trees are worthless.  People have been saying that before (including me), so I didn't bother saying it again.

Plus, this means skill in negotiations is no longer Pragmatic's strong suit.   Malevolent gets that, too.   And I have finished the entire Malevolent ideology tree twice now, but there is no practical way to finish the Benevolent and Pragmatic trees--meaning you can't really get those Steam Achievements, without adding some +1000 benevolent ideology events in a mod.

The malevolent tree is getting a rebalance in 2.6.

Reply #9 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Is there a live stream or something happening this week by Star Dock? I have been watching a few Lets Plays and people have mentioned something is going to happen with the new patch coming out :)

Reply #10 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Broadly, I feel like benevolent bonuses on planet colonisation should be more long term focused, where malevolent should be short term gain. It's already like this to some extent.

The pragmatic events could sometimes use improvement - they sometimes just feel like a halfway choice between benevolent and malevolent and it would be good to see them get some character of their own

Reply #11 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Treasure Hunt mission is now available at start of the game. (crusade)

Good idea. I like it most from all these changes above.

 

Reply #12 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

One problem is that, in real life, "Pragmatic" is really Evil.  Even the evil can act good--when it is beneficial to themselves.  But that is more a "Life, the Universe, and everything" sort of thing. 

Also, I think it perfectly acceptable if the event choices tended to be juicier one way, but the other ideology trees themselves were better.   e.g. better short-term gain from a malevolent event, but the benevolent tree is OP compared to malevolent.   I mean, that's what the Ideology mechanic is all about, right?  Choices.

 

MHO:  malevolent ideology tree should not improve PQ.  That malevolent pick should let you colonize some dead planets and gives you some crappy PQ2 instead.   e.g. who wants to colonize Venus?  Malevolent says, "Tough.  You're going."

 

Reply #13 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

This one bothered me to that malevolent is smart while benevolent is dumb, while life shows the opposite. Did you guys get rid of 50 percent of trade to minors since we cant talk to minors in crusade. I would rather my choices balanced than malevolent having better choices.

Reply #14 from GalCiv3 Forums Top


Evil will always triumph because good is dumb

I know you!!!  Are you my father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate?!

Reply #15 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Colonel are you related to Waman

Reply #16 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

No, that makes them nothing.  Which is what you are about to become ...

Reply #17 from GalCiv3 Forums Top


Playing with the look and feel

Frogboy, while you are at this: is there a reason, why we are not getting information on faction´s preferred weapon/defense combo in the espionage (surveillance) screen?

That is indeed truly the strategic information every spy would go after, isn´t it?

Reply #18 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting tetleytea, reply 12

One problem is that, in real life, "Pragmatic" is really Evil. Even the evil can act good--when it is beneficial to themselves.

You're making a distinction that isn't real, and in the real can be polarizing and destructive.  ALL life is self-interested or it wouldn't be around long. The difference is in how that interest is served.  The Good generally believes that what is good for others is also good for itself - and n.b. vice versa.  The Evil are willing, or eager, to sacrifice the good of others to its own end.  The Pragmatic believes that side effects of an act are considerable but not determinate.  (E.g. Never: "We can't do or say that because someone might be offended.")

The dangers of the Evil are obvious.  The Good, in fact, also can be extremely annoying. The Pragmatic tries to steer to the middle ground and is not guided by any other ideology.

 

As for PQ, the ends, e.g. a more productive planet, are legitimate goals for all three game ideologies.  Evil might actually be more effective at it in the short term.  Perhaps an immediate PQ award, with some longer-term detriment...

 

Reply #19 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

[quote who="Chibiabos" reply="16" id="3689697"]
No, that makes them nothing.  Which is what you are about to become ...

Reply #20 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

ALL life is self-interested

The difference is in the altruism.   Good is altruistic, which by definition actually runs contrary to self interests.   And in fact I would argue that without altruism, human life is not possible, either.

I'm going off this idea that good is after the greater good...evil looks only after one's self and hurts everyone else...pragmatic will be either good or evil depending on what's good for them.   That latter is not really "neutral", because it is not altruistic.   You can still be evil and benefit others.  

But then if we mix sci-fi in the picture, that muddies it, because you have the Borg, who is absolutely altruistic, but whom we consider evil.  And we would have to add a qualifier to your assertion and say that all TERRESTRIAL life is self-interested.  Alien life is fictitious, so it can be whatever we want it to be. 

Reply #21 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Well these arent alignments so good, and evil atent here. These are ideologies which means these are ways of thinking instead, even thpugh benevolent, and malevolent sounds like alignments, not ideologies. Ideologies would work better if instead od looking at the actions, look at the type of thinkings that caused this.

Reply #22 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting 00zim00, reply 9

Is there a live stream or something happening this week by Star Dock? I have been watching a few Lets Plays and people have mentioned something is going to happen with the new patch coming out :)

Just keep an eye out on the forums and socials for something. ;)

 

Reply #23 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Frogboy, the updates are much appreciated, as always.

I was extremely surprised to see kinetic weapons receive a general buff instead of a nerf... And the other weapons were the nerfed ones!?! My experience is that kinetics are far superior.

Perhaps it's a function of the maps I play (large and generally abundant planets). It's not difficult to get a few fully-sponsored shipyards quickly producing medium hull warships by turn 80-100. Ive found that focusing on kinetic weapons with the modules far outstrips the performance of other weapons. The fire rate on kinetics just eats enemy ships.

Kinetics are cheap to build, small mass, fast firing, and require no difficult to obtain resources. For good or I'll, elerium is more scarce than thulium or promethium, yet beam weapons aren't nearly as desirable as kinetics.

The only reason I can see to go missiles is the front loaded combat damage, but just a bit of point defense on your escorts destroys that advantage.

On large maps it seems like quantity > quality. Perhaps small maps are the reverse? Could you elaborate on why the weapons were adjusted how they were?

Reply #24 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting tetleytea, reply 20

Good is altruistic, which by definition actually runs contrary to self interests.

I disagree.  Some ideologies hold, and our own emotional responses seem to confirm, that altruism is self-interest, especially collective self-interest.  Then there is the strong example of the religions that hold that one's self-interest is not necessarily best served in this world.  You would undoubtedly call them mistaken fanatics, but there's a bunch of them out there, few pragmatic.

I prefer to look at Good civs as firmly convinced that they are doing the right thing - and generally they are - but tend to self-righteousness.  Their way is the right way.  How else could a truly Good/Benevolent society justify war?

 

The Borg is an excellent example of "bad guys" that aren't really evil.  That is how I conceptualize the Dread Lords.  It is for the good of the whole universe that life be exterminated.  In that sense, the Ideology range is not linear/polar but circular.  Pragmatic tends to be non-ideological (small i), which may in the long run equate to rule by RNGesus.  (The godly random number generator.)

 

Fun discussion.

 

 

 

Reply #25 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I wasn't going to get into religion.  Too OT.  But no, I don't consider them mistaken fanatics.  Actually, it helps drive home what I'm getting at:  if you are willing to die for something, or someone, then biologically speaking there is simply no way that it serves your own self-interest.  Something transcends that.  Love only because it "feels good" is not love.  The willingness to die for one's offspring, I could see the possible biological component to it.  But not self-interest.  Certainly not a self-interest without which life would not be possible--it's the reason they died.