Reduce blind decisionmaking

from GalCiv4 Forums

The player has to make a lot of blind decisions in Beta 0.77.

  1. The player can't see the terrain of a planet before putting a governor there. This is more important than one might think because I really want to plan ahead in terms of setting up colonies that will serve the core worlds. Part of expert play is matching the yields to the planet's terrain. 
  2. When the Baratak Grove use an artifact to awaken a dead planet, the yields come back 0,0,0,0. It isn't until the planet is colonized  that the player can see the yields. It turns out those yields are quite nice and almost always superior to minor planets. I wish I had known that going into the game.
  3. When considering whether to attack or not, "moderate casualties" is quite a range and is no guarantee of victory. Considering how other mechanics are measured in hundreds of a percent, I think you could be more precise here.
  4. I have no idea what "lightly defended" artifacts are and I'd like to think that my survey ship wouldn't fight to the death in these cases. Taking a lot of damage would get the point across, leave me vulnerable, and force me to waste time repairing. That should be punishment enough for my transgression.
  5. Other threads have beaten the modal event dialog thing to death.

In summary, consider whether the player has the information necessary to make an informed decision and don't punish the player unnecessarily for not knowing all of the mechanics. Minimize save-scumming.

galciv iv early access feedback
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Reply #1 from GalCiv4 Forums Top

Someone mentioned another one: spending ideology points. Your ideology has an understated impact on the game. Your citizens, your leaders, and other races are all impacted by your ideology choices, but the player does not have the information needed to make an informed decision.

As an aside, I hope to keep my posts to a limited number of threads, organized by theme, and not spam the board with a large number of threads. I'm obviously opinionated about this game and I'm just trying to opine in the most constructive way possible.

Reply #2 from GalCiv4 Forums Top


The player has to make a lot of blind decisions in Beta 0.77.

 

    1. The player can't see the terrain of a planet before putting a governor there. This is more important than one might think because I really want to plan ahead in terms of setting up colonies that will serve the core worlds. Part of expert play is matching the yields to the planet's terrain. 

 

    1. When the Baratak Grove use an artifact to awaken a dead planet, the yields come back 0,0,0,0. It isn't until the planet is colonized  that the player can see the yields. It turns out those yields are quite nice and almost always superior to minor planets. I wish I had known that going into the game.

 

    1. When considering whether to attack or not, "moderate casualties" is quite a range and is no guarantee of victory. Considering how other mechanics are measured in hundreds of a percent, I think you could be more precise here.

 

    1. I have no idea what "lightly defended" artifacts are and I'd like to think that my survey ship wouldn't fight to the death in these cases. Taking a lot of damage would get the point across, leave me vulnerable, and force me to waste time repairing. That should be punishment enough for my transgression.

 

    1. Other threads have beaten the modal event dialog thing to death.

 


In summary, consider whether the player has the information necessary to make an informed decision and don't punish the player unnecessarily for not knowing all of the mechanics. Minimize save-scumming.

#1 Do not put a governor on planets of 5 or less.

#1a If you put a governor on a larger planet and decide the planet stinks as a core go to the governors tab in the leader area and fire him you will lose 10 loyalty. Left click on the governor you wish to fire, there will be 4 options the reddish circle will fire go back to these choices and select the green box and at the price of one Harmony Crystal you can get the Loyalty you lost back.

#2 According to what I have read this is a known bug that may I say again may be fixed in the update coming Monday, that too is not set in stone but when the promise comes from the company CEO it's a good bet.

#3 The attack estimate is no guarantee of victory period that is determined by the RNG sometimes you are the Sioux at the Greasy Grass and others you're the Zulu at Roarke's Drift.  

#4 Rule of thumb when exploring anomalies: if they a defended and yellow you need the survey ship and one with at least 8 blue defense points with red you need more, If playing Terrains add the Gaze ship from the commander's section of the leader's window to kill yellow and add the Hive base when you go after red. You need Hyperwave Radio and Leadership Recruitment to access these ships.

ObjectDock - Access shortcuts and frequently used applications from an animated dock.
Reply #3 from GalCiv4 Forums Top

Quoting Jeff, reply 1

Someone mentioned another one: spending ideology points. Your ideology has an understated impact on the game. Your citizens, your leaders, and other races are all impacted by your ideology choices, but the player does not have the information needed to make an informed decision.

As an aside, I hope to keep my posts to a limited number of threads, organized by theme, and not spam the board with a large number of threads. I'm obviously opinionated about this game and I'm just trying to opine in the most constructive way possible.
 

Trying to understand what information you do not have; one you do not have to spend IPs when received two you can check every info window in the game before you pick your choice.

 

Make one thread title or retitle this one "Jeff's observation on Gal Civ 4" thus no thread spam. 

I tend to ignore posters that do post multiple threads, but that is my personal preference. 

I tend to rightly or wrongly classify such as attention seekers or those that think that the more posts, rather than the quality of said post gives them status within the Forum. 

And yes, I have run into posters that have stated I have more posts than you, so I know more, when a look at their posts most were "I agree".😎

Reply #4 from GalCiv4 Forums Top

Quoting gypsy2299, reply 3


Quoting Jeff Yutzler,
reply 1

Someone mentioned another one: spending ideology points. Your ideology has an understated impact on the game. Your citizens, your leaders, and other races are all impacted by your ideology choices, but the player does not have the information needed to make an informed decision.
Yes, many of the posters on Discord have problems with IPs, that however is the rarity of their spawning not so much the picking which to choose.

As an aside, I hope to keep my posts to a limited number of threads, organized by theme, and not spam the board with a large number of threads. I'm obviously opinionated about this game and I'm just trying to opine in the most constructive way possible.

 

Trying to understand what information you do not have; one you do not have to spend IPs when received two you can check every info window in the game before you pick your choice.

Yes, there are many posters on Discord that have problems with IPs. However, that is mostly with the rarity of their spawning as what to choose for them to do.

 

Make one thread title or retitle this one "Jeff's observation on Gal Civ 4" thus no thread spam. 

I tend to ignore posters that do post multiple threads, but that is my personal preference. 

I tend to rightly or wrongly classify such as attention seekers or those that think that the more posts, rather than the quality of said post gives them status within the Forum. 

And yes, I have run into posters that have stated I have more posts than you, so I know more, when a look at their posts most were "I agree".😎

Reply #5 from GalCiv4 Forums Top

Quoting gypsy2299, reply 4

Trying to understand what information you do not have; one you do not have to spend IPs when received two you can check every info window in the game before you pick your choice.

This is less blind than some of the other things I posted, but there is still no obvious way to collect this information. Hover over every single leader and citizen and scan each race? How aggravating. I liken it to Civ VI's Extended Policy Cards. All of the information is in the game for a player to evaluate which policy cards to use, but this mod takes all of the scouring out. Let's be honest, that's what computers are for. At the broader level, either these decisions are important or they aren't. If the players are going to decide the same way each game, then there is no point in having the mechanic.

This might not fall above the line of things that need to be in 1.0, but it is a quality of life thing that high-end gamers look for. Some players are going to be satisfied with playing on easy difficulty, land-grabbing and sim-citying their empire until they snowball. High-end players are going to want to beat the game at high difficulty levels through superior decision-making and the unique peculiarities of each game. Those players will appreciate the attention to detail that will allow them to identify the time for out-of-the-box strategies.

Reply #6 from GalCiv4 Forums Top

Quoting gypsy2299, reply 4


Quoting gypsy2299,
reply 3





 


And yes, I have run into posters that have stated I have more posts than you, so I know more, when a look at their posts most were "I agree".😎


 

I agree }:)  

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