GalCiv: Altarian Prophecy NEW SHIPS

will neutral civs get access to any new ships?

the game is currently structured so that there's very little advantage to staying neutral and this would seem to add to that trend. right now there's really no point in not being extremely good or extremely evil.

please correct me if i'm wrong.

cheers

h

edit: these new ships sound really cool btw. didn't mean for that post to sound all whiny and negative.
[Message Edited]

Very cool. I'll be buying the expansion pack when it comes out. The fact that it's internet-only is an advantage in my case, my wife is much less likely to hear about it and ask me not to buy it! (Somehow she doesn't always appreciate the time spent on games like Galactic Civilizations).

New ships sound very nice, I hope that somebody has listened to suggestions (from Sirian?) that alignment-specific techs and ships should not be usable if you aren't currently that alignment.

LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL

~SDC~

This is true. Any comment?

all hail the Vamp! (and to a lesser extent, the Wraith)

I don't know. As a neutral I once got the galaxy to ally with me even though both extremes were still alive (the Drengin/Altarians). Doubtful as an evil or goody two-shoes.

~SDC~

The new alignment-based ships sound like fun! I sure hope that civilizations will have to have their alignment CURRENTLY in the applicable alignment range for the special abilities to function, though. Won't be much point to the new ships if player can trade for the tech while not of that alignment, or otherwise take advantage of the new ships without having to maintain alignment.


- Sirian

Really a pleasant surprise to know that we are going to get four new ships in the Xpack. Can't wait to play the beta.

Sirian has a good point. If the ships are implemented under the current system of tacking an alignment requirement on a ship tech, then it would be too easy either to trade/capture the tech or shift alignments around just to get the alignment ship techs. We would then see Wraiths and Sovereigns flying side-by-side.

On a related issue, I assume the AIs would be beefed up to employ the new ships effectively.

Good AIs would need to learn to build Paladins and place them together with ships that need repair. And build Sovereigns and move them along with their other ships to confer additional protection.

Evil AIs placing Wraiths in sectors to weaken enemy ships that are under attack. Not too sure whether Vamps simply restore hps by being the same sector as enemy ships or would have a "life-steal" kind of attack but similarly the AI needs to know how to employ it effectively.

Sounds like some fun additions to GalCiv. Love evil ships! Will these new ships have their own techs or will they be activiated by already existing techs?

Can't wait for the expansion.

"Ships that gives bonuses to friendly ships in same sector" is a good idea. It would encourage mixed-type fleets, rather than only cranking out your "best" ships. Perhaps several such ships should be added?

Ability to use ships won't be tech based. It'll be alignment based.

 

OK, I'm in. I'm heading off to pre-order.

[edit] Which is to say, I would be if it didn't keep giving me a 500 error every time I click "Checkout". I guess I'll try again tomorrow.

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Support ships does make ship battles much more interesting but I can't emphasise enough that the AI needs to learn how to use them as effectively as humans obviously will.

If you look at the special abilities of the new ships, they are similar to those conferred by starbase modules - repair, defense boosts. There isn't one that reduces enemy defenses but they can currently reduce enemy speed.

Makes me think about ship design in Galciv 2. There could be hull slots on ships that allow for the installation of such special abilities.




That's good to know.

Excellent news.

Will the alignment be tied to the ability to use the ship or the ability to build the ship?

Now that such a feature is added will the expansion pack allow users be able to create mods with new alignment based ships?

Any chance of this expanding into alignment based buildings (ie. buildings like trade centres only work when of the correct alignment)

Paul.

~SDC~

If we can go alignment-based in a big way, I would certainly support having all the current alignment techs conferring their direct or indirect (eg, buildings like trade centres) bonuses only if the empire mantains the requisite alignment.

I had the same problem when clicking on the order button. I finally went to Stardock store and looked GalCiv up there and clicked on the x-pack and I was able to order that way. I can hardly wait!

will these new "evil" ships look evil? you know, the same way the evil bot looks evil, and the good bot looks freindly.

Even though I always play with a good alignment, I would like to see people who play a true neutral alignment (let's say 45-55 on the alignment scale) get bonuses, too. For instance, maybe they could research special diplomatic and/or influence stuff because both good and evil races look to you as the only civilization that can bridge the gap between the two philosophies.

Maybe you could research a path that eventually leads you to "True Neutrality" tech, and researching that gets you a "Hall of Justice," Wonder where all the races feel they can come to you to settle their differences in a fair way. This would give you a huge boost in diplomacy and influence. Make the tech path a long one with several prerequisites to ensure that the player follows a truly neutral path.

How does that sound for starters?

Bill
~SDC~
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I wish there was a good defender ship in the capital ship age. Something which can't move but can defend against an AMM. Right now I build almost only AMMs because the other ships are expensive, destroyed easily with one or two AMMs and there is little reason to build big expensive ships when all you need is transports and missiles.
Can we get an ship with a defense bonus against missiles?

I agree with DiCesare. Currently the game is attach only. No chance for defence.
I support the idea of an ODIN class ship (like in GC OS/2) with lot of points and defense.

Re the AntiMatter missiles, I complain that if I have an AM missile in a stack and get attached, they are the first to take the hits. This is not correct. The defence algorithm should exclude from the calculations Transports, Constructors, Colonies and AM Missiles. AM Missiles have just 1 hit point so no chance to shoot back.
For the new Odin class, they should have some sort of AAM (Antimatter to Antimatter Missile) for defenses. Net effect is that it should not get more than 150 points off instead of 300.
Odin class should be able to stack with Starbases to defend them.

I quite like this idea, not a bad thought!

And woohoo to the Paladin ship! LOL

Thanks for the new ships in the expansion Frogboy. I think we all appreciate what appears to be a lack of trimming of the expansion as had been proposed before. Any chance you'll also be including the new events as previously promised as well?

lets hope so *crossing fingers*

Or at the very least a little bit of a re-balance of the ones we already have, a -1/0/+1 to any stat, even early on in the game is hardly worth writing home about, so it's a joke half way through a game

You could always just add them to your game... For example, you could change the Star Hawk to a defensive ship (which it really should be given its place in the Tech Tree), then tack two more defensive ship techs on to that branch of the tree (E.g. a Star Wolf, then a Star Dragon). You'd have to place the improved survey ship elsewhere on the tree (E.g. somewhere after Zero Gravity Research). This makes late game planetary conquest significantly tougher. At this point, I don't think a missile-specific defence mod can be done without changing code.

End transmission.

~SDC~