How different is it from Galciv 1?

I played Galciv 1, was impressed with most of the game and the reviewers seem to like GC2 a lot, but I want to know a specific thing before deciding on buying /demoing galciv 2.

One of my pet peeves in Galciv 1 was how the population got *extremely* restless as the total grew. Nothing helped for long - you could blow your entire budget on social techs (while the enemy carved you up) and you still could't progress beyond the 2nd govenmental form without the entire civilization collapsing from malcontent.

It was so extreme that the only cost-effective option for a colony who'd reached its maximum population was to build population transports, load about 20% of the planetary population into them, then decommission the transports (read: drop the whiny, rioting idiots into the nearest star). Fully developed planets were a *liability*, not an asset(compared to every other 4x game I've ever played). This issue took a huge amount of fun out of the game for me, and if it's still there, I need to know it.

If you don't agree at least somewhat with the above statement about GC1, I probably don't need to hear from you. I probably have differences of opinion with people who like GC. I accept that, and propose that I will not attempt to 'convert' you if you don't try to convert me.

I'm not a beginner to 4x, or a stranger to the various ways of keeping one's galactic citizens happy. I've played most of them from MOO1 to SOTS to Alpha Centauri to SE:IV (I'll wait on SE:V until they have a workable AI). It *IS* possible that I simply didn't play the game 'right', but since I tried everything from an all-social strat to micromanaging planets, and found that the *only* thing that really worked was murdering my own people...

I need to know a) If I simply was overlooking something obvious in GC1 (hard question to answer, I know) or

weather this 'feature' has been changed signifigantly since GC1, or c) weather I'm going to run into the exact same thing and therefore really shouldn't waste my time.

No insult is intended or should be construed towards GC2, since I don't know much *about* GC2.

Please let me know.

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The game mechanocs are very similar tp GC I but its a whole new game in all the other areas. I never had many issuses in GC I at all but you definitely don't have to do that now If you build your planets correctly.

A. not sure as I didn't have an issue with it.
B. it depends on you and how you build your planets. There are population caps now and pop growth is tied directly to morale.
C. I don't think you will

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try the demo, you have 3 years of game time, plenty to run into any planet development issues - and while morale is still a butt sometimes, i have never had to murder citizens to fix it in GCII (i did have to quick build and entertainment center, but eh, thats acceptable methinks)

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I did have that issue in GC I and found it highly annoying as well. It's absolutely not a problem in GC II and is completely controllable through other means.

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To answer the question in a nutshell: GC2 is different and much better.

E.g. you can now control your population level by building farms (or not).

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It was so extreme that the only cost-effective option for a colony who'd reached its maximum population was to build population transports, load about 20% of the planetary population into them, then decommission the transports (read: drop the whiny, rioting idiots into the nearest star).

the ultimate evil way to take take of the population...

But to respond to the question, yes, it is better on the morale issue. In the DA beta, it tells *why* they are "angry".

I wish I could harness their whininess and turn it in to *AHem*,"energy"

(incineration)

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Thank you all for your answers

That helps immensly.

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Mystikmind

Join Date 06/2004

+20

what i used to do to solve the population morale issue in galciv1 was to first, find a map with a planet quality '26'. Very rare, so just keep restarting till you see one nearby.

You can send an awful lot of colonists to that planet before moral becomes a problem. Also you need the 'terraforma' project which improves all your planets and helps moral allot more than any so called 'moral' projects. The terraforma project in galciv2 is kinda irrelevant.

Galciv1 and 2 in my opinion have good and bad points which balance out to make them about equal. However galciv 2 has the ship editor which is the one feature that puts it miles ahead of galciv1.

here's a tip... if you like terra stars, hold on to galciv1!

If you like beating the AI at building trade goods then you won't like galciv2... Your gonna be begging the AI to build them so you can buy them in. This is a result of the new planet format limiting severely what you can build.

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