TifaAA18

Join Date 05/2008

Ideas for GalCivIII

I know It's a little too early but can't a man have a dream of his own?

First I'd like to congrat. stardock & ironclad on their SoaSE success, even though I'm not a fan of RTS the demo did prove to be appealing for a 4x strategy game fan. I also would like to propose some game development ideas 4 the future GalCivIII.

I always liked the ideas of total war franchise that is about the marriage of turn-based strategy and RTS which is ,unlike Sid's CivIV pure turn-based game, a good way to appeal to a wider spectrum of gamers who are in to action oriented stuff instead of sitting back and thinking their long-term strategy in term of turns. Therefore, my suggestion would be the good old 4x style of GalCiv with a pinch of optional RTS in the battle screen, and to take it further let's say planet invasions with ground encounters in all their varieties from plains, forests to mountains and volcanoes...etc - also sea & air encounters will spice it up. Together with the beloved fleet battles in space but with an optional control over the battle SoaSE style " now SoaSE is genre of it's own, hehe "

Oh Oh, I've got another Idea If GalcivIII were to develop in to the previous idea I had in mind multiplayer can be implemented for the battles part, man that will be waaaay coooool

Thanks 4 GalCiv it's really the closest game to my dream genre that never came to life whether it's in a Sci-Fi, fantasy, history...etc setting.

Go Stardock, a really different game Developer/Publisher, a one who actually listen to their customers instead of milking money out of them till they feel they have to do the "Arrgh, har har" thingie in order to mod their games properly for a worthy extended playability without the fear of ending up with a busted overused CD or messing up their PCs with a stupid protection system.

Note, this post is actually a combination of my three replies to GalCivII TotA feedback post, but I felt like this subject needs to be discussed separately in order not to disrupt the feedback.

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I just hope they fix the combat

Galciv + sword of the stars combat & combat-physics = droolmaterial

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the ability too free conquered civs would be nice...or a official star trek mod...this game would be a good alternative for birth of a federation.a larger map would also be nice

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-More interesting combat (range, fire rate, support vessels, ect).
-Ability to create custom ship sizes (put more on a ship for a bigger cost)
-Starbases that attack ships in their radius.
-More dynamic population (propaganda, urges to ally a civilization, ect)
-Ability to take loans from people, or loan objects (planets, ships)
-more AI strings
-Spy vessels (doesn't appear on enemy radar unless special ship is near)
-Ability to start a conflict with someone (to take a planet or destroy a starbase). -This would have less consequences than going to war, and some ship abilities are disabled. Conflicts last for 10 minutes, after that the population grows unhappy
-Space Debra/gas clouds. Block sensors from getting through (line of sight)
-Long range weaponry (missiles that attack a planet a huge distance away)

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Galactic Civilizations is a great game, but to me, the feel has always been a little off.

By that I mean, I feel more like I'm playing a game than running an intergalactic empire. The way that, for example the planets are not unique, they are just a planet quality number and possibly need techs.
I'd like planets to be generated more realistically. First, the size is generated (influencing gravity). Then the planet's volcanic activity and distance from/size of the star influences it's temperature and what kind of atmosphere it has. Then a few more factors are thrown in, such as having a high amount of radioactive metals, water content, the presence of indigenous inhabitants and any bonus tiles (believable reasons, not just precursor blah). This generates an interesting description for the player and a unique appearance.
These factors are then summarised in two numbers, capacity and habitability. Capacity is how many improvements can be built, habitability influences maintenance costs, population growth, points production and morale.
For example, a large planet far from the sun will have high capacity due to size but low habitability due to temperature and heavy gravity. The indigenous ice monsters may cause damage to improvements. Once you research core awakening, the habitability improves and once you research xeno tranquilization the attacks stop.
You can colonize with a token force any planet in your influence, even gas planets, and attacking this becomes a declaration of war. However, should you choose to expand the colony of a low habitability planet you will be warned as this may result in the planet costing more in maintenance than it brings in. This much detail need not be confusing if presented correctly.

I would greatly change the way resources are handled. It confuses me, for example, that asteroids may switch sides yet other resources may not. It also reduces immersion. Additionally the floating gemstones for the other resources are generally pretty lame.
I would ditch them entirely and replace them with more believing and better looking resources that function in the same way as asteroids.

- bases are built around black holes and other anomalies; these function as technological resources
- a base around the brightest star in the night sky functions as an influence resource
- certain gas planets may contain explosive gases (cloud city). As I have stated, these would be colonizable and, once you have researched the correct tech these function as military resources.
- other planets may contain precious minerals. these function as economic resources

Additionally, the latter two function as trade goods. Trade goods increase the value of trade routes to that planet, but the receiving race gains some of the benefits of that trade good. Just as before, some trade goods can also be built and these can be given wholesale through diplomacy.

Ground combat could be cool. There was a game called Imperium Galactica 2 that did this very well. You designed tanks just like you designed ships, and each ship had a certain tank capacity. In GC they would probably be tied to transports though.

Also, I'd like to be able to build permanent defenses on planets. Eg, lasers that shoot into orbit during battles (not the current ones that give a defence bonus, lasers that actually participate in orbital battles)

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edit: double post

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Crews aboard, and a sort_of X-Wings revisited interactive battles in space where i can actually control my shields and hit Beam or Missile buttons & fullfil missions, engage in patrol, subdue opponents, steal cargo, divert constructors, heck - even invade the enemy's ships... etc.

Although for Tactical ground battles (on planets), i dunno. May just be, a bit too much since that would involve an entirely new engine just to provide a secondary layer of activities which are always resolved by either a successful invasion or a twarted attempt.
Matter of taste, at the cost of many_many_many more cpu cycles & a huge amount of dedicated assets (think X-Com or even Doom... here for a moment!), btw.

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Special Forces type soldiers that can capture a starbase intact. Would require a special pod added to your ship to transport these soldiers. Invasion of the starbase would be handled like ground combat (invading soldiers vs. starbase personnel). Successful invasion may damage the upgrades done to the station, depending on the type of invasion tactic used.
(Here is a chance to make up new types of starbase specific invasion tactics.)

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Freeman43

Join Date 11/2007

+12

Deferent recess. Make it far in to the future like, the humans and several other races have defeated there old enemies and formed an a grate federation but something happens and they found there way in to a different reality or different galaxy and they start to explore and fight again with different races good and evil.

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the ability too free conquered civs would be nice...or a official star trek mod...this game would be a good alternative for birth of a federation.a larger map would also be nice

I agree with this, and I would buy an official Star Trek 4x based on GalcivII engine in a heartbeat

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"Pirate module" that can be installed on ship. With this module your ship can attack neutral and friendly ships and bases without declare a war. This module must be very large and very expensive. And certain technology for it, very expensive too.

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Voqar

Join Date 03/2003

+21

But sir, those obviously terrans in that terran ship destroying our starbases, ships, and planets aren't really terrans - they're neutral pirates!

I'd like to see a switch to a hex-based map. I think it's more flexable for tactical/strategic games.

I'd like to see a tech option in between 'no tech trading' and all out 'tech whoring'. Either a brokering option or an option to disallow trading race-specific techs (preferred as I don't see much point in having race-specific techs then allowing everyone to trade them and quickly become generic again).

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I'd like to see a switch to a hex-based map. I think it's more flexable for tactical/strategic games.

No. No way. That isn't what Galciv is about.

My one wish is Sins of a Solar Empire/Homeworld (Z axis!) style tactical combat. In my opinion, Stardock was stubborn and stupid not to include tactical combat. Reviews would probably be higher.

Oh well, Stardock says they don't want to develop Galciv III for a long time, so settle in for the wait.

Sometimes, I don't get Stardock. They make cool games, but they don't want to include features fans ask for (carriers, tactical combat, multiplayer).

They could implement these additions very well, and get even higher reviews. I don't get this whole fantasy strategy game thing. Why not just make Galciv III? Hmmmm.....

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There are a lot of things I would love to see, but one thing that I will go ahead and talk about it that bugs me about the current game is the liner branches of the tech trees. For some it can't be helped really, I admit that.

But for branches like the weapons there can be a lot more done to make them interesting and a genuine choice in game playing style. Take the beam weapon line for example.
Start with lasers like before and have a half a dozen laser techs, leading up to some very powerful weapons. But at laser 2, there is a branch for a couple different things. Examples would be phasors and plamsa guns. They would both have their own tech (and possibly some branches there too). But the top range phasor would be about equal to the top laser, but there would be differences. Say lasers would good on space and efficeny, phasors would require a lot more space and not as efficent, but cause greater damage, or something like that.

There is a lot of options that could be played with that would just make the game a lot more interesting to play.

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But for branches like the weapons there can be a lot more done to make them interesting and a genuine choice in game playing style. Take the beam weapon line for example.
Start with lasers like before and have a half a dozen laser techs, leading up to some very powerful weapons. But at laser 2, there is a branch for a couple different things. Examples would be phasors and plamsa guns. They would both have their own tech (and possibly some branches there too). But the top range phasor would be about equal to the top laser, but there would be differences. Say lasers would good on space and efficeny, phasors would require a lot more space and not as efficent, but cause greater damage, or something like that.

That's actually a damn cool idea. You could easily contain the branches by dividing the defences in a similar fashion. That is... to counter lazer A there could be a corresponding shield A... where shield B and C are still functional as a general defence, just at a (by thirds for this ABC example) diminishing capacity.

Furthermore, by having researched all ABC lines in the shield chart, you could employ multi-spectral shielding by adding each type to your ships.

Good stuff Jarod.

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My personal list for things includes

* The ability to research multiple techs at once, but with a commensurate decrease in each. We are a GALACTIC Civilization. We can't research Soil enhancements AND Beam weapons at the same time?

* The ability to bombard from orbit. In certain situations, I may simply want to pound a planet back to the stone age, without actually putting troops on the ground. The Mass Driver scenerio is not exactly that (IMHO).

* The ability to research potentially Civilization altering technologies. Ex. Cybernetics, Bio-organics, Hybridization, Assimilation, etc...

What I mean by this last item is, I choose to go down the road of Cybernetic research. It enhances certain tech trees, but ultimately hinders others, and maybe even makes some locked off. Maybe I get a bonus to militarization and a whole host of decidedly Cyber-enhancements, but my population growth stagnates and any "organic" types of tech advancements get a lot harder to research.

Ultimately I am imagining that, choosing these paths will be turning points in the civilization. You could almost see them as creating an off-shoot of a particular civilization by choosing this path in the decision tree.

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I confess - I may get over this at some point, but so far the two biggest things that impress me the most about this game are a) my first impressions of the AI and

the user interface is just remarkable - wonderful really. The Game itself is 'merely' very very good (I'd say about halfway between where MOO II was, and where MOO III aimed for. But MOO III, ah, missed - ), and I'm a DM, I tweak rules to see what happens by habit anyway. But the interface and the AI vaults it from very very good to extraordinary. Makes all the difference in the world to me.

There are *aspects* of MOO II and III that would (IMO) port well over to Galactic Civilization III - the concept of different races finding different habitats comfortable in MOO III was good - MOO III was, unfortunately, a lot of great ideas bogged down by a few *really* bad gamekilling mistakes, and I concede, part of me would like to see those concepts implemented in a GalCiv III.

Jonnan

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