Initial Thoughts
from 
GalCiv2 Forums
GalCiv2 Forums
Well having played the download version of Galciv 2 for a few hours I have come up with some initial impressions. I think the game has potential but at this point the game doesnt have the grab me factor that Galciv 1 or Civ 4 gave me. There are some annoyances such as the sliders especially the ones on the economy screen. They can be a pain and at this point they dont seem to work right at the moment. You can put all the sliders at 0 or 100 (numbers say not all at 100 which would be correct) but they really should adjust the other sliders as you move one slider unless one slider is locked in which case moving one unlocked slider should move the other unlocked slider. This would make selecting the ratios much easier.
The other thing and is where Civ 4 spoiled me is the absurd micromanagement caused by the current system. It would be really really nice if research points not needed for the current item just carried over to the next and the same for social/military production. Last night I was on a tiny galaxy and had 1 planet. The Drengin had both the other non zero rated planets. In order to try and not waste lots of resources after realising they dont carry over, I was having to adjust the research slider until I just hit a breakpoint in turns to research. I then had to keep flipping between the economy and planet list screen to try and balance the military and social productions since opening one screen up closes the other
Having finally done all this with these annoying sliders I could finally hit the next turn button. I then find out that the research turn count isnt accurate and theres a sliver of research still needed to be done.
Flipping between screens and moving sliders to just try and hitting breakpoints just seems to be poor micromanagement it doesnt seem to add any fun to the game? Given that the game can continue building the same ship type and you can have social build queues why cant it just carry over it would speed up the game and remove some tedious micromanagement.
The thing that killed that game though was the absurd random event. Some of my people decided they were unhappy and so went elsewhere, and so pulled out of their backsides a planet terraformer of technology level waaaaaaay beyond anything I possess and turned a class 0 into class 15 planet and colonised it. Great so the galaxy went from having planets, 11 (my home world), 10 (Drengin home world), 4 (drengin colony) to now having a minor race with a better planet than either of the major races. I dont mind random events where people want to break away but they should be limited to existing planets and not able to alter 0 pq planets. Part of the fun of the game is having to deal with the lack of good planets and hunting for the good ones. I am pretty sure my ships would of spotted that this planet was 15 and not 0 if it was. I will see if I can mod the game and simply remove any such events that magically create super planets like this barring maybe a special precursor find.
I did have some other issues with the interface but someone else made an excellent post about these and so dont really need to.
Another thing I am not as keen on is the separation of the different starbase types (economy, military etc) I would much prefer a system that just said you have a limited number of slots for upgrades and its upto you if you want a specialised starbase or a more general one. Given the later upgrades usually give bigger bonuses there would still be advantages to going specialised or you have to sacrifice the defenses of the starbase to fit more bonus type modules.
Given how Galciv 1 changed after the initial release it should be interesting to see how this one changes.
The other thing and is where Civ 4 spoiled me is the absurd micromanagement caused by the current system. It would be really really nice if research points not needed for the current item just carried over to the next and the same for social/military production. Last night I was on a tiny galaxy and had 1 planet. The Drengin had both the other non zero rated planets. In order to try and not waste lots of resources after realising they dont carry over, I was having to adjust the research slider until I just hit a breakpoint in turns to research. I then had to keep flipping between the economy and planet list screen to try and balance the military and social productions since opening one screen up closes the other
Having finally done all this with these annoying sliders I could finally hit the next turn button. I then find out that the research turn count isnt accurate and theres a sliver of research still needed to be done.Flipping between screens and moving sliders to just try and hitting breakpoints just seems to be poor micromanagement it doesnt seem to add any fun to the game? Given that the game can continue building the same ship type and you can have social build queues why cant it just carry over it would speed up the game and remove some tedious micromanagement.
The thing that killed that game though was the absurd random event. Some of my people decided they were unhappy and so went elsewhere, and so pulled out of their backsides a planet terraformer of technology level waaaaaaay beyond anything I possess and turned a class 0 into class 15 planet and colonised it. Great so the galaxy went from having planets, 11 (my home world), 10 (Drengin home world), 4 (drengin colony) to now having a minor race with a better planet than either of the major races. I dont mind random events where people want to break away but they should be limited to existing planets and not able to alter 0 pq planets. Part of the fun of the game is having to deal with the lack of good planets and hunting for the good ones. I am pretty sure my ships would of spotted that this planet was 15 and not 0 if it was. I will see if I can mod the game and simply remove any such events that magically create super planets like this barring maybe a special precursor find.
I did have some other issues with the interface but someone else made an excellent post about these and so dont really need to.
Another thing I am not as keen on is the separation of the different starbase types (economy, military etc) I would much prefer a system that just said you have a limited number of slots for upgrades and its upto you if you want a specialised starbase or a more general one. Given the later upgrades usually give bigger bonuses there would still be advantages to going specialised or you have to sacrifice the defenses of the starbase to fit more bonus type modules.
Given how Galciv 1 changed after the initial release it should be interesting to see how this one changes.