Can someone tell me why I should play this game?

from Stardock Forums
Let me preface all my remarks about GalCiv with a great big note that I am very mad at the game right now.

I had tried to declare war and can not. I finally abandon play of this game and will have to start new one using another tactic.
I really hate the senate in Civ2 and it is back with a vengence in Galciv. The sentate would not let me attack, it would not let me change governments.
Yes I know if I maintained control, I may have been able to, or maybe not. The point is I run my games, if I can't, why play them? Did I say how much I hate the senate in Civ2? At least you could get around it, so far I have not figured out how to in this game.

The manual is worth nothing what so ever IMO, some people are working on an improved one, stop me if you heard this before (Moo3).
No tactic combat, no designing ships, ok I can live with that as many games have done that. I would prefer not.

It is not really complex or hard to figure out in the broadest sense. I mean you soon see how to make colony ships and grab planets and do research and all of that. As far as strategy, such as what should I be doing or researching and the like, I am just fumbling around.

This puppy could turn out to be a challenge. Set with the easiest level and the AI races as Fools, they quickly had most of the good planets and were researching things I did not have.
True I was stuck in a corner and had no idea what I was doing. I manage to get to #1 in most things and was doing some trading. All I am saying is, I sure am not looking forward to taking the AI on at its highest levels, just yet. I mean at those settings I would have expect to not have to even open my eyes to roll over the races.
Lots of things to tweak as soon as I figure which ones and how much and why. I did not play around with race design either so far.
I suspect I will not be a huge fan of the game as it has a large portion tied to trading and diplomacy and I do not like to do either of those things. That is why I often play repulsive in Moo2, so I can ignore that stuff and just expand and conquer.
If the combat sucks (I do not know at this time), then it will leave me with little to enjoy. Just building planets for the sake of it does not appeal to me.
576 views 14 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
If you wanted a combat oriented game, then you have the wrong game. The whole point of GalCiv is that combat isn't the point. That's why there is no tactical combat, because the game isn't about combat.

~SDC~
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
Sounds like you bough the game expecting things it never claimed to offer :) No one here is going to force you to play Gal-Civ, not everyone is going to adore it like many people do.

Im sure you could easily get your money back if your not satisfied.

you come here for justification of the game, but only yourself can convince yourself its fun :P im not gonna give you my speil about how it rocks, if you dislike it as much as your post indicates, just chalk it up as a mistake and get ya money back :)
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Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
Ken, it looks like you bought this game without first finding out what the game is about. That's in general NOT a good idea, because chances ARE BIG that you will be disappointed. I know this will look like a circle, but still: IF you would have read the available info on this site, the reviews and so on, BEFORE you bought it, you wouldn't be disappointed because probably you wouldn't have bought it in the first place. (we all make mistakes in this area from time to time, I didn't inform myself about MOO3 because I loved MOO2 and simply THOUGHT/ASSUMED this would be a great follow up. NOW, I'm NOT going to complain about MY misjudgement to buy the game without informing myself in advance, I'll even give it a second chance after the patch release, IF I can find the time and am willing to stop playing galciv for this, which is not likely, I think :) LOL )
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
If you really desperately want to be able to fight with someone and the senate keeps blocking you from attacking, start massing fleets of your ships outside the planets owned by the AI you want to go to war with? The AI is supposed to recognise that sort of things as a prelude to an attack, so if you do it for long enough, maybe they'll declare war for you? ;)

You could also try piling heaps of money into Espionage and.. the other one.. Disrupting their economy. Then hope you get sprung so they attack?

My problem is the opposite, usually. I can't seem to get myself OUT of wars. Getting into them is just a matter of telling the Drengin they're the ones what look like monkeys. LOL

~SDC~
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
I dont know guys...I am playing my fourth game now with AI set to intellegent on a medium map. Well, its just way too easy. I am (again) the most powerful and wealthy race. This is a bit annoying since i expected a challenge (maybe i will try intellegent AI on huge galaxy next time). The way i do it is i trade tech a lot. I end up having 100% gov expenditure while at the same time running a huge budget surplus. I am sure this game is gonna get very hard but i havent encoutered that yet... :(

-TLA-Russian
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
Ken have you ever tried keeping it under Imperial rule? that means what you say goes, the senate cannot overall you.
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
Is it possible to just go back to Imperial rule if the Senate keeps blocking your war efforts?
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
Only if the senate vote to return to imperial rule...and if you don't have full control, they're probably not going to like that idea very much ;)
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
ahhh....the subtle part called politics....
Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top
Who chooses to "upgrade" from Imperial Rule? My empires run just fine under that and the Senate always votes in my favor ;)
Reply #11 from Stardock Forums Top
Yes, you can change governments back. As is realistic though, the more dictatorial forms of government are progressively less efficient in many ways (you make more money on the more "free" styles of government).

You have to remember this game is more like a space civilization simulator than a war game. You can do pretty much what you like, but with realistically modelled consequences (including politics). You can get rid of the politics if you choose, but there is always a trade-off.

--Soulfire
Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top
Thanks to those that had some input. Staying in the Imperialism was going to be my next attempt, but it seems like you will miss out on improved government.
I am not concerned about getting my money back, I would rather support the efforts to make space 4x games, even if I do not enjoy the game.
I will always buy any TBS space strategy game for that reason and if it is not to my liking, oh well. I will not lose any sleep. I am not disappointed, since I had no expectations. I would say that the meger manual is a bit of a let down. I mean at least put together a comprehensive online document or a pdf. This lets you save the cost of printing like Space Empires did.
I did not mention random events, which I dislike as well and nearly every game allows you to turn off, if ou wish.
But anyway I am not here to critique the game.
I may take a stab at trying to disrupt them and provoke a war.
Reply #13 from Stardock Forums Top
So I played on quite a bit since my last rant.
I have many little gripes about the difficulty of finding out details of things, most of which can be figured out, but should have been documented.

I will say in whole it is a worthwhile game. It has lots of features and I know that Brad will be like Aaron is for Space Empires and that is to stay on top of the game and improve it for some time. There is plenty to keep you active.
I conquered a few races and have some battles, drop troops on some and fought some space monsters (space sharks showed up early and was a handful for a time). The battles are like Civ3 with you sending the unit against another unit and seeing a bit of animation and then someone dies.
Lots of tech, and things to build from it, sort of like Moo3, except you can see its value a bit easier.
My big complaint is there are so many universal events and votes for all sorts of things. Some have options for you to choose and I was not sure what the implications of my choice was. I mean it may say -1bc, -1 morale, +50bc, but what else comes with that? It looked like you could be tarred with things like being cruel?
As I said I really hated the Senate and I got hit with all races must use Imperialism now? That allowed me to go to war with everyone and stomp out all frieghters, colony ships and eventuall no ships were allowed to go anyway. I was then able to take over all resources with my SB's and prevent them from taking them back (so far).
Anyway the game is viable and is a bit cheaper than Moo3 was. A Bonus pak has already come out and I just saw that a patch has been annouced and may be available as well.
Oh, I am not real please with the trade aspect either. It requires you to go to all the races all the time to barter for the best deal. This is tedious and time consuming.
They do not even give you an easy way to ask them to tell you what they would like. Also I had no idea of the true value of thngs, just guess work.
Reply #14 from Stardock Forums Top
Firstly, your senate has no say over what you offer in diplomatic deals... people will pay good money if you offer to attack their enemies :)

Secondly, I don't like fiddling with the money/influence sliders when trying to negotiate a 'green deal' either. Although it'd be a bit cheesy, an 'auto-haggle and accept' button would be nice. Perhaps you could incur a +10% penalty for using it, but it would streamline things nicely.

~SDC~