My Future GCIII Ideas

from GalCiv3 Forums

Hello, as I'm playing my current game, I realized there are several things that could make some of the down sides of the game much better.  Here is my list and, why these features would be nice.  Additional thoughts in blue from April 18.

  • Have a destroy all buildings button on the planetary screen.  This would destroy all built buildings except terraforming tiles as they are already locked.  I say built buildings as one doesn't usually want to destroy the planetary resources and are unable to destroy the capital.  Maybe also include an are you sure type button after pressed to make sure the player wants to do this. (This would be nice for when a player takes over a planet and completely wants to redo the layout without having to individually destroy every building.)
  • For 1.7, have a govenor for all Culture shipyards to build the following modules in this order.  This could also be done for all other star base types, Military, Economic, Mining, Relic, ect...  (This would be nice for a player so that they don't have to manually select the build que over and over again.  Now the auto build is nice but, this puts some of the control back to the player.)
  • Allow the Player to change the name of planets and star bases in the actual planet or star base screen.  Right now the only way I'm aware of is by clicking on the name on the main game screen in the bottom left corner.  (This is needed as if a player is just going through the list of planets/star bases by clicking the arrows at the top of the page one should be able to change name from the individual screen so they can quickly go on to the next.  Currently the player would have to exit and then go back in to do this.)
  • In the Diplomacy Screen.
    • Add a Select All button for each type of Planetary Resources (AKA Helios Ore) (That way the player doesn't have to adjust the number up to maximum if they want to attempt to obtain all of the Helios Ore the AI has to offer.)
    • Add a Select All button to the top of each trade category, ex All Planetary trade resources, or All Technologies or All treaties.  (Again this is a quick button to reduce the number of clicks a player has to add for each player.)
    • Add a option to make save offer.  (That way the human player can just go from faction to faction offering the same open borders, research treaty and, exploration treaty to each faction without having to select it for each one.)
  • When deleting modules off of existing ship designs to change/upgrade them, if the module is on the second or third line the game auto moves the list back to the top.  This should be made to stay on the line that is currently selected.  (This helps the player be able to continue deleting items they wish they delete versus having to keep readjusting the module line to get back to where they were.)
  • In the Govern Menu Add...
    • The cost of upgrading all ships of x type.  (This will prevent a player from spending more credits than they have.)
  • More Ideology Events... (Not for every game type.) Why this is needed is for smaller maps and planets are not in abundance even when set to abundant.
    • When total number of habitable planets divided by number of factions in the game = less than 5 have random Ideology events happen more often otherwise these never get used.
    • Anomalies provide ideology points as well as new anomalies spawn quicker.
    • The ability to add ideology building of choice to faction from beginning to get points at x per turn (game start screen.)
  • Ctrl + N (for those Galactic Civilizations II fans that just want the game to generate a new map without stating over).
    • I'm sorry Stardock, your stats are flawed by number of games started, I for one find myself starting a new game a few times before a settle on one so showing that I've started say 25 games, is actually a reality of about 10 *not exact numbers*.  Maybe only count games that have more than 10 turns played.
  • Multiplayer Games...
    • When human players are allied and tech trading is off...  Still allow trading between Allies, after all we really turned it off to avoid cheese even with the new system with 90 factions one can still get what they want from one of them.
  • Mercenary Expansion (1.6) Allow the player to select which Mercenaries will be in the game prior to playing.  This won't guarantee the player will get them but, if they are looking for a few to specifically be in the game it's a disappointment when they aren't in this game when they were in the last one they played.
  • The ability to load smaller maps in the map editor and expand on them with larger sized maps.
  • Mercenary Expansion (1.6) Allow the Bazaar Star Bases to serve a purpose, let's face it after Merc's are all purchased what's the point to these blotches all over the map?
  • Add Challenges to the game, Such as this Map player must win via this victory in this amount of time, then have a leader board for this challenge as well as additional Steam achievements.
11,835 views 14 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

These are good suggestions. Most of them have been made since the game came out.

Reply #2 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Director, reply 1

Most of them have been made since the game came out.
End of Director's quote

None of them are currently part of the game?  If any of these suggestions are part of the game, please let me know so that I can use them :) .

Sins of a Solar Empire II
Reply #3 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

My point was that the game has been out for a while now and few of the things people have suggested have been implemented. Instead we got mercenaries and angry squirrels (plus two races that are old friends - a plus). In particular I think the user interface is disorganized and a pain (literally) to use. I have pretty much given up hope that any of this will be addressed. The game we have is in the main the game we are going to have. It is playable, and up to turn 200 or so can even be fun. Then you realize how painful building and updating 40+ starbases will be, and realize the AI dies not react to the human player in meaningful ways, and you see how involved and repetitious it is to conquer a planet and destroy all the randomly, badly-laid out improvements one-at-a-time and re-design the planet from scratch one tile at a time, and do this over and over and over because the AI isn't aware of the progress of the war or its own situation enough to know when to quit - and so at that point I usually quit, wait a month for the bad taste to wash out, start a new game and repeat the cycle.

So I think you have some good ideas. I do not hold out hope that you will see any of them implemented. The changes needed (in my opinion) to make the game more than an echo of GC2 are basic and procedural and will not be made at this point in the development cycle. Look for more chrome and glitter instead, with maybe a patch for the starbase construction/update problem that people have complained about since the game's release.

The last word from Brad Wardell was that any further changes in the game past (I think) one more update will be packaged in DLCs and sold. That's a solid business decision if the game's general mechanics weren't comprehensively mis-designed, which they are. So color me jaundiced... after hearing about Mercenaries (which I definitely did not buy) I'm holding onto my money until I get something I want to pay for.

Reply #4 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

All of these are QoL requests. I am sure these could be put into patches in the next year. Fundamental changes to game-play will sadly only be released as Expansions. While this drags out the time for this, it does allow more features to be added to said Expansions. I am all for it (waiting that is).


QoL, requests like Seilores are good and I think Stardock should at least consider seeing if they could implement some of these vrs the investment of staff/resources. 


Reply #5 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Well i actually like mercenaries. I would like to see an upgrade feature mpre like two. Where there is a upgrade option to replace an improvement with something else where you don't have to destroy the building. I would like to be able to organize planets alphabetically and by class. I would like to br able to play with my governor options globally so i don't have to shut off auto improvements automatically every time i colonize a planet.

Reply #6 from GalCiv3 Forums Top
      • Add a option to make save offer.  (That way the human player can just go from faction to faction offering the same open borders, research treaty and, exploration treaty to each faction without having to select it for each one.)



End of quote

 

Or, alternatively, give a diplomacy screen where you can select multiple factions to talk to and make them all the same offer. Also, when you're choosing multiple factions, you can select whether or not they know you're making the offer to other factions (basically like a conference phonecall or making 6/however many individual phonecalls).

 

I agree that making global changes ("Select All" buttons, "Upgrade All" etc) would simplify a lot of things - the way I play, my empire tends to not get big enough for it be annoying for me but I can see how it would for some - but I'd rather Stardock focus on Diplomacy, Espionage etc first.

 

 

Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top

Sorry if this has already been suggested, but I think adding a mini-map to the shipyard and planet management screens is an absolutely necessary addition.

It gets annoying to be taken to one of these screens and not know whereabouts in your empire you are dealing with, so you have to switch out, find the planet/shipyard on the main map, then go back into the management screen again...

 

 

 

Reply #8 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Ed1975, reply 7

Sorry if this has already been suggested, but I think adding a mini-map to the shipyard and planet management screens is an absolutely necessary addition.
End of Ed1975's quote

Paul commented on this in the dev stream, it appears it may be harder to impliment then most would think.

Maybe this would work as an alternative, Instead when clicking on button that says shipyard idle/starbase upgrade/colony idle, and bouncing you into that planet/star base/ship yard screen, just move you on the map to that area and allow the player to go into it apart being one may have to do that anyways.

 

Reply #9 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Updated this post with additional ideas in blue.  Please feel free to post your suggestions here too....

Reply #10 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Larsenex, reply 4

All of these are QoL requests. I am sure these could be put into patches in the next year. Fundamental changes to game-play will sadly only be released as Expansions. While this drags out the time for this, it does allow more features to be added to said Expansions. I am all for it (waiting that is).

QoL, requests like Seilores are good and I think Stardock should at least consider seeing if they could implement some of these vrs the investment of staff/resources. 
End of Larsenex's quote

 

I'm all for QoL improvements, which come along with every update they put out, which is great. But let's put some perspective on it.  The game's been out for a year, and the Ai can't put 2 engines on a ship. 

I think there's a long list of core game stuff that most players would agree on, that needs fixing so that most players can enjoy the game more, before heavily getting into QoL modifications.

That said, I do really miss the 'upgrade all' option lol....

 

Reply #11 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting hfxnikolai, reply 10

That said, I do really miss the 'upgrade all' option lol..
End of hfxnikolai's quote

The upgrade all ships of x type is in there, just buried in the Govern tab under commands.  Hopefully this helps, the only thing is it's very easy to put yourself greatly in the negative by doing this so be careful ;)

Reply #12 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Director, reply 3

My point was that the game has been out for a while now and few of the things people have suggested have been implemented. Instead we got mercenaries and angry squirrels (plus two races that are old friends - a plus). In particular I think the user interface is disorganized and a pain (literally) to use. I have pretty much given up hope that any of this will be addressed. The game we have is in the main the game we are going to have. It is playable, and up to turn 200 or so can even be fun. Then you realize how painful building and updating 40+ starbases will be, and realize the AI dies not react to the human player in meaningful ways, and you see how involved and repetitious it is to conquer a planet and destroy all the randomly, badly-laid out improvements one-at-a-time and re-design the planet from scratch one tile at a time, and do this over and over and over because the AI isn't aware of the progress of the war or its own situation enough to know when to quit - and so at that point I usually quit, wait a month for the bad taste to wash out, start a new game and repeat the cycle.
End of Director's quote

Holy cow, this is very much in line with how I feel. I still have some hope, but that hope diminishes with each patch. I am willing to pay for an interface and gameplay experience that works for large empires in the late game, but not in advance. So I will be waiting and watching. I think Stardock continues cater the game for smaller galaxies because they are (improperly) interpreting their stats that proport to indicate people prefer smaller galaxies. Meanwhile management of larger empires still sucks a year later. I am in favor pretty much every suggestion by the OP.

 

Reply #13 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting eviator, reply 12

Stardock continues cater the game for smaller galaxies because they are (improperly) interpreting their stats that proport to indicate people prefer smaller galaxies.
End of eviator's quote

 

i started 2 games on tiny galaxies tonight merely for testing

other then that i only play on immense maps atm im 20+ hours in and only now thinking of expanding my empire  

Reply #14 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Well I have a couple ideas

Making planetary options global would work, and be better as long as you can also change options planet by planet basis to. The global would only affect the planets that havent been changed  by options on a planet screen with a option to reset all planets to global.

Bringing back upgrade option would benice. An example where this makes sense is where I want to build a duranthium refinery on a world of factories.

Some buildings like the power matrix don't receive bonuses for being near buildings. Making it better to use a factory instead where bonuses are both ways.

An idea which would work on this is wherebuildings, and ships would require resources. Different resources. If resources provided returns each turn on both planets, and space. Some of the anomalies and planetary events would include resources. 

Quests not like the kind in sins where they only want resources, but where you would go to a randomplanet, or pirate base, or a random faction on the game, and do a random thing. When you are done with this random thing you would get a random reward. 

I would like to check stats, control building ques, or check option by right clicking on it. It would be nice to have a list of unexplored planets, and where they are on a minimal.