Moving the Capital

from GalCiv3 Forums

Hey folks. I know this has been discussed before. However, I have to ask if anything has been decided. Can you please address allowing us to relocate our capitals? I recognize the need for other fixes and changes. can you simply allow us to destroy it and then have it appear on the build queue? The penalty of losing the bonuses until the new one is built is fine! It is simply maddening to begin a game, the planet is a lush 16 class with natural resources in beautiful locations...and my damn administrators chose an isolated island at grid 0,0 for the capital!!!! Really???? 

Seriously, please just allow the option to destroy and relocate. Please. 

Side note: is it possible no one has modded this in yet?

44,350 views 12 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

According to a stream conversation, the devs have this very deeply hard coded into the colonization process.  It is highly unlikely that it is possible to mod this behavior.  

Also, the devs seem somewhat puzzled that players do not embrace the challenge of dealing with a system that is random and therefore always less than ideal.  Isn't overcoming imperfections and challenges like these one of the things that make people love GalCiv?  Does every planet have to be ideal before the game is playable?  I think they have a point, myself.  Obviously, there are plenty of folk that have brought this up and seem to think differently. Ah well.

Unnecessary spelling reminder:

If you move a Capitol, its address changes.

If you move a Capital, it becomes caPital.

;)

Reply #2 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Yeah i heard brad mention that it is not a difference when everyone would always pick the best spot. Modding it has been tried it didnt work. I wold like to choose where to put my catitol.

The Political Machine 2024
Reply #3 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

If gameplay didn't allow for making choices in early game, and reserved that until a civ had researched a key skill in the Colonizing tech-tree, then I'd be okay with that.

However, I completely and totally reject the logic that ANY reasonably advanced civilization would never achieve the skill or smarts to go beyond leaving the placement of their original colony to chance.  I kindly (but firmly) call BS on this kind of logic, because I see it as a form of pessimism about the ability to learn new skills.  We have "logistics", right?  Well, if we can figure out how to coordinate large fleets, then why can't we figure out where to place the first outhouse and mess hall?

When discovering the Americas, sure it was left to chance (somewhat), but that's because we hadn't yet developed even an inkling that maybe we should explore up and down the coast before choosing a landing point.  Or maybe ship and crew were so exhausted and hungry that they needed to stop NOW.  But even then, once we landed, we figured out how to build our first villages and where to put that outhouse so that we wouldn't contaminate our foodstores or be eaten by bears and wild pigs just because we had a biological need to evacuate. 

Eventually, we got pretty good with our decisionmaking skills with regards to colony layout.  And that was HUNDREDS of years ago.

So certainly by the time we develop deep-spacefaring navigational skills, as well as the skills needed to build and launch colony ships that will be expensive and have long lead-times for crossing the voids of space and time, it would be preposterous to assume that we would think of everything EXCEPT where we would build our seat of power on the damned planet? 

I reject the idea that we must randomize this part of the game throughout the whole game, and you should reject it too.

Reply #4 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I think I already know the answer to this, but anyway, if you move your capital to another planet, what happens to the hex it was in? Do you lose it or do you gain a vacant hex. Later if you return it to the original planet, where is it placed?

I am betting that you lose the hex when it leaves and it comes back to the same spot.

Reply #5 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting BIF, reply 3

If gameplay didn't allow for making choices in early game, and reserved that until a civ had researched a key skill in the Colonizing tech-tree, then I'd be okay with that.

However, I completely and totally reject the logic that ANY reasonably advanced civilization would never achieve the skill or smarts to go beyond leaving the placement of their original colony to chance.  I kindly (but firmly) call BS on this kind of logic, because I see it as a form of pessimism about the ability to learn new skills.  We have "logistics", right?  Well, if we can figure out how to coordinate large fleets, then why can't we figure out where to place the first outhouse and mess hall?

When discovering the Americas, sure it was left to chance (somewhat), but that's because we hadn't yet developed even an inkling that maybe we should explore up and down the coast before choosing a landing point.  Or maybe ship and crew were so exhausted and hungry that they needed to stop NOW.  But even then, once we landed, we figured out how to build our first villages and where to put that outhouse so that we wouldn't contaminate our foodstores or be eaten by bears and wild pigs just because we had a biological need to evacuate. 

Eventually, we got pretty good with our decisionmaking skills with regards to colony layout.  And that was HUNDREDS of years ago.

So certainly by the time we develop deep-spacefaring navigational skills, as well as the skills needed to build and launch colony ships that will be expensive and have long lead-times for crossing the voids of space and time, it would be preposterous to assume that we would think of everything EXCEPT where we would build our seat of power on the damned planet? 

I reject the idea that we must randomize this part of the game throughout the whole game, and you should reject it too.
End of BIF's quote
My point exactly! I'll accept that the original placement of the Capitol may have come before advanced tech, but now...as we colonize the stars, we really can't move it? Hard to agree with.

Reply #6 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

by the way, Erischild, the game spells it CapitAl. That's the only reason I followed suit.

Reply #7 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Franco, reply 4

I think I already know the answer to this, but anyway, if you move your capital to another planet, what happens to the hex it was in? Do you lose it or do you gain a vacant hex. Later if you return it to the original planet, where is it placed?

I am betting that you lose the hex when it leaves and it comes back to the same spot.
End of Franco's quote

Hi!  Sorry for the confusion.  This thread is about the placement of the "Colony Capital" on each planet, and being allowed to choose where that capital (uggh, I hate not spelling it "Capitol") is placed as you colonize (or after you conquer) each planet.  It is my contention that we should be allowed to choose where each planet's seat of power is placed, and yes we should be able to move it if its location is ever "overcome by events", such as rising seas, collapsing nearby mountains, or just because we damned well please.

The "Capital City" on your civ's homeworld planet can be moved to another planet, yes.  But that's not what we're discussing here.

Reply #8 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting wpkelley41, reply 6

by the way, Erischild, the game spells it CapitAl. That's the only reason I followed suit.
End of wpkelley41's quote

 

Just double checked.  Capital is the place.  Capitol is the building at the place.  I have learned (or learned, forgotten and re-learned) something today.  It wasn't a total waste.  Thanks!

Reply #9 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Determining the right place for a city/capital according to circumstances is a vital decision in any (other) civ-like game ...

Reply #10 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Maybe I play for the wrong reasons. The "Build" of my planets and empire is as important as the competition to me. This helps greatly with the immersion for me. 

Reply #11 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting BIF, reply 7

The "Capital City" on your civ's homeworld planet can be moved to another planet, yes.  But that's not what we're discussing here.
End of BIF's quote

LOL, I obviously had my head up my ass on this one. The homeworld Capital is just a designation and does not involve a building at all, so anyway you look at it I was having a senior moment. :)

Reply #12 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Franco, reply 11
LOL, I obviously had my head up my ass on this one. The homeworld Capital is just a designation and does not involve a building at all, so anyway you look at it I was having a senior moment. :)
End of Franco's quote
No problem; we weren't really clear and we should have been.

Quoting erischild, reply 8
Just double checked.  Capital is the place.  Capitol is the building at the place.  I have learned (or learned, forgotten and re-learned) something today.  It wasn't a total waste.  Thanks!
End of erischild's quote
Given that, then in the game it's all synonymous anyway, because the Colony Capital is always represented by the Capitol building.  The game doesn't let the two things get split.  And the Capital City, although it's called a city, is denoted by a building too.

I guess I can live with calling it "Capital".  I'd call it El Dorado if we could choose the location, however...:congrat: