Rik's GalCiv2 review

As a complete noob on Moo2, Galactic civilizations or any otherwise related game, Thunderfall kindly offered me the chance to get hold of review copy. Nice - especially since its not due for release in Europe for a few weeks yet.

Part One



The CD-box reads:

The year is 2225. The reckless Humans have joined the other galactic powers in a race for control and domination of the galaxy. The evil Drengin Empire has plans to wipe out Humanity and their allies, but as they will all discover, there is something far worse in the universe than each other...

Lead your favorite race in a struggle to dominate the galaxy in Galactic Civilizations II, a 4X strategy game where you use whatever means nexeccary - technological advancement, economic might, cultural expansion and military prowess - to survive the epic interstellar war.

Sounds promissing. It seems I am a human and at war with the Drengins and apparently our friendly deathmatch is about to be disturbed by some (2?) others. Sounds good.

I start by reading the manual. No really - I'll start by reading the manual.

The Manual v 1.0
It seems I can choose to be any of 10 civilizations. Ah, ok more choice than the presumed 4. I learn that getting the best planets will be important. The manual continues with explaining the difference between GalCiv and GalCiv2. Since I don't know GalCiv I skip that. It then states the system requirements. Oddly, this is not on the CD-box. Perhaps it will be on the retailversion, I don't know - I just would have expected it to be on the CD-box. Anyway, my system meets the minimum requirements so I should be able to play it later on.
The manual continues with "installing the game" - "getting updates" and the other usual things. Good to know where you can find it, but I'll skip it till either I'm installing the game or never.

Chapter 2: the basics.
Galaxy size: seems to be comparable to Civ 3's map size. I get the impression the number of planets isn't related to this.
Scenario: seems to be comparable to Civ 3's victory conditions.
Galaxy settings: sort of Civ 3's land-type, sea %-age settings.
The civilizations: The manual explains that I can see the civs + their unique appearances and characteristics next. We'll see that when I start the game later on. Apparently you can customise that. Fine, but not for me yet. I'm a noob. OTOH it seems to be a game-specific element. You need to assign credits (of a total of 200) to what special abilities your race has. Could be important. Comparable to the traits (and starting techs) of civ 3 ?
Luckily the manual now explains what they are. Some are straightforward, like "economics" or "Hit points", but some are new to me - "Luck" and "Loyalty". Sounds fun.
Political flavor also gives special abilites and advantages. Seems comparable to preferred governments, but also on civ-traits (civ 3 like)
Choosing opponents: Intelligence setting is apparantly the difficulty level. "Fool" is the lowest, even lower than "beginner". Nevertheless, my first game will be on "Fool" or "beginner".
There is also a real "difficulty level" and they override the specific intelligence settings. Than why put it in this way ?? Difficulty setting before Race-Intelligence setting seems more logical to me ....

The manual continues with a description of the screens, mouse settings and keyboard-options. I will skip this till I play a game. 1 thing to note: the pictures in the manual (which I assume to be a copy and not the real thing) is of a low quality and it is shrunk to such a size that I can't make out the numbers indicating what is depicted. Shame.

More to follow

Hey... Col also had the same asignment. Should we rate you both and lynch the loser?

(just joking)

A question, maybe not to Rik, but for other people. Does GalCiv2 have the feeling of Moo2 or it is more like SMAC?

I prefer SMAC over Moo2 or GalCiv, it is more adictive and fun to play. Maybe cos you can make your own units and stuff. I read that you can also design your ships on GalCiv2, so I was wondering if it is more similar to SMAC than to GalCiv or Moo2.

So far I'd lean towards it feeling like Moo2 than SMAC. SMAC was based on one planet and this is based in an entire galaxy. Also the techs seem way more Moo2 based with the way they come at you rapid fire. I'm still learning so maybe it changes as the game progresses....

From the manual I read that colors are used extensively to make things clear. I think that is good in itself, but I wonder about color-blind players. I hope there is a "colorblind - help" tool build in.
Something wonders me; when income is positive it is green, when negative it is yellow. Why not red ? ?
One thing that strikes me though is the choice of icons. They seem to be clear and distinctable. For example: a beaker means research; a large circle with 4 smaller sircles around it means foreign policy and a square with lines going through it indicates a graph and is for the Civilization Manager. Seems smart.

In the game options section I learn that unless I change the setting to be prompted, a lot will happen automatically. One can set the amount of in-game help and pop-ups. Same goes for Interface options and Battle options And it has a Tutorial Mode.

The next section; "Galactic Economy" appears important. I think I'll be going back to this section often during play. Units of money are "billions of credits" or "bc's". Hmmm... don't know about that. I'm not fond of big numbers as units. But "bc's" might be a perfectly usuable unit. To be honest; "1 gold" revenue from a planet sounds a lot less realistic than "1 billion gold". I'll have to come back to this when playing the game.
Planets generate bc's that you split into research and "manufacturing points" - (kinda like civ3 shields). Any revenue you don't use to get manufacturing points go into your reserve. You can get bcs' from planets, but also from tourism and trade. Tourism is money you gain for %-age of map you control. Trade is generated by sending special ships far away to "the others". The further away, the more money. (same for planet size). But the further away, the longer the ship is exposed to hostilities. Those 2 seem more important later in the game than in the beginning, but of course that depends on how much bc's it can make me. If it is a lot than it might be worthwhile to start as soon as possible.

I like my complete ignorance of the game. The kind of realisation that I really know nothing of the game. It will soon change though

The manual continues with topics on how to manage your research, production, influence, food and population, happyness, settler-projects (called colony ships) and other stuff you might expect in a turn based strategy game. An element that I found remarkable about research; the cost of a technology that you don't research (you chose a differenct technology first) increases. Let's say (in civ 3 terms) Gunpowder is 500 beakers if you research it now, but 550 beakers if you research it after Education. I wonder what principle lies beneath that. (I could have misread this though).

A neat thing about the Governments is that in 'higher governments' you need to make sure you are popular enough. If not; parliament might vote against your plans of going to war. Also, if you loose too much popularity, you might loose political party bonusses. So, despite a 'higher government' can give you economic bonusses, "revolting" at the wrong time will backfire.

The Unites Planets is a sort of Galactic UN that holds votes every December. The topics are random, and I fear they might be important ones. But, you can leave the UP. It will cost you in trade and there is no coming back, but you can leave. I think leaving the UP might be a good strategy on higher difficulties at the right moment. But not for me in a long while. And "influence points" ( = UP votes) can be traded. That sounds really really fun. Yes you can buy this resource for 100 votes in the UP!!

Another element that can be real fun is Ethical alignment. You can do good deeds, neutral deeds and evil deeds when colonising planets. The fun part is that later on in the game, when you learn a specific technology, your history of good deeds / evil deeds comes into play. If you've been playing evil than all "good deeds" from then on will be more expensive (and vice versa) since it is not in lign with your alignment. And of course your alignment has consequences.

Next chapter is called Ships and is probably about units. Ships have attack, defense, hit points, speed, sensor range, range, experience, level, maintenance and "special abilities". Most of them seem clear enough. I think they are comparable to Civ 3's, Attack, defense, experience (hit points combined with experience and level) , movement, vision, -range is not comparable, except for planes- , unit support cost and "special abilities". Should not be hard to understand.
Ships can form fleets, which can be comparable to "armies" but a ship can leave and there is no maximum (I think). Ships can upgrade - but only to more advanced same hull-size ships. And it isn't instantly; the further the ship is away the longer it takes. And the cost depends on how different the 2 ships are. That's clever thinking.

The manual then explains about Starbases. Very versatile things that basically replace a planet in sectors where there is no planet. Depending on the type you choose (mining, military, Influence, economic, manufacturing etc.) you can form the Universe to your liking. And you can make starbases better at their task through upgrading. Upgrading requires the technology that unlocks the next level. Starbases look a powerful game-element to me.

Combat is the next part of the manual. Move your ship into the tile of someone else's and a fight will happen - simply put. Some kind of RNG is deciding the outcome. Combat works with mathematically with dicerolls, combined power, hitpoints and in a specfic battle order. The battles can be viewed for entertainment or education. You can even rewind and get a battle report. Also you can view it from different camera's.

The manual then advances to a section called The Civilization Manager. It deals with numbers and overviews. Anything you are building or have scored is visible for the player to see and to help him decide his actions. How much revenue you get and where your units are, stats, points etc.

Next: The Ship Yard. The ships available to you, from the default designs to your own designs. Yes; your own designs. Not sure how that works, but it sure sounds cool. My own designs...
From the manual I get the impression it can be really important to design the ships you need. But this kind of game-play can be really slow and boring if the goal of the game is not to use it a lot. In a race-game designing and tuning your car can be made very important and fun. In a Civ type game it can quickly become annoying. We'l see. We'll see.

Winning the Game - what it all comes down to. 4 types; conquest, Diplo, Influence and Technology Victory. The first 2 should be clear. The 3rd is kinda like a Domination-Cultural victory combined. The tech vic is simply: There is a tech far down the techtree - the one who discovers it first wins. I sincerely hope this is implemented smartly as to prevent either too short or too long games.

What - No space race ???

The next section of the manual is called The Details and deals with some background items and -well- details. Some resources are described, and if they are uncommon, rare or legendary. Some info on projects, Superprojects (Small Wonders), Galactic Achievements (Great Wonders) and trade goods.
Example:
- Project "Orbital Fleet Manager - Allows your ships in orbit to defend planet as a single fleet".
- Super Project "Hyperion Logistics Center - Improves your logistics ability by 6".
- Galactic Achievement "Galactic Privateer - Your freighters cannot be attacked"
- Trade Good "Frictionless clothing - Increases approval rating ability by 10%".

What it all means, I don't know yet, but it sure sounds interesting.

Galactic resources - Morale / Economic / Military / Influence / Research. These 5 reseources increase your performance in the area they are associated with. Eco -> more income. Inf -> more chance others will flip to you. Kinda self-explaining.

The manual ends with URL's and paths to mods, tutorials, forums, updates etc. The complete keyboard shortcuts-list, Credits, License & Notices and finally the technical support info. Only in the USA. Me poor Dutchy will have to figure it out himself.

Rik's conclusion: -> Manual is good readable. It succeeds in explaining the general lines and elements of the game, without burying itself in detail. The supporting pictures are small and barely readable and haven't helped me more than simply showing me what to shape the screen has. That has most likely to do with the fact that I received not the final manual, but a version 1.0 manual.

And now it's time to install the game.

Rik Meleet said:

Choosing opponents: Intelligence setting is apparantly the difficulty level.

Click to expand...

You won't be laughing when you play the AI at Normal.

There is also a real "difficulty level" and they override the specific intelligence settings. Than why put it in this way ?? Difficulty setting before Race-Intelligence setting seems more logical to me ....

Click to expand...

Just so you note, that difficulty setting just increases or decreases all AI intelligence levels.

Installing the game went without any difficulty. Place CD 1 >> Click on "Install" and while you wait you see weird creatures (but nicely drawn). When CD 2 is required, just place it, click OK and away we go.



When the game is installed you are not prompted to reboot and get a choice of options. 1 is the Manual, which I of course tried. I now realise that my manual is a printout of the Adobe Acrobat Reader manual and the pictures aren't really detailed there either. Since I just read the manual, there's nothing I want to read again, so I close it.



I click on "play game" and when the game has loaded I start the Tutorial. It is detailed and seems to be completish. A woman tells you what is happening, while a mouse-pointer constantly moves to the location of what the lady talks about. The text the lady speaks is shown below the tutorial screen.



Too bad there is no "pause" button to double check what was told. Also too bad is that once the lady has finished reading, the Tutorial stops and you are thrown back to the main-tutorial screen. So if you miss something or you want to hear it again your only option is to restart the tutorial.
What I would have preferred is a "do-it" Tutorial - like Civ IV has. Actively open screens, select units etc. to get a feel for how it's done. I think I'll have to learn it while playing the game.

So: Let's start a NEW GAME.

Global Nexus said:

Just so you note, that difficulty setting just increases or decreases all AI intelligence levels.

Click to expand...

I certainly have read that the AI players do get economic boosts at high difficulty levels (as they should). Are you saying that this is represented in the game by increasing their "intelligence"?

Sort of. But up until after the "Intelligent" AI setting, the AIs do not cheat. They only get bonuses for the absolute highest difficulties. Crippling and Masochistic and stuff. ^^ Basically, once the AIs get above Intelligent, they do get bonuses. Until then, they are intentionally dumber. And at the lowest levels, they have economic penalties.

Global Nexus said:

You won't be laughing when you play the AI at Normal.

Click to expand...

-> the was for what was written in the next line. I found it amusing that "fool" was lower than "beginner"

Ohhh. I thought you were mocking the AI, which is really very good. Sorry.

One thing regarding the review copy, those were made internally, the retail box has all the requirements and such on the bottom of the box.

Ah, I'm such a noob at these kind of games, but this looks so interesting! I'm gonna buy this game with the gift cards I got for Christmas!

As good as Rome total war is, I wish I got GalcivII now....

Edit: whats with the hair on neck?

I hear ya, SB. I've been a Total War fan since Shogun, but the AI has always been a gripe of mine.

Duelingground said:

I hear ya, SB. I've been a Total War fan since Shogun, but the AI has always been a gripe of mine.

Click to expand...

Another good reason not to put tactical in GalCiv!
But it's still fun to crash those huge dumb armies with a small force!

Starting my first real game, on beginner level. 3 opponents.



I buy my first colony ship; I buy 1 farm and then choose a factory which I'll buy as soon as possible.

This looks like a nice place for my colony



But it seems the planet is already taken ....

I rush 3 or 4 colony ships to find that all the stars surrounding me have 0 habitable planets. That's not nice to find out.

It is a bit annoying that the game takes a lot of time when using Alt-Tab. And I do that a lot for reading the forum and processing screenshots. One of the screenshots .... So close and yet so far.



It seems I need a planet or space station closer first.

Later on I manage to get it, as well as some 10+ planets. It seems I should be in a good position.

Earth has finished building its last building, it has no more room. Now what ?? I have no clue, so I change nothing.

And while Alt-Tabbing back to GalCiv2 the game crashes

Have you tried running it in window mode? That might help you avoid the Alt+Tab problem, at least.

First UP meeting.



And game crashed again when going back.
Fortunately the Autosave function works fine.

Stupid question, but HOW is do I enable Windowed mode ? My guess is somewhere in My Games\GalCiv2\Prefs.ini Fullscreen=0