Col's GalCiv2 review

[col]

Part One

As a long time Moo2 fanatic, 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.

After a few disc reading problems, we are installed and ready to go.

Put on my nice new Galciv2 T shirt and prepare to launch.

As per usual I dived straight in on an easy setting. Nice opening movie. Straight into my first game with a strict 20 min limit. The background music got a few snide comments from Mrs Col. Standard orchestral epic stuff.

Graphics look very sweet. Interfaces look pretty familiar. A blend of Ascendancy (Sigh - was I the only person to like it?) and MOO2. We're up and running. Explore and expand. The rest can wait. Launch my flagship and dial up the first colony ship. Pretty 3D graphics and there is a nice feel of bolding going where etc.

Star systems look like star systems.

Meet my first aliens. Nice graphics. Incomprehensible speech. Nice touch. I have to research some alien translation doodab. Where's my babelfish? They are colonising rapidly too.

Starmap has a nice smooth zoom and rotate feature. It takes time to get from one system to next and you can see your ships moving between the stars. I like it.

Time interval has come to an end and I still want to play it.

Time to check out the tutorials. Neat little movies that confirm what I'd been doing. Ah - I missed how to build on my home planet. Knew that had to be somewhere.

I cant comment yet on the AI but the opening impression is good. Looks very nice.

The website promises regular updates. The first one was posted on Friday.

More to follow.

 

[Thunderfall]

Sounds good, col. Wish I have time to play it...

 

[woodelf]

Nice teaser col. Should get people wanting GalCiv2.

I'm still trying to figure out the "start". Too bad there isn't a GalCivfanatics forum..... Their main forums simply aren't cutting it after being here and getting good help all of the time!

 

[vmxa]

I still like Ascendancy. It got some awards, so a few others must have liked it. Did not fall in love with GalCiv, so not sure about leaping on II. May just wait.

 

[Melhisedek]

Too bad there isn't a GalCivfanatics forum..... Their main forums simply aren't cutting it after being here and getting good help all of the time!

QFMFT

There is no place like civfanatics when it comes to getting help.

 

[Duelingground]

All the more reason for a GalCiv subforum, this game has some serious legs.

 

[Urederra]

Lets wait a while, and if there are a lot of people asking for one, I am sure Thunderfall will open one for us.

I second the proposal

 

[woodelf]

Considering some of the games that still have Sub-forums...this one should be a shoe-in! And I'd rather stay here than post at OO, even though they have been helpful.

 

[Duelingground]

Something else to think about, especially for those new to Gal Civ, is joining an Empire, which is basically a group of like-minded folk who submit games to the Metaverse together.

I belonged to the Galactic Guardians during the original game's heyday, sadly, that group's rebirth has been put on hold. Many of the original members now reside amongst the Galactic Diplomats, another of the old empires. I've decided to join up with them, and post as Gandalftheredskin there.

 

[BSmith1068]

I too vote for a sub-forum.

I think that as more and more people get into the game, and see that it really is very good, you could have a lot of people wanting to talk about it...

My $.02

 

[BSmith1068]

I'm still trying to figure out the "start".

I usually start the following way:

1.) Adjust your manufacturing rate to 100%. This will help maximize production and research in the early game.

2.) Set up a decent build que for your first planet's buildings. This way you won't have to think about it for a little while and can concentrate on #3.

3.) Prepare to expand! The AI is really smart, and quick, at the Normal level. If you don't immediately prepare to expand, you will miss out on many new planet opportunities. Start to build colony ships immediately. You may even want to "rush" buy several to get them out there. Use your surveyor ship to explore and find habitable worlds ASAP. Anomolies are secondary at this point. If you find resources, throw in a couple of constructors in your building.

After that, there are seemingly many ways to go, but getting a good start is key as otherwise this AI will eat you for lunch.

 

[woodelf]

Thanks BSmith. I'm still learning the ropes and at times there seems to be nothing left to do except upgrade my starbases! I must not be researching the correct path to get cool ships or haven't played one game long enough.

 

[BSmith1068]

Yeah, I have not played all that much yet either, but those are just some early observations. The cool thing about the ships is that you can design your own. In fact, the standard ones that you get with various levels of tech are not all that good. It is almost always better to go into the shipyard and design your own. That way you can see what you have access to in the way of weapons, engines, defences, etc. There is no magic tech that will unlock a whole new ship design, rather many that can be used to make new ones... not sure if that clears it up any!

 

[doronron]

That's about right. However, the hull tree gives you access to progressively larger models, and miniaturization, as far as I can tell, can improve existed hulls by adding additional space.

 

[DaviddesJ]

Ditto to the calls for a GalCiv2 forum here. I promise to post some strategy discussion there if we get one. There are other sites with GC2 forums but they just don't have the CFC quality.

 

[col]

Ok - I've played a couple of games to completion on an easy level and on normal. Its time to play against the AI on intelligent. Man a Mano.
Bring it on.

Standard sized galaxy.
Standard settings.
Enough opponents to make it interesting.

I would really like to lose this one - or at least get held to a stalemate. Any strategy game has to pose challenges.

The games I've played have shown that given the scarcity of good planets, if you dont get the fastest expansion you can, you are in trouble.
Buy, buy, buy colony ships. Nothing but factories at first on home planets and more colonies until all sites have gone.
This phase doesnt last long.

I always enjoy customising a race.


Got a nice spot in the corner that should give me every prospect of expansion.

Sale over and our colony ships are on there way. No barbarians to worry about so just send them as fast as we can.
I chose my starting techs for fast expansion.

The end of our first expansion phase. Time to start building - and collecting goody huts er anomalies.
We've carved out a decent corner with some good planets.

Here's a good point to pause at.

Ok - impressions so far.

The game indeed plays like a combination of Ascendancy - especially the planetary squares and music - and MOO2.
The initial phase so far to me is critical. Fall behind here and you never catch up. Get ahead and the game seems
easy.

The user interface is easy to use and intuituve. Little reference to the manual is needed. The tutorials are good.
I still dont know how to set a rendezvous point though.

Battles are a little disappointing. There is no tactical combat and the 'battle' animations seem like a waste of time and space to me, adding little to gameplay.

The game undoubtedly has that one more turn factor so beloved of Fanatics at the start of the game - but I found that there were lull periods where there was little to do but research.
Once a planet has been fully developed, there is little for it to do but churn out ships.

The cut scenes are great and winning videos well worth waiting for. The feel and atmosphere of the game is good.
Best space xxxx game so far.

But GalCiv3 could be even better.

 

[col]

Well I duly got cleaned up that game. After running second for a short while, the field swept past me. I hung on to third place but was never looking like I was going to hold that one at all.

The race with the best starting point - greens in the last pic - swept all before them.

Starting position indeed seems to be critical. Perhaps more than I thought.

I'll play a couple of equal 1 v 1 games against the AI now

 

[woodelf]

Looks like Green made out so well by having a hemmed in neighbor so close by. Once you gobble someone up and gain a tech each planet you capture that's a big jump start.

Thanks for the commentary.

 

[MjM]

Is this going to be continued?

 

[Pentium]

Nice review, too bad you already lost. And yes, will you post some more? I just started playing it too and I'd really like some more info.

Something else to think about, especially for those new to Gal Civ, is joining an Empire, which is basically a group of like-minded folk who submit games to the Metaverse together.

Wouldn't it be nice to have a CFC Empire?