2/15/2007 - Galactic Civlizations II: Dark Avatar - PC

[Yegolev]

Nothing to say about it right now since my rig is down for another 65 hours and 40 minutes.

http://www.galciv2.com/expand/index.aspx?c=1


Schild: Edited title

[Strazos]

Is there a combo pack for this one yet? The insane complexity appeals to me.

[Tebonas]

Yes there already is a Gold edition.

I quite like this one. It gives me new stuff to play around with. The ship templates make playing around with the ship creator that much more fun because you don't have to do it over and over again. The super abilities give distinctive differences in how you might want to play your games. The new espionage options and diplomacy treaties are nice to have as well. And the Tech tree is improved finally.

About the only thing I don't like about the expansion is that I don't get a CD sent to me because I bought it with Stardock tokens during the beta phase.

[Merusk]

Please to explain the 'tech tree improved' bit a little more.  Did they change it so things aren't just called "Drive 8" "projectiles 9" and such which is purely cosmetic, or was it a revamp of the tree?

[Tebonas]

Basically streamlined. There are still Laser I+II+II, but they are handled as milestones. So in the tech tree you only have one laser. But they changed some things around as well, or that might be the new techs. Don't know if is an illusion of my mind, but I like it more than the old tech tree. Could be that I have fun playing around with the other new features and I will mind after months of going through the research tree again.

[Merusk]

No illusion, I'm sure.  The "Laser 1, Laser 2, Laser 3" thing was a complaint that happened at release, and honestly it bugged the shit out of me and seemed just lazy.

I just bought it based off the screens and the mention of the streamlined tech tree.  Some NICE improvements on the visuals.  The  rest of the stuff just looks like gravy to an already fun game.

About the only thing I don't like about the expansion is that I don't get a CD sent to me because I bought it with Stardock tokens during the beta phase.

    I got the Digital Download w/ CD option when I bought it.  I can make you a copy of the CD and ship it your way if you'd like.

[Tebonas]

Thanks, but thats just a spleen of mine that I like to have the orignal box standing in the shelf above my computer. With handbooks and all. A copied CD wouldn't be the same. I wrote Stardock during beta and they mentioned there might be a possibility to get the box in the future. I'll see how that develops.

[Strazos]

Just wondering, but how deep is this game, really? I never played MoO or Alpha Centuri. Probably the closest thing I have played is Civ 2, 3, and 4.

Generally, how long should I expect a game to take? How badly will I have my ass handed to me?

[Sky]

How is this one with the early game? In GalCiv1, whoever had the fastest expansionism pretty much won. It was all about driving as single-mindedly as possible toward getting as many yellow systems as possible. That got annoying.

[Sairon]

If I recall correctly, GalCiv 2 suffered from the same problem as the Civ games, namely that the time you take on each turn increases exponentially. This due to the fact that as you grow, you take over more planets, which in turns produces more units to take over more planets. And these planets creates more ships to manage. And as you research more you build and colonize even faster. The fact that I have some kind of drive to always drag out on the games until I have researched most of the the stuff available doesn't really help  :-(

[Tebonas]

Its simple mathematics that more bases=more ressources, that is true in Galciv 2 like in all other Civ games. But you don't have to overpower them by sheer numbers. You can hold your ground as a relatively minor power. You can expand your sphere of influence and bring other planets to join you at their own free will with influence starbases. You can fortify your position with military starbases and planet buildings that let you hold your own against superior numbers. You can buy ships from friendly powers to bolster your forces (Precursor artifact ships are powers of their own until relatively late in the game), you can bring friendly powers to attack your enemies on your behalf, with the added bonus of possibly getting planets and ships from the losing side of a conflict if they surrender (its what powers of the same alignment sometimes do if they are threatened to be annihilated by an opposite force).

With more planets, the turns can get really really long. But you can add local governeurs to the backwater planets to do the work for you if you so like. Ships can be combined to fleets for easier handling, automatic patrol routes can be assigned. Basically you only have to decide how much direct control you want to give away to the computer.

[bhodi]

Did they change the global resource allocation bit? I was annoyed that I had to make my entire empre research, military, or social production. I could do it by planet, but you ended up losing such a ton of efficiency, it wasn't ever worth it.

[Kitsune]

They put a bit of a brake on the colony rush by putting planetary environments in, now you need to research the ability to colonize worlds with weird atmospheres, so that you aren't hopelessly screwed if you haven't snatched up every world in ten turns.  As for resource allocation, no, it hasn't changed.  You set it globally, with some automatic tweaking taking place on the planets (unused social production diverted to ship building, and vice-versa) and the option for manual tweaking on a planet by planet basis.  Not the finest system ever, it annoys me from time to time, but it works okay.

[Strazos]

Been loving this game. Finally won a game through diplomacy...kind of.

Most every other civ loved me, so I allied with them. One faction did not, so I blew their planets up.