Having played a few dozen hours of both the unpatched original Galactic Civilizations and the current patch, I must say that it is shaping up rather nicely. Within the Last few weeks of release, it's had two patches which have added many new things and tweaks which are nice. Even the original release is nice and playable...I finished two games on that alone with no issues. The promise of additional tweaks and patches and added support is always a good thing (as we all know
).
Apparently there is a customization option available where you can add new ship designs and such, but I haven't looked into it yet. On their website (
www.galciv.com), there are already several user-made events you can throw in there.
There are a few things I miss in GalCiv that SEIV provides plenty of, such as ship design and combat. It is very strategic and simplified, with units attacking one-on-one (a stack of fighters will die against something bigger unless you have enough to whittle away at his hit points). Everything is streamlined and straightforward, including the interface, making it easy to access everything and anything you want with as few clicks as possible.
On the surface, it doesn't seem very deep, and advancement of your two dozen or so statistics of your empire/race is strictly in new structures/abilities that affect percentages a few points at a time. Although by the end a Dreadnought may totally outclass those Defenders you had at the beginning, it doesn't bear as much impressiveness. It leaves a sort of ho-hum-it's-a-REALLY-upgraded-starfighter feeling.
Mostly where it shines is in the AI. They're smart, efficient, and remember things. I was surprised when I got a message from a race groveling for peace, saying that they know they started the war, but didn't know I'd fight back so hard.
Diplomacy and trade is very well done, and they consider these things before invading your systems. There is a little bit more of tweaking and optimizing economic stats than I'd like, but it is also intuitive and eventually becomes second nature to keep yourself in the black.
It was definitely worth my money, because it does have a lot of replayability. I have a few games going because it's interesting to see how the stats I chose and AI settings I have (they're increasing as I get better...I'm not good enough to play it on anything higher than 'normal' right now) affect the game.
I agree with Fyron, though, SEIV is still better. For me, it's about the fact that when I go into battle, it's with MY ships that I handcrafted through the years that I'm kicking alien butt, and not some generic ships with my att/def/hp bonuses. SEIV lets you win your way, and GalCiv lets you win one of their 3 ways (although provides you with a very wild ride in the meantime).
Sorry about the lack of MOOness...I'm not touching that one.
zen
Re: Recycle Old Threads Drive Canceled!
) I had high hopes for Stars! Supernova Genesis, but that project seems on permanent hold.
Hybrid Mode
