GalCiv2 Expansion

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

frightlever said:
GalCiv2 NEEDS to be more like Space Empires.

SEV NEEDS more competition so that less people will buy it.
Also, Aaron NEEDS people copying his ideas and making more money off of it than he.

[Yimboli]

It sounds like you're treating the purchase of both games as mutually exclusive... but people can buy both games. I see it like this: joe's never heard of se4 and he buys the galciv2 expansion (which is now more like se4), and he loves the modifications... and then he sees someone on the galciv2 forums talking about se4, so he checks out se4. He likes it, finds the forums and awesome mods, and becomes another SE junky.

I suppose I'm not too concerned about galciv2 decreasing SE revenue because SE4 is such a better game all around with more repeatability (sp?)... by the time joe is tired of se4, galciv10 will have come and gone.

Perhaps what I'm trying to say (and failing to do so succinctly) is that games similar to se4 will increase our userbase. Everyone that buys galciv2's expansion might not find their way here, but *some* will. Even if galciv2's expansion makes much more money from Aaron's ideas than Aaron does, he's still better off than he was with a smaller userbase.

does that make sense to anyone else??? i've been in such a philosophical mood lately...

[Warshed]

I bought GC2 and I will buy SE5. I was disappointed with GC2 since it is extremely constrained strategically when compared to SE4. I played GC2 for about a week and then put it away to collect dust and then busted out my copy of SE4 again. Graphics is nothing compared to gameplay when it comes to 4X games. I still play Master of Orion to this day.

[Atrocities]

that is the same thing I did with GalCiv I and is why I chose not to buy GalCiv2.

[gregebowman]

I thought they had released GalCiv2, but I don't recall seeing it in teh stores. I think I'll pass. GC was a great game, but even with better graphics, I much preferred SEIV over GC. I bought MOO 2, but again, after playing it for awhile, I went back to SEIV. Maybe one day someone other than Malfador and Shrapnel will realize that consumers will only buy a game that has the features that they want, instead of whatever the computer company wants to force on us.

[Fyron]

I'm pretty sure that GalCiv2 has many of the features that its fan base wants.

[Atrocities]

And many that we want to see in SE V.

[Nats]

Well as a player of both games I want to balance the opinion here which is one sided at the moment obviously becuase this is a Space Empires board.

The fact is that SE4 and GC2 are completely different games.

SE4 is more of a detailed blow by blow simulation with lots of micromanagment and flexibility to allow everyone to play the game in loads of differnet ways. GC2 however is more of a strategy game in that you decide the bigger picture. Yes you develop colonies and fleets but once you make a decision there is no need to keep going bcak to remake it, and once you enter a battle the outcome is automatically decided. So you are left to concentrate on controlling the heading of the war or the development of your civilisation rather than concentrating on the individual battles.

The GC2 forum has had people incl me! asking for items to be added that are in SE4 this is true. But this would not necessarily be a good thing, and the jury is out. Perhaps the best way to enjoy GC2 is to go with the flow, enjoy the relaxed decision making in the game, and enjoy truly directing a civilisation, rather than being the second in command and having to do everything yourself.

One only has to compare the ship battles in GC2, which are done automatically for you, to those in SE4 which take ages of plodding around, to appreciate the differences between the games. Sometimes 'less is more' and in this case I can see the Space EMpires games becoming so feature intensive that they become more of a chore to play than a pleasure. In SE4 you seem to spend more time moving your ships from square to square than in actually fun gameplay. Whereas GC2 never bogs you down with that kind of mundane detail.

That said I will be very interested to see what SE5 is like. I did like SE4, played it for quite a while, but I did get fed up trying to get anywhere in the game. With GC2 I havent played it enough to really say which type of game I prefer just yet. I like both and they both have advantages over the other. Maybe I'll just enjoy playing both depending on my mood at the time!

Nats

[Suicide Junkie]

Battles in SE4 do not take any plodding around at all.

They sometimes take an hour of CPU grinding on the server in the closet, but that is simply your chance to go to the bathroom, make some coffee, eat dinner, or play other SE4 turns.

Strategic combat.
Simultaneous turn games.
MULTIPLAYER on PBW.
This is the way to play SE4

Tactical combat is a pretty fun minigame in itself, but is not what the game is all about.

Multiplayer is where things get really serious. You have to really refine your ship strategies and designs, and organize your fleets' movement to pull off successful pincer attacks against superior numbers and tonnage.
http://imagemodserver.mine.nu/other/...Tudran2_02.jpg

From your post, it sounds like you would really love simultaneous turn games, once you get over the design strategy screen's learning curve.