OT? SEIV vs GalCiv

solops · #1 June 28th, 2004, 08:41 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Ragnarok-X:
honestly, galciv is not even half as good as SE 4 is. I dont like the research, i dont like the graphics, i dont like the colonizing, i dont like how your ships MUST pick up stuff in space. THere is just one thing that is better than in SE 4, and thats diplomacy. Everything else -> SE 4 !

I agree almost completey. I do like the research tree if not the mechanics of researching it. And the GalCiv AI is more challenging. I believe that is a function of the number of choices available. SEIV has sooo many things to do and so many items available to do them with (or to) that its AI seems to be incapable of juggling the legion of variables to reach an intelligent decision. GalCiv has fewer decision points, with more of the complexity "under the hood", making it easier to program the AI.

....at least, I think so.

Paul1980au · #2 June 29th, 2004, 10:19 AM

Here is hoping SE5 stays true to form without getting over commercialised and underpeforming like MOO3 and GalCIV.

Looking foward to it when it does come out.

Prophet-PBW · #3 June 29th, 2004, 05:29 PM

Me too! SE5 is gonna kick ***.

I was so pissed when I read the reviews of MOO3. I love that series, and was eagerly awaiting it. Not to go way off-topic here, but is it just the AI that's broken? Or is it a horrible game thru-in-thru?

EvilGenius4ABetterTomorro · #4 June 29th, 2004, 05:46 PM

Oh yes, there are quite a few threads on MOO3 and how it sucks. It was just bad through and through. And don't get Attrocities started either!

Gal Civ is not as bad as MOO3, but I won't be playing it again that's for sure.

Prophet-PBW · #5 June 29th, 2004, 06:24 PM

*smacks forehead*

duh! Of course there would be MOO3 threads here. Hell, I probably read them when the game first came out. My brain is swiss cheese today.

Roanon · #6 June 29th, 2004, 06:25 PM

While GalCiv seems to be a "stragegy light" game, MOO 3 is not a strategy game at all. You can move a few sliders, make a few adjustments, but mostly you keep pressing the TURN button and watch the AI build your empire while you are unable to prevent it building research centers on farm planets and farms on mineral rich planets. But, the AI you play against is as dumb as the AI you are forced to play with, and it is no problem to win a game by setting it up and placing a book on the keyboard that makes sure the TURN button is pressed continuously. Start in the evening, come back at morning to see your victory screen.

If you like SimCity, this is probably for you. But it is not MOO3, it is a bad over-complexed form of SimGalaxy.

[ June 29, 2004, 17:26: Message edited by: Roanon ]

PvK · #7 June 29th, 2004, 06:28 PM

For me, the ship design and combat are the main reasons for playing SE4. The value of the rest of it is mainly to give the ship designs and battles a consistent context for the fleets to maneuver around. Galciv demphasizes to nonexistance ship design and tactics, so it is not really the same kind of game to me, and has little interest. Also although I have gotten hooked playing Civ and Civ II a couple of times, I don't particularly like those games. There are many many design decisions I would do very differently. Mainly it's just addictive because there is so much stuff in the tree, and they give you a steady stream of new toys. That gets people, even me, to play compulsively for a while, but shortly I stop and don't go back to finish even a single game, because I realize that I don't like the implementation of most of it. Heaps of game design choices that I find blah. Too much aimed at the casual audience, for me - I'm not the casual audience.

As for Roanon's comments about not liking complex mechanics and opaque results... well I actually do like games that have those, when they're done well. The real world is so complex that you never can just calculate to figure out complex things like the production of a nation. But there are some cause and effects which can be figured out an applied. I have no confidence however that GalCiv's "complex" mechanics would interest me very much, though, since the Civ game mechanics have generally disappointed me.

But not having detailed ship combat stuff makes GalCiv a genre I'm not particularly interested in.

PvK