OT, galactic civ II

DominionsFan · #1 March 17th, 2006, 07:52 PM

The problem with this game is...that its only singleplayer. The game is fantastic, but I beat the AI on the hardest AI settings now, there are many cheap tactics to wipe the best AIs in the game _easily_ ... sadly.
I hope that the 1.1 patch AI update will give us more competition really.

Arralen · #2 March 17th, 2006, 08:28 PM

Ok, now that you now that cheap tactics which the AI can't cope with because the developer didn't think about them - can you toss them aside and win the game without them?

DominionsFan · #3 March 17th, 2006, 08:50 PM

Quote:

Arralen said:
Ok, now that you now that cheap tactics which the AI can't cope with because the developer didn't think about them - can you toss them aside and win the game without them?

Yes of course I can. All you gotta do is to design the right counter ships against the AI fleets, and nuking their planets while waging war in the space. The AI cannot defend against that. If you build all kind of ships with different defenses/weapons, you wont have problems ever...of course if you mastered the game itself. :-)

Gandalf Parker · #4 March 18th, 2006, 10:43 AM

More importantly, did you provide files and info back to Brad about the always-win tactics? Thats one of the powerful differences in that game (and dominions and other such games) is that the developers are willing to receive our info and fix it.

DominionsFan · #5 March 18th, 2006, 10:51 AM

Yes Gandalf, I posted those cheap tactics on the forums, also sent email. :-)

OG_Gleep · #6 March 19th, 2006, 02:54 AM

A couple questions for GC2 owners.

I have been playing around with the ship builder, and am having problems trying to figure out ways to hide the "Engine" part of the different extras. The aqua blue area on the rear of the component.

I was working on the Terran cargo ship, the long one, and was trying to fill the middle area to make it look like a regular ship and due to the amount of "dots" was having a hellof a time.

Anyhow, normally with the large components that have "engine" graphics at the end don't have "dots" in those areas.

Any techniques you guys have picked up for solving this?

Cainehill · #7 March 19th, 2006, 04:31 PM

Heh. Another reason for there not being MP in GalCiv2 : starting position luck. Mind you, Dominions2 sometimes gives an unreasonable advantage as well ( 1 nation starts with no others within 7 or 8 provinces; everyone else has someone within 2 or 3, or is trapped on a peninsula, etc ). But Dom3 could fix that with either better random placement routines, or, worst case, people could hand-set the starting provinces.

But GC2 : normally you start on a size 10 planet ( for those who haven't played, that means there's 10 habitable areas on the planet where something can be built ). But I've started on a size _19_ planet : imagine how great a technological or manufacturing capitol there would be, multiplying 15 or so labs / factories. Similarly, having a 700% bonus site is amazing, or simply a couple of 300% ones.

And, the placement of the stars and civilizations : because the stars are generated randomly, sometimes you have a great starting position, with 2 or 4 stars that you'll be able to grab the planets for quickly. Othertimes, you're on the lone planet in a corner - and someone else is between you and the other stars.

For a SP game, this doesn't matter - players can attempt to win from a near-untenable situation, or they can start another game. Similarly, they can restart if their starting position is too advantageous. But the luck factor that is fine for a SP game, is horrible for an MP game where you want things balanced between the players. And toning down the random luck for MP, leaves more of a bland SP game.

IMO, better to do one or the other really really well. Dom2 (and presumably Dom3) does MP awesomely, even if there's perhaps a little too much luck involved, so I can understand if SP is ... a little lacking for many of us.

While GC2 wouldn't be as good for SP if it were changed for MP. Now all we need to do is wait for Brad Wardell to improve the AI a bit, improve the balancing. Just a shame I don't think he can improve the rock/paper/scissors simplicity of the tech trees and combat.

alexti · #8 March 19th, 2006, 10:25 PM

Quote:

Cainehill said:
While GC2 wouldn't be as good for SP if it were changed for MP. Now all we need to do is wait for Brad Wardell to improve the AI a bit, improve the balancing. Just a shame I don't think he can improve the rock/paper/scissors simplicity of the tech trees and combat.

I think those are the things which prevent GC2 from being a great game

But then, if more complex tech tree and combat orders were in the game, AI would probably have a lot of trouble dealing with it...

NTJedi · #9 March 20th, 2006, 03:48 PM

Quote:

Cainehill said:

Heh. Another reason for there not being MP in GalCiv2 : starting position luck. Mind you, Dominions2 sometimes gives an unreasonable advantage as well ( 1 nation starts with no others within 7 or 8 provinces; everyone else has someone within 2 or 3, or is trapped on a peninsula, etc ). But Dom3 could fix that with either better random placement routines, or, worst case, people could hand-set the starting provinces.

Since multiplayer would be within an expansion... no reason the expansion can't provide the features you mentioned or even better balance features.

Quote:

Cainehill said:
But GC2 : normally you start on a size 10 planet ( for those who haven't played, that means there's 10 habitable areas on the planet where something can be built ). But I've started on a size _19_ planet : imagine how great a technological or manufacturing capitol there would be, multiplying 15 or so labs / factories. Similarly, having a 700% bonus site is amazing, or simply a couple of 300% ones.

The developers have made many multiplayer games in the past... I'm quite sure if multiplayer is added they will address balancing issues.

It's not like this is there first game. SAME as what we see in AOW:SM... a starting town for all players is selected.

Quote:

Cainehill said:
And, the placement of the stars and civilizations : because the stars are generated randomly, sometimes you have a great starting position, with 2 or 4 stars that you'll be able to grab the planets for quickly. Othertimes, you're on the lone planet in a corner - and someone else is between you and the other stars.

And sometimes in Dominions a player will find a magic site during turn_3 to recruit a free bane every turn or a magic site to recruit a free devil. The more complex a game the more difficult it will be to get balance.

Quote:

Cainehill said: And toning down the random luck for MP, leaves more of a bland SP game.

Wrong... multiplayer and singleplayer games can have a completely different variable for random luck. No reason to change the whole game for one variable.

Quote:

Cainehill said:
While GC2 wouldn't be as good for SP if it were changed for MP. Now all we need to do is wait for Brad Wardell to improve the AI a bit, improve the balancing.

I disagree... MP for GC2 is a feature which greatly increases replay value. Even those stone cold on singleplay only may one day have an opportunity to do multiplayer via Hotseat or PBEM.

Your biggest concern seems balance... considering BRAD has made mostly multiplayer games in the past I'm quite certain he'll be able to provide balance at least as equal as what we see in DOMINIONS.