The post-Twilight road map

Frogboy

Join Date 03/2001

+2415

The post-Twilight road map

Where should we go next?

The final expansion pack for Galactic Civilizations II has been released! And we're very happy with how much people like it.

At the same time, we're not done. Let me share with you some of our plans:

Right now, we're finishing up The Political Machine. Once that is finished, part of the team will be shifted to the SDE-2 team which is working on the "fantasy strategy game" and the other part will return to GalCiv.
The plan is to release a v1.92 in early June. v1.92 will be mostly bug fixing and balancing. There's two particularly annoying issues that have cropped up. The first one is that on some Vista systems, some "string now found" issues come up. No idea yet. The work around is to run the game as administrator but we have no idea why that fixes it as none of us do that. The other annoying one is the Alt-esc issue - it doesn't always come back when you try to return to the game. On top of that, there's various balancing and house cleaning that we will want to do.
Then, probably in July or maybe early August we will be releasing Galactic Civilizations II v2.0. This update will affect all versions of GalCiv II but mostly Dark Avatar and Twilight. The biggest change will be the enhanced espionage system for DA and ToA users. There will also be additional graphical improvements in ToA to continue "future proofing" the game. The Metaverse will also be getting some much needed love with v2.0.

After that, it'll depend on you. Our budget post 2.0 is largely based on sales at that stage. Most people will be transferred to working on the fantasy strategy game so that we can announce it later this year. Other parts of the team will be working with Gas Powered Games on Demigod.

So that's where we're at. Cheers!

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Sir_On_The_Edge

Join Date 07/2006

I love you guys!!!

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The biggest change will be the enhanced espionage system for DA and ToA users.

I can't wait for this one... hints please Brad!

The Metaverse will also be getting some much needed love with v2.0.

I'm more than a little intrigued by this one... any guesses?

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Thanks for the inputs, Brad, and good work Stardock! I too am very intrigued by your Metaverse' ''much needed love''....

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Thanks for the update, good to see there is a roadmap/future for GC2

Although the game is pretty solid. One thing I'd hope for either in GC2 v2.x (or GC3) is that techs can have more than one pre-requisite.

I'd also like to see bigger (yes bigger) map sizes (not necessarily for more stars/planets)

And customizable starbase types. e.g. Repair Starbase for adding repair modules that give +25% repair rate etc.

this is turning into a wish list....

Frogboy : Maybe you should ask the community what three things they'd like. put it to a vote. then develop on a sliding scale, if you get x to sign up for upgrade do top 5 if y sign up do 10 things, etc...

keep up the good work.

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Everything looks great so far. Thanks for another great game.

As for the future, the fantasy strategy game is what I want far more than anything else anywhere near your plate, at least as far as I've heard. For whatever it's worth in sales, I'll be happy to pre-order it as soon as it's available.

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I'm much more an exxxtreme fanatic of fantasy strategy games than science-fiction strategy games.

I've played almost all of them : Master of Magic, all the Heroes of Might & Magic, all the Age of Wonders, all the Disciples, all the Warlords.

I'm also a huge fan of the Stardock approach. I can't wait to pre-order the beta of that enigmatic sword-and-sorcery game.

In what concerns the Galactic Civilization series, I s*ck. I just cannot figure out how that management system works.

For example. My dad recently downloaded the TA expansion. I tried it.

My problem is that my population's morale doesn't stop to fall, and at an accelrating rate : now, it's almost 1% per turn !?

1. I had chosen a custom species with a morale bonus
2. I eventually reduced taxation to ... ZERO !
3. I built morale-boosting buildings on my planets
4. I have not engaged in morale reducing activities (war?)
5. I had turned off special events
6. No enemy spy has yet disturbed my population

It seems to be linked to population growth : as my population rises, the morale % keeps on falling, at an accelerated rate.

Is that a feature or a bug ? It is so annoying. Come on : ZERO taxes and they're not happy !? And I'm not talking here about a game that is very advanced in time.

That's my main beef, at the moment with GC2/TA : that senseless reduction of morale.

I'm a noob at GC2 : anybody has an explanation and a tip ?

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Less population.

Population density has a huge impact on morale. So stop building farms.

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Once the population exceeds 19 to 20 you are going to experience severe morale issues as you described. The solution is to make sure that your farm/food resources don't exceed the morale limit...so normally one tile dedicated to a farm will be enough as you upgrade it throughout the game. On average planets most people opt for a population limit of about 13 and on larger planets 19 is about right. If you have lots of morale improvements available, you might get to 21 or 22.

Also note, that some people will use a planet that has a food resource bonus tile (300%) to generate population in order to create transports.

Hope this helps.

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Nice bit of news! I have to run the game from inside stardock central and start that in Administrator Mode or the game will crash out or not even try to load...

About to re-install my vid-drivers and found a newer version of them that I will re-install with to hopefully fix some issues discused in another thread. Everything is pointing to something wrong on my end with this issue... *sighs* had to install vista on my gaming machine... tisk tisk tisk...

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I'm personally really excited about the fantasy game you guys are doing even with the little detail given. the last time I played a good turn based fantasy game was TOEE (with circle of eights mod pack) Im itching for something new and you guys are the ones to do it

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Looking forward to the fantasy strategy game. I just went out and picked up Heroes of Might & Magic V: Hammers of Fate and Tribes of the East as well as Sins of a Solar Empire (I'm on such a strategy game kick right now). If you guys can do for fantasy strategy gaming what you did for sci-fi, it will rock!

Keep up the good work everyone!

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Achronous

Join Date 03/2006

+29

One thing that comes to mind, apart from fixing some of the bugs already there, is to fix the constructor system, as another person said. My solution is that whenever building a constructor it goes directly to the nearest starbase with needs upgrading. The user can stop it if he wants, so he can take it wherever he wants. Or: there could be another generic rally point which points to the nearest starbase so that instead of going automatically the user chooses that mode.

Thus it becomes much easier to handle the grind. The constructors just diffuse out of the planets and the starbases slowly slowly get built without a great change in the system.

Oh: The starport icon as well.
-- Some of the tech trees need fixing up: Altarian/Drath (very similar), Thalan (missing one technology?) etc.

Might think of some more; otherwise I'm happy with how it's shaping up

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Cool. Looking forward to the fantasy game.

The most important thing for me though is the bug fixes for ToTA.

I want to see a lot of work on that.

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As always top class support, and the fact that updates are part of the on-going development of the GalCiv universe (something which some developers need to take note of!)

One thing though, and I've been asking since ToA was announced... Will we get a nice and shiny .pdf file of the cover of ToA like we got for DA, so we have something to put in a DVD case when we recieve our CD's???

Thanks Stardock/Frogboy

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I love the game... but where are the professional reviews? I can't find a single one. Metacritic doesn't even have a post for it

I have been wondering the exact same thing. I am going to be pretty pissed if ToA does not get much press. Even if the target market is not as big as it is for other games, it should be recognized as the excellent game it is.

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One improvement that isnt necessary, but if you guys are up for it, I might as well suggest it. The movies in 1440x900 rez are squashed. It would be nice to have the correct aspect ratio. But thats a low priority wish

It would also be nice to have an external ship creator. Sometimes I just like to make ships and dont want to scale the tech tree to make the big ones. Again, not a biggy, just adding to the potential wish list

In game, i dont have alot of experience yet. I'll post more as I find the systems of the game. I did notice the ground combat in TA was different from the previous versions. I actually find myself skipping the battles all together as they arent as exciting. It would be nice to have the old system with updated graphics. Ideally, there would be an RTS mini game for planetary combat, but that is beyond the scope of this game

More types of space stations as suggested before would be fun. I'm no where close to effectively using them, but someday I will be and it would be nice to have more options

Finally, the zoom to cursor system that Sins has! I keep trying to scroll in to where my cursor is and it just isnt going lol. I guess I've become spoiled with that system

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I think your comments and suggestions for GC2 would be better posted here.

Sounds like a plan Brad! I am really looking forward to the updates to GC2, but I am really interested to see what your new 4X game is going to be like. Keep up the great work!

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Thank you Stardock, I have been waiting too long for a good, polished, up-to-date fantasy strategy game, and I think you are the guys to do it. Age of Wonders and HoMaM 5 leave my cold, whereas I still load-up MOM every year or so.

But you know, if you really want my heart (and my wallet), then you need to have a long, hard think about X-Com.

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Can you please update the Game Manual to include the new features of the Twilight expansion. I downloaded the Twilight expansion via Stardock central and found that the game manual was the same as the GalCiv II Gold manual except for the front cover. If I hadnt read the gamespy review I wouldnt have known that you could right click on the tech tree to get helpfull info.

Also, I would like to play the Dread Lords and Dark Avatar campaigns via the Twilight expanison so that I can enjoy all the great new features of that expansion but I can at the moment only play the Twilight campaign through the expansion (note: you can play both the Dread Lords and Dark Avatar campaigns throught the Dark Avatar expansion).

Great expansion especially the graphics.

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Well - I have not purchased either expansion, but I will most defintely do so after V2.0 comes out.

I've found that games tend to be much more enjoyable after a patch or two has been released.

Btw - *really* looking forward to the MOM clone.

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Did I hear about a fantasy strategy game?

W00t!

Got to stay alive for the next 3 years!

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I'm really looking forward to the Fantasy Strategy game your making.

Been looking forward to it ever since you first hinted at it, long ago.

I would like to ask one favor. Please for the art of various "Fantasy" races, you take a more serious tone. A more realistic fantasy feel as it were.

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Keep up the good work guys! Can't wait for the espionnage update.

For the future what excites me the most is the new Fantasy strategy game, which could be even cooler than Galciv if you play your cards right. Can't wait for some info on the Fantasy game, and for the official beta to be released so that I can buy it immediately.

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Thanks for the info but can Twilight of the Arnor 1.92 really wait until early June?

There's a few pretty busy threads discussing tech tree errors, unbalanced tech trees, possible bug with tech costs, and other problems pointed out. I still want to point out with Vista a shortcut to TALauncher still doesn't get created properly.

Some of these seem pretty major to me and holding off any fixing, specially re: the tech trees, can't wait until early June. Some people on the msg boards are already getting frustrated by the lack of response from the ToA developer community on some of these threads and saying they are going to hold off on ToA. Again, with some major tech tree issues that have been brought up, I am trying to avoid the feeling that TOA is unfinished and unbalanced from that perspective.

Just some info and responses would be nice on many of the other TOA issue threads out there.

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how about tactical combat ? I would really love to see tactical combat in a game of GalCiv, just like MOO 2!

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