I love 4X sci-fi games, but 99% of them just seem so lifeless to me. In a lot of these games, planets come across as lifeless points on a map that serve as little more than resource generators and conquerable spots. Fleets provide the only real life in the galaxy as we can see them zip around, but even here the ships often seem like solid hunks of metal that just blindly obey the player's orders. Some games have "characters", but in reality these "people" act as little more than stat boosters.
I really hope GalCiv III breaks this lifeless trend. I would really love to see this game adopt some of the ideas found in other strategy games, such as Crusader Kings II. It would be nice to be able to choose from a retinue of people, each with their own traits and personalities, to be our colonial governors, fleet admirals, research scientists, etc, and then actually hear from these people about their concerns, etc. Likewise, LOTS of random events would be fun - GalCiv II already had these, but I mean I want a LOT more, and events that deal with minor stuff (petitions for jobs, labor riots, stuff like that) as well as major events (rebellions, disasters, etc).
However it is done, please just make GalCiv III's universe seem populated with something more than planets and ships. Give the galaxy's "little people" a voice and role, too!
I tried to get all the quotes under one edit earlier. I couldn't make it work I will try again. It would be easier if I could just delete some of my quotes. If it take me days to read a site then there is no way I can remember all the posts.
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I completely agree with the OP and those that mentioned Distant Worlds as an example where this was done well.
One of the problems in Distant Worlds is that the AI is not capable enough to take advantage of those events (nor does the AI explore well enough) e.g. the AI finds super lasers but hardly uses them as ship construction size research is not given sufficient priority and also the AI builds far too many small ships etc.
However, if the GalCiv 3 AI is what we hope it will be ... there is a lot of potential here to add to the gameplay experience.
I will try replying instead of quoting thank you.
It wouldn't take much effort to make any environment to come to life, just insert idea, add animations or a background that changes with every turn. it will look more lively then if it was just the same damn thing all the time.
If the developers wanted to take this idea further, what about asteroid fields that move 1 tile every turn in a straight line or possibly random spawning plasma storms that block out all sensors for a short period of time.
Since this thread is so hot I will beam down a link that may or may not work
https://forums.galciv3.com/449787/page/1/
I know you may not agree with all ideas in here, I think it would be wise to help me out on this idea for Galactic civilization to have an adequate environment for all of us.
they don't, but that does not mean there can not be options for those that do. Many RP things are flavor, which you can either ignore, or use. Campaigns for example. there are tons of ways you could add More RP flavor, on top of the base line game for those that want.. if not turn the stuff off in options and play a sandbox game..
Take crusader kings, that game is a major strat game, but has tons of RP flavor as well.. seeing GC II was single player, i would think GC III is as well..
GC3 has already been announced as having multiplayer. Scroll to the top of this thread and click "Game" then "GalCiv III Features". Under the heading "Multiplayer" you will find:
"
For the first time, players can compete against each other in person and over the Internet in Galactic Civilizations III."
I can see pros and cons to this. Having an interesting element to the Empires could be interesting but the main concern is how it is done.
If there were more every turn and it was the same as "choose a perk good vs neutral vs evil" every turn then no. Especially as the "choices" are repeatable then it could just be a layer of boring on top of the existing game.
While on the same side having the options of some automation or possible things that do need to be managed to keep the empire under control or there are consequences would be nice to have. Such as the option that your actions can lead to the "Fundamentalist" revolt.
But I did find it bad when you have a 100% approval at your capital but it would just randomly flip to a revolt without any pre-ordained or bad actions that caused it when the Fundamentalist revolt happens. I would like to have the slightly random element as it can add to the interest of the game. Overall though this would require a careful balancing act to give it justice while also preventing the game from feeling like an endless grind..
I thought that distant worlds was to automated. One thing I would like to not see in galactic civilizations that is in distant worlds is tech research that you can't decide on. I wouldn't mind sharing tech research with the private sector, but not the private sector doing all the research.
Michael, you can choose to automate Distant Worlds research. The AI isn't strong so there are huge benefits to manual control.
Both games could learn from each other.
If Galactic Civilizations 3 applied a living galaxy similar to what Distant Worlds has, while Distant Worlds applied an AI similar to what Galactic Civilizations has, both games would be improved immensely.
Again I want to be able to choose what to research or multiple research paths. Hey if I can do that on distant worlds wan you tell me how to do that. Instead of building research ports. I still can't pick my techs. I would compromise and allow private and public research both not just private wouldn't be to bad of an idea. The problem is that Stardock would probably go back to a game that worked. This scares me. There is really no way I would prefer a better Ai doing the research instead of me doing the research myself. The big part of 4x games as far as I'm concerned is tech research.
I completely agree research is a big part of 4X games, indeed it's one of the reasons I enjoy Distant Worlds. You might want to play the game a little more before jumping to conclusions.
In Game ... Open Empire Policy screen ... select Manual Control for Research. With that you can choose what to research in each field. Yes you have to build research stations (and/or include labs in spaceports). On manual this brings another dimension to the game as choosing where to build and where to put scientists can have a dramatic effect on bonuses. You can customise the designs (e.g. number of labs) to optimise and shift how much you want to research between the fields.
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