Galciv2 was quite micro intensive. Particulary, the management of colonies (dozens of planets and every planet had many tiles to build something on and to upgrade) and the economy (adjusting sliders every turn...). I hope this will be altered in 3.
Do you agree?
Planetary governors? GC1 had four of them and you could assign a planet to use any one of the four, or none at all. With the planetary maps of GC2, planetary governors becomes much more problematical. The assignment of buildings to tiles that had the matching bonuses is very important, and is a reason I was fearful of using them. I should have tried it to see if they would work well. I just took a cursory look at what GC2 has, and it looks like you can create an infinite number of planetary governors, and, of course, you can assign any plant to use any governor or not as you wish.
Yeah I noticed when conquering planets from the AI in GC2 that they often ignored tile bonuses and would build wonders or Orbital Command centers on top of 700% industry or research super-tiles
Being able to filter the list of colonies instead of just sorting it would be really helpful. Maybe I want to see just colonies that are specialised in research, or the ones which haven't been specialised yet, or the ones which are in danger of flipping to another civ.
I remember the planet list having a lot of sorting options, but not any filtering options. So how would planets be assigned specializations? Wouldn't that be through the Governor assigned to the planet? If so (if you created governors that specialized in one thing or another) wouldn't sorting on the Governor's name provide what you are looking for?
On second thought, I think I am missing something here. I will have to take another look at GC2 and try to find what it is.
I've always simply used the sorting options in the planet list. The ones with larger production and research were the ones that mattered and were likely the ones that had such planet features.
sorry bout that
If you think GCII system is overly complicated, check this out
This map is a class 17 planet because it has 17 cities. Each will have a population percentage.
Also you can build space farming sectors (hexagons) outside the radius, but it cannot overlap water and cannot overlap cities.
Say hello the the city grid, each city has a grid to them, which you designate the houses, businesses and industries. Tools will help make this process quick and easy!
industries is your military production and your social production and cost money to run
houses will determine your max population and you tax them generating income
businesses will milk peoples money increasing the cash you gain even further.
also you can plop down research plots, but they will drain the cities income
designate a wonder in any given sector.
choose to build a star port in a city
fortify cities with defenses and set up anti air to weaken enemies air superiority or the planet
everything left over will be given to you in billion credits. As your city evolves you may gain/lose credits depending on the limitations the planet has and which areas have been developed every time you hit the turn button.
This will exterminate a need for a slider, but complex enough that you can manage and keep up with the growth by building farms. You will get notices if a location is starving because the farms can't handle the populations demands.
Personally, I think that micro is good. In an RTS, too much detail can kill it, because you don't have enough time to do everything. But in a TBS, you cab really take as long as you need for a turn (although maybe not in this new multiplayer mode, but we don't know anything about it yet so, we'll see).
That said, I found that I did use one of the automated features. I forget what it was (I think it may have been the planetary governor, not sure), I set it up with the starting buildings for any new colony: a factory, spaceport, a lab, maybe some entertainment (and if I was the Kyrn, all of their special stuff). So I just used it to get a colony up an running, and then I would tweak everything.
yes, too much detail does kill it... in fact this micromanagement would ruin multi-player, don't get me wrong but you should be thankful there is a slider to begin with, what I am trying to get at is can you come up with a better idea then a simple slider? It doesn't seem to take too much time and it is perfect for a game of this scale.
Honestly I thought galcivII was a perfect balance so I'd prefer something similar, but due to multiplayer I can see how some streamlining could be beneficial.
Good to see the debate continued here. Better empire colony management screens would help manage your empire better. Perhaps a useful modification could be to include a map in this screen to see where the colony is located on the galaxy map. I tend to forget the name/location of colonies, particulary if you play the game in large intervals.
To me it would make the whole mirco thing fun, if there is something special on some of my planets. Something that doesnt come up every game. Something that can make me change strategy a little to take advantage of it.
A well of souls that gives access to a special ability on ships built on that planet.
An ancient defense mechanism that will fire three insanely powerful rockets on any enemy ship orbiting the planet. This works only once and the mechanism is depleted
A wood with an animal that multiplies so fast that it can feed millions of people on the planet
A mystic communication device that can call mercenaries to work for you at a high price, but with some very useful ships
++++++
A mystic wood with a communication tree that can call pirates to enslave your citizens? And you don't know of it before it happens, of course.
of course Stringer2
Guess what, I updated the model, you know something like this has potential, its like a mini simplified turn based city simulator, except you don't have to bother looking at them every turn, you just designate what you want in areas using tools and I assure you it has great potential.
The only acceptation is the wonders and farms. everything would about these cities would be self developing as you advance your technology.
The best designed 4X of all time was MoO 1, and it had very little micro. What little micro existed was very easily controlled. Planetary management was brilliant -- the slider system wasn't any less deep than having a build queue, but infinitely faster and didn't even need it's own screen. Micro heavy games tend to be light on strategy, and heavy on memorization and repitition. Galciv 2 was no different, and it got to the point where I could win any game without saving at the highest difficulty just by going through the same dull motions. That kind of game may be fun for some people, but not for me.
I think that we need to differentiate between 'micro' and 'busy work'
I don't think people mind micro managmeent, as this is an important part of the strategy and maximizing your resources and efficiencies.
What people do not like is 'busy work'. I feel that people don't necessarily want 'automation' in terms of an AI doing stuff for you. But more 'batch management'. How do I mass upgrade ships/colonies. How do I pump out my 'default Death Patrol fleet' from a colony. How can I easily change my empire's priorities from a single location?
Micro isn't the issue imho.
If you want to complain about micro then try Space Empires V.
Well, it is for me. The ideal management of a colony would be choosing the type of development (type of the governor) and a slider to set the colony's budget priority. This would tell the budget how much money it can throw at that colony.
Anything beyond this is micromanagement that is an issue for me.
Speaking about games with tens of colonies or more, naturally.
For me, that is woefully insufficient micromanagment. Speaking about games with a hundred or more colonies, naturally.
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