Project origins
There was some discussion on the Steam forums as to how to get an update to GalCiv 2 out there.
Draginol popped in and suggested that an update incorporating the expertise of the fanbase would be the best way forward. A bugfixing update would soon be on the way.
I sent a message to the other tech tree modders, and luckily secured the assistance of Gaunathor, and later MabusAltarn, as well as some dedicated members of the community who posted some valuable feedback. They have been instrumental to the success of the community update, and I'm glad to have played a small part along the way.
Progress report
The community update has been released as part of a rollout of Stardock products on GOG.com and is also available as an opt-in beta on Steam!
Downloads and links
Issues which can't be fixed with XML manipulation.
The file archive folder, hosted by MabusAltarn.
The list of bugs which can't be fixed with XML manipulation.
The spreadsheet of data changes, hosted by MabusAltarn.
Initial discussion on Steam forums
Credits for community member and Stardock staff involvement
Gaunathor - Tech tree changes, descriptions and standardisation. AI value adjustment. Planetary improvement changes and fixes. Keeper of the change logs, spreadsheet and file archive.
MarvinKosh - Typo and description changes (English.str, Techtree.xml). Additional spreadsheet analysis.
DARCA1213 - Tech descriptions.
MabusAltarn - UI changes, tech tree changes, AI value adjustment, keeper of the file archive, spreadsheet and change logs.
Maiden666 - Suggestions for improvement (technology victory bonuses).
OShee - tech descriptions.
SiliasOfBorg - tech descriptions.
Frogboy - executable code changes.
No. There isn't. AI behaviour such as selling and buying planets is hardcoded.
Pity, thank you for the answer.
Maybe I could try to play disabling tech trading completely. Finding cash for buying planets should be more difficult, then.
I recommend always playing with tech trading disabled. I think many agree.
Very much so. Also, picking a race with a diplomatic penalty should make things more difficult.
Many would, I must be an exception because I like techtrading in my games.
That's the point, I like it too.
And also, it's much more realistic then trading planets. So, at the moment I'm playing with the house rule to avoid planet trading at all.
Anyway, talking about trading, my impression is that tech trading and ship trading are balanced. Getting techs and ships from the AI is difficult as it should, sometimes too difficult, but generally speaking it's ok.
Regarding trade goods and undeveloped planets, they are definitely underestimated.
I have already written about planets, but for trade goods it's almost the same. It's too easy to get them from AI, and also the AI doesn't offer enough for yours, so at the end I always keep for me the ones I produce and I acquire easily all the others.
That's the point, I like it too.And also, it's much more realistic then trading planets. So, at the moment I'm playing with the house rule to avoid planet trading at all.Anyway, talking about trading, my impression is that tech trading and ship trading are balanced. Getting techs and ships from the AI is difficult as it should, sometimes too difficult, but generally speaking it's ok.Regarding trade goods and undeveloped planets, they are definitely underestimated.I have already written about planets, but for trade goods it's almost the same. It's too easy to get them from AI, and also the AI doesn't offer enough for yours, so at the end I always keep for me the ones I produce and I acquire easily all the others.
I exclusively play as the Yor and often ignore Xeno Communications until later when i actually need something (who needs friends anyway?). I find trading for just about anything difficult unless I have overwhelming diplomacy.
Of course, I understand that. But with Terrans in my hands, if the Yor are so unfortunate to start as my neighbour, I can buy their worlds one after the other, leaving them just the core worlds. Same with Drengin and Korath, which are the races with -30 in Diplomacy. Now I'm trying to give them some points in diplomacy so that they can start at least with -10. Let's see what happens.
I've finished the first draft of the manual.
Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/e45st07h3ymusll/GC2%20Ultimate%20Guide.docx?dl=0
It's a MS Word 2007 document. Please take a look and tell me what you think is missing. Also, any spelling corrections will be greatly appreciated.
Regards,
M.
As soon as I figure out how to get Open Office to read that, I'll have a look. Right now it just opens up as 1500 pages of garbage.
That's odd, I'm pretty sure I only wrote 1498 pages of garbage . If you keep having trouble opening the document I can save the it as a different format. Word 2003, PDF or perhaps I'll upload it to Google Docs.
Page 10, Extreme Planets: Barren is written in upper case, rest use lower case letters.
Page 33, "cost 1000 of not several 1000 credits"
Page 77, not sure if my English is bad or it's a typo, but I don't get Super Organizer description, "Note that this SA only worlds war is declared on the Super Organizer."
Page 80, Terran Alliance, "Research (dis)advantage: 10% Propulsion 10% Diplomacy". So, they have an advantage or disadvantage? Should be Advantage, right? Same with Korx and Drath. Should be Disadvantage for Thalan, and Advantage for Iconian. Should stay as it is for Krynn, as they have a mixed bag.
Page 82, Courage, advantage when in ship battles or invasions? I'm curious myself
Planet Quality, "A class 19 planet will gain 1 tile if your PQA is 20%", that's a typo I presume
Page 89, will there be an update on Weapons? Some description would be nice I guess :>
Just a couple I managed to find, I haven't read everything. Amazing job, sir, you should be proud of yourself
And last but not least, are you going to convert it to PDF? Right now formatting and images are kind of wonky, at least on my rig. I'm using Open Office.
I started to read the guide, I'm not mother-language but here is my list of corrections to be made up to 5.4.6.3:
1) First, formatting is bad. You have written it's a word doc, but I have downloaded a pdf, so I'm not sure if the problem is in the conversion or the doc itself.
2) Many times you use "build" instead of "built", i.e. par. 5.4.1, 5.4.2, 5.4.4 "be build once"
3) Par. 5.4.6.2 "to much time" -> "too much time", "pay of" -> "pay off", "can costs a 1000 of not several 1000 credits" -> "can cost a thousand if not several thousand bc", "the next factory .... the one before being finished" -> "the following factory .... the one being finished before", "want it build before" -> "want it built before", "will be build right after" -> "will be built right after".
4) Par. 5.4.6.3 "There's two ships" -> "There are two ships", "A Scout and Construction" -> "Scout and Constructor", "since the there less much space to explore" -> "since there's much less space to explore", "There's 4 types of starbases" -> "There are 4 types of starbases", "Harvests a resource and provides a bonus" -> "Harvest resources and provide a bonus", "Used to boost industry and research and trade income" -> "Used to boost industry, research and trade income", "Used spread your culture" -> "Used to spread your culture", "Give bonuses to ships the vicinity" -> "Give bonuses to ships in the vicinity", "Terror Stars. A weapon platform" -> "Terror Stars. Weapon Platforms", "it's details will be shown" -> "its details will be shown", "but lucky for us" -> "but luckily for us", "the planets current military project" -> "the planet's current military project", "what type of ship were building" -> "what type of ship we're building".
Par. 5.5: “It’s time to put our scientist to work” -> “It’s time to put our scientists to work”.
Par. 6.1 “Handling a colony is no different that developing your homeworld” -> “Handling a colony is no different than developing your homeworld”.
Par. 6.2 “In time your scientist will have their first break through” -> “In time your scientists will have their first break through”.
Par. 6.5 “Once your freighter arrives at it’s destination” -> “Once your freighter arrives at its destination”, “If you have any trade routes with the embargo will end them” -> “If you have any open trade routes the embargo will end them”, “Having your mini-freighters destroyed to often” -> “Having your mini-freighters destroyed too often”.
Par. 6.6 “Stat Federation” -> “Star Federation”.
Par. 6.7.1 “it’s class … it’s population, it’s income and militaty” -> “its class … its population, its income and military”, “what planetary improvement and ship is currently build” -> “what planetary improvement and ship are currently being built”.
Par. 6.7.1.2 “You can set a planets focus” -> “You can set a planet’s focus”.
Par. 6.7.1.4 “the ships name” -> “the ship’s name”.
Par. 6.7.2 “From here you can keep an overview how other civilizations are progressing” -> “From here you can monitor how other civilizations are progressing”.
Enough for today.
Hey everyone,
Thanks for taking a look. I'll wait a couple of days to let the corrections pile up.
Par. 6.7.3
"gives you an overview how your civilization compares" -> " gives you an overview on how your civilization compares"
"a broad overview how you’re ranked" -> "a broad overview on how you’re ranked"
"looking to make" -> "trying to make" (maybe I'm wrong, but never heard the expression "looking to make")
"click on a bar diagrab" -> "click on a bar diagram"
Par. 6.7.4.2
"Planetary govenors" -> "Planetary governors"
"micromanaging every planets becomes" -> "micromanaging every planet becomes"
Par. 6.7.5
"Like so" ... is this correct english? Maybe "Like this" would be better
Par. 6.9
"you’ll can finally rest" -> " you’ll finally be able to rest "
Par. 6.9.1
" the remained of the game" -> "the remainder of the game"
Par. 6.10.2
"This is you last change to cancel the invasion" -> "This is your last chance to cancel the invasion"
Par. 6.10.3
"the planets atmosphere" -> "the planet's atmosphere"
" a planets environment" -> " a planet's environment"
Par. 6.11
"The gathered rules" -> "The gathered rulers"
Par. 6.12
"Congratulation’s" -> "Congratulations"
"Events can be… well… anything and you’re going to have to do the best you can to deal with it" -> "Events can be… well… anything and you’re going to need your best to deal with them"
" constricted " -> "constrained"
"your choices to matter" -> "your choices do matter"
"run of the mill" -> ???
Well I finally got the thing to open in Open Office. Yay!
English is my mother tongue, and I intend to be thorough. This is going to be long.
1p2: "Or, will you utterly crush any who stand in your way."
Should end with a question mark.
1p3: "But be weary"
Should be "wary".
5.1p1: "After beginning a new game three screen’s"
Should be "screens", plural doesn't require apostrophe.
5.2.2p1: "When our influence grows the red border will be pushed back. Or, the opposite may happen."
Ambiguous. Suggest "The larger our influence is relative to our neighbors, the farther out our borders will be."
5.2.9p1: "bc but we spend some money on a factory."
Should be "spent".
5.3p3: "tax your citizens to much."
Should be "too much"
5.3p4: "pressing the < or > buttons at it’s sides"
Should be "its". In English "it's" is a contraction and "its" is possesive. English, where every grammar rule has at least one exception.
5.3p8,9,10: "The goal is to set this slider to a 100% and leave it there.
Set your Spending to a 100%.
Now let’s take a look how your money is being spend."
Should be "set this slider to 100%", "Set your spending to 100%", and "..money is being spent" (the "100%" is read as "one hundred percent" so no "a" is necessary).
5.3p16: "Simply put, a colony that’s building just ships will finish them quicker."
Should be "more quickly".
5.4.1p2: "OPP improvements can only be build once."
Suggest ".. can only be built once on each planet."
5.4.1p3: "Food Prod. Bonus: This means 8 mt/wk * 50% = 12. earth’s total population is capped at 12 billion people."
Suggest "Food Prod. Bonus: An extra 50% of the base 8 mt/wk gives an extra 4 mt/wk, so Earth's total population..."
5.4.2p1: "only be build once per planet."
Should be "built".
5.4.2p3: "Click on an empty tile."
Ambiguous. Suggest "Click on an empty tile with a green border."
5.4.3p17: "Creativity is amazing since it let’s us finish research projects randomly."
Awkward wording. Suggest "Creativity is amazing since it gives a small chance at early research breakthroughs."
5.4.4p4: "that can be build only once"
Skipped 5.4.6.2 and 5.4.6.3 since abelisari covered those nicely.
5.5p1: ".. on they keyboard."
Typo. "the keyboard"
6.5p1: "There’s four tech’s in total."
Should be "techs".
6.5p4: "Once your freighter arrives at it’s destination"
Should be "its"
6.5p5: "the trade route will make every week (=turn)."
Awkward. Suggest "will make every turn."
Skipped up to 6.7.2 as abelisari covered those nicely.
6.7.2.2p1: "..show multiple graphs in one."
Suggest "show multiple graphs at once."
6.7.2.3p3: "Click on a race name to toggle it’s graph"
Should be "its graph"
6.7.3p4: "how you’re ranked in certain area’s"
Should be "certain areas"
6.7.3p7: "strong you are in certain area’s"
6.7.7p2: "In addition, you can check on your opponents process in the lower right corner."
Should be "check on your opponents' progress"
6.8.1p3: "Currently a bare bone cargo hull is selected."
Should be "bare bones"
6.8.1p8: "Those are hard points and you use them to attack stuff to your ship."
Typo? Suggest "attach stuff"
6.8.1p11: "with some Extra’s"
Should be "extras"
6.8.2.2p2: there's an empty fourth bullet at the end of the list
6.9p2: "Once you form an alliance you’ll can finally rest"
Should be "you can finally rest"
6.9p3: "so be very weary"
Should be "wary"
6.9.1p1: "for the remained of the game"
Should be "for the remainder"
6.10.2p3: "number of troops* vs Planetary"
Why is the asterisk there? I can't find what it refers to, if anything.
6.10.2p4: "This is you last change"
Should be "your last chance"
6.10.2p5: "as shown on the left."
On my screen, the picture is on the right. Could be a formatting thing with Open Office.
6.12p1: "Congratulation’s"
Should be "Congratulations"
6.12p6: "your choices to matter"
Should be "do matter"
6.12.1p1: "Mega Event’s"
Should be "Mega Events"
6.13p4: "might be available at the star of the game."
Typo. Should be "at the start"
6.13.2p3: "A freshly build Economic"
Should be "built"
6.13.2p5: "against attack fleets."
Suggest "against attacking fleets" or "against enemy fleets"
6.13.6p1: "A powerful fleet turn your starbase into starrubble."
Suggest "fleet can turn"
6.13.6p2: "find it’s way towards it."
6.14p7: "Each alignment brings it’s own bonuses"
6.15.1p4: "To take a look at what your agents have divulged"
Suggest "uncovered" instead of "divulged".
6.15.4p2: "This One Per Planet structure block all enemy agent planet once it’s build."
Suggest "blocks all enemy agents from this planet once it's built."
6.15.4p3: "Keep in mind though, active agents will not be nullified"
Suggest "existing active agents"
6.17p4: "So if your approval could use a boost consider terraforming your planets it might just be the boost you need."
Should be two sentences. "..terraforming your planets. It might..."
6.18p3: "Only by research both levels"
Should be "researching"
6.18p5: "The Yor (barren unlocked by Super Isolationist"
Missing closing parenthesis.
Page 74 is completely blank. Again, might be Open Office formatting weirdness.
7.1 Campaigns page is blank. Intentional / not finished yet, I assume?
7.2.Yor: "any speed advantage you attacker has out of the equation."
Should be "your attacker"
7.2.Altarians: "Note that this SA only worlds war is declared on the Super Organizer."
Suggest "works when war is declared". Actually I think OShee caught this one already.
7.3.Drengin: "The Drengin are build for war."
7.3.Terran: "Fortunately you’re one three civilizations"
Should be "one of only three". I think OShee already brought up on the Terran research comment as being ambiguous. That applies to the rest of the civ descriptions as well.
7.3.Thalan: "their structure are horribly expensive."
Should be "their structures"
Stopped after 7.3, I'll pick it up at 7.4 later on.
Fantastic job Mabus, lots of good information in a fun and well organized package!!
I've tried to avoid corrections already included in SilasOfBorg list, with the exception of par. 6.17 suggestion.
Par. 6.13.1
“Starbases build on a galactic resource” -> “Starbases built on a galactic resource”
Par. 6.13.2
Title “Economics Starbases” -> “Economic starbases”
“any freighters that pass through” -> “any freighter that passes through”
Par. 6.13.3
Suggestion “As simple rule when it comes to influence is this: more is better” -> “A simple rule when it comes to influence: more is better”
“another civilizations homeworld” -> “another civilization’s homeworld”
Par. 6.13.5
“Terrorstars” -> “Terror stars”
Par. 6.14
“every civilizations” -> “every civilization”
“dosh” -> “cash”
Par. 6.15.2
“an opponents empire” -> “an opponent’s empire”
Par. 6.16.3
Title “Rally poiny” -> “Rally point”
Par. 6.17
Suggestion “So if your approval could use a boost consider terraforming your planets it might just be the boost you need.” -> “So if your approval could use a boost, consider terraforming your planets; it might just be the boost you need.”
“you can buy an a tile upgrade” -> “you can buy a tile upgrade”
Par. 6.18
“be carefully” -> “be carefull”
“get a aquatic world colonization” -> “get aquatic world colonization”
Par. 6.21
“Sensors allows” -> “Sensors allow”
“You an build” -> “You can build”
Hey everyone.
Thanks for the many, many corrections. I've come down with the flu and my skull is currently harboring cotton balls.
It will be a couple of days before I get to it.
I didn't write a chapter on weapons and defenses because I don't know nearly enough of the new system to do a proper job. If someone can write a chapter on this I'll add it to the manual.
I think I forgot . When I make a desision to put something in the appendix I create a chapter and finish it later. I guess I didn't in this case.
Ugh. My condolences.
I can do that.
Fantastic.
I've processed the corrections and took a hard look at the manual again. I've also written a short chapter on the campaigns.
It's available from te file archive.
Hello i am new here, and new to the game.
I have ultimate edition version 2.0.3, for some reason cant update to 4, but i would still like to try this mod, and i dont know what to do with this line below, can anyone help me ? Any is there any how to install this mod ?
Thanks
N.B. You should clear each race before playing the mod, because of changes to starting Logistics ability, race abilities and ability point costs.
Take these steps to install the 2.04 EXE file.
Link: http://youtu.be/enHTgcjxH5g
Ve done that, now when you start new game, do you need to put abilities points for each race or you leave that alone, since otherwise this configs are recreated again.
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