Hey all,
Long-time fan of Stardock and lurker around the forums. I've given the GC3 forums a good once-over at a couple different points in development. I have to say, the game looks a lot like GC2 with hexes. I'm not really too big into preorders these days, but I'm definitely curious, especially because there's really nothing else in the genre that scratches the itch.
So, Stardock evangelists... how do you like the game so far? I haven't seen any sort of real departures from GC2, but the devil's in the details, I guess. So, shaping up to be better? Worse? The same but prettier? Any thoughts from those of you elbows deep in the betas would be greatly appreciated.
It is shaping up to be better, in my opinion. It is already quite different from GC2, even if screenshots don't make that immediately apparent. There's a lot more than just tweaks and hexes in there already, and a lot more features "coming soon!" (as the in-game tooltips will tell you) The balance and AI are also (as of Beta 4) not really there.
I haven't played the game in a while, because every time I try to, I just end up saying "oh, I wish I could do this or that" because I know those features are coming in Beta 5. Once it is here I may not sleep for a week.
I played GCII for 100's of hours. Lost entire weekends on long games.
Sadly, this is going to get terribly worse with GCIII.
Just in Beta IV alone I have an Immense map and I am about 1/2 way through conquering the galaxy and its already 300+ turns in and this is another new game. The new maps are many times larger than GCII. The next beta coming up will give us so much more, custom AI's, Minors, Huge performance fixes, Better AI, Better diplomatic AI responses..did I mention Minors and custom AI? Now you can have 30 or 40 Major Galactic powers, all Minors and see your fledgling empire go from upstart to the slow 'steam roller action crushing all' as your war 'machine keeps turning' (Pretty sure those are lyrics I heard this morning......)
Thanks guys, I appreciate the time! How about mechanics-wise? Are the minor powers much different than those in 2? I'm very excited about custom AIs... is there any more customization than the dissociation of 'smarts vs bonuses' we had in two?
If you liked GCII, it is similar enough to almost guarantee you will like GCIII, and it promises to be different enough to make you like it more.
How? Thank you for the replies, can you tell me any specifics that are different? Because... similar economic system, similar battles, similar diplomacy, etc..?
Define "similar". Because while on the surface, they might be similar, the differences can make all the difference in the world.
For instance, the economy system has been radically overhauled, IMO. The "adjacency game" turns building placement on its head. The fact that each individual planet is responsible for it's production and research and not just siphoning it off of the entire empire size is a huge change, even if it might not seem like it at the time.
Another for instance. The fact that one can (if one is popular enough) become the head of the UP, means that one can control which measures come up for a vote and which don't. This is a huge change in regards to strategy. Instead of being at the whims of random measures, you have the chance of setting the agenda.
Another change is the getting rid of the "soft cap" of population per world. Presuming it actually sticks, there is noting stopping one from having 100, 200, or even 300 billion population planets. In GC II it took almost every trick under the sun to keep a 24 billion population planet happy.
Then there are added things like strategic resources, trade resources (found on planets - coming in B5) and a whole host of things.
I probably played GC II for well over 4000 hours. And, at first, GC III did in fact seem similar. But it's the what seems to be tiny differences that start to accumulate and make things so much different in the end. I've had to "unlearn" how I played in GC II to get an unstoppable empire and am slowly learning how to do it in GC III.
It might be the difference between Latin and Spanish. Similar at first glance. But radically different in practice.
And all of this isn't getting into things like Ship Roles (which looks like it is going to completely turn combat on its head in GC III - no more only having Uber Kill Huge Ships crush everything without getting scratched) and Carriers.
Plus, you know, 100 opponent maps.
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To put this all in another way, GC III is like GC II, yes. But it is a deeper experience than GC II. This is intentional according to Stardock. They want it to feel like GC II (and GC I), but have the depth and complexity create a new, if yes similar, experience.
Well, a lot of it is still to come and we will know more after the release of beta 5. At this point the biggest change is in the combat system and assigning specific roles to ships based on weapons, defense, etc. This add quite a bit more strategy to winning space battles vs just being ahead of the AI in weapons tech.
Upcoming, there will be an in game map editor, strategic resources that are supposed to be real game changers and of course the custom races. The diversity of the custom races is going to rely on modding I imagine. The in game behavior will be a matter of selected traits, which will probably be fine with me but I have already seen that some will want more.
Is it going to feel like GCII? Do the new Star Trek films feel like the first Star Trek film? Are the new ones worth watching?
I quit playing GCII several years ago and I was over it. GCIII has renewed my interest and even this early in the pre-release I am having fun playing. It has already fulfilled it's promise for me and I am looking forward to much more, but at the end of the day there will be those who say it is a retread. It never fails.
Specific answers: Minor races are not in yet. Glimpses from the dev streams are extremely encouraging on that subject. They talk about AI differentiation and they definitely are putting in hooks and tools for customization. If you are into that part of the game, you may be looking forward to some major time sink and enjoyment. It's not my area of interest in gaming, but I expect to take advantage of some pretty terrific mods based on the capabilities Stardock is putting in.
General answer: It looks like a subtle re-engineering of nearly all GC2 concepts. Each mechanic and subsystem is getting some sort of love and attention. The various systems are coming together and it looks like they are successfully integrating the concepts together. The various parts are fun to play with and interact in interesting ways. Some of them are amusingly unbalanced at the moment. The devs admit themselves that there will be balancing going on for a while. As a point of pride, they expect to keep balancing and polishing as long as the game is alive. If the improved mechanics fit together as well as it looks so far, the combined effect will be quite familiar but very different, an excellent combination in my fan opinion.
Also, they are working very hard at making it downright pretty. That's a good thing, too.
I "lost" an absurd amount of time in Gal Civ II. The fact that the map size is reported to be 2&1/2 times bigger then in Gal Civ 2... Yeah I just hope I don't go senile for a very long time because I'm certain to be lost in Gal Civ 3 for a long time to come. The progress RELEASED thus far pales in comparison to the final product we lovingly know as Gal Civ 2 at this point. That being said, it's alot of the same team with the same goals, with better technology. I like many others are drooling for the next beta release after watching the dev streams and I have no doubt that in the distant future our Terran offspring will be using Gal Civ 3 as a measure against future games for years to come.
I had a similar first impression of GC3, having spent ridiculous amounts of time playing GC2, but I'm very pleased with the new game. It's certainly familiar, but improved and modernized. Going back to GC2 after playing the new beta really highlighted the improvements. I expect dlc and expansions to make an even bigger difference. I just wish I had bought the founders elite edition whilst it was available, instead of dithering.
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