Hi Stardock/ everyone,
I'm a long time fan of Galactic Civilizations. Ever since the original came out in 2003, I've been conquering the galaxy.
I am so excited to see that there will be a Galactic Civilizations IV and that you are looking to add new features to the game to make it better.
I have a suggestion in one word: Battles.
Battles in all the Gal Civ games are a straight numbers party where the highest scores in the categories win. There is no luck and no skill involved. So there is no excitement.
Please, please, please introduce some luck and skill in battles. So that smaller ships can defeat larger ones and strategy and positioning matters alongside what weaponry, defenses and speed the ships travel at.
Make a game where we can play battles.
Captain Irk
Not going to happen.
Why not, Ashbery76?
Hey, jumping in quick. There was a thread about this just a few days ago, where your questions have been answered I believe, but I think it comes down to two main reasons: it's a fair amount of work to implement, and it would DRAG the pace of the game, ESPECIALLY in multiplayer.
I get that Gal Civ gets a lot of things right, and that other games, which do offer that sort of battle, often don't get the same things right. So it would be nice to have the option to play out battles, with control. But I just don't think it's going to happen in this series.With that said, I would like to see more information about WHY a battle played out the way it did. A better battle log would be awesome. Also, maybe a bit more emphasis on stats such as evasion and accuracy, in order to make it possible to have well designed smaller ships which can keep up in the later game? Just a thought.
Pre battle commands similar to "gratuitous space battles"And then better descriptions of why things happened the way they did would go a long long long way.
I do NOT want tactical battles.... no one asks Firaxis for tactical battles in Civ... tactical battles are for Sins of a Solar Empire... not GC
RE Taslios,
You should be able to switch tactical battles off and on.
I should clarify though, I'm not asking for full tactical battles just an element of tactics so that there was some element of luck, and importantly, skill in a battle.
I would love combat in GC4 and don't agree with the statements about too many battles per turn etc.It's their game and they just don't want tactical combat so no point going on about it anymore for this series.
I would be ok with tactical battles as an option if the ai can play this well.
I think there are ways that the battle system could be improved on without going to full tactical battles. I personally think that if fleet designs could be balanced in such a way similar to the missiles vs point defense, beams vs shields, ect, it could add a lot of depth.
For example a hit and run vs a heavy cruiser fleet. The cruiser fleet relies on overwhelming fire power to destroy it's foes, but is slow moving and mostly made up of medium, large, and huge ships. The hit and run fleet relies on small evasive ships that can dodge most shots, and have a way to get around the heavy fleets armor. Because battles are no longer all or nothing, the hit and run fleet can jump in do some damage and retreat with minimal losses and you could 'harass' larger ships.
You could further spice this up by using an idea I posted in discord:
I like the idea of weapon subclasses for example:
Kinetic-
Railgun- Long range, can punch through armor, slow rate of fire, strong vs medium ships and above
Flak Cannons- Short range, fast firing, bounces off armor, strong vs tiny and small ships
I originally played Galactic Civ because I still missed MOO2...and I've always missed the tactical battle aspect. There is something about the joy of disabling and boarding an enemy with interesting tech that has just been lost.That being said Stellaris has reasonably complex combat without actual full tactical control. From my perspective I don't want to just build ships, push them into contact with an enemy stack, and then helplessly watch a video of them swooping around. Simple options to have your fleet retreat or hold, to pursue a fleeing enemy or not, etc... would be nice.
I think this would be awesome but I also think it's an impossible task for the development team. To do this justice, you're basically talking about making a whole new game within the game. I can't imagine there's any way the development team has the bandwidth to devote to that.
I feel if you want tactical battles you should buy a FPS not slow up a TBS game with what in late game could be hours long battles. I do not play multi-player games, but I could see them being dragged out to the pace of the old play by mail board games of the seventies.
I feel like some tactical presets aren't impossible. Empire X always fights to the death, Empire Y fires a volley then runs if the enemy fleet isn't crippled, Empire Z fights until they have sustained xx% losses. Of course that would be a change from the "fleets always fight to the death" of GC3.
I don't understand why some people are so against tactical battles in GalCiv - as long as there is a "Resolve" button. Don't enjoy tactics? - press the button. Multiplayer? - press the button (automatically) Need to go to bed? - you get the idea.
Not really a problem switching tacbats on and off (as AreaCode suggests)
However I asked for tactical combat in a different thread and I am sure it's not going to happen, which is a shame. I don't want to build a fleet and then just watch a video of it having a battle I cannot influence any more just like VermiciousK.
Apparently it's a huge programming, time-sapping task. I get that. The devs have other, favourite ideas.
"It's their game and they just don't want tactical combat"
Umm... yeah. I don't know how true that is but it sounds rather petulant. Surely alpha feedback is where we get to say "hey guys, how about... X,Y,Z ?" We'll likely get ignored, but privately look forward to final release reviews which say -
"This game was so nearly complete, so nearly 10/10, BUT..."
Absolutely a needed optional feature. I got Gal Civ III but will not buy any mods or Gal Civ IV until optional tactical battles get added. MOO2 handled it just fine, this gal civ with a much more flexible engine should be able to do it fine. The combat system needs to be more complex than rocks-paper-scissors. A player, if interested will just paly the larger more complex battles where their human tactically sense will give them an advantage over the AI. There should be 3 modes:1) full AI like we have AI (basically a joke, but for some reason some people love it); 2 display the battle with the games AI play both sides and 3) Full tactical like in MO2.
Not just talking about space battles either but planet/fleet battles and ground invasions as well.
Yes tactical battles are not really viable for the reasons you stated. However the element of chance could still be leveraged a bit more. Speaking about accuracy and evasion those stats are there on some ship components. Also I did notice that in GC4 there is now a "chance to escape battle" stat on some of the thrusters. Not sure how it will be implemented but in theory you could smaller ships performing "hit and run" types of maneuvers.
Also I agree a more detailed battle viewer is needed.
Not cool necroing a thread from last year.
As has already been said though tactical battles will never come to GalCiv. It's just not a part of the core design philosophy.
If you are looking for more tactical battles I recommend looking at Sins of a Solar Empire.
Moving said bigger fleet to planet or enemy said fleet is just a very bland system compared to other games in this genre..No choke points,tactical combat or positioning at all.I see they even got rid of weapons range going back to GC2 era.It will keep this game small fry compared to the big dogs in this genre.
I think the battle system in GalCiv 2 was pretty good. It might not have a lot of features, but it kept battles fair. I have to worry about putting defenses on my ships.
In GalCiv 3, I spam missile ships, and put them into as big of fleets as I can manage. Killing the enemy before they get a chance to shoot at you is a bit bland and unfair.
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