In the previous entry, we discussed whether we needed a battle viewer. That’s because combat in GalCiv IV works somewhat differently than previous entries. Specifically:
After getting a lot of helpful feedback we think we’ve come up with a way to have our cake and eat it too: AAR (After Action Reports). Whenever combat takes place, a notification shows up in the far left:
Clicking on it will provide details on what happened with players being able to go into deeper and deeper detail (like, far far beyond what we had in previous GalCiv games) as well as view the incident so you can see how different weapon, defense and other modules affected the course of battle.
We have a new feature we will be discussing soon that will explain why we actually ended up needing this (short version: combat is getting a lot more interesting).
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Galactic Civilizations IV Dev Journals
#1 - Welcome to GalCiv IV
#2 - Humanizing AI
#3 - Addressing Micromanagement
#4 - A Guided ALPHA Tour
#5 - The Ideology Compass
#6 - Those First 20 Turns
#7 - The Changing Face of Space Robots
#8 - Rise of the Commanders
#9 - Onboarding
#10 - Do we need a battle viewer?
#11 - Combat AAR
#12 - AAR Drengin Human Wars I Part 1
#13 - The Vault
#14 – Pacing Comparisons
#15 - Internal Factions
#16 - The Battle Viewer
#17 - Screenshot Time
#18 - The Dawn of the 24th Century
#19 - The Roadmap
#20 - Deals of the Xeloxi + v1.04 Preview
#21 - The Arcean War + 1.05 Preview
#22 - Save Me
#23 - Every Turn Counts
With the intent (i think) that combat will last multiple rounds - will the report just be after the complete battle? or will we see a 'turn by turn' report...
I'm glad we'll be able to view it as well - just reading a static text report would not be very interesting in my opinion...
It'll be turn by turn.
This is a very minor idea, but I'd suggest having some music for battles that continue across multiple turns.
When I was a little wee weather apprentice, I had Romance of the Three Kingdoms on my Saturn. It had some cool music when a battle continued across turns. This was an idea I wanted in GalCiv ever since I due to ROTK.
This is great news.
I posted my complaint/issue about the tech screen blocking what I can see on the galaxy map which prevents the player from seeing combats happening before finding this thread.
If the AAR will allow the player to find/zoom to the combat that would fix my gripe.
GCIV is outstanding and the new features Derek is bringing to the table with each update just keeps making it better!
Thanks for this update regarding the AAR.
I still don't get it why combat should take multiple turns. As we are talking of galactic space and time scales. And you are going for an Age of Wonders vibe with multiple tiles? Again, why? As we are again in galactic space and time scales. Is it really needed to complicate battle in this way instead of giving more direct influence in the actual combat? I still auto resolve minor battles in Age of Wonders, Space Empires or Stars in Shadow, but major confrontations are a blast to participate. It's especially strange, as you have some powerful options with Sins of a Solar Empire or Ashes of the Singularity with very strong RTS Combat. Just make it faster, not so sluggish like Sins, and you would have a big winner. I found the combination of TBS and RTS Combat works well. Like in Sword of the Stars or Space Empires 5.
And yes yes, I'm aware, different engines. But I was really hoping you would combine one or another to boost GalCiv into the next age and make it more appealing for a wider fanbase.
Totally agree with Larsenex. The Tech Screen blocking important off turn combat always a huge complaint of mine. Most of the time it’s not a big deal, then later game oh great I got a new tech but I have no idea how many ships of my allies and enemies were lost in my territories. Then you need to look around the map to try to get the story straight for any key engagements. If AAR fixes that I’ll be very happy.
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