Is the Ship Designer just a giant lego set? » Forum Post by Admiral Enigma

Hi!

Is the Ship Designer just a giant lego set?

Yep.

BR, Iztok

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Sure i did. Built nothing but space ships too. Actually built star fighters for my Star Wars action figures (yea I'm dating myself here). So that when they got hit the ship could take real damage.

Now THAT would be a pretty cool addition to this game. That is, having some of the pieces you added to the ship disappear as battle damage. To return one-by-one as the ship regains hit points. So after a fight, you're really cool capital ship will LOOK like its been though hell.

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Oh yeah I was a legoholic. I spend about half or a little over have the time building ships instead of just playing. My kids (5 and 7) like building ships on it too but they rarely get to because I'm always playing it. I thought about using KHSM to show battle damage with floating debris next to it. That would be a cool new feature.
My 7 year old son made this fighter. He calls it The Viper:

Which I use with my carrier designs.

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Philocthetes

Join Date 10/2003

+153

Legos were second to plasticine modeling clay for me when I was a kid. I play on a sub-par video card, so I don't get as much out of ship building, but I know I'll put more time in at the shipyards when I finally upgrade.

One big difference: Legos are wildly flexible. I didn't get many of the model kits as a kid (I don't think there even were any when I got my first general-purpose set), and even when I did I sometimes ignored what the box was "for" b/c my thing was building model alien cities, kind of like that Kryptonian town Superman used to have in a bottle.

PubMaster, nice carrier look there. I've always thought a lot of complaints around here about lack of carriers could be handled with "special effects," at least if you don't want to post Metaverse games.

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Legos,

Ohh I had legos. I have no artistic skill, and my legos (and GC2 ships) show it. But that didn't stop me. I remember haveing a few toys other than legos, but mostly I remember the legos. I think that's where I got my Sc-Fi instrest, I always made space ships, stations, landers, you name it.

Still have all of them too. I'm saving them for when I have children. That way I'll have an excuse to take them out and play with them.

Especially with DA, now there are more generic building block parts (still no blocks them selves, unless I missed it) like Cylinders, and tubes, etc. It's really a giant Lego Tribute!

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Philocthetes

Join Date 10/2003

+153

This thread has lurked in the back of my mind. I miss my Legos and I really need to scrounge up a better video card so I can properly enjoy forgetting to finish a game because I'm busy getting all my ships to really look like bugs built them (I'm stuck in a Thalan rut).

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I personally find the ship builder in GC2 just as much fun as the game itself. The extra jewellery in Dark Avatar was as much of a selling point to me as the changes to the overall gameplay! I can spend hours creating hugely complex ship hulls of intricate designs both of original design and inspired by popular science fiction shows/films.

Be sure to try out Kryo's mod, if you already haven't. Between that and what comes with the game, the possibilities are limitless.

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In my opinion, Stardock should take Gal Civ's lego setesque ship designer one step further and design an entirely sperate simulation based on it.

It may sound like an odd concept, but it has been tried in the past (such as with Simon and Schuster's Star Trek: Starship Creator). Everyone loves the ship designing aspect of Gal Civ, perhaps even more than the actual game itself. Indeed, when I first played the game I found many of the gameplay concepts to be rather simplicstic (though I have since changed my mind) and began to consider the 'meat and potatoes' of the game to lie within the ship designer.

Therefore, why not improve upon the concept to the point where you could sell it seperately?

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Let's see, played with Legos, Erector sets, Lincoln Logs, Micronauts (not 'really' a building toy but the vehicles could all be interchanged and built into different configurations), the knock off of Legos, Megablocks... pretty much any toy/set that allowed you to build I had. Then there were the models... God all of those models. From cars and trucks to military vehicles to planes and submarines and sci-fi. I especially liked the model of the ship from the movie the Black Hole as well as the ship from Space 1999 (anyone remember that one?). By far the most enjoyable models for me were the aircraft carriers. I used to love spending hours painting all the little airplanes that would meticulously be arranged on the flight deck. They were a pain in the ass to dust when it was time to clean the room but they were the most fun to build.
Wow, flashback city!

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This thread has lurked in the back of my mind. I miss my Legos and I really need to scrounge up a better video card so I can properly enjoy forgetting to finish a game because I'm busy getting all my ships to really look like bugs built them

Not dung beetles, I hope.

I just want to add that the first time I read this thread, it "inspired" me to blow the better part of an hour trying to create a custom ship shaped exactly like a basic 2x6 Lego™ brick. I had absolutely no success, unfortunately.

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I'm saving them for when I have children. That way I'll have an excuse to take them out and play with them.

Why wait?

My brother had his first child last week, but they knew the sex for weeks beforehand so I knew I had to get my/our Lego from my parents' before he took it for his son. I've spent the last few weeks rebuilding a lot of the old sets and even designed a new one of my own. It's surprisingly therapeutic sitting inamongst a big pile of Lego building an Ironclad ship to fight against the pirate sailing ship! (I know I'm jumping about 100 years ahead of the Pirate Lego timeline, but I needed another ship!)

The problem comes when you start buying more stuff on eBay...

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Partly, I'm in between places at the moment and can't really unpack. Also, I have a lot on my plate at the moment, can't even get into Galciv that much, sigh. In a few months it'll pan out, I hope.

In my opinion, Stardock should take Gal Civ's lego setesque ship designer one step further and design an entirely sperate simulation based on it.

I dunno about that. While I can spen hours building the ship. I get a lot of Joy out of seeing it in action. I want to do something with it after those many hours in the ship builder. Watch the pride of my fleet open up a can of butt kicking on my enemy.

It's kinda RPG ish, but I really wish the descriptions were scrollable. It is kinda fun to make a backstory for each of your ships.

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Dad started buying me Lego sets when I was 6. Been collecting ever since. I'm so anal about them that I still have the "castle" sets stored separeately from "the rest". Douchebag father-in-law sold off 3/4 of them when they were stored in his house while we were moving; you can't get those old Expert Builder parts in those quantities anymore, so I'm still pissed about that. Have been buying the new Racers sets because my 4-year-old LOVES cars and I build him all kinds of cars and trucks with them. He's ASD but really savvy about putting the darn things back together, so it's pretty important to me. I really wish I had more time to muck with them, they're better than anything out there for developing engineering and thematic skills -- I owe all my talents to the Lego company, I think. I loved Transformers but didn't need them because I could make better ones with Legos. And this is all why I think the shipbuilder in GC is the best feature of the game -- even though I play zoomed way out exclusively so my crappy 'pooter doesn't stutter (as much).

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I really wish I had more time to muck with them, they're better than anything out there for developing engineering and thematic skills -- I owe all my talents to the Lego company, I think.

Tell me about it. I've got a Ph.D in Engineering now and I think I have to thank the Lego Company in a big way for helping me choose my path in life. When you go round our office pretty much everybody played with Lego as a child and can relate much of their logical creativity to those experiences.

I suggested our University alter the entry requirements for the Engineering courses to include a requirement that the prospective student played with Lego as a child then include Lego building exercises as part of the interview process!

I had to break it to a friend that her son's proficiency with Lego meant that he would probably end up as an Engineer, not a football player.

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As a matter of fact, I *almost* ended up pursuing an engineering degree myself, but I was far too "artistic" to be methodical enough for the task. I took many courses in technical drawing and CADD but was always pushing the fantasy element (my CADD portfolio is almost exclusively Robotech schematics) and I'm obnoxiously immune to appeals for real-world scenarios. Either way, GC's shipbuilder is quite the funhouse, eh?

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Philocthetes

Join Date 10/2003

+153

but they knew the sex for weeks beforehand so I knew I had to get my/our Lego from my parents' before he took it for his son.

Hay now, show some respect for the girls. You never really know who's likely to be the next Watson and Crick--or wait, should I have said "Rosalind Franklin." Conspiracy buffs might think so...

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To be honest, I don't think sex matters too much, gender does, as many parents will give thier daughters dolls instead of footballs and visa verca.

Both I and my partner loved lego's as children, and my kids, regardless of sex will get lego's (casue I really want to play with them!! And the kids too!)

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