What are "resources" supposed to be?

Without giving too much away, resources are essentially artifacts from the precursors. But that's back story that we don't really go into. In the game they are just anomalies that have specific properties.



~SDC~

cool, thanks.

i just have a pet peeve wrt poorly justified strategic devices being thrown into games ( e.g. harvesting crystals in order to construct tanks ).

cheers

h

yea, there's nothing like that in here. The resources all specifically improve your overall ability at doing certain things.

I hope to write up a lengthy backstory on this stuff as it's all in hundreds of pages of notes around here but nothing put together. If GalCiv is successful enough, I'd love to be able to go and make a sequel or something someday that really goes into this much more. There is just so much history in the history of the Arnor (and the dark arnor aka the Dread Lords), Mithrilar, and so forth. We just scratch the surface in GalCiv.

For example, in the backstory, every race that has been tainted by the dark Mithrilar (Draginol) has a unique physical look -- they look like humans. The mystery, that we don't really go into much here, is why humans and Altarians look so similar and if they are tainted by the dark Mithrilar, what caused this.

You see, in the beginning, there was the Telenanth. And there were 5 guardians of the universe, known as Mithrilar, that were there to watch over it. But one Mithrilar was not content with this, Draginol. And he used the Telenanth in ways that led to unspeakable evils.

And then one day, they were all gone. The Mithrilar, Draginol himself, and the Precursors (Arnor / Dreadlords). And their artifacts remained scattered across the galaxy. But it didn't matter because none of the youthful races could collect them because they did not have the capability to get out there.

That is, until the reckless humans stumbled on hyperdrive. And of course, this begs the question, how is it that all all the things that seem to directly or indirectly lead to great evil always are the races that have been touched somehow by the dark Mithrilar? Now you have a situation where these artifiacts, and in GalCiv they are the anomalies and galactic resources, are just sitting there ready to be collected.

But none of the races really know what they're collecting. They're just strange energy sources and odd materials that have these beneficial properties. And occasionally on some planet someone will stumble across some artifact too.

But like I said, there are hundreds and hundreds of pages of notes on this stuff that I've been writing up here for a good decade and a half on this stuff. I'd love to have time and budget to go in and let users flesh this out. I wouldn't want to turn GalCiv or some future sequel into a RPG or adventure game, but rather I would like to provide a richer game world for players to employ their strategy and tactics in.

~SDC~

Interesting back story that tickles my curiosity. I wish we could read more about it

At least now i know where the name Draginol comes from.

Since you used Draginol as a login on Apolyton forums, i was wondering from which game or novel that character name might have come from.

I didn't know that "Draginol" came from the back story.

But I did assume that it came from his own evil, twisted imagination.

Elrikk


~SDC~

It would be damn cool if uncovering the mysteries of the Precursors could be a victory condition...

Draginol doesn't come from a book, it's part of the backstory to GalCiv.

Nice story Brad, would be nice if you one day could put together a book with nice color pictures (I like nice color pictures, and YES I can read LOL ) and then sell it!

that reminds me, what ever happened to the giant jump or star gates? were they ever shut down after hyperdrives were invented? or are they still around?

I thought it said somewhere that the first colony ships were built from the Jump gates.

~SDC~

The stargates ar ejust lifeless hulks now. The humans took theirs apart to help build the first colony ship.

Nice background, Frogboy/Draginol ! That's amazing, you EVEN have a cosmic story background for the game !

Do you plan on converting to writer when your design/programming skills will have declined ?
More seriously, a book series (or at least online story parts) will be nice and help to immerse players even morein the GalCiv universe...

WOW! Awesome background stuff... sounds like the universe is as rich in backstory as the Warcraft property. Would love a little more of all that story being published and out there.

Brad, I think you'd be surprised how far along that stuff goes to SELLING ($$$) games... think about it. Maybe don't push GalCiv as "simply" a strat game, but it also has thhese fantastic story elements that people get lost in. It might be worth a little financial investment to prepare that stuff and get it out there!

Remember Xcom, Moo, Mom, the backstory draws in a LOT of gamers who crave that stuff!

Kewl backstory. So many games seem to have the backstory sort of bolted on. It would be cool to see the story incorporated like Alpha Centauri.

I think it would be an excellent idea to take all the backstory and make a book series. A lot of other games have done that (or at least set the story in the same universe) such as Alpha Centauri, Diablo, Halo, Baulder's Gate, Crimson Skies, and many more that I can't think of at the moment. Many sci-fi fans would drool over the backstory to GalCiv.

I agree. The backstory needs to be published and released to the masses. This kind of stuff is what gets many people (such as myself LOL ) to buy strat games like GalCiv. THIS NEEDS TO BE RELEASED! PLEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow, lot's of Tolkein in there. I hope his estate doesn't catch wind

M

"The stargates ar ejust lifeless hulks now. The humans took theirs apart to help build the first colony ship."

ALL of them?


~SDC~

Wait, I though the humans never built one because the plans they got from the Arceans didn't allow it to be turned off. And one of the Torian greetings says they took down their stargate to build their colony ships.

There are several different types of galactic resources: balls, cones, boxes, and I probably left out one or two.

My favorite resources are the cones.

There's also cylanders and bi-pyramids (I think there is a better name, this I just remember from chemistry).

Also, I noticed the resource file has titles for every resource, but we don't see them in-game. Shouldn't we know that the military resources are dilithium crystals?

I don't know. I kinda like the idea of Awesome Cones helping my Battleships out. Dilithium just isn't the same.

Just grab them before the other guy. That's all you need to know.

~SDC~

"Wow, a lot of Tolkien in here."

WTH???!!?!?!?!?! I love Tolkein, and this is WAY different!

You're forgetting the green geodesic balls, apparently full of gullible venture capitalists. Those are my favorite, the red cones come in second (though not by much). I can always use more money, a better military only comes into play if I've failed my primary goals.