Oh, yeah. Can you reduce the maximum amount of change that the "Planets within one sector of XXXXX all go up XX quality!" event enacts? I had a game where they went up 13 points! And then, of course, all the AIs instantly created Colony Ships an claimed the systems before I could. The game was lost in one turn, as (in a tiny universe) these AIs suddenly more than doubled the number of good planets they had.

In another game, the change was only +6, and while a significant jolt to the equilibrium of the game, I was able to recover.

A grid that you can turn on and off.

And a number under a ship destination telling you how many turns it will take to get there, a la Civ 3.

The grid would help out in a number of ways. I was trying to lay a drone net out, for instance.

Is there to be an actual forum engine for gal-civ as opposed to this chat-line structure? I had to take some heat earlier (a few days ago) because I didn't realize that a new forum structure (this one) was put into place. But frankly, I don't see much difference. I can't search, I can't respond to a particular message among many, can't do much but page up and down. I'd rather have the ability to play the game, link out to post or answer a message, and then return to the game. How do I do that?

AA

Sebadoh (#74),

Got it.
You're right about the ship graphics. It would be nice if we could get access to the ship graphics, so we could make modifications. Modificatied ship graphics could be submitted to the library for approval and download or inclusion in the next bonus pack. It would add to the game and save the developers some work.

End transmission.

~SDC~

Ravenloff: There already is a grid option, it's in the Menu options which you can access from the top of the screen. In game, obviously.
Not sure if that's what you're after, but give it a try.


I'd like to suggest that there not be an "automagic" way to research all the way up to a specific tech. It's not very logical to have that, as your civ shouldn't know about techs that far in advance.
I did bunches of research in my first game, originally because I was going to try and get significantly superior tech and pound on the AI, then so I could get Cultural improvements.. And I can assure you, it's really not that hard to work out what field you should be researching in, if you give it a little thought.
If you want better weaponry for your ships, research weapons theory projects (they're colour coded red). If you want to improve the lives of your people, go for the biotech green ones. You can see in the bottom right of the info screen for each one what researching that can lead to.


Something of my own to suggest: A key to press that will cycle through all idle Constructor units, including the ones in orbit of a planet. As the enemy empires collapsed under the weight of my cultural influence I was getting more and more constructors popping up all over the galaxy, which I then wanted to send out to reinforce existing starbases or build new ones. It was a hassle to have to work out which ones have constructors in orbit, and which ones just had defensive ships in orbit. :notsure:

~SDC~

1. In the planet Detail screen, have the option to type in your own detail about the planet in the Overview section.

2.Be able to name each plant within the same solar system.

3.Be able to rename the Governors & edit and/or add our own pic's.

4.Have Pic's of minor races or/and be able to add our own pic's when talking to them (Should NOT be animateted)to much work

5. Have the mouse wheel work in the foreign Policy screen in the Misc section..also use a differant color the two colors are to close that's uused in the back groud

Don't have the game yet, so ignore this post...

1) Have a method to allow us to rate suggestions on how important/desirable they are - and let us know which ones are in progress.

2) After your year of support, go open source (ha ha)

3) Once a civ has surrendered to you, make any techs they have that you don't become reduced in research cost to reflect the fact that you've gained access to all their scientists and doco. While it'll still take time and effort to understand the techs, you're not developing them from scratch, so there should be a bonus.

On the Domestic Policy screen, sub menu military, I would like to be able to make all planets making "nothing" to "constructor" and vice versa. It works for everything else but "constructor". Not sure why but that would be usefull.

~SDC~

1. I would like to see some penalties/costs to contact other civs. I think it is really annoying and to simple to work as a tech trader => perhaps create for some costs a small ambassor ship which travels to the nearest alien world? (You could even intercept such ships etc.)

2. minor races give way to much money for techs etc put in an option to reduce it?

if nobody else has mentioned this yet:

unique ship names for each race

i find it weird and annoying that the Yor attack me with a USS Battleship

For Random Other Races Games

- Occasionaly have an alien race along with its custom AI that replaces one of the normal races and give it an ability/feature that no other race has;

a. ie Giant Insect Race, Immune to Influence, No Diplomacy Skills, Views other races as food, +20% Soldiering Bonus, Population Growth Bonus (they hatch from eggs). Think - Star Ship Troopers, Roughnecks DVD's; In Death's Ground (by Weber). Always selects evil option.

Ability to play OGG files. 75% of my collection is encoded as OGG :notsure: (shouldn't be too hard to implement, the library has an easy interface)

~SDC~

not sure if this was mentioned yet, but i think there should be a tonnage limit on how many ships you can buy from an empire, especially ones you were at war with the PREVIOUS turn. (buying up all his battlecruisers was fun)

also, when you buy tranports they should not be filled with troops unless you go back to home territory and fill them up.

Is it possible an option could be added to remove all minor/major races except the player from the game? Any games played in this mode would not be Metaverse-submittable. It'd give some of us who never have a chance to make it all the way up the tech tree a chance to mess around. Really, all I want is some sort of sandbox mode, ala Dungeon Keeper 2.

~SDC~

I'd very much like to place my own comments about - definitively on a planet (a single line in the planet detail screen would be enough), possibly on the map itself - would help me to get rid of my little pile of paper next to the keyboard

Oh, and add my voice to the civilopedia idea.

Amazing game, by the way. I am very impressed, and really like it

My suggestion is a "De-Orbit" button/option on the GNN notification window which would then de-orbit the newly built craft. This might be more efficient than, say, a global, automatic "de-orbit" option since there will be times you'll want a specific ship to stay in orbit for defense purposes.

---------------
Also, a forum suggestion:

How about an icon flag that indicates a thread has some "official" Stardock reply within, like from Brad or whomever.

If you've ever been to Bioware's NWN forums you'll know how handy that can be when searching for official info without having to wade through hundreds of useless crud.

Don't make the planet list vanish when you switch to a planet's datascreen.

Also...MORE FORUMS!

- Nobody

Short-Cut fore DONE. D perhaps. Most annoying having to mouse click.
PDF manual, update & change font. Unaversalist party? Na. most people do not have their desktop at 1024 x768. Try reading the manual at 800 x 600, good luck.

~SDC~

I was thinking.... it might be interesting to code events so that you see the effect of your choice only after choosing the path, an information popup perhaps. And I agree that there needs to be more events where the evil path gets penalyzed but the good path gets benefits, or the evil and good are both penalized in different ways but the neutral path gives benefits or no penalties.

This would add some strategy to the choices. I found this new civilization and I can either try to work around them... try to carve out my own turf and make them move to the section I approve of or just exterminate them. Perhaps working around them would give you added population and production as they learn to work with your people, the neutral path would give you a bit less because you restricted their growth and trust in your people and the last would get you nothing, no bonuses or penalties, just evil morality.

Using the same example as above, the penalties could go the other way. The race isn't cooperative and provides penalties if they exist but if you wipe them out you find mineral deposits or other resources that increase your own productivity or effective planet quality, etc.....

Just some thoughts... I think it really should be a moral choice, and not simply looking at the benefits and knowing exactly what each choice gives you. This way two, three or more events could use the same flavor text but different results depending on which event it is and which path you picked.

~SDC~

Apologies if any of these have been mentioned before, but I don't want to read 6 pages of posts just to avoid redundancy (suggestions based on one complete game):

- make the sliders for military/social/research production lockable, to make precise adjustments easier.

- tone down random events, and possibly even make them entirely optional. Some, like the Precursor Ranger event, are militarily unbalancing, especially early in the game on small maps.

- when placing troops on a transport/colony ship, add a field allowing me to manually enter the number of troops, as using the slider/arrows is imprecise, and hard to deal with for especially low numbers.

- add an "auto-balance" option to the government spending ratio: with income varying every turn, having to constantly adjust spending to keep my treasury in the black is unnecessary micromanagement.

- add a few more text options for survey ships that find nothing of interest in an anomaly. "What a waste of time" gets repetitive after the fourth time in every game.

- hyperlink the tech tree, so when I'm deciding what to research I can follow a particular path to see where it will lead me.

- add more descriptions to what each tech does in the research screen. i.e. if a tech makes a social project available, also display the effect that project will have.

- make a diagram of the entire tech tree (with associated developments hyperlinked) browseable in-game, to help get the big picture of research. Take a look at the tech screen in Civ3 for an example of what I'd like.

- more ship images to reflect changes in weapons, armour, engines, etc. (Yeah, I know that one would probably be a lot of work, but it would really make military R&D a lot more tangible).

- slow down combat slightly, especially for larger ships. Make the fights last longer by adding more "volleys". As it is, fights lack any sort of suspense or immersive value, because they're over before you really realize they've begun.

- add a timer restriction that prevents me from playing the game past 3 a.m. when I have an early class the next day.

That's all for now... I'm sure I'll think of more after I play a second game.

- Ash

The diplomacy model rules. But it needs a couple tweaks to make it ideal for THIS li'l' wheeler-dealer.

The sliders. I'll just let that sink in for a sec because we all know what I am talking about. Somehow the size of them vis-a-vis the screen resolution makes them hard to adjust. They only need to get larger and it'll be mostly fixed.

OR

Make the numerical fields work like normal next fields. Which is to say you can double-click them to highlight them and whatever you type replaces what is there. I notice that all the text fields in the game don't work like that. OS/2 legacy code, or something? Am I not using them right? As it stands, I have to click the field, right-arrow to the end, delete it, and then type what I want. I'll make a mental note to try Insert next time, but damn!

OR

Create a way to, say, right-click on an item to ask the CPU "how much of this would you need from me to make the deal green?" or "how much of this could you let go of for what I'm offering?" dpending on whether you're clicking on your side or theirs. Since your tech level helps the deals you're getting anyway, I find it difficult to buy that such a feature would ruin the spirit of the diplomacy model, as I have heard some ppl argue. :notsure:

Pax Ex.

~SDC~

Ptom, +13 is nothing. I've never seen that special event happen with a factor of *LESS* than +14, though it usually isn't much higher than that. Heck, it's to the point that if I see a star with a single marginal planet and several "almosts" I'll jump on it in hopes of that precursor device going off in range. I missed it by 3 light-years once with a system with 4 uninhabited planets all in the 12-14 range. Why play ordinary Lotto when you can play Precursor Lotto?

Speaking of random events, I had a game where both of my major opponents got Rangers within a few turns of each other, at a time when I (who was the tech leader) couldn't even make a Battle Cruiser.

Default buttons for all the races so it is easy to go back to original traits ( for humans too)

There's one thing GalCiv could have been different on: graphics j/k

The society could be more customizable:
- political/economical system
- level of repression
- strength of people/corporations/ecclesiasts/government (the more power to government, the more to the player).

If these things were included in some way, it could do alot. Maybe taking a look at Alpha Centauri, some ideas could be interesting... (like the society panel it had)

Forgot... don't make it complicated, keep it as GalCiv is already
just a panel with sliders and checkboxes could be a perfect interface I think.