Feedback on 1.7

from GalCiv3 Forums

Hey all!

First of all- Good job on 1.7 patch- a long waited jewel indeed.

As some of you know, Im one of those insane map lovers! Whenever Stardock releases a new patch or dlc- I hook up insane map and see how far have we got!
These are my findings:

The GOOD!

* Less micro on starbases! It really saves time.
* AI is more smarter, surely but steadily it gets smarter by each patch(not there yet)

The BUGS!

* Precursor World bug! ->On Insane maps you have tons of planets. If you set abundance on events- eventually you run out of ideology events(!) Then for some time every planet you colonize you get Precursor Ideology event for regular planets. Of course you run out of those too. And then there's silence for some time. After some time you get mix of Ideology, Precursor and silence events. ///This bug has not been fixed from previous versions.


* Syipyard quick launch filter! Yep- Paul admitted on stream he just forgot about them. Though on Insane its the best tool out there.

 

* Syipyard auto reset Bug! It will be addressed- confirmed on stream. If you research a new tech that gives new constructor generation all shipyards will reset to basic constructor instead of using your latest design.


* Shipyard constructor logic bug! Might have to do something with above bug. Sometimes you get constructor overflow to a given starbase and they just stack there until you get an error message about overflow. It could also be when you unlock Pragmatic "Efficient" trait that gives each constructor +1 point. This leads to starbase logic error- kinda annoying on Insane map- as you have to baby each problem out.

 

* Starbase module list of DOOM. Its quite frank. When you build a new starbase you have the list of doom of ALL possible modules. click click click them all. It should be so you click on first module as all other upgrades are handled by starbase automatization anyhow. It would be better that starbases only show core modules not all modules.


* Constructor Design! Not a bug but listed here. In starbase auto you can use 2 constructor designs. The basic ones and your power design. Why not have a 3ed option "Use latest design" as when you unlock a new generation of constructors it will auto use them. Saves time bigtime.


* Survey ships Stupid! Still stupid- still chasing the same old relic. If you have 3 survey ships together they will chase the one relic in front of them. They should go to different relics but no- still chasing the same old goose. Whats worse- In late game they pile up in a big GOO of multiple survey ships and yep- still go for the same relic or anomaly. Funny though but I want to cry.

 

* Precursor Anomaly Avoidance. Survey ships are avoiding Heavily Defended anomalies. Its ok in early game or mid game BUT in late game i have a Survey ship with a Bad ASS Doom ray and it still is afraid of that anomaly. come on- It can rip all the ships in there. This should be fixed as if the survey ship is powerful or with a gun- it will survey that anomaly. I do not want to baby these anomalies by hand as there are sooo many of them. Currently All of them are ignored by player as there are other priorities.

 

* Ram Spike. This one is huge. First time i Played Insane - And i have 16GB RAM. when you clicked "turn" The RAM got filled up and i got a windows error warning of no available ram. It happened during turn cycle where the game thinks. Reloading the game fixed this but still the spikes happen. Those spikes can hit the ceiling real hard even if normally the game is using about 4 to 6 Gb ram.

 

* Stupid Wealth Governor. Still stupid. Even if you set it for it to allow terraform tiles as it wishes he cant distinguish "shopping center" from "Bank". Still builds stupid malls and centers instead of Banks and galactic exchanges.  This needs fixing. If i have the technology I want the best paying building not a low paying shopping mall.

 

* Governor logic missing. Those special buildings of research/ industry/ economic capital. You build them by hand. The Governor should know on which planet to build it. I mean If you have 30 Research governors- they should see a poll of 30 planets- its not hard for AI to find the best planet to build a research capital. Even if you add a 31th planet to the poll it should recalculate and replace that research capital on the new planet. So Logic governer algorithm for special buildings is missing. I know that this was left out so player would choose it but If you are playing Insane map and for the 30th try in row- I mean you really dont care. Give us the option to AI to make that decision.

 

* Idle colony bug takeover. Happened 1x but it was during "Turn" cycle where i annexed one planet. The turn did not finish but that annexation was in loop.

 

* Extreme long time tech research. Still not fixed from previous versions. Sometimes in late game research points overflow and you get 1 tech that needs like 1000 turns to finish. Workaround is to choose a different tech which you can research normally but yeah- the problem is still here.


Still MISSING!

* Hotkeys! Hotkeys for starbase navigation, for movement for orders- you name it. Still not here but such a must.


* Sorting Planets options! From Stream Paul promised to have something for us(finally). You know we have regular sorting stuff but we ar emissing like idle and working planets and stuff like that across board.


* Starbase auto design update. If you are building a ship or a constructor say its M1. When you unlock M2 it should auto update in shipyard- both for military ships and constructors. It may not make sense in early game but in late game you can unlock a new tech every turn. By the time the shipyard builds M1 I already have M20 unlocked. The logic algorithm is missing here- need one!

 

* Shipyard auto Idle function! MUST HAVE!!! This is a requested feature by the community. If shipyard runs out of build que it SHOULD auto idle until requested bu starbase or user input. I dont want to shut them down each one of them. Try doing that on insane map for 50 to 80 shipyards. Its Total Madness!!! And if you shut down a shipyard the starbase auto system also brakes down as it tries to get those constructors from somewhere else.

 

* Planet template. You know a template where you que your 5 buildings that should be built when you colonize your 24th planet each time. Doing by hand is tedious. Sure you can use a governer but that takes away player input when you need it.(strategic planet by warring empire boarder for example)

 

* Insane map optimizations! There are some but it still slows down quite considerably starting from mid game and clicking starbases, planets starts to get huge response delays. Dont know whats causing it but i think the way the engine distributes threads(my hunch). Its realy annoying. Eventually the game spins down- turns take like 5 min and the game crashes to desktop. Even if you have free ram to spare- so its engine related.

 

In short Thats all i found- Good job and keep it coming!
Truly appreciated!

79,649 views 27 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Em, Did this was noticed? pshaw?

Reply #2 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Hello -- great feedback.  A few quick responses to some of them.


Hey all!

First of all- Good job on 1.7 patch- a long waited jewel indeed.

As some of you know, Im one of those insane map lovers! Whenever Stardock releases a new patch or dlc- I hook up insane map and see how far have we got!
These are my findings:

The GOOD!

* Less micro on starbases! It really saves time.
* AI is more smarter, surely but steadily it gets smarter by each patch(not there yet)

The BUGS!

* Precursor World bug! ->On Insane maps you have tons of planets. If you set abundance on events- eventually you run out of ideology events(!) Then for some time every planet you colonize you get Precursor Ideology event for regular planets. Of course you run out of those too. And then there's silence for some time. After some time you get mix of Ideology, Precursor and silence events. ///This bug has not been fixed from previous versions.

 This has been for around for awhile and we've only recently found a reproducible case.  It will be fixed be fixed soon.



* Syipyard quick launch filter! Yep- Paul admitted on stream he just forgot about them. Though on Insane its the best tool out there.
* Syipyard auto reset Bug! It will be addressed- confirmed on stream. If you research a new tech that gives new constructor generation all shipyards will reset to basic constructor instead of using your latest design.

Both are on the fix list

* Shipyard constructor logic bug! Might have to do something with above bug. Sometimes you get constructor overflow to a given starbase and they just stack there until you get an error message about overflow. It could also be when you unlock Pragmatic "Efficient" trait that gives each constructor +1 point. This leads to starbase logic error- kinda annoying on Insane map- as you have to baby each problem out.

The current the system uses only one module at a time.  If you're constructor has multiple modules, the remaining ones are stationed at the starbase.  The next time you queue an upgrade, it should use one of the stationed ones first.  We are looking into ways to make this smarter.
 


* Starbase module list of DOOM. Its quite frank. When you build a new starbase you have the list of doom of ALL possible modules. click click click them all. It should be so you click on first module as all other upgrades are handled by starbase automatization anyhow. It would be better that starbases only show core modules not all modules.

Past the initial selection, you don't have to select the next one if you have auto-grade enabled.  Note the the next upgrade doesn't get queued until AFTER the previous one arrives.  This prevents constructor queue spam.  


* Constructor Design! Not a bug but listed here. In starbase auto you can use 2 constructor designs. The basic ones and your power design. Why not have a 3ed option "Use latest design" as when you unlock a new generation of constructors it will auto use them. Saves time bigtime.

Good suggestion

 
* Ram Spike. This one is huge. First time i Played Insane - And i have 16GB RAM. when you clicked "turn" The RAM got filled up and i got a windows error warning of no available ram. It happened during turn cycle where the game thinks. Reloading the game fixed this but still the spikes happen. Those spikes can hit the ceiling real hard even if normally the game is using about 4 to 6 Gb ram.

This doesn't happen for us internally but its on our radar to diagnose and fix. 

 
* Idle colony bug takeover. Happened 1x but it was during "Turn" cycle where i annexed one planet. The turn did not finish but that annexation was in loop.

If this happens again, please file a ticket with the auto-save so we can track it down.  



* Shipyard auto Idle function! MUST HAVE!!! This is a requested feature by the community. If shipyard runs out of build que it SHOULD auto idle until requested bu starbase or user input. I dont want to shut them down each one of them. Try doing that on insane map for 50 to 80 shipyards. Its Total Madness!!! And if you shut down a shipyard the starbase auto system also brakes down as it tries to get those constructors from somewhere else.

I talked to Paul about this yesterday and we agreed this is a good idea.  Not sure if it will make it in for 1.7.

DeskScapes - Bring your desktop background to life.
Reply #3 from GalCiv3 Forums Top


* Insane map optimizations! There are some but it still slows down quite considerably starting from mid game and clicking starbases, planets starts to get huge response delays. Dont know whats causing it but i think the way the engine distributes threads(my hunch). Its realy annoying. Eventually the game spins down- turns take like 5 min and the game crashes to desktop. Even if you have free ram to spare- so its engine related.

Most of the issues I'm seeing with that has to do with exploration treaties with many factions.  This seems to also cause choppy ship movement as it appears that FOW is updated real time not at end of turn. Otherwise when exploration treaties are not in play turn time does increase but, not as dramatically.  Usually around 2 minutes a turn versus 5 minutes a turn.

Delayed planet response though I do notice especially as all the planets are colonized.

Reply #4 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Seilore, reply 3



* Insane map optimizations! There are some but it still slows down quite considerably starting from mid game and clicking starbases, planets starts to get huge response delays. Dont know whats causing it but i think the way the engine distributes threads(my hunch). Its realy annoying. Eventually the game spins down- turns take like 5 min and the game crashes to desktop. Even if you have free ram to spare- so its engine related.



Most of the issues I'm seeing with that has to do with exploration treaties with many factions.  This seems to also cause choppy ship movement as it appears that FOW is updated real time not at end of turn. Otherwise when exploration treaties are not in play turn time does increase but, not as dramatically.  Usually around 2 minutes a turn versus 5 minutes a turn.


 

I've heard that disabling lean maps helps, but have not tried this for myself.

Reply #5 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Great write up zingo an A big thank you to pshaw for the detailed response 

 

Love this forum :thumbsup:

Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top

 

Hi,

I've just downloaded 1.7 with a game already being played. The main thing I noticed was about the starbase management and I realise that bolting on the new handling onto a game already in progress wasn't a totally fair test.

What I would second is that there needs to be improvement on the constructor creation logic. You really need a global setting of default constructor  which can be updated as new designs become available. At a stage when my normal constructor was x4 and had movement 12 I found all my shipyards clogged up with "basic constructors" which were x1 and had the superb movement of 3 - something I hardly used at all even in the opening. Without a manual override my shipyards, which were mainly geared for war, would have wasted maybe ten moves spewing these out (one at a time of course since you can't contribute to two ships in a turn without playing with shipyard sponsorship which is hardly the point of this automation). 

Obviously a much better constructor design should be the default as the game unfolds and as mentioned they also need to improve a starbase with all their constructor points available when they reach it, rather than getting stuck at one. 

Cheers,

Jon

 

 

 

Reply #7 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Pshaw)   Can you ask paul to add a an all eject button to the planets so we can very quickly get a defending fleet out of it instead of micro clicking one ship at the time) also auto rush/auto buy funtion woulde help for those that go for a more super eco build and got the cash to actually auto buy ships every turn.

can you PLZZZZ ask him for me :)

this Creature, likes those kind of stuff in galciv and its very helpfull in the game feature.

Reply #8 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

iirc, Paul was asked this he he was favorable but non committal as to when

Reply #9 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Archcreature, reply 7

Pshaw)   Can you ask paul to add a an all eject button to the planets so we can very quickly get a defending fleet out of it instead of micro clicking one ship at the time) also auto rush/auto buy funtion woulde help for those that go for a more super eco build and got the cash to actually auto buy ships every turn.

can you PLZZZZ ask him for me :)

this Creature, likes those kind of stuff in galciv and its very helpfull in the game feature.

I see about getting it added to the list.  

Reply #10 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

If we could get a general "select all" to apply to all displayed lists, whether vertical or horizontal, it would allow this kind of function in many places.  I notice that in the ship designer, I can now select multiple parts and turn them transparent all at the same time.  This is a new and wonderful improvement!  Thanks many times to Paul for this addition.  Being able to "select all", along with the present shift select, would add to the general ease of the UI, especially in cases where people are dealing with extreme cases and creating insanely crowded lists of parts, fleets, whatever.  

Again, thanks for the nice bit of polish in the ship designer.  That was a big problem for me even if it is a small detail to others.

Reply #11 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I am not used to Star Base queuing, Is there a tutorial online somewhere? Currently I find it a nuisance as I want to make and micro my own constructors. Is there I way that I can turn this new feature off? Of course, I realize how useful it is to those playing in larger galaxies.

Reply #12 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting neilkaz, reply 11

I am not used to Star Base queuing, Is there a tutorial online somewhere? Currently I find it a nuisance as I want to make and micro my own constructors. Is there I way that I can turn this new feature off? Of course, I realize how useful it is to those playing in larger galaxies.

Have you watched the last SD stream?  Not a tutorial  but it helps.  Foreach star base under sponger control you can turn off aut summon upgrades but you nee to do this for each base.  Maybe they will add some global control.  It is taking me some getting used to but i like the changes

+1 Loading…
Reply #13 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Agreed with A0152570 the changes are awesome as you can pound through some turns late game without the usual click 30 constructors to some starbase thing going on. The only thing I'd like is a 'global' control. Usually (I think most) human players will have a bunch of lower production 'constructor' shipyards and one or a few depending on map size 'non-constructor' ones for warships. Being able to just quickly add/remove shipyards to the list ALL starbases can draw from and specify which constructor they should ALL use would be a big timesaver and the removal of the last bit of 'micro' left with starbases.

Reply #14 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting neilkaz, reply 11

I am not used to Star Base queuing, Is there a tutorial online somewhere? Currently I find it a nuisance as I want to make and micro my own constructors. Is there I way that I can turn this new feature off? Of course, I realize how useful it is to those playing in larger galaxies.

There's nothing stopping you from building/upgrading the "old" way so there's no need to turn it off.  You can still manually build and send constructors to starbases.

You can watch the stream for a tutorial of sorts.  When we get closer to release and have finalized the system we may produce a more formal tutorial.  

Reply #15 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting pshaw, reply 14


There's nothing stopping you from building/upgrading the "old" way so there's no need to turn it off.  You can still manually build and send constructors to starbases.

You can watch the stream for a tutorial of sorts.  When we get closer to release and have finalized the system we may produce a more formal tutorial.  

I'll stress again, the need for the option to turn the new SB mgmt system OFF. I try playing the "old" way where I can send my nice double point constructors to SB's and what often happens is that the next upgrade such as Zero-G scaling is in queue. Now when my constructor arrives, I have to remove Zero-G scaling from the upgrade queue and then re-select it. Why can't I just click on it in the queue and build it? The fact that some nearby shipyard has queue building some mediocre constructor rather than the one I've been making is also a MAJOR nuisance.

I am honestly finding that the "new" method is causing more more clicks and time than the "old" way. I play in Large Galaxies. I do realize that many here play Ginormous sizes. Much difficultly is caused in developing and enhancing and balancing GC3 due to things being so different when playing vastly different sizes.

I'll close in again stressing that we also need far MORE hotkeys. The only one that I am aware of is B to build a starbase.

thx .. neilkaz ..

Reply #16 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting neilkaz, reply 15


Quoting pshaw,
reply 14






There's nothing stopping you from building/upgrading the "old" way so there's no need to turn it off.  You can still manually build and send constructors to starbases.

You can watch the stream for a tutorial of sorts.  When we get closer to release and have finalized the system we may produce a more formal tutorial.  



I'll stress again, the need for the option to turn the new SB mgmt system OFF. I try playing the "old" way where I can send my nice double point constructors to SB's and what often happens is that the next upgrade such as Zero-G scaling is in queue. Now when my constructor arrives, I have to remove Zero-G scaling from the upgrade queue and then re-select it. Why can't I just click on it in the queue and build it? The fact that some nearby shipyard has queue building some mediocre constructor rather than the one I've been making is also a MAJOR nuisance.

I am honestly finding that the "new" method is causing more more clicks and time than the "old" way. I play in Large Galaxies. I do realize that many here play Ginormous sizes. Much difficultly is caused in developing and enhancing and balancing GC3 due to things being so different when playing vastly different sizes.

I'll close in again stressing that we also need far MORE hotkeys. The only one that I am aware of is B to build a starbase.

thx .. neilkaz ..

 

If you turn off the auto-upgrade then you can use the old system.  

The fact that its defaulting to the base constructor is a bug that we'll fix.  

We are looking into improve the experience when you have multiple modules on a constructor.  

What hotkeys are you looking for?

Reply #17 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting pshaw, reply 16

What hotkeys are you looking for?

I'm personally mainly looking for govern option to remember star base build que (order of modules for the different types of star bases).  That would make it easier to mass build culture or whatever type of star base one wishes to build.

Reply #18 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting pshaw, reply 16

What hotkeys are you looking for?

 

In Shipyards:

next/ previous shipyards at the top where arrows are. Build, undo action(maybe), Decommission, cancel, buy available module. //=// Same for planet screen just in planets and map screen- rush buy

In game for ship: Explore, Sentry, Patrol(promised from stream )) ), guard, upgrade, decommission.

In Planets tab- some sorting keys.

In game at least 3 settings for zooming: min Zoom, Zoom 2x- Max zoom, return to last selected(object)

 

Oh and of course- In options- checkmark toggle hotkeys ON/OFF and Toggle custom keys if you dont like the current ones.

 

Maybe other people also can have input on what hotkeys we need.

Reply #19 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting zingo77, reply 18
In game for ship: Explore, Sentry, Patrol(promised from stream )) ), guard, upgrade, decommission.

Explore = X, Sentry = S, Guard = G already. But I'd quite like Decommission = DELETE, Upgrade = U.

Re the planets tab, I'm patiently waiting for the overhaul Paul mentioned that the Colonies list will be getting. Hopefully the sort fields will all get hotkeys and the list itself (well, all lists really) will answer to PAGE UP and PAGE DOWN.

The only zoom/view hotkey I use regularly is 1 to get reoriented after I've been rotating the camera around something pretty, but I think 2-5 or so might have something like the zoom functions you want.

Return to Last Selected Object is a swell hotkey idea, and C should center the map on the Current Object.

Reply #20 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Dang finger checks.

 

Reply #21 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting neilkaz, reply 15

I'll close in again stressing that we also need far MORE hotkeys. The only one that I am aware of is B to build a starbase.

Y  = build shipyard

No one seems to mention this.  Was it missed?

Quoting Philocthetes, reply 19

... and C should center the map on the Current Object.

Certainly.  And in both previous releases it did.

 

Another idea:  bindings for #'s 1 through 0 to map locations so a player can jump to a pre-selected spot on the map such as an important cluster of planets, a rally point, a war front, etc.  Would certainly beat zooooommming out to point to an area to zoooommm in again, over and over.

Reply #22 from Stardock Forums Top

Hi,

One thing that must have been mentioned somewhere but I can't immediately find is that the favourites selection in the shipyard list gets lost each time you reload a game - obviously it should be retained.

Cheers,

Jon

 

Reply #23 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting lycan371, reply 22

Hi,

One thing that must have been mentioned somewhere but I can't immediately find is that the favourites selection in the shipyard list gets lost each time you reload a game - obviously it should be retained.

Cheers,

Jon

 

Thanks Jon.  We've already fixed this internally and it will be in the next release. 

+1 Loading…
Reply #24 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Go4Celerity, reply 21

Another idea:  bindings for #'s 1 through 0 to map locations so a player can jump to a pre-selected spot on the map such as an important cluster of planets, a rally point, a war front, etc.  Would certainly beat zooooommming out to point to an area to zoooommm in again, over and over.

 

I would like to second this, as I prefer to keep a zoom level at the highest possible that still shows features (no icons) and the jumping around in zoom levels can take a couple tries to get back to an ideal level.

Reply #25 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

FYI -- because multiple people have asked for it, we'll add a "go to the top" the shipyard list button.