question!

My first impressions playing this game reminded me of BOTF, but I have not played BOTF in so long I could not give a fair evaluation of the simularities. GalCiv certainly seems cleaner and easier to play a full game... I can say, in many ways, I wish BOTF played more like GalCiv.

In short, I do recall that, like GalCiv, you can not design your own ships. Unlike Galciv, there is no tactical fleet combat. In all honesty, BOTF tactical combat was really just eye candy. After I learned that combat segments were actually resolved a split second after you hit the begin button, I simply used the auto combat feature from then on. The flashy 3-D space combat (utilizing the Falcon 4 3-D engine, as was indicated on the box, *big deal* :/ ) was only there to entertain you and suck up game time.

There are also minor races in each that you can trade or go to war with... I do not think you can have a minor power form an alliance with you in GalCiv though-- at least, I have never tried.

I liked BOTF, but there were some annoying bugs. Also, if the publisher supported the game more and did not help kill off the more promising mods sites, it might still be around. Gosh, now I need to dig it up and play it again to see if my memory is accurate.

But to answer your question directly, it is a newer version of Galactic Civilizations.
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thanks...im gettin it tomorow...but this "no tactical fleet combat" bit is a disapointment already.

Cheers nswaim

Actually, you can.

Paddy2: I think you will find this game to your liking!! It is a VERY engaging 4X strategy with unlimited replayability!
ENJOY!!!

Thanks for the verification SLW, I will need to try it out.

no not really like BOTF, heres a quick runs down

BOTF

- Set ship types, system buildings for each race.
- tech tree was very basic.
- u could play as any race, and could play multiplayer games.
- excellent use of espionage/sabotage/spying and counter-intelligence.
- when you build in Sol it was distributed to all the planets.
- real wormholes to make travel faster - i loved them

GalCiv

- everyone has use of the same ships, and techs will increase the firepower/hitpoints of them.
- tech tree has about 1000 time more depth, and being able to trade techs means u can also skip some minor techs which don't give you anything except the option to research what u just traded for.
- you can only play as the humans, and theres no multiplayer options.
- total lack of intelligence usage (something which should probably be looked at).
- You can colonize up to 5 planets per system and have them all producing ships/buildings.
- anomalyes - where to start - they are randomly placed gas clouds and ship debris, which will give your empire bonuses or increase the ships attack/defense/hitpoints. also included here are wormholes - if you want to call them that - they simply move you ship to another part of the galaxy, and once it is entered it is gone (something else which needs to be looked at i think ;)).
- Starting bonuses, you chose a political party which gives you bonuses in a desired field, and you and also get other bonuses.

and much, much more.

in short they are both great games, and both need to be looked at in a coupla areas, but GalCiv is great if you enjoyed BOTF you will probably like GalCiv - no promises though.

~SDC~

thanks all....ive got the demo instead of the full version and i like it.gonna wait awhile b4 i get da full game. thanks again for the info:D
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