I’ve been pretty excited to see what the Crusader’s expansion is like based on Brad’s posts - they sound like great improvements. So I decided to play a game now so I can greater appreciate the changes made in Crusader. Recently I also played a bunch of original MOO, which made it more obvious why I have some problems with GalCiv. This bums me out some because I’ve been excited about Crusader, and these are things that won’t be addressed by that.
First for a positive. I’m not sure if this has changed since release, but it seems like the default map choices fit more of what I like. The frequency of good planets seem to be toned down from what I remember, and that’s a good thing. Finding a good planets is more of a big deal. Also, the AI is challenging on challenging. I think I started a downward spiral after fighting the Drengin and Yor for an extended war. I also fell behind technologically but started making up some ground making use of trades since I’ve got good human diplomacy.
So, my biggest problem with the game is the hex map in space and the method of controlling ships. In original MOO, you pick a system as the destination and let it go. After getting a tech you can adjust course mid flight, but that takes a little while. Actually that illustrates my top 2 issues with GavCiv 3.
Moving ships on the hex map is tedious. You can just pick your fleet and send it to a system, but it’s much more optimal to tweak your path during flight to avoid enemy fleets. MOO made me really appreciate its simplicity of movement.
Since space is so wide open it can be a pain to track where enemy ships are, even when using the mini map. This is especially true when the enemy is using tiny and small ships. They can be really hard to pick up in the vastness of space. Once your influence spheres cover much of your territory this is somewhat mitigated by the helpful notification in the upper left corner that communicates there are unauthorized ships in your area. But even then it is still an issue.
There doesn’t seem to be any techs that really change how the game feels when you progress. MOO has the tech that displays enemy fleet destinations and ETAs, the tech that lets you change a fleets destination id flight, and maybe more. Gal Civ seems to just make the numbers get bigger. Well, some of the diplomacy techs to change things a little by unlocking treaties. I wish GalCiv had more techs that changes the game up.
In prior GalCiv’s didn’t star bases used to project some military bonuses to fleets within their range? That made their use for military protection more useful.
Some of combat isn’t explained very well, like the use of speed and maneuverability (that’s not what it’s called in game). The log could use some tooltips to see how the stats play into the calculations. Also in combat it seems like ships that rely on missiles should try and maintain they distance as much as possible if it is within their best interest. It seems like all ships close the distance.
These things don’t necessarily make GalCiv a bad game, most of this is purely a matter of preference on my part. I think my style of play and preferences have shifted over the years. GalCiv 1 and 2 were games I enjoyed quite a bit and put a bunch of hours into.
I think I’ve had a little bit of a warming in my opinion on Gal Civ 3. I just finished up a game I had started a week or 2 ago (which I lost) and had a good time trying to fight off the Dregins, Yor, and Alterian Resistence. They kinda declared war on my at about the same time. The AR and I kept battling over 2 planets on the border. I finally secured them enough when the Yor rolled in. The AR declared peace when the Yor also set their sights on them. The Yor and I battled over the same two planets.
After I sweetened the pot with a ton of tech, the Drengin accepted peace, but the Yor slowly bled me dry. When I lost Earth, I bowed out of the battle for domination of the galaxy.
I’m torn. I think I had a better time because I never got that big, so I didn’t have a lot of the tedium of directing fleets. But, I like having some planets to discover so I usually select large maps.
There is one thing that bothered me. Does anyone know, especially @Brad_Wardell or @Island_Dog, does the enemy know the position of your fleets even if they are out of range of their sensors? An enemy fleet had sensor power of 2 and they seemed to make a beeline for me fleet even though it should have been outside of their sensor range. If they can, is it difficulty level dependent? I was playing one harder than normal. Would it be possible to have an option to turn that ability off, because it would be pretty cheesy? It takes away having a sensor range advantage.
I think the AI also doesn’t pay maintenance for any fleets in planetary orbit. A few rules are broken to make the A.I. competitive. I think it’s a good game, but once you realise it kind of ruins things for me.
If I ever accidentally become a game designer against all my best interests and intent, I want to explore the line between “strategy game complexity” and “rules playable by the AI.” Specifically to find the most rewardingly complex/deep mechanics that an AI can still be reasonably expected to “understand” well enough to play by and remain competitive.
Because nothing bothers me quite so much in a TBS as spending a dozen turns guerilla-striking the enemy’s entire natural resource gathering operation at the fringes of their empire. . . only to learn that the AI gets 40 units of every resource in the game every turn regardless of what they’ve built.
Exactly. Things like that take away the rewards of smart play. It’s even worse when the game isn’t upfront about what rules its bending, because when I discover it myself, I feel like I was lied to or treated dishonestly. I don’t even really try to find things like that so much, so I only see things that are fairly obvious.
I’m OK with giving the AI advantages to try and provide a competitive challenge, but not fond of when the rules are circumvented.
That always bugged me most about the AI’s map omniscience was having it carpet all your resources (durantium, etc) with constructors, without ever having scouted them. Or play a game as the humans where you have Mars next to you, and watch as the AI will send a colony ship directly at it, despite never having scouted you. This also made me question if the AI was playing fast and loose with fleet range limitations. It was also a really bad decision to begin with, since your influence would just immediately gobble it up.
I think GalCiv’s open, tile-based space map is a design decision that can make it very hard to write a competent, non-cheating AI. If movement is just system-to-system (maybe with the possibility of deep-space intercept) then you’ve got fewer things to consider than when you actually have to plot a path from A to B, taking into account local “tactical” concerns.
I know that this aspect is something that Brad is proud of, but it’s definitely not playing on easy mode in terms of AI design.
I think I’ll be picking up Crusade just to see how the ideas play out.
How does tech trading work? I always like the idea, but it seems so exploitable, especially if the tech is instantly transferred rather than getting blueprints that get you part of the way there.
I’ll be picking up Crusade as soon as it comes out because I am thinking THIS will be the GalCiv3 that was originally envisioned game-wise. I have been following the diaries, and nothing looks like bad and all of it looks good.
Looks great! I really like the concept of a limited pool of citizens. It has a boardgame-like vibe, and I like boardgames because (if done well) every decision and every resource counts. Does the AI handle the new features well?
Also: “spring” doesn’t end until late June! I hope the expansion releases sooner than that.
