For those of you who are interested, the first beta of GalCiv II v1.3 is now out on Stardock Central.
After the fairly substantial update that was 1.2 (mods, new screens, tons of new features, sample alternative UI, etc.) we are spending time on 1.3 to tweak and address those “little things” that get annoying after hours of play. We also updated the computer AI somewhat and made a lot of UI tweaks.
When you’re in the main map view you can’t rotate the camera below a 45 degree angle (see fig 1). This means the only time you get to view the gorgeous detail in your ships is in battles or if you manually “zoom in” (see fig 2). If the camera is unlocked we can use a more zoomed-in view of the strategic map and play with a more cinematic effect. You put all this time and expense into 3d objects but I’d bet 99% of the people out there only see the superb detail in battle mode (if they even use 3d battles) because a close-in view on the main map is fairly useless. So what I’m asking for is an unlocked camera so we get the kind of visage you have in fig 3. This would also allow us to view our ships with the planets & suns as a backdrop and get a cinematic feel in the main view. I’m guessing the camera was locked at 45 degrees on the main view screen for performance reasons, but there’s a ton of us out there with ample horsepower to render everything we can see at a planar angle.
figure 1
figure 2 A nice zoomed in view reveals very little of the surroundings.
I wonder what the possibility is of making a mod crossover game. Here’s what I’m thinking: You start out playing a regular Civ 4 game. You go for a space-victory. When you’ve finally made your starship, the mod saves any influencing conditions of your race and economic situation, and sends you over to GalCiv. Now, you play GalCiv – that is, until you colonize another planet. At that point, you’re given the opportunity to play a specific “colonization” scenario in Civ4.
There are a lot of things to consider, but mostly, I’m sure, it’s timing. You’d want to represent the time you spend in the Civ4 version differently than the GC section, as there’d be no way to represent the events in a simultaneous manner.
That would be one hell of a long game, but it would be cool, right?
Well that’s weird. I can see them just fine. Yes, it would be great to view the main playscreen at any angle instead of the “45 thru 90” degrees we’re locked into right now. Another positive aspect of unlocking the camera angle is we can use visual cues of the ships to see their power instead of having to click each ship. On the main map screen you can’t see any attached items on the underside of ships.
?? Anyone else having trouble seeing my screenshots ??