So has anyone here tried out the new Gal Civ yet? Just went into alpha recently. Haven't had a chance to try it out yet myself but wondering how it's shaping up even if it's still early.
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Gal Civ 3
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100 bucks for the privilege of playtesting is certainly one of the more brazen abuses of the consumer I've seen come from the gaming industry. Although I suppose they need all the help they can get after their back-to-back debacles with Elemental and Fallen Enchantress. I have very little respect for Stardock as a company. It's a shame they got their hands on Kael, although I suppose he might make a positive difference there.
(March 31st, 2014, 20:34)Yazilliclick Wrote: Please find another topic to derail. No-one cared when people bashed Firaxis for playtesting Civ5 horribly and other issues. It's notable enough to comment on. Anyway here's a video of the game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5i_1ZdMvqQ Diplomacy isn't in the game yet so there's not much to see.
I've played enough now to say that my first impression has been positive. The game has that familiar feel to it (for those who played GC1, at least -- I didn't play much GC2.)
First impressions can tell you if the title is worth your money, but it can't predict if the game has a chance at long legs. That takes time. So if you are in the doubter/skeptic category, I'd say be patient. If you are ready to buy on the idea that you'll get 50+ hours of fun out of it, I'd say it's a safe bet for all but the most picky among you. I haven't tried the MP yet. So if that's the main draw, you need to hear from somebody else first. Pros: * The core formula is intact. Tile-based, flat galactic map. Stars, planets, starbases, fleets, anomalies, etc -- they each occupy one tile. Starbases can be plopped down anywhere in range and upgraded repeatedly if more constructors are added. Influence and culture flipping still work the same, and the starbases still have a strong effect on Influence. The racial alignments are still present, still familiar, but also have some new wrinkles. * The customizable game settings are back, and more numerous than before. Options for super-mega-huge map dimensions are a refreshing change from the trend of Civ3-5+ continually shrinking the maps and playable city counts. * Lots of pathways for play. Lots of variety and variant material -- more than in (perhaps) any other 4X game I've ever seen. * Some new races, and the ability to create custom races. * Game pace remains fast compared to most 4X games. It's not as fast as GC1, but I can play it much faster than Civ. Questions: I haven't found any glaring cons yet. That doesn't mean there are none, but none have stood out like a sore thumb. * How good is the AI? Don't know yet, really. I remember the GC1 AI had some purposely exploitable traits, and I suspect some of that philosophy remains. * The original RB spirit should do fine with this game, but the MP-focused community that RB has evolved in to may not. If the player's focus is on finding the "best" ways to beat the game, networking findings, and "solving" the game as it exists at launch -- anybody plugged in to that track will shorten their playable hours with the game considerably, I would think. But games have never, out of the box, come with years-long legs of grand gameplay. ... I suspect this is the best 4X space game to come along in a decade, and if I'm mistaken about that, it might still become that with more work. So if you buy it, do yourself a favor and savor it while you can, rather than rushing to shorten your time with it. * How polished and balanced are the details? Tech trees, racial balance, weapons and defenses, victory conditions? Don't know yet. The game has been through an open alpha, so I'm sure it's got to be more polished than Civ3 was at launch. GC1 gave me six solid months of intense gaming as my main game, and that was a pretty good run. One of the best in the last fifteen years for me. This game feels like it has that same spark, yet also has enough new to it to justify its existence. I'll keep you posted from time to time as my experience with it deepens. - Sirian
Fortune favors the bold.
The expansion penalty is definitely something to manage, but I don't see it as onerous. Empire games have been imposing happiness penalties on expansion all the way back to Civ1 a quarter century ago. GC3's penalty is above average in strength, but the Morale specialization and one Entertainment center on most of my planets (placed on the tile with the booster, if one exists) let me get to about ten planets on a Large map with no issues.
The ginormous maps might be flawed if the penalty fails to scale to them, but if so, perhaps forum complaints will get something done about it. I have not tried anything larger than Large as yet. More morale improvement options exist on the tech tree. It seems that if you want a sprawling empire, you're going to have to emphasize morale, perhaps with a second entertainment center and/or some starbase support. Still looks doable to me, though. You could also try being choosy and skipping some sad planets, if you have more than plenty of better quality around. - Sirian
Fortune favors the bold.
I've had the game for a little over a week now, and I'm starting to get beyond the helpless feeling of being overwhelmed at every turn. If there's one word to describe GC3, it's HUGE. This game has so many different options at every turn, from game setup to planetary improvements to events to the tech tree. Especially the tech tree... that thing is MASSIVE. I think I have a good handle on the first few rungs, but I've never gotten even close to the end so far.
I'm not entirely sure how well this game is balanced just yet. I've already found some silly stuff with the help of the Livestream audience - in particular, there are currently no limitations at all in ship building, which leads to some brokenly overpowered stuff. You can stuff a cargo ship full of sensors and get visibility 30 tiles away on the map. Hilarious and also hilariously broken.  I'm sure the more egregious stuff will get patched out over time. Sirian's right though: this is the kind of game that the Realms Beyond of ten years ago would have devoured. There's an incredible amount of content to explore here, between standard military/science to more esoteric stuff like influence, tourism, starbases, asteroid mining, etc. You could easily spend hours just on the shipbuilding alone. I'd love to see more community interest in this game; it might help to make this forum more visible. I might try posting in the Gaming Table to let more people know this forum is down here. If anyone wants to see some gameplay, here's a full game we ran on Livestream today playing an Influence push with Altaria. (Also probably the last Normal difficulty game you'll see me playing! Looks like I know the mechanics well enough to need to increase the challenge level.) EDIT: Also concur that this looks like a poor Multiplayer game. Definitely do not purchase if that's your main focus.
I'll take the liberty of moving this forum up to the top of the Other Games section for some visibility. And reordered a few others roughly in order of activity with the dead ones (Diplomacy) on the bottom.
I'll think about joining in Gal Civ 3 myself, but pretty busy in RL for the next month or so. |
