Octopus Overlords

Just started and I have a couple questions. I'll ask them in reverse time order!

1. After finishing the tutorial I jumped into the campaign, only to discover it is not working like the tutorial. No citizens being the primary missing thing (that I noticed), plus, once I realized I hadn't birthed a citizen I clicked on the governance tab and saw a triangle slider, (which I had no idea what to do with) not the hexes for leaders.

Has the campaign not been updated to Crusader?

2. The tutorial. My first run through of most games is just doing random things until I start to understand what I'm doing. At some point it becomes apparent I'm going to lose and I start over. That point never came. The "bad" guys kept sending tiny fleets into my much larger border defense fleet. They used the same route every single time. In all honestly I played poorly. My planets were terrible, my ships were old. Yet I won. The couple of hexes I was defending should have been too full of debris to go through I killed so many ships. Had they waited and combined the ships they could have blown through me.

Please tell me the AI isn't this brain dead outside the tutorial. This is on normal. I want to like the game, it seemed like there was a great game in there, but I also want an aggressive fun AI to beat up.

I stopped playing before some of the more progressive updates, and I can tell you that the AI is not as braindead in the real game as you describe in the tutorial. I cannot comment on your campaign experience; I have vague memories about campaigns not providing the Crusade experience, but nothing reliable and I always played sandbox.

Thanks Freyland, I'll probably give up the campaign for now. I don't really want to learn the old ways.

I'm very glad to hear the AI isn't as bad as it seemed in the tutorial. Thanks.

Fitzy wrote: ↑Mon Nov 06, 2017 10:14 am Just started and I have a couple questions. I'll ask them in reverse time order!

1. After finishing the tutorial I jumped into the campaign, only to discover it is not working like the tutorial. No citizens being the primary missing thing (that I noticed), plus, once I realized I hadn't birthed a citizen I clicked on the governance tab and saw a triangle slider, (which I had no idea what to do with) not the hexes for leaders.

Has the campaign not been updated to Crusader?

The campaign has indeed been updated with Crusader, but IIRC (I haven't played in awhile) you have to select Crusader instead of vanilla. Make sure that you have Crusader installed and activated. Someone else (Island Dog?) can probably supply more definite directions.

Huh, I will look closer at what I pick. I didn't notice any choices, but I didn't pay that close attention either.

Thanks!

In a recent update they made the campaigns play in non-Crusade mode. You won't have any Crusade stuff in there and I can't vouch for how the AI plays.

For the full Crusade experience, both features and AI, play a sandbox game. You start out with a citizen on turn one, you!

Fall dev diary is here and talks about where we're headed with the series.

https://forums.galciv3.com/486207/

The big "Triumph of the Fans" update is out today with lots of changes based on feedback from our great community!

Update features:

• Faster load times
• AI improvements
• Fan requests

More info and changelog here.

We have a quick AI update that went out today before the holidays.

https://forums.galciv3.com/486559/

And a new dev journal!

https://www.stardock.com/games/article/ ... n-ai-treat

Interesting under-the-hood look at the AI. I haven't played enough games to have formed a strong opinion of it, but I like knowing that it's a work in progress. In the few games that I have played, it's been a creampuff unless I was playing from a poor starting position. GC2 had great AI so it's good to know that Brad is working on the same approach in GC3.

Island Dog wrote: ↑Wed Dec 20, 2017 1:43 pm And a new dev journal!

https://www.stardock.com/games/article/ ... n-ai-treat

That is really cool stuff. Over the years I've played the different GalCivs and they have been pretty nice, but Crusade was a great step away from feeling like I was playing a spreadsheet or a management game and more like I was running an empire. I really have to get back into the game.

Yea the citizen mechanic is totally the way to go I think. Not to mention, over time, it will allow for planet populations to be expressed by citizens as well which in turn can be based on their species which is how different civ abilities could manifest. But one thing at a time.

I played a couple of games this week after a long hiatus. I was the Korx in a Huge loose cluster galaxy. I had decent starting positions both times.

In the first game, the Drengin declared war on me. They were mostly a nuisance until the Peacekeepers showed up. It was still early in the game and my tiny defense fleets couldn't touch them. I sued the Drengin for peace so that I could concentrate on colonies and military tech a build a new fleet from scratch; very shortly thereafter, most of the other AIs declared war. I guess they stomped the Peacekeepers because they came at me from all sides, and I quit the game when they picked off half of my sprawling empire. I might have been able to hold out, and maybe even come back, but it wasn't much fun losing in the meantime.

Second time around I built a stronger military earlier. I had a very nice little core civilization with about seven good planets in close proximity, and later one or two remote ones. Civilization power rankings were all in the low 100s; I was first or second, with something like 160. Diplomatic relations weren't great but I had enough power to hold my own...until the damned Drengin showed up again. Their power was rated over 1000. Their ships were much faster and more powerful than mine; they had huge hulls while my Korx were still proud of their new medium ships. I was seeing fleets with like 750 hp while I couldn't muster anything near that. I threw a bunch of diplomats at the Drengin and paid them some bribes, but they came at me anyway. By then their strength rating had rocketed to 1600 -- 10x more powerful than me -- and they quickly erased my little fleets, starbases, and outlying colonies. I quit the game when they took out two of my three shipyards. How they got to be 10x the size of any other player in such an early game is beyond me. I think I was on turn 88 when I quit.

Both games were fun until the AI decided it didn't want me to play anymore. I intend to play again after a short break...but not as the Korx.

Anyway, the fun factor seems to have improved in the many months since I had previously played, and the AI is plenty challenging on normal difficulty. I have a higher opinion of this game than I used to.

Brad has posted the latest dev journal and talks improvements, balance, design and direction.

https://www.stardock.com/games/article/ ... nuary-2018

Island Dog wrote: ↑Wed Jan 17, 2018 2:54 pm Brad has posted the latest dev journal and talks improvements, balance, design and direction.

https://www.stardock.com/games/article/ ... nuary-2018

Excellent article as always. I found the following very interesting:

For the past year, I've been going through and weeding out improvements, events and other game modifiers that had unintended consequences.

The very first thing I did was read all the forum posts on GalCiv3.com, Steam, Reddit, elsewhere and see a lot of criticism for what amounts to unintended consequences of multiplying bonuses. Getting rid of these has been good for the game but not all players appreciate the changes since it dramatically nerfs their gameplay.

For example, with the right combination, you could get ships with a base speed of over 40 moves per turn. That's without adding an engine. There are players who have posted complaints at how slow things get when they try to move their 90 move per turn ship around late game on a ludicrous sized galaxy.

The game itself was designed (and thus the underlying engine) on the premise that you wouldn't get many ships with more than say 10 moves per turn.

While the AI could be scripted to do the same thing, it would destroy the game. If you think it's slow for you to move a ship 90 moves per turn, imagine 60 AI players doing it with 400 ships per turn. Even with a multicore Astar path finding algorithm, it would make the game both unplayable and not fun (what's the point of even having defenses or a forward line if ships can swoop in from sectors away every turn?).

So there's been a lot of work to get things balanced together. It's not a matter of trying to change the game around as much as making the game play as had been originally intended. As a math nerd, when I came in and saw the numbers it was just a matter of time to find all these unintended bonuses and kill them off.

I think this is a good idea in another way, as it discourages players from seeking only those techs that, for instance, boost speed since there is a now a law of diminishing returns. So the players are encouraged to look for techs that provide other advantages, which might bring them to techs they might not have considered before.

Has the GalCiv3 scoring system ever been explained anywhere? I squeaked out a victory last night and was awarded 23 points. Granted, it was not a game for the ages. I was six turns away from winning an ascension victory when the leading AI declared war and deprived me of two crystals, and it took me a long time to get them back...but 23? Really? I don't need to see the formula, I'd just like to know what it rewards and punishes.

Also (just in case this ever reaches Brad's eyes) I would really really like a screen where I can upgrade starbases all at once. After an AI turned its empire over to me last night, I had >20 starbases, all in need of some attention. Looking at each one individually, and adding upgrades one at a time, took way too long and was decidedly Not Fun. A spreadsheet with some check boxes could do this. Even an "upgrade all" option on individual starbase screens would save a lot of clicking.

I've mentioned this before. There are people scoring inn the hundreds on a single game, and I've frequently got single digit scores winning on fairly high difficulty. I was typically in the top 100 in GC2, never even cracked 2000 in GC3 and with the scores I get, I could play this exclusively for the next decade and never get close since I haven't a clue how some people score so high.

I’m trying this again, but on a random map rather than the campaign.

Something I don’t understand happened quickly. There was a nice planet nearby so I settled it quick.

Some where around turn 48 a second planet in that system was colonized. By me. Without a ship and without any input from me. Is this normal?

Maybe you culture-flipped an AI colony? Sometimes an AI will settle a colony within your area of influence and lose it after a turn or two.

Kraken wrote: ↑Fri Jan 19, 2018 5:50 pm Maybe you culture-flipped an AI colony? Sometimes an AI will settle a colony within your area of influence and lose it after a turn or two.

It's possible, an AI wasn't far off and I wasn't paying a lot of attention to what I thought were empty areas. Thanks.

Announcing Galactic Civilizations III: Intrigue!

Establish a reign that starts on a single homeworld and expands across the galaxy in Galactic Civilizations III: Intrigue! The new expansion will let you choose a form of government, buy & sell in the galactic market, establish a commonwealth, and much more.

Learn more and see the exclusive trailer here:

http://www.ign.com/articles/2018/01/23/ ... -intrigue

Island Dog wrote: ↑Tue Jan 23, 2018 2:36 pm Announcing Galactic Civilizations III: Intrigue!

...and it is now on my Steam Wishlist

Spring 2018, huh? Damn, I really could use it during tax season while my wife is working... oh well

I guess I should start playing the last expansion...

"Establish a reign that starts on a single homeworld and expands across the galaxy in Galactic Civilizations III: Intrigue!"

Uh, isn't that like the premise behind every 4x space game ever? Not exactly "intriguing".

Also, major red flag... I recall reading, I believe, in the MOO (IV) thread about how the "Galactic Market" really threw the game balance out the window. The addition of something similar seems like it would add similar pitfalls.

so silly question time. I just picked this up to fiddle with, and got a quick couple of questions.

1. moving ships - is there a way to highlight the # of moves its going to take for a ship to get from point A to B, without clicking the move right away?

Today we released Galactic Civilizations III v2.8 which brings major AI improvements! AI feels more human-like thanks to v2.8's "supreme commander" system update.

More info and changelog here: https://forums.galciv3.com/487114

Brad is trying every strategy he can think of to repel the attacks of the Centauri Republic in "Humans vs. Multiverse" Part 6.

https://youtu.be/obSBBkysBz0

Brad wrote a dev journal about map sizes and the memory they require.

https://www.stardock.com/games/article/ ... nd-memory

And of course, it’s on sale in the Steam Lunar sale this week.

Interesting. I play Huge maps on my old marginal computer and performance is satisfactory. A game typically takes 18-24 hours, which is about the limit of my patience. I'm sometimes tempted to bump up the map size, but I'm not enthused about games lasting a lot longer. If I ever do move up to Gigantic, I'll compensate by making stars uncommon and planets rare.

After at least half a dozen games GC3 finally clicked for me and I'm enjoying it a lot now.

Kraken wrote: ↑Fri Feb 16, 2018 12:16 am If I ever do move up to Gigantic, I'll compensate by making stars uncommon and planets rare.

That could actually slow it down drastically. I played a few gigantic cluster maps, for half the game you're someone confined to your cluster or local group of clusters and the space to the next group is too far to cross. By the time you can get everywhere, you might have a huge empire, with most of the action occurring on far-flung frontiers.

Brad has a GCIII v3.0 preview up which talks about changes to farming.

https://www.stardock.com/games/article/ ... ew-farming

Island Dog wrote: ↑Tue Feb 20, 2018 1:58 pm Brad has a GCIII v3.0 preview up which talks about changes to farming.

https://www.stardock.com/games/article/ ... ew-farming

I like the sound of this. The only problem is that v3.0 is coming out in April; my wife is doing taxes six days a week and I have a lot of free time now that I won't have after April 17th

Is anyone still playing? Have you ever played the Snathi Revenge?

I've won as every race up to the last one on the list, the Snathi. In my first game I got an incredibly good starting position and colonized the hell out of the galaxy (huge), ending up with something like 15 planets. Unfortunately I had to neglect my navy to do that, and since everybody hates the Snathi, I was exterminated before I could rectify that.

The second time I developed an average navy, but had a worse-than-average start position. One AI declared war, made some inroads, and everybody else piled on. I haven't lost yet -- even won a minor war -- but it's not looking good.

This race doesn't seem to have much going for it. I'd like to try them once more after I lose this game, assuming no miraculous turnaround, because I think my weak start was to blame for this defeat. Is there a strategy that works for them? I looked at a few GC3 strategy pages, but there isn't much out there and what I found was outdated or unhelpful. I need a Snathi victory to complete my set.

Did you try stacking the deck in your favor by manually assigning less aggressive species to the AI players? It's been awhile since I played and I don't recall if I've played the Snathi yet. Playing on a smaller map with fewer players might help too.

No, I use the same parameters in every game except for varying the galaxy type. But I think I finally figured out the Snathi superpower: they can salvage an enemy ship after winning a battle. It's a unique tech branch that (I think) can eventually capture technologies, too. Winning is going to involve going to war early and often, because they're average-to-poor at everything else. Everybody hates them diplomatically so perpetual war is a given anyway. If I'm right, I should be capturing ships as fast as I can build them.

I discovered that too late to turn around my last game, but the one I started last night has me surrounded by rivals and will be a good opportunity to test that strategy. They are certainly the most challenging civ in the game, at least for someone who prefers a builder strategy.

Intrigue journal #2 is out today!

Intrigue introduces a tax slider where you can determine how high you'd like to set your taxes. Naturally, the higher they are, the angrier your citizens become.

https://www.stardock.com/games/article/487675

Check out this week's dev diary for some info on v3.0!

https://www.stardock.com/games/article/487689/

Until I looked at the start of this thread I thought this came out last year or two years ago....but 2013?? 5 years??? Damn man. I still remember and sometimes watch that teaser videos where the Humans come through a warp and start laying wastes lol.

Daehawk wrote: ↑Tue Mar 20, 2018 2:32 pm Until I looked at the start of this thread I thought this came out last year or two years ago....but 2013?? 5 years??? Damn man. I still remember and sometimes watch that teaser videos where the Humans come through a warp and start laying wastes lol.

With the updates it's still feels current. Admittedly I haven't played it as much as I thought I would, just a few hours here and there, but I put a lot of hours into the first two iterations since I find the concept fairly appealing.

I thought sliders were gone?

The slider is dead! Long live the slider!

I struggle with this game, I have too easy of time on one difficulty and too hard on another. I'll keep trying after patches, I really want to like it.