STICKY: EASY TWEAKS to make the game better for you

Alarm clock, a la MOO 3

Yes, I know. MOO 3 sucked big ****** *****, and this is a different game. The one cool thing about it was a featured alarm clock. The alarm was set in-game, and a box would pop up to tell you it was time to go.

Pity I never used it, but I think it would be very useful in GalCiv II. My day job is suffering terribly, because of this game. I CURSE YOU, Frogboy! If only GalCiv had an alarm clock to warn me it's 3 AM.

Play in a window, and keep an eye on the system clock, you say? Wear a wrist watch? Maybe. Just my 2 cents.

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Ships actually orbiting planet.

Again, I don't know how long it would take to code, but the rudimentary form shouldn't be too hard.

There are already moons that orbit planets. With similar coding, the game can take into account the ships that's "in orbit" and put a mini-version orbiting around the planet. (have to get it so the game doesn't render the miniature version to full detail)

With some more coding, the ships can then orbit in different path from the moon.

More features can then be added to it.. Like the ship attacking orbited ships will actually attacks ships in orbit instead of looking like it blew up the planet.

Also allows the possibility of satellite technology that only benefits a single planet, essentially a weaker version of starbase that only affect one planet.

the satellite can defend the planet (sorta like ships without engines, but makes more sense flavor-wise).
or the satellite can boost production ability as it channels energy to the planet, etc.

Perhaps in a future expansion pack?

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It appears that when you name a ship design, the name box opens by default with "Ship Name" (or whatever the text is) written in the space, and your text cursor at the beginning of the name. Moreover, it appears that clicking with the mouse cursor neither highlights the name (for super convenient deleting) nor moves the text insert to the point you click (for slightly more convenient deleting). As far as I can tell, your only option is to scoot the text cursor to the right with a number of presses of the right arrow button, and then delete the default text, and Then, finally, type in the new name. This seems like a lot of extra work. Adopting a more standard functionality (e.g. the text box opens with the words "Ship Name," but those words are by default highlighted, so that beginning to type automatically replaces them) would be better.

Thanks,
a new fan/convert

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I dunno if this has been mentioned, but it would be nice if the text of the name of the planets you control was your empire color. I.E. if you are playing the terran alliance, the names of planets you colonize or conquer would be blue. just makes it easier to pick them out quickly. And the planets of other empires their color, with uncolonized planets remaining white.

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I haven't read a single post here, but a couple things I would like to see...

a keyboard shortcut for rotating the camera, maybe the left/right arrow keys and the down arrow could reset the camera to default position? or A and D and then S could reset the camera to the default position?

I'd like to be able to double click on the name of a game to save/load it from the save/load menu

I think you should be able to tell how many turns it will take for a unit to get to a location, and to see how many turns left until they arrive

also, I think the player should be able to access the shipbuilder from the main menu...we should be able to play with this completely independently of the game, it would be great!!!

other than that, I'm really enjoying the game and I think we have a good community here. devs are great, people are great, game is great

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2 suggestions...

1. Add the option for toggling per-planet to auto-launch ships out of orbit (with option for ships to automatically head to a certain rally point)

2. Add an option in-game to set race cutom settings such as appearance settings back to default without having to delete the CurrentCustomRace ... .raceconfig files from ...My Documents\My Games\GalCiv2\

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I think that this has been brought up, but I have been so frustrated by it, I think it bears repeating so that people know about it!

When reloading a save game, once you click the Next Turn button, although your ships move, NO PRODUCTION OR RESEARCH IS DONE.

Yes, you lose a turn whenever you load a game. This is especially bad when you see the enemy just about to colonise a planet, research a tech, etc etc, and you rush buy or whatever. Your rush bought ship just SITS there for one turn doing nothing, if you reloaded the previous turn.

Stardock, DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS!

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keyboard shortcuts for all clickable buttons. arrow key navigation of planet and ship summary window.

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could really use a list of all planets i have discovered that are still uninhabited so that i could send a colony ship to, like it was in MOO2, show planets by size and in range.

It is already here: the F1 or F2 key shows the list of your planets. But there is a tab for the unowned planets. And you can sort them.

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In the ship designer, a button that temporarily turns off the hardpoint colors

Isn't this feature already here, or did I miss something? It is one iof the edge button I think.

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I added this onto a post above a few hours after creating it, but I wanted to make sure it wasn't overlooked:

"I'd like to be able to double click on the name of a game to save/load it from the save/load menu

I think you should be able to tell how many turns it will take for a unit to get to a location, and to see how many turns left until they arrive"

I thought of a couple more things too...I also think you should be able to intimidate other races, demand they give you things (money, tribute, techs, planets) and declare war from the trade/diplomacy screen. As it stands, it feels like I'm conducting nefarious sneak attacks and I'm wondering if the galaxy looks down on me (darn you civilization!)

when reading about an individual tech in the tech tree or diplomacy screen, you should be able to see what benefits that tech will give you. for instance, looking at "deflectors" or "ecm I" should tell you the information about that defense that you would see in the ship building screen when you view the individual armor part (size, cost, armor rating)

and yeah, there is a function to turn off hardpoints from the ship builder

I've also noticed something similar to what skunkpuppy is talking about...from the main game screen, I've noticed if I press the industry tab that there are two times when industry plummets all the way to 0 for every race including mine. these might be times I loaded, but I'm not 100% sure

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I'd like to be still able to read the names of stars in the tactical view (fully zoomed out).
When I play on gigantic maps, my pc tends to slow a bit (especially when I have a large force on screen), so the tactical screen is great for that, but I just can't view planet/star names.
Similarly, it would be great to see fleet names. I like naming my starbases/fleets, and to have their name displayed in the tactical map would be lovely.

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I'd like to be still able to read the names of stars in the tactical view (fully zoomed out).
When I play on gigantic maps, my pc tends to slow a bit (especially when I have a large force on screen), so the tactical screen is great for that, but I just can't view planet/star names.
Similarly, it would be great to see fleet names. I like naming my starbases/fleets, and to have their name displayed in the tactical map would be lovely.

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Okay, I promise this time, this one is short.

Repair Modules for the ship. Maybe just a rudiamentary one for the basic miniaturization technology. Maybe 5% repair rate.

If you guys have time, perhaps a series of repair modules along with a repair branch.

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This is nitpicking and im sorry.

The remains of destroyed ships in the combat viewer disappear way to quickly. Would be nice if they could hang around longer or not disappear at all.

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In addition to all the great suggestions mentioned in this huge thread, I have a couple of UI ideas I would propose:

1) Information Pop-ups (like the "Has built XXX, now constructing Nothing" messages:

I really really dislike Popups blocking my activities when it's not necessary, you had a great idea with the little green globes & blue ships dropping on the right side of the screen, but the way the info pop-up is implemented is annoying : I can go to a planet screen by clicking on one of the entries, but I can't do anything else since the pop-up blocks the interface.

A suggestion for all current Pop-ups which provide info, but which really shouldn't block the UI : Have, at te top of the screen, an expandable "messages history" (like you can expand/collapse the control interface at the bottom). When a message arrives that doesn't require blocking the UI (such as the "Built this, building that" messages, or the "New Technology" screen after new turn or after tech trade), have the "Messages History" drop down and show the new messages - like the popups - with a button to collapse it again (and maybe a draggable bar so you can 'semi-collapse' it, for example to see the on-screen situation). Most importantly : KEEP the message history in there as a scrollable log, newest messages at the bottom - that way, if I accidentally click away one of the messages, I don't have to play "hunt-the-planet" trying to remember which one was no longer building anything.

I would suggest looking at all pop-ups generated to see if they cannot be provided in the UI in a non-blocking, less intrusive manner, maybe even the other screens (statistics, planet info,...) could be done with the drag-down UI - I'm reminded how, on the Amiga, you could drag down a different screen - even with different resolution there. Anything which keeps the 'big' focus on the main UI.

Of course, requests which actually do block the in-game progress (like the "voting for an issue" or "trading with another race" screens) should still block other UI Actions, but I would love to see us lose the pop-up windows. As another example, look at the in-page search UI as done in Firefox, which is simple and doesn't block any part of the page.

2. Map Navigation

I hear a lot of people asking for diagonal edge navigation, and on larger maps (I've only played smaller maps until now) I can imagine that the existing navigation is not optimal.

I'm not sure if this will work quite right, but how about a kind of "navigation trackball thingy" : a round UI element, if you click on it and hold the left mouse button, the main screen actually follows the mouse movement, so you could pan the main screen in any direction you like (I hope this is clear, it's a lot harder to explain than to show). In a flat UI, I would suggest just using the middle mouse button in stead of a UI-element, but in GalcivII the middle mouse button is already used for tilting the view.

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No idea if this has been suggested yet, but I'm throwing it out now before I pass out.

In the ship designer, I'd like a button that lets me undo setting ships obsolete, same with deleting ships altogether. I just blew half an hour of designing from misclicking "obsolete" on the ship I just designed.

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It's really tough to keep track of what's going on in this thread. Hehe.

Just a few more things I thought of.

a) Auto-turn sometimes occurs when deactivated, I think this is when the computer assumes that we are done a turn. I'd like to have no auto-turn when it's off.

I like the popup GNN for "Late Breaking News". The problem is that once you click "Done", it's gone. How about letting it stick around and being able to be pulled back up during the turn? A "GNN Newsreport" button or somesuch?

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I want you to separate the AI complexity from the Economic Bonus/Penalty. Considering the way the game is already set-up, this would be very easy. (Mabie not an hour, but not alot longer to change the format).

Set up one slider for the AI (seriously hampered up to full bore everything goes).
Set up ANOTHER slider for money (from 10x to player, through even, and on to 10x for AI).

This will allow EVERYONE to face your wonderful AI, and titrate exactly how hard the game will be fighting it.

Chris.

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- Ability to scroll the map with WASD or even better the abilty to bind keys to camera movment!
- Zoom in/out on the techtree!
- As many mentioned, show where your ships are going and how long it will take to get there!
- Please do something to make groundcombat more intresting (I really liked MoO3s way). Allow disableing of "random combat clicking" when attacking a planet. I hate the random advantage clicking

- Why does my transport disappear after an attack? Bug or feature? I can understand the soldiers are gone but the ships?
- Groundcombat seems "wrong"? The attacker always have a huge advantage? Why? Even when the defender have more troops, higher tech and higher soldiering. Bug?
- Zoom on enemy ships during "their turn" when they are within range of you ála Civ! (i.e Show enemy movment)
- Make it an act of war to place Influence Starbases withing someone elses border!
- Make it an act of war to tresspass on someone elses territory without alliance or open borders agreement. Also ála civ. Borders should mean something even in space right?

- Fix Mousewheel sensitivity on the battlescreen. Takes forever to zoom in/out wih it for some reason.

Other then that, I looove the game so far! Can´t wait to get home

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to be able to spy on minor races.....

and to break alliances with minor races.

Can't do neither at the moment, even though I get a message that tells me I should invest more into espionage vs. minors. I can also make alliances with minors, but I cannot break those alliances.

Not sure if that would be too much....but....

Actually....either be able to break alliances with minors....or not be allowed to form those alliances.

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A few little tweaks. The Ai does not do anything with it's colony ships after the "grab phase". I use mine as sensor drones, or just scrap them (upgrading them to constructors is often too expensive)

The AI does not change what is currently being built when being attacked. I often attack a planet, kill all the defending ships, then have to kill a newly built constructor or troop transport (which is kinda silly).

Talking about transports, you can somtimes milk population from an enemy by leaving your planet with no standing defenders, but with a fleet nearby. It'll often attack with a bunch of transports thinking it can attack an undefended planet, but just die to the fleet that just "happpens" to be nerby.

The AI does not prioritize movement enough. Since the fighters often move only at 2, I can build ships of movement 5 and always get "first strike". Also if their transports moved quickly, then my fleet strategy might actually backfire. Oh and why do transports sport armour?? It just increases it's cost (they should ideally build engines.. quick troop transports are dangerous). Finally, I can often get more systems than I deserve by having my colony ships move faster than 2..

Defenders are useless (especially light-fighter defenders), as the offensive player gets first strike, it does not matter how powerful the defending ship (in weapons) it'll usually die before getting a shot in. Give ships defending a planet first strike, and finally there will be a reason to build defense ships.

Fleets are (IMHO) much,much better than planet defence. A mobile force can defend a system or 2, can often backup a system in a few weeks instead of being left out of the picture completly, and since it's a fleet there's even a chance it'll win.

Scoring does not factor difficulty enough, and favours large maps too much. I also like playing smaller maps as I like to micromanage, but I dont like having to spend too much time micromanaging. The scores for a medium map are pitiful.

When I upgrade a ship, both the original ship and its upgrade showup in the build menu, but next game only the upgraded ship is shown. Isnt it the wrong way around? I would like to not have to create totally new ships each game (even ifthe shipbuilder is fun to use)

1 small gripe, I can play completly war-mongery and all the AIs love me (except for the poor sucker being trouced). I find that a little umm... a little silly. I believe that starting a war as well as destroying a civ should affect your diplomatic standing with all the AIs not at war with said civ (if they already do, please increase the effect). The Yor sure do like the fleshies ignoring them, but it gets a little too easy...

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Please lock the mouse into the screen for dual screen players, I hate minimizing by accident as I scroll out of the game.

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I'm at page 2 and still reading, but I'm going to post anyway...

1) This is a great game, the first game I have really been hooked on in a long while.

2) By default, ship designs should be "that game only". There should be a couple ways to transfer designs from a save game to the "permanent list":

2a) A "Permanent save" button in the shipyard screen

2b) A "Ship Design Manager" screen off the Main Menu (i.e., outside playing the game) where you can see your permanent user designs, transfer in more (by selecting a save game to load from, then picking designs), or even design more in a sandbox mode. What, this might take more than 1 hour?

2c) 1 Hour Version: Add a "don't perma-save user designs" option. Right now I'm happy to recreate ships as I'm usually taking a different route through the tech tree anyway, my foes are different, etc.

3) The whole fleet management / autolaunch / selection thing is definitely annoying. I think that a separate zoomed-in screen showing all of the ships in the area (i..e, one parsec of open space, or planet + launched ship parsec for planets) and letting you click and drag them into fleets, launch / orbit, etc., would be good. Failing that, at least make the interface a bit more predictable; right now I feel like I just click on the parsec until I see the right interface at the bottom.

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Great support as always! Cheers Stardock.

A few small bugs that should be quick fixes, but are really driving me demented at the moment (OK, so I was probably demented anyway, but these just amplify the situation)...

1. Please fix VR Centres - currently they are a -15% downgrade on their predecessors.
2. PQs get set back to original base values after reloading (i.e. losing the increases gained through Soil Enrichment, Habitat Imp etc). Doesn't affect the workable tiles, but does affect max pop, morale (ergo approval) etc. So, I finish play for the night with a nice happy population and start again the next day with a miserable one

3. No Mercy Invasion Center seems to completely break the invasion subroutine, in that whenever I try to invade a planet after building it... immediate CTD. Noticed a few others on the forums with the same CTD issue on invasions and the common factor here does seem to be the NMIC.
4. AI seems to make some very strange colony building decisions. e.g. an "incredible" AI's PQ14 planet flipped to me that had 6 Zero-G Stadiums built and no farms??? Also, AIs at all levels are woefully bad at using the correct buildings on the correct bonus tiles (why build a farm on a +300% manufacturing bonus and a factory on the non-bonus tile right next to it)

Metaverse scoring.. yeah, it's a little nerfed at the moment. I fully see the need for avoiding the return of the Masoverse, and high scores should certainly be attainable at all levels of play - but the score should represent the difficulty of the achievement. e.g:

Beginner, Gigantic, Military victory in 11 years has scored 117062 - great result for that player and a score that will encourage them to continue on hopefully, however...
Suicidal, Huge, Cultural victory in 4 years scored 38248. Now, shouldn't the ability to bring a galaxy full of incredibly intelligent aliens to heel in a mere 4 years at least be worthy of an equivalent score to the leisurely conquest of a galaxy full of dullards who probably didn't even know they were being conquered.

Also, the diff levels are not being displayed properly in the meta submissions (Maso and above show nothing at all).

Thanks for listening!

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STICKY: EASY TWEAKS to make the game better for you

STICKY: EASY TWEAKS to make the game better for you

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