Yaskoydray

Join Date 05/2007

Regarding the current 16 civ abilities

What was a Super Ability in GC2, compared to abilities in GC3

I am an avid modder of XML in GC2, and I really enjoyed the Super Abilities in GC2, but wished to mod them, and so the new abilities in GC3 create new customization options and challenges. That is, options for new effects and combinations, but challenges in emulating the former super abilities of yore...

I'm already building custom races on a spreadsheet, and updating some favourites I made for GC2. (I made many for GC2, often based upon Traveller, Babylon 5, Star Wars, Star Trek, and other sources, as well as original ones. With GC3 I'm keen to refine my repertoire of civilizations to play/play against!)

So race/civ abilities are on my customization agenda.

Firstly, I don't have a copy of the Beta yet but learned from seeing the tool tips in the Dev Stream casts the following info:

Engineers -      ship production always 100% any range from source worlds.
Ancient -      gains research from Precursor artifacts.
Patriotic -      no approval penalty for empire size.
Star Fairing -   immune to Nebulae; 1st SB module free (is that for each SB founded?).
Colonizers -   ?
Unwavering -   culture flip takes twice as long, i.e. worlds are 2X resistant.
Prolific -      2X initial population when founding colonies.
Paranoid -      ?
Zealots -      +1 ideology point per planet invaded.
Entrepreneurs -   +2 trade routes; both parties gain approval.
Synthetic -      pop growth requires factories; capped at 16.
Intuitive -      starts with free research.
Unrelenting -   no cost to invasions.
Wealthy -      starts with tourism enabled + extra credits.
Adaptable -      can colonize tier 1 extreme worlds.
Knowledgeable -   knows locations of other civs homeworlds.

(Please correct me if necessary; and, any one know what exactly Colonizers, and Paranoid offer?)

So I'm thinking out loud, and making some comparisons between GC2 and GC3:

Super Diplomat (more frequent interaction) - no match apparent in GC3
Super Dominator (spawning extra corvettes when going to war) - no match apparent in GC3
Super Organizer (getting like minded civs to support you if you are attacked) - no match apparent in GC3
Super Warrior (your ships gain first strike) - no match apparent in GC3
Super Breeder - closest match in GC3 is Prolific
Super Isolationist - minimal match in GC3 through Adaptable, but nothing to slow alien ship speeds in one's territory
Super Trader - closest match in GC3 is Entrepreneurs + Wealthy
Super Manipulator (getting other civs to back stab one another) - no match apparent in GC3
Super Hive (factories built very fast) - no match apparent in GC3
Super Adapter - closest match in GC3 is Adaptable
Super Annihilator - no match apparent in GC3, but I hear all tech trees are getting "planet busting" weapons...
Super Spy - closest match in GC3, but it's a stretch, is Knowledgeable

It looks like there's a lot to do/to mod to try and emulate the old Super Abilities, although I am mindful that implementations are intended to be different in the core game of GC3.

Any thoughts? What further abilities do you think are possible through modding, or perhaps forthcoming officially?

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Tetrasodium

Join Date 03/2006

+17

"I am an avid modder of XML in GC2" the XML is much cleanerthsn gc2 where there were a number of things with completely unique tags that wouldn't work anywhere else (I.e. Star ase modules) and other custom rhjngs elsewhere. Galciv3 uses a much more elegant structure imo.

with that said, its really too early for much beyond very basic moddings because a number of incomplete work in progress things make it much harder to even think about what might be good changes?addition

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Paranoid grants drone ship defenders at every world, star base, shipyard

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In the past dev streams, Paul has mentioned the Colonizer ability. I think it gives an extra, free, starting colony ship.

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peregrine23

Join Date 02/2007

+79

Patriotic - no approval penalty for empire size.

Not to derail the thread, but this is interesting, as in the the current build there is no approval penalty for empire size for anyone.

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Quoting peregrine23,

reply 4

Patriotic - no approval penalty for empire size.

Not to derail the thread, but this is interesting, as in the the current build there is no approval penalty for empire size for anyone.

Hmm, that means 2 things to me: one, the tool tip is in error, or two, the final release will include a discrete formula to invoke increasing discontent with increasing empire size. If they do implement something I hope it is carefully thought out - will they ensure the Content trait still matters for big empires? Will approval improvements also scale effectively?

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I think it is way too early to suppose that the abilities as shown in the live stream are anything more than suggestions that are swimming about in the developers' minds. Especially as the release has been moved back. As has been said, the idea of an early access is to kick things around.

Having done a bit of programming in my career, personally I wouldn't think of modding until about 6 months after release, but that, of course, as always, is just me. There is going to be a steady stream of DLC for this game, and while a good thing (I think it is not unreasonable to compare to Crusader Kings 2 in terms of DLC, but with a lot less "decoration" items) I would feel like I was trying to hit a fast moving target.

But perhaps this is a sign of age! I shouldn't be discouraging ambition and energy, I think I remember having that once.

(Note: I do not mean to disparage "decoration" DLC at all --- not my choice, but more power to those who like/want it --- just trying to imagine what will happen.)

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