The Only Fun Part of the Game Was Planetary Economic Optimization and Early Game Colonization

blowing stuff up.

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waiting to exploit the new system they put in to the best of your ability? i am sure you will and should look forward to that and letting us all know how that goes as soon as you have it down

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OsirisDawn

Join Date 09/2004

+30

eXplore - still good, like it.

eXpand - could be a bit better. Just giving penalty to morale doesnt cut it IMHO. That upkeep mod is a good start.

eXploit - is good, but could be better. I would love to see an expansion that adds to the usefullness and choices around special resources.

eXterminate - add a 'Patrol' or 'Engage' fleet command an i am happy.

Overall i give it 8/10.

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Ship Designer which flows into customization. There might not be a lot of players yet who customize their own civ but the game lets you create a ton of enemies from you favorite shows our out of our own melon

Diplomacy is already better then most 4X titles and will get even stronger once we get more treaties (like telling the AI to get the h*ll out of our property ) and AI gets more personality

Planetary building is a fun mini-game with all the buildings and adjacency bonus.

Holding back with review (currently it would be around 7/10) until invasions, starbase MGMT and the UI gets sorted out (didn't try 1.3 yet), but if the game gets espionage and fleet perks/commanders, it will truly rock - so no need to get blue

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marigoldran

Join Date 06/2013

+41

1. Blowing stuff up is a little graphic that goes poof.

2. Exploiting is only fun if it is a challenge.

3. You can only expand so many times before it gets boring.

4. Exterminate is boring because the AI sort of rolls over and says "kill me."

The problem is all those features you're mentioning is fluff. The core game is unbalanced, the tech trees are all roughly the same with the exception of the Thalans which are overpowerred, and the AI is predictable and bad. It's just not fun.

The only thing I liked about the game was the ability to build up your civilization on a planet-by-planet basis and now that's been removed.

+1

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drakkos137

Join Date 10/2013

+12

I get to about turn 260 and go play something else.

I check back every couple weeks.

I *want* to like it. I *want* to play. I keep getting drawn back to check, and sadly, I keep stopping at approximately the same place.

My current game start was wonderful, I have 24 colonies, had 34% of the galactic population a hundred turns back, and UP Chair first bang.

I haven't a single warship, I'm the most powerful force for Peace in the Galaxy, and nobody dares attack me or suffer my wrath... or its horribly bugged. Likely the latter.

*sigh*

Now its back to Galactic Custodians III, and its a boring chore. My influence puddle expands at a glacial pace, yet for some strange reason small maps bore me.

I've had games up to turn 1100 or so, but haven't finished one yet, iirc.

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OsirisDawn

Join Date 09/2004

+30

Quoting marigoldran,

reply 5

1. Blowing stuff up is a little graphic that goes poof.

2. Exploiting is only fun if it is a challenge.

3. You can only expand so many times before it gets boring.

4. Exterminate is boring because the AI sort of rolls over and says "kill me."

The problem is all those features you're mentioning is fluff. The core game is unbalanced, the tech trees are all roughly the same with the exception of the Thalans which are overpowerred, and the AI is predictable and bad. It's just not fun.

The only thing I liked about the game was the ability to build up your civilization on a planet-by-planet basis and now that's been removed.

@1. They delivered what they promoted, cant complain about that.

@2. I did criticise that, it could be indeed better.

@3. Yes, but i am at about 100h played now and i still like it. And 'You can only xxx so many times before it gets boring' can be applied to every thing. So this is simply a matter of opinion.

@4. Stop exploiting edge cases and the game gets harder. Trying to break the game at every turn and then complaining that it is no fun is .... trollish. Most people seem to play the game at normal. There is to reason that the AI is good enough for them. You are not the measure (neither am i or any other single person).

I guess it is a matter of expectancy. I am playing computer games for the better part of 25 years and made my peace with it. I buy games as is and either enjoy them for what they are, or i don't.

Also i am a very patient guy. In my view SD delivered exactly what i expected: A game with a good foundation to build upon it. GalCiv2 was the same. The core game was ok and after two expansions it was unbelievable good. I trust that SD will do the same now.

I am also no one who plays by exploiting things, like you do. I am playing for fun and relaxation. My RL is stressfull enough, i am not getting up in arms over some stupid economy wheel that added nothing but micromanagment and was ignored be me. Which makes the game a bit harder to win btw.

And one last point: I am not seeing any alternativ on the market right now. While there are a good chunk of games out there, they do many things different, but not exactly better (ES is IMHO a bit more fun atm, tho). So this is what we got. Like it or not.

There will be no AI to match your skill in many years, so i fear you will be in for a long line of disappointments.

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Quoting OsirisDawn,

reply 7

@4. Stop exploiting edge cases and the game gets harder. Trying to break the game at every turn and then complaining that it is no fun is .... trollish. Most people seem to play the game at normal. There is to reason that the AI is good enough for them.

Except there's growing evidence that it [isn't good enough for them. The tumbling player metacritic rating (now down to 6.6) has an awful lot of mentions of 'dumb' or 'atrocious' AI; so to do numerous steam reviews; many of the positive official review comments threads now have references to poor AI too. Hell, even here, we have multiple threads from new players asking why the AI didn't do anything all game, or outlining how they defeated it on very high difficulty levels on their second or third game. These players are not all exploiting the game to the fullest possible extent. They're probably not even playing particularly competently.

I don't mind being supportive of the game - it has great potential - but really, we need to stop sugar-coating the feedback like this. Sure, people should bave no trouble with the AI on top difficulty eventually. And sure, there's elements of the AI which really are excellent - it's use of ships is now very good, for example, and in 1.3 when it uses colony ships as explorers it should be substantially improved. But the fact is, the AI is presently incredibly passive, even during a war; it can't control its economy remotely effectively; it doesn't really design ships; it doesn't have the capacity to react to events on a strategic level; and ultimately, you can basically wait for it to fall apart by itself rather than actually having to overcome it.

I'm hopeful these things will get fixed over time, but there's no point denying that they do need fixing presently, and they ought to be prioritized (which, thankfully, SD have recognized and are addressing with 1.4). Sunshine and positivity are good, as long as they don't stifle effective critique. And while Marigoldran is both obnoxious and irritating, and probably has some kind of hyperactivity disorder that should be heavily medicated, he is very good at sniffing out balance issues and exploits which in many cases ought to be either fixed (the outright insanity of the Thalan tech tree, for example), or taught to the AI (the constructor flip).

+2

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OsirisDawn

Join Date 09/2004

+30