Galactopedia

Downloadable information utility for GalCiv2

http://www.kynosarges.de/Galactopedia.html
from GalCiv2 Forums

Galactopedia

The Galactopedia is a utility program for Stardock’s excellent space strategy game Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords, providing you with exhaustive information on all objects and technologies defined by the game. The information is taken directly from the game’s data files, and therefore always up-to-date.

The Galactopedia is © 2006 by Christoph Nahr but available for free download under the MIT license. Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords is © 2006 by Stardock Corporation.

System Requirements

The Galactopedia requires a Microsoft Windows system capable of running the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0. This includes most Windows systems with Internet Explorer 5.01, except for the unsupported Windows 95 and NT 3.x/4.0.

Please use the Windows Update service or visit the .NET Framework home page to acquire the .NET Framework as a free 22.4 MB download, and to learn more about .NET system requirements.

Please see the Galactopedia website for more information, screenshots, download and source code!

http://www.kynosarges.de/Galactopedia.html

<img src="http://www.kynosarges.de/images/Galactopedia.png">

374,004 views 120 replies
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Many, many thanks to Christoph Nahr !!

This may be THE MOST important and critical feature that can be added to the game environment....
WindowBlinds - Free yourself of the default settings, customize your desktop.
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I wish it was in the game....
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Nice!

Now put it in the game. Until then players can run in Window mode and switch back and forth.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Excellent job, I just downloaded and oh my oh my, excellent!!!
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
This looks like something that only is good for ships and starbases. To me, the most confusing thing about the game is not ship construction. The problem is I don't understand how the bonuses work for economics, science, military etc.. I would like an encyclopedia that explains the underlying components of the game.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I am downloading as we speak....
havent tried it yet, but if your program is even half of what it appears to be, then Stardock must kiss your feet. I kiss them now willingly. This is the single most neglected area of the game so far (documentation).
This post must be given a premium sticky position, the link posted in a premium position on the Downloads section of this site, and you, sir, must be given a beer.
Hat's off!
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Awesome. glad you guys put this out.

On a very minor note, is there any chance of getting this built into and directly accessable within the game? Alt-tabing to get to the feature isnt as nice as having the feature right there in the game.
Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
That would be nice if it was turned into a modding tool. Just edit the entries, click "Output", and presto... Not as good as a table, but of course it's not designed for modding
Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Nice, finally a readable techopedia Like everyone says, it's Best integrated into the game, with your current tech highlighted, time estimate for completing next tech displayed...
Reply #13 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Kick ass!

Hate to ask for too much, but any chance this can be webbified? I have another system I can pop this up on while playing GalCiv full screen, but it's a linux box. Not so good with the running windows programs.
Reply #14 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Nice one! Is it done in .NET so that somebody could convert it to pocketPC? Would be nice to have something like this when travelling in trains or plans.. okok, I'll shut up!
Reply #15 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Wow. I just downloaded this and ran it to get a look-see. Oh my! This is just awesome, just plain awesome. I've been having a tough time learning how to play this game well and this will certainly help me. My problem is mostly of the 'too many options' type so no complaint, but I am looking forward to actually winning a game.
Reply #18 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Thanks so much for this program! love it! I was about to ask if they could add improvements but hey, its done already!
Now what we need though is to be able to see what improvements, ships, modules, bonus, etc a Tech can give us. A link to that improvement, ship, module, etc would also be greatly appreciated.

Now if research could actually show what bonus, modules, improvements etc it gives you would be nice. Also if those improvements, bonus, etc could be links to that article in Galactopedia would make the app 100% complete
Reply #19 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
This isn't very useful in its present state. What does +15 economy tell me? Nothing useful. I don't even know whether that's +15 points or +15%, much less whether it stacks with itself or anything else, or whether that would be +15% to my base or adjusted stat.

Would you be excited if I told you I put +15 in an envelope to give to you? Maybe, but you don't know how much money was in the envelope to begin with, or whether I put 15 cents, 15 dollars, or added 15% to what was in there. As a matter of fact, if there were 0 dollars in the envelope and I added 15%, then there's still nothing in the wallet.

See what I mean?
Reply #20 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Biting the hand that feeds again, Citizen Heavensblade23? For free even?

I maintain that this is an excellent resource even in its unfinished state. The resource's author promised more when more time was available - to my knowledge. I sincerely hope that the author of this utility ignores the negative prattling of people that are not satisfied with their charitable efforts.
Reply #22 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Those numbers are exactly what's stored in the XML files. I don't know what they mean -- to my knowledge, even Stardock doesn't really know what they mean since the internal equations are heavily fudged for balancing. Brad recently made a JoeUser post about this subject.

So the numbers are indeed not useful in isolation; you have to compare various projects down the same line of research and look at the relative improvements to get an idea of how useful a project might be. Or else you have to learn somewhere else how to properly interpret the numbers.

That said, the goal of the Galactopedia is obviously not to document GC2's inner workings -- please ask Stardock about that -- but merely to provide a comprehensive list of all research & build projects and other game objects, and their interdependencies.
Reply #23 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
This latest build (as of today) is truly impressive. It almost qualifies as a strategy guide. While better documentation of the inner workings would certainly shorten the learning curve, the Galactopedia has been instrumental in my first victories in the game. Yeah!
Reply #24 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
What an excellent resource! My only real irritation with the game has been trying to figure out what I needed to do on the tech tree to get the improvement/ship etc I wanted. Thanks.
Reply #25 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Bump. I just don't understand what devs were thinking when they put the tech tree interface in the game. Its *almost* unuseable. For example to find the tech I need to get xyz mod. I have to

1 Go to large view
2 Scan around
3 GUESS which improvement may be in which tech.
4 Since you CANT SEE the inside of the tech in large view. switch back to Tiny view.
5 Read text (to do this MUST click on it)...thereby deselecting what tech you are currently researching)!
6 Read minimal text in the box.
7 Repeat steps 1 to 6 until you find tech
8 Re-select your existing Tech.
9 Alt tab to PDF to try to find what XYZ module does!
10 Tab back into game
11 Make a cup of tea. Congratualations it took you 15-20 mins for somethign that shoudl take 15-20 seconds!

Come on devs!