Gas Powered Games. Stardock is working on a game with them.

Getting a bit off (well, way off really) topic here, but how can anybody not find this highly amusing!

And yet it's this type of attitude that's seems to have led to an insane blind consumerism in a country tanking to third world status with crippling debt, offshored economies and production, and the 'mainstream' population still seems completely oblivious to the cause and effect.

*Hops off soap box and decides a bit of retail therapy might help* :LOL:

By the same token, how does producing excuses in lieu of results help ANYTHING?

I can sympathize with a deadline crunch, but by the same token, I've been stuck with a game that has been unplayable due to the numerous launch-day bugs, that could've been undone with a roll-back patch as was suggested at the time, reverting it to beta, and stable, status.

The situation was handled very poorly, there was ZERO communication from the development team, and a lot of people who wanted to play the full game were upset with the fact that their games would become unplayable halfway through, and the AI would become complete idiots.

Thank you Stardock for releasing the patch even though you are tied down!



Lol. I completely agree with the "blind consumerism". Everyone wants useless crap and they will go into debt to get it. With debt they will never be able to get a good economy going. That's what happens when you focus on social and military before you think about your money =(

Wow this thread is full of crazy-talk!

I'm sure I'm about to add some of my own, but at least it's solidly on-topic crazy-talk.

I am very, very new to the Stardock Experience(tm). I just recently bought Sins, and that led me to buying the whole GalCiv bundle.

I decided to buy GalCiv, after all this time, because Sins made me long for a true 4x game, the GalCiv graphics looked much better than they used to, and I was looking forward to buying a game that had been out long enough for the fine Stardock team to have shaken all of the bugs out of it, so I could just sit back and enjoy a good game.

Oops. Little did I realize that ToA had just been released, less than a week before.

Like everyone else, I've heard a LOT about how fantastic Stardock support is, and although there's been a slight delay on a ToA patch, I don't really mind. It beats the heck out of the year-and-a-half wait for a patch from Creative Assembly for M:TW2 Kingdoms!

I was frankly disappointed to hear that the delay was because they were off working on some new game ,(That sounds EA-esque, I'm afraid, regardless of the truth.), but still, no big deal.

Now, however, as silly as it might seem, I am officially disappointed.

I am SO tired of hearing, "the patch will be tomorrow", "no wait, next week", "no wait, next week", "there's a problem with the patch, so it'll be out next month", no wait, next week", etc., etc., etc.

I probably shouldn't admit it in public, but indefinite waiting drives me insane.

Just once, I wanted to hear that a patch was coming out tomorrow, get up, and find a patch.

I had faith that the world-famous support of Stardock could actually pull off this heretofore-unheard-of feat.

Alas.

"No wait, next week."

Is anything ever as good as people say it is?

Oh, and to all the mathwizzes out there.

The game released the 30th of april.

Take a calendar with ya, and count every week, IT AINT HARD, and count till 7! I dont want to make a fool out of you Kryo, but I will recommend some sleep.

Next week wil be the 8th.

Uranium phrased everything quite well btw, and comparing other company's shittyness does not justify the behaviour of stardock, just because it is less shitty atm.

Yeah, I appologize for a further delay in the official release, but if you don't mind DL-ing a zip, I'll be uploading the patch for you guys to download when I get in the office.

The real question is how many players ACTUALLY find Research Inflation to be a game breaking bug? I'm not being a smart-ass, I meen factually...50%? 10% 1%?  I don't know, but given what I've seen on this forum and others, it's a small, but vocal, group of players.

What we're getting into is a diminishing return on intestment for features added. Something was changed (Tech Prices Inflate up to 1.5x) which, for most players, didn't break anything, and gave them a new feature that some were asking for.

But for that small group of players, this new 'feature' broke the game as they played it. And now they hate us

What we need is more due-dilligance moving forward, so that only new features that are 'no brainers' make it into the game. For Dreadlords there were alot of 'no brainer' features that everybody would benifit from. Now 3 years later, most of those have been fixed/added, and we're left with alot of suggestions that may be good for some players, but create unwanted effects for others. Just have to be more careful.

Anyways, the problem has been fixed and I'll get that zip to you guys once in the office.

 

As any kid who has turned in homework late knows, there's a fine line between an excuse and an explanation. And in my mind, Stardock produced an excellent explanation.

I'm sorry, you come across as a little kid constantly whining "I want! I want! I want!"

There was plenty of communication. They told us why there was a delay. It's not as if they have infinite people - they're actually a small team doing this stuff. They can't just throw developers around all over the place.

Grow up.



The 9th, actually. Work weeks are normally Monday through Friday.

I hope that all those barking at Stardock perform in their duties with the same "no failure" standard as they require from Stardock.

Please let Stardock work and start barking at the dog.

One free suggestion: never buy a game from other companies or you'd be bound to kill them if you apply the same quality standard...

you may think stardock is being shitty about the patch!! and once more a delay,... Well go walk a mile in there shoes!!!I but The Team did not want to get on this post and say sorry delay!!! Because of all the whining it was going to bring.
Come on guys get off it!!! Kryo is one of the best people out there when it comes to answering someones post.!!! useully with in 15 minutes!!! the game is still playable just not to who stander???? yours mine thiers???
go worry about a real life issue and less about OMG the game ruin there`s no patch !!!
But go ahead keep it up slam stardock more piss them off!!!
and you`ll here!!!"we decided since we can`t make any happy with the game as it is.and considering it is playable we are no longer going to update it"!!!
Like I said!!! Go walk a mile in there shoes and you`ll understand more!! yes we ask for delays are self's to make the game better. and it was better for it.

And yes they said hey all we are going to go work on PM2008
now be back later!!! with all that stardock had invested it was a smart thing to do.If we wanted more patches for Our beloved Game!!!
We stardock 2 and a half years ago set it game plain for 2008!! TA was already projected to be done.So now they have to jocking a round to get things rolling again!!
They decide to work on TA instead of taking the weekend off and you all slap them in the face.How many of you have or would put in free time at work???....well...but it is not very many!!!! NOW you ask this Team if any have and how much have they.And ask them when was the last time they actually went on that family planed activity ranter then canceling it. Deadlines SUCK thats all there is to it!!!!But in order to make money there there!!!
O yes i want the patch too!!! and I1m hoping they game is done soon!!!
Now go worry about a real life isuse!!!
mine is am I going to live long enough to see the game completed!! Guess that sort of puts thing in prospective
the odds are on my side right now....But that can change any day!!...so no i`m not upset at stardock for they delay. I have other things for that.

Stardock team.... Try to take it all in stride.
Please don`t let the few destroy it for the many!!!
Also take that extra minute with your family even tho you are tired,.. running late,.. and getting yelled at by the Boss
and by the upset folks on the forums!! it does really matter what you do.!!!
Just remember,...Life Too Short To Sweat The Small Stuff.
Last but not leas Thanks for a wonderful game that helps me threw some of my worst days when the pain is at it worst!!!and almost unbearable
To me!!... The patches are just added candy I`ll take all I can get ;p And I thank you for them!!

I wrote a lot more then I started to so if any words are missing or something is not type just right please forgive me. I think you`ll get what I mean.

Nasty

I certainly don't mind a zip, and thank you! I'll be looking for it.

It's not the first time I've been disappointed, you know. I'm sure I'll live.

I certainly don't speak for anyone but myself, but honestly, it is sort of a gamebreaker for me. Almost.

BUT, I think that's only because I'm very new to the game. I'm anxious to experience everything the game has to offer as quickly as possible, and so all of my games ending without ever seeing a Large class ship or anything over Laser V is just disappointing.

Give me a few months of playing, and I probably wouldn't mind the research thing nearly so much, but I think that it's likely that any new player might feel the same way.

Actually, after Stardock, there are very few other companies I'll buy a PC game from- because I now expect a lot better.

As for the bug, the way it is now, is a gamebreaker for me, but I had the option to play something else, so I did. I'll get back to GC2 when the patch is done- I have faith it would be. (The goodwill Stardock EARNED and is using now). It wasn't that the idea was broken, but the implementation was broke.

Going to post an idea for another attempt at it:
Creativity loses its current effect.
Tech inflation is a constant over time, not affected by anything else
Creativity reduces the rate of tech inflation.

There's still plenty of changes I'd like to see in GC2, but the game is complete as it is now, so I don't expect them. I'll just be a pain in the arse come GC3 beta with all my ideas in 3 years.

OK, guys, this should be good...

http://sd.stardock.com/GalCiv2/GC2_Twilight_1_92_Alpha.zip

It's an 'Alpha' for marketing reasons only...the official one has to come from SDCentral/Impulse. I have no reason to beleive this build will provide anything buy happiness and sunshine for all that use it

Here's the change log:

+ NEW: Improved Starport improvement graphics

+ NEW: Zoom to Mouse ursor option

+ NEW: Added ship components for Disruptors IV and Photonic Torpedo III techs

+ NEW: Removed a duplicate entry in the StarbaseModules.xml file.  Also added some starbase modules with "Mining" and "ProductionAssist" abilities to compensate the races that do not have the factory line of techs in their tech trees (Iconians, Thalans, Korath, Yor).  And I didn't just blindly add these, I made a spread sheet of all the starbase modules that each race has access to and filled in a few of the holes with new modules the best way I saw fit.  They are tied to race-specific techs, so no other races will inadvertently be affected.

+ TWEAK: Made sure some techs were non-tradable and non-stealable because they now unlock starbase modules that I intend to be race-specific.

+ TWEAK: Fixed a few spelling/grammatical errors in the Yor tech tree.  Specifically, changed "York" to "Yor" and "significant" to "significantly"

+ TWEAK: Fixed a typo in the Thalan tech tree.  Changed "product" to "produce"

+ TWEAK: The research cost penalty has been reduced

+ TWEAK: Removed the description for the Divergent Evolution tech from both the Drath and Altarian tech trees so I could put it in techTree.xml.  The description was exactly the same in the race tech trees including a bunch of misplaced linebreaks, which I fixed.

+ FIXED: A few typos in the descriptions of some ship components.  Namely, when describing the numeric amount of HP or % boost a component gives.

+ FIXED: The Krynn were using the Torian's description for Aquatic World Colonization.  Removed that, so it'll use the default description now

+ FIXED: Added "Space Weapons" and "Space Defense" techs back into the Thalan tech tree in their usual place right before the weapons and defense branches.  I made them cheaper than usual so you can still have a quick research route to those branches of the tree.  The reason I had to add them back in is because they provide starbase modules that are prereqs to other starbase modules that are still being unlocked in the thalan tree.  Without access to the prereq starbase modules however, any modules that depend on them are impossible to use.  Simply adding the two techs back into the tree fixes the issue.

+ FIXED: Bug where you could buy several improvements for the planet on the same turn from the quick build screen.

+ FIXED: Bug where if you bought a ship on a planet, you couldn't buy an improvement that turn

+ FIXED: Bug where the colony management screen didn't always have the most recent data

+ FIXED: Planet height maps that were placing tiles in the 'ocean' parts of the planet images

+ FIXED: Mind Control Center improvement

+ FIXED: Modified plague and disease mega-events to notify a player that they must research antivirus software or firewalls as a robotic race to find the cure, not plague cure or disease cure

+ FIXED: Gravity Accelerators were missing a Special ID, which was causing a crash when they were built

+ FIXED: Now can't trade Ascension starbases

 

EDIT: That 'The research cost penalty has been REDUCED' change put up a red flag for me (I thought the penalty was removed) so I went into the code and, yes, the feature is still in, but all the numbers have been decreased.

As you guys play, PLEASE let me know ([email protected]) if the inflation is still crippiling the AI. I haven't seen it, but I didn't see it to begin with

Send any saved games my way so we can get into the code and really figure out what's going on. Thanks!

BoogieBac, the main problem people are complaining about seems to be that the AI stops doing anything with the tech tree change.

Also a question: Will the patch reverse the tech tree change or make it optional?

Negativity encourages backward thinking, its easy to be wise after an event, quite apart from the fact that negative people are incapable of thinking ahead and producing visionary ideas, and its the latter where successful people make it.

There is not one negatively minded individual I have heard of at the top of their profession or chosen way of life - hard nosed - for sure - negative - no, the latter is the easy route pandying to personal ego. Its a road to isolation and being ignored. Being ignored does not get anywhere near to being able to influence and change events or practices, not even past first base, let alone a home run.

The optimist will always look forward, strive for change to improve things, use bad events/disasters as learnings, not as platforms to sound off and defend personal ego.

There's a lesson there all right, but the wrong one. Negativity never solved a damn thing - constructive criticism does and always will. There is a huge difference between the two - and thats always the difference between those who rise to success and those who bump along the mediocre road.

Regards
Zy

Nevermind; My question is answered now that I see the change log but I can't edit my post

Edit: Actually that's REALLY weird, I can edit this post but not my other one.

Thank you for your hard work, patch makers!

The stagnation brought about by a sudden ramping up of research costs isn't necessarily a bad thing (though I might want a wee bit more warning that it's going to happen) because it can make it attractive to work with what you have now rather than wait a dozen turns for the next cool thing that your research boys are going to come up with, which inevitably results in another redesign.

However to be honest I would be hoping for a few more unlockable things from new technologies, because as things stand you do already unlock things with a new series of technologies that are a bit lacklustre compared to what you have researched so far. For example Shields are cost-effective defence components, and they are immediately followed by Barriers which are aren't so cost-effective but can be crammed into a smaller amount of space. But then right after them you have Forcefields which are pretty cost-effective and quite effective with the space available. Now, before research costs increase it isn't such a problem to zoom through Barriers to get to Forcefields. Afterwards, you'd be sitting through three techs reading a magazine and occasionally asking the scientists 'Are we there yet?'

To re-iterate: After research costs increase, there should be a greater variety of applications of that research when it is completed.

Woa, just seen your post BoogieBac got wrapped up typing/posting my last - many thanks, giving it a go right now :CONGRAT:

Regards
Zy

Yay for happiness and sunshine!

Thanks for the "Alpha" file!

Thank you very much! I would also just like to say that while no company has perfect customer support, I continue to feel that no one tries harder than Stardock. Tech inflation has broken the game for me, but I haven't even posted on it because I had nothing new to add and had complete confidence Stardock would address it in a timely manner. This is slightly later than I'd hoped, but still much faster than most games are patched. Please know that many of your customers appreciate your efforts.

Aha more Candy :LOL:

Thanks

Nasty

The problem is that, upon looking back, there has ALWAYS been a cost penalty associated with techs (or at least in the Dark Avatar Gold build...I didn't recurse past that). The difference seems to be in a gradiation that, in my eyes, shouldn't be killing the AI or makings late Techs impossible to complete.

We need to figure out if this is the code that is breaking it, or if somewhere else the research cost is being altered.

Does anyone have an old saved game they can send that will reproduce this bug? I'd like to step through in the debugger and see what kind of weird numbers are being brewed  :NOTSURE: 

Sadly, it was also a small, but vocal, group of players that wanted this in place to start...

Yup, taking the quiz...

30th Apr - Week 0
7th May - Week 1
14th May - Week 2
21st May - Week 3
28th May - Week 4
4th June - Week 5

8th June: Reply 7#
" ... 7 week to late ..."

Nope, only count five weeks and four days on that sucker!

11th June - Week 6
18th June - Week 7

no, no ... wait'a'sec ...

13th June / Alpha released

Close enough ...

5 days to go until patch released ... no, wait .... does an Alpha count?

Nah, think I failed this exam!

*goes back to retail therapy ... with the blinkers off*

Old as in how old?

I've got a couple of games that I was just playing (latest ToA version, before this patch).

They're both seven years into the game, and comparing the starting and current price of Planetary Invasion, one game has seen tech prices increase to 684%, and in the other, to a holly-jolly 927%!

Be happy to send them to you, if that's what you're after.