GalCiv Expansion Pack Preview Thread

from Stardock Forums

The free expansion pack is coming along pretty well. I thought I'd give you a head's up on some of the stuff that's already working internally:

1) Rally points. These rally points are like nothing you've seen before. They're quite powerful. Includes a way for managing them, hot keys to quickly send ships to them, and can be clicked on and managed like a quasi fleet. It's very cool.

2) Hyperlinks. If you right click on various things, it'll take you to more pertinent information. Example, in the trade screen, right click on a ship and it will bring up a new screen showing where that sihp is located as well as if it's in a fleet.

3) The Tech navigator will let you go through the technology tree and see what does what.

4) A bunch of new anomalies that visually look quite stunning.

5) The star graphics have been all replaced with ones that are bigger and nicer looking.

6) You can lock the sliders in the domestic policy screen.

That's just off the top of my head here at 1am on a Friday night/Sat morning. The team has put in a bunch of other stuff that I know I'm forgetting. But in a couple weeks when the beta shows up on Drengin.net, you'll be surprised at just how many new screens and such there are.

So that we're clear on the schedule:

June: The beta of it will show up on Drengin.net. Drengin.net is our full gaming network that includes The Corporate Machine, LightWeight Ninja, Stellar Frontier and of course GalCiv. The Political Machine should show up relatively soon on it as well. You can upgrade to Drengin.net for $30.

Late Summer: Finished and released. The released version will be available for free to all registered GalCiv players.

The above things I mention (feature wise) are the things that we have done already. Between now and the end of summer a lot of other goodies will show up. I know I have a bunch of events and AI updates I plan to work on when I get ready and the team has other stuff in mind as well.

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Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
I hope those hinted at "linked events" make it in as well. ;)

Just kidding, you guys (and gals) do great work. I'm really looking forward to the expansion pack.

*shameless plug* Hey, you should use my Writer when whipping up your events... :)
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
Sounds great, thx!!
Groupy 2 - Organize multiple applications into grouped tabs on your Windows desktop
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
Thank you. :CONGRAT: :CONGRAT: :CONGRAT: :CONGRAT: :CONGRAT: :CONGRAT: :CONGRAT: :CONGRAT: :CONGRAT: :CONGRAT: :HOT:
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
hmmm.. I need Drengin.net

Sure you don't want to release just one beta to the GalCiv public? :)

~SDC~
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
Excellent Brad! Hey, and for you people not on Dregin.net, consider the $30 upgrade a purchase of the expansion pack. It sounds like it will be worth that. And I must say that Stellar Frontier is a good game to play too.


~SDC~
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
Any chance we'll get some way to tell how overpopulated a planet is? I still have a hard time figuring this out.. :(:(:(


~SDC~
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
Beautiful! Rally points will make the late game much easier! Kudos to you guys for providing such awesome support.
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
Brad, you mentioned new AI levels in the expansion in a different thread. Any chance of another galaxy size between small and medium?
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
I'm with Bearcave there....
Otherwise, great work guys!!! (I keep saying and saying that! LOL)

~SDC~
Reply #11 from Stardock Forums Top
Oh you forgot to mention trade embargos. Boogie said
they were going to be in the expansion i believe.

-Douglas :)

Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top
Good Evening,

In the expansion pack, any chance we will be able to see trade route lines on the big map? I know I can see the routes from the government policy screen, but star base placement using the smaller map is tedious at best when playing in a huge galaxy.
Keep up the great work. You're making me so eager for more so quickly, I'll have no choice but to sign up for Drengin.net.

Cheers,

Henry
Reply #13 from Stardock Forums Top
Bill Petro asks:

>Any chance we'll get some way to tell how overpopulated a planet is?

This can be done in the current version. Go to the planets list (F2), and sort by Morale. The planets with morale of 53 or lower are overpopulated. You can then build the morale-enhancers, or use transports to move the population elsewhere.
Reply #15 from Stardock Forums Top
Figured it out. In case anyone else wants to know, hit the purchase link on the left hand side, and there is a link from there.
Reply #16 from Stardock Forums Top
Or, along with Bearcave's request, another size between Medium (64 sectors) and Large (144 sectors -- more than twice as big!). A 10x10 galaxy size would be great for those of us looking for something a bit larger than medium but without the time to play a Large galaxy.

Thanks
Reply #17 from Stardock Forums Top
Yeah, the jump between small and medium is similar in terms of percentages (64 sectors versus 25). I don't know whether this is a really simple thing to add in or whether there is some AI tweaking that gets done for each size galaxy.
Reply #19 from Stardock Forums Top
Autoexplore for scouts
End of quote

Ditto.
Also, how about a way to tell if one of you other worlds is building a trade good/galactic wonder?

Reply #21 from Stardock Forums Top
How are the linked events going to work btw?

is it a tree of events like - = 3 etc?

how many different base events that start the tree
will there be and will they be random?

:)

Doug
Reply #22 from Stardock Forums Top
Maybe those linked events work like the draginol event that is already in the game.

First you get a warning, then they appear...
Reply #23 from Stardock Forums Top
Yeah, I'm really looking forward to those linked events! :D
Reply #24 from Stardock Forums Top
Oooh... not to be a wet blanket, but in my view:

New linked events that are exposed via text files to the modders, so we can make more ourselves = EXCELLENT.

New linked events that, like the current Draginol event, are hardcoded into the .exe meaning we can't modify/make more ourselves = NICE TO HAVE, BUT IN GENERAL PRETTY DISAPPOINTING.

~SDC~
Reply #25 from Stardock Forums Top
Could you add some way to see what stat modifiers are being used for your civ (Galactic Wonders, Trade Goods, Discoveries). It would also be nice to right click a trade item in the Negotiation screen and see a summary of what it does or what it modifies or allows to be researched. Also it would be really nice to know how much each civ is trading with you per turn. (Not just a lump sum figure under the Domestic policy screen.) Knowing what percentage of their trade is with you doesn't help much. Could make a difference in deciding to attack them or not ;) . I would also like a multi-hued genetically modified flying miniture pony as well.