A poll conducted on an online gaming fansite sugested that:
Multiplayer fanboys that did NOT buy the game due to no multiplayer outnumber those fanboys that bought the game by a HUGE margin
More like.
MD |
Which site?
I don't personally wouldn't want to play GC2 as multiplayer. When I want multiple player, I play Halo.
I would however enjoy hotseat. I just wouldn't pay for it.
As for the relevant question of what other features would one want for an expansion:
* Espionage. Do something more with it. Possibly even an espionage victory, with espionage techs.
* Planet Defense and specialized military units: Say, planets can have planetary defense grids capable of killing off whole fleets. But, bring along a special planetary siege ship, and that grid drops. Planets can have shields, which requires a huge fleet to breach, but bring along a shield-cracker, and it goes away. These should be in separate tech trees. Starbases should be able to build similar modules to protect themselves. The goal is to slow down invasions and allow someone to be relatively strong without having to have a large military. The downside is that it takes tiles.
* Influence Defense Starbase Modules: There need to be modules that can protect a planet from influence attacks.
* StarBase Galactic Wonders: A new kind of starbase. Requires building a new base of a new type. If you research down a particular tree long enough, you get a series of modules to build. If you build all of those modules on a WonderBase, it provides a massive (galactic wonder-quality) effect. The benifits are that they don't take tiles. The downside is that they're starbases, so they're vulnerable.. And there should be lots of useless modules to build between the initial base and the actual wonder power (or perhaps a gradual increase in ability). The Wonder Base, if destroyed, can be rebuilt by another side. Eyes of the Universe should definately be one of these; that way, it wouldn't be so incredibly powerful.
* Starbase capture: Resource bases, in particular, should be able to be captured. However, this requires a new tech and a new ship module.
* Starbase Interdictor Ships: A ship module (big) that suppresses the output of non-resource starbases inside a particular radius of effect. It must be stationary for a full turn before it becomes active, and it can't move while active. Using one should be considered an aggressive act, of course.
* Better battle visualization: Play Wild Arms: Alter Code F. It's battle visualization is very dramatic and very effective. Learn from it. It does have discontinuities, but nobody cares; it looks really cool.
* Planetary Siege Missiles: A module built onto a ship that allows it to function as an orbital bombardment missile. When it "invades" a planet, you can select a non-wonder improvement to be destroyed. If you have no espionage, then the missile picks something at random. Should be a very expensive, very large module. It's better than orbital bombardment, because it's something you could see coming (if you're not close to the source), and the missile is expended, so it can't be done forever. Also, siege missiles would be stopped by planetary defenses, as above.
* The "Genesis" Torpedo: A ship module that turns a ship into a "Genesis" weapon. It can turn a Class 0 world into a higher-quality one, depending on your society's "Genesis" rating. The ship, of course, is lost in this act. You should only ever be able to use like 3-5 of them (neutrals get one more) in the entire game, but there should be a new branch or two of the tech tree to support them. They cannot be used on already inhabitted planets. Improving your Genesis rating would improve the quality of all previously Genesis'd planets.
* The Anti-Genesis Torpedo: A ship module that allows you to unGenesis a previously-Genesis'd world. Not unsurprisingly, this is considered a hostile act. Previously Genesis'd worlds need to be indicated as such, with perhaps a fragile ecosystem or something.
* More explicit control over galaxy generation: Perhaps via some kind of Lua scripting interface, were we can specifically determine where stars go, how many planets they have, and which stars are homeworld stars. Failing that, just better control over galaxy size and number of planets and habitable ones. Real numbers, not "phrases" like "abundent". Actual percentages. And being able to select galaxy sizes based on actual numbers of tiles (5x5 is too small, but 8x8 is too large for my tastes. I want to increment by 1).
* Bomb Them Into the Stone Age: An invasion tactic: Your goal is to raze the planet to the ground, killing everyone who isn't on your side. The enemy should get a population bonus, because the non-tax payers are going to come out once they realize that you're trying to kill eveyrone. The result is an uncolonized planet. Perhaps an added version could include a mass-driver one, but it would drop the PQ. The purpose of this idea is to get rid of buildings that you don't want and can't ordinarily remove. |
I completely agree.
Espoinage victory. Seriously, that would be very cool! "...Givin you a number, and takin way your name... Unless you're a Yor, in which case they take away your number and give you a name."
Perhaps if you steal all of your enemies' Terror Star launch codes, you win out of the ability to blackmail the UP with the Interstellar equivalent of thermonuclear annihilation. Unless they give you "One Hundred Mellioon BC."
Or to bribe your way into control of the UP.
Planet Defense: How about a "Satellite" Hull with no move points?
Genesis Device: Interesting
Galaxy Generation: I would like to see some control of player placement. Put all the players in circle facing each other, put everybody in a corner, or just make sure all players get an equal staring position.
Orbital Bombardment: Definitely. If they go after you and you don't have Planetary Invasion yet- put a cruise missile through their window. Or nuke the planet into a lifeless hellscape.
I have zero interest in multiplayer. Take the number of hours required to play a game of GalCiv2. Multiply that by three or more. Then try and coordinate that much time with other people. Um, no.
What I WOULD like to see (very very much and in this order) :
1. A map editor, for those of us who have zero coding ability. A comprehensive editor even, one that allows the non-coding public the ability to edit the tech tree, the races, the planet tile bonuses, the rules of engagement, and all of that.
2. More racial distinction. Race-only techs. Perhaps a race ability that makes uninhabitable planet habitable, but makes habitable planets uninhabitable. You trade racial bonuses for less competition. It could have a 10pt brother that makes all planets on the map habitable. Things that break symmetry. MOO II had dozens of these, that you could look at for ideas. And while I'm on the subject of symmetry breakers, expand the ethical alignment bonuses and maybe add penalties for being good or evil or neutral. I love the ethical alignment thing. It adds a lot to the game.
3. Diversity of Government Types. Let me have Technocracy, with a research bonus. Let me have Fundamentalism, with a military and morale bonus. Let me have Star Fascism, with production bonuses. Let me have a government which bonuses something besides my Economy. Let me have appropriately evil governments, like Fascism.
4. How about certain weapon/defensive systems requiring certain resources before they can be built (somewhat like Civ 3.) You can then trade for these resources or find them...possibly on those useless uninhabitable planets. You could then establish outposts or mining colonies to secure those resources etc. This would provide another level of strategy.
5. More Diplomacy and Espionage. Specific Alliance types (research or economic alliances, for instance), and reasonable trading. When I have a 160% diplomacy advantage, I don't think the AI should demand all 20 techs I have that he doesn't in exchange for Enhanced Logistics. Presently it will on intelligent. Espionage with more options, like sabotage etc. Espionage tech. Espionage victories, even.
6. More jewelry and more portraits. Much more. Jewelry and ship sets for each individual race would be ideal.
7. AI improvements. Anything that makes the AI more "human" would rock. Like... taking advantage of bonus tiles. |
Total agreement here. Except for #4. It made some civilizations entirely to vulnerable in Civ3. It's also another layer of micromanagement.
As for #2. As long as it doesn't totally unbalance in favor of the gasbags ala Moo3. I also don't want to have to terraform conquered worlds to be inhabitable by my citizens.
But more race picks would be excellent. Maybe 1 pick for an extra 1000 BC, miniaturization and logistics definitely, maybe something more intangible or with multiple bonuses like "Psionics" or "Shapeshifting", or more points to buy starting techs.
