Galactic Civilizations II v1.4 Change Log

Coming soon...

Published on October 19, 2006 By Brad Wardell In GalCiv Journals

Still testing but here are the changes:

+ Initial Colony buildings have less maintainence.

+ New colonies start out with a population cap of 6 instead of 5.

+ Farms provide less food.

+ Morale buildings have been increased in benefit but techs to get to them cost substantially more.

+ Stock market no longer gives morale bonus (wasn't supposed to in the first place)

+ Updated beam weapon model along with large hull models

+ Updated some of the planetary improvement icons to be prettier

+ Updated Achille's heel, Apocalypse, and Pathfinder missions in the campaign based on player feedback.

+ Tweaks to make money not too hard to get early on but not as easy to get ridiculous levels of money later on (though expert players will still be able to do this).

+ fixed bug where ships on auto-attack would try to attack ships they weren't at war with if the ship was in the way

+ fixed bug with auto attack where it was using the wrong function to check to see if a ship was hidden by the FOW.

+ fixed cheat key to force an AI player to surrender

+ added in code so that when using the CTRL+Z cheat to run the game in AI test mode, it will make the AI take over for the human player

+ fixed bug where ships that were being upgraded but were not selected tried to update the ShipContextWnd, resulting in a crash if the last ship to be selected was deleted

+ fixed a bug where a ship (under certain conditions) could fail to start moving even if it had a path calculated to its destination

+ added additional debug info for missing string in tradewnd, took precautions to avoid a crash

+ Tweaks to the AI code that handles planetary improvement so that they don't do stupid stuff by mistake

+ Fixed integer divide by zero crash

+ Fixed bug where if you upgrade a constructor and build a starbase while it is upgrading, the starbase will change into a ship when the upgrade is complete

+ If RAW file fails to load, a height field is generated randomly

+ Fixed crash in Quick Project Window

+ fixed a bug that could occur if you loaded a campaign save game and tried to continue after finishing that mission, instead of using the campaign screen.

New:
+ added option to save ship design to disk. If turned off, the ship design will not be saved to disk and will not show up the next time you start GalCiv2. Ship designs will still remain in memory until the data is reloaded (from a save game, from starting a metaverse game after having played a normal game, etc).

Comments (Page 6)

MarshallONeil

on Oct 24, 2006

Dang it. When my web browser crashed, I didn't think it had actually posted. Sorry, folks.

kryo

on Oct 24, 2006

[removed multiposts]

As I've noted on a couple of other threads, there is an Alternate Metaverse project up at the Galactic Core. If for whatever reason you don't like the changes Brad's made to balance the game, you should know that the AltMeta does not see 'cheat flags'. So if you mod your MetaverseData folder back to its 1.2 state, your scores will still count in the rankings there (though they WILL be cheat flagged here, but if you were planning to quit over it otherwise, why should that matter?).

MarshallONeil

on Oct 24, 2006

Yay mods, thank you for deleting my duplicates; the last thing I ever wanted to do was start another rant...

To better state what I was originally trying to say:

Every game forum out there is home to a contingent of malcontents. Every time something changes in the game, that contingent goes ape**** and flings poo all over the forum. Then after a couple of weeks they learn to adapt to the changes like everyone else and they go back to normal.

Our contingent all seem to be Metaverse players, unfortunately. If there were no Metaverse, those same people would be just as vocal; instead of saying "I can't mod because I play Metaverse", they would say "I don't think a game should have to be modded to work the way I want it to". Just take a look at the Total War forums some time. Our complainers are rank amateurs by comparison.

Thanks to Kryo's alternate Metaverse view, we can see that there are lots of players who like the Metaverse and use it regularly, and also what a small fraction of those players come to the forums to protest every change in the game. I think the long-term players are sophisticated enough to just roll their eyes and ignore the rants.

I wouldn't mind seeing a new poll on the Metaverse; it would be interesting to see what percieved benefits (or not) the Metaverse has for the GCII community as a whole.

Mr Dean

on Oct 24, 2006

Stardock is NOT losing its fan base. I am so impressed with Stardock and their ability to provide update patches. It's a sign of a truly good company. The final product will be an amazingly fun game.

It kind of reminds me of Battlefield 1942. It took 7 or 8 patches and 2 years before they finally got it right, but if you look today (6 years later), there are always 700 to 3000 players online still playing BF1942.

Update Patches are a good thing.

stealth15psi

on Oct 25, 2006

I really hope you guys aren't going to give up on metaverse. It was one of the things that keeps me coming back to play...a way to chart my progress as a player both individually and in the community. Without it, it's possible a lot of players would have just grabbed the game from the most active torrent, played it a couple of times, and moved on. Metaverse gives people a reason to keep playing, a goal to achieve beyond beating it once or twice.

SrGalen

on Oct 25, 2006

Even though I haven't posted up on the Metaverse, having it there so that AI improvements are identified and gross exploits get plugged is a benefit to all players. It's even worth wading through the whines, but then, I'm not the one they're directed towards....

And yes - If you are going to have an arena for scores comparisons, the playing field has to be level - and whoever owns it gets to run the grader and check it out with the transit.

Frogboy

on Oct 25, 2006

Even though I haven't posted up on the Metaverse, having it there so that AI improvements are identified and gross exploits get plugged is a benefit to all players.

That's a very good argument. I hadn't thought of it like that previously.

TBS Gamer 01

on Oct 25, 2006

OK. So I don't post alot. However, I read these forums religiously. I guess I am a bit stunned at the incredible over reaction a few folks are having to ongoing game modifications, which are optional to download, easily editable, no longer limiting to a mystic metaverse score that confirms your worthiness to humanity, and were a clearly stated objective of the developer from the beginning.

Stardock has done nothing but work to improve the game and continue to keep the games elements flexible and challenging, while eliminating all sorts of nagging bugs, most of which I've never encountered personally. Call me a fanboy or a flying turtle. Whatever. But maybe it would be good to appreciate the sincere efforts of a company which has continued to try to improve a product that has been out for a LONG time now.

I'd say they have a pretty good track record for understanding game balance. It seems a little premature to complain about a new build before even playing it a few times though. If the game seems new every few times I get through a game, then all the better, imo.

stealth15psi

on Oct 26, 2006

I just finished a gigantic 9ai masochistic with 1.4, and I now know my fears about this patch were unfounded. I finished 6 or 8 months earlier than I usually do, and scored my personal best game. Unfortunately, masochstic now seems much easier than it did before due to our ability to colonize faster and maintain the colony rush economy longer. I was forced to micromanage my planets a LOT more in the mid game, nearly wearing my mouse out with clicks, lol. You won't be seeing very many >100k bc turns anymore without the increased economy event, but the money you do make seems to go a lot further than it did before. Thanks Stardock for a great update, the naysayers will come around just like I did once they play it.

Only one teeny tiny complaint...when an ai surrenders now, I don't get the dialogue telling you who they are surrendering to...only a footnote in your GNN at the beginning of the next turn. If you aren't paying attention, it's real easy to miss the fact that Civ X's planets are now under Civ Y's control.

Coplann

on Oct 27, 2006

nice, gonna try this out this evening

Jeff Graw

on Dec 08, 2006

Hi people, sorry for bringing back such an old thread from the dead, but as a new metaverse player I really want to put in a few words on this subject.

It seems to me like some of the metaverse players are being way whiny -- it's change after all that refreshes the game play experience and keeps the game from becoming stale -- and Brad is probably over-reacting as well; Galciv 2 is Stardock's biggest hit yet, and Brad is probably still adjusting his role as a famous game developer.

While the prospect of not having a metaverse in future titles is fairly upsetting, I think we need to realize that its going to be awhile before Galciv 3 comes out. Brad has ample time to rethink his decision, and as metaverse players, the best thing we can do is *not* to whine and complain the next time a patch comes out. I think Brad would agree that if we can change our behavior that he would consider taking back his decision. It seems to me that the ball is in our court; so do we want metaverse or not?

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