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I wanted somethign different for my 15000th post. And i'd been planning this anyway, though I was going to post on my blog. But since I don't like blogs and because this is a pretty cool number that don't afraid of anyone, I think I'll post it here instead.

So let's get right to it-- my review slash let's play of Galactic Civilizations 2! Screenshots will be included as thumbnails which you can click for the full image, like so:


Nice spiffy space station thre I must admit, with lots of weird rings spinning around at odd angles. And the music is nice, even the operatic bits (which I normally don't like), singing in ... fethed if I know what language that is. Regardless, let's move on and start a new game!



I'm going with a much smaller map than I normally do (which is to say, I normally do "immense"), but I'm also pumping the map's attributes up so most of them are abundant or frequent, with the max number of allowed minor races. I'm not sure what I'll set my number of major races as!

Now comes to the first real major decision, which I'd like some input in-- I'm starting as a custom race. I think I'm gonna toss a Wood Elf ersatz in just for gaks (and the occasional giggle).



A bit of explanation is at hand here for those that have not played this game, especially those whom have not played any Civilizations game.



So, input on the race idea anyone? I will edit all future posts in to this first post so people have an easier time reading.

Post 2: Starting area!


Part 3: Two years in, situational awareness!


Part 4: The joys of a galactic clusterfrak!

This will be epic...
Not a fan of wood elves but hey different strokes for different folks and all.

I could have made Orks, but to be honest I don't think I'm very good at playing the galactic aggressor.

Fair point i get what you mean.
I like a bit of both myself.

First off, my starter flagship given to me for the sake of surveying the surrounding terrain. It is very wood-elfy I think, witha sci-fi twist.


And I start off with three visible habitable planets aside from my homeworld right from the start:



There's an ice planet to the left, a barren planet practically a stone's throw away from my homeworld, and a terran planet upwards from my homeworld. There's also an uninhabitable (for now), toxic planet and a set of gas giants of various sizes, as well as a nicely sized asteroid field.

Win!


Medium is MUCh smaller than I'm used to:



My sector's in the bottom corner, and medium apparently is 5x5 sectors, so this will likely go a little bit faster than normal (which is good for a let's play). I've colonized the barren planet (which was a class 8 compared to the class 4 ice and terran planets. A planet's class indicates how many free squares there are to build improvements, so the barren planet is better as the first settlement. But I'm also quickly tring to settle the other two as well, buying colony ships outright for the purpose.

For research, I'm getting ethics first ("xeno mysticism" its precurser increases luck further anyway), then researching the MIssile weapon tree, by then hopefully I'll have figured out what my opponents have so I can figure out what defenses to research.


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Gonna go a bit slower from now on, cause this is a long game and not everything is exciting to talk about.


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So I've been boxed in in this corner, with a mere five planets of my own.



Two years have passed in game, and I'm near the top miliarily despite my small size. Noone DARES to touch my territory, they'd have to go through two good aligned nations to do it and I'm friends with them (economic and research reaties, and have sent freighters to them to establish trade routes).

Unfortunately, it seems like the Drengin are bullying around the nearby Arcaeans and some minor races. Thankfully, they're on the opposite side of the map as I am, so I'm hoping I'll be able to use my freighters to strengthen the intermediary nations who aren't likely to war with me (theyr'e likely to go for an alliance victory after all).


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The Drengin ar enow asking me for my capital.

I will bury them.


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In a single move, a single victorious move, I just caused everyone in the galaxy to go to war against the biggest empire in the galaxy.

Whatever he result, this will be epic. This is just a primer, not a full post-- I'm leaving it here to remind me to post the full story when I'm done with this.

Well played...
Very cunning of you...

OKAY! A summary.

First, the Drengins attacked the Iconians, whom were the largest (but not the strongest) of the empires. The Iconians allied with the Torians to try to survive this, as they were spread too thin to defend their planets. The Torians, meanwhile, were looking to attack the Thalans, and convinced the Terran Alliance to attack them in unison. Pretty soon, the Torians convinced the Korx and the Arcaeans to do the same thing, whiel the Krynn in an unrelated move attacked the Drath. The Iconians were purchased to also attack the Drath, and further expanded their territory this way, while the Torians became one of the most powerful nations through their attack on several minor nations and the Thalans.

Getting complicated yet?

The Korx were of course bought off to attack the Drath as well, while the Arcaean Empire had war going on and off with the Thalans. The Iconians eventually decided they needed MORE territory and declared war on the Krynn, while the Thalans pre-emptively struck at the Korx in revenge for their earlier transgressions. The Torians then joined the Iconians in attacking the Krynn.

Then something weird happened. Apparently one of my scientists came across a precursor artifact which activated a peacekeeper fleet, which attacked any armed vessels that were not my own. This fleet wasn't very powerful but they were numerous and appeared suddenly. Eventually this caused all but the most powerful nations to ally with me (which caused the peacekeepers to attack them less) and I managed to get most of these wars stopped through the united nations ersatz. Everyone except the Drengin, the Iconians, and the Torians were soon my allies and had declared peace treaties with eachother as well. The Torians and Iconians were allied with eachother.


And then this happened:



The reason for my declaring war was a random event that gave the Torians a special artifact that caused them to gain in power the longer they survived. This meant that, if left alone, they would eventually win almost by default..

This could not be allowed to happen.

I quickly bartered for planetary invasion technology (no, I hadn't yet developed troop transports, after all, I was isolationist and playing the part the best I could focusing on economic and research developmen and keeping everyone else off my back), and invaded Toria. My allies meanwhile were fighting against the Iconians and battering them pretty heavily, but the thalans gave up and gave their planets to me, as did some minor nations, further extending my realm of influence.

I gave half of the remaining Thalan planets to Korx and the Terrans in exchange for technology in trees I had not been researching (namely, defense technologies for weapons the Iconians and Torians were using), and because I did not want to deal with such distant, rebellious planets. I was repulsed the first two times from Toria, because Torians have the special ability Super Breeder and bonuses to population growth, and thus they're able to quickly replace any lost population (Despite the fact that my invasions were killing off tens of billions at a time). But eventually superior technology and soldiering won out, and I took Toria after developing mass driver technology (IE orbital bombardment), and quickly cut a swath through the Torian empire.

The Drengin were being pounded by the Iconians and surrendered to the Krynn to try to provide a better front against them. The Arcaeans had a mere two planets left, and surrendered to me so that I could take command of their defenses with my superior technology. Eventually, I had dominated the Torians,and the Torians surrendered to the Terrans out of spite. Shortly afterwards, a diplomatic incident caused the Terrans to declare war on me, and plunged the galaxy in to war again. I won, and they sued for peace, and everyone began to focus their efforts on the Iconians, whom were being demolished and also sued for peace.

And that leaves us with our current clusterfrak:



I tried to draw the influence borders the best I could, some of it's conjecture though as these things change so damned often in these games. Influence != territory, however, though it DOES reduce the population of a government and make the planet more likely to rebel and accept the dominion of the one that is influencing it. So the Iconians and Krynn have both split eachother in to two parts, essentially, while the Terrans have taken to dominating the top and I've dominated the bottom, and the poor Krynn are hanging on for dear sovereignity.

Is this game turn based?

That was awesome...
It's like galactic WWIII...

purplefood wrote:It's like galactic WWIII...

Wouldn't that make it GWIII?

Who won GWI and GWII btw?

LordofHats wrote:

purplefood wrote:It's like galactic WWIII...

Wouldn't that make it GWIII?

Who won GWI and GWII btw?

I suppose it would...
Dunno but i'm betting they didn't speak German

LordofHats wrote:Is this game turn based?

Have you ever played the Civilizations series?

It's like that.

But in space. You also get to design your own ships, usually based off of one of the twelve styles but you can use almost any part, with only parts that actually do something costing you anything.

I want this game now...

Also the AI in this agme is far superior to Civilizations and the game is actually a bit easier to learn.

Each race has its own distinct personality-- apart from good/neutral/evil, there's the manipulators, the warriors, the economists, the diplomats, the isolationists, etc. The drengin do everything they can to get a conquest victory for example, even if it means that they avoid getting earlier non-conquest victories. The Terrans prefer a diplomatic victory, to contrast. The Drengin super ability allows them to gain lots of extra early firepower from declaring war on enemies, while the Terrans can meet with opposing nations' diplomats twice as often, allowing them to curry favor faster.

And each race is unique like this.


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Also, one of my allies was getting close to a tech victory so I had to beat them to it. The Wood Elf scientists have now bridged the gap between mortal and gods, and we have ascended to a higher plane of existence..

It got pretty close, we were both on the same tech and I probably beat them by a few weeks...

This thread is a cool idea. Have you thought of doing Let's Play vids on YT?

So essentially Mel, would you say this is a graphically better Master of Orion?

Man, it's been too long since I've played Master of Orion... I only barely remember it. I couldn't say.


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Manchu wrote:This thread is a cool idea. Have you thought of doing Let's Play vids on YT?

I have, but I don't want to use a mic (for various reasons, such as not wanting to bother the other housemates, and because I like to game quietly) so it'd probably be a bit boring. It kinda just doesn't suit me :/ I could use a schtick like say "The Silent Gamer" and use old timey subtitles at the bottom, which would be lulzy. But honestly it's more fun to listen to people talk in a let's play.




edit: as an aside, What game should I review in this manner next? I still need to update the first post with the finish, of course... I could try to make play that game but only have conquest enabled, no tech, aliance, or influence victory...

I'd like to see your blow by blow on something with a story. Dragon Age Origins?

Melissia wrote:I have, but I don't want to use a mic (for various reasons, such as not wanting to bother the other housemates, and because I like to game quietly) so it'd probably be a bit boring. It kinda just doesn't suit me :/ I could use a schtick like say "The Silent Gamer" and use old timey subtitles at the bottom, which would be lulzy. But honestly it's more fun to listen to people talk in a let's play.

Let's Plays, even basic ones with minimal editing and live audio, are pretty time consuming as well, which is something to consider.

Probably will end up getting this, as I do like my 4X's

Manchu wrote:I'd like to see your blow by blow on something with a story. Dragon Age Origins?

Hm.

Skyrim?

I've kinda already DA:O to death so I don't look forward to getting in to it, but I can easily do a blow-by-blow Skyrim commentary, loading up Dakka in the Steam UI to type as I play.

Hmm I could never get into GC2. The interface hated me.

Melissia wrote:[Skyrim?

TBH, I'm kinda Skyrim'd out myself. Did you ever pick up DA2?

Sadly, not yet.

I could do Cave Story+ or another indy game?

I like everything about Gal Civ 2, but the combat kills me, as its only a bit better than in Civ 1.

Dark Scipio wrote:I like everything about Gal Civ 2, but the combat kills me, as its only a bit better than in Civ 1.

Yeah, it'd be better if the camera didn't suck.

Hmm this looks interesting.
Would it be possible to play as a necron like race?

Also, is it compatible with win7?

CthuluIsSpy wrote:Hmm this looks interesting.
Would it be possible to play as a necron like race?

Also, is it compatible with win7?

1: The Yor are of the "machine race that rebelled against its masters" concept. There's also the custom-created races.

2: Dunno, probably. There's some minor problems involving resolutions that are set higher than you can possibly show, but those are easily worked around.

Ok cool. Another question : Are there land battles, or is it strictly space based?

CthuluIsSpy wrote:Ok cool. Another question : Are there land battles, or is it strictly space based?

There ARE land battles, but they are not in depth.

Land battles are determined by three things-- the soldier rating of each side (giving an advantage rating to the soldiers of each side), the number of soldiers (every citizen on a planet is a soldier for defense), and the strategy used by the attacker (information for example converts enemy soldiers to your side, while mass drivers utilizes orbital bombardment).

It's not exciting to watch though, I admit. The combat in this game is very similar to the Civilizations series for the most part.