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Draginol
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I get quite a bit of email on this topic so here's a post to help answer the question on it.
Galactic Civilizations has 6 MAJOR civilizations. But the game supports up to 36 total civilizations.
Each civilization gets its own AI personality (though minor races share the same one). In short, the other civilizations are just as interactive as the others.
Here are a couple examples of how these other civilizations can play in.
In most games, other civilizations won't really show up. It's largely random. But not completely (and some of them are not randomly generated at all but are based on specific chains of events):
Scenario 1: Imperial overstretch. A powerful civilization gets over extended, falls into debt. People get unhappy. The empire can be split into two at that point.
Example A: In tonight's game the Drengin Empire was conquering the galaxy when a recession hit. I used that moment to destroy his main economic star base which drove him into debt. Combined with some destabilization, his people rebelled and the Drengin Empire split into two new civilizations: The Drengin Imperium and the Drengin Peace Federation (each with their own ships incidentally).
I spent a lot of effort and money supporting and trading with the Drengin Peace Federation (for obvious reasons) but eventually the Drengin Empire won the civil war and was able to conquer the rest of us in turn (I was allied with the Altarians, Arceans, and Torians but the Drengin and the Yor allied together and wore us down).
Example B: Several civilizations were simply having problems keeping their people happy. A new civilization was created called the "Independent League of Non-Aligned Worlds". Every so oftne, another world left (iincluding a few of mine) to join up with them based on how unhappy they were. They became pretty powerful and the galactic map became pretty odd looking (their sector ownership is orange which I'd never actually seen before since no one else has that color). The Indie League is actually classified as an Associate power (not a major race but not a minor one either).
Scenario 2: This is where a series of events leads to the creation of a scary civilization. There's a TON of back story in GalCiv that gets leaked out during these things.
Example A: You get a message that a new interstellar civilization has been found called the Calorians. No biggie. Awhile later there are rumors that the Calorians are really terrorists. If the Calorians aren't destroyed, a few turns later terrorist actions begin to crop up on planets until they're destroyed.
Example B: A religious sect is bent on freeing the "Dread Lords". You get a message about this but don't know in which civilization they're hiding in. If you spend enough money on espionage, you can find out and thwart them. If you don't, eventually they will successfully free the Dread Lords who will gain a planet and each turn become increasingly poewrful along with their massive fleet that they get (again, each race has their own unique star ships). This one is particularly nasty and it only comes up very VERY rarely because it is so nasty. You may never actually see this one.
Scenario 3: Crusades. This is where some cultural crusade occurs. Too much "evil" or "good" in the galaxy those who disagree may take things into their own hands. It happens much more often to evil civilizations than to good ones. But is very rare.
Scenario 4: Minor races show up. Thare are almost always a few minor races in a given galaxy. But others will occasionally pop up and can be great sources for trade and diplomacy. It's very interesting because AI players may become quite economically dependent on some minor races and hence before you decide to take out the Jarkians, for instance, you may want to make sure none of the more powerful civlizations are friends with them.
There are a ton of things like this that are simply very very very rare. But there are enough of them that every game or two something interesting will happen. Rarely is it game altering and you usually have control over how it comes about but it serves to remind people that like real life, there are events that are quite unexpected.
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Draginol
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There are probably near a hundred random events. But they are all quite rare.
We tried to make them so that they make the game more enjoyable. So most of them are things that benefit the human player or at the very least affect everyone equally.
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Draginol
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It depends on the event. But for them to even be considered they usually have to go through a random roll of between 1 and 1000.
So most events only have a 1 of 1000 shot per turn of even being considered.
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Bkeela
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Brisbane, Australia
Oct 1999
time: 15:25
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I'm actually quite disappointed we can only play as Humanity.
I've read the sceptical FAQ, and it may seem a better option to concentrate on one rich plot line. But why do we need plot lines? They just get boring in the end, no matter how much they are jumbled and presented anew.
True replay value comes from playing a game from a different perspective.
I have been playing SMAC for the past 5 years almost constantly because each Faction in the game presents such a unique twist upon the game world. I got bored with the Planet plot line after a few games. Thankfully it is broad and fairly subdued.
I can't imagine how tedious a game would become to the imagination with only one civilization to play, and an in your face plot line.
Customization doesn't really do it for me either. There is a lot of role-play value in taking the reigns of an entirely different species.
In all other respects, Galactic Civilizations looks absolutely superb. I especially like the alignment effect.
Bkeela.
Last edited by Bkeela on 07-03-2003 at 16:17
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Draginol
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In other strategy games what exactly does playing as other races mean? You get some different graphics and some pre-set variables.
In GalCiv, you name your civilization, can tweak the heck out of your abilities, choose a political party and then as you play choose a path from good to evil.
So are you essentially saying that the problem is that you wished you could choose which ship sprites you got? As that's about the only thing that playing as a different race would buy you. And in exchange for that, you lose out on all the story content that I think you'll find pretty worthwhile.
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Bkeela
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Brisbane, Australia
Oct 1999
time: 15:25
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Different ship sprites, an already balanced set of pre-set variables, and a different portrait.
I find having such lends more atmosphere and character to the game. And it enhances the role-play value of playing. Some may think finding role-play value in a TBS game absurd. In that case, I would recommend you have a look at SMAC's fiction forum.
Its little things like different ship sprites that make a game fun. Otherwise, why not scrap all graphics, and just have an abstract text format? Don't bother personalising the different races you come across, just have Civilization A, Civilization B, Civilization C, etc.
I just think its only natural that when you have cool alien races in such games, that it would be nice to play as them. Maybe the rich plot line will be superior to having a watered down one and the ability to play various races. I guess I shall have to wait and see.
Last edited by Bkeela on 08-03-2003 at 10:57
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Draginol
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GalCiv's not exactly light on the role playing aspects. I mean you can take the path of good or evil after all.
You can name your star systems. You can name your individual ships. You can name yourself, your civilization.
Ultimately, what you are talking are pre-set variables that you're missing out on. I really think you should wait until at least the demo is out before making such a determination.
In GalCiv, I can, for instance, call myself "The Corporate Imperium" and put my ability points into trade, diplomacy and technology.
When you set up your civilization, it's like creating a character.
Yet you find more role playing value in something that hard codes pretty much those variables? Where you can't name your ships or stars?
Sure, you're the humans, but that has to do with the plot oints in the game. You get to decide which path to take the human race.
It would be like saying that Balrur's Gate is limited because you can't play a robot. There's lots of customization in the way you build your civilization at the start along with how you guide humanity through your actions throughout the game. Heck, the actual game graphics change based on whether you go towards good or evil.
I'd argue that GalCiv has more role playing aspects to it than virtually any 4X game ever made.
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08-02-2003 11:33
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