Pre-review ... devs care to attack this?

[graphitepaddle]

Having played < 60 hours in 2 games (including the tutorial), it's probably that my understanding of the game is incomplete. Feel free to correct any remarks, vs. having to reply after the review is written & perspective purchasers have read it.

Pros

• Extremely addicting. Can put up a lot of resistance to starting or resuming a game, but once I'm playing, cannot stop. (Just one more turn.) Haven't gotten this sucked in since Stars! & Empire Deluxe.
  
• Stellar graphics. Have the settings max'ed out, and it's probably the best looking game on my computer.
  
• DW2 killer. After playing GalCiv4, I've totally lost interest, and won't even consider playing Distant Worlds 2; the game play in the later is nowhere near as much fun.
  
• Research tree, is very deep. Even after playing over 200 turns in one game, never even saw battle cruisers. The 50% is a good idea, because it presents with more interesting choices. Frequently, the player is presented with multiple options of what to research next. (You mean I cannot research them all, now? Can only pick one?)
  
• So many included races to play, all with different attributes. Only played the 2 humans, and had to adjust my play style between them. Then add what can be done with custom races.
  
• Complex game play, but approachable. Read a comment back in September 2023 about it requiring a long-term commitment to wrap your head around it; scarred me away from purchasing it for 4 months. IT'S NOT THAT BAD. Tutorial helps, but expect lots of trial-and-error, as well as having to post questions to this forum. (After playing 2 games, I didn't understand trade routes or tourism.)
  
• Both the developers & existing player base are extremely helpful. Having difficulty with some game play concept? Post your question.
  
• Breaking the map up into sectors. Having one big blob of a galactic map is realistic, but daunting.

Cons

1. One tax rate for the entire empire, not a planet-by-planet basis, like DW2. My #1 gripe in the game play. Have a core world with only 47% approval rating? Would love to lower their tax rate only, leave everyone else's where it is.
   
2. Research Tree: Good, but could be better. Game has only 4 major branches, and the display of the tree doesn't show any cross linking. (Descriptions in DW2 are lacking, but it got this part right.
   
3. Some areas where the player is given choices, more info should be provided to help the player make a decision. (Sorry devs, don't have examples.)
   
4. Mangled text in a few locations. Only reported one instance that I saw. (My bad.) But the good news is that the development team is cleaning those up.
   
5. Tutorial: Missing planet hex types (e.g. Financial, Manufacturing, Housing, etc., etc.), planet hex type leveling up, and Trade Routes. Tutorial shouldn't overwhelm the new player, but at the same time, it should provide the basics to play the game; first 2 are very important mechanics, and I didn't learn about the 2nd one until late in the second game.

[RealMutter]

I'm glad you're enjoying GalCiv4 and thank you for the feedback, it's always helpful to know what players think and what issues they're having. Our team is working hard to continually improve the game and this kind of feedback helps us a great deal.

[SLG]

2. There are 3 different views of the tech tree.

[StarFishon]

Yep galciv4 is amazing game.

We can see a lot of thinking done here.

I have big expactations for the next expansion(got season pass)

Beside lots of improvements, they first time in the series did interesting funcational ship design(beside cosmetics) hope to see more interesting choices..

On all of that.. gc4 have beautiful graphics, great ship designs.

[graphitepaddle]

Originalmente postado por Gray:

2. There are 3 different views of the tech tree.

I did notice that. But I still like DW2's layout better. That said, the 50% bonus really adds to the game play, and it's just a matter of time before other game developers catch on & add that feature.

StarFishon, you jogged my memory about ship design:

• DW2 vs. GalCiv4: Having component placement location matter was a mistake by the former. While realistic, it made ship more complex than it needed to be, and it deterred the causal ship designer.
  
• Making visual ship design, optional, was a good design choice. Personally, there are plenty of other aspects of the game that I would rather focus on. But someone wants a ship to look like the USS Enterprise or a Drazi Sun Hawk, knock yourself out.
  
• Even after all of these years, Stars! still has the best ship designer: Drag & drop, like GalCiv4 & others, but each ship hull had designated component slots. Example: Some slots could only be used for shields & armor, others for propulsion, etc. etc. Frigates had the most general purpose slots. And one race had hulls with dedicated slots for mine-laying components.
  
• Bottom LineShip designer was a must-have feature for the game, but the developers focused more on form than function.

Ship Repair: Good, ships don't have to return to a shipyard. Bad, need an option to return to a shipyard for faster repairs, at the cost of move time & postponing building new ships at said shipyard.

[DrPhiloponus]

I like both GalCiv 4 and DW 2 and I appreciate that they are so different.

[graphitepaddle]

Originalmente postado por DrPhiloponus:

I like both GalCiv 4 and DW 2 and I appreciate that they are so different.

Fair enough. Have 13 games now, and they scratch different gaming itches. Great that DW2 gives you something that GalCiv4.

If you haven't done so already, consider comparing the 2 games in your GalCiv4 review. It's the sort of thing that perspective buyers find useful.

[DrPhiloponus]

Originalmente postado por graphitepaddle:

Originalmente postado por DrPhiloponus:

I like both GalCiv 4 and DW 2 and I appreciate that they are so different.

Fair enough. Have 13 games now, and they scratch different gaming itches. Great that DW2 gives you something that GalCiv4.

If you haven't done so already, consider comparing the 2 games in your GalCiv4 review. It's the sort of thing that perspective buyers find useful.

Good idea. I review it after I reach 100 hours.

[Frogboy]

You can change the jobs of your citizens on a per world basis.

[graphitepaddle]

Originalmente postado por Frogboy:

You can change the jobs of your citizens on a per world basis.

Thanks for reminding me, because I keep forgetting that you can do that.