Question

[JosEPhII]

Will the Humans have a balanced chance against the other AI on Average difficulty level. Or will they be disadvantaged as Armada2526 has done?

What are the levels of difficulty?

JosEPh [:)]

[elliotg]

ORIGINAL: Jamerson89
What will the technology tree be like?

Tech is focussed around researching new components that you can then use in your ship designs. There are 17 different research areas that you progress your research in to unlock new components. These research areas are categories like various types of weapons, engines, shields, reactors, etc. There are about 200 components spread across these research areas.

[elliotg]

ORIGINAL: JosEPh_II
Will the Humans have a balanced chance against the other AI on Average difficulty level. Or will they be disadvantaged as Armada2526 has done?

Each race has a distinct personality based on attributes like aggressiveness, intelligence, friendliness, caution, etc. Also each race may have various bonuses like producing more income, being better spies, lower maintenance costs, etc. So each race has advantages and disadvantages.

If anything, Humans probably have a slight overall advantage in the game. But each race is different - they have strengths in different areas.

What are the levels of difficulty?

There isn't a single setting for difficulty level. Instead there's a number of different settings that can increase the difficulty.

The screenshot below shows the first step in the Start New Game screen. The important settings for controlling difficulty are the bottom 4: Aggression, Research Speed, number of Space Creatures and number of Pirates.

[Judykator]

ORIGINAL: elliotg
Tech is focussed around researching new components that you can then use in your ship designs. There are 17 different research areas that you progress your research in to unlock new components. These research areas are categories like various types of weapons, engines, shields, reactors, etc. There are about 200 components spread across these research areas.

There are no improvements to the planets? Buildings? Economy?

[Deomrve]

How do you conquer planets? Build troops then drop them on a planet, then have it automatically resolved or will there be some form of planetary tactical combat.

[ASHBERY76]

How smooth deos the game run with 1400 stars when the galaxy is fully colonized? I wonder with all the ships and freighters moving around it might struggle a bit.

[LarryP]

ORIGINAL: Judykator

There are no improvements to the planets? Buildings? Economy?

There is a private sector of civilians that manage trade routes and other items. However, you set up the trade with other civilizations. You just don't micromanage it. Buildings, no, you build from the planet outward. Mining stations, military ships and bases, etc.. Economy is managed through your decisions of spending, taxation (separate for each planet), research, and deals.

Elliot, correct me if I got something wrong here... [8|]

[LarryP]

ORIGINAL: Deomrve

How do you conquer planets? Build troops then drop them on a planet, then have it automatically resolved or will there be some form of planetary tactical combat.

Conquer planets by military force or\and trade deals. There is not any micromanaged warfare other than directing your military ships.

[LarryP]

ORIGINAL: ASHBERY76

How smooth deos the game run with 1400 stars when the galaxy is fully colonized? I wonder with all the ships and freighters moving around it might struggle a bit.

This is a good question that we worked with during development. There is a nebulae density setting that you can turn up or down that greatly affects clipping, depending on your system of course. There is also a frame per second (fps) setting that also governs heat your PC will generate(my laptop for instance), and also clipping. These two items work excellent in controlling how your monitor will display the end result. That along with zoom will allow any machine within reason to work well with great graphics.

Personal note:
I play this game on XP and Vista. XP machine has one 3.6 gig processor, GeForce 8800 GTS video card, 2 gigs of RAM. The Vista is a laptop with a 2.6 gig dual core, ATI Radeon 4400 or 4500 (can't remember now) video card, 4 gigs of RAM. I have to turn down nebulae on both machines below full to avoid some clipping when things get real busy, but the detail is awesome that the game offers. There are storms and lightening in the nebulae, besides a lot of space traffic. This all gets more intense if you are zoomed in all the way and that's another setting that controls how things will work, where you are zoomed to.

EDIT: I almost forgot... the game also has a speed setting that goes up two notches and down two notches from normal. -2 -1 0 +1 +2, 0 being normal speed. This also affects the graphics handling. So there are four items that affect graphics handling:

1) Nebulae density (slider adjustment)
2) FPS
3) Zoom
4) Speed of game (5 settings)

[Judykator]

In total, only war, no economy and the development of civilization [&:]

[ASHBERY76]

ORIGINAL: Judykator

In total, only war, no economy and the development of civilization [&:]

Read the website the focus is a massive galaxy with macro managing.Do you think you could manage Galciv2 planet building for 50,000 planets.

[ASHBERY76]

ORIGINAL: LarryP

ORIGINAL: Deomrve

How do you conquer planets? Build troops then drop them on a planet, then have it automatically resolved or will there be some form of planetary tactical combat.

Conquer planets by military force or\and trade deals. There is not any micromanaged warfare other than directing your military ships.

Can you bombard the planet population from space.

[Deomrve]

ORIGINAL: LarryP

ORIGINAL: Deomrve

How do you conquer planets? Build troops then drop them on a planet, then have it automatically resolved or will there be some form of planetary tactical combat.

Conquer planets by military force or\and trade deals. There is not any micromanaged warfare other than directing your military ships.

What do mean by Military force?

[cdbeck]

ORIGINAL: LarryP

ORIGINAL: ASHBERY76

How smooth deos the game run with 1400 stars when the galaxy is fully colonized? I wonder with all the ships and freighters moving around it might struggle a bit.

This is a good question that we worked with during development. There is a nebulae density setting that you can turn up or down that greatly affects clipping, depending on your system of course. There is also a frame per second (fps) setting that also governs heat your PC will generate(my laptop for instance), and also clipping. These two items work excellent in controlling how your monitor will display the end result. That along with zoom will allow any machine within reason to work well with great graphics.

Personal note:
I play this game on XP and Vista. XP machine has one 3.6 gig processor, GeForce 8800 GTS video card, 2 gigs of RAM. The Vista is a laptop with a 2.6 gig dual core, ATI Radeon 4400 or 4500 (can't remember now) video card, 4 gigs of RAM. I have to turn down nebulae on both machines below full to avoid some clipping when things get real busy, but the detail is awesome that the game offers. There are storms and lightening in the nebulae, besides a lot of space traffic. This all gets more intense if you are zoomed in all the way and that's another setting that controls how things will work, where you are zoomed to.

EDIT: I almost forgot... the game also has a speed setting that goes up two notches and down two notches from normal. -2 -1 0 +1 +2, 0 being normal speed. This also affects the graphics handling. So there are four items that affect graphics handling:

1) Nebulae density (slider adjustment)
2) FPS
3) Zoom
4) Speed of game (5 settings)

I have a slightly more modest system than Larry and, with Nebula turned a bit down, I get pretty decent FPS and not so much clipping. IIRC you get a more "strategic overlook" like in Supreme Commander when you zoom out enough. That can have a decent effect on your performance at higher zoom levels - it takes the load off.

SoM

[elliotg]

ORIGINAL: Judykator

ORIGINAL: elliotg
Tech is focussed around researching new components that you can then use in your ship designs. There are 17 different research areas that you progress your research in to unlock new components. These research areas are categories like various types of weapons, engines, shields, reactors, etc. There are about 200 components spread across these research areas.

There are no improvements to the planets? Buildings? Economy?

The focus with colony development is to supply them with luxury resources and they will improve on their own, giving your empire higher tax income.

However you do build orbital bases at colonies and these bases provide a lot of the functionality that planetary buildings would in other games. E.g. Space ports provide research facilities, construction yards and trade centers. Other bases might include defensive installations, long-range monitoring stations, tourist resorts, or anything else you can think of.

There are several sources of income for your state government, but the main source is tax income from your colonies.

[elliotg]

ORIGINAL: Deomrve
How do you conquer planets? Build troops then drop them on a planet, then have it automatically resolved or will there be some form of planetary tactical combat.

The planetary invasions are largely out of your control. However the timing of your troop transport ships dropping troops into the action can make a big difference to the outcome. If you can coordinate your ships to deploy your troops together they'll have a much bigger impact than if you deliver them piecemeal.

[elliotg]

ORIGINAL: ASHBERY76
How smooth deos the game run with 1400 stars when the galaxy is fully colonized? I wonder with all the ships and freighters moving around it might struggle a bit.

A large galaxy with lots of colonies and ships will be a bit slower than a smaller one.

But it's not a linear drop in performance - i.e. galaxies twice as big are NOT half the speed. Large, well-developed galaxies are quite playable.

For general performance improvement there are a number of game settings you can adjust, as Larry pointed out.

[elliotg]

ORIGINAL: ASHBERY76

ORIGINAL: LarryP

ORIGINAL: Deomrve

How do you conquer planets? Build troops then drop them on a planet, then have it automatically resolved or will there be some form of planetary tactical combat.

Conquer planets by military force or\and trade deals. There is not any micromanaged warfare other than directing your military ships.

Can you bombard the planet population from space.

No, your ships don't bombard enemy troops or population.

When attacking/invading a colony your ships are focussed on clearing defensive forces present in orbit, i.e. they take out defensive bases or space ports and any defending military ships. Your troop transport ships then drop off your troops onto the planet to battle it out with the defenders.

[Anguille]

Elliot...sometimes i get the feeling that you never sleep

[ASHBERY76]

ORIGINAL: elliotg

No, your ships don't bombard enemy troops or population.

When attacking/invading a colony your ships are focussed on clearing defensive forces present in orbit, i.e. they take out defensive bases or space ports and any defending military ships. Your troop transport ships then drop off your troops onto the planet to battle it out with the defenders.

So you are forced to have alien scum into your empire?

Maybe some sort of fleet bombarding could be in an expansion pack.I think it is needed personally as I think it would be the more realistic option than landing troops.