- Jul 15, 2003
- 80,287
- 17,080
- 136
Building ships is a lot more fun, figuring out how to best deal with each threat requires some thought.
Sometimes its better to add shield piercing to your beam weapons, sometimes it better to add armor piercing to your mass drivers. Sometimes going straight for the structure and systems is better, sometimes just freezing and implosion is your best option.
You can be a sneaky bastard and put down one colony & immediately start making artificial planets behind enemy lines.
The random events are cool, even if you are unlucky you can still use things like hyperspace flux to your advantage.
Your choice of stealing or researching technology. Researching is fairly straightforward and interesting. You can choose to assault planets or sabotage them. Invading or bombarding. You can wipe out all your opponents, or ally with them and rule the council with votes.
You can even attack Antares and end the game relatively fast if you are smart enough. Perhaps even before plundering Orion.
Growing a colony is easy. One and only one of each building type. Makes it simple and eventually they all produce roughly the same.
Multiple planets per star, and the ability to make them from asteroids or gas giants. Thats a potential downside too. Nothing more annoying than coming across 5 asteroids and no way to do anything with them. And if you use a stellar converter to blast the last planet in a system, its useless for the rest of the game. That could be a tactical choice though.
Also, the AI is great for some things like efficiency but not always very tactical. They never attack a planet with a small star base unless they are completely overpowering it, which means they dont take risks. They dont seem to ever make artificial planets or colonize barren worlds. They can be painfully predictable, like asking for an alliance and then immediately demanding you waste everyone else. But overall they are good.
Its easy to find planets for quick n clean colonization. Just go to the Planets screen and if theres something you like, click on it.
You can purchase buildings instantly which is a great way to get them up and running soon. I always go with Automated Factories followed by Cloning Centers. That seems to give my species a leg up and its not expensive.
Why Imperium Galactica 2 is better:
Real time but speed adjustable. You can put multiple space stations around a planet and the enemy will take risks in trying to assault you. You have to pay to auto-upgrade ships which makes way more sense. Of course, there isnt much to do with ships. You always want the "best" equipment and not much else.
Theres a new level of tactical combat thanks to fighters and tanks which are separate from the fleet. Ditto assaulting planets.
You can terraform before you colonize which actually makes more sense. And not every alien species likes the same type of environment, which again is logical.
You can plant a cheap spy satellite on other planets to help you make decisions before you invade or trade. They get destroyed frequently but the cost is usually worth the info. Same with the missions for spy's.
You have to slowly discover planets by searching which is either a hassle or a new level of play, depending on your perspective. Tanks can be customized and those choices actually do matter, a lot more than ships.
Trading is a lot more intricate and you can buy things you normally wouldnt be able to create yourself. Mercenary captains and generals are rarer but they come with their own fleets and sometimes side quests.
Spying is so much better. You can do damn near anything you want. I like to tactically cripple my enemy by taking out their main fleet and then the defense buildings on each planet as I invade it.
Theres a real campaign for each of the three major races and they are quite involved, using the abilities and weaknesses to make for a fun experience.
Only downside is races dont seem to be as overall varied as in MOO2. The only one thats truly different is the Krahen because they can neither spy nor be spied on.
Ship combat is a little less tactical but you can still control things. And they are lovingly rendered in 3D.
Of course, Galactic Civilizations 2 has its pros and cons. But it was never enough to tear me away from other games for more than a week.
My biggest complaint is the lack of control during combat, and the fact you can customize the hell out of your ships but in the end it doesnt really matter. And slowly upgrading colony vessels with each new engine is actually a pain.
Sometimes its better to add shield piercing to your beam weapons, sometimes it better to add armor piercing to your mass drivers. Sometimes going straight for the structure and systems is better, sometimes just freezing and implosion is your best option.
You can be a sneaky bastard and put down one colony & immediately start making artificial planets behind enemy lines.
The random events are cool, even if you are unlucky you can still use things like hyperspace flux to your advantage.
Your choice of stealing or researching technology. Researching is fairly straightforward and interesting. You can choose to assault planets or sabotage them. Invading or bombarding. You can wipe out all your opponents, or ally with them and rule the council with votes.
You can even attack Antares and end the game relatively fast if you are smart enough. Perhaps even before plundering Orion.
Growing a colony is easy. One and only one of each building type. Makes it simple and eventually they all produce roughly the same.
Multiple planets per star, and the ability to make them from asteroids or gas giants. Thats a potential downside too. Nothing more annoying than coming across 5 asteroids and no way to do anything with them. And if you use a stellar converter to blast the last planet in a system, its useless for the rest of the game. That could be a tactical choice though.
Also, the AI is great for some things like efficiency but not always very tactical. They never attack a planet with a small star base unless they are completely overpowering it, which means they dont take risks. They dont seem to ever make artificial planets or colonize barren worlds. They can be painfully predictable, like asking for an alliance and then immediately demanding you waste everyone else. But overall they are good.
Its easy to find planets for quick n clean colonization. Just go to the Planets screen and if theres something you like, click on it.
You can purchase buildings instantly which is a great way to get them up and running soon. I always go with Automated Factories followed by Cloning Centers. That seems to give my species a leg up and its not expensive.
Why Imperium Galactica 2 is better:
Real time but speed adjustable. You can put multiple space stations around a planet and the enemy will take risks in trying to assault you. You have to pay to auto-upgrade ships which makes way more sense. Of course, there isnt much to do with ships. You always want the "best" equipment and not much else.
Theres a new level of tactical combat thanks to fighters and tanks which are separate from the fleet. Ditto assaulting planets.
You can terraform before you colonize which actually makes more sense. And not every alien species likes the same type of environment, which again is logical.
You can plant a cheap spy satellite on other planets to help you make decisions before you invade or trade. They get destroyed frequently but the cost is usually worth the info. Same with the missions for spy's.
You have to slowly discover planets by searching which is either a hassle or a new level of play, depending on your perspective. Tanks can be customized and those choices actually do matter, a lot more than ships.
Trading is a lot more intricate and you can buy things you normally wouldnt be able to create yourself. Mercenary captains and generals are rarer but they come with their own fleets and sometimes side quests.
Spying is so much better. You can do damn near anything you want. I like to tactically cripple my enemy by taking out their main fleet and then the defense buildings on each planet as I invade it.
Theres a real campaign for each of the three major races and they are quite involved, using the abilities and weaknesses to make for a fun experience.
Only downside is races dont seem to be as overall varied as in MOO2. The only one thats truly different is the Krahen because they can neither spy nor be spied on.
Ship combat is a little less tactical but you can still control things. And they are lovingly rendered in 3D.
Of course, Galactic Civilizations 2 has its pros and cons. But it was never enough to tear me away from other games for more than a week.
My biggest complaint is the lack of control during combat, and the fact you can customize the hell out of your ships but in the end it doesnt really matter. And slowly upgrading colony vessels with each new engine is actually a pain.
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