Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords

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Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords (commonly GalCiv II) is a 4X turn-based strategy computer game by Stardock. It is the sequel to the original Galactic Civilizations, and was released at North American retail and on Stardock's online subscription service, TotalGaming.net, on 21 February, 2006.

The game is typically played in what is known as a "sandbox" galaxy mode, where the objective is to achieve victory over artificial opponents in one of four ways - military conquest, cultural domination, universal alliance or technological supremacy. The sandbox analogy represents the freeform style of playing, where the player is free to develop the game however he/she chooses. This "sandbox" may be customized in terms of galaxy size, planet habitability and similar features as well as difficulty of the opposition. The game also includes a story-driven campaign, featuring the "Dread Lords" of the title.

Features and game concepts

Races

The game has 10 playable preset races, as well as allowing the user to create a completely custom race of their own. Civilizations in the game include those from Altarian Prophecy — the Terran Alliance, the Yor Collective, the Drengin Empire, the Altarian Republic, the Drath Legion, the Torian Confederation, the Dominion of the Korx and the Arcean Empire, as well as two new civilizations: the Iconian Refuge, and the Thalan Empire. Minor races (which do not factor into winning conditions, and have a weaker AI) can also appear in the game, such as the Snathi, a race of sentient rodent like creatures.

Each preset race has a distinct combination of AI, personality, and built-in advantages. The Korx, for instance, are all about money, and thus have an economic bonus. The Terrans are excellent diplomats, the Drengin have superb ships and soldiers, the Torians have fast population growth, and the Yor have very loyal populations.

Ship design

One criticism of the original Galactic Civilizations was its lack of ship design features. New ships simply became available when the appropriate technology was researched to create them. Galactic Civilizations II includes a highly-configurable 3D ship design editor. Technological research now unlocks components that the player uses to create their own custom ship designs in 3D from a variety of hull bases. The user's ships are rendered in real time and shown on both the main screen and in fleet battles.

Every ship is designed around a particular class of hull - tiny, small, cargo, medium, large and huge - and has a predetermined number of hit points and capacity. Each ship component takes up a certain amount of space. Technological advances can lead to enhanced components that take up less space (but which typically cost more to construct). Existing ships may be upgraded to use these new components, although it is often cheaper to use them as cannon fodder and replace them with newer ships.

There are three types of paired offense-defense mechanisms:

• Lasers and shielding
• Missiles and point defense
• Mass drivers and armor

Defenses work best against the offensive weapon they are matched against. A defense mechanism used against a mismatched attack is diminished to the square root of the defense value (with a minimum of 1). For example, nine units of shield defenses would only afford the same protection as three units of armor when used to defend against mass drivers.

Engines are just another component, and become available in increasing power/size ratios with later research. Several extra components available at all times include sensors, life support (for extra range), colonization and construction modules. Each component may be added multiple times with summing effect; a player could create a fast long-range fighter with two lasers, two ion engines, a support module and a shield.

A wide variety of non-functional components ("jewelry") such as wings, pylons, wheel structures and lights may be added for artistic purposes. These take up no space and costs nothing to build. There are several sets of jewelry, one of which is assigned to each race, though the player is not restricted to choosing from these.

3D game engine and battles

Galactic Civilizations II is powered by a custom 3D game engine, although most user interface elements are displayed in 2D. Planets and ships are restricted to a single plane in space, but the user may pan and zoom as they wish, even to view the details of individual ships. Players may zoom out to view the galactic map on a wide scale, at which point the ships, planets and anomalies are replaced by iconic depictions. It is possible to play the game in this mode.

The player's ship designs are tested in full-screen fleet battles in a separate environment to the main screen. The battles are not user-directed, but it is possible to watch from several viewpoints and fast-forward and reverse through them. Planetary invasions are dealt with separately, depending on a combination of general technology, soldiering ability, quantity of forces available to each side, and optional methods of attack (which tend to provide advantages at the cost of decreasing planetary quality or destroying planetary improvements).

Artificial Intelligence

A major focus of Galactic Civilizations II is the artificial intelligence of its opponents, due in part to the deliberate omission of multiplayer in favour of the single player experience. The game is not easy - the maximum level of skill ("intelligent") is two levels above "normal", which typically takes most first-time players several games to master. Even higher levels of difficulty (in which the computer players receive bonuses to their production and economy) are available should these prove insufficient. Conversely, AIs implement less sophisticated strategies/counter-strategies as the difficulty level drops, and at the lowest levels of difficulty the AI is severely crippled due to economical handicaps.

The AI also makes use of technological developments to design ships of its own. At higher difficulty levels these ships are tailored to the opposition, so players sending fleets of laser-armed ships may find them repulsed by shielded defenders, while those preferring to employ mass drivers will find that they come up against heavily-armored opposition instead.

It has to be noted that Stardock is still improving the AI's capability. The most recent patch (1.1) has been well received, for its improving the difficulty of the game, without using any shortcuts the AI in strategy games are usually awarded.

Planetary management

In the original Galactic Civilizations, planets were part of a star system, and located in the same square. In Galactic Civilizations II, each planet (or colony) is a completely separate entity in space. Moreover, planets may now only have a limited number of improvements built upon them. A planet's class determines the number of improvement tiles that are available for building. There are improvements to aid manufacturing, research, planetary influence, morale, and the economy, as well as several "wonder"-style improvements similar to those popularized by the Civilization series of games.

Certain technologies allow the unlocking of extra tiles, a feature which allows more advanced races to make better use of a low-quality planet. Planets may be focused on military production or research, allowing the creation of military outposts or research bases. In addition, a proportion of tiles offer bonuses for manufacturing, research or morale improvements built upon them.

The necessity of customizing planetary improvements (which is a big part of the game) can be an increased burden on the player. To help with this, the game offers an auto-update system that can automatically upgrade any available planetary improvements as new technology becomes available.

Random events and alignment

At random times througout the game, the player is presented with ethical choices in the form of events where a wide-ranging decision needs to be made. Typically the "good" choice will cost the player something (either directly or indirectly). Conversely, the "evil" choice can bring benefits, albeit at the expense of other civilizations or the player's own population. A "neutral" choice is also presented as a compromise.

For example, one random event involves the creation of a super-serum that can enhance soldiering performance at the expense of cutting the life expectancy of those who take it in half. The player may forbid its use and destroy all of the research at government expense (good), only allow it to be used by those who volunteer (neutral) or require all army recruits to take it (evil). In this case, the "loss" of the good choice is mostly an opportunity cost in terms of the foregone advantage.

The main advantage to making good choices comes in diplomacy with other races; good races are more picky about interacting with evil races than evil races are with good races. In addition, once the "Xeno Ethics" technology is researched, it is possible to pick one of the three alignments, which grants access to various bonuses and improvements. Picking an alignment other than that already established by the player's actions costs significant amounts of money.

Starbases and galactic resources

A late addition to the original, starbases are a central component in Galactic Civilizations II. There are four main types of starbase:

• Military starbases, which help your ships in battle against other fleets
• Economic starbases, which increase economic and social production in the surrounding region
• Influence starbases, which encourage nearby planetary populations to defect to the owner's culture
• Mining starbases, which are used to extract a bonus affecting your entire civilization

All four kinds of starbase may also be upgraded with defensive capabilities. The AI is more than willing to make its own starbases, and may take exception to the player building them too close to the AI's planets.

Race bonuses, politics and government

When designing a custom race, the player is given a set of points that can be allocated to various bonus abilities. These bonuses cover most game mechanics - it is possible to make a race of highly-militant and loyal researchers, or of influential and highly prolific diplomats.

At the beginning of the game, the player chooses one of eight political parties, each with its own advantages. These advantages are cumulative with the race bonuses, so they may be used to cement an established advantage, or to shore up a potential weakness. However, these bonuses are only preserved as long as the player's party stays in power, which depends on keeping morale up (generally above 50%). If the player loses an election they do not lose control of the game, only the bonuses previously granted. Morale also has an effect on reported population, and thus on tax revenue, so it is important not to tax for short-term gain.

The player can eventually research advanced forms of government that grant significant bonuses to the economy and social production. However, it becomes increasingly harder to keep morale up while progressing from an imperial government to a republic, democracy or galactic federation.

The United Planets

The United Planets is a council formed of all major civilizations in the galaxy that regularly convenes to make decisions. The amount of clout a race has in the council depends on their influence, which is partially a factor of population, but which is also affected by planetary improvements and race bonuses (among other factors). The United Planets does not usually have a great effect on the game, but some of the propositions — for example, the transfer of unique researched technologies — can be extremely destabilizing if passed. The player does have the option of permanently leaving the United Planets, but at the expense of losing all trade revenue.

Diplomacy and race relations

Diplomacy is a key part of the game. Players — both human and AI — may trade technology, starbases, ships, planets and trade goods (unique improvements built by one race that provide a bonus to those obtaining them). Negotiation skill is an important factor which varies with inherent race bonuses and research; it can be possible to gain a significant technological advantage through careful trading with less sophisticated races.

Each race has customized text used during negotiation that signifies their current relations with the player. Relations depend on a number of factors, including current trade, relative ethical alignment, belligerence, military might and past actions. AI players may decide to initiate technology trades or demand tribute from the player, or to warn them of perceived threats.

Modding

Significant modding features have been built into the game in terms of user-editable XML files. The ship designs are also intended to be redistributed to others, and popular models (both derivative and original) appeared shortly after the game's release.

Reception

Galactic Civilizations II received Editor's Choice awards from GameSpot^{[#endnote_GameSpot]}, GameSpy^{[#endnote_GameSpy]} and IGN^{[#endnote_IGN]} within the first two weeks of release, during which over 50,000 units were shipped to retail^{[#endnote_RetailShipment]}; unusual success for what was considered by many to be an indie gaming title. In addition, several thousand copies were sold direct and distributed through online download over this period, due in part to delays in US distribution.

Notable review points

While Galactic Civilizations II could not be viewed as (and was not intended to be) an "original" title, it was praised for innovative features of its implementation, as well as the humor involved in some of the event descriptions and per-race conversations during negotiation. Particular note was paid to the lack of copy protection on the game's CD or the requirement to have it to play the game, although updates are secured by an activation system to dissuade piracy, and newer updates of the game require a valid serial number. Many reviewers highlighted the degree of support for the game by its developers; some saw the need for such support in a negative light. The artificial intelligence was also admired for its ruthlessness.

Reviews were not free of negative points. Most reviewers commented with regret on the lack of multiplayer features, though few saw it as a critical flaw. The technology tree was criticized for redundancy (e.g. Laser 1 through Laser 5). The game was also noted as having a steep learning curve; perhaps too steep for casual gamers to enjoy the game. As the GameSpy reviewer noted, "It's like being taught basketball by Michael Jordan. Even if he plays his "D" game, he's still gonna kick your butt."

Player criticism

Despite the game's popularity, there have been various criticisms of the current version of the game, both in implementation and in design. The most common are as follows:

• The UI (user interface) is considered by many to be counterintuitive and quirky, even frustrating at times. For example, when ships are in a fleet or just stacked over each other, it becomes very difficult to deal with the individual ships.
• Another common complaint was the relatively steep learning curve highlighted by reviewers, which makes it difficult for new players to succeed at first. This is compounded by the fact that the supplied tutorials are videos, not integrated into the game.

Stardock has begun addressing some of these concerns with updates - for example, a previous problem with over-strong morale resources has resolved by reducing their impact upon the game, and money spent on social production is being redirected to the military budget when unused, as of beta 1.1. Other updates are set to follow after the release of a demo version.

The very recent 1.1 patch corrected a lot of the UI's main failures, and rehauled some gameplay utilities.

Starforce controversy

On 5th March 2006, a StarForce employee publicly posted^{[#endnote_StarforceForum]} a [working link] to a BitTorrent search engine listing of Galactic Civilizations 2 torrents during a discussion about the popularity of the game. Their action was publicized on various websites, including Digg, Neowin and Slashdot. Stardock also posted an article^{[#endnote_InaccuratePiracy]}, partially in response to inaccurate reporting of their own reasons for releasing the game without copy-protection. Starforce later closed the thread, posting an apology and stating that the employee "just wanted to show that every non-protected game can be cracked."

Expansion Pack

Stardock has recently announced that they are currently developing an expansion pack named "Dark Avatar". A number of things are to be added in the expansion, such as:

• Two new races: a genocidal Drengin offshoot called the Korath and the tentatively named Zrim.
• A new campaign in which the player leads the Drengin Empire.
• The ability to create custom opponents.
• The addition of the "environment" statistic to planets, which will determine which race can innately colonize or what technologies will be necessary for other races to colonize different planets.
• Espionage will be given an enhanced role, special "Agents" being hired that can conduct various missions, such as sabotage or destabilization, on rival worlds, or act as counter-agents against rival Agents attempting to conduct missions on the player's worlds.
• Asteroid fields will be added to the space map, and players will be able to mine them for resources. What sorts of resources said fields could provide is currently unknown.
• A great deal of new ship hulls and jewelry.
• Two races will be exterminated during the campaign, mainly Alterans. They will, however still be available in 'sandbox' mode, but will not appear in the future releases of the game.

References

1. ↑  [GameSpot review of Galactic Civilizations II]
2. ↑  [GameSpy review of Galactic Civilizations II]
3. ↑  [IGN review of Galactic Civilizations II]
4. ↑  [Retail availability increases further - Reorders surpass original sell-in] — a post by CEO Brad Wardell describing the game's success at retail
5. ↑  [Interesting Article, Does protection influence sales?] — StarForce forum post concerning Galactic Civilizations II
6. ↑  [Galactic Civilizations II, Copy Protection, and Piracy] — Stardock news post stating that they do not support piracy, mentioning StarForce's post

External links

• [Galactic Civilizations II official home page]
• [Galactic Civilizations Wiki]
• [Galactic Civilizations official IRC channel]
• [Composite of reviews]

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