Edge of Galaxy Mechanics

from GalCiv3 Forums

I was watching the dev stream and one of the things talked about was the edge of the galaxy and it's hex shape. I had a few ideas of how it could be changed/improved and I wanted feedback on my ideas and to see what other ideas people have. 

Paul was saying that he liked the hex shaped galaxy and it fit with the hexes that were in map. I agree, but you can organize those hexes into a square shape, or any rough shape for that matter. I feel that being able to manipulate the exact shape of the galaxy would lead to interesting games.

Another idea I had that came from the stream was multiple galaxies. Sins of a Solar Empire was mentioned and I think having a mechanic from that game would enhance GC3. If you put the galaxies in GC3 as planets in SOSE and have the ability to "jump" from one galaxy to the other (with an advanced research of course) you could expand the game in leaps and bounds. Other galaxies could be radically different and add a new factor to games. How travel occurs between these galaxies would be difficult to balance. If one civ gets that research much sooner than the others, they could use it to a great advantage. They could jump behind the enemy, on the other side of the galaxy, and this could be an unfair advantage. Perhaps the "hypergates" could be used here? You have to drag one to the other galaxy and build one at a specific spot in your own in order to travel.

 

I would also like to put a plug in here for changing the ship movement lines. They look ridiculous and cheesy. 

 

If anyone has any ideas or refinements to mine, please comment!

35,159 views 12 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

If someone from SD wanted to make a real round looking galaxy, I would suggest curving the edges. i.e make a area of curved hexs or graphics near the edges of the map to look like a real galaxy and not a hexagon.

AS for making multiple galaxies. Has anyone else thought that the clusters setting on huge maps will basically be the same thing? Or how about one half area everyone starts in and the other can be far away and empty of civs. Sounds good to me.

 

DARCA ;)

Reply #2 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Perhaps the "hypergates" could be used here? You have to drag one to the other galaxy and build one at a specific spot in your own in order to travel.

How though? Frogboy already explained that hyperdrive can't handle the gulf between galaxies, because there is no mass there. So you wouldn't be able to use it to transport the hypergate.

Still, I'm not quite sure if adding multiple galaxies is a good idea. The biggest map in GalCiv 2 required you to handle hundreds of planets. The biggest map in GalCiv 3 could potentially require you to handle over a thousand planets. Adding multiple galaxies would increase that even more. Then you need to add all the ships, starbases, resources, and so on. You would need a very good UI to manage all of that. More importantly though, you're going to need a lot of time to play that. A Immense map in GalCiv 2 can already take months to finish. A Gigantic (or whatever they're going to call it) map in GalCiv 3 is probably going to take even longer. Multiple galaxies of that size? A year? More? I'm all for big maps, but this is getting ridiculous. Who'd have time to finish such a game?

My suggestion to this is to split the map between the number of galaxies. So, instead of having two or more Gigantic-sized galaxies, you'd have one Gigantic map split between two or more galaxies. That'd be much more manageable, and would offer just as many strategic options. Maybe even more so. Finding a way to reach the other galaxies would be much more important, because your ability to expand would be much more limited.

Siege of Centauri
Reply #3 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting DARCA1213, reply 1

If someone from SD wanted to make a real round looking galaxy, I would suggest curving the edges. i.e make a area of curved hexs or graphics near the edges of the map to look like a real galaxy and not a hexagon.

AS for making multiple galaxies. Has anyone else thought that the clusters setting on huge maps will basically be the same thing? Or how about one half area everyone starts in and the other can be far away and empty of civs. Sounds good to me.

 

DARCA



That is exactly what I was thinking when people want multiple galaxies. In GCII I would just do as you sugested and make the largest map and make the systems in clusters. Problem solved and  made the games a lot more fun. But that is just my preference when playing. Not a big fan of systems everywhere and going all World War II in the Pacific with the island hop tactic.

Reply #4 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I think that the capability of having more than one galaxy in the map setup would be cool from a modding, customising and sci-fi storytelling point of view.

Reply #5 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Gaunathor, reply 2


My suggestion to this is to split the map between the number of galaxies. So, instead of having two or more Gigantic-sized galaxies, you'd have one Gigantic map split between two or more galaxies. That'd be much more manageable, and would offer just as many strategic options. Maybe even more so. Finding a way to reach the other galaxies would be much more important, because your ability to expand would be much more limited.

 

That's what I said!

You know Gaunathor, galaxies merge over time. That could make for a exception to the no mass lore and make for a nice little dlc or something.

But with varying map sizes all qualifying as galaxies, how do we know when we have two? Could it be like putting two large galaxies together? That would be a nice senario IMHO. But what defines a galaxy in the game?

I think the cause of the matter is to have a second wave of colonization, exploration, and a FUN reward waiting for whoever finds it. I say yes to that.

 

DARCA. ;)

Reply #6 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Perhaps Gaunathor can find the reference, but I recall someone saying there were going to be advanced terraforming techs available into the second and third ages in order to spread the colony rush out.

Reply #7 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting DARCA1213, reply 5
That's what I said!

Not exactly. I probably should have explained it more clearly.

In my idea, each galaxy would be an individual map. The content of each galaxy would be total content of the selected map-size divided by the amount of galaxies. So a Huge map with two galaxies would turn into two Medium-size maps, for example.

The only question is, how would you get from one galaxy to the next? Both from a lore-standpoint and from an interface-standpoint. Maybe a simple toggle to switch between the galaxies, or an intermediary map between them (a universe map, if you will). Getting your ships to another galaxy will most likely require researching a new form of engine specific for this purpose. Or you could try STL, which would take a loooong time.

I'm probably overthinking all of this though, making it much more complicated than it needs to.

Quoting WIllythemailboy, reply 6

Perhaps Gaunathor can find the reference, but I recall someone saying there were going to be advanced terraforming techs available into the second and third ages in order to spread the colony rush out.

Mormegil talked about it in this post.

Reply #8 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Gaunathor, reply 7


I'm probably overthinking all of this though, making it much more complicated than it needs to.

 

Maybe... :-"

But SD should give this idea ten minutes of coding and if it doesn't look good then SD should forget about it.

 

DARCA ;)

Reply #9 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Gaunathor, reply 2

How though? Frogboy already explained that hyperdrive can't handle the gulf between galaxies, because there is no mass there. So you wouldn't be able to use it to transport the hypergate. 

Ahhh. I see.

Quoting Gaunathor, reply 2

Still, I'm not quite sure if adding multiple galaxies is a good idea. The biggest map in GalCiv 2 required you to handle hundreds of planets. The biggest map in GalCiv 3 could potentially require you to handle over a thousand planets. Adding multiple galaxies would increase that even more. Then you need to add all the ships, starbases, resources, and so on. You would need a very good UI to manage all of that. More importantly though, you're going to need a lot of time to play that. A Immense map in GalCiv 2 can already take months to finish. A Gigantic (or whatever they're going to call it) map in GalCiv 3 is probably going to take even longer. Multiple galaxies of that size? A year? More? I'm all for big maps, but this is getting ridiculous. Who'd have time to finish such a game?

My suggestion to this is to split the map between the number of galaxies. So, instead of having two or more Gigantic-sized galaxies, you'd have one Gigantic map split between two or more galaxies. That'd be much more manageable, and would offer just as many strategic options. Maybe even more so. Finding a way to reach the other galaxies would be much more important, because your ability to expand would be much more limited.

I guess having that many ships, planets, resources, etc. would be a lot to handle, for your machine also. I like the idea of putting two "galaxies" in the same galaxy, but I would like more of a barrier. If you research enough life support or build enough starbases, you can get anywhere. It would be cool to suddenly have a larger part of the galaxy opened up in late game and add depth. But you're right, it would probably be too much to handle if they were separate.

Quoting Gaunathor, reply 7

In my idea, each galaxy would be an individual map. The content of each galaxy would be total content of the selected map-size divided by the amount of galaxies. So a Huge map with two galaxies would turn into two Medium-size maps, for example.

The only question is, how would you get from one galaxy to the next? Both from a lore-standpoint and from an interface-standpoint. Maybe a simple toggle to switch between the galaxies, or an intermediary map between them (a universe map, if you will). Getting your ships to another galaxy will most likely require researching a new form of engine specific for this purpose. Or you could try STL, which would take a loooong time.

This is pretty much what I would want, but how?

Will there be a map designer for GC3? If so, you could easily customize a galaxy to act like 2 galaxies, but I remember the map designer for GC2 was not very user friendly and took vast amounts of time to design even a star cluster in a galaxy.

Reply #10 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting sulley1, reply 9
Will there be a map designer for GC3?

Most likely yes.

Quoting sulley1, reply 9
but I remember the map designer for GC2 was not very user friendly and took vast amounts of time to design even a star cluster in a galaxy.

Well, you could use the Randomize All option to create a map until you've found something you like, and then manually edit it further. This reduces the time required to make a map a lot.

Reply #11 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Gaunathor, reply 10
 Well, you could use the Randomize All option to create a map until you've found something you like, and then manually edit it further. This reduces the time required to make a map a lot.

I wish I would have known this earlier! Thanks!

Reply #12 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting sulley1, reply 11

Quoting Gaunathor, reply 10
 Well, you could use the Randomize All option to create a map until you've found something you like, and then manually edit it further. This reduces the time required to make a map a lot.

 

I wish I would have known this earlier! Thanks!

 

i really found it quite annoying most of the time on the larger maps it would ignore a significant portion of the map upper right corner would be completely empty with everything along the left and bottom sides

i mean it looked like someone took an exacto knife and just cut out a quarter square chunk of the map