First Time GalCiv player with some questions

from GalCiv3 Forums

Hello everyone!

So as the title suggests, I'm a first time GalCiv player looking to test out the beta and immerse myself in what I hear is one of the best strategy game series ever made. My experience playing these types of games comes down mostly to endlessly playing Master of Orion II and Heroes of Might and Magic III, so I know I have a liiiittle bit of a learning curve.

I've read some of the other forum posts, and I've started my first game in the Beta 3, and already within 20 turns I have some general nOObish questions I'd like to ask. They are as follows:

-Should I be able to scroll the map by placing my cursor at the edge of the screen? Because if so...I can't do that. At all. The map simply doesn't move unless i click the screen and drag the map.

-Is it intentional that my ships/colonies and shipyards MUST be doing something before I can end my turn? What if I don't want to be building anything? I have not figured out a way to end my turn without having all my things doing...things.

-The green smiley % keeps dropping every turn, and I have no idea how to stop it

-I have spent my first 20 turns sending my ships out to explore, and I've found I think six separate stars, each with some planets...and they are all Class zeroes. All of them save the tiny one near my home planet. Is that typical?

-There are asteroids that I feel like I should be able to mine for minerals/ore, but I don't have anything with which to do so. Does that come with research?

 

I think that's all I have for now. I'm taking things slowly, trying to learn how the game works and not worrying if I mess something up. Anyway, any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

13,978 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv3 Forums Top


-Should I be able to scroll the map by placing my cursor at the edge of the screen? Because if so...I can't do that. At all. The map simply doesn't move unless i click the screen and drag the map.

yes and no . you should be able to, but you cant
there are settings for map edge scrolling but they dont work at the moment



-Is it intentional that my ships/colonies and shipyards MUST be doing something before I can end my turn? What if I don't want to be building anything? I have not figured out a way to end my turn without having all my things doing...things.

again yes and no
the way the game is designed it strongly encourages you to always do something however there are some ways to work around that

planets can be set to a project (economic stimulus, birthing subsidies/assembly, research subsidy) this will cause them to put all available manufacturing points to the selected project and they will stop asking you to do stuff.

similarly you can click the govern button on the planet and recenter the production wheel ( the brightly coloured circle (see below)) so that it has 0 manufacturing and this will also stop it from asking you to do stuff 

 

the production wheel has 3 sides to it research (the blue flask) wealth (green coins) and production (orange hammer) as you drag the point around it will adjust what your population is doing as you drag it closer to any one of these points (lets say research) you will produce more research points per turn and less wealth/production similarly as you drag it away from that point it produces less research and more wealth/manufacturing 

 

ships you can click on pass (skip current turn) or select either sentry or guard ( both of these will make the ship inactive until an enemy ship comes in range) 

shipyard if you select the shipyard and select manage there is a button on the left marked shutdown this will cause the shipyard to stop building anything until you select resume.
also you can go to the sponsoring planet select govern and adjust the military/social slider (the one under the multicolored wheel) all the way to the left (i think) and that will stop sending resources to the shipyard so that it cannot complete a ship

 


-The green smiley % keeps dropping every turn, and I have no idea how to stop it

the green smiley , approval this is how happy your citizens are they become less happy as they become more crowded there are 2 ways to make them happier
1) reduce the population by building a colony ship and sending it to a new world (or if you're an evil bastard just fill it up and blow it up)
2) increase goods and services  this can be done by building entertainment centres or other approval type buildings on your planets. also approval modules on starbases surrounding the planets. (they're found after researching the techs and building an economic ring on your starbases)
there's also approval relics but they are not currently working 

 

-I have spent my first 20 turns sending my ships out to explore, and I've found I think six separate stars, each with some planets...and they are all Class zeroes. All of them save the tiny one near my home planet. Is that typical?

i would suggest checking the galaxy options at the start of game a couple of those settings are number of planets and number of habitable planets 
abundant for number of habitable planets will give you about 3/5 planets as habitable 

 

-There are asteroids that I feel like I should be able to mine for minerals/ore, but I don't have anything with which to do so. Does that come with research?

 

it looks like there's a tech line for this but i haven't yet had a chance to play around with it

Reply #2 from GalCiv3 Forums Top



-The green smiley % keeps dropping every turn, and I have no idea how to stop it

 

Ah! See! That's my point! SEE IT! See what he wrote! That is my point! That's my point! See it! THAT'S MY POINT! Morale is confusing right now and needs more clarity. The noobie proves it. :)

Really. The morale system has changed a few times now and is going to change in the future too. so don't feel bad about being lost because most people were the same when it was released.

Welcome to the forums. ;- )

The Political Machine 2024
Reply #3 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I must say I like the Exploding Colony Ship option - never occured to me.

Does that negatively impact on your Ethics in the way a Malevolent choice does? Could it at some point in the future? Would the Alterians want to ally with a Race that kills its own? I guess you could lower the ethical horror by sending the Colony ship on a path just close enough to some system where there's an enemy. Oopsie...

Welcome aboard!

 

Reply #4 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Welcome.

-Is it intentional that my ships/colonies and shipyards MUST be doing something before I can end my turn? What if I don't want to be building anything? I have not figured out a way to end my turn without having all my things doing...things.


It seems to be intentional. Things like planets, ships, and research could be doing stuff. The alternative is you could be wasting what they could be used for. Not efficient, so game was designed to help you in that regard.

Unfortunately, sometimes it can be a pain to deal with the help. While you often want ships moving, attacking, exploring, surveying, sentry/guarding, etc, sometimes waiting is the best strategy. Unfortunately, waiting hasn't got much support. The 3 options you got is sentry, guard, and pass turn. Sentry and gaurd don't always work, and pass turn needs to be clicked every turn. Sometimes having ships do nothing is what you want them to be doing. Have them ready to do something, be in position to be able to do something, and be ready when the time comes to do something with them.

I have asked every so often for a fortify command to get around it. I've been asking since GalCiv 2. Back then, I found that using sentry or guard never worked as well for me as simply ignore the ships. Unfortunately, you can't ignore ships anymore.

Likewise, assigning projects to planets can be a work around for having to give them new orders. Unfortunately, some projects are not worth while to keep doing forever. Population growth projects aren't worth while if your population is at max.

This is still beta, so this stuff could change.

-I have spent my first 20 turns sending my ships out to explore, and I've found I think six separate stars, each with some planets...and they are all Class zeroes. All of them save the tiny one near my home planet. Is that typical?


Sometimes bad luck happens. In GalCiv 2, the game was supposed to make "balanced" maps. "Balanced" in the sense that 1 starting zone might have many planets, while another might have galactic resources, while another might be easy to defend. "Balanced" in the sense that there might exist someone who would know what to do with your starting zone and would want it. The game is still in beta, so don't expect this feature to be finished yet.

-There are asteroids that I feel like I should be able to mine for minerals/ore, but I don't have anything with which to do so. Does that come with research?


Maybe you could get stuff to use them later. Maybe they will forever exist as something that will serve as decoration or as an obstacle. I don't know what will happen with them.

Reply #5 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

It being beta means ain't everythin' been kosherized yet.

Sounds like you haven't played GC2, yet. You should! It's awesome and has a number of the play features you're expecting that haven't been implemented and/or tuned correctly in GC3. And you can mine asteroid fields... ;)

I did an all random map type, for the biggest available and ended up with only two extra planets in the entire map. The rest of the races (I included all available) only had their home systems.

Tinker with the galactic settings (Number of stars, planets and percentage of habitable ones, etc.). The regular settings sometimes catches me out with nothing right next to my home star. It happens.

As others have stated, you'll want to invest in entertainment research to keep your peeps full of happinessticitudeoucity.

But DEFINITELY get yer grubby mitts on GC2...