This is the saga of the largest, longest possible game of the largest-scale, longest-lasting space strategy in years, and after six weeks and around twenty-five hours of play, it's finally over. The story so far follows immediately below, or you can jump straight to the final entry.
"I just finished the game you saw me start at 4.30," I messaged Tim, at half past midnight. "It was a 'Medium' sized one." I'd gone home (with my savegame) and eaten in the meantime, but other than that I'd been utterly lost in Galactic Civilizations II, specifically the Dark Avatar expansion, and I could no longer imagine what other people do with their evenings. Or jobs.
GalCiv invites careful thought about each turn - economies crash easily, people become restless and revolt, other races storm ahead of you in at least one respect, and rash choices quickly lead to at least one race declaring war on you. I crushed everyone in that Medium galaxy, not because I was playing a warlike race - I wasn't - but through a hilarious series of diplomatic SNAFUs, misunderstandings, accidental invasions, and an unexpected headstart on advanced hull research.
At one point I declared war on the most powerful race in the game in the same turn that my only military craft was destroyed. A few dozen turns later, they were requesting negotiations for peace. I charged them 8,962 billion credits and every technology they had for the privelege, then declared war on them again. That time, pretty much everyone rallied to their defense - but what did I care? I had the largest military in the galaxy and nearly ten trillion credits to expand it with.
So we got talking, or I got talking, about what lay beyond the seven-hour game I'd just finished in reviewing an expansion pack for a game very few people bought. The galaxy sizes go up to Gigantic, I had a third of the maximum number of 'opponents', and the AI on the third of twelve degrees of difficulty. Cranking that up too high would be counter-productive: in Avatar the AI is like Deep Blue's worst nightmare, and my demise would be swift. But the other options, dialled up to eleven, would set me up for an epic game that would take me weeks, at least, to complete.
My family did the whole Easter thing a week early this year, for reasons that you'd have to be a Francis to ever truly understand, so I had no religious festivals this bank holiday weekend. So I felt I owed it to the risen corpse of Jesus Christ himself to spend the lion's share of it conquering a vast galaxy in my boxer shorts. Thus, Das Ubergame was begun, and underpants were worn. Here's how it went.
Day 1: My God, it's full of stars!
Ulp. Gigantic appears to be somewhere close to the actual size of a galaxy. My race - the suspiciously bunny-like Spectres of Agony - found itself in a cluster of around twenty solar systems which, upon further exploration, turned out to have only one other race in it. We were isolated by a vast stretch of void on all sides, large enough that our ship's range would barely cover it, and which divided us from a chain of central clusters where presumably most of the other races lived. A few other islands like ours were dotted around, one as remote as us, but we were on the outskirts of an incomprehensibly vast nowhere.
Comments
153 comments so far...
ChernobylKinsman on 8 Apr '07 said:
That sounds a lot like a game of Stars! I had in 1996, right down to the super breeding space bunnies (nice Easter theme by the way). I am sorely tempted to buy GalCiv 2 when the inevitable double pack is released, as it sounds a lot of fun and I've not played a decent 4x space based game since.. 1996.
Anonymous on 9 Apr '07 said:
Onwards, to Victory and Overpopulation!
Aircool_212 on 9 Apr '07 said:
The AI can lead you a merry dance allright, I can't count the times I've been suckered into a trap; it's always the quiet ones you've got to watch out for, or sometimes not.
Meanwhile, I'll just get in my very small box
Aircool_212 on 23 Apr '07 said:
Heheh, sounds like there's some interesting times ahead. Planetery defences and sacrificial fighters look like the way ahead, let the fools bang their heads against you superior numbers, then try and get the fighting one another
Aircool_212 on 25 Apr '07 said:
PMSL, I've never tried that technique. It probably would have saved me a lot of hassle in past games. Instead I just 'store' people in population ships and troop carriers. I suppose that's just as cruel though, as they're bound to be woken up purely to soak up an enemy attack
qourth on 25 Apr '07 said:
I have never tried the "let the buggers starve" technique, but you can be assured it is getting added the my empires handbook.
-----
Long live the Q Empire:
http://metaverse.galciv2.com/index.aspx?g=empire&id=642
Lightbulb on 26 Apr '07 said:
To Tom Francis - Careful with the "I can see why dictators did it." I know its tongue in cheek but a little bit bad tatse though isn't it?
ChernobylKinsman on 26 Apr '07 said:
Or maybe you are too sensetive.
Lightbulb on 26 Apr '07 said:
Or maybe the killing fields of Cambodia and other real world events such as this shouldn't be made into a joke?
Namoo on 29 Apr '07 said:
I didn't see him mentioning that at all just the general cruelty of dictators which is mostly funny.
ChernobylKinsman on 29 Apr '07 said:
Or maybe you are reading too much into it.
Lightbulb on 29 Apr '07 said:
"I can almost see why the dictators did it..."
Hahaha! Yes hilarious!
Anonymous on 29 Apr '07 said:
I have to put my games on sub-normal to win. Past that difficulty, I'm useless.
ChernobylKinsman on 29 Apr '07 said:
So, are jokes about WW2 ok? What about jokes about cancer? Or aids? Or the plague? Or jack the Ripper?
Is everything to do with death not allowed to be funny? What about the guy who tested the strength of the glass of a skyscraper by jumping against it and smashing through, to his death? Are we to treat the horrific with morbidity and depression? Is it wrong to make light of horrible things? Does that some how mean we don't agree they are horrible, that we are almost as bad as them?
People joke about horrible things, it may not be tasteful by everyones definitions, but it's not a crime and it's rarely intended as disrespectful.
Aircool_212 on 29 Apr '07 said:
Bah, go ahead and spoil a good thread with immature sensitivities. Anyway, glad to see war has broken out on all fronts, it's time to do what all good rich countries do, pay everyone to fight each other and not you
Conan on 30 Apr '07 said:
First of all, this is the best blog... thing by far. We need more like this. Excellent to read.
And actually, like you Tom, I always horribly neglect one thing (usually my military) in games like this including Gal Civ 2 itself.
Just the other day I decided to focus on being the nice guys of the galaxy and didn't research a single weapon.
My entire civilization was wiped out in just a few turns not long into the game
ChernobylKinsman on 30 Apr '07 said:
As opposed to spoiling it with immature rants about corruption and how bad the Battlefield series is bugged yet still playable by thousands of people largely without issue?
This blog has made me decide to buy Gal Civ 2 sooner rather than later.
Anonymous on 30 Apr '07 said:
Yay, I just won a game on challenging difficulty, I was trying to win a diplomacy victory, but in the end, I won it on influnence, I just got the dumb drengin to attack the altarians, then sat back and watched them kill each other, once the drengins one, I had so many influence starbases that I won on influence. My faith in my gal civ 2 ability is restored...
Conan on 30 Apr '07 said:
Great. The big evil empire has colonised a planet right next door to my planets "Eden" and "Shamballa".
Prediction: The population of their planet will tire of being under a dictatorship and because of my great influence will convert to my peace loving and totally defenceless civilization sparking a war in which mass genocide will be performed. On me.
Lightbulb on 1 May '07 said:
"To Tom Francis - Careful with the "I can see why dictators did it." I know its tongue in cheek but a little bit bad taste though isn't it?"
Thats ruining a thread?
I could argue with you about alot of things but i don't think its worth my time. All i am saying is that i think that joke was in bad taste.
On a brighter note i must say thats its a good column overall. I want to give GalCiv2 a go now.
Played the first one briefly but it was in the years of CSS obsession so i didn't get far.
Think my brother bought it actually... I'll have to get his user name and password i think see if i like it...
Gabanski83 on 2 May '07 said:
I want more of this sort of thing in the mag. Games like Europa Universalis 3, Medieval 2 Total War (Or Rome, as Jim did on the forum), Civ 4...
Excellent little personalised views of a battle twixt man and AI. Bravo, I want to see more of this sort of thing please.
Edit: Lightbulb, it's a bloody game. Where the hell the relevance of the killing fields of Cambodia comes into it, I have no idea. If you don't like the idea of being a megalomaniacal dictator in a fictional game, and don't see the funny side of this article, well... don't read it then, and go back to whatever games you do play.
Conan on 2 May '07 said:
I second all of this although wish to emphasise to Lightbulb that it's nothing personal as I enjoy his posts.
Anyway, in my game I got f**ked over by the evil guys whose name I can't spell.
Still, gives me an excuse to start a new game.
Great stuff Tom.
Lightbulb on 3 May '07 said:
Just to be clear:
My comment was really: Don't you think that was going a little far?
I too am enjoying the series and i hope it continues and indeed that it becomes a more regular feature.
Only problem is i find myself craving MORE, more detail more depth. I want a proper AAR.
As for the 'argument' i think its been blown way ouyt of proportion.
As for being called immature for expressing an opinion... well i'll take the high ground and let thta slide...
Can we have no mroe talk of it please it IS starting to take over the thread abit...
Anyways how many mroe days are there to go now? Looks like the end is near unless some kind of diplomatic resolution is reached.
Unless you can decapitate the AI by taking out his Capitol and thus leaving the fleet leaderless? I guess it doesn't work quite like that, in the game or reality.
Aircool_212 on 3 May '07 said:
Top class blog, love it. I'd love to see an in depth hints and tips article on this game, especially for designing new races as the bonuses that you pick at the start can have a real impact on how you play.
Me, I tend to go for heartless brainiacs. If I wasn't currently in a GW phase (which is preventing me from playing C&C3 as much as I'd like) and with the upcoming ET:QW beta a possibility, there's just not enough hours in the day.
I'm just going to have to buy a laptop that will run Gal Civ II so I can play in bed.
Again, top class blog, best article in ages
Pentadact on 4 May '07 said:
Thanks everyone, and sorry I'm running two days late. I was in the Czech Republic. I'll update over the weekend at least once.
Anonymous on 5 May '07 said:
This blog gets a big thumbs up.
I might even get round to buying the game, did like the first one quite a lot.
Anonymous on 7 May '07 said:
Im hoping Amazon's minions will be delivering this tomorrow. I would have liked to solely buy the expansion pack boxed instead of downloading it but thats laziness really.
I found the devs' website for info and downloads
Home:
http://www.galciv2.com/Index.aspx
Straight to purchase and download:
http://www.galciv2.com/Purchase.aspx
According to comments left on Amazon and some forums, this game was very badly bugged and needs heavy patching. All the bad reports Ive read are from people playing unpatched. I think I read somewhere that it patches automatically in the background but I could have imagined it.
Anonymous on 7 May '07 said:
I downloaded and it seems alright to me, apart from a crash just as a finished a campaign game which I hadn't saved in ages.
And it's a wee bit annoying that the vanilla campaign is using the dark avatar tech tree, as some stuff is useless there, like the asteroid mining. And possibly other stuff, I don't know. Fleets of PewPew's (Mk I-VI) conquering the galaxy ftw though!
ChernobylKinsman on 7 May '07 said:
Ahh, the classic underpants of supreme strategy/comfort, may they serve you well.
Lightbulb on 8 May '07 said:
Victory is assured? That is of course until they catch up with your tech i guess. If you have stopped research will you be able to produce enough ships to crush them or is the idea to build one or two more fleets and then go back to research?
Aircool_212 on 8 May '07 said:
Stardock is about the best place to get it (no suprises). I go for the digital download so I can play right away, then for the cost of shipping they'll send you the boxed version. To me, that's the ideal way to sell online as I have a nice shiny box/manual/chart and unopened CDROM for future use if needed.
As for naming ships, I always use WWII aircraft, don't know why, but there's something about a fleet of Spitfire's and Lancasters that sounds cool. Oh, I know why now, it's because my made up race is called The Brittish Empire and they're real Imperialistic Bastards. There's fun to be had though with the irony of India rebelling
Still, great blog/thread. Always good to see some of the readers getting interested in the game. Maybe we should have more of these for some of the less mainstream games as this blog gives so much more for the feel of the game than any review ever can.
Love it, keep it up
Gibbonfiend on 8 May '07 said:
Great Stuff - It's given me a taste for playing it again as soon as my exams are over (just like I did last year). The great thing is that because of the expansion pack and the relentless additions and support that the game is given post release, it will be almost like playing the sequel compared to last year! More columns like this would be great.
Anonymous on 8 May '07 said:
Just caught up from Day 3 to Day 9. This is gripping. I feel embaressed. At the very least I'm going to buy the game.
Lightbulb on 8 May '07 said:
I think i will call my ships in the manner of Iain M Banks in his Culture novels:
GCU - General contact unit
Classes of GCU are usually named after geographical features, some of the known classes are:
* Mountain Class
* Ridge Class
* Escarpment Class
* River Class
General Offensive Unit
General Offensive Units (GOUs) are the main warships of the culture, the epitome of their (unwilling but highly efficient) capability to make war. The only type of vehicle comparable in firepower to a GOU would be a war-modified GSV (see for example GSV Lasting Damage).
Rapid Offensive Unit
Rapid Offensive Units' (ROUs) consist of little more than engines, weapons and the ship's Mind. While some ROUs are crewed, the crew complement on such vessels is much smaller than those of the more general purpose ships of the Culture, such as General Contact Units and General Systems Vehicles.
ROUs frequently store a copy of their Mind state with another ship before going into action, and these are frequently emplaced in new ships if the ROU does not survive. This is in part a reward for the self sacrifice of the ships, and a motivation for bravery in combat.
Some known classes are:
* Torturer Class
* Psychopath Class
* Gangster Class
* Thug Class
All from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_types ... Culture%29
-------------
I don't think GalCiv has REALLY REALLY big ships with manufacturing on board does it? Basically i am talking small planets with engines kinda size here.
Population 3 billion kinda thing?
Also can you individually name your craft or just give them a class name? I fancy using some of his names too. SOmething cool about having your ship called:
The GSV Just Read The Instructions or the GSV So Much For Subtlety. Or the ROU's Lapsed Pacifist, A Momentary Lapse Of Sanity, Now Look What You Made Me Do and Reformed Nice Guy.
Plus there are GCU's:
I Blame The Parents
I Blame The Parents II
I Blame Your Parents
Pentadact on 9 May '07 said:
You'll appreciate the title of the next entry, then.
Lightbulb on 9 May '07 said:
I look foward to it.
How many mroe days will this run or is it purely determiend how long sure survive.
It just occured to me, is this the race you are playing. Breeds like rabbits, no care for who they annoy:
http://www.ezprezzo.com/crazypics/suicide_bunny.html
Aircool_212 on 9 May '07 said:
Yeah, making up your own race is one of the great things about Gal Civ II. Like my British Empire which was based around creating high influence and ground attack. Civilisations usually get invaded or consumed. I build lots of influence space stations right next to tasty alien planets, they're usually more than happy to join the Empire (whilst a big invasion fleet orbits the planet)
I tried once to be a heartless machine race (called the 'Von Neumanns' maths & physics fans) but just didn't have enough of a mean streak to do them justice - once an alien race capitulated, I didn't have the cold heartedness needed to finish them off in true Von Neumann style. I might try again though after reading this thread.
BTW - the GCII blog has been the best thing to appear since PCG joined the website. If it hadn't appeared here I would have happily read it in the magazine. 10 out of 10 and a big thumbs up. Lets have some more, it might get me interested in games that I normally wouldn't consider; that would be a good thing.
Conan on 9 May '07 said:
So Tom you basically encountered the Gal Civ 2 equivalent of the Deathstar
Nice one.
I usually try to be fairly serious about the civilizations I create. Usually I create the Atlantean Empire (focussed on influence and diplomacy) and name all planets after lost continents, mythical places etc. Atlantis, Lemuria, Shamballa, Mu, Hyperboria, Agharti etc.
But tonight "The Iron Duke" takes to the Galaxy
I don't know what the PC Gamer teams schedule is like but maybe they could take turns to write a blog like this based on whatever game they choose. That would be great.
Pentadact on 9 May '07 said:
Sure, they can do that when I finish this. IN NINE YEARS.
I honestly have no idea how long it's going to last. I go from being fairly sure I can win it in another week or so, to being unable to see how it will ever end, to knowing I'm so totally screwed that it'll be over in days.
If people get sick of it I'll still play to the end, and just cover my slow death in one or two final posts.
Conan on 9 May '07 said:
You should just take it at a leisurely pace I reckon. I can't see anyone getting bored of it. This is exactly the kind of thing we want to read. It's inspiring.
I did start my own Medieval 2 blog in Extra Life a week or two ago but I wrote it in such detail that I realised it would end up being a tome. The release of official patch 1.2 also gave me an excuse to leave it.
Maybe I should write one from the perspective of "the Iron Duke" as he conquers the galaxy. Trouble is, I don't like war in these 4x games and peace and diplomacy don't make for the most exciting reads.
Oh well, good luck! Look forward to future installments.
ChernobylKinsman on 9 May '07 said:
Well, you single handedly made me decide to buy the game and it's expansion as soon as I am able..
You ahould get a commission ¬_¬
Lightbulb on 10 May '07 said:
Ditto.
Might start up my own blog infact... *ponders*
Aircool_212 on 10 May '07 said:
Heh, I guess the depth of the blog is reliant on the depth of the game - a blog on DOOM3 just wouldn't be interesting.
Football Manager might be another good one, especially with a lower division club. I can't think of too many games that allow such control over the direction of the game. Any games based on fixed missions of a plot wouldn't be able to create the same level of interest as the experience would be very similar to everyone elses.
Lots of the PCG staff must be playing things like this in their spare time....
Anyone got any ideas apart from 4x games or Football Manager.
ChernobylKinsman on 10 May '07 said:
I think it would depend how it was written, I'm sure a suitably witty, talented writer could make a doom 3 blog enticing.
It would have to be much shorter though.
Lightbulb on 10 May '07 said:
That is something of an OCP. Not quite sure what you should doi now...
Swarm his planets and try and draw him back away from you until you can rush research the big guns?
Inflammable Jim on 10 May '07 said:
Ah man, I love reading this. It's the feeling of doom. I mean, sure it's fun reading a blog where someone effortlessly conquers the universe but this feels a bit more personal, y'know?
Lightbulb on 10 May '07 said:
Well the size buys you SOMETHING: Time.
If you leave the Altaran planets undefended and raze everything on them just before they fall your oppoents will waste resources taking worthless rocks from you.
Meanwhile you can keep climbing the tech tree...
The other possibility to to remove all food production and drop the total population to a more manageable level.
Or of course you could sue for peace and offer a fairly significant amount of planets to sweeten the deal...
Can't wait to hear what actually happens.
Anonymous on 10 May '07 said:
Im with
:scorched earth.
Take any materials you can transport from anything remotely near the Drenigens, destroy the rest and set the population soaring. Not only will they be useless, they will be a lot of angry mouths for them to feed. As he gets bogged down you can build a battle fleet and a raiding fleet in your homelands. Pick a spot to defend, then send a small group of fast raiders to tie up slow moving battle fleets behind his lines. I still havent been delivered my game but this usually works in Rome.
zipdrive on 13 May '07 said:
I add my voice to those praising this blog. excellent work.
I advise others who want to write such a game blog that you have to write it WELL, like Tom does... That's what differentiates between a gripping read and a dry "galactic history" textbook.
Now that I've played the GC2 demo, I really want to buy it, it's just seems so deep I might drown...
Aircool_212 on 13 May '07 said:
Re-created my Von Neumann race in Dark Avatar, but this time as an opponent.
They totally wiped the floor
For a race that are supposed to be nothing more than a bunch of self replicating machines (read up on Von Neumann machines for more info) they acted exactly like they should. They didn't have the most powerful military (and in fact, rarely used it), they just consumed other races, planet by planet, minebase by minebase just exactly like they should.
Although I didn't do to well in the game, it was still a great joy to play as the AI for the Von Neumanns really made them come to life and differentiate their 'personality' from the other races.
It's a tribute to the AI of the game that it played my made up race as intended, but wasn't predictable at the same time.
Pentadact on 13 May '07 said:
A Von Neumann Catastrophe, you might say?
Aircool_212 on 14 May '07 said:
A Von Neumann Catastrophe, you might say?
Aircool_212 on 14 May '07 said:
A Von Neumann Catastrophe, you might say?
Aircool_212 on 14 May '07 said:
A Von Neumann Catastrophe, you might say?
Aircool_212 on 16 May '07 said:
Just like the Civ series, it's one of those games where you want to win, but can still have a cracking game, regardless of the outcome.
Really enjoying the blog, and anyone who's played the game knows how committed you have to be to get to that stage.
Conan on 17 May '07 said:
Hey Tom, just a thought but if you can go so far ahead in research then you could try for the Technological Victory.
Although be warned, when you come close to achieving this the AI unleashes its full fury upon you.
Great reading still.
godlikesteve on 17 May '07 said:
....ROFLMAOBBQWTFLOL!!!!!!!!!
Isnt "f**k" a bit lacking in drama? Thats going to bug me all day now, wondering what happened to your crabs...
That did not sound right, but you know what i mean...
Lightbulb on 17 May '07 said:
No no. Crab. Singular. I believe he could only afford ot rush build a signle vessel and it exploded on contact...
I vote swarms of single vessels with blackhole guns.
godlikesteve on 17 May '07 said:
I know there was only one... but it sounded funnier with the plural.
*shrug* i still want to know what inspired that fantastically enigmatic "f**k". Mainly because its always the last thing i say before turning GalCiv 2 off at night.... i just suck at turn based strat.
Dyu on 17 May '07 said:
I can't even find and buy this game on the high street!
Conan on 17 May '07 said:
It'll be hard to find. Play.com has Galactic Civilizations 2: Dread Lords but if you want Dark Avatar as well I think the only option is to order diretly from their website.
http://www.galciv2.com/
Aircool_212 on 17 May '07 said:
Yeah, download it then get them to ship you the box as well; best of both worlds, play as soon as it's downloaded then have a nice shiny box with manual, cd etc...
As for the person who sucks at 4x tbs, I do to, even though I love 'em.
godlikesteve on 18 May '07 said:
I had to go all the way into the depths of the (ridiculously dis-organised) games/software dept of my local PC World for a copy, no-one else seemed to:
1. Sell it. Or:
2. Had even heard of it.
Go figure. Barring downloading it (i dont download games, ever. I need the shiny box and book.) you might have a bit of difficulty.
I suck at most strat games, never really understood why since i love them so much... you would think after nearly a decade id be a bit better at them.
Oh well, i still own at CS and BF.
Lightbulb on 18 May '07 said:
Go to the developers website. Select Download and Post me the box. Play the game. Get the box a few dasy later. Remind me of the problem?
Aircool_212 on 18 May '07 said:
After my Von Neumann catastrophe, I started another game a few night ago.
This time, the problem comes from another user made race based on Morninglightmountain from Peter F Hamilton's Pandora's Star duo of books.
This time I pre-empted the bastards. They'd declared war on a minor race in my territory (I've seen this dastardly trick before). Whilst their small invasion fleet was on the way to the Dark Yor Planet, I shut down their 2 major industrial planets with Agents on each factory. I'd put 25% of my cash into espionage right from day one. I had an army of agents in cold storage, they obviously had only a few as I can still produce them quicker than they can get rid of them
With their 2 most productive planets producing nothing, their ship production has slowed to a crawl
Gap Generator on 18 May '07 said:
Morninglightmountain always reminded me of the Zerg from Starcraft. Which is basically what it was, with technology.
ksyed0 on 18 May '07 said:
I started a game of GalCiv II when it first came out. I haven't finished the game yet (almost a year - ? - later). To be fair, I haven't played in a while, but I wasn't even using the largest galaxy.
I'm pretty dominant now, and have used a similar approach. Lots of research and economy, trading techs with the smaller and distant civs, and using influence to expand my borders tremendously. I don't have to invade planets, I just broadcast MTV and sell them Coke until they want to join me.
I bought it online, its the best way to go. You don't need a CD, just use their updater and it will install on any of your machines. Too bad it won't server-store my saved games so i can play them on any machine too.
Hint, buy tokens for their site, and then the game, with the tokens, you get a 20% discount or so.
Too bad there's no built in blog generator, or newspaper?
MKS
Aircool_212 on 19 May '07 said:
Alas, I'll never see how well Morninglightmountain got on. I've just been on the back foot against the Drath Legion. Stuck in an isolated corner, I chose to surrender to the Altarians.
I knew it was going to be tough when I first saw the map. I guess the Drath were correct, the Galaxy wasn't big enough for the both of us
Conan on 19 May '07 said:
Well last night I bought Galactic Civilizations 2: Gold Edition from the website. Of course stupid me forgot to select that I also wanted a boxed copy sent out but a quick e-mail sorted that out. Yay for helpful cutomer service!
So I gave Dark Avatar a quick blast at around 4am. What a difference it makes to the game. Ive seen sequels with less changes, additions and improvements. Well worth it if you've only played Dread Lords thus far.
Dyu on 19 May '07 said:
It's a pretty big Download! I have a 40gig capped net.
ChernobylKinsman on 19 May '07 said:
It's what, 2 gig at most? (no clue but it's the equiv of 2 CDs right?)
Conan on 20 May '07 said:
It's 1.35 gig and it only took me about two hours to download last night. It was really no trouble at all.
Anonymous on 20 May '07 said:
Erm... this AI seems bugged.
Why the hell would a warlike race on the brink of victory declare peace? Why should single weak ships be able to defend planets indefinitely? Looking at the strategy of the author, there is no way that he should be alive at this point. You can't take a persistently warlike stance without the military to match it. Realistically, the player's only option at this point would be to somehow break apart the alliance, and use them as cover.
The devs really should issue a patch so that this account cannot happen. If you win this, I applaud you, but I don't think you should be allowed to win.
KieronGillen on 20 May '07 said:
As you'll note in the beginning, while playing an enormous game, he's not playing against the AI at its optimum level. High level GalCiv AI is genuinely brutal.
KG
Dyu on 20 May '07 said:
I have a Althon 2100+XP, 512 ram and (Don't laugh)a ATI 8500 64mb.
Daemon Roye on 20 May '07 said:
Any chance I can play this game if I have an Nvidia Geforce FX 5800?
Lightbulb on 20 May '07 said:
Runs on my brothers GF4MX so i don't see why not...
Lightbulb on 21 May '07 said:
ps download the demo and see...
Conan on 21 May '07 said:
Just incase anyone hasn't noticed, you can read Tom's review of Galactic Civilizations 2: Dark Avatar http://www.computerandvideogames.com/ar ... ?id=164303
Also, the original Gal Civ 2 is supported on X-Fire but Dark Avatar is not. There is a topic of people bemoaning its absence. If you use X-Fire, please, please post your support for Dark Avatar to be supported on X-Fire http://www.xfire.com/xf/modules.php?nam ... 1&start=45
Anonymous on 21 May '07 said:
You had me on "Outside Context Problem". Awesome reference! Awesome like a hotdog!
M_the_C on 21 May '07 said:
Just thought I'd mention this regarding buying the Gold edition of the game.
It is available on Total Gaming which is run by Stardock. There is an option to buy tokens instead of buying just the game you want.
This works out cheaper for Galactic Civilizations Gold edition.
10 tokens cost $69.95.
Gal Civ 2 is $44.95 or 5 tokens.
In pounds the game costs around £23, with tokens it only works out to around £17.50. Plus you have 5 tokens left over.
Edit: Links.
Aircool_212 on 21 May '07 said:
The AI may often do unexpected things. However, there's usually a reason for it (especially if you've got mega events (or whatever they're called) switched on).
Being stuck in a large galaxy with only the Yor, Korx and the ones with the funny wide heads, the Terran Empire decided to lean towards evil to be on the safe side. After a historic friendship with the Yor & Korx, things were looking good, especially as the Yor had allied with me (after becoming suitably evil).
Trouble is, at some diplomatic dinner, one of the Terran guys somehow offended some female Yor(?), by spitting soup or something and War was declared instantly....
The same thing can happen when you're on the back foot. The AI will quite happily shake things up every now and then.
Evo on 21 May '07 said:
Well after reading what has been posted so far and playing the demo on this months disc i have signed my own exam failure form by buying the Gold Edition from the Devs Site!
Trouble is my 'net is bugging up at average of under 10k/sec...taking a while to download
At least i can revise
Damn i want it now!
I may generally suck at these kinda games, i abandon the military and usaually go for a try and avoid getting killed plan
Pentadact on 22 May '07 said:
There's a very, very good reason for this, and I've only just worked out what it is myself. It's a reason that's shown very clearly in one of the screenshots in this article. Basically you're thinking too player-centric, assuming that wiping me out is the Drengin's main aim. GalCiv's AI doesn't even know which of its enemies is the player, and the Drengin are using me as a pawn in a much grander scheme.
I wondered about that too. Turns out they're not. More on Day 20.
True, I set them all to 'Random'. So we don't know how smart or dumb any of them are, except by how they behave. And knowing what I know now about what the Drengin are up to, I suspect they're set to very smart indeed. Not as smart as the Terrans, but a lot smarter than me.
Lightbulb on 22 May '07 said:
You know i find myself wanting to see if we could have done anything about the situation.
Don't suppose you have the old save games do you?
Sounds like a PGF challenge to win from say half way through the game...
Aircool_212 on 22 May '07 said:
lol, just go evil and ally yourselves with the bad guys. You know they're gonna try and screw you over at some point, but until then, you can let them fight and get ready for the inevitable invasion.
The AI can be sneaky basts though, and as someone said, the individual races AI isn't geared towards differentiating between human and AI players.
Personally, I'm a terrible warmonger in this game and can't help but concentrate on research and economy first. This is a big weakness as I lose a lot to early invasions
It's my own fault though.
blarnak on 22 May '07 said:
I'm not familliar with this game, but are you sure you can't just raze/sell everything you don't need and cancell all production to get back to the debt cut-off point? You only need a couple more turns of full on research right?
Pentadact on 22 May '07 said:
You can't sell the buildings on your planets, and no-one's willing to trade with me anyway because they're all at war with me, and razing doesn't save any money because everything's already shut down because of the debt.
ChernobylKinsman on 22 May '07 said:
Somehow a fitting end for the reckless Specters, the debt collectors are coming for your kneecaps and the prawns can't stop them.
Anonymous on 22 May '07 said:
A truly epic tale, and well-written besides! I look forward to the final updates.
BladeMaster0182 on 22 May '07 said:
Hey, You can get GalCiv 2 at bestbuy.com for only $40. Thats $5 cheaper than the dev's website. Here's the link: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp ... 8043813113
Moonblade on 22 May '07 said:
Did you get paid for advertising this game?
'cause if not, you really should have. I know that -I- bought it after reading this.
This is an amazing read, and reading it after I started my own campaigns(and losing, badly a couple times) gave me some insights into the way the game works that just reading manual's didn't seem to give.
Not to mention I love your responses to being threatened for cash.
Anonymous on 22 May '07 said:
personally, I'd rather give the extra $5 tip to the devs, so I'll be buying it from them.
Conan on 22 May '07 said:
It's a shame this will soon be all over. Hopefully Tom or another writer will do another blog. Good work.
Yep Ive been playing Gal Civ loads thanks to this. Bit of advice for any new players, use the pre-built races for your first couple of games.
Anonymous on 23 May '07 said:
I wish I had 18 million people to pack on a planet. I mean... *cough* ahem. Credits! Thats what it's all about. All about the credits. I can't see why the Dagon or whatever leader refused your diplomatic offer. I would have taken it any day. Some people are just stupid like that I guess.
godlikesteve on 23 May '07 said:
Congrats to Tom.... that was one hell of a ride.
As for tech victories being anti-climactic, i would akin it to the last second redemption from almost certain destruction... kinda like in Armageddon. Or something...
I mean, anyone can flatten the galaxy with twenty million laser packed deathships... it takes style to orchestrate a total victory without firing a shot.
Very nicely done mate.
Daemon Roye on 23 May '07 said:
What a ride! Tom has a talent for this whole game blog thing!
I wonder what the Drengins' problem was?
This has single-handedly convinced me to get this game.
*off to buy from the devs' site...*
Anonymous on 23 May '07 said:
What??! You can't leave us hanging like that!! What happened to the Drengins??
My God I feel like my girlfriend when she watches Hollyoaks.
KieronGillen on 23 May '07 said:
The Hollyoaks... OF INTERGALACTIC SPACE DEATH!*
KG
*And transcendence.
Quenthalien on 23 May '07 said:
I already owned GalCiv II, but had strayed in favor of faster paced entertainments. This reminded me of why I liked it in the first place & I plan to get me a little of that expansion action. Plus the writer was funny as balls (thats a technical term btw).
Anonymous on 23 May '07 said:
Brilliant.
I'd love to see more blogs like this on games. Thinking about it now, the best thing I like about the PCG reviews have been the indulgent parts. Like the Oblivion review, for example.
If only this game had a 'spectate' option after you'd 'won' to see what happened after you transcended.
Anonymous on 23 May '07 said:
That was brilliant, Tom. Utterly utterly brilliant.
Anonymous on 23 May '07 said:
In answer to your final Q, yes, we do want more of this kind of thing. Steaming galumphing hordes of it, please.
Anonymous on 23 May '07 said:
Awesome stuff Tom. It's been fun to follow and I'll add my vote for "yay, more of this please".
Anonymous on 23 May '07 said:
Having never read anything on these sites before, I wholeheartedly vote for more of this sort of thing. Although you have to be clear why this worked -- it wasn't the underlying game (as much as I love GalCiv2) as much as it was Tom's funny and interesting writing about it.
Anonymous on 23 May '07 said:
So you're telling me a wave of fertility swept across the universe? Strange. You should have saved right before the end, then after you won gone back and see what would have happened. The Drengen surely would have done something spectacular even if they lost. And what happened to those planet-ships?
Anonymous on 23 May '07 said:
That blog was so awesome, I vote for another, that would be awesome.
HighWater on 23 May '07 said:
Wow...
Sounds like an awesome game I must say, and reported in an extraordinarily well put way. The AI seems quite intelligent and the complexity of the game is very appealing... It's just that... Well, I've NEVER heard of it before!
Anonymous on 23 May '07 said:
I would like to see this as a permanent article. I was directed here from a link that a web comic posted and I was so intrigued that I bought the game right after I finished reading it. Stardock should really be paying you, you have probably sold several hundred copies with this blog.
Give us more!
AgentZero on 23 May '07 said:
Please, please do more of this sort of thing. Fantastic article. SO good I finally signed up for your horrible new website.
Yllanes on 23 May '07 said:
Fascinating.
I didn't know this game but I am a Civilization fanatic. After reading this post I have just bought a copy.
Anonymous on 23 May '07 said:
Very entertaining blog/article/thingie/whatever!
I can't wait to see more of these.
Dyu on 23 May '07 said:
That's was thrilling! That's a kinda of thing i like to read on a blog. I've got a Athlon 2100+Xp, ati 8500 64mb and 512 ram, will this hand GalCiv 2?
Anonymous on 23 May '07 said:
Damn right we enjoyed it!
Please do more of this kind of thing!
Silent Hunter 4 methinks?
Anonymous on 23 May '07 said:
That was brilliant. Please do another one, that actually became one of the sites I visit daily just to read what happened next. That was so much fun to read, please do another!
Anonymous on 23 May '07 said:
This was absolutely awesome. So awesome in fact i've actually registered here to comment on how awesome it was. Y'all really need to do more things like this.
Anonymous on 23 May '07 said:
Awesome, not only did this blog/epic get me to purchase this game, but it got me to sign up just to tell you this was awesome and to do more please!
Anonymous on 23 May '07 said:
Ditto to Burritoclock.
I'm one more for "you single handedly convinced me to buy this game and the expansion," and another "more blogs plz," too.
Of course, beware that it wasn't just the game, or even just the writing of the article (although that was a major part of it), but the humor of the game itself that made this the most awesome thing I've read in years. If you'd played the game straight, then no matter how well or humorously written, the article wouldn't be this good.
eternity1991 on 23 May '07 said:
Excellent stuff! Keep it up.
yxxxx on 24 May '07 said:
Oh now i like the sound of that.
Anonymous on 24 May '07 said:
Wow.
I withdraw my gripes about the AI.
Hmm, how is espionage and infiltration implemented in this game? As far as I can tell, there doesn't seem to be any? It would have been interesting to see how the game would change if the Drengin could find out how close you are to tech victory, or if conversely you can infiltrate them and find out why they are behaving the way they are. (And maybe then manipulate the situation into a proper military victory!)
Conan on 24 May '07 said:
In the Foreign Stats menus there is a slider that lets you choose how much money to invest in espionage against a specific race.
I never really bother with espionage in games and have done it only once in Gal Civ 2.
wildhook2 on 24 May '07 said:
Luckily I bought original GalCiv2 last year. I purchased and downloaded DA yesterday via Stardock. God now I'm loving it!
Excellent blog, Mr Tom!
Anonymous on 24 May '07 said:
Excellent blog, I was already going to get the game, this has made me want it today.
We definetely need more of this stuff!
Lightbulb on 24 May '07 said:
There were changes made in the expansion pack which improved Espionage.
zipdrive on 24 May '07 said:
Great blog!
I'd like to see more of these.
The writing was top notch, keep it on!
What would make a good game for a blog?
Aircool_212 on 24 May '07 said:
Top stuff, and loved the analysis at the end. I totally agree on the AI thing,
The other races aren't out to beat you, they're out to win for themselves. At all costs.
Perhaps just as important though, the blog can give you a feel for the game so much more than a review can. I'm already a fan of GalCiv I & II so there's no need to sell it to me. However, I wonder how many games are out there that I've never considered, but a blog like this one would spark my interest.
Now all we need is some tips in the magazine
Many thanks and I hoped you enjoyed playing the game and writing the blog as much as we enjoyed reading it; definately what gaming is all about.
Anonymous on 24 May '07 said:
Superb tale, Tom. And your words were nifty too.
Thaddeus on 24 May '07 said:
Brilliant, enjoyed every bit of it.
SANAS on 24 May '07 said:
Brilliant blog. 1112/10
Please do MED2 next!
Gabanski83 on 24 May '07 said:
Not sure if you already knew Tom, but this article has made front page news on GalCiv2's home page! Nice work. I noticed it whilst looking for info on how the hell to start downloading GalCiv 2, now I've bought the damn thing and installed Stardock...
Fecking technology...
blarnak on 24 May '07 said:
That was fantastic. Loved it. Do more. Good job. The AI really like Cyberdyne, it's so smart.
Pentadact on 24 May '07 said:
Wow, for the second time. They must like me.
With Stardock, you should be able to just go to Tools > Register Product and enter your GalCiv key.
People using Stardock: what do you think of it? I'm a fan. I like that the interface is Windows-conformant as opposed to Steam's rebelliously graphics-heavy skin. It's less ambitious but also less intrusive than Steam - once you've installed the game you never need to use Stardock again, the game itself runs independently. Even if you start it up, it'll check with you before auto-patching your games to the latest version, in case you're about to play one and just want to get to it.
Gabanski83 on 25 May '07 said:
It's not very newb-friendly, I find. Yook me a bit to work out how to use it. And I find the layout cluttered and confusing. The idea behind it is good though.
I prefer the simplicity of Steam though, at the moment.
Conan on 25 May '07 said:
I like it although like Gabanski said it isn't as simple as it perhaps could be. Took me a while to figure out how Im meant to download the game after I had bought it. Easy once you know how.
Aside from that I love the idea of the system and the philosophy behind it.
The updates that you do receive are so much more substantial than the average patch as well. This is one of the many reasons I believe that Stardock are a company that actually do deserve my money. Frankly, I don't feel the same about a lot of companies.
Aircool_212 on 25 May '07 said:
Much prefer it to Steam. It may not be as slick presentation & navigation wise. However it's far less obtrusive, doesn't download games that you already own but have uninstalled and crash. Plus, big bonus - you get the hardware through the post. Friendly bunch too.
wildhook2 on 25 May '07 said:
Mr Tom, for Stardock question - It is useful but is a bit annoying. When I bought and downloaded DA, it kept saying that my original GalCiv 2 invalid :/ - I kept hitting 'register' until it was valid.
I'd love to buy AD in UK but they won't release it over here! Stupid thing! Europe is world's 2nd largest market.
Duoae on 25 May '07 said:
I loved this blog on GalCiv 2.... it's tipped my money to buying the gold version of the game. Definitely have more blog posts like this!
Thanks for your effort!
MalexT on 26 May '07 said:
This is the funniest thing I've read in a while! Somehow it also manages to be quite informative about the game itself, although I'm sure that's entirely by accident
By all means, more of the same, please!
Anonymous on 26 May '07 said:
Great blog, really enjoyed it.
The mega events are a great idea to shake things up a bit. I've been playing on the biggest universe and was quite happily tootling away in my corner, steadily overpowering my only neighbour with my cultural wiles while out of range of all the other empires for a long time when one of my researchers uncovered an artifact that gave all the ships in the galaxy infinite range. It was utter chaos, with everyone declaring wars on the empires that hadn't needed a military. Like mine.
And now a disgruntled worker on one of my planets has killed the visiting leader of the Korath Clan, who immediately declared war. Ooh er. Bloody careless of the Korath clan tbh.
Also, piling all of your racial stats into economy bonuses gives you an insane amount of money - 100% spending at the moment and I'm still making hundreds of billions of credits every week.
Conan on 26 May '07 said:
A funny event happened in my latest game. The evil and warlike Drengin suddenly became a peace loving culture
Unfortunately they had already commenced war with me so that one in a million event couldn't save me by that time 
Anonymous on 27 May '07 said:
I used Stardock to get the game and all the stuff, and I like the way it is set up, but since I haven't used it for anything more as of yet, I don't have much experience. It seemed good to me, so far. More than the program itself though, I love the way the system works. Download it on any computer, no CD key, just get the serial number, which you barely even have to worry about losing forever. They're just so nice about it!
zipdrive on 27 May '07 said:
I've bought the game (through Stardock and the token thingie) yesterday.
While it took me a while to get to grips with it (opening an account, giving my details again, getting two emails, and so on..), once the thing was installed, it's pretty nice. Only after starting the game up and discovering it didn't include DA did I notice that I had to download it separately, along with the tutorials and movies.
BTW, does anyone know how I can get a hard copy as well, or does using tokens prevent it?
(note: you can get Uplink for a single token! joy!)
M_the_C on 31 May '07 said:
Buying with tokens shouldn't matter, you should be able to pay the shipping and handling costs and they will send it too you. Don't know how exactly though. Sorry.
Anonymous on 29 Jul '07 said:
Yes, yes I did enjoy it! Please do!
Awesome stuff!
ddude700 on 28 Aug '07 said:
Thank you Tom. That was both funny and interesting. Thank You.
Anonymous on 17 Jan '08 said:
PCG/CVG staff...
How many hits is this thing getting? Its nearly always at the top of 'popular now' list.
Chronos on 11 Feb '08 said:
Please tell me that you will get the next expnsion and post a Immense story for the new galaxy size. PLEASE!
Serenity on 30 Apr '08 said:
Come on Tom, make it 150! You know you want to!
Colthor on 30 Apr '08 said:
Like this?
Admin edit: Thanks, chaps.
2H2K on 27 Aug '08 said:
That was a really enjoyable read
I throughly enjoyed reading all about it and the ending perfectly wraps up the entire "saga". I am glad you enjoyed playing it and to answer the last statement, Yes do more of that sort of thing 
Cheers
kaine on 7 Mar '10 said:
man your people sure were horny
Judokast on 8 Feb '11 said:
That was a really fun read. I especially liked the epilogue. It was fun to learn that yes, the AI, actually does have a plan even if as you play you don't notice it at times. Yup, that was fun to read thanks for posting!