So, the AI has gotten a lot of work these past few months. Each race in GalCiv gets its own AI with its own philosophy on how to win. So how effective is it.

Let's find out!

First we need to design a map.

Next, set up the game.

And now...

We shall find out...I am the leader of the Paridians and the galaxy will be ours..maybe.

Who shall be victorious!

June 2227: Terran outreach

The Terrans have done well in taking the lion's share of the planets. Can they hold them though?

Observation #1: The Terran Alliance AI is not very good with constructors.

Observation #2: Terran Alliance should be doing better at military tech. They are researching fine but they're not researching weapons.

Very peaceful game so far...

The Thalan jumped out with a really powerful ship pretty early:

But the Terran Alliance is still defenseless so I'm going to take them out. The Thalan have already declared war.

The Thalan focused right to large ships and it will be interesting to see if it works.

Meanwhile, I've taken two Terran Alliance colonies with my spore ships.

GRR. I coded this part of the game so I know it's not biased against the player but it always seems to be against me anyway!

To defeat the  Thalan, I need to design a ship that goes against what they've created. They rushed researched large ships but they can't fit much on them. Moreover, they only have low-end lasers on their ships.

So I have designed the Thalan blade. It should, in theory, be quite effective against Thalan ships -- if I can produce them before the Thalan overwhelm me.

And I do manage to get a Thalan blade out as well as a Thalan-focused fighter out which prove quite lethal.

The Thalans have trouble getting through my shields.

Unfortunately...

The Thalans have gotten wise too and now they have equipped their ships with defenses against my ships.

 

So game 1 goes to the Thalan!

This next time, I'll be more aggressive...

EDIT: EU users should now be able to download the update for 2.02. 

All of the tweaks were done by Brad over Thanksgiving weekend, since he can't help but start tweaking stuff while he's playing.  :)   So you have an additional reason to be thankful this year!

+ TWEAK: Ethical alignment becomes increasingly a source of tension as the game goes on in terms of diplomatic relations

+ TWEAK: Altarian AI more sensitive about falling behind in military hardware tech.

+ TWEAK: Thalan AI more sensitive about falling behind in military hardware tech.

+ TWEAK: Completely removed Orbital Fleet Manager [English version]

+ TWEAK: Medium Scale Building more expensive

+ TWEAK: Advanced Computing more expensive

+ TWEAK: Advanced Starbase construction less expensive

+ TWEAK: Superior Hulls now give 10% more HP.

+ TWEAK: Hyperdrive less expensive

+ TWEAK: Xeno Communications less expensive

+ TWEAK: Various other research tweaks

+ FIXED: Bug with translated custom races

+ FIXED: Crash with minor race in localized versions

+ FIXED: Translation errors with tech trees + tech descriptions

+ FIXED: Ship style names not being translated

+ FIXED: Bug where localized tutorials were not loaded

+ FIXED: Bug where ability description was not translated

+ FIXED: Display bug on PlanetWnd when the descriptions of the tiles wouldn't change from planet to planet

I'm setting up a game today to play on this day after Thanksgiving. Here are screenshots from the game (I'll be updating this over the course of the day):

Large galaxy with no tech brokering (a tech I trade to someone else can't be traded by that civilization to someone else).

I want to have few stars but those stars should have lots of good planets.

 

I set up a custom player.

 

Gave my custom player their own techs, abilities, look, ship style, etc.

 

Randomized opponents.

 

Home planet.

 

Starting location.

 

I don't like the Korath anymore.. ;)

 

When you see a bunch of these coming, that's bad.

See Brad's post https://forums.galciv2.com/331132/page/1/#1954133 for more details and screenshots.

+ NEW: Added option to popup governor wnd (if there are governors) on colonization of a planet

+ NEW: Greater use of expanded sound track for background music

+ TWEAK: Drengin, Yor and Korath will now colonize more aggressively

+ TWEAK: Tourism revenue slowly increases over time

+ TWEAK: Music no longer changes at the end of a game year but rather periodically during the course of the year.

+ TWEAK:  Updates to some of the conversations (English only)

+ TWEAK:  Eliminated Orbital fleet manager

+ TWEAK: Added Fleet Command Center super project that gives all planets the ability to use what’s in orbit to defend planets

+ TWEAK: Terror Star techs substantially less expensive
 
+  FIXED: Remove race agents button doesn't work when the scrollbar is present

+  FIXED: Toggling music on/off doesn't work

+  FIXED: Problem with tech brokering

+  FIXED: Truncated cash string in offer when using auto-offer - I THINK that I fixed this

+  FIXED: Influence popup now goes to what the AI will accept (or max if it's not enough)

+  FIXED: Tint colors are not automatically set for ship style in select ship style wnd

+  FIXED: Ship Designer screens do not have any interface tint when loading from title screen

+  FIXED: Planetary governors now update build queue after planet quality/terraforming changes

+  FIXED: Added modifier to edge scroll speed to scale for zoom level

+  FIXED: Planet Details doesn't stop other windows from popping up

+  FIXED: Memory leak in the planetary governor

+  FIXED: Quick build list shows wrong stats for planetary improvements

+  FIXED: Bug where adding certain parts to a ship were not lit properly

Sorry it's late, but I wasn't in yesterday. 

Happy Thanksgiving, and to those of you outside of the US, happy weekend!

 

 

I don't have a specific change log in front of me but I can tell you a few of the things that went into v2.01 over 2.0.

First, the AI is better. I made changes to how the AI decides which planets to colonize and improved how they pick their research projects.  The overall "Feel" of 2.01 in terms of pacing and general fun is just much improved really in my opinion.

Second, the team fixed some crashes that we had noticed.  I'm not sure what caused them but I know that they're gone now. We're not sure how they crept in there but it was certainly something that got introduced in v2.0.

Another cool feature is really a set of changes to research costs and tourism that just make the game feel a bit better. It's hard to really define but long time players I think will appreciate the general maturing of the play balance.

Lastly,I updated more of the game images to get rid of older images. I'll bee doing this more and more as I play so expect a v2.02 at some point in the near future.  I play at very high resolution so when I see a low resolution planetary improvement, it drives me crazy.

Here are some screenshots:

 

Now, as part of my job, I have to play-test these games for hours and hours at a time.  It's a true sacrifice. What can I say, I'm a real hero.

 

This is truly why things like Twilight of the Arnor and v2.0 are so important. You really can future-proof a game by just enhancing the graphics and such without having to rewrite the entire game. 

I never get tired of that. ;)

I read on-line how some people don't even look at the battles. I must say, even after 2 years since the original release of GalCiv II, I still watch them. ;)