On February 12th Stardock will be releasing the expansion pack to Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords. The expansion pack, known as "Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar" has a ton of new features.
Troy Goodfellow of Games Radar has taken a look at a recent beta version of the expansion pack. Check it out!
Only a month left!
As we get closer to the completion of the expansion pack to Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords (known as Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar) we do a LOT of play testing.
That's where we play the game, with the game running in a window next to the debugger and play out the games.
But for fun, we also try to put together coherent stories for each game. For us, the biggest strength of GalCiv II is the sandbox mode -- where people can literally create their own universes and mythos and play out epic events.
In the link below, the rise of a custom civilization called "The Galactic Republic" is discussed.
Here are some screenshots from it (note that I have the graphics turned to lowest quality to run in debugger):
Read the full epic below!
In the year 2215, the Terran Alliance and Xendar Federation fought a war of annihilation. The Xendar were an up and coming civilization that was militarily aggressive and had already committed unspeakable atrocities. Believing that humans were weak, the Xendar attacked human colonies on the edge of Terran Alliance space.
The Terran Alliance struck back with a determination that shocked all of the galactic powers. The humans had spent nearly a century building a reputation of peace through diplomacy and trade. It was not realized until the Xendar wars that the Terran Alliance was also possessed a very lethal military ability.
The Xendar were ultimately wiped out and if any individual Xendar survives, it is known not. Few humans were willing to colonize the conquered Xendar worlds. But some were. With little support from the Terran Alliance, humans began colonizing the Xendar worlds and in time, declared their own independent civilization called the Galactic Republic. Technically, a "minor" civilization, the Galactic Republic is made up of mostly members of retired soldiers and diplomats of the Terran Alliance along with a smattering of Altarians and Torians who feel their allegiance is owed to the individuals who have proven time and time again their valor.
The Galactic Republic has focused on staying out of wars and being strong on trade. Yet, under the covers, they remain a potent lethal force. In the Pericles quadrant, the Drengin Empire, Arcean Empire, Terran Alliance, and the Galactic Republic maintain an uneasy peace. Much of this peace is due to outright fear of the Dread Lords who occupy a world somewhere near the middle of the quadrant (map: 4-Struggle).
The capital world of the Galactic Republic is Neala. It was one of the core planets of the Xendar Federation at one time and for good reason -- upon this world existed the Precursor Library of the Arnor. Researchers on the peninsula of Sia'tha where the library existed are 700% more productive.
The battle for the Pericles quadrant is one of trumph, tragedy, honor, and cowardice and tells a part of the fate of the Galactic Republic. This is their story.
Pericles Quadrant - January 2226.
The Galactic Republic, because of the wealth of its core worlds, is not well suited for expansion. How can one look outward when ones own planets are of such vast excellence? Or put another way, producing so much research and manufacturing is very expensive. The Galactic Republic's economy is strained enough just by making full use of its worlds let alone also paying for expensive new colonies and colony ships. But, the fate of minor civilizations has been grim and the Galactic Republic was determined not to end up like so many other minor civilizations.
By early 2227, the Galactic Republic was in contact with the other 3 major players in this quadrant.
The Galactic Republic was far behind economically and were ranked over all 3 out of 4. But were optimistic for the future. Its early goal was to establish strong trade relations with each of the civilizations. Trade revenue (in Dark Avatar) increases with the age of the trade route. Establishing them early, hence, is important.
While colonizing new worlds, the Galactic Republic were similar to their cousins of the Terran Alliance and weaved a "neutral" ethical path. The galaxy is a dangerous place and the humans of the Galactic Republic believed it naive to pass by all potential advantages but at the same time avoided being ruthless or callous unless at great need.
By October of 2227, the "colony rush" was coming to an end (there's a bug in the internal map reading code that prevents special environments from being read in -- this will be fixed in the next internal build but it means there aren't any special environments in this custom map yet).
The winner of the colony rush was the Terran Alliance who now had 11 colonies. The Drengin had 9. The Arceans 6. The Galactic Republic had 8. But no one had a homeworld like the Galactic Republic.
But at the conjunction of 3 of the powers was the planet of Nalar. Jewel of the quadrant but occupied by the Dread Lords. Buzzing about their vile but incredible world were ships of unimaginable power.
Nalar was a class 20 world. Whomever owned such a world would surely dominate the quadrant. But none could stand to the Dread Lord might. For now, the Dread Lords were dormant.
Meanwhile, the Galactic Republic was focusing on building a robust economy.
Skowbo was the dedicated economic world of the Galactic Republic. Right now, it was all potential. But once the banks and farms were completed, it would provide a great return on that investment. To help get it started, asteroid mines were re-directed to send resources to this world. The distance would mean that little would get there. But the extra 2 social resources it provided would mean that the initial factory would be built 10 weeks sooner, a crucial jumpstart.
The tax rate was not making people happy.
Even on Skowbo, the people wre unhappy and right now, it was the armpit of the Galactic Republic. In later days, much would change.
The Drengin, Terran Alliance, and Arceans, all being of different thought took very different paths.
The Terran Alliance home world was a planet called Zeus. They had plans for a very high population but took little heed in entertaining their population.
The Drengin Empire was even worse. They focused mostly on factories and production with only small heed to research.
And the Arceans were much like the Terran Alliance
As for the Galactic Republic, their home world was by far the best and most varied.
(and this is how the AI is modified and tweaked, evaluated, and re-playtested).
After AI modifications the Drengin chooses:
Internal AI logs indicate that it has determined that for its particular strategy tree that a max population of 12b is satisfactory and that with a 68% morale it really doesn't need to build a morale improvement.
By April of 2228, something had disturbed the Dread Lords from their slumber.
No one knows what the Dread Lords truly look like, for these Precursors are beyond our understanding. But they now sought the destruction of the Galactic Republic.
Their wrath was swift. Like a plague of locusts, they swooped. Nothing could withstand them. The Arceans shared their wrath. But not so the Drengin Empire mysteriously enough.
Using what wiles the Galactic Republic had, they made an economic treaty with the Drengin Empire in exchange for their research and a number of technologies.
With any luck, this would keep the Drengin focused on other potential..prey.
The Dread Lord began conquering worlds. 10 of them were enough to take out entire armies. The Galactic Republic had relied too much on trade and become the weakest and hence the most vulnerable target.
The Galactic Republic recognized it was a race. Could it build enough of a military might to thwart the Dread Lords before their numbers were sufficient to utterly overwhelm them. In the Fall of 2228, the Dread Lords, while powerful, were few in number.
To many humans who lived on the worlds of the Galactic Republic, despair seemed the only conclusion. For even if the Dread Lord menace contained, the loss of so many galactic resources would be irreplaceable. Even so soon, the Drengin Empire had begun to take ownership of the resources that were once controlled by the Galactic Republic.
The Terran Alliance, while remaining out of the frey in this quadrant, was not unsympathetic. They voted with the Galactic Republic to let the Galactic Republic be the home of the interstellar prison which greatly increased revenue on the world it was on.
But all was not lost..not yet. The Arcean Empire was strong and while the Drengin and Dread Lords both were bearing down on them, they fought valiantly and slowed the tide.
There was a growing movement to ask for help from Earth. The Terran Alliance was powerful and an alliance with them could possibly save the fledgling Galactic Republic. But pride was strong and they had already allowed great hurts to be done to them. Better to fight alone than to ask help from their former kinsman. And so it was, that a great opportunity was passed on. The Terran Alliance suggestion of alliance rejected and the Galactic Republic stood alone amongst its crumbling borders.
And so it was that the Galactic Republic, which had never constructed a ship larger than 50 meters, set out to build battle ships of sizes that would put even the Drengin Empire on notice. The question was, whether these immense ships would be powerful enough.
The Avenger class battle ship was over a kilometer long and had a crew of over 300. It had an attack rating of 36 and defense of 4. Would it be enough?
While the Dread Lords had managed to take 4 key worlds of the Galactic Republic, the Arcean Empire had been nibble enough to retake those worlds. However, the Arceans had, thus far, been unwilling to hand those worlds back over to to the Galactic Republic. It would be a source of tension in the future. GR agents had discovered that the Dread Lords relied on a power source on Nalar. If that planet could be conquered, it would undo all of the Dread Lord might. Then, a settling of accounts could be made with civilizations who profited from the harm done to the Galactic Republic.
It was at the dawn of 2230 that the Drengin Empire got a taste of the Dread Lord wrath. Now the Drengin Empire was beginning to suffer from the Dread Lord menace.
The problem was that even Dread Lord frigates were ridiculously powerful. But the Galactic Republic has "first strike" capability as part of its "super ability". If it could get the first shot in, it might be enough.
But the Dread Lords were no fools. They had set up pickets to guard the pathway in to Nalar. They would have to be dealt with. But at this point, everyone was at war with the Dread Lords and the Terran Alliance had become powerful enough to take on the Dread Lords directly.
The Galactic Republic did not have the power of the Terran Alliance but they did have first-strike. If they could initiate the attack, they might just have a chance...
Success! At least, when it came to a single Dread Lord ship.
Nalar was under siege by all sides. Taking Nalar would be a great victory for the Galactic Republic.
Woe to the Dread Lords. The Galactic Republic has taken their home world! Now, the the Galactic Republic saw themselves as mighty and would set things as they would throughout the quadrant.
Nalar was covered by production fascilities far beyond our understanding. We couldn't even begin to undersatnd what it all was.
Moreover, control of Nalar came with it immense influence advantages. The prestige of the Galactic Republic had reached a new high and while it lacked the economic and military power to back up that influence, such things have tended to follow the other.
To back up the influence of the Galactic Republic was the Retribution class Battleship.
The people of the Galactic Republic had seen fire and death at the hands of the Dread Lords and knew nor cared not that there was great valor performed against the Dread Lords from the Arceans, Terrans, and even the Drengin Empire. The Arceans appeared to have profited the most. For the galactic balance had changed.
The Galactic Republic now only had 7 colonies (making up some losses by picking up legendary Nalar). The Terran Alliance now had 12. The Drengin Empire had 9. And the Arceans now had 8. The Arceans had two new worlds -- at the expense of the Galactic Republic.
And so it was that the Galactic Republic had reached a fork in the road.
Two of the powers loved the Galactic Republic while the third felt great friendship with it. In essence, the Galactic Republic could share the quadrant peacefully at this point. But pride was ever at work within the human population. Was it not the founders of the Galactic Republic who had defeated the Xendar? Was it not the Galactic Republic who had annihilated the Dread Lords?
The population's retort to the love and friendship of others was that this was due by right and that these foreign powers should want to attach themselves to the rising star of the Galactic Republic. And so, the opportunity to achieve victory by diplomacy was passed and much bloodshed that followed might have been averted had they otherwise chosen.
Galactic Republic is light blue. Drengin is red. Arcean yellow and Terran Alliance deep blue.
The economy of the Galactic Republic had been wrecked by the Dread Lords. But the means of rebuilding was there.
Skowbo had grown and still had not reached its potential. Nalar was the mega producer but came at a cost.
The ships of the line were an interesting study as well..
|
Galactic Republic |
Terran Alliance |
Drengin Empire |
Arcean Empire | |
| State of the art capital ship |
Retribution Class (Battleship) |
Knoxville Class (Frigate) |
Kov'ax Class (Battleship) |
Mondo class (Frigate) |
The Arceans had given up on beam weapons and instead had decided to start over on the missile weapons. It was a time of transition for them as their ships were now significantly further behind.
(dec 30, 2006)
The Arcean Empire had profited from the war with the Dread Lords. Losing no worlds and suffering little while picking up worlds that the Dread Lords had conquered.
The Galactic Republic recognized that they were in no position to go on a galactic crusade. However, they saw the Arcean Empire as being ripe for retribution.
But the Arceans were friends with the powerful Terran Alliance. And the Terrans were much more sophisticated in their handling of their planets than the Arceans. (Each computer player has their own AI behind it written in C++. In order to prevent holes in strategies, each one is written as uniquely as possible. The Terran Alliance have a lot more work done on their planetary improvements and what technologies they choose than the Arceans. The Arceans, by contrast, are better at managing tactical fleets. This wasn't done on purpose but rather just the way that different algorithms -- all trying to produce the best results -- have worked out).
The Arceans are bold. The Terrans are cautious.
Westerfeld was near the border of the Galactic Republic. It had grown rich due to good planning and Terran Alliance control of most of the economic resources in the galaxy.
Westerfeld, was the equivalent of the Skowbo system of the Galactic Republic. But the Terran Alliance operated as a Star Federation which provided them with immense amounts of wealth while the Galactic Republic was still -- a republic.
Now, the Galactic Republic saw its weakness in phasors. Its future enemy, the Arcean Empire, was very strong in shield technology. After much debate, it was decided that the expensive retrofit of its ships would proceed. A retrofit that would result in its ships using railguns of various sorts (mass drivers).
The Terran Alliance had grown powerful enough that it saw itself as owners of the quadrant. The increased piracy in the wake of the chaos left by the Dread Lords had been largely handled by Terran Alliance capital ships. But the Galactic Republic had grown proud and was not about to pay any sort of tribute to their cousins. And so too would pass the last chance for the Galactic Republic to succeed through mutual beneficial sharing of the quadrant.
The Arceans were hopelessly weak militarily compared to the Galactic Republic. But from their vantage point, why not? Their people absolutely loved the Galactic Republic. Their government was dominated by the Pacifist movement.
Many within the Galactic Republic expressed doubt about going to war with the Arceans. After all, the Arceans had helped during the Dread Lord conflict. How many would die to reclaim two worlds?
The quadrant was ready for peace. There was no need for a war of conquest.
It was decided to attempt to negotiate for those two worlds. War could still be averted. But would the Arceans be reasonable?
The Galactic Republic had agents in place to help cut off building up local force. These two worlds were far cut off from the Arcean Empire. Would the Arceans recognize this?
The Arceans recognized that they didn't need this world, but yet, they still would not trade reasonably for it. This was the final straw for the Galactic Republic.
The build up was in process. The Arceans were aware of it and took preempative action.
And so the Galactic Republic took by force what they could not gain through diplomacy.
The glorious victories propelled the Technologists, led by Ryan Guy, the founder of the Galactic Republic to great victories. Both the middle and right chamber remained in their control. Only the the left house of the senate went for the vile Federalists who were the most vocal against the war -- as it would reduce business for their corporate friends.
Soon, all the worlds that the Arceans had stolen during the Dread Lords wars were reclaimed. When the Drengin Empire declared war on the Arceans, there was only a little bit of murmuring in the streets. What cause did the Drengin have?
Drengin ships were obsecenely powerful. Their flagship was nearly 2 kilometers long.
And now they were parading through the middle of the Galactic Republic sphere of influence on their way to help us wipe out the Arceans.
The Galactic Republic had miscalculated. What they had intended was for the Arceans to be removed from previous GR worlds and then an armistice signed. But the Drengin meant to annihilate the Arceans. And in doing so, they would become unstoppable. What had the GR done?
Some of the GR's ancient sentries were still nitpicked at as the Arceans bypassed the more powerful capital fleets of the Galactic Republic to strike at soft targets.
Meanwhile, the massive fleets of Drengin ships flowed across. Fleets of 26 ships each streamed towards the Arcean homeworlds.
GR sensors tracked the most ominious of the Drengin fleets. "Drengin fleet 22" had military strength not seen since the Dread Lords. But unlike the Dread Lords, the Drengin have fleets like this in quantity.
What the Drengin really had was not just powerful ships but the ability to move them together as a force. That is something that the GR did not have. And the Drengin were wise enough not to trade away that advantage.
The Terran Alliance was, in some respects, no better than the Drengin Empire. The Drengin Empire declared war on the Arceans in order to capitalize on their weakness. But the humans, doing the same thing, couch it in terms of them aiding their friends.
Now the Arceans wanted peace. But to what end?
Not that they were willing to give peace at any price. Which, in effect, meant that those worlds would soon be ruled by the Drengin if they were unlucky and the Terran Alliance if they were.
Arcea was about to meet Drengin fleet 43. Arcea's cities lit the night sky but they would seem to darkened once Drengin shock troopers arrived.
And the Drengin weren't done there...
The clock was now ticking. The Drengin discovered a peace of the Telenanth on one of the Dread Lord worlds they conquered. Now, each week, the Drengin of this quadrant will get increasingly more intelligent, more powerful and eventually unstoppable. Would this have happened if the Galactic Republic had simply been content with the status quo?
The Drengin land shock troops on Arcea but are fended off. But the results to the world are obvious.
The lights on Arcea have gone out.
But fate has stepped in and Arcea is not conquered by the Drengin but instead by the more nimble Terran Alliance. This would act as a signfiicant source of tension between the humans and the Drengin in this quadrant. The Drengin did the fighting but the Terran Alliance were quicker with transports.
Terran Alliance fleets were escorted (with an attack rating on their "Escorts" as great as the top combat fleets of the Galactic Republic) with 11,000 legions. And they moved at 7 persecs per week.
The best thing for Arcea at this poitn would be for the humans to get control of their last world. But small consolation that is.
And so ended the Arcean Empire.
The Pericles quadrant in 2233. The Terran Alliance reigns supreme.
...and the Drengin Empire menace is amongst the people of the Galactic Republic. The price of getting two worlds that the Arceans subdued from the Dread Lords who had taken it from the Galactic Republic was to have the Drengin Empire and Terran Alliance as close neighbors.
The Drengin Empire, having found and utilized a piece of the telenanth crystal ensured that they would eventually become powerful enough to rule the quadrant. The question was, would the other powers, namely the humans and the Galactic Republic, allow that eventuality to come to pass.
Time, it seemed, was on the side of the Drengin Empire.
Back on Neala, the senate was in debate about what should be done. The Drengin obsession with precursor artifacts was probably what stirred the Dread Lords out of their slumber was how some looked at it.
Meanwhile, on planet Kerchen, as if to drive that point home, the Drengin uncover another Precursor device.
The result: Madness.
Right amongst the Drengin, Terrans, and GR were enough habitable worlds to double anyone's size. Nalar was at the epicenter of this and no world could compete with its production.
And so a second colony phase came into play. With each side grabbing new worlds. But not all sides at the same rate. For the Drengin Empire had other plans. While the Terran Alliance put their resources into colony ships, the Drengin Empire put their efforts into making ships of war.
While colonizing these new worlds, the hidden histories behind them became uncovered. Great stores of weapons and moral choices for the Galactic Republic. In some, the Galactic Republic chose the path of compassion, in others, it chose the path of power. But overall, it chose the path they existed in between the two extremes.
The growing strength of the Galactic Republic had alienated what were once our friends. Even the Terran Alliance how openly demanded tribute.
Some commentators also pointed out that some of the choices made while colonizing worlds -- choices that some labeled as "Evil" had caused the Terran Alliance to look at the Galactic Republic as a nest of villainy.
The Terran Alliance was preparing for war -- against the Galactic Republic.
The Terran Alliance ships were exclusively focused on beam weaponry and defended against beam weapons. Now was the time, it was decided, to design ships to counter this. Shields against beam and mass drivers as the weapon. For many years, the Galactic Republic had been researching mass drivers but had not yet built any ships using it in order to maintain secrecy on this strategy. The time was late but perhaps not too late to begin construction of a grand fleet.
By 2234, the new colonies were established. The Terran Alliance had managed to take some of them but the bulk were taken by the Galactic Republic. But there was a price -- the Galactic Republic's military was now quite weak and its research stalled. Still, the Galactic Republic now had a strong economy and a growing population.
The Galactic Republic (light blue) now controlled 35% of the quadrant. The capital worlds of each civilization had taken on new paths as well.
Neila (Galactic Republic)
vs.
Kazon (Drengin Empire)
vs.
Zeus (Terran Alliance)
This is where the earlier destruction (by the Arceans) of the economic starbases of the Galactic Republic caused pain. For it would take time to rebuild and all the while, the Terran Alliance still had theirs maxed. Meanwhile, the Drengin Empire benefited from the increasing power of the Telenanth.
Neala was easily the top planet in the quadrant for research despite not having the best technology for doing research.
Meanwhile, relations with the Terran Alliance had become increasingly tense. War seemed inevitable. "Why do our kindred hate us?"
Simply put, they considered the Galactic Republic uncouth and now unclean. But the Galactic Republic had a new military growing in response.
The Crusader class battleship had an attack of 60 (mass drivers) and 12 defense (shields).
The Grand Fleet of the Republic was rated with over 400 attack and over 100 defense.
Even the Dread Lords would be hard pressed to match it.
The Drengin murdered the President of the Terran Alliance! And so the long looked for war between the Drengin Empire and the Terran Alliance began in the Fall of 2234.
But as much strength and pride as the GR had in their ships, the Drengin Empire and Terran Alliance were the masters.
While the Terrans relied on frigates, the Drengin Empire relied on capital ships.
Observers found the contest incredibly exciting. The two powers were evenly matched militarily. The Drengin had better offensive ships, the Terran Alliance had better technology. Such concentrations of force being put to the test were invigorating. But others looked at it as ominous. Very soon, one of these two powers would be utterly brought low.
The Drengin Empire's fleets were obscenely powerful. Across the quadrant, the Drengin laid waste to the Terran Alliance military forces. Too much on defense had the Terran Alliance (note to AI) focused on.
The Terran Alliance were approaching a technology that would allow them to order the quadrant as they would.
Moreover, reports that a strong defense is a bad idea may have been exagerated for while the Drengin did great harm to Terran worlds in many cases, in the overall case, the Drengin Empire had been as effective as waves against the beach. The beach had remained.
The Terran Alliance was battered but was surviving. The Drengin Empire was weakened.
Espionage was the short-term solution. The Terran Alliance worlds could be weakened through agents.
Hence their road to victory slowed but not stopped.
The Drengin Empire's assaults had been thwarted but they were on the offensive. The humans, while now stronger, were did not have the initiative and they were only one technology away from victory.
By mid 2235, the Drengin military had largely ceased to exist. The Terran Alliance had gone on the offensive.
Fear had grown to panic on many of the worlds of the Galactic Republic. And many saw the impending doom brought on by the Terran Alliance as proof that the Galactic Republic had become corrupt and evil. To this end, several worlds broke off and formed their own civilization called the Fundamentalists.
But Ryan Guy, leader of the Star Federation of the Galactic Republic vowed to crush them even as he had to flee from Neala itself.
While the Galactic Republic struggled to retake its worlds from the Fundamentalists, the Terran Alliance was conquering the Drengin Empire.
Moreover, Ryan Guy agreed that the time had come to renounce the evil ways and embrace a balanced approach.
The last hold-out against reunion of the Galactic Republic was Neala itself.
The issue to retake Neala came up in the senate for a vote.
Amazingly, it was a very close vote! Many in the senate expressed concern over civilian casualties in retaking Neala. And indeed there were but by Christmas of 2235, Neala was back under government control.
Meanwhile, ancient Precursor robot drones were released into the wild to wreak havoc on all combat ships! Known as the peacekeepers, the robot ships set out to end all military conflict! Unfortunately, there were not nearly enough of them to put a stop to the Terran Alliance ascension.
The options available to the Galactic Republic were grim. On the one hand, their kindred, the Terran Alliance were marching across the Drengin Empire and the Terran Alliance considered the Galactic Republic uncouth and unclean.
On the other hand, the evil Drengin Empire was slowly becoming more powerful thanks to the Telenanth cyrstal. In time, they would rule all. A political alliance was not a reasonable solution for the long-term with either of them.
But there was an opportunity. So mighty were the two forces that they had managed to bring each other down low.
The Drengin empire was backed up to a handful of remaining worlds. The Terrans were sniping at remaining Drengin soft targets.
And the Terran Alliance was still more powerful in most ways.
Even Kazon was now being targeted. The Drengin were up against the wall now.
It was now..or never..
The Galactic Republic set up a staging area (and to reduce micro management).
All planets were now assigned to construct ships of war and those ships, upon completion, would all go to a central point near Nalar.
And so the war between the humans began for the destiny of the quadrant.
And leading the way was not some massive capital ship but swarms of A-100 Snipers.
25 attack per unit, they were cheap. Flown by a single pilot and co-pilot and only 44 meters long, they were vast and lethal (and moved at 6 parsecs per week!).
The humans were completely unprepared to deal with the high density spike driver (mass driver) weapons.
Humans later would call the Galactic Republic shots as the green rain of doom. Their ships were unable to even penetrate the Crusader defenses.
It didn't take long to shatter the Terran Alliance. Once invincible, the Terran Alliance could not deal with both the Drengin Empire and the Galactic Republic. The loss of so many key worlds so quickly crushed their once mighty economy. Their military, while formidable, would have no reinforcements.
With no one to trade with, the Terrans were impoverished (the Drengin and GR enjoyed a 360+ per week in trade). And another 117bc per week thanks to the economy treaty between the two.
The Terran Alliance could still use their influence, however...
Through the United Planets, the Terran Alliance managed to use their influence to move 5% of its income for two entire years.
The Terran Alliance was still 115 weeks away from victory (it would have been a lot closer if their economy hadn't been crushed).
The lights were back on Terran controlled Arcea. But not for much longer.
The humans were putting up quite a resistance and teaching the Galactic Republic the power of high defenses. With a defense rating of 153, it still provided a significant amount of defense coverage even against mass drivers (about 12) while doing a punch of 24. The Terrans were migrating to missiles.
Even 9 snipers couldn't get through one.
Terran starbases were quite well defended as well.
And that is when the Terran Dreadnoughts started to come out. Still caught midway between beam weapons and now mass drivers, the Dreadnought's defense and power was such that it was incredibly difficult to kill. It single handedly wiped out a fleet of 14 fighters.
And then another fleet of 17 fighters!
Eventually, only the grand fleet would be able to take it out.
It was only a matter of time. And the Drengin may not have to be destroyed after all. For the very citizens of the Drengin Empire longed to be part of the Galactic Republic. If 75% of the quadrant could be brought under control, the quadrant would belong to the GR.
Very close now.
The former world of the rodent race, the Snathi was prestigious -- 104ip. Take that, and much of the quadrant would go the way of the Galactic Republic.
And so it was taken.
The Snathi world was a true jewel.
And then Zeus itself. So close!
The Warrior fleet had one last challenge -- the capital starbase of the Terran Alliance. Armed to the teeth:
First strike comes in handy.
Zeus now had new human owners -- those of the Galactic Republic.
The Galactic Republic were not gracious in victory and made the Terran Alliance pay a great deal.
VS. 
The Galactic Republic would be the victor through influence in 10 weeks. Controlling 81% of the galaxy. The Terran Alliance had 63 weeks left to achieve their technology victory.
VS.
There would never be a friendship again between the Terran Alliance and the Galactic Republic. Not after this war. But in 3 months, it wouldn't matter. The Drengin, on the other hand, very much appreciated the Galactic Republic.
But the cost..
Billions dead.
Victory, while certain near the end, was not anyway assured. Had the Drengin and Terran Alliance not shredded each other, the Terran Alliance would likely have come after the Galactic Republic or, at the very least, been able to achieve its technology victory.
Much was learned (AI-wise) from this incident. The Galactic Republic grew bold as a result of owning an entire quadrant. However, pride before the fall. The Galactic Republic would get intimately involved in the core war in other theaters and discover that it is one thing to win in isolated outposts and another thing to achieve victory in places considered critical to major powers...
I must confess that I did not document most of the changes I made. Beta 2A was when the bulk of the advanced CPU option algorithms went in for the computer AI and there was just so much done there that it would have gotten incredibly lengthy to list every little change. Suffice to say that the AI, if the HIGH cpu options are used, should behave significantly more intelligent.
Over the Christmas break, we're working on making final tweaks and such. For instance, Super Hive will probably be changed such that manufacturing improvements cost 1/4th as much instead of just being built in a single turn. This keeps them powerful but without upsetting the game.
Here's some of the things that changed between beta 2 and beta 2A:
** TWEAKS AND ADDITIONS **
+ You now reach intelligence levels based on how many agents you have on alien worlds and how long those agents have been placed. When your cummulative points for that race reach a certain amount, you will level-up in espionage.
+ Renamed race movie files so that when you choose an image for your custom race, it will also use the associated bink files
+ Made AICreateRandomShips only use up to medium hulls so that the Pirates won't be so overwhelming.
+ Added custom homeworld definitions for korath and krynn.
+ Super Ability description now listed in race's stats windows (for both local player and AI players).
+ Made it so that both sides have to have alliances tech to create an alliance.
+ Changed the movement speed of the subpspace tear event to 5.
+ Rearranged which animations and beam widths were used for each component so that they progress better as you improve your weapons.
** FIXES **
+ Fixed Bug where “Are you sure you want war” dialog popped up when AI attacked player’s mining base.
+ Fixed Bug where when using a template that was saved in older shipcfg version, parts would be stripped off the ship.
+ Fixed crash where Texture painter was not checking pointers before releasing them.
+ Fixed bug where Campaign would overwrite settings from last sandbox game.
+ Made trade routes save the year established.
+ Fixed null pointer crash in shipdetailswnd.
+ Fixed Minor Race spinner in Galaxy Setup screen would randomize the number of races if “8 Minor Races” was selected
+ Fixed Bug where asteroid fields were randomly placed on custom maps
+ Fixed Super Manipulator conversation oddity where players would say there're joining a war to help you, even though there's no war going on.
+ When zooming in and out of the tech tree, the camera will remain focused on the same spot
+ When zoomed out to see the whole tech tree, the tree will center itself on the screen
+ If a ship is improving an asteroid field, and it is upgraded, the asteroid field improvement is cancelled (The ship may resume improving the field when its upgrade is complete)
+ Revolt icons now appear on the mining base instead of around the asteroid field. There was some confusion as to which base the icon was referring to. Revolt symbol will show on asteroid field icon when zoomed out in tactical mode.
+ Fixed bug with displaying superability on opponentwnd.
+ Fixed bug with disabling super abilities.
+ Obsolete improvements with placement limits will no longer be allowed to be built after limit has been reached.
+ Added support for old galciv2 height maps, since height maps from dark avatar will be in base galciv2 folder.
+ Fixed bug when clearing renamed major race on customracewnd.
+ Disabled random events for campaign.
+ Made 'Menace' mega event not take homeworld of civs.
+ Updated super hive description.
+ Fixed bug where custom race description kept getting overwritten (custom races files created with the old code will assume that they have custom descriptions, and will not generate a new one as the player edits their personality, but new files will still change the generated description until it is edited.)
+ Fixed crash on foreign stats.
+ Replaced old “Space Truck” ability terminology in ship report to newer “Build Mining Bases” terminology.
+ Fixed bug where GameScreen kept calling ActivateKeymap.
+ Fixed bug in planet improvements save/load code.
+ Fixed bug with "Neutral Ground" United Planets issue where ships in orbit were moved out of the territory, but not marked as not orbiting. This caused them to shoot across the galaxy when they were attacked. Now, ships in orbit remain in orbit, since the tile the planet is sitting on would be considered their territory.
Testing out AI changes in today's internal build of Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar. It will be a long game and we are recording in story form the game itself.
If you want to stop in and check out the progress, click on the link below as it will be getting updated every few minutes for the next several hours!
More below!
During the course of the beta we record our games to see what needs to be tweaked.
Yesterday, during the course of AI tweaking, I recorded the game. This is only on the tiniest of maps and only 2 players so you can imagine how things would be on a huge galaxy with lots of opponents (I'm finishing up on a "Realistic" Milky Way galaxy map for the GalCiv II:Dark Avatar expansion pack).
The gameplay examples shows you some of the ways the game is different even in a 1 on 1 duel on a pretty simple map. In particular, the multi-core AI options in effect (a quick word on the new enhanced CPU *option* -- even if you don't have dualcore, you can use this feature, it just takes slightly longer per turn which to get the extra AI algorithms used whereas on dual core and quadcore it's "free").
Check it out below. More to come.
As is told in "Dread Lords", the Drengin Empire had bided their time as the humans and their allies dealt with the Dread Lord menace. No alliance of convenience would be necessary. Kindar, the war leader of the Korath clan, counseled to let the Dread Lords and the sub-Drengin wear themselves out and the Drengin Empire would crush the diminished victors.
And so it came to pass that it was the humans from Earth who proved to be most most lethal in warfare to the Dread Lords. The Drengin Empire had begun to suspect that the diplomatic humans were nothing more than velvet over an iron fist. In the year 2215 when the Terran Alliance utterly and ruthlessly crushed the Xendar (events that occurred between the return of the Dread Lords and the Altarian Prophecy) the Drengin recognized that the human claim of fellowship and peace was a fraud.
What the Drengin didn't realize was that the humans from Earth who lead the Terran Alliance were repentant warriors. Falsely assuming that any civilization advanced enough for interstellar travel would have cast off war to a bygone era, the humans have pursued a cultural revolution of harmony and pacifism. That era came to an abrupt end during the Xendar wars and since then, the humans had become diplomatic but militarily powerful.
The Dread Lords, while few in number, had inflicted terrible losses upon the humans and their friends. Their allies, the Arcean Empire, had seen vast losses in their military strength owing to the wretchedly ancient ships in their fleets. Whereas the humans were newcomers to the interstellar club, the Arcean Empire had had an advanced civilization for thousands of years (just as the Drengin Empire). Technology would have likely remained stagnate if it weren't for the invention of Hyperdrive which allowed ships (and ideas) to travel great distances in short amounts of time.
The Drengin Empire attacked in the wake of the Dread Lord menace. One of the most famous battles was the battle of the Ar-Siron quadrant. It was a classic duel between the the Drengin Empire and the Terran Alliance.
AI notes: The game below was test game #12 using Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar map "Duel Supreme" with the player playing as the humans and the Drengin set to "intelligent" (tough difficulty) which is the highest intelligence setting before the AI receives economic bonuses.
Commanding the forces for the Terran Alliance was Admiral Aaron Hawkings. For the Drengin Empire, Kzain'Talan would be in command. This after action report is a study of the strategies employed by both. Each side had equal resources at their disposal and allows us to discuss the mistakes and triumphs of each side in this classic duel. For the purposes of this recount, the sensor logs are in full use so unlike the players at the time, no "fog of war" is present.
The battle began in January of 2226, one year after the events of "Dread Lords".
The Terran Alliance base was on the planet Poseiden. Named after the long range explorer who founded it (as opposed to the Greek god). The key knowledge was that the Drengin Empire had an outpost in this quadrant and that there were two planets in-between of unusual quality. in the Xasica system.
What was unknown at the time was that the Drengin too knew about the Xasica system.
The scout ship Thangir was in the area. Fortunately, Admiral Hawkings was working on that assumption and was fast moving colony ships into the area.
Hawkings made the tactical decision to damage short-term economic growth in an effort to get both of the planets. That meant using the Terran Alliance standard colony ship blue-print as opposed to designing something more sophisticated.
vs. 
The Drengin always design new ships (The AI does anyway). The only difference is that their version is slightly cheaper.
It turned out to be a closer thing that we had envisioned. The Drengin nearly got both of the planets. They rushed as quickly as we did.
Xasica Prime turned out to be a wonderful world. A class 13 world with rare artifacts on the planet. What we would learn later, is that Xasica Thrall (the Drengin twin) was not quite as nice (no special bonuses on the planet).
The other key thing about this quadrant were the two galactic resources. One provided special properties, that when mined, would make the population significantly more content. The other provided rare economic value. Controlling them would be important as well.
By the summer of 2226, the quadrant was evenly divided. One thing we observed is that unlike most human governors, the Drengin will tax their people incredibly harshly. In the later analysis of sub-space communication, we learned that the Drengin had a tax-rate of over 90% even though the approval rating was less than 20%. It was a temporary spike but one they employed to boost early production.
Drengin (red) have the same population as the humans (blue) do but nearly twice the income. The Terran Alliance maintained a tax rate of around 49%. The question is, however, is this a good strategy? The Drengin were sacrificing population growth (few citizens were migrating to these worlds given the tax rate).
By the end of the first year, the Terran Alliance had surpassed that of the Drengin Empire in this quadrant and income was catching up quickly. The Drengin captured the morale resource while the Terran Alliance occupied the economy resource. That situation didn't last long as Drengin fighters quickly destroyed the Terran Alliance starbase.
The first battle in the quadrant took place between a Corvette squadron of "Super Dominators" (basically mercenaries that the Drengin go to sign up with them) vs. two Terran Alliance fighters.
The Mark 1 Terran Alliance fighter was no slouch. Armed with a Westinghouse Fusion powered laser cannon (Mark III) it packed quite a punch. It 60 meters in length, it was a fairly larger sized fighter and required a crew of 5 to man it (2 pilots plus 3 weapon specialists).
By contrast, the Drengin Empire's first-generation fighter in this war was tiny. A crew of 2 manned the 38 meter long Kiklar fighter armed with a missle of the same name.
Though outnumbered, the Terran Alliance came out on top in the first encounter. The poor quality of the Drengin ships represented a general weakness in the Drengin economy. They began to adapt to the changes but not before the Terran Alliance had gained a significant economic advantage.
(author's note, at this point I turned on the force high CPU option in Dark Avatar to help the AI do more analysis and become even more challenging).
By the end of 2228, the war was relatively at a stalemate. We had taken turns wiping out each other's star bases and had now managed to fortify rebuilt ones. No planets had changed hands and both sides were essentially building up for an assault.
The battle of spies, however, was heating up.
The Drengin were trying to sabotage my economy. More to the point, they wanted me to use precious income to acquire agents. The battle between economic and morale resources was on. Which was is better?
The Drengin had upgraded theirs to give them a +24 point boost to morale throughout the quadrant which enables them to get away with higher taxes.
The Terran Alliance had done the same. The main difference was that the Drengin hadn't put on any real defenses on their starbase but instead kept a fleet nearby. The Terrans had no ships to spare but had armed their starbase.
After a lot of back and forth fighting, the Terran Alliance managed to take out the Drengin's key morale starbase.
The tide was turning. Xasica Thrall was liberated. It would be renamed Xasica Liberty from here on out.
Leading the way was the F-10 Tigershark with its Raetheon G-X Plasma cannon.
The war was now at full power. The Drengin wiped out a number of my key starbases as well.
My remaining military starbase in the Xasica sector managed to slow down the Drengin forces while I moved in my military might.
The Drengin ships were increasingly resistant to human weapon of choice (beam weapons). But Terran lead in technology due to their economic mistakes early on more than compensated. The Drengin policy of taxing their population into oblivion early on was coming back to haunt them.
My goal was to take full advantage of the Drengin's early mistakes before their Mark 5 Frigate started to be produced in quantity.
vs. 
The Drengin designs on ships had improved over the past year. Their 200 meter long Frigate took a crew of 30 and had an attack rating of 15 and a defense of 4 against the Terran Alliance's beam weapons. It outclassed the significantly larger Terran Alliance frigate ("Punisher"). The Raetheon Ion-Plasma weapon was state of the art at the time of the ship's design but had fallen behind the latest Drengin designs. The humans had the advantage of having more Punishers out there though.
The Terran Alliance had the edge. But the Drengin were coming on strong.
Meanwhile, the Punishers cleaned through the Drengin fleets that were so outdated by this point.
The fight over the Xasica system continued for considerable time. The Drengin M5 frigates went up against my fortified force of Tigerhawks.
The Drengin Frigates had a pretty decent defense now against Terran weapons but were out outnumbered by them.
It was a key battle and my force, while nearly totally destroyed, the humans were victorious. The Xasica sector was firmly under Terran control. Now is was time for bold action. A strike at the heart of the Drengin economy in this quadrant. This is where humans surpass Drengni -- tactical boldness. The Drengin Empire military campaigns can best be described as being an avalanche of power. Humans, by contrast, tend to make tactically bold strikes. When successful, humans can cripple their foes as was the case in the Xendar wars.
For this special mission were two new ships that were only available in small quantity.
and 
The F-20 fighter and the Numenor class frigate. They were incredibly lethal. But they were also few in number. The Drengin were still developing their Mark 6 ships. The humans, in essence, had beaten the Drengin to the punch.
The falcons would get their chance against the Drengin Mark-5's. The state of the art Terran Alliance ships went up against the formidable Drengin frigates. Unfortunately...
4 fighters, even ones that were quite powerful, were not enough to defeat the M5 Drengin frigates.
Meanwhile, life on Xasica Liberty was interesting. The locals, mostly Drengin colonists still, did not think much of humans referring to them as "vile".
The bold plan by the humans was indeed bold. Bold in that "bridge too far" kind of way. The Drengin saw the threat and moved ships into orbit of their base world.
The result was the death of the entire Terran invasion fleet.
But the Drengin were frustrated in their attempts to retake the Xasica sector. While they came close, they had to send back their veteran Frigate for repairs.
The Mark 6 Frigate had arrived.
Armed with "Fravker'Siathi" extra-dimensional missiles (which humans call "photon torpedoes"), it had an attack rating of 30 and a defense of 4. The Drengin had, once again, leap-frogged the humans in technology.
But for the Drengin, their doom was already ordained. Their failure to take the Xasica sector back quickly meant that the humans had a decided economic advantage. The Drengin strategy of attrition was no longer viable. If the Drengin were to have any hope, they would have to make bold and unexpected moves.
This is where the fog of war not being on allows us to see the Drengin strategy change. Normally, the Drengin Empire leaves star bases alone to focus on their attrition strategy. But now, recognizing their disadvantage, they did something...unusual. They sent a strike force to eliminate the massive Terran Alliance economic starbase.
This analysis was due to the new MCore AI algorithms (i.e. option to make use of more CPU in order to do more advanced strategies). On my dualcore CPU, it added no time at all since it all happened in a thread.
Their strike was devastating. The Terran Alliance economy was hit hard enough to be back almost even with the Drengin Empire's despite having the extra planet. The Terran struck hard at the base Drengin planet and in a massive battle that involved dozens of ships, the humans prevailed.
The Drengin commander, Azurelas, asked for a cease-fire.
It was a race now. With the economic starbase wiped out, the Terran economy was broken. Could the Terran Alliance win the day with the ships they had at hand. It was time for another human gamble.
Andersona I went down.
It was all but over for the Drengin Empire now. As certain as Terran victory was, the closeness of it was not known until later. The Mark 9 Drengin ships were ridiculously powerful.
The Mark 9 Drengin defenders had 12 attack, 4 defense.
The Drengin base world was taken by the Terran Alliance.
Terran Victory was at hand. A close battle but a decisive victory for the humans.
This is where they went wrong. The Drengin Empire taxed its citizens too aggressively early on which slowed their population growth and in fact wrecked it. They effectively handed the Terran Alliance a full year of free development that the Drengin could never recover.
The AI has been modified based on this.
It was a lot closer than it should have been, however. Because of the new CPU option being used that's in the Dark Avatar expansion, the AI was able to formulate much more sophisticated strategies, design better ships sooner that were more optimized and take on more complex tactical strategies.
The Drengin Empire continued to make mistakes that it will need to evaluate for the future. While it normally escorted its transports, it still did not effectively keep them from being destroyed when outgunned. This is something that, given enough analysis time it should be able to avoid causing the humans to have to hunt transports rather than shoot them in a barrel.
The Terran Alliance continue to grow as a major power in the galaxy despite their relative inexperience. The Korath high command within the Drengin Empire have begun to make preparations to deal with them...
The user manual for Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar is in Beta 2B.
It's a PDF that you get to by pressing the "manual" button.
It's a LOT longer than the original Dread Lords manual (and it'll probably end up costing around $100k more in manufacturing when it's all said and done -- that's why manuals aren't usually this big).
The manual right now is messed up in the sense that it's the pre-print version. We'll be updating it with a "normal" PDF. But I thought beta testers might get a kick out of seeing what a pre-print manual looks like and get a sneak peek at the backstory elements that were added including how population really works and why the star map is presented the way it is.
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!
via email...
What a difference a century makes!
Here are some of the U.S. statistics for the Year 1906 :
************************************
The average life expectancy in the U.S. was 47 years.
Only 14 percent of the homes in the U.S. had a bathtub.
Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.
A three-minute call from Denver to New York City
cost eleven dollars.
There were only 8,000 cars in the U.S., and only 144 miles
of paved roads.
The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.
Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa, and Tennessee were each more
heavily populated than California.
With a mere 1.4 million people, California was only the 21st
most populous state in the Union.
The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower!
The average wage in the U.S. was 22 cents per hour.
The average U.S. worker made between $200 and $400 per year .
A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year,
a dentist $2,500 per year, a veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.
More than 95 percent of all births in the U.S. took place at HOME .
Ninety percent of all U.S. doctors had NO COLLEGE EDUCATION!
Instead, they attended so-called medical schools, many of which
were condemned in the press AND the government as "substandard."
Sugar cost four cents a pound.
Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.
Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.
Most women only washed their hair once a month, and used
borax or egg yolks for shampoo.
Canada passed a law that prohibited poor people from
entering into their country for any reason.
Five leading causes of death in the U.S. were:
1. Pneumonia and influenza
2. Tuberculosis
3. Diarrhea
4. Heart disease
5. Stroke
The American flag had 45 stars.
Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii, and
Alaska hadn't been admitted to the Union yet.
The population of Las Vegas, Nevada, was only 30!!!!
Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and ice tea
hadn't been invented yet.
There was no Mother's Day or Father's Day.
Two out of every 10 U.S. adults couldn't read or write.
Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.
Eighteen percent of households in the U.S. had at least
one full-time servant or domestic help.
There were about 230 reported murders in the ENTIRE ! U.S.A. !
Now I forwarded this from someone else without typing
it myself, and sent it to you and others all over the United States,
possibly the world, in a matter of seconds!
Try to imagine what it may be like in another 100 years