Stardock has released Galactic Civilizations II v1.31.  Last week's release of 1.3 included a ton of new features, gameplay tweaks, and re-balancing.  But in the hundreds of changes crept in a handful of annoying bugs that got past us.

Those bugs included a mini map display bug that caused repainting issues on DualCore machines, an annoying change to how ships were selected when they left orbit (not reported by users but trust us, it was annoying), the hot key support of deleting would crash the game if you deleted something that wasn't there, planety quality not matching the user selected bonus, and a food bonus tile exploit.

There were also a few AI tweaks to make them handle money even better based on reading people's posts on the forums on some of the tricks they use to maximize their economy.

You can download the update via Stardock Central (preferred) or the stand alone download.

The downside of putting out updates that add tons of features is that inevitably some of those new features or changes to game play create unexpected side-effects.  We call those things Kilgore of the deep but most people refer to them as "bugs".  So 1.31 is a good old fashioned bug fix.

+ fixed bug with planet quality bonus not being applied for home planet; I believe that we have now nailed all the bugs that caused a difference between the planet class and the number of useable tiles.
 
+ fixed bug where bonuses from improvements were never removed if they were built on a tile with a special bonus
 
+ fixed crash caused by the Delete key trying to destroy improvements that were not fully built yet
 
+ fixed bug where the internal name of an improvement was not being restored from a save game, which would have caused lots of small, non-obvious problems.
 
+ increased time-out limit for pathfinding algorithm so that it won't time out for really long distances; this should fix the bugs where ships would just stop moving, prevent mini-freighters from getting stuck if their destination planet is all the way across a gigantic galaxy, etc.
 
+ fixed bug where Minimap would not redraw after a planet culture flipped (causing the so-called "trapeziod of doom" bug)
 
+ ships will no longer be selected when they leave orbit, except when launched from the Info Icons

+ 'free' (default) race abilities will no longer show up in the abilities listbox on the Customize Race Screen on the Abilities tab as it was unclear that these were free abilities and that choosing another option in that category would overwrite these changes rather than adding to them.  However, these abilities bonuses will still be overwritten, and they will still show up on the Overview tab if they are not modified. 

The year is 2225. The galaxy is on the verge of civil war. The Drengin Empire and Yor are becoming increasingly menacing in the galaxy. The Terran Alliance and their friends, the Altarian Republic struggle to build friendships with other civilizations to keep the mighty Drengin at bay. But only time will tell how events ultimately shape up.

The Terran Alliance homeworld, Earth sits in the center. The mighty Drengin Empire and the Altarian Republic are our immediate neighbors with neutrals scattered.

 My first job is to build more colonies and expand my influence. Then I will build my relations with my neighbors in an effort to fend off the Drengin Empire.

To that end, I design a faster colony ship -- the advanced colony ship -- to get my people out there, faster. (I still love designing ships I admit!).

The Drengin let me know what they think of my colonization efforts...

The consolidation of the galaxy

As the colonization phase ends and each civilization has its own territory marked, things start to get interesting. The technology rate (set by me) has been set to the the very slowest one so that technology comes very slowly. This means that players who get weapons first will be building ships for a long time versus players who go other routes (for instance, I have went for trade first and so am the only one with it).

As President of the Terran Alliance, my job is to ensure the survival of our species. That means making some tough choices.

Akilian III is a class 15 planet. To have any chance against the power of the Drengin Empire, I will need to take that world. And in terms of using trade as a weapon, I am also going to have some trade with the Drengin Empire. We're not openly at war yet and I am hoping they will put their adventures elsewhere while I build up.

My first offensive ship is the F-1 Wisp. It has a single laser canon on the bottom. It is quite primitive. It's little more than a space shuttle with a single weapon.

Pride. I have none. I give in to their demand.

What has me concerned is this. The Drengin Empire (red line) are doing almost twice as much research as I am.  In fact, I'm now in last place.  This is something I must correct or I'm doomed.

The Altarians and I make some deals.

The United Planets makes a deal with regards to how starbases operating outside their sphere of influence should be treated.

The sparks become fire

With the first real war now underway, I have an opportunity to study the Drengin Empire's military hardware.

The Akilians and I are not at war. They do not know about our long-term goals. But their successful stealing of Drengin technology makes them interesting for now.

The evil Drengin get theirs finally. Well, not really. But they are distracted.

Meanwhile, the Torians have put out their latest hardware, the Mark II fighter.

It's basically the same as my fighters except they have better engines.

While they are distracted, I begin my move against the Akilians.  But I must be delicate because it's a huge military build up right in the Drengin's backyard.

The Drath are crushed by the Drengin Empire.

Time to bribe the Drengin Empire.

The Akilians notice my move! Is it too late?

Out in the fog of war, the Akilians had a ship. A ship that is now rampaging.  It destroyed all 5 of my transports! Ack! One freaking ship. Just didn't see it parked out there.

My invasion is thwarted.

And my long-term strategy is in ruins...

The Drengin Empire are steamrolling over all its opponents.  My successful sucking up has kept me out for now. But the Drengin have control of much of the galaxy and the Altarians are going down. And I can't even take out a freaking neutral!

I quickly send in the F-2 Warrior. It's still basically a shuttle but now it has two laser canons instead of 1. The problem is, the Akilians have the Drengin technologies they stole and so their ships are quite nasty.

And so now the Altarians are gone too.

The fat lady is warming up...

The very next week after the Altarian Republic was destroyed (not surrendered but annihilated by the Drengin Empire) I get:

This is bad. My trade routes wiped out (Altarians and Drengin). I'm doomed.

I sell my soul to the other civilizations to get some technologies so that I can design a next generation fighter years early.

And with that I build the F-3 Vigil.

3 advanced laser canons.  I also make peace with the Akilians since I can't spread my forces between them.  The other ship, the one I combined both human and alien technology to design is the F-4 Condor. 4 attack. Will it be enough?

Homeland Magazine has a devastating article. The Drengin Empire have a military rating of 664 and ours is only 96. They massively outpower us.

My fleets are a joke compared to theirs. Their three sips average an attack of 6. Mine average an attack of 1. Worse, my fighters are no match for their frigates.

Florin I is now gone. I have two worlds left.

One of the few times we're evenly matched in a battle. And my first military victory against the Drengin Empire.

Not that I should get too excited because they have more where that came from.

There would be no peace. The next week Cordelia III was taken by the Drengin.

In a final bit of irony, the Akilians declare war on me, the minor race I sought to destroy is invading Earth.

In the end, I'm conquered by the Akilians. So ironic that the minor race I sought to destroy would ultimately defeat me. Not a proud moment for the human race.

Yes. I'm dead.

The Drengin would go on to conquer the galaxy.  What would be done with the survivors would ultimately be up to them.  As for the Akilians, even as I write this, they and their Drengin friends are sitting in a chair in a pub in Plymouth Michigan laughing at the foolishness of humans. A human skull acts as their mug.

So...how did I lose?

I read on-line how people find the game "too easy".  Which makes me wonder if they're playing the same game I am.  I'm a pretty good strategy game player. I don't see how I could have won this particular game.

Here were my settings:

• All players on Intelligent except for Drengin who were on Gifted
• Occasional good planets
• All players in
• Medium sized galaxy
• Technology rate changed to be very slow

I went for Trade early on then moved to military while I built up trade routes. I had plenty of money and was able to buy lots of ships (especially thanks to the trade). I built starbases to improve my economy and trade and production.  Overall, it was a pretty decent strategy I thought.

If I had to do it over again, I would have gone for military first, got minit, and taken out the Akilians much earlier so that I could then build up a much better world (none of us had any really high quality planets). 

First, what is a mega event? A mega event is a randomly generated event that dramatically alters the game play.

What are some examples of mega-events?

1. Allied War. Three of the 9 players who are already friendly decide to ally together and declare war on everyone else.
2. Plague. A space plague that will gradually wipe everyone out unless a particular research item is found.
3. Culture Shock. A particular alien civilization gets their influence boosted by 10X and players have to decide how to combat it.
4. Ultimate Doom. A particular civilization is getting their abilities increased by 1% each week (turn). Eventually they'd be gods. What is to be done?
5. A horde of space pirates begin wiping out the defenses of each race.

You get the idea.  The mega events are UNbalancing. They would disurpt strategies. And they would be optional.

The question is, do people want this stuff enough to justify the effort involved in creating them. And what sorts of events would people want?

Part 1 of 6, Part 2 of 6, Part 3 of 6, Part 4 of 6, Part 5 of 6, Part 6 of 6

See them all..

I made a news item on WinCustomize.com tonight about the 5th anniversary of 9/11.  It's always a touchy thing putting up a political hot potato on WinCustomize.com.  One thing I have learned over the years is that many non-Americans who visit WinCustomize.com have an extremely poor opinion of the US, its policies.  I don't think that's representative of foreign readers of WC, just those who happen to post.

But 9/11 was a big deal. And at the end of the day, we're an American company.  We have people from all over the world that we work together with. A good portion of our development team is from UK for instance and we also have developers in Italy, Poland, and elsewhere.  But we are not neutral. What happened on 9/11 was unprovoked, monstrous, and required a strong response.

If nothing else, people, especialy people outside the US, need to understand how big of a deal 9/11 was in the United States.  I don't think most people, even today, realize the scale of 9/11.  There's been no terrorist attack, anywhere, in history that is remotely on the scale of 9/11.

The twin towers, even when pictured, don't show their scale because the pictures are so far away.  The twin towers alone supported a population that about a quarter of Detroit Michigan. And those two buildings weren't the only ones that were destroyed as a result (a couple of other nearby buildings were also destroyed).  Largely, only by luck, was the death toll not catastrophically higher. 

The twin towers, supporting up to 150,000 people when at full capacity, were cities unto themselves. Cities full of innocent people who had just gone to work that day.  Destroyed over an evil, fascist ideology that is based on a particular interpretation of Islamic theocracy. An ideology that is widespread in the middle east but not generally acted out upon - thankfully.

9/11 was a wake up call to the United States that the people who want to exterminate every man woman and child that adheres to western culture really were getting serious and needed to be dealt with now rather than wait until they managed to obtain even deadlier weapons.  The product of a failed culture that blames those failures not on themselves but on external enemies believes that if they can appease Allah and reintroduce the Caliphate (as a starting point) modeled after the Taliban, that Allah might then strike down the decadent, corrupt, immoral western nations and pave the way for a world of Islamic fascism.

The word fascism, has become a pejorative. A word that is used to insult rather than as a strict definition. I use the term fascism in its true sense -- a form of organization that is led by a single person or small group that is not accountable to the people and promotes an ideology based on the hatred of outsiders, other religions and racism. That is the way of life that these fundamentalist Muslims have in mind for the world.

It is something that must be fought against. It cannot be ignored. While one can debate the effectiveness of the current administration's attempt to fight Islamic Fasicm (Or Islamism), there should be no doubt that it exists, is real, and must either be dealt with now or dealt with later (except at a vastly higher cost).

Those who think that the problem can be ignored need only look at history.  9/11 was merely the most recent and most deadly attack by these extremists.  Since 9/11, the US has improved its intelligence, defense, and covert operations to the point that no new attacks have occurred on US soil since 9/11 (while there have been attacks overseas in places easier to carry out such attacks).

To see the announcement on WinCustomize.com along with the responses to it, click below.

Five years ago on September 11, 2001, 19 men boarded four planes in the United States with the intention of hijacking them and crashing them into important buildings with the hope of killing as many people as possible.

Three of those planes made it to their targets killing over 3,000 people. The fourth one crashed after passengers attempted to retake the plane after learning the fate of the other three planes.

For Americans, September 11th marked a major turning point for how the country viewed the world. For people outside the United States, the choices and response to September 11th has stirred a great deal of debate.  Even within the United States, there is a great deal of disagreement over how best to continue to carry out the response to the terrorist attacks and the growing movement of violent Islamic radicalism.

The people who attacked the United States were part of a terrorist organization called Al Qaeda. A radical Islamic group dedicated to restoring the historic caliphate that once existed from Spain to the far east, Al Qaeda considered the United States as an obstacle to their goals of turning "moderate" Muslim states such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt into fundamentalist Islamic Republics modeled after then Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. Their belief was that if the US presence in the middle east as well as its support of countries such as Saudi Arabia and Israel could be removed that they moved one step closer to their goal. They believed, wrongly, that the US response would be to withdraw its presence from the middle east just as it had done so in Somalia in the mid 1990s.

On this day, we at this site give our thoughts to the families of the men and women who died on that day. And we support the valiant men and women in the armed forces from the United States and other countries who are working to put an end to organizations and movements that support the indiscriminate wholesale annihilation of innocents.

We hope the world does not forget 9/11.  We certainly will not.

Stardock has teamed up with the popular Civilization-fan site, CivFanatics.com to bring you a contest I think many GalCiv II users will find very interesting -- a character creation contest.

The upcoming expansion pack for Galactic Civilizations II, Dark Avatar, will feature several in-game characters who will be part of the story for the campaign portion of the expansion pack.

Now, players will have the opportunity to propose characters for the story of the game. We will select 3 characters to integrate into the story of Dark Avatar.  Check out the contest info over at CivFanatics.com for more details.

Have fun!

There's a lot of super powers to choose from.  Flight, super strength, invulnerability, super speed, invisibility.

But if you had to choose one? Which would it be?

Being invulernable would be kind of nice but on the other hand, you could get stuck in a bad situation.  That's where super strength would be nice.  But super strength would be problematic because you could really hurt yourself.

The more I think about it, the more I conclude that most powers need to come in pairs with invulernability being one of them.  Take flight.  How fun would flight really be in practice as bugs and other things start flying in your face or you accidentally hit a tree or telephone wire or something?

Invisibility wouldn't require another power but I'm not sure what good it would do.  Yea, you can spy on people. Meh.

There's plenty of other powers that I haven't listed. But if you could only choose one power, which would it be?