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Im new to Gal Civ3 but not genre - First impression and questions

Wow

Posted on Saturday, January 23, 2016

Hi,

Im new to Galac Civ. I didn't know it existed. Its freaking epic. I've been playing 10hours straight... 

I found the game through a link on the civfanatics website and I've played the civ games for over a decade so someone suggested this over on that forum. I have a lot of questions and I cant seem to find any information on the forum or in the game itself. Civ has civlopedia, is there a galpedia?

Questions

  • A ship has six different stat figures in the bottom left, I assume the top three are combat offence (they look like guns) and bottom 3 are shields?
  • What are the advantages and differences between the three combat offences? I like every detail, please point me in the direction of where to find this.
  • What ships should be in a fleet? I really confused how to set them up correctly.
  • Medium hull - Why would I choose the "capital" ship thats slower but describes it as having more offence capability? It doesnt look like much boost in the 6 stat pictures.
  • Mods - There isnt any through steam except downloading single ships at a time or am i looking in the wrong place?
  • Mods - Theres thousands of ships in steam workshop, but no all in one ship style packages? Im thinking i would love StarFleet modded civ from star trek.
  • Mods - Theres no "gameplay" mods in steam, Are there available elsewhere?
  • How many labs should I build per planet? What are sensible manufacturing and research points per planet? I am falling behind on science constantly.
  • Are there penalties for expanding to quick? I couldn't notice any.
  • How many fleets should I have to be "safe"
  • I think ships have support cost per turn, Is that how you limit ship spam?
  • Planet defences, how many tiles should I give to those big gun improvements? I don't like wasting tiles. Is there another way to defend planets?
  • I am always suffering heavily with everyone hating me and it leads to everyone going to war with me within 100 turns. I need advice on diplomatic game mechanics.
  • Trade - I cant seem to find any benefits to it apart from the odd resource benefit.
Map Editor 
  • Must I always place minor systems down and put "Arb" as a AI start for a minor civ to 100% get placed on it?
  • Even with a player made custom map, does the system auto place minor Civs even if I didn't put minor systems with AI starts in them?
  • Can I create new 'auto placement' star systems for a custom civ?

Opinions

Theres so much great things in this game I could write LOADS. But what I think is outstanding

  • The civilisations - different ship styles, stories, leaders. Just awesome.
  • Create your own civilisation leader, ship style - I love it.
  • Theres a rich story to this game and its immersive - I found precursor worlds in game, didn't think much of it then I started reading about it on websites this morning. Wow.
  • Wide variety of planets and they look stunning.
  • Tech tree's 
  • Galaxy events - Holy hell!
  • Black holes, wormholes .... yes ... awesome.

Negatives

  • Way too many dead planets and the map is too sparse as a result. Planet engineering ability? (Ive turned on abundant planets and stars)
  • No guidance in game, unless I turned that feature off? *confused*
  • Mods - Civ5 gets played constantly because mods keep it alive and fresh and was the case for civ4 too. Theres so much potential on this game.
  • Need more space terrain or ability to add player made ones like binary star systems, more moons around planets (perhaps to give bonuses).
  • No Mac ! Many of my 'gaming' friends play on macbooks.

Im unsure if I've been living under a rock, maybe this game is under marketed but its more likely that my thinking that there would not be a better civilization game let alone a sci fi one.

Kind Regards,

Bobe Brown