Galciv II - Editions to play?

[Razgon]

So, after the great AAR, I caved and got the entire Galciv II collection. My question is, is there any reason NOT to be playing the latest, Twilight of the Arnors, instead of the previous editions? Isnt it the same game, just enhanced?

[Lockdown]

Razgon - The first two editions have their own "campaigns" (if I remember correctly) that will tell the story of the races and the galaxy a bit.  I do not think it is worth playing them, if only because of the time you will need to invest in them.  By the time you "catch up" to to the latest expansion, you'll probably be burned out and not end up playing it.  <---- [All personal opinion only].

With that said, the 1st expansion is excellent and made the original (vanilla) release pale in comparison.  The Arnor expansion (2nd expansion) drastically changed the game as a whole, as it gave each race it's own technology tree and added editors that flat out rock.

You have so many options of how to play the game, I'm not sure you can go wrong no matter what you choose to do, but if it were me, I'd just start with Arnor and not look back.
 

[Asharak]

Yeah, start with Twilight of the Arnor. There's no reason not to, really. I'd play a couple games as the Humans to begin with, however, as their tech tree closest to the one from earlier editions of the game and is the most "conventional" compared to modern sci-fi. They're a good get-your-feet-wet race before you branch out into the more diverse races (or into creating your own custom race!).

And I wouldn't bother with the campaign. GalCiv, like Civilization, is really meant to be played in "sandbox" mode. The campaigns are really just a series of sandbox games with some artificial constraints through in and narrative spliced between the missions.

- Ash

[Island Dog]

Twilight is my personal favorite edition, but I would recommend playing at least some fairly quick games just to get a good idea of the story.

[Razgon]

THanks a lot, guys! I loved the old Galvic, did a fair bit of beta testing on it (and got the T-shirt to prove it ;-) ), so, I'll probably try a few scenarios as well :-)

Twilight, here I come!

[Ironrod]

Depends on your tolerance for a learning curve. Myself, I'd play one plain-vanilla game and one with the first expansion, just to familiarize myself with the game mechanics. If you already know the underlying game system, though, there's no reason to wade in gradually.

I quit the campaign after the first episode, when I realized that my progress didn't carry through to the second. Bleah.

[Tokek]

I'll be jumping into this game shortly.  Picked up the ultimate edition today since I got the email for 25% off, plus it's my birthday gift to myself.

[Gromit]

I'll be jumping into this game shortly.  Picked up the ultimate edition today since I got the email for 25% off, plus it's my birthday gift to myself.

I never got an email with a coupon, and I get them regularly from Stardock.

Damn.

I'm looking to p/u both expansions, too.

[Tokek]

I never got an email with a coupon, and I get them regularly from Stardock.

Damn.

I'm looking to p/u both expansions, too.

The email said it's for people who has Sins of a Solar Empire

[Island Dog]

I'll be jumping into this game shortly.  Picked up the ultimate edition today since I got the email for 25% off, plus it's my birthday gift to myself.

I never got an email with a coupon, and I get them regularly from Stardock.

Damn.

I'm looking to p/u both expansions, too.

Mailers don't go out all at once, so if you are on the list you should get it.

[Tokek]

*Sigh* wasn't able to play since Impulse keeps crashing on me with script error. 

[Lockdown]

News on GalCiv II - version 2.0

Brad has started a preview here:  LINK

It's not much yet, but the big news for me is Tech Brokering.  Thank Jesus, Buddha, and Micky Mouse - it's finally going in!

Woot and a half!

[JohnathanStrange]

Hmmm...don't really grasp the difference between tech trading and tech brokering's effect: I realize that turning them off prevents everyone from having the same techs so we'd get unique strategies and specific civ strategies but what would it mean to turn off tech trading but allow tech brokering (does that make sense)? Or vice versa? Does turning off tech trading automatically turn off tech brokering? Maybe allowing tech trading automatically enables tech brokering unless one turns off
 the (new) tech brokering option? I'm thinking the highlighted sentence is the correct one: it would not be all or nothing with the new option; one could trade without thinking that your ally would sell the research later if you had tech brokering disabled. So the "tech brokering option" is a tweaking of "tech trading"? Correct?

Have a stumbled upon the answer anywhere above?

[Lockdown]

Whoa.  I hope that question wasn't directed to me, cause I'm not that smart.  You lost me on sentence two.

"Tech Brokering" (used in this context) is the ability for the Thalans to trade for a Terran technology and then turn around and trade that Terran technology to the Drengin.  To disable Tech Brokering is to disallow that action.

It would only make sense to disable Tech Brokering if Tech Trading were ON. 

Disabling Brokering would allow you and the computer AI to only trade tech that you or they researched themselves.

[JohnathanStrange]

Ok, I see it now. It's probably simple once "in game". I got it. 

[TiLT]

I finally bought the second expansion a few days ago as I have a couple of days without work right now. Haven't played the game since GC2 was originally released, and it has gone through a lot of changes since then. Suffice to say, I haven't done anything but play GC2 since I bought the expansion.

My first game was as the Altarians on normal difficulty in a medium galaxy. With the timely help of a Lucky Ranger, I managed to defeat the Yor and get everyone else to ally with me. Even the Drengin. At one point in the game they told me "Time to die!" then sent a bunch of fighters at me that all exploded against my military starbases. By the end of the game they told me: "Hey, you look great! I mean, you really look good! Uh, not that you don't look good usually. Look... just don't hurt me, okay?". Diplomatic victory it was, and such a sweet one at that.

Right now I'm playing as the Iconians in a large galaxy, also on normal. My two closest neighbors were the Yor and the Korath (who are in no way or shape based on or ripped off of the Kohr-Ah in Star Control 2. No sir, they are completely different. If you squint. And turn your head a little. And become stupid) who have both been eliminated at this point in time, and I've never been at war with any race yet. Guess who owns most of their old planets.

Politics can be a lethal weapon in the wrong hands.