Comments on: Plan B Is Complete

By: Jason L

Jason L — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 02:51:12 +0000

So I'm a big fan of what Sword of the Stars does, 3D map, ONLY WAR and all that. Today someone linked from RPS' coverage of SotS II's nasty launch (at least this time it's not because they thought it was fine) to freeware one-man 4X Aurora. I don't want to trip the spam filter so there's a gumongous Bay 12 thread and a ridiculous wiki, but this annotated AAR from two years ago is the reason I must immediately try this out. Four megaposts in it still has me going at about .5 WHATs per paragraph. Listing features would be an exercise in futility, but compared to GC2 it seems to take character away from the enemies and universe and infuse them into your own subordinates and units.

By: Jackrabbit

Jackrabbit — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 09:24:05 +0000

A brilliant wordsmith, in case that wasn't clear

By: Jackrabbit

Jackrabbit — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 09:22:19 +0000

I nearly pissed myself. you are a wordsmith.

By: J-Man

J-Man — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 19:36:01 +0000

Aaaaawwwww.

By: DoctorDisaster

DoctorDisaster — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 18:13:37 +0000

Jason

You complete me

By: Jason L

Jason L — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 21:37:08 +0000

You may be like me. It's a really unpleasant phenomenon - on paper I should love GalCiv II, but I keep trying it; whenever Stardock does something especially awesome, whenever Tom writes a diary, sometimes just because I run across it, I reinstall the demo and give it another shot.

I've never gotten further than a few screens into the tutorial.

Just hitting the main menu fills me with a physical - tight stomach, tight jaw - wave of ennui and disgust, and it doesn't abate. The races seem twee, the numbers bare and complicated, the scale disjointed, the art lifeless. Last time, when Plan B started up, I found that I was literally averting my eyes from the screen - peeking out sideways at whatever toothpaste production slider I was supposed to be fiddling. This all comes despite eating up the much shallower and more flawed Star Control 3 and Sword of the Stars, and the much more forbidding Armageddon Empires.

This cycle has been ongoing for years, in combination with periodic temptations to just buy the game to 'support the devs' and never ever play it. I think it would be fair to say that GalCiv II has caused me more suffering than any other game. I love everything GalCiv II and Stardock stand for but hate the game for no good reason - and in some perverse way, I won't let myself settle the matter one way or the other until I love it.

By: DoctorDisaster

DoctorDisaster — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 20:10:38 +0000

Just wanted to say I absolutely loved Plan B. In fact, I used to do very similar "leader logs" back in my formative Civ 2 years. Not as funny, of course, but that's why you're getting paid for yours. My only problem is a bit of cognitive dissonance: I downloaded the GC2 demo and was totally unimpressed. Others who tried the demo, help! Did I dislike it because I was railroaded into playing as the lame-o diplomatic Terrans? Was it the caps on all the galaxy options? Does disappointment with the demo mean I'll be disappointed with the game, or is the full version different enough that I'll get my fourecks fix?

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 02:04:22 +0000

The third link is borked. ;)

Also, the plan for increasing speed was the greatest idea ever.

By: roBurky

roBurky — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 21:56:39 +0000

Very entertaining final half. Well done sir.

By: Pod

Pod — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 20:27:10 +0000

I dont' remember GalCiv2 looking like this :o
It looks like Escape Velocity nova or something in that image...

By: J-Man

J-Man — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 19:28:05 +0000

What was that whole CPU overload screen I just got when I tried to come on here?

By: J-Man

J-Man — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:26:30 +0000

I hope you're joking, pentadact.

By: Newt Pulsifer

Newt Pulsifer — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 13:14:43 +0000

Nicely done, Pentadact!
Patch 2.0 may be out soon.. :)

By: Jason L

Jason L — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 12:14:50 +0000

'Overlord! Overlord! We have found a way to turn politicians into a starship drive.'

By: Pentadact

Pentadact — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 11:10:06 +0000

I know! It's a catastomasy. The PC Gamer Sporecast will be on ice for a week.

Let the record show that I was banned for "Extreme Language/ Racial comment". Apparently "Holy shit!" is extreme. These guys need to try skydiving.

Of course, they might be referring to the time I commented on a flying Sonic The Hedgehog with "This is great, unlike the Jews."

By: ZomBuster

ZomBuster — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 10:34:54 +0000

You got banned on spore for commenting on my creation D:

what have I done *cries*

By: Bret

Bret — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 05:10:29 +0000

Hey, they were nice guys until the Terrans started being total jerks.

And sometimes, you just gotta nuke a few suns.

By: Dorian Cornelius Jasper

Dorian Cornelius Jasper — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 02:34:45 +0000

Finished reading the entire gamelog.

...

This is seriously Crowning Moment of Awesome stuff. Especially the "Nonagressive Space Treaty Catapult" ploy. Mr. Francis, you had me glued to my seat and actually cheering for the villain. That is, you, apparently.

By: Bret

Bret — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 23:45:22 +0000

He was a warmonger last time.

He won a tech victory.

Man, you'd think somebody would remember not to tick off the descendants of the most psychotic race in the history of the galaxy.

By: peterd102

peterd102 — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 22:17:36 +0000

Read this in a free book with my copy of PC Gamer - It was fantastic, id love that as a feature in the mag. Pester Ross for that plz!.

One word that sticks in my mind - STARFUCKER!

I cant imagine what your like when you decide to be a warmongerer. I can see the death toll rising a lot higher.