Ostsol

Ostsol

Joined Member # 2394405
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Reply to eXplorminate interviews Brad Wardell on GalCiv IV in GalCiv IV Dev Journals GalCiv4 Forums

For flavour, an option for a battle after action report that's super bare-bones for those not interested in all the technical details is to generate an article presented by the Galactic News Network. The briefest form could be the headline, while the article goes into ship numbers and losses. A more detailed report could be one presented by the equivalent of the war ministry, with an executive summary outlining the basics of losses and weapon effectiveness, while the body provides numerical d

4 Replies 21,162 Views
Reply to New Official Founders Welcome Thread - Introduce Yourself! in Founders Starbase StarControl Forums

Daniel, here. Was first intrigued by the first Star Control when I saw the box in some computer store. Knew nothing about it and even through the box-shot revealed nothing about the game itself, I knew I wanted a game that advertised itself with a weird alien hand with split fingernails. Yeah, I don't know what kind of sense that makes, either, but it works when you're 10. I played the Star Control 2 demo repeatedly when it came out, then the full game a couple years after release (ha

131 Replies 442,957 Views
Reply to Star Control: September 2016 Update in Star Control News LittleTinyFrogs Forums

Can't help but be hyped! SC2 gave me one of my first "best game evar!" feelings. :) Not sure that I don't still believe that, too... I'm quite alright with an alternate reality reboot. It's a safe bet. What I really hope for is that Stardock manages to evoke the atmosphere of the original: playful, with some dark undercurrents.

58 Replies 535,526 Views
Reply to Mischaracterizing the obvious to feel better about oneself in Internet LittleTinyFrogs Forums

The behaviour of mischaracterizing other peoples' statements is endemic to any group that features fanatic devotion to a particular point of view. I often get involved in religious discussions, which means that I'm regularly interacting with fanatics. I find it incomprehensible how an individual involved in a public discussion can blatantly misconstrue my arguments, while I reiterate my points to explicitly show that what my antagonist says of me is not at all representative of my wor

13 Replies 90,450 Views
Reply to Design elements of Elemental discussed in Elemental Dev Journals Stardock Forums

A question about the editions: If one buys the 32 bit edition and then later gets a 64 bit OS, will one have to buy the 64 bit edition to benefit from it? Or does one simply buy the game and download whatever bit-flavour he/she wants? Anyway, I'm really looking forward to this! :)

45 Replies 189,798 Views
Reply to The secret to Twilight of the Arnor in GalCiv Journals GalCiv2 Forums

Interesting question David A Lessnau, I'd be interested in that answer as well. It will probably just play the same in making the AI get angry at you like it does now though, I feel. I'm so glad that I pre-ordered now, bring on unique civilizations If you don't have a right of passage treaty, ships will only move 1 move per turn through someone else's sphere of influence. </div

76 Replies 87,626 Views
Reply to Absolutely Awesome Game Diary in GalCiv II News GalCiv2 Forums

The moral of the story is? somehow there has to be a way of making others break their alliances. This will be done by somehow upgrading the existing espionage system in avatar to a point where we can have spies influence other civs or frame other civs to eventually break alliances. I know that there is a super ability called "master manipulator" but I haven't heard anyone to use it to a point where he was able to make a civ go to war with another a

37 Replies 34,891 Views
Reply to Terrans discover class 18 planet in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

Why would you presume that? As far as I know, proximity has no bearing on speed on rotation. It could be spinning around like crazy for all we know. In a specific sense, that is true. However, the proximity of a smaller mass to a larger mass has a large bearing on the likelihood that one or both bodies are tidally locked. Tidally locked bodies naturally have a slower rotation period than a non-locked body of the same mass would. <div class="Article_Quot

72 Replies 71,705 Views
Reply to Terrans discover class 18 planet in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

The effective gravity at a given point on a planet is affected by four things: mass, distance from the centre of mass, rotation, and the gravitational pull of other bodies. In this case we need only consider mass and radius. The effect of rotation on the apparent gravity at a point on a planet is negligable. I thought of this a long time ago during a brief obsession with physics. On Earth, it amounts to about 3.3 cm/s^2 at the equator. Thus, gravity certainly is lower at the equator

72 Replies 71,705 Views
AI in RTS games in Strategy GalCiv2 Forums

I've decided that I should really get back into programming again and was browsing SourceForge.net for a project that might help me find a solution to a problem I've been having. I found ORTS , a real-time strategy game engine whose purpose is to be a testbed for AI programming. Since Brad is an AI guy and since the subject frequently pops up here, I thought I'd point this out. The following sentence from the game's overview is what really m

0 Replies 4,615 Views
Galcon in Strategy GalCiv2 Forums

Not particularily deep, but definitely a fun little "coffee-break" game. It's simple: planets build ships at a rate based on their size. You can send a modifiable percentage of those ships at other planets. Ships negate each other on a 1:1 basis, so it's merely a matter of outnumbering your opponant's defending ships.

0 Replies 4,096 Views
Reply to Gameplay Example: The ironic defeat in GalCiv Journals GalCiv2 Forums

Well, at least it wasn't the squirrels. . . I have yet to try a game with those settings. I usually go for games in larger galaxies with less players, giving everything the chance to colonise around eight worlds before the bulk of the game starts. That makes for some rather long games, of course. . .

30 Replies 128,897 Views
Another intelligent mind on the state of piracy in PC Gaming GalCiv2 Forums

Not actually gaming related, but definitely related to Stardock's stance on draconian anti-piracy measures and regulation. Baen Books has opened up a free online library that its authors contribute full versions of some of their works to. It's pretty small, so far, but has some good authors listed. Most interesting is the introductory page, which entertainingly provides some very rational and intelligent thoughts on the state of piracy and its real effect on business. Check it out. <img src=

1 Replies 26,663 Views
Reply to Learning AI- An idea for Dark Avatar/ GalCiv3 in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

This would be cool as an additional AI setting apart from the regular difficulty settings. I think that the regular AI should work similarily to the current model, but there should also be an optional learning AI that would compile a database of what it learns from game to game. It might learn the wrong things from the player, but on the other hand that might be counter balanced by what it learns from itself -- that is: other AI civs in the game.

16 Replies 8,989 Views
Reply to What was your first love TBS game? in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

Risk. The first version I played didn't go by that name, though. It was called GeoWar, for the GEOS operating system for the Commodore 64. I think I was around 7 or 8 years old, at the time. The first TBS game I played and loved in the same genre as GalCiv 2 was also for GEOS, about a year later. It was called Cluster Wars. Fairly simple gameplay. You take over planets by destroying their defenses and having a military presense on them. Each planet has a production rating which

81 Replies 77,660 Views