Imperium Galactica III

Cookie Monster · August 5, 2002, 14:27

Are there any Imperium Galactica fans out there? What do you think of the upcoming IGIII?

I have IG II and played that game for many hours. Their approach to the 4x space games was intriguing. I love their combat system, both space and ground combat.

Asher · August 5, 2002, 15:45

I was looking forward to it, but apparently it's mostly mission based?

General Ludd · August 5, 2002, 18:04

I don't know much about the series, but I hear that it's not the same people making it, and they are going a completely different way then the past games of the series.

DarthVeda · August 6, 2002, 02:52

I was thrilled to death to see they were doing an IG3 and I pooped my pants when I saw the graphics. Then I read the part about no multiplayer and decided that the game was probably not worth getting until it dropped to $15

ravagon · August 6, 2002, 04:03

I enjoyed both IG1 and IG2 (although 1 won't run on my current PC anymore).
I basically found 2 too easy on easy and too hard on med/hard unless I was playing as the Kra'hen.
If playing against them they always started too far away and assimilated too many worlds before I met them to give me a chance of stopping their fleets.
There was a trick to using those paralyzers/jammers that I could never master. They could always spot my cloaked fleets too. Their fleets of 60-100 battleships and heavy cruisers armed with destructor rays wiped out anything I could throw at them.
My main strategy ended up revolving around constructing large numbers of laser/heavy fortresses and tanks on the targetted planets and keeping my fleets away from the enemy. Kept wiping out their ground forces and sent their fleets running for home to get some more.

Thank goodness the bombard options were so limited.

Cookie Monster · August 6, 2002, 08:08

Those Kra'hen were always my downfall as well. I had similar experiences with assimilating a lot of planets but never getting a chance to build up my defenses. Yes, easy was too easy and all the other levels were very hard.

DarthVeda · August 6, 2002, 10:47

I found in IG2 that I would normally have regular taxes on all of my fringe worlds and once they reached a certain population (about 15k), I would set taxes low enough to cause a boom and get like 93k people within a short time. This way I could seperate some worlds that I wanted to build up to become industrial powerhouses (say like 10-12 factories of one or more types and a number of defensive structures).

Grumbold · August 16, 2002, 09:22

I didn't find the Kra'hen insurmountable opponents on normal mode (haven't tried hard.) Provided you are prepared to be patient you can keep their fleet ping-ponging between two planets by grabbing them back as soon as the Kra'hen have got some distance away. Your other planets can then keep pumping out ships and cash until you are strong enough to send out more fleets to reduce their worlds to rubble. You can eventually reunite your many fleets into one bigger than the Kra'hen taskforce and reduce them to pulp.

An alternative or complementary tactic is to build multiple heavy fortresses on your key worlds in the city centre so the enemy cannot charge them with all its units simultaneously. If the monster fleet breaks off from ping ponging to rampage it will not get too far before it has to head home for more tanks, giving you time to repair the damage.

I tended to do something similar on growing my worlds, except I would start the tax rate at zero and leave it that way for as long as I could afford to. That would get the planet to 10-20k fast so it could then be put to use with a reasonable number of research facilities or factories. I also think building trade centres immediately on your first few planets is a must. Thier added income in the first few years is a huge boost.

Spaced Cowboy · August 16, 2002, 17:57

I found the interface in 2 to be quite nasty to use.
1 wasn't quite as bad...but 2 only lasted for 3 hours on my hard drive...then bye-bye!

Cookie Monster · August 19, 2002, 15:45

I fired up IGII this weekend and thought I'd have another go at it. Boy building trade centers early really helps out with income. Income was always my bane before but now I am doing better. Damn, Apolyton is a great site!

Now I'm just waiting for the inevitable Krahen onslaught!

Spaced Cowboy · August 19, 2002, 17:53

HD,

You don't have any issues with the interface?

Hmm...maybe I'll give it another try on my faster computer.

Cookie Monster · August 20, 2002, 07:12

Quote:

Originally posted by RPMisCOOL
HD,

You don't have any issues with the interface?

Hmm...maybe I'll give it another try on my faster computer.

RPMisCOOL:

Yeah the only issue I have with the interface is the fact when you select certain commands. I hate having to left-click and hold on a pulldown window then drag the mouse to a command in that window. I'm sure you know what I mean. As far as manipulating fleets and planets I have no problem.

I continue to play my game. I choose to play as the Shinari and having never tried them before am pleasantly surprised. The manual says they lack the military but the fact that they can make more money then anyone else makes up for it. They can just buy techs from others or buy advanced weapons from the trader. I'll post more later as I slowly start to asses how things are going.

Spaced Cowboy · August 20, 2002, 08:50

Hmm...

Maybe I'm thinking about another game, but isn't this the one where you constantly have to send your spies out on missions?

Grumbold · August 20, 2002, 09:01

I never had interface problems as such although it is tedious not being able to jump from planet to planet instead of going via the starmap every time.

In my most recent Solarian game I was far more warlike and actually took out the Kra'hen before fighting the Shinari. The random scientist plotline gave me an early corvette design and such a research boost that I could afford to expand early and stay well ahead of everyone else for the rest of the game.

Cookie Monster · August 20, 2002, 11:12

RPMisCOOL:

Spying is but one part of this space exploration game. I was refering to the quirky diplomacy and research screens with all their pulldown menus. check out this site to verify we are talking the same game.

Grumbold:

Yeah jumping from planet to planet via the starmap is tedious. Did you ever try doing the same from the information screen (f9 I think)? Simply right click on the tiny planet icon in the list and you instantly go to that planets surface. When you exit out it takes you back to the info screen, at least I think it does. Will verify this.

Getting that early ship design really helps out quite a lot, I agree.

Spaced Cowboy · August 20, 2002, 13:11

HD,

Actually these types of games are my favorites (space 4X). I just remember being so disappointed with the interface on my old pc....but I cannot remember what turned me off so much....I'll try it again with the new pc when I'm done with my current Civ3 game (which should be about the end of Aug

). Being married with children limits my playing time.

Cookie Monster · August 20, 2002, 14:44

Quote:

Originally posted by RPMisCOOL
Being married with children limits my playing time.

I know exactly what you mean. It's like your time is no longer yours. Everytime I sit down to play either my wife or my kid bugs me for something!

Spaced Cowboy · August 21, 2002, 17:02

You should see the look I get from the wife when I start up the stairs to the game room.

Cookie Monster · August 22, 2002, 14:55

Quote:

Originally posted by RPMisCOOL
You should see the look I get from the wife when I start up the stairs to the game room.

I definately understand that one too!

What's a guy to do when he wants to "unwind" in front of his computer?

Rogan Josh · August 23, 2002, 13:20

I downloaded the demo, but I couldn't figure out the controls. It was very frustrating - there was no accompanying reeadme or anything to explain.

Anyone else try the demo?

DinoDoc · August 23, 2002, 14:38

There's a demo?

Grumbold · August 27, 2002, 09:49

The controls are mostly F1-12 and right/left click on the on-screen hotspots. About the only one that catches me out is right clicking on the planet/fleet info box on the starmap to go into one mode and left clicking on it to go into a different one.

moomin · August 27, 2002, 11:12

Played IG1 to death, never got into IG2. Had high hopes for IG3 before I saw it was mission-based.

Spaced Cowboy · August 27, 2002, 14:21

Quote:

Originally posted by moomin
Played IG1 to death,

If you mean until I died repeatedly, then yes, me too!

Quote:

never got into IG2.

Same here, and I almost drooled when I saw all of those disks

[/QUOTE]Had high hopes for IG3 before I saw it was mission-based. [/QUOTE]
What, you mean not 4X?

ravagon · August 28, 2002, 05:49

Quote:

Originally posted by RPMisCOOL
If you mean until I died repeatedly, then yes, me too!

Hardest part I found about IG1 was by far the fact that you could only construct a single research institute on each of your planets. You had to get it right the first time or be faced with scrapping and rebuilding.
As long as you could get over the first (Garthog? - Its been a while) opponent I found you were fairly well placed.
By the time you encounter the Dargslan onslaught you can put 4 meson canon, a shield and 3 advanced space bases on your best (ie: most targetted) worlds and watch the annihilation of fleet after fleet...

The one annoying thing I found though was that by the time you could negotiate and ally with the other races they had all been almost completely wiped out.