Twisted tech trees? Huh? Are we talking about the same game? Last time I played it the tech tree was the most boring part of the game - it's a big grid of techs.
 

I have heard they were improved a lot with Dark Avatar. Did you play with that expansion? I have only played it with the expansion, so I can't tell you...

The newest expansion is supposed to be mainly about the tech tree - customizing it for every race.

What the tech tree does lack that MoO 2 had more of totally new options that appear. Most of the time, they are just "better" of what you already have. Better beams, better shields, better industrial production, better morale. But it does open up new planets you can settle, larger ship sizes, and new galactic wonders & trade items.

I have found myself getting into something of an arms race with an enemy, which has been specializing in beam weapons. That naturally forced me to put a lot of research into shields. That helped me catch up to the otherwise overpowering ships of the enemy, but made me have to slight other areas. Including other weapons and defenses. Fortunately, I'd already wiped out the Dread Lords, and I'm down to only two other major races left in the game.

It causes a lot of interesting decisions to happen, in my mind. That's the fun of it. Choosing the new tech to research is never easy.
 

As with the original, I liked Galactic Civilizations II, but didn't love it; I used to dig turn-based games, but as I've aged they've become more of a chore than a joy. Especially the endgame, when (just like classic Civ) GalCiv is no longer a garden of decisions, but a hedge maze of chores; someone needs to take the shears to that thing.

But yeah, the absolute best parts of GalCiv II are the tech tree and the ship designer.
 

Ya, I hadn't played the expansion, although what you describe later is what I remember - your tech choices go down to "Do I develop beam weapon 3 or anti missile shield 4?"

I might have to give the expansion a go, I did enjoy the original game a lot and I haven't played it since the first major patch in which they fixed a lot of stuff.
 

Hehe, thats kind of ironic, I was just playing some GalCiv2, started browsing the net and ran into this post.

It is indeed the successor to MOO2. I wouldn't say it is quite as good, but it is close.
 

True, I remember the end-game of MOO2 taking like 10-15 minutes per turn. Which is how Gal Civ 2 gets, too, though in both games there are some automated controls you can put in place to speed things up for you. Or at least, so I have been told with GC2. I haven't yet experimented with them. I think I have something like 115 planets under my control right now, so it's just INSANE trying to keep track of them all.

Right now I have a huge disparity between my beam tech vs. non-beam tech. Ditto for my opponent. So I can either try and focus on areas where he's weak, or try and keep up the technical pace with him (which works to my advantage because of espionage... I have been able to steal some techs, and never had to research Disruptors at all).

But at one point, I had to give up on the arms race and focus on building up my economy, because he was slaughtering me on that front.

I'm doing great now, and I think I have the game in the bag, especially since I have locked down all of his research facilities JUST BEFORE a plague hit the galaxy. Now he's having trouble researching a cure...

Yeah. I fight dirty.

The Altairians like me because I'm Saintly, but distrust me because I'm very warlike and have a tendency to conquer other races.
 

I really did dig the 'governor' idea, and always used it to speed things up colony-side.

But what I *really* want is some sort of 'Fleet Creation Marker,' to speed up the obnoxious logistics of building a multifaceted fleet.

The idea:

1. The player plants the fleet creation marker on the map.

2. An option pane opens up. The player selects what number of each ship s/he'd like in the fleet.

3. Once confirmed, the player's planets *automatically* allocate the construction orders of the requested ships between them, and assign the fleet waypoint to the ships as they are built.

4. Voila: X turns later, the fleet is created, and the player is given a message that it's been done. The player, meanwhile, has been pleasantly managing the economy, engaging in diplomatic relations, researching new technology, and designing new ships, because s/he is an interstellar emperor, and has much more important things to do than personally inform each and every planet and construction crew how and when and where to get their jobs done.