How similar is it to Galactic Civilizations II?

[Atrocities]

Excellent article Baby-arm. You should be commended on it.

[AAshbery76]

You should play the Startrek mod for GC2, it rocks.

[Tim_Ward]

Space Empires V is a space war game with empire building elements. GalCiv is an space empire building game with war game elements. I played the demo of GalCiv2, and it has a lot to recommend it. Space Empires V could learn a lot from GalCiv2, to add more depth to the empire building parts of the game. Unfortunately, GC2 suffers from absolutely the worst strategic map I have ever encountered and I couldn't play the damn thing beyond a few turns.

[Baron Grazic]

Very nice article Baby-arm.
Only thing lacking is any mention of multi-player.
Can you play against other humans with the other 2?

[Phoenix-D]

GC2 doesn't do multiplayer. I don't think SoTC does either, but I might be mistaken.

[baby_arm]

GalCiv2 doesn't do MP, but Sword of the Stars was very much designed with MP in mind. Some say it's the best part of the game.

And thanks for the compliments on the article, guys. I'll be sure to pass them along to the author (Stefan aka YourConscience).

[Barnacle Bill]

I don't see much similarity between the SE series and the GalCiv series at all, beyond both being 4Xers set in interstellar space.

[Yef]

baby_arm said:
If you don't mind a little reading, we have a comparison review.

Short answer: yes, they're different enough to make it worth playing both.

Whoa, thanks for that link.

[Yef]

Ok, I found out why I find GalCiv2 boring:
It takes too long to develop a valuable combat ship.
In SE4, you can research all the way to destroyer very easily, to start producing a low tech design, and later upgrade it.
In GalCiv2, it takes forever just to get a corvett hull.