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GalacticCivilizationsIICustomShip

A custom ship on GalCiv II's main map screen

One criticism of the original Galactic Civilizations was its lack of ship design features. New ships simply became available when the appropriate technology to create them became available. Galactic Civilizations II includes a highly-configurable 3D ship design editor. Technological research now unlocks components that the player uses to create their own custom ship designs in 3D from a variety of hull bases. The player's ships are rendered in real time and shown on both the main screen and in fleet battles.

Every ship is designed around a particular class of hull - tiny, small, cargo, medium, large, and huge - and has a predetermined number of hit points and capacity. Each ship component fills a certain amount of space. Technological advances can lead to enhanced components that use less space (but typically cost more to construct). Players can upgrade existing ships to use these new components, although it is often cheaper to use them as cannon fodder and replace them with newer ships.

There are three types of paired offense-defense mechanisms:

Defenses work best against the offensive weapon they are matched against. A defense mechanism used against a mismatched attack is diminished to the square root of the defense value (with a minimum of 1). For example, nine units of shield defenses would only provide the same protection as three units of armor when used to defend against mass drivers.

Engines are just another component and become available in increasing power/size ratios with later research. Other component types include sensor (for extra scanning range), support (for extra travel range), and capacity modules (for constructors, colony ships, and troop ships). Players can add each component multiple times to increase the component's effect, e.g. creating a fast long-range fighter with two lasers, two ion engines, a support module, and a shield.

Players can add a wide variety of non-functional components - jewelry - such as wings, pylons, wheel structures, and lights for artistic purposes. These take up no space and do not cost extra. There are several sets of jewelry, one of which is assigned to each race, though the player is not restricted to choosing from these.

See Also[]

Ship design strategies

External Links[]

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