Downloadable information utility for GalCiv2

Published on March 7, 2006 By WishX In Galactic Civilizations II

Galactopedia

The Galactopedia is a utility program for Stardock’s excellent space strategy game Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords, providing you with exhaustive information on all objects and technologies defined by the game. The information is taken directly from the game’s data files, and therefore always up-to-date.

System Requirements

The Galactopedia requires a Microsoft Windows system capable of running the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0. This includes most Windows systems with Internet Explorer 5.01, except for the unsupported Windows 95 and NT 3.x/4.0.

Please use the Windows Update service or visit the .NET Framework home page to acquire the .NET Framework as a free 22.4 MB download, and to learn more about .NET system requirements.

Please see the Galactopedia website for more information, screenshots, download and source code!

http://www.kynosarges.de/Galactopedia.html

Comments (Page 5)

Chris Nahr

on Apr 06, 2006

Man, I've read several MSDN articles on the 64-bit transition and not a single one of them mentioned that programs running under WOW64 use the Wow6432Node subkey. Thanks a ton, I'll make a note and add another registry search option.

CommanderGizmo

on Apr 06, 2006

You may wish to know that there is not a wow64 node in the HKCU hive.

CommanderGizmo

on Apr 06, 2006

The tree view is nested somewhat strangely because the GC2 tech tree is extremely deep and very narrow. If all dependent techs were nested regularly you'd have to click through 20 nodes to get anywhere, and you'd constantly be using the horizontal scrollbar. Instead the tree view lists linear research sequences as siblings, without child nodes but with a ">>" sign in front of them. There's no game difference, it's just a more efficient use of screen space.

Chris, I'm not sure my system displays as intended. Please see image here. If it does, I would like to better understand why it is devided up as it is. I was not entirely sure I understood your last post as it coorilates to my display.

*edit*
It occurs to me now that perhaps these splits are due to the weapons given by ethical alignment. I have yet to research Xeno Ethics in any of my games since I'm too busy getting better defenses. Is this correct?

Thanks for the help!

Chris Nahr

on Apr 07, 2006

No relation to ethics, and yes, it looks as intended.

I've just typed up a long post explaining your screenshot. Then the forum crapped out and I lost it.

Again, briefly. From Phasors you can go to TWO alternative technologies: Phasors II or Psionic Beam. Hence, you get a clickable square that reveals a branching subtree.

However, from Laser you can ONLY go to Laser II, and then ONLY to Laser III, and so on. Hence, you get a linear list of techs preceded with ">>" symbols, and no clickable squares with nested subtrees.

The regular way would be to use nested subtrees for all tech dependencies. But since there are so many techs that only allow a single new tech to be researched, putting them all in separate subtrees would be a massive waste of screen space and also force you to click through a million subtrees to see techs farther up the tree. So this variable display allows you to see a more compact and convenient tech tree.

It's purely a display trick that depends on whether a tech allows just one or more than one other techs to be researched -- nothing to do with the individual techs at all.

SubemNuke

on Apr 07, 2006

looks very good

CommanderGizmo

on Apr 08, 2006

I like the way you did it. Things are sure easier to see than otherwise, I can certainly understand that. I guess I didn't realize you researched the psionic bean so soon. I thought it was at the very end of the tech tree. I have yet to see it in a game.

Nori

on Apr 08, 2006

Now if only this was in the game... I think that it would be awesome if you could actually see what some of the techs you can research did or review them after you research them... Maybe at the next update

Pierpoint

on Apr 11, 2006

Very nice!

I was actually attempting something similar (oddly enough also using the .NET framework). The only major difference was that I was going to add a tech-tree view similar to the one in game except that you could mouse-over each individual tech to see the cost, stuff it unlocked, etc (like in Civ IV). But rather than reinvent the wheel, I think I leave it to you or the devs to add in instead

brycej

on Apr 12, 2006

I just downloaded from the author's webpage and when I run it, it says it is version
1.3.0 instead of 1.4.

Dark-Star

on Apr 12, 2006

When a picture doesn't appear for an entry, it's either because Stardock's XML data does not specify a picture or because a specific picture could not be found. Also, GC2 itself can render 3D model files; I can only show PNGs or similar bitmap files. Nothing I can do on my side to fix this, unless some Stardock guy would tell me which image files to show for the image-less entries.

Since it's a .NET App, you should use the embedded DX9 support and have the app render the in game models in a seperate window! That would rock!

Chris Nahr

on Apr 13, 2006

That must have been an old file getting stuck in your browser cache, or in the proxy cache of your Internet provider. The files at http://www.kynosarges.de/Galactopedia.html are definitely version 1.4.0 (now 1.4.1) -- I just re-downloaded the executable myself to make sure.

Chris Nahr

on Apr 13, 2006

Since it's a .NET App, you should use the embedded DX9 support and have the app render the in game models in a seperate window! That would rock!

Cool idea... but I think that's just a little bit too much work for my tastes.

Roscoe-OO

on Apr 13, 2006

Really neat app. Thanks for your work, Chris.

Ultra54

on Apr 13, 2006

Chris Nahr

on Apr 21, 2006

Version 1.5.0 is up, with a new category for user-defined ships. (The little "User" button squeezed into the lower right corner of the category bar... no room elsewhere...) Accordingly, you can now set the save game folder of GalCiv2 because that's where user-defined ships are stored.

And that completes my to-do list for the Galactopedia.

Welcome Guest! Please take the time to register with us.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:

Richer content, access to many features that are disabled for guests like commenting on the forums.
Access to a great community, with a massive database of many, many areas of interest.
Access to contests & subscription offers like exclusive emails.
It's simple, and FREE!