Influence wars - major trouble

from Stardock Forums
SO, having gotten the hang of the whole morale thing (I can keep it at about 50-55 most of the time) I've started focusing on influence wars.

I build a LOT of starbases with all the influence enhancements I can get. In my latest game, I had a class 31 planet spitting out constructors at 8 turns per ship rather early. Things where looking fine, until I noticed one empire seemed to be spreading it's influence quite a lot.
I started adding starbases in the fringes of their influence sectors, to combat this.
Suddenly, after one turn, their color TOTALLY dominated the map, with basically only my little corner of the world untouched - after one turn only?

I can only subscribe this to being a bug in the game, and it makes it less than enjoyable to play.

I have the save game, right after it happened, in case any developers want to see it?

does anyone else notice these problems?
323 views 16 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
Flemming,

I have noticed this in reverse, with me doing it to the other AIs. What you describe is something with an affect on the galactic scale, such as galacy resources, wonders, and influence enhancing social projects. Have you checked on these? If so, then I guess Cari will have to look into it.
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
Jack,
I built galactic wonders myself, and don't think I've even seen quite this effect myself.

Just a though, is overall influence based on how many sectors a race influences?
If so, I think we have a self fulfilling loop here, with an alien race being more or less alone in one corner, expanding quickly outward because of lack of planets, thus generating a large empty space behind them. This would then fill with their influence, getting them more sectors, getting them more influence, and ending up being totally unstoppable because of this selfreplicating influence.

just a thought :-)
Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
I think that it's a bug with the population code, which we have fixed. (population affects influence)
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
GREAT - that was a bug that was really killing me all the time :-)
You know, this whole Betatester-per-pay concept is really working for me, mostly because of course, that you people are doing one hell of job answering posts, emails and probably still get time to code the game once in a while :)

Keep up the good work, I know I'm cheering you on!
(damn, now no-one will believe I can actually write an unbiased and objective review of the game,hehe)

/Flemming Madsen
VP Lidium
www.lidiumonline.com
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
"(damn, now no-one will believe I can actually write an unbiased and objective review of the game,hehe)"

How can raves be seen as biased? If someone does a good job (and I believe the Stardock people, especially Cari, have done a superlative job), how can you help but give a rave review?
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
this game stands on it's own merits :D And all 28 deserve applause. I've gotten way more out of this game than i ever paid for it

rich
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
You don't say if anybody had any galactic influence resources. Those can sway things drastically.

-Robert
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
Robert,
well, I can't say that they did or didn't since I really don't remember anymore :-)
All that I know, is that from one turn to the next, 2 thirds of the map was suddenly green, from being approximately 1/3 or even 1/4. that is a very big leap,even if you get 5 percent extra. Most of my outposts where "Swallowed" as well by it.

/Flemming
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
Razgon,
you do know that you can click on the sector button to get a breakdown of the exact value of influence each race has in the current sector? This is a small button in the top right corner of the main window. It's very useful for catching these influence bugs.

Paul.
Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top
Solitair,
THANK YOU - no, I didn't know that :-)
Reply #11 from Stardock Forums Top
You only need to worry about the influence revolts if another race has a few hundred influence point more than you in a sector containing one of your planets.

Likewise, you want to increase your influence a few hundred above your competitors in a particular sector to get their planets to revolt.

Paul.
Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top
"you do know that you can click on the sector button to get a breakdown of the exact value of influence each race has in the current sector? This is a small button in the top right corner of the main window. It's very useful for catching these influence bugs."

It would be really useful if that button also put the various sector influences in different colored numbers in the galatic minimap quadrants.
Reply #13 from Stardock Forums Top
Razqon,

I suspect what you saw was a tactic I see being used in my current game, where the Torians send a string of constructors to a resource and build the star base and all of the mining upgrades it can in one turn. This can result in a substantial increase of influence.

SlyFrog,

GalCiv does NOT have quadrants. A quadrant is one fourth of something. Star Trek has divided the Milky Way galaxy into four quadrants, "Alpha", "Beta", "Delta", and "Gama", but GalCiv's largest division of its galaxy is a segment.
Reply #14 from Stardock Forums Top
I've had this happen to me when I was building constructors and I hit two or more influence resources, and then built the 'propaganda machine' in one turn. I went from nothing to covering the whole screen.
Reply #15 from Stardock Forums Top
Tytan,
hmm, that sounds like a balance issue here, am I right?

perhaps a bit less randomness with the "sprinkling" of resources in the startup could do the trick?
Reply #16 from Stardock Forums Top
Well, it is actually more balanced than before, because I used to be able to 'culture rush' the enemy and overwhelm them. It takes a lot of money and I usually have to trade techs to the minor races to get the funds to buy the 'propaganda machine' and 'resturant of eternity'(4200 bc apiece!).

I think you are right in it needing to be more balanced. I think the civs need to purchase at least a couple of constructors early if they find a influence/morale resource and not just wait until then end of the colonization cycle. That way those things would be spread out between the civs and you would have to fight wars to get them all.