Can already trade with other races at beginning of game.

from GalCiv2 Forums

I got the ultmate edition of GalCiv2 a few weeks ago and it's been working quite well. But all of a sudden at the beginning of a game I can go into the foreign races page and all of the races are there even before I make first contact with them. I can trade with them and everything and they still do the greeting popup when I finally come upon them. I reinstalled the game but that didn't help at all.

3,839 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Somehow the beginning relations got screwed up. It happens sometimes, and I don't think anyone really knows how or why.

To fix it, start another game; when you get to the screen to pick your opponents, select each one in turn and set their starting relations to "unknown". That should clear it up, but you may want to select ALL opponents, even the ones you don't plan to have in that game. These probably got messed up as well, and if you ever play against them their relations will be screwy too.

Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

This might not be a bug. I frequently (for story reasons) begin already knowing the Arceans as the Terrans or vice versa, and I can think of other examples. If these starting relations aren't specifically reset when beginning a new game as Willy describes, you'll have the same relations with your new race.

Galactic Civilizations III
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Having relations set to anything above "unknown" lets you speak to those races firstly on 1stMay; having the SuperDiplomat-Ability reduces the date to 1st February.

Quoting qrtxian, reply 2
This might not be a bug.
End of qrtxian's quote

Affirmative. If you have actually any kind of relation then it would only be logical to assume this relation stems from a previous meeting/encounter...

However, if you can talk to those races from Turn 1 on, then there's something wrong....

Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Hmm, I had the starting relations set as unknown for awhile until I was sick of every race declaring war upon me within the first year of contact. And yes, I could talk to them from day one, I had the Torians wanting to trade for my starting techs before I made first contact with them.

Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Quoting GIRogueTrooper, reply 4
Hmm, I had the starting relations set as unknown for awhile until I was sick of every race declaring war upon me within the first year of contact. And yes, I could talk to them from day one, I had the Torians wanting to trade for my starting techs before I made first contact with them.
End of GIRogueTrooper's quote

Well, the only exception I know of (that circumvents the 2 (1) month blockade) is to start the game with either "Ally" or "Team"-status, which is a status that no MV game is allowed to begin with. So question back, can you re-create that in a MV-game, too?

btw, which expansion do you play?

Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Point 1: The ability to start a conversation with the AI on turn 1 is only available under Ally or Team.
Point 2: If you play a Campaign game and subsequently use an Ally or Team member in a Sandbox game as an opponent, you will need to change their relations.
Point 3: The AI is not restricted to speaking with you every 8 (4) weeks; it is possible for them to open a dialogue with you the week after meeting you, if not the week of.  If you have starting relations other than Unknown, then they can initiate contact with you prior to the "meeting" screen that is triggered when they "find" you.
Point 4: I seem to remember the AI being willing to talk to you once when you first met them in DL/DA, regardless of how far into the game it was.  This is no longer the case in TA, though.

Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

I had the Torians wanting to trade for my starting techs before I made first contact with them.
End of quote

This is normal, if weird. I've definitely heard from races before I've met them in my games. I've even heard accounts of races declaring war on the player before first contact, although I've never experienced this personally.

Point 2: If you play a Campaign game and subsequently use an Ally or Team member in a Sandbox game as an opponent, you will need to change their relations.
End of quote

Are you sure about this? I haven't played the campaign much, but I've never had this happen. Does it also hold for races you're at war with in the campaigns i.e. Drengin and Yor in DL?

Point 4: I seem to remember the AI being willing to talk to you once when you first met them in DL/DA, regardless of how far into the game it was. This is no longer the case in TA, though.
End of quote

In DL, there is no restriction on when you can talk to AIs. This was first implemented with DA, AFAIK.

Who's initiating the conversations, anyway? You, the AI races, or both? If you're initiating them, can you talk to them without having researched Universal Translator? That would definitely be a bug. Even if you begin in contact with a race you have to research the UT first before you can talk, even if they're set to Ally/Team.

As far as the Metaverse goes, I don't use it, so no help there.

Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Right, I meant DA.

I'm not sure how the game treats it-it may have been that it considered it the AI contacting you in DA, and you contacting the AI (which is "impossible") in TA.  Upon the normal "greeting event", there's an option to talk to them, and I remember it working in DA, even if I was only a turn into the game, but in TA it tells me I can't speak to them so soon.

And no, you can't initiate contact without a UT.