Why is it so good to be bad and so bad to be good?

There is a good writeup here in Rob&Ralegh's unofficial strat guide (WIP). Check out Topic 5:Good vs Evil.

http://www.orionsector.com/pages/galciv/downloads/The_Unofficial_GalCiv_Strategy_Guide.doc

Ever tried to find an Ally when you are playing evil? As a good guy you will easily get other good guys to like you but as a bad guy the good guys will hate you while other bads are likely to have a neutral relationship towards you.

I play with random enemy alignments and in my last game there was noone good so I became evil aswell. If there are strong empires with good alignment I'd always prefer beeing good.

Sure I have allied when been bad. Actually in my last game I was demonic, as all corporate leaders should be , and had 2 big allies (Drengin and Altarians, which I believe both were neutral) and Arceans (evil) could have been my ally if they wouldn't have been in war with Drengin. In end got into problem with Drengin only because they got into war with Altarians, I think it was through their alliances.

Sure Yor (saintly) didn't like me that much but they only reacted when I built culture module into my starbase that was on their sector ..and I am sure they would have same thing for good races too. Oh and they did pay me tribute early in game, without me asking them

And even when I was demonic industrial boss I didn't have big military or anything, and only battle before Yor war (quite late in game) was when some prisoners tried to escape from my industry capitor/prison planet.

So far I only thing affecting my alignment is decision I make pre-game.


~SDC~

If your playing signifigantly below your difficulty
level, then evil is far easier as the AI's are no
threat anyway.

Try playing pure evil on a large+ masochistic game with 3 or
more good AI's and you will apperciate how much easier the game
would have been if you played good.

The balance between good and evil is one of the great things
about this game, its very well done(at least at the higher
difficulties)


[Message Edited]

I guess I could explain this better.

A races attitude towards you depends primarly on
your alignment, their economic depedency on your
trade and your military power.

When the AI's are not that skilled compared to you, your
military power will be signifigantly better and hence
the AI's will play nice with you.

On masochistic, its impossible for me to maintain
military parity with the AI's for the entire game and
hence they will frequently make extortion demands of me

Demands that will easily bankrupt me if I never refuse.

If we are both good align, refusing the demands just puts my
friendly relations to neutral for a few turns, never actually
leads to war.

If one of us is evil, refusing will generally put us at war
with each other.

I can manage to win as a pure evil on a tiny/small map
by rushing hard, but on medium or larger maps being
good is ALOT easier then being evil.


[Message Edited]

Also, evil gets worse events than good. I once set up a galaxy of 5 evil races (and was evil too). Then the Fundies stroke. This led to a third of the planets of the galaxy going to the fundies (mostly mine and some of the Drengin, who was the most powerful before this event). Being good protects you from Fundamentalists taking your main planets.

[Homer Voice] Mmmmm. . . Trade Centres (drools) [/Homer Voice]

thanks i usally play on huge but normal games any higher difficulty and i'll be doomed or so it seems they always seem to have at least half agin my number of planets.... anyway thanks agin for the info

~SDC~

I'm now out there and playing as Pure Evil (Demonic) and I'm luvin' it. Except for my last game when I put all civs as Pure Good. Gosh: they all had love-ins and group hugs and they were just itching to attack me as soon as my military power went a fraction below their military; and as soon as Alliances became available they were all allied.

And with my Pure Evil face I can be as evil on the boards as I want!

Certainly pick your allies well. Don't pick the Yors.