Ray the Wanderer Ray the Wanderer

Fellowship of the Ring Empire Thread

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Fellowship of the Ring Empire Thread

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The Prancing Pony

The welcome sight of a tavern greeted the weary traveler as he moved within distance of the town. Having traveled for many days, he longed for a cool mug of ale to slake his road-thirst.

As he approached the inn, he could see a sign of a fat pony rearing up on its hindlegs. The letters, THE PRANCING PONY, was painted in white.

The common room was large and rowdy. A bald and overweight innkeeper stood bent over the counter, whispering the latest gossip into the ears of a patron. On the benches were various folks, the local drunks for most part, but in corners of the taverns, he noticed there were groups drinking by themselves.

Setting himself down, the traveler handed a couple of coppers over to one of the bar wrenches for ale.

“Welcome to the Pony.” The traveler was mildly surprised to find a sprightly old man next to him, holding his gaze with keen eyes that belittled his obvious antiquity.

“Thank you, and whom do I have the pleasure of addressing?”

“Folks around here call me Ray and I do enjoy meeting up with newcomers to see if there is any assistance I could render.”

“That would be great, Ray. I would love to learn about the people who reside in these parts.”

“Ah, that’s a frequently asked question and one I’m well qualified to answer. There are a couple of factions here in Meta that you will want to watch out for.

The Pirates are currently dominant. Not the most refined of speakers but they are a jovial bunch, with a particular weakness for good drinks.

The Diplomats hold power in the Courts. Their courtiers are many but they don’t really mix with us common folks.

The Farmers are our working class. Hardworking and honest, they are however on occasion given over to overly elaborate festivals and celebrations.

The Galahs are a group of seafarers. They are also good trainers of livestock.

The Warlords are our warrior class. Their love for long campaigns leaves them frequently out of town.

The Spiders monopolise our merchant guilds. They are by far the most invertebrate bunch of traders you will ever see.

Far to the north, the Undead holds a death grip over the wastelands. I would caution you against traveling down that road.

There are many other smaller factions around, but I leave the details of those to Barley our bartender.

One of our tavern regulars, Gerakken the Spymaster, is also in the know with regards to many of the factions. So do buy him a drink if you want to find out more.”

“Thanks for the insights, Ray. But how about yourself, which faction do you belong to?”

Smiling to himself, the old man stood.

“Come round the Fellowship Halls tomorrow morning and I’ll show you around.”
475,619 views 2,185 replies
Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #479 from Stardock Forums Top
Congrats vincible!

Forum ranks are bestowed behind the scenes by the Stardockians. Known reasons to get promoted are meritorious service to the community and helping to solve an annoying bug.

You can also get demoted for boorish behavior.

I'm still bucking for my Ambassadorship. :)

~SDC~
Reply #480 from Stardock Forums Top
The forum rank promotion is rather mysterious as noone is informed as to why they are promoted.

Generally, forum ranks are awarded for contributions made to the game/forum. Eg. creating useful utilities -Javascout tech tree, H50 Event writer. Finding bugs. Or just been helpful on the forum. People are also promoted for being diehard supporters of the game :)

I don't think it's hard and fast. You still have to get noticed by SD for your contributions.
Reply #481 from Stardock Forums Top
Barry (and others that I've missed), good to see you getting into the Fellowship spirit of helping fellow Galcivers along in the forum.

As I said before, you don't need to be an expert to help, you just need to be a step ahead.
Reply #482 from Stardock Forums Top
Ray: Another superb novel is American Gods by Gaimon. He is British. Won the Hugo for Best Novel as I recall. Not a fairies and pixies fantasy, but rather, contempary.
Reply #483 from Stardock Forums Top
Alex,

Thanks for getting the article for me. Good to know that we have a very experienced DM on board. I DMed for a couple of years in my youth. It was fun. We have another diehard DM in this board, ungerpup. He created an entire system for himself, writing well over 6000 pages of material.

Chris,

Thanks for all the references. I really hope to be able to read at least some of them.
Reply #484 from Stardock Forums Top
Fired off another game, a Tiny map this time. First time I played on Tiny. I decided to warmonger for a change too.

The first few years were a whirlwind of absorbing the Carinoids, Yor, Arceans, Drengin, and the Alexians. Then I settled back to play SimGC for awhile, finally flipping the Torians and Altarians at my leisure.

For what it's worth, Rally Points make playing SimGC even easier then before. I normally stick a rally point right where I want to build the SB, then tell nearby planets to chuck constructors at that point. The turns just fly by.

Pretty boring, still. I think I'll settle for an Alliance victory next time. Then head on up to Genius AIs (that's the next level after Intelligent, right?). Intelligent AIs are no longer a challenge.

~SDC~
Reply #485 from Stardock Forums Top
Ray, no worries mate. I'm just preparing a list of a couple of hundred novels for you to read. I reckon it should do you for the next year or so. Do ya want brief summaries of each?
Reply #486 from Stardock Forums Top
I am still a relative newbie at this game, and I am having difficulty on normal. I can play beginner level just fine, but when I move to normal everyone seems to go to war with me.

Right now, I am getting the crap kicked out of me by the drengin and the torians. I am playing normal evil game in a huge, occassional galaxy. I picked industrialist, 5% PQ, +30 hp, +20 defense, and +15 weapons.

I started out okay, putting everything into expansion, to get the most powerful empire possible, and managed to grab quite a few planets (but not apparently as many as the drengin), but after my expansion phase was over, i started to research defense and build up my military, but it was too late, the drengin found me and demanded a star system which I refused. then after a while I made peace with the drengin by gifting them a class 20 planet system and things were fine for a while. Meanwhile, the torians went to war with me due to my alignment and for a while the drengin were gifting me star ships and helping me with the war against the torians and altarians, and I sent a freighter to a drengin system to improve relations but relations deteriorated anyway. Then the drengin demanded a star system again which I refused, and now I am at war with everyone in the galaxy except for the Yor whom I made nuetral (the altarians and arceans surrendered to the torians during the course of the game). Also, I have seriously fallen behind technologically. :(

Can anyone out there give me some pointers on how to compete on normal difficulty, or what it might be that I am doing wrong? :)
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Reply #487 from Stardock Forums Top
"For what it's worth, Rally Points make playing SimGC even easier then before. I normally stick a rally point right where I want to build the SB, then tell nearby planets to chuck constructors at that point. The turns just fly by.

Pretty boring, still. I think I'll settle for an Alliance victory next time. Then head on up to Genius AIs (that's the next level after Intelligent, right?). Intelligent AIs are no longer a challenge."

Personally, I've stopped building Trade SBs. I used to build Production SBs for every good sector but now I only build one for my main TG/wonder building sector.
It really cuts down on the boring constructor micromanagement.

Yeah, go for Genius/Crippling, H5O.
Reply #488 from Stardock Forums Top
Miles,

Your key problem seems to be the lack of a military deterrance. AIs pick on those who are substantially weaker than themselves. I'm playing pure evil now with all pure good AI and 4 of them love me (ie. warm, friendly). The other one is dead.

Build starfighters or battleaxes quickly and look at the military graph to your right. Get up to the level of the bad boys quickly and they will stop pestering you. Alternatively, looking at your military rating in the Domestic/Stats/Military screen and try to get it up to 100.

BTW, if anyone is wondering how I got Pure Good AI to cuddle up. I basically gifted "Attack Altarians" treaties to each of them in turn while I hammered the Altarians and made peace periodically. Don't waste those contracts before you make war.

Forgot to mention that you should keep your ships in orbit. The bonus to your attack while in orbit adds to your military rating.
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Reply #489 from Stardock Forums Top
Thanks Ray, but I was building up military. Should I have set my military production to 100% after the initial expansion, forsaking social and research?
Or maybe stop my total expansion sooner? :notsure:
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Reply #490 from Stardock Forums Top
Chris,

Book summaries would be great. Another write-up on how each novel has touched you personally would be fantastic.
Reply #491 from Stardock Forums Top
Miles,

Check these for me.

What is your current military rating and the military ships you have now?

Go to the diplomacy screen and check the military ships that the Dregs have now.

Yes, the gap in military ratings between the AI and yourself would certainly widen if you are still focusing on building colony ships while they start with military. It is a fine line that you have to toe. Personally, I never stop expanding until I have claimed all available systems. I would rather deal with the threats than to let the AI get those systems.
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Reply #492 from Stardock Forums Top
Miles, are you tech-whoring? There is not a tech I research in the early game that I don't immediately turn around and sell (or trade for another tech that I can then sell!).

Research the parts of the tree the AI is slow to research, then parlay those techs into money. More money for you, and just as importantly, less money for them. I normally play a builder game so I don't really care if the AIs get Corvette Tech off me, but YMMV.

Tribute is easily 50% of my income in the early going, maybe more. 'Round Organic Piercing, Advanced Repair, Advanced Trade, I slack off. But I still ship off techs when I need cash. And of course you want your trading partners to have all the +10% Trade techs because you get the same amount of money as they do from their trade routes to your systems.

This, and making sure you don't build unneeded improvements will keep your economy humming. Oh, and try out Diplomacy bonuses at the start of the game- they are amazingly powerful (probably too powerful).

I don't know about the higher levels, but I do know this stuff will work on the lower levels.

~SDC~
Reply #493 from Stardock Forums Top
Miles: I started off playing GalCiv without paying much attention to diplomacy and trading. That went fine until I got into the higher difficulty levels. After raking in lots of advice from the strategy guide, the unofficial strategy guide, and other open sources, I came to the conclusion that I was missing two important things in my strategy - trading and influence. I have yet to test the influence (culture bombing) technique, but I got as far as masochistic on medium with trading (tech whoring). To highlight the most important parts of my progress, I'll stick to four points - alignment, planet spacing, trading, and sneak attacks. Even though everyone can see my dark grey face down yonder, I usually start off going the nicey-nice way. This earns me extra ships whenever evil empires declare war on me in the beginning. It's like a bonus as I struggle to build my military ranking. The evil path is one I take whenever I feel like the situation is finally under control. As for planet spacing, I almost always choose dense cluster placement. This gives me extra breathing room for the early era of wars. With slow transports, my planets... well I've never lost one. Finally, trading. It strikes me as a cheesy tactic, but trading tech for cash or much-needed tech helps a whole bunch. I often bankrupt the Alexians and the Carinoids (later I protect them as my cash cows). As for the major empires, it depends on the difficulty level. You'll get the hang of it. A couple of things that I consider important: getting diplomatic translators first and investing heavily in research whenever I can. Now my favorite part - SNEAK ATTACK!!! I love love love to sneak up on economic and manufacturing capitals with attack ships and transports. I attack, take, and often make peace in the same turn. I also will line up my strike force next to ALL of another empire's planets and wipe them out in one Evil sweep. Sounds cheesy to some, but I say, "it's war! Screw 'em!"
Reply #494 from Stardock Forums Top
okay here's how things stand:

Drengin's miliitary and econ are strongest.
Diplomacy screen shows no ships though, maybe because they are so far away. I know they can build frigates because they gifted me some.

Torians are average in both.

I have military rating of 90
maintenance of 33%

15 corvettes
5 defenders
19 battle axes
1 frigate

5 highest PQ planets are producing frigates now.
Rest are producing corvettes.

Currently at war with both so only my defenders and battle axes remain in orbit.

Any help would be immensely appreciated. :)
Reply #495 from Stardock Forums Top
Yeah, go for Genius/Crippling, H5O
End of quote


Yup. I think I'm going to play one more fast small map game then wait for the next Beta version. When it comes out I'll jump up to Crippling for game #10.

~SDC~
Reply #496 from Stardock Forums Top
I knew of the tech trading cheese tactic, but I never thought cheese tactics would be essentital to a successful game. Thanks, I will try trading tech for money to the minors, although I am behind technologically. :D

Thanks also for the advice on trading and diplomacy. :)
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Reply #497 from Stardock Forums Top
You can't see the military ships in Diplo screen because you are at war with them.

First of all, you need to get out of a two-front war. Buy or make peace with the Torians. If they refuse, take a planet or two from them if possible.

I suspect the Dregs are already far ahead in military with multiple frigates. But no worries, park your very sizeable military in the systems nearest to the Dregs. If Dreg transports draw near, take out undefended ones with your frigates. Let them kill themselves against your fortified systems. If you can spare the constructors, build SBs with military modules in those defended sectors.

If the Dregs have systems nearby, build transports and escort them over for invasion. The Dregs would not have many defenders left, leaving them ripe for counterattack.

Make peace with the Dregs once their military rating drops that you can attack them later at your own timing.

For future games, it is good advice to look periodically at the Diplomacy screen and note those AI with Strongest and Strong military. If they are nearby and relations with them are degrading, consider bribing them to attack their weaker neighbours. This will take their mind off you.
Reply #498 from Stardock Forums Top

Thanks Ray,

Great strategy advice. I have only 13 or so planets (I selected occassional), and am seriously outnumbered by the enemy in terms of planets, but I will give the defense strategy a go. :D

Maybe in future games I will make a diplomacy pick to begin with as was suggested.

I know if I can just get the drengin to ally we can crush the torians. Hopefully the drengin will come to ses it that way, with a little encouragement on my part. ;)

If all else fails I can just start a new game. No big deal.
Reply #499 from Stardock Forums Top
Yes, Ray usually advocates a strong defense. [BARF!] ;p

Sounds like works, but for me, gimme speed, gimme greed, gimme... mead? That didn't work. :notsure: I just prefer taking the fight to the enemy. As a most noble pirate, I grant them the honor of defending their empire, territory, comrades, and loved ones. My distinguished virtue rests on their ultimate sacrifices. It brings tears to my eyes. (:(

LOL
Reply #500 from Stardock Forums Top
Drop Bear/Ray:

I read Neverwhere on a whim when my brother suggested it; I took it with me to Vermont for a ski trip. While my friends and I were snowed in our hotel, they got drunk. Me? I read Neverwhere and had a blast. One of the best reads I had had in a while, and THOSE are few and far between.

My brother still hasn't finished American Gods, so I haven't been able to read it yet.

Other superb reads I've had in the past few years have been Peter F. Hamilton's excellent Night Dawn's Trilogy: those Sci-Fi novels blew my mind. I would wake up in the middle of the night to read each book, staying awake for hours. Highly recommended.
Also, I like classics. I can't think of any fantasy at the moment, so will update in the morning.
If you like classic Grandmaster sci-fi, read The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester. The main character, Gully Foyle, is a hero, but also an anti-hero. Bester was known for his dark humor, and his sarcasm cuts right to the bone. He was never really heavy on details and sci-fi hi-tech specifics, but, like the classic authors, knew how to make novels into something fun. It's a short read, at around 250 pages.
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