Tidbits

from Stardock Forums
Things that make you go hmmmm, and things that go "DuH" in the night. Even the player that has played the game the longest might find new things they like. this might help others enjoy the game (or interface) more.

1> Clicking on the non-obvious bar between the slider arrows on the planet list reverses the order (longest time to completion VS shortest time to completion, at the top of the list).

2> Wanna use that worm hole to check out an area without sending your Hero half way across a gigantic map? Easily done. Fleet your survey ship another, and make sure the survey ship is not the one selected as a "fleet leader" and explore it. you will stay put, and get to peek at a different area. This is how my test worked.

I was curious if a fleet would pass through a worm hole, so I saved the game, and fleeted the Hero with a free drone ship, then moved it to the wormhole.

With the Hero selected (both still fleeted), both units went though the worm hole. I would suspect you could worm a massive fleet.

With the drone ship selected (both still fleeted), neither unit went through the worm hole, but an appropriatly sized fog of war area was revealed on the other side of the galaxy. (allowing contact with a distant empire that would have taken many many turns to get to, even if I did a B-line to get there).

If your not sure what I mean by fleet leader, it is the ship who's stats are displayed when the fleet is active. If you have several ships in a fleet, you can click on a paticular ship in the fleet, it will remove that one ship from the fleet. If you then re-click the "fleet" button, it will re-join the fleet, and it's stats will be the one showing (making it the fleet leader).
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Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
Didn't know about the wole horm trick. Thanks couslee. :)
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
that would be pretty helpfull, especially to get a head start in colonization at the beginning of the game if your playing with large maps.
Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
Oh yeah, the benefits are obvious. Esp if you start out with a worm hole close to your two initial ships. You think I have had that chance yet? pftttt.

Hoping some of the more veteran players might also mention some short tidbits. (easiest way to find out how much the AI will pay for a tech, ect..)

here is another:
When exploring, use a diagonal track, with a diagonal backtrack to get the most exploration done (read: tack your ships). Scout- diag 3 SE, diag 3 SW; will expose more area than just going down 6 in a str8 line.
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
Can you do the same trick with constructors and colony ships?
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
have not tried any of that yet. I am at the point in my game that there are not any wormholes left, so further testing for me will have to wait. Some of the thoughts that still need to be addressed are yours, and a another, namely:

1> Will it work with other units fleeted with a survey ship?

I don't see why not, I doubt there is coding in place to allow it with one alt ship and not others. I want to try sending a massive fleet through one. Will check that out my next game. Imagine sending your Hero, 2 or 3 colony ships, and 2 or 3 full transports and a couple of scouts and fighters in there for good measure, through a wormhole.. Mwahahaha

2> If only peeking, what is the area of exposure based on?

In my test, I fleeted the Hero and a drone. Not sure if it was the drone's range of vision or the survey ship. will be easy to find that out too, just fleet the survey ship with a low sight one (colony ship, fighter or frigate), with the alternate ship as the fleet leader, and see how much area is exposed.

If others want to test this and have a large portion of the map exposed, save the game first. As the wormhole destination is changed on reload.
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
One thing that I started to do recently is to manage my constructors using the tactical map. I will tab through my constructors and assign them destinations by clicking on the SB symbols on the tactical map. They may not land directly on the SB but it's easy for me to dock them once they are there. Useful when I am producing tons of constructors per turn.

I find that this works better for me as compared to using rally points.

~SDC~
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
I didn't know about that. I kinda like to fly them myself anyway. Don't use auto pilot that much. :)
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
Yeah, I'm kinda slow with these things. I recall it took me quite a number of games to realise that switching social projects does not mean that your previous investment was wasted. :D

~SDC~
Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top
I recall it took me quite a number of games to realise that switching social projects does not mean that your previous investment was wasted.
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That was one of the first things I checked out when I noticed the miliraty queue rollover.

Actually, it's backwards IMO. If you start construction on a building, it don't matter. The purpose can be changed with a pen stroke. But if your halfway done with a battleaxe, saying "hey, lets switch this to a colony ship" is a bit absurd

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Reply #11 from Stardock Forums Top
Last night I had the Acreans demand a tribute from me! What was unusual was that they asked 0 bc!!!
Didn't make me go Hmmm so much as hehe haha! LOL I still refused ofcourse!

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Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top
I still refussed ofcourse!
End of quote


Yeah, Right, we believe ya, sure, ah huhhhhh :rollseyes:
Reply #13 from Stardock Forums Top
Arcean Diplomat : Give me a MILLION credits!
Cotal : Here you go. Cotal flips over a galactic coin.
LOL

~SDC~
Reply #14 from Stardock Forums Top
Hehe . . . lol, actually has anyone here ever refused to accept a tribute . . . ? I never know what to do, I figure they'll be offended if I don't accept.

Last night's game was a first for me. I purposly help build up the 3 Minors. With all the steroids I gave them (Trade Good shares, Techs, Planets and Money) the poor Majors didn't know what the heck was going on!

Funniest Game I've played in a long while! Calkwalks the best for a good giggle too :d (i.e. The 'What we luv about you essay')

Actually heres one I just thought of! Get yourself in a winning position and on the same turn that you conquer/flip/destroy (or whatever) the last opposition planet destroy all your colonies!

I think you'l be very interested to see what happens . . . hehehe.
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Reply #15 from Stardock Forums Top
Actually heres one I just thought of! Get yourself in a winning position and on the same turn that you conquer/flip/destroy (or whatever) the last opposition planet destroy all your colonies!

I think you'l be very interested to see what happens . . . hehehe.
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I know what it does. The game will proceed to wipe your harddisk and trigger a signal to this site to delete your Metaverse scores. That's what you deserve for trying to play punk. :D

~SDC~
Reply #16 from Stardock Forums Top
LMAO! Although it was a joke I've just gotta try it. LOL

I mean when I destroy a colony in 1.05 I ussualy can expect a CTD the next turn as I also do with a multiple victory conditions status. I think you may well be right Ray . . . at least the part about my PC self-destructing.

I did have another 'Things that make you go Hmmm?' moment a while back. The Torians kept sending constructors to the middle of the map for the later half of a particular game. I just ignored it.

When I finaly revisited that sector (which had three of thier sytems in it with 10 total planets) there was about 30 starbases arranged like a circle of thorns!

Very Strange? :notsure:

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Reply #17 from Stardock Forums Top
Avoid disbanding colonies in 1.05. That version is still unstable with regards to that.
I had no problems disbanding colonies in the beta builds.

The Arceans are the SB spammers for me. They really loved creating SBs everywhere in 1.05. I don't see that many useless SBs in the beta builds though.

Cotal, I thought you were going to upgrade once they fix the scoring. Aren't you gonna?

~SDC~
Reply #18 from Stardock Forums Top
I'm too scarred :sniff!:

I don't know how (ashamed) I was just going to by it at the store and pretend I down loaded it. I didn't set up my account (embarressed) I got someone else to do it . . . :(

Anyway we're over our download limit on our home account and haven't paid the last bill yet :notsure: . I want 1.09z or whatever its called, I really do . . . but I can't DL anything until the end of the month.

The scoring changes sound great ! ! I see you hit the Ceiling on your game Ray ! ! ! W-O-W ! ! !

Well now I'm convinced :) Heya hows the roleplaying idea going?

Reply #19 from Stardock Forums Top
I'll answer you in the Fellowship thread, Cotal. Don't want to hijack couslee's thread further. :)

~SDC~
Reply #21 from Stardock Forums Top
what happens when you loose by the way? i seen the endings of all the wins, but i havent let my self loose yet, so i have never seen the ending for it.
Reply #22 from Stardock Forums Top
Don't want to hijack couslee's thread further.
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Yeah, it's much better to let it sink into second page death. LOL

Still waiting to hear about the methods used to get max BC from the tech trade. Like wanting 500BC for 50mos when offering 5 early techs is obviously not going to work.

Wish they would put in AI counter offers, or tech/BC value indicators.

I played a game one time, don't remember the name, that had a unique system. As you added or took away things from the offer table, there was a slider bar with a medium pointer marker to indicate an equally mutual trade. The tone of your offer would change how much off that mark the AI would be willing to go. (as would diplomacy skill in GC have a visible effect on the slider point.)
Reply #23 from Stardock Forums Top
To get max BCs:
Put what you're selling on you side. Selling one tech at a time tends to be more profitable.
On their side, set the months to maximum.
Set the BCs per month to minimum.
Increase the BCs until the text in the window goes from green to yellow.
Decrease the months until it goes green again.

It may not be the absolute maximum possible, but it comes close, and it doesn't take too long.


~SDC~
Reply #24 from Stardock Forums Top
what happens when you loose by the way? i seen the endings of all the wins, but i havent let my self loose yet, so i have never seen the ending for it.
End of quote


You see a cinematic of a piece of metal with the terran symbol on it floating away through space.

~SDC~
Reply #25 from Stardock Forums Top
The Arceans are the SB spammers for me. They really loved creating SBs everywhere in 1.05. I don't see that many useless SBs in the beta builds though.
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Ray,

Haven't yet finished a game on 1.092, but on 1.091 I recently played a Painful where the Arceans had about 12 starbases in 4 sectors. Granted, only 3 of them were worth anything. I wonder if their new 1.092 emphasis on free-form tech researching will affect their fondness for starbases.