Is GalCiv too easy?

from Stardock Forums
After I won my first game as beginner, I played a second game in a tiny universe at normal level of difficulty where I was a technology-focused civilization.

Some observations:

(1) It still seems way too easy
(2) I always researched the more expensive technologies to help my technology sales, which mean that I didn't even have "Basic Repair" until almost the end of the game
(3) I used a strategy where I sold all my technology all the time to the other civilizations which resulted in my income and spending running at max and the other civiliations running in the red so they couldn't develop much of anything, while at the same time buying hardly any technologies from the AI (since their technologies were always overpriced)
(4) Although I had all forms of victory turned off except for the basic conquer the universe type, I decided to only build constructors in every planet. The result was a handy victory without a shot fired when one civilization after another gave in to my culture (via my starbases), even though my military rating was under 50 through the entire game. I would have probably won sooner if I had realized earlier that cultural enhancements to starbases cause star systems to just defect to your civilization.
(5) Compared with the revenue from trading away my technologies, trade revenue seemed totally useless (tiny)
(6) Even though I could only win through a military victory, none of the strongest civs ever attacked me because I just gave them some free techs when they started to get upset at me
(7) The technology trading and constructor building results in a sort of domino-effect, with the entire universe caving in too quickly
(8) The last star system of the last civilization gave up peacefully even though it had huge military forces! Why didn't it try to attack my weak star systems that had not as much as a planetary defense?

So what's wrong? Am I just playing at too low a level? Is the universe too small? Do techie civilizations just have too great an advantage? I think many of the above items show up defects in the AI strategy (for example, technologies are valued too highly by the AI and the AI shouldn't be running at a deficit due to greediness in technology trading).

I can't believe that I could have just stumbled into a killer strategy in only my second game...

By the way, I read something on the back of the game box about the game AI being upgradeable via the metaverse. How do I do that?



~SDC~
553 views 12 replies
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
Definately time to move up a level or 2 :)
Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
Here is another question, what are the alignments of your oponents? If they are all god, unless you go evil pretty quick they are going to generally leacve you alone.

Besides, the game does not get really fun until you piss someone off...

~SDC~
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
Sloth-

For the most part I agree with you and I play now at Crippling.

The sale of technologies to the detriment of the AI's economy is soooo easy and soooo tempting. And the fact that you can sell a tech about 7 times in one turn (to the major AND minor civs) makes it a cash cow like no other- my spending is at 100% the entire game- I can be about half the size of the AI and 4x as powerful through this strategy.

Trade is ALSO overvalued in diplomacy IMO- as tech, and as an actualy occurance. I mean that if you're trading with an AI they like you too much and too easily for it. It's not that much frickin money!

The AI needs to like you a lot less and a lot less easy in this game from intelligent on up!
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
Sloth-

For the most part I agree with you and I play now at Crippling.

The sale of technologies to the detriment of the AI's economy is soooo easy and soooo tempting. And the fact that you can sell a tech about 7 times in one turn (to the major AND minor civs) makes it a cash cow like no other- my spending is at 100% the entire game- I can be about half the size of the AI and 4x as powerful through this strategy.

Trade is ALSO overvalued in diplomacy IMO- as tech, and as an actualy occurance. I mean that if you're trading with an AI they like you too much and too easily for it. It's not that much frickin money!

The AI needs to like you a lot less and a lot less easy in this game from intelligent on up!

~SDC~
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
Well, I just finished playing my third game ever, this time on challenging. Tiny galaxy because I wanted to finish quickly, but given my self-imposed rules-of-engagement, it took longer because I wanted to win another military conquest without building a single warship or even planetary defense system on any planet. But as I expected, it was very possible, as one star system after the other defected to my side. In fact, in all of the first 3 games I've played, I've never built a warship even once, although a couple of times, I either discovered one or one would just appear out of nowhere. Given my strategy, I'd usually just send these guys on tours of the sector or just disband them since they are so superfluous to this strategy.

My opinion: This is just wrong. Military conquest should mean just that. Giving up without a single shot fired every time?!?!

By the way, I am using the game default settings for opponent orientation, which means one of each of good, evil, chaotic evil, etc.

By the way, this time I tried to be completely ethical and choosing the most ethical choice every time the game gives you a mini-scenario. However, I still was awarded a label of "chaotic good". What does one have to do to be "pure good"?

I'm going to start my next game on painful-level tonight and see if the game AI gets any smarter.
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
By the way, this time I tried to be completely ethical and choosing the most ethical choice every time the game gives you a mini-scenario. However, I still was awarded a label of "chaotic good". What does one have to do to be "pure good"?
End of quote


Pretty much what you did, except more of it. ;) Your alignment goes up a certain number of points for every good choice you make. You just didn't get enough events to make it all the way up. That can happen on Tiny.

~SDC~
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
Slo
I think ur choice of galaxy size is wrong for what u want, a challanging game right?
Try from large to bigger and u'll see the difference, the other civs has more room to develope and get a lot more aggressive, trust me ! :)

~SDC~
Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top
Sloth playing on smaller map sizes makes the game much easier, I can normally win on Masochistic on a tiny map but on a large map I still get creamed :(
Try going up a galaxy size or two, hope this helps :D
Reply #11 from Stardock Forums Top
Tiny is easier than other map sizes, but I do not believe the biggest sizes are the hardest. Hardest is probably medium, since you don't have as much space to extend yourself as on larger maps, while the ai can reach all yellow stars pretty fast.

Military win without firing a shot or buildign a ship is a good thing IMHO. Try to get that on maso with the current ai tweaks, though.
Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top
If you know the right tactics, you have to play at Masochistic difficulty (or do something delibarately self-defeating, like refusing to colonise other planets) to get any kind of challenge out of GalCiv.
Other players get it wrong (which is quite easy with the initially confusing 'spend rate', etc.) and find it too hard at low difficulties.

By the way, this time I tried to be completely ethical and choosing the most ethical choice every time the game gives you a mini-scenario. However, I still was awarded a label of "chaotic good". What does one have to do to be "pure good"?
End of quote


I get annoyed with how difficult it is to get to pure good. The problem is that many of the morality choices only give you +1 alignment (where it takes +50 to reach the highest alignment), and there aren't that many events in the average game. Tactics that help get around this include:
Playing on big maps
Colonising planets you don't want or need in the hope of getting morality events - if necessary disbanding colonies afterwards (colonising a planet twice will not give you a second event)
Downloading new events from the library, ones which tend to give bigger alignment bonuses


~SDC~