Bingjack

Reply to Advice for Game Settings in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

Best bet for any game, play on the default settings it gives you first, till you get a feel for the impact of all the options. I personally dont think the game "feels" right on smaller than a large map (life support and sensor ranges dont really come into play much until youre on that size), but it definitely takes a much longer time to play through. You might want to play some smaller maps for your first few games . I definitely recommend turning on the +cpu option in either DL or DA

Reply to How Do You Guys Research The Colony Techs? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

I've gotten used to playing with tech trading turned off, because of the way the A.I. traded amongst itself. Has it been tweaked so that it's now worth leaving on? Yes. In DA you cant initiatite diplomatic transactions as often as youd like...theres a significant "cooldown" period, on a race per race basis, after each one. This has the dual effect of putting a speedbump on player diplomatic tech power-shopping

Reply to AI, Am I wasting my time? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

I will totally second this. Even in 1.4 DL the AI could sometimes be very opportunistic. The very last game I played before switching over to DA, I was the second most powerful militarily next to the Drengin, who were a very real threat I had to deal with now. I had commited nearly all of my forces to the Drengin front and was a few turns into a pretty tense fight with them, when all of a sudden...Treachery! Two of the Th

Reply to How Do You Guys Research The Colony Techs? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Given, say, two level 9 barren planets, and 1 level 18 aquatic planet, and the same amount of time to research both techs, which would y'all go for first? Planetary Invasion. Personally, I have a hard time seeing many situations when its really worthwhile researching colonization tech at all, instead of just teching up on weapons (which you always need the entire game regardless of the game philosophy your pursuing), and planetary invasion

Reply to Farms and Stock Markets in Dark Avatar in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

There has always been a substantial approval penalty for going above 19 or 20 billion, AFAIK, and most experienced players recommend against doing it.

Reply to AI, Am I wasting my time? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

If there are continued reports that the AI is significantly better I guess I will be buying the expansion soon. It'd be great to actually play against an AI with a real tactical brain though. In about every game I've ever played I've overcome my mediocher economy (I don't go crazy crunching the numbers) by fighting sometimes very tricky (or "cheesy") wars. Most AIs fail badly at concentraing their force in the right area, and so you can defeat a huge army with a smalle

Reply to If I preorder now, can I get the game now? in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

They announced at the chat last night that the game is now "generally availiable" (depending on geographic location, I guess) for download. So galactic conquest is waiting for you right now...

Reply to Did the easy AI get easier? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Im not certain from your post whether youre looking for it to be more challenging, or less, but DA is much more challenging in general than DL, if only becaue some of the cheesier tactics in DL have been supressed( to be replaced by new ones, Im sure). But yes, with the + CPU option enabled, the AI is much more challenging, even without cheating on the higher difficulty levels. If youre like me, you could well find yourself playing at a level or two lower than you were playing in DL, at first.

Reply to AI, Am I wasting my time? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

actually, they will gang up on opponents under the right circumstances. if everyone already likes you, the AI players probably won't gang up on you. but if you start trouncing them and aren't too far ahead, they'll develop of fear of "i'm next." in this, they consider killing off minor civs as well. so if you want to aggrviate them, play with minors and kill a bunch of them. and do it quick. the AI players will start attacking you. otherwise bide you time until you can

Reply to DA 1.5.057: Why am I playing against "myself?" in Bug Reports GalCiv2 Forums

It would be nice to be able to tweak race and hull colors (in friendlier fashion than editing an .xml file) on the fly in the game, if you decide you hate your hull colors, or run into a conflict with other race colors being too close to what youve chosen. A minor issue to be sure, but it would still be nice.

Reply to Dark Avatar Developer Chat: Wednesday, February 7th! in GalCiv II News GalCiv2 Forums

NOTE: THERE WILL BE A SURPRISE ANNOUNCEMENT AT THE DEVCHAT! *Cough*... Turn Based 4x Fantasy game ...*Cough*

Reply to Supreme Commander or Command & Conquer 3 :Tiberium Wars ? in Strategy GalCiv2 Forums

SupCom (which I have a better understanding of because I was in open beta) is more focused on larger battlefields with large armies and lots of ways to reduce micromanagement. It also is all simulation-based rather than probability-based, so you get some things the developer never intended - in one game the arc of an artillery shell aiming at the enemy base just happened to hit a fleet of gunships on their way to attack me and the massive midair detonation took out hal

Reply to Whats a good video card to buy? in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

Planned obsolence. I think it is inevitable and should be planned for, instead of complained about so much. The technology evolves. So does the hardware and software. Yeah, people *are* planning for it. Theyre buying consoles. Theyre buying consoles for the stable technological plateau of reasonable duration, and the Gamestop near my house doesnt even stock PC games on the shelves anymore

Reply to A Walkthru of Dark Avatar in GalCiv Journals GalCiv2 Forums

Im told the beta is a pale shadow of the features in the gold edition. God, I hope you're right. That would be awesome. But I would say the beta is spot-on with what's being released for the time being. I think Brad has designs to add some of the original features mentione

Reply to A Walkthru of Dark Avatar in GalCiv Journals GalCiv2 Forums

Waah!...Should've coughed up the dough for the beta when you had the chance Im told the beta is a pale shadow of the features in the gold edition. My source is questionable though, as they made the game and cant be considered unbiased. I guess my point is...Gimme!

Reply to A Walkthru of Dark Avatar in GalCiv Journals GalCiv2 Forums

Ok, look...Im not kidding around anymore. Cough up the game. Gimme! Enough with the previews, you had me at "new combat system". Give! BTW, love the shader on the asteroids. Gives them a wet look. Sort of like floating space-dookie. Which is cool! ( I think)

Supreme Commander or Command & Conquer 3 :Tiberium Wars ? in Strategy GalCiv2 Forums

I realize neither are out yet. Both due out within a month or so, both have a great pedigree behind them, both look good...and yet they both essentially look like the same game....Im afraid it will be an either/or situation with whichever one I dont play looking derivitative of the other. So let me invite specualtion from those of you who have been following each more closely than I have. Which one should I foolishly pre-order ahead of any reviews or word of mouth, and why?

Reply to AI - Roleplay or Play to Win? in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

I dont understand your reply in relation to the quote you selected. The quote you chose dealt with player gamestyle, and you went on to talk about AI playstyle. The paragraph after the one you quoted had to do with the how the AI played in regards to trying to win, so it would have been a better choice to reply to. Thanks!

Reply to AI - Roleplay or Play to Win? in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

Dont confuse "playing to win" with "playing for points", in your arguments. Any game that is not "played to win" cant be being "roleplayed", because any faction/race/nation would want to succeed. Unless youre playing a chronically depressed race of intergalactic lemmings, in which case racial suicide might be legitimately in-character. What CAN be the opposite of roleplaying is the sort of point-farming gameplay the metaverse encourages. Winning the game by having fun, enjoying

Reply to Military production bonus in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

I probably should have said some number greater than 30...early game was the point I was making. Of course, on the hardest difficulties on maps with the default number of planets (not jacked up), it could be argued that the game is won or lost in that time period with the starting map "footprint" you end up with... which military bonus would definitely help with. I still dont see it being more beneficial over the whole game than the economic bonus path, but Ive never won a game on hard

Reply to Military production bonus in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

Im sure Id love to have a miltary production bonus, but would it really be worth picking up to the exclusion of the economic bonus? Especially when the military thing is really only benficial in the early game (by midgame you have some planets turning out large hulled warships in a couple turns, how much faster do you need?), and there are large stretches where you dont really need to be producing much out of your starports. It seems to me, money in your pocket is anything you nee

Reply to The Theme of Violence in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

sorry, double post...wacky stuff going on with the forums.

Reply to The Theme of Violence in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

That being said, there are entire worlds of contextual difference between the "violence" in chess or GC2, and a game like Grand Theft Auto, and this topic feels out of place when brought up in the same breath as GC2.

Reply to The Theme of Violence in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

.. I remember when games were 'games' like checkers, chess, Kings on the Corner, etc... Um, even checkers and chess are abstractions of conflict, or "violence" as you put it. Chess is a wargame. Games are competition. There can be no competition without conflict. A story without conflict of some level is boring. Violence is proba

Reply to I need a Game!!!!!!! in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Ok, good to see the source material. I'm guessing what he was talking about there is the same system that they used for distribution of DL, where we got to start downloading it about a week or so in advance, since he said "start getting it" and not "will get it". No. He went on to clarify it would not j