Safari Joe

Reply to Basic Strats? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

I usually specialize my core planets, quite a few econ only, some production planets (usually surronded by econ starbases improving production) and a couple research planets. It really depends on the situation though, sometimes influence heavy planets are in order; that said I do make some mix planets out of habit. I always take econ improving race attributes since a strong economy is so important in this game since it allows you to set your spending high. I set taxes pretty high, e

Reply to Best Game Set-up for Newbies in Game Talk Stardock Forums

My suggestion would be 3 normal or bright (or lower depending on how much a challenge you want) opponents on a medium map. You may not win your first time but you probably won't be crushed and you should get an introduction to all the major aspects of the game such as the rush to colonize, diplomacy and good ol' fashioned warfare. Though you may want to goof around with cakewalk just to get a feel for the game before playing a real match......but I k

Reply to Alignment in Galactic Civilizations II Stardock Forums

I think its a D&D thing......you roleplayers always applying your "systems".

Reply to Best Ships Q in Galactic Civilizations II Stardock Forums

Sounds like he put weapons on a cargo hull, which means as HEEGZ put it "you made a battleship with 1hp". Its not really that great idea if you plan on using it for battle since it can die in a single hit. Fabarian, all of your ships can be upgraded to any ship design in the same hull class; just hit the upgrade button in the toolbar after you select a ship that is not part of a fleet or stacked with other ships.

Reply to Weapon Imbalance? in Galactic Civilizations II Stardock Forums

Nano Ripper costs 120bc while singularity driver 4 which unlocks it costs 28bc and the graviton driver which is 1 tech later costs 33bc. Nano ripper is 4 times as powerful as SD4 but is 4.25 times as expensive and about twice the size, so yeah per damage it pretty much evens out, unless you can't afford the high damage ships.

Reply to Weapon Imbalance? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

accidential double post

Reply to Weapon Imbalance? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Missiles do the most damage vs size but cost the most, whereas mass drivers have the worst damage vs size ratio but cost the least, beams are the middle ground. There are also exceptions such as the Nano Ripper and Psionic Ripper which are massive damage mass driver weapons (8 and 10 respectively at a tech level where 3 dmg is the norm) that are hugely expensive.

Reply to AI Surrendering in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Well I've never had the AI surrender to a weak civ, and even a moderate civ can be dangerous if your already at war with others. Anyways if you are the most powerful civ and your attacking them the AI will surrender to you most of the time (at least in my games they did). It might be nice to have the option of whether or not to accept a surrender but I can't see myself ever turning down a surrender so why would the AI, I mean free planets..

Reply to AI Surrendering in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

It wouldn't make much sense for the surrendering AI to go to a civ your already at war with since it wouldn't stop invasions and their mandatory genocides. To spite you often the AI will surrender to a powerful civ your not yet at war with meaning that you will either have to stop taking their former planets or declare war on a new civ. At first I found the surrendering a little frustrating, but I've grown to like it since it can totally change the dynamics of a match instantly.

Reply to Empire Given up... (gripe) in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Surrendering to an ally who is also at war with the same civ thats killing you makes no sense, your still going to get killed just under a different flag. That said once when I was going for a influence victory the Iconians who were my close friends and at war with three other races (one of which I was at war with as well) surrendered to me and since they had 5 heavily populated worlds my influence spread to the point where I won an influnce victory......I don't know if the AI knew his surrende

Reply to Buy vs build in Galactic Civilizations II Stardock Forums

Time, paying money means you can get your ship next turn regardless of how long it says on the status bar. At the start of every game its a good idea to buy you colony ships instead of waiting for them to be built normally since its a race to claim planets. Note you can also buy planetary improvements to get your planets developed faster. Even if you don't directly buy ships you still have to pay for them, every shield produced costs you 1

Reply to How do I keep playing after I win? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Ok, I know what your talking about now, the "just let me play a couple more turns" option after winning a game of Civ3. Its not available in Galciv 2.....it was a nice feature though.

Reply to How do I keep playing after I win? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Hit new game instead of campaign and you can create a custom universe in which you can slug it out with the other races.

Reply to The value of a good defense? in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Personally I like fairly high defense (in general) about a third of the ships attacking strength late game. I find that if I optimize the first wave of ships to enemy weapons by the time my opponent adapts the first wave has tons of experience allowing them to stay effective until I begin adapting to the changes my opponent has made and upgrade the highly experience ships who become like a immoveable object in enemy territory.

Reply to Medium or higher hulls in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

The techs you need to build medium sized ships are (in order) : Xeno Engineering - Basic Logistics - Advanced hulls - medium scale building. Going along that reasearch line will also eventually unlock large and massive hulls.

Reply to Do you usually build 'Battle Stations' for your Resource Starbases? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

I usually postion a small fleet (usually with obsolete ships) on top of the mining starbases for protection, if the starbase is far away from my main planets however and it's difficult to defend I turn them into porcupines with weapons upgrades.

Reply to Another lame tactic in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Safari Joe, that's like saying that all you have to do to win is win (have a big emp with strong economy). That's kind of obvious. I guess I was a little glib. What I meant was that with social production running an economy grows (well as long as you don't just build research centres and factories) and allows you to increase your sp

Reply to Another lame tactic in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Ever heard of social production, its a slider too. A big empire with a strong economy can run at 100% spending which means its researching, military production and developing worlds all go quickly.

Reply to erm, im new in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

how do i find out what direct X ive got? go into the windows start menu, click run and type in "dxdiag" you can get all your computer stats, including directx version and driver versions.

Reply to The WORST review ever in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

8 out of 10 is the same as 4 out of 5, fractions ftw

Reply to Planet Bombardment in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Planetary bombardment also improves soldiering (by +5 I think) so even if you don't choose the mass frivers option you still get some benefit from the tech. The mass driver option unlocked by planetary bombardment is probably the most ruthless of the options it can more then double your advantage factor but halves the planet quality, good late game invasion tactic.

Reply to UGO Review arrives.. in GalCiv II News GalCiv2 Forums

I found this comment curious: "To me, removing this element of tactics depletes the game somewhat, even if the overall goal was to focus on a grand strategic approach. Personally, there are plenty of times in games like Rome: Total War when I would just let the computer decide the outcome based on stats, but it'd be nice to be able to feel like my keen tactical expertise could help my civ pull victory from the jaws of defeat in certain cases. May

Reply to Any Amazon orders shipped or processed yet? in Galactic Civilizations II Stardock Forums

I pre-ordered my copy from EB (the store) and am still waiting for it. They told me that the release date was pushed back, so I told them it wasn't, they argued and I left; so now I wait till the 28th. As long as I can get the extra ship "jewelery" when it eventually arrives I won't be upset.

Reply to Still no Gal Civ for me... =( in Galactic Civilizations II Stardock Forums

I have basically the same problem, though I pre-ordered from EB over a month ago appearently they won't have any copies till the 28th. They told me the release date was pushed back, I told them it wasn't....I'd get it from someplace else but i have to use up an EB gift card and I don't want to throw away the 5 dollar downpayment.

Reply to Random Astronomical Events in Galactic Civilizations II Stardock Forums

Stars have very predictable life spans, and one going supernova (though natural causes) without millions of years warning makes about as much sense as driving a convertible through space. I feel planet based natural disasters and a galactic recession are good enough.