Glostakarov

Reply to Writers Block - Need help with Ship design in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

The game is perfectly happy to let you overlap components, so if you want you can put something on that covers your entines up. Many of the pieces with a patch of engine have an attachment point right in the middle of the engine patch. Careful resizing of some of the flat boxes can cover it up pretty well. When I'm having a creative block I'll usually just make something bland and functional, and redesign it later. Another option is to ju

Reply to Engines and battle in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

My ships are set up similarly. I'll have some sort of defender with 0-1 engines on it, depending on how late in the game it is. I use a medium speed ship for near defense and interception of enemy ships heading for my planets. Assault ships are slightly faster. Constructors are always as fast as I can make them go, and my transports are nearly as fast. I'd rather put two troop modules and go 12 speed than put 3 troop modules and move at 4. The ex

Reply to Is Aphrodisiac a must build for you? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Perhaps when you sell a trade good to the AI they could accumulate a stockpile of the good, which allows them to keep using it for a certain number of turns (say 20 for the sake of argument) after they lose access to it. That way, if you trade it to them and declare war they still get to use it for a while because they have stockpiles, but eventually that will run out and they won't have access any more.

Reply to Glalaxy Settings in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

There is an interesting level of challenge to be had in playing in the cramped environments of the smaller maps. GalCiv2's AI deal with it much better than most. That said, my current game is on a large map, and I may go to huge for my next. I mix up the settings from game to game (really wish there were random options on the game creation screen). I avoid abundant planets, which results in a galaxy full of stars with exactly 5 planets around them,

Reply to A strategy the AI fails to cope with well (warning: long, rambling) in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

I have also noticed the AI behavoir that h3lmut mentions and taken advantage of it on occasion. I expand much more aggressively in my games though and don't build a massive web of doom. However, if I'm in a war with multiple opponents I will usually "turtle" against all but one. I'll space a few good fleets out in those border regions and make sure every planet has something just in case the AI bores a hole through my defenses. If the war is protra

Reply to Rapid ship production exploit in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

While this is functional in a pinch, it is very wasteful of resources. The cost of upgrading ships is comparable to the cost of rush-buying them to begin with. In fact, you might as well cut out the middle step in your strategy by rush-buying the good ships to begin with. You spend about the same amount of money, but don't spend any time waiting for that empty hull to be built.

Reply to GalCiv II v1.1 Dev log in GalCiv Journals GalCiv2 Forums

Good stuff on the way, and I'll add my support to the idea YunHarla mentioned about collapsing the list of extras to just the icons. How many you could fit in a row would actually depend on your screen resolution (as well as how many rows, my laptop could easily fit the whole list on one screen). The "Customize your ship using extras..." text could be moved to a single box under the heading, to let newer players know that jewellery is totally cosmeti

Reply to Gaming Nexus Review in GalCiv II News GalCiv2 Forums

They say "woot"?! I say woot! I am they! On a more serious note, good to see more positive noise from the reviewers to get the word out to more gamers about GalCiv 2.

Reply to Cost to Refit to High (sorry for depulicate but posted in wrong spot) in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

The upgrade cost is significantly off in my opinion as well. For the same cost I can just rush buy a new ship of the line and have both the old and the new ship to fight with. An "empty hull" exploit should be pretty easy to avoid if the formula for the upgrade cost is well thought out. For example, set a flat fee for each hull size, and add the difference between the old ship's cost and the new ship's cost. Maybe even double the differen

Reply to AI vs. AI in GalCiv Journals GalCiv2 Forums

I suppose the Dread Lords don't count; they are pretty much hack and slash and probably don't require a fully fleshed-out AI like the other races. Of course that still leaves a pair to share an AI, unless he was miscounting. Actually, he probably wasn't. You're never going to need more than 9 in one game, because the 10th player is the human. So probably each race has a preference list of personalities and when the game is generated the 9 personal

Reply to Logistics make smaller ships useless? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

My preferred strategy is to use the smaller ships, usually small and medium but late game I'll have some worthwhile tiny designs to produce also. I don't find myself producing the same ship over and over, because I'm still upgrading periodically for new weapons tech, better miniaturization, etc. The original example does not feature ships of the same tech level (as someone else pointed out). Huge ships require a ton of research; tiny ships

Reply to Yor are Overpowered! in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Its possible to build a +4 speed colony ship using the starting techs for most other races, the exception being those that start without improved hyperdrive. A 4 speed colony is not an extra turn to build for many of them (depending on other racial bonuses). So I don't really see a problem with the Yor bonus based on starting colony ships.

Reply to What am I failing to understand? in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

I rarely put a starport on anything less than a class 9 world. The exceptions are when the planet has a 300% industry bonus tile or I just don't have access to enough planets to specialize. Small worlds I use primarily for economy with a side of research. I'll usually have one big world devoted to econ, and one to research, with the respective capitols built on them; if these worlds have fewer than 15 usable tiles they don't get starports either. E

Reply to Problems on Siege. in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

The mission after siege isn't actually that bad. After the first time you do it you know which are the better planets, so go for those only and let your allies colonize the size 4 and 5 garbage. The main advantage is you have fewer planets to defend, and it forces your allies into the fight as a sort of buffer between you and the dread lords. Support them as you can, but mainly charge up the tech tree and develop industry to crank out the ships you

Reply to Terraforming... in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

I have a planet in my current game with a crazy number of upgradeable tiles. The planet itself was only class 8 to begin with, but had three nice bonus tiles on it. It had 6 yellow tiles, 4 orange tiles, and 4 red ones. On the other side I've had worlds with no upgradeable tiles at all. It seems like I get more tiles on worlds which aren't so great to begin with, and the planets that are already pretty liveable don't have much room for growth. Mak

Reply to Why are transports expended after an invasion? in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Well the population listed on any planet is just the taxpaying population, and presumably anyone loyal enough to join the military is loyal enough to pay taxes as well, so having soliers come out of the population total makes perfect sense to me.

Reply to Latest Review News.. in GalCiv II News GalCiv2 Forums

Nice reviews, any favourable comparison to Civ 4 is high praise. Good scores from both as well.

Reply to Galactic Civilizations II, Copy Protection, and Piracy in GalCiv II News GalCiv2 Forums

I'm really glad Bethesda decided not to use starforce on their discs, or it would have been the first game I seriously want to play but won't buy because of starforce. The funny thing about DRM software, which Spearthrower kind of touched on in post #129, is that those who crack the CD protection are looking for the next big thing, the newest and hardest thing. They want to be first to put up an ISO for the game with the most hardcore protection. The 1.1 version of a game will actua

Reply to Galactic Civilizations II, Copy Protection, and Piracy in GalCiv II News GalCiv2 Forums

That is just unbelieveable. I'm now a bit less of a DRM noob, and will never buy a game with starforce on it, no matter how much I am otherwise interested in the game. In fact, if I find out a game I'm interested in is going to have starforce on the disc, I'll create an account on the game's official forums just to tell them why they've lost my sale. That sort of behavior is reprehensible. You'd think there would be some sort of legal action Stardock can take, they were providing a link to s

Reply to Alignment Scenarios: Being 'Good' gets the shaft? in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Not sure what difficulty everyone is playing on, but in the games I've been playing (at Tough lately) the good and neutral races tend to gang up on the evil ones, and while the evil ones are friendly with each other they don't necessarily help each other out. I've been playing evil for the most part, with the end result that I wind up in a 3 or 4 directional war mid-game with a few friends but no allies. I like the system as-is. The bonuses on any particular world are relatively min

Reply to More Population or Higher Taxes? in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Depending on my racial bonuses I'll lock taxes on either 59% or 69% and barely touch them for most of the game. With a 1 to 1 ratio of farms to entertainment this lets me maintain approval in the mid 50s. Most of my planets don't go over 15b, but I'll work to accommodate special tiles and get the odd planet with 20-30b or more on it. Late game my approval creeps up into the 60s or even 70s, at which point I'll consider raising taxes if it won't drop any worlds below 40% approval. T

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

In practice I find a bit of defense on my ships gives them significantly greater survivability. Even a single point can be significant, because it acts against every attack. If there are n ships in the enemy fleet your 1 defense is worth 0-n damage reduction (or just n if defense rolls really do start at 1). Let's try some numbers: Attacking fleet = 5 ships with 4 beam offense, no defense, 20hp per ship Defending fleet = 5 ships with 3 beam offense, 1 shield, 20hp per ship<br/

Reply to Swarm of Fleas, or 1 Giant? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

By contast, I have yet to build a ship larger than Medium and I'm doing well with that. Most of my military research goes into weapons, engines and miniaturization. Medium seems a good size for a design that many worlds can crank out in 2-4 turns even if they aren't specialized for it. Logistics important to ensure a large swarm, and engines are vital to ensure that you initiate the attack. When you start the fight, you deal damage first, and if the enemy doesn't survive the first volley he

Reply to STICKY: The Glitch Report in Bug Reports GalCiv2 Forums

In the economy screen, if you adjust your spending levels by using the sliders and reduce spending, the bar for the category that gets the money does not go up. For example, if I set military spending to 0 and lock it, then set social spending to 0 and lock it, research will properly show as getting 100% of the funding, but the adjustment bar will still be 1/3 of the way from the left (assuming its a fresh game with nothing modified yet).

Reply to Gamespot reviews Galactic Civilizations II in GalCiv II News GalCiv2 Forums

I see that GameSpy has their review up, a glowing 4.5/5 stars. They have a love/hate relationship with the AI, calling it one of the best features of the game but also part of what gives the game a steep learning curve. They slag on the in-game tutorials (which I have to admit were largely too basic to be of much use) and of course the lack of multiplayer, but overall a very positive review.