Pnakotus

Pnakotus

Joined Member # 2406981
3 Posts 101 Replies 10,140 Reputation

I wouldn't worry about not buying games with Starforce: I buy more games than anyone I know, and DT defeats all the Starforce I've encounted. I will *not* religiously find/insert a physical disk once I've paid for a game, sorry. My original, paid-for CDs are all in a case on my shelf - my games are run off images from a fileserver or use cracks. Except GC2, of course, since Stardock don't automatically assume I stole their game. Bravo.<

309 Replies 529,289 Views

I even give my rally points pun-like names: my marshalling point, Marshall Point, is in the Marshall system. Oh yes. I rarely use the ships tab, but the shields indictated defended worlds and the fleet symbols are all I need to coordinate my activities.

4 Replies 7,893 Views

I've begun playing a lot more with the custom maps, as I'm experimenting with various modifications and I want a consistent playing field between versions. However, when a custom map is chosen, there's a useless 'picture of the galaxy' instead of any useful information. The switches down the bottom don't even change to reflect size, density etc. Ideally the 'galaxy' image should be used to show a thumbnail of the map and various size/player number/e

0 Replies 3,304 Views

Yeah, I've put most of the stars a SC2 player would remember near the top, and all the stars I'd never even heard of at the bottom. It *is* a shame, though - I'm very interested to know if it really *isn't* random.

17 Replies 13,747 Views

I've added v1.1 of my stars.txt (fully pre-randomised) to the library. As soon as it's approved everyone can try it and complain!

17 Replies 13,747 Views

Sorry for not quoting, but the forum doesn't like me, it seems. I have never right-clicked in GC2. I hear it drops rally points, but I use the button for that. Middle controlling the camera and left selecting things just doesn't bother me - RTSs have used this for years. About industry, the game gives you *exact* figures for shield production (8, 10, 12 etc) and the capitol gives *exact* bonuses (x2) and the resource tiles give

121 Replies 87,832 Views

[Double post. Sorry.] The trade screen should not show a full list of techs/planets/ships. It's absurd that you can call up Evil Empire and count the ships on their list, and see what class they are etc. That's valuable military intelligence! The above example, of assessing a civs tech direction, is equally bad - I can tell how close someone is to countering my weapons just by making a phone call. During trade you should have to 'make available' things, like in MMORPGs. It'd

144 Replies 69,044 Views

Actually, there is a potential rationalisation for these OOU 'you can't trade techs you didn't make... for some reason' suggestions. The example of nuclear power got me thinking. None of the principles behind nuclear weapons are secret: indeed, we teach highschoolers these principles. It's difficult to simply 'make a nuclear bomb' because implentation is quite different to abstract understanding. After all, any terrorist can go to the lib

144 Replies 69,044 Views

I've actually never had a problem like this. I've got 2Gb of RAM, and lately I've been constantly switching in and out to control iTunes. No, wait. I remember the few really long sessions I've had, having CTDs. Hurm. I've never checked the memory usage - a memory leak would certainly give this kind of behaviour. Also, if I'm using iTunes, I get the 'stuck mouse cursor' issue much, much more often (although sometimes only for a moment).<

11 Replies 4,498 Views

The game provides you with real-time (well, real time-ish) updates on enemy ship movements. This would be impossible for light-based sensors, as it'd take years for the signal to travel both ways. I simply assumed they used some scifi-ish FTL sensor, thus removing the issue. Nebulae are extremely diffuse, and are only visible because they're often thousands of lightyears across. I guess nebulae could be fudged to be some kind of 'rough te

6 Replies 8,430 Views

Buh? All the EBs I've gone to allow you to return any game, for any reason, within seven days. Madness, but there you go. I'm still strugging to think of an example of a mechanic I don't understand. All the metagames are pretty self-explanitory, and I've never read the manual nor felt the need to. I guess exactly where the 'advantage' ground combat numbers come from is unknown, but better tech + soldiering bonus = better advantage. Exac

121 Replies 87,832 Views

The Starcon list I made (but can't find hosting for, should probably just put it in the library) is almost entirely (greek character) (constellation name), so my maps are full of 'Alpha Pavonis' and 'Zeta Tucanae' with the occasional 'Procyon' or 'Rigel'. I much prefer it to the semi-random starnames in the original. The starname selection is satisfyingly random, as I rarely see too many stars from the same constellation, or too many 'Alphas' or 'Epsilons'. EDIT - Bah. I

17 Replies 13,747 Views

The typical scifi game 'nebula' that jams shields or affects sensors is simply ridiculous. Nebulas are extremely diffuse and usually un-energetic - how they'd interfere with the technology of a starfaring civilisation is beyond me. Games like Armada, with their 'healing' nebulas and 'fast travel' nebulas are NOT a source for inspiration. Wanting a game of galactic conquest with 'terrian' is counter-intuitive: space is a big open arena. Th

6 Replies 8,430 Views

Wow, if you disagree with the OP 'you haven't played the game much yet'. That's hilarious. Absurdly shallow games like EaW hold my interest for maybe an hour (thank god for EBs return policy) and GalCiv2 is the only 4X game I've enjoyed in literally a decade. But hey, I guess I haven't played the game enough to learn it's flaws! The way the UI h

121 Replies 87,832 Views

You're clearly talking about the New Republic then. Being entirely EU, that's even *worse*. I'm having trouble understanding how you intend on making an internally-consistent mod with such startling complexity and ambition when you feel thinking about it is impossible. Will you even allow the use of the ship designer, since you intend using icon

30 Replies 33,035 Views

I find that military power and tech trading are pretty much the crux of the game: if you lack one or both you're in for a rough ride, but if you've got both it's ridiculously easy regardless of level. Military power in particular seems to be a major part in every AI decision, and as stated in the OP it can be very easy to exploit a massive bump to military rating. Just taking all the hp bonuses you can get gives you a nice game-wide bump to

7 Replies 13,998 Views

Your email bounced, I'll try again tomorrow. I'm thinking I'll randomly pick a SC race (I'm leaning toward the ones with decent art available from SC2) and implement it. If it goes well, it shouldn't take more than a couple of days to create a new .xml replacing the current races with Starcon ones. Now, if only the race screen was a list, so we could have more than 11... <img src="http://images.stardock.com/gc2/T_DL/smiles/BigSmi

32 Replies 22,281 Views

How about the devs let us use the amazing 3D UI they built properly, with resizable floating windows? If you could leave a trimmed down domestic or treaty window in a corner, you'd be constantly up-to-date.

17 Replies 12,308 Views