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Reply to Generating large incomes in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

I change the tax rate the turn of the election and then turn it back up the next week. You can check the date of the next election under the government screen. This works great

Reply to Generating large incomes in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

I tend not to specialize the vast majority of my planets and you can still get impressive incomes. With ~260 planets and no special events I can get just shy of 250K a turn (should be ~500K on a gigantic map). Under this scenario, all planets have at least one factory (usually three or four) and a star port. Typically one VR center and two farms. Max taxes and just let the population stop growing as they become less happy. No economic bases. Mind Control Center. Max economic race bonus an

Reply to The Galactic Diplomats in Metaverse GalCiv2 Forums

Thanks for the warm welcome.

Reply to YOR Super Ability has to change in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

I, frankly, think anyone using a part of the game as it is designed is NOT engaged in true cheese. So building fast ships, Eyes of the Universe, Spin Control, and lots of Stock Exchanges are not cheese. They may make the game easy, and you may want to forgo using them, but that is different. I can think of a number of small changes that would make the game much harder for the human player and no different for the AI...And I am surprised that some of them haven't hit a patch to date, as I susp

Reply to The Galactic Diplomats in Metaverse GalCiv2 Forums

Suicidal is not as bad as it sounds. If you are hammering the computer at obscene, and it looks like you are, you can make the jump. The first game or two is rough, but it smooths out. My next game up will be a gigantic. I think I've figured out enough ways to save time on game management on my huge maps that I can probably swing it without going nuts. We'll see how long it takes me...Hopefully, it's not a bridge to far!

Reply to Science ficiton, games, definitions, etc. in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

G.W. I would argue a fun read is a good book, and I do love some of the trash SF novels, but I get your point. I think the better term might be "inspirational". That would winnow the SF pool down! Something like Dune is certainly inspirational. And to pile on the pea brain point...Even by my very loose standards ECW is annoying and doesn't belong. Fiction, yes, science, no. I mean, really, couldn't they do re-runs of bad SF from the fifties? It would be a step up. I thin

Reply to AI enhancement in Ideas GalCiv2 Forums

So far as I am aware the only things the computer looks at before war is your diplomatic relationship and your military rating (which is not based upon tech level at all). I think it should look at more, but that is one for the developers suggestion box.

Reply to Science ficiton, games, definitions, etc. in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Not all SF needs to make you think. It can be merely a setting for a different type of story. I.E. A platform for an action series. I can think of a couple of SF books that are very relaxing, fun to read, etc. but definitely do NOT include thought. Call it a release from the here and now in these cases. An example: The Sten series by Allan Cole and Chris Bunch

Reply to Management help in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

Talk about lots of responses fast...

Reply to Management help in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

A couple of quickies. Trade. You can get all kinds of tech through trading. Check whether you are going to lose production on research. If there is only one turn left to receive a technology, work the slider down until it says two, then tick it up once. It's true that with most techs the leftovers will carry forward into the next tech in the same branch if there is one, but if there isn't or you are going to change lines of research it's better to use that production elsew

Reply to How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

I have actually built 2000 huge ships with maxed out guns (attack ~1100 w/bonuses) and have a saved game of it, but the thought of putting them all on the same square makes me cringe!

Reply to The Galactic Diplomats in Metaverse GalCiv2 Forums

Said and done The Overmind has been dead for a while... If my math is correct, tagging my points in is just enough to tip the balance back to being the #1 empire during the next point retotal. But only by a very marginal number of points.

Reply to AI enhancement in Ideas GalCiv2 Forums

I believe at "Normal" the AI is still handicapped. FC is right about building IC's usually not being one of the AI's problems. Turn it up a notch or two and this problem should go away.

Reply to The Galactic Diplomats in Metaverse GalCiv2 Forums

Congrats! You seem to keep staying a bit more than a game ahead of me.

Reply to YOR Super Ability has to change in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

Personally, when I made the switch from large to huge maps, I found the huge maps to be significantly more difficult. Even more so than the switch from medium to large. The leverage supplied by fast ships is not as destabilizing in a huge map as it is in the smaller maps. I have since found additional other ways of compensating and have become more skilled at setting up massive pre-planned blitzes (Hint: Setup all your ships outside AI space or in "dead zones" inside his space and blitz your

Reply to AI ship design cheat? in Bug Reports GalCiv2 Forums

There is a 200% bonus applied to "everything" on Suicidal, I believe (from other threads). Never occurred to me that it would apply to miniaturization, and I would second getting a confirmation on this. The 400 defense/400 attack is quite possible. Keep in mind that ships in orbit get a bonus to their stats. I commonly build ships with 1000+ attack at end game...There is no real point to a ship with that much attack other than points though.

Reply to Anyone have some endgame tips? in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

Sometimes you can get planets in a peace treaty if your military advantage is tremendous and you have lots of diplomatic advantages...It's a few less transports to build for when you stab them in the back. Not much help, but it might save you a turn or two.

Reply to A Plea to Uplift the Minor Races in Dark Avatar in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

I think TIPedersen is on to something. If they can't build colony ships at all, but simply start with a set small number, then there is no reason to not give them a full AI. Or perhaps set their AI intelligence to one level below that of the average major. That should make the amount of programming necessary be reasonable...

Reply to AI broken by economic rebalance? in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

I need to make a correction, I made the original post when I wasn't at the game computer. The dates above should be 2226/2227, not 2227/2228. Also, looking closer at the Drengin. One star system has a 6B planet next to two planets with less than a billion people. I see the same kind of thing in other locales. Maybe the computer is just sending out all but empty colony ships under some circumstances.

Reply to AI broken by economic rebalance? in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

I think it's because it is getting too far ahead in its tech compared to the economy and colonization stage of the game. The 200% bonus is being overwhelmed by the Industrial sectors it is putting down. Mind, I am not sure about what is causing this… I commonly stop colonizing once higher level industrial techs start becoming available and avoid actually getting them until I have some industrial capacity going on most planets. This effectively limits my industrial base to something m

Reply to AI broken by economic rebalance? in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Good trade point. I have also seen AI's with negative 2-3K on the trade screen, very late into the game as well. I should note. Not all of the AI's hit this wall. The difference between the ones who do and the ones who don't can be startling.

AI broken by economic rebalance? in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Settings: Suicidal, Huge, Abundant all, normal research I am concerned that the economic rebalance seems to be killing some of the computer AI’s under some conditions. I suspect that they are being overwhelmed by morale/economic problems…My theory is that they are out teching and out expanding their support capacity. The reason I think this is that some races late into my games seem to reach a point where they can not grow their population, and where they seem to be unable to

Reply to Gifting to the AI in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

To head back to the point... The computer AI doesn't seem to know when to kill an old model ship and there is room for improvement here. Those fighters with 3 attack aren't looking so good when I'm building ships with 80 attack and they should either be upgraded or dismantled by the soon to be forgotten Krox. They are capable of building better ships as the news ones they are building are almost reasonable. <img src="http://images.stardock.com/gc2/T_DL/smiles/Smile.gif" border=0 ALIG

Reply to Ships not flying to rally points. in Bug Reports GalCiv2 Forums

Can't tell you how much of a bummer it is to hear that. Hopefully my current luck will hold. It's a huge pain when it happens late game on a big map.

Reply to Ships not flying to rally points. in Bug Reports GalCiv2 Forums

I have also heard the misdirected autopilot and “lost” autopilot (I.E. lost its destination on game load and is now sitting in the middle of space) can be affected by low real memory. I used to have problems with both in every game in 1.2. I didn’t see it in 1.31 (but only played one game on that version) and haven’t seen it yet in the 1.4 version game I started yesterday…But I also went from 1Gb of RAM to 2Gb of RAM when I upgraded from 1.2 to 1.31. So either one of these fixed it, or I have