CraigHB

Reply to Terraforming is not feasible in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

It's really amazing all the things that came together just right for life to flourish on Earth. There are so many chance factors like the presence of the moon, the magnetosphere, the ozone layer, the temperature, the abundant water. Mars just doesn't have any of that. Though, it's probably the most hospitable planet in the solar system next to Earth. One of the big obstacles, assuming an oxygen rich atmosphere can be created in the first place, is that Mars lower gravity allows it to more ea

Reply to computer technology chat in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]I go back when there were only mainframes. [/quote] Hehe, the first computer I ever used was an IBM S/370 circa 1979. I ran programs on it using punch cards. Now that was archaic.

Reply to Can we tone down the unique tech trading some? in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]Unique tech trading defeats the very purpose of uniquetechs[/quote] I think that pretty much sums up the whole issue right there. One of the big features is that each race is different. Allowing them to put all those special characteristics into one big grab bag for everyone to use does seem to negate that.

Reply to asteroid amounts?? in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

I've noticed this as well. The asteroids setting seems to have no effect from rare to abundant.

Reply to Can we tone down the unique tech trading some? in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]Which brings up something that's been bugging me for a while-why is it we have to research Universal Translator? Shouldn't we already have it before the game begins, per the backstory? Did the Terrans give away HyperDrive without even knowing what the other races were saying?[/quote] Most of the time, I feel like the game's back-story doesn't jive with the actual game. To be honest, I'm not particularly interested and don't pay much attention to it. It's good to have a story behind

Reply to TA, the tech tree and the new races. in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Being that TA is so different, I would think balancing game scores with respect to DA is going to be a bit of a challenge. It will be interesting to see what happens with Metaverse scoring.

Reply to computer technology chat in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]The very high-end cards also aren't really representative of the majority of cards sold.[/quote] I've seen some of those cards way up there in price. I really wonder who's buying them. It's not like you're paying 3 times more for 3 times better performance. Then it's only a comparitively average card a year later.

Reply to Custom Race issues in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

There's also the starting tech advantage. It's a big one too. Custom race doesn't get near as many as the other races. I don't really see why there's such a big handicap for custom race, or to look at it another way, why the normal races get such a big advantage.

Reply to computer technology chat in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

I guess a GPU is a more complicated device then. They definitely cost a lot more and use a lot more power than a CPU.

Reply to Influence Lost when Loading a Saved Game in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

The game has to do an influence re-calc. It happens when something changes that affects influence. If nothing happens in the game to change it, you can be running with incorrect influence for several turns. What I do is build or destroy an influence base when I want to force a re-calc right after loading the game. It does cost a constructor. Just put nothing but a module on a small or tiny hull and keep a few on-hand. It's pretty cheap and it works, try it.

Reply to TA, the tech tree and the new races. in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]The changes to the tech tree were just another feature to me...not [b][i]the[/i][/b] feature.[/quote] I'm not looking forward to learning 11 different tech trees. I have enough problem with just one. I would probably make use of a toggle that allowed TA to be played with the original tech tree. However, I doubt that's something we'll ever see. I think as far as Stardock is concerned, unique tech trees are [b][i]the[/i][/b] feature. In any case, I expect that once I get past the l

Reply to computer technology chat in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

It seems to me that GPU makers have a harder time doing things that CPU makers have been doing for some time, i.e. multi-core, 45nm process. It would be nice to see these cards advance without resorting to these monstrous solutions such as the nVidia GX2 card you mentioned or the X2's discrete GPU's. I have a 8800GTS right and that thing is huge. It dwarfs all the other components in my system. One thing I like about the Gigabyte 8800GT is apart from the extra thickness of the Zalman cooler,

Reply to computer technology chat in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

That sounds like a good alternative to the 8800 Ultra, but that's a bit more than I'm willing to spend on a video card. With the way they advance, I hate to spend that much only to find it surpassed a few months later.

Reply to computer technology chat in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

So I finally decided to pick up a new video card. I bought [link="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814125087"]this one[/link]. I've been buying eVGA cards, but this Gigabyte card looks really nice. I'm really happy with the Gigabyte motherboard I have, so I figure the quality should be there on the video cards as well. I like that it's not as long as the reference cards all the other makers offer and it has a Zalmann cooler that looks pretty nice. Video card coolers are

Reply to MVL Round 6 in Metaverse GalCiv2 Forums

I can cook pretty good for some reason, don't know, just comes natural to me :)

Reply to The Galactic Diplomats in Metaverse GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]You guys are missing the scale of how incredible this really is.[/quote] Yea, hehe, I've never been one for crunching numbers :)

Reply to The Galactic Diplomats in Metaverse GalCiv2 Forums

I was playing a game recently where some kind of bug put the treasury at a really huge number, I mean huge, probably the biggest number the treasury can register. I saved and reloaded the game and the number was still there. I could have used that to build easily 20,000 maxed out ships. I went back to a save before encountering the bug because it really just ruined the game and it would have been cheating of course. This has only happened to me once and I have no idea how to reproduce it. M

Reply to DA 1.80q.100 in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

I've never had any inconsistencies in the version indication. If you installed that patch before the release to SDC, that might have confused things. It's really no big deal to uninstall the DA componnet through SDC then re-install it. That would probably clear things up.

Reply to The 20,000 bc limit officially sucks in Economics GalCiv2 Forums

Yea, I never liked that over 20k graft and corruption business. I've always thought it should be a much higher number. Also, the game never tells you what's going on so it just looks like a penalty for no reason. They need to either show an actual graft and corruption penalty in the spending or take it out of the game.

Reply to DA 1.80q.100 in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

I just checked and the latest version is still 1.80g.100, and yes, it works great. No new update yet, not that there's anything horribly in need of fixing anyway.

Reply to Which Ethical Alignment? in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]To CraigHB: the good alignments DO get bonuses, to defence and to hit points (to a small degree). [/quote] Let me add "with regards to the Xeno Ethics branch" for my last post. When comparing bonuses in weaponry and defense, I acknowledge "good" gets some stuff there (neutral doesn't get anything). However, evil gets the incredible Psyonic Beam. I've won games with that weapon alone. I've played a lot of games with good alignment and I understand what you're saying. Like

Reply to The Galactic Diplomats in Metaverse GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]Typically you could see the hacker feeling around, trying to find the max he could set something to show you how clever he was that he hacked something. Because after the 2 mil game the scores drop, I think he's testing an in-game cheat... not sending the devs a message.[/quote] The only thing is, you don't *have* to submit a score. You can still look at it without posting it. I can't think of why he would post something that outrageous, especially if he wants to look like a legitim

Reply to MVL Round 6 in Metaverse GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]I'm wondering if you even had the chance to colonize all your planets[/quote] The first game I tried was with DL. My feeling is that it's easier to make a year 0 win in DA. With such a short game, the extreme colonization techs never get researched so extreme planets never get colonized. In DL, there are more colonized planets to deal with and it takes longer to conquer all of them. Also, it costs more which makes it harder to take the board before you run out of money.

Reply to Can we tone down the unique tech trading some? in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

They're definitely going to need more options for tech trading in the game setup. Personally, I play DA with tech trading off, but for TA, it has a much larger effect. The previous suggestion about adding options for no tech brokering and no unique tech trading is the solution in my mind. Though, I'll probably still play TA with tech trading off. I really like the way a race develops on its own track without it. If in the final release, a race is dependant on it to perform, I'll take them o

Reply to Which Ethical Alignment? in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

The only problem I see with good is they get no bonuses. Neutral gets the instant 10% morale, evil gets the 100% economy and 50% military. DA is not going to change, but what they should have done was give good a bonus somewhere. With alignment techs varying per race in TA, a lot of this discussion may not apply. Let's hope we see some better stuff for good alignment there.