CraigHB

Reply to Game Scores in Metaverse GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]I played what seemed to be a decent game and scored somethng like 14,300 points, and felt a little satisfied with myself. Then a teen age kid took over and I watched him score something like 93,800 points. [/quote] This game is so *not* your kid's XBox. It requires a lot of intelligent thought and strategy. I play those arcade style games every now and then, but usually get bored with them pretty quick. This game always keeps my interest. [quote]In DA it is much harder to

Reply to Game Scores in Metaverse GalCiv2 Forums

I think it can be a lot of fun to meet your own goals rather than simply shooting for the elusive high score. It is nice to see your rank climb up the list, but it's just as rewarding to meet those personal goals as well. You also have to decide how much time you're willing to put into the game. Big scores require quite a bit of play time, some of it quite monotonous. You can have a lot of fun with smaller Metaverse games that don't take as long to play and even those can earn a respectable

Reply to The Galactic Diplomats in Metaverse GalCiv2 Forums

Thanks :CONGRAT: I was pretty excited with the last two games, 400K which blew past my 300k goal. What's really wierd is they both have the exact same score, what are the odds of that? Anyway, I think I'm getting the hang of it :)

Reply to Game Scores in Metaverse GalCiv2 Forums

I don't think anyone knows (except the devs) exactly how the final score is calculated. In any case, to score well you need to do things big and do them early, i.e. big military rating, big overall population, big economy. Of course, finding ways to accomplish that is what mastering Metaverse games is about.

Reply to computer technology chat in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

I like that case. It's totally my style. I'd be willing to pay a little more for it. I use Lian-Li mobile hard drive racks. The quality is pretty good. Hope things go well building your new system. I've been very happy with mine so far.

Reply to The Exact Meaning of the Class of a Planet in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]I've had bad experiences with Steam and Direct2Drive[/quote] Yea, I could go on for a while regarding my dislike of Steam. It's a prefect example of extreme DRM punishing the customer. The problem is not that it installs evil drivers like some DRM schemes, but it requires you to be online at all times to play any game even in single user mode. Also, to work, it requires open access to all of the unprivelaged TCP ports on your computer which is a firewall/security nightmare. It's t

Reply to Even more questions... in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

I've been playing back and forth with tech trading on and off. I think I can say that the AI moves forward noticably faster with tech trading on. They trade tech between eachother quite a bit. I think I've pretty much settled on playing with it off, but it *is* fun to trade. I bump the difficulty down a couple notches with it on.

Reply to The Exact Meaning of the Class of a Planet in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]Still waiting for a standalone install. One's been promised for "revision 2" although when and even what that is, I'm not sure. [/quote] I understand your feelings about SDC, I share them as well. But, if it's a matter of getting updates and expansions, I'll cave. SDC isn't all that bad, it's rather convenient, believe it or not. [quote]The learning curve isn't bad, it's more than offset by TA's sheer, unadultered awesomeness.[/quote] Yea, from reading the articles in t

Reply to Even more questions... in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]5) not a strategy question really but, I cant seem to get extras to place in the ship designer??? [/quote] I had the same problem the very first time I used the ship editor. Left click on the item, position the mouse cursor on a mount point (red arrow on hull), then left click again to install. It can be a bit tricky to get the item locked on a mount point so you need to finagle the mouse cursor over the point sometimes.

Reply to GalCiv II / GalCiv II DA in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]Ok. The reason why I really don't want to play is that GC2 is nearly identical to DA now[/quote] If you *really* want to play the old boxed version, then uninstall everything from Stardock Central then delete the ./My Documents/My Games/GalCiv2 and ./My Documents/My Games/GC2DarkAvatar directories. Install the game from CD and it will start up with all the default settings. You can also mod the game pretty easily to change things like morale bonuses from entertainment buildi

Reply to The Exact Meaning of the Class of a Planet in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]However I've lately started picking the +10% PQ ability for 3 points in my Metaverse League games.[/quote] Yea, I always forget to mention that I mostly play gig/abun so my prespective is always skewed in that direction. I play a small game every once in a while and strategy can be quite a bit different in those. Also, I haven't played TA yet and I'm sure that game is going to be quite a bit different as well. I'm actually a bit reserved about the learning curve involved.

Reply to Why is X race your favorite? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]I've found the Torians to be deceptively powerful. [/quote] I expect the Torian super breeder ability to be fairly powerful, but I couldn't get them to work for me in my game. Their class 9 homeworld gives me a tough start because I rely on initial production pretty heavily. The morale bonus didn't seem to help me all that much. I'll have to try them again. Maybe I'm missing something?

Reply to I'm so excited! in GalCiv Journals GalCiv2 Forums

[quote] when they come back for the NEXT GC2 expansion (really hoping you'll do more) I do believe Brad's already stated that TA is the last, sorry. [/quote] Yea, but then there's GC3, right?

Reply to GalCiv II / GalCiv II DA in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

You don't want to be playing the boxed version of GC2. There have been numerous updates which include bug fixes and changes for the sake of game balancing. I've been playing GC2 pretty much from the first release and I have to admit, I've been very dissapointed with a few changes, but in the end, most of them do make for a better game. Once you get used to the latest version, you won't be as dismayed by any differences you don't like. In any case, you should be using Stardock Central to down

Reply to The Exact Meaning of the Class of a Planet in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]will that planet retain the exact same total 14 buildable tiles and 58 unusable tiles throughout the game regardless of any techs or wishful thinking or whatever you can do to try to change it?[/quote] Apart from terraforming, there's nothing you can do on your end to increase the class of a planet once colonized. Class being the number of green tiles. There are some mega-events that will increase planet quality (class). I've experienced a few of them and they're usually

Reply to Why is X race your favorite? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Barring TA, my favorite in DA is the Thalans. My favorite in DL is the Yor. In DL, the Yor are awesome for one single reason, 25% miniaturization bonus. It just makes everything better, faster colonizers, bigger warships, etc. They also get really good starting techs. The Thalans are amazing in DA. With their super hive ability, it makes building planets quick, cheap, and easy. That's something that helps through the whole game unlike other super abilites that only help

Reply to The Exact Meaning of the Class of a Planet in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

I believe class inconsistencies have been addressed in DA and also in the 1.5 version of DL. At least, I haven't noticed any. Planets have population caps. See [link="https://www.galciv.wikia.com/wiki/Population"]this article[/link]. Any planet will stop growing poplulation when its approval drops below 41% so that may also be considered a cap of sorts. If the food is there to support it, you can add population with transports or colonizers and it will stick until the plan

Reply to Habitable Planet Explosion in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

Man, I'd have a field day with that. No complaints on my end :)

Reply to Notebook computer shopping -- Any advice? in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

I suppose the OP could "downgrade" to XP. I reloaded mine and it was a real PITA. Laptops have so many special devices, it's a real chore to find and install all the drivers. Better make sure ASUS has them posted. Anyway, there shouldn't be any problem running Crysis on Vista. In fact, Crysis is one of the first of the DX10 games and that *requires* Vista. DX10 is not available for XP. Crysis runs in DX9 mode on that OS.

Reply to I'm so excited! in GalCiv Journals GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]I really don't like the concept of nerfing. If someone is too powerful, then I tend to like to correct this by making everyone else subsequently more powerful.[/quote] [quote]I am starting to think that we may not make the date we want. [/quote] Good to hear this. Definitely take whatever time is needed to get the game nailed down before the official release. It would be good not to see major changes in subsequent updates. [quote]I think Twilight of the Arnor is the wo

Reply to computer technology chat in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

Hehe, ugh, alchohol and hang overs. I don't need no booze man...cuz I'm hooked on pain killers...just kidding :)

Reply to Notebook computer shopping -- Any advice? in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

I think those are are still pretty weak video processors though. The good ones right now are the Radeon Mobility HD 2000 series and GeForce 8000M series. To get a really good GPU, you have to look at laptops from Acer, Alienware, or Sony to name a few. I have an Acer with a Radeon Mobility X1600. That was ATI's high end mobile product at the time I bought it. It does pretty good on games.

Reply to computer technology chat in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

Thanks for the link on those fans. That looks like the ticket to quiet things down. Right now, I'm using ball fans that are a bit loud. I'd lose some CFM, but I think it would be okay. I'm always looking to reduce fan noise. With so many in computers these days, they can get pretty loud. The GPU fan is always a problem. PCIe versions are backward compatible. You can stick an older PCIe card in a slot that supports the 2.0 spec and the slot will fall back. You can stick a newer c

Reply to influence + approval theory in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

A lot of discussion on the MCC issue here in previous posts. Although it mitigates the ability to flip planets, it provides a 100% economy bonus which, as Purge said, makes it the most valuable building in the game. Another biggie is the Artificial Slave Center which provides a 50% bonus to military production. One lister jokingly said that the MCC is so powerful, it almost needs the influence hit to balance it out. Personally, the effect on influence is dissapointing for me. I do agree the

Reply to A few questions... in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]What exactly do each of the mining resources do?[/quote] Each resource type adds a bonus to one rating area. Once you have sent a constructor to a resource, it will become a starbase. Adding mining modules will increase the bonus it provides. You can add mining modules by sending more constructors. There are 7 mining modules total and become available as you research the manufacturing techs. The bonuses are quite significant and really do make the difference between victory and d