BinaryAlgorithm

Reply to DEVS: 1.5 GB Hard Limit for Memory Allocation; Smart Cache Suggested in Bug Reports GalCiv2 Forums

I have also confirmed through testing that each invasion of a planet increases memory usage by approximately 13 MB. This is a "leak source" because something is not being released. It has to be either the models of the ground combat units or (more likely) the planet surface model/texture. The primary memory leak is occuring during the processing of each new turn at about 35 MB/turn. It appears that memory is stable when AI ships are moving around, but I think it is during the AI process

Alignment Balancing and New Abilities/Ideas in Ideas GalCiv2 Forums

My general view of what should differentiate the alignments (systematic): Each has an internal and external strength toward an objective. Good: diplomatic (ext), defensive projects (int), goal: form relationships/alliances to build strength in numbers, preventing conquest by other races. Neutral: influence (ext), colony bonus, productivity (int), goal: minimize interactions with others while focusing on own development/research, passively influence other planets into submission. Evil: conquest,

Minor Gameplay Issues (Game Mechanics) in Bug Reports GalCiv2 Forums

Loading the colony list (Civ Manager->Colonies) can become very slow, especially with textures enabled; buying a building from the list requires a complete reload of the list, over ten seconds in some cases (but this is only an issue with hundreds of colonies). The AI never colonizes PQ 1 planets, which typically have a terraformed value of 10-16 PQ. Neutral AIs or those with an orbital terraformer should realize this. The AI never sends a transport to a colony with a ship in o

DEVS: 1.5 GB Hard Limit for Memory Allocation; Smart Cache Suggested in Bug Reports GalCiv2 Forums

Although the 1.61 patch reduced memory leaks, I believe there are still some areas of memory management that need to be addressed in the future. My observation, which I believe holds for most users, is that the application will encounter saving errors after allocating 1.5 GB of memory (whether or not it is cached). Shortly after this, a crash normally follows (for obvious reasons). I believe the cause of this problem is that the program is designed to cache a large amount of data to inc

Reply to How do I effectively fight a high tech battle in DA? in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

What I don't understand is how my ships can lose solo, but win when fleeted with noncombat ships. There's something wierd about the tie rule...

Reply to How do I effectively fight a high tech battle in DA? in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

I don't remember if military starbase effects stack or if you get highest one (as I never use them). What's odd is the AI will not send transports on the same turn it attacks a planet; so if you build a ship each turn, they will never invade! I would almost consider this an exploit.

Reply to How do I effectively fight a high tech battle in DA? in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

It's not coming out like I thought. After building missile 600 missile attack ship (~1080 with bonus) I figured that I could toast the Korath dreadnoughts at 586 missile attack, ~250 mass driver defense. Clearly, attack is not the only consideration in the tie rule. My next test is to build defense ships (which I assume benefit from my military bonuses in a similar way). If I can get more missile defense than the other ship, am I likely to beat it? My bonus gives me a potential of over 1000 miss

Reply to Labs, Factories, and Focus in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

Part of my reason for emphasizing ship production is the fact that I've been neglecting it in favor of social production. This invariably leads to war with the AIs at which point I have to switch gears. That's probably not the best strategy because if I had been trading and building some ships, they would be much happier with me (I might be overextending on the colony rush, but I am used to using Super Breeder to grow my economy at that rate). This strategy (when supported with sufficient stock

Reply to How do I effectively fight a high tech battle in DA? in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

I'm going to need that territory to fight the Drengin later. I think my best bet is just to build attack ships in pairs to capture the "hard" colonies, and a few running around solo to capture the "easy" colonies. I am going to destroy the Korath from the inside out.

Reply to Labs, Factories, and Focus in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

It is not as wasteful as 100/0/0 but still wasteful. After a few try out with the extreme MIL and extreme SOC, I'm leaning more toward the more balanced approach between the 2. Unless I made a mistake in my calculations, 100/0/0 is the optimal use of both production and bonuses regardless of the focused area. However, this doesn't mean it's the best for all cases. 50/50/0 would allow 75% production in either area with focus, so only 25% of the MIL bonus

Reply to How do I effectively fight a high tech battle in DA? in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

Here is the state of affairs. The Drengin got pulled into a war with the Korath by a random event and controls slightly more resources than the Korath. I think the Drengin will beat them eventually because of the trade goods I gave them, even though they were smaller to begin with. I've got about 40% of the population the major powers do, and enough influence to prevent my planets flipping (it was a major concern before).

Reply to Labs, Factories, and Focus in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

I believe you get bonuses from power plants (in that they are added to base manufacturing before focusing) and get your bonus research on top of it. That's a plus. Techs give +30 SOC, +30 MIL, +10 RES. Specials give +10 RES (Hyper Computers is not included as it's so far down the tree). Evil gets slave center for +50 MIL (effectively higher in some cases depending on abilities). I've been thinking about the best slider setup and ability distribution for my play style. I was previously r

How do I effectively fight a high tech battle in DA? in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

I've been playing a large map for awhile. Everyone has maxed at least one weapon type. The Korath have missiles (so do I). I only have 60 colonies, while both the Korath and Drengin have 250 (I started next to the Korath and we immediately were fighting over planets. They boxed me into the corner I started in and I never fully recovered). I've only survived by building an empty tiny ship on each colony every turn while finishing the tech tree; it seems to keep them from sending transports and sp

Reply to Labs, Factories, and Focus in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

I agree. My tests with all labs invariably get forced to convert in the other direction due to necessity. It simply doesn't work on the higher difficulty levels unless you are using settings that specifically help you (smaller galaxies, tech trading, etc). Building NLCs is painful even with factories. Mobility becomes a key factor; having a standard build with decent production allows decentralized military (reducing logistical problems with moving ships to defend). Although each world

Reply to Possible Source of the Memory Errors in Bug Reports GalCiv2 Forums

My experience is it's best to exit the game and restart. However, loading a game will free some of the resources, just not some of the leaked memory.

Reply to Labs, Factories, and Focus in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

I tried a Thalan Super Hive game on Crippling to see how the ability stacks up. Unfortunately the Korath are right next to me so I'm hoping I can still win after they took many planets in the colony rush and are spore-rushing now (I hate this AI more than any other, because I have full invasion techs, no one else can really touch me except those damned spore ships). I cannot afford to build labs at this stage because I need ships to defend, so I am ramping up more cheap factories to increase bot

Reply to Influence Calculations and Flipping Planets in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

Um.. yes. My mistake.

Reply to Labs, Factories, and Focus in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

The problem with comparing using math is that certain tradeoffs are not considered. For instance, labs provide more "points" per tile, but you must spend 75% of your base on research to get 25% focused production - you can't turn off research without turning off other forms of production. However, with factories you CAN stop building social projects or ships on any planets and produce focused research only. That's for a labs vs. factories build. If you are looking to maximize your econo

Reply to Possible Source of the Memory Errors in Bug Reports GalCiv2 Forums

After testing 1.6a for a time I realized that there is still a slow leak somewhere, although it's not as bad as before. While playing normally, memory usage is still increasing over time, but I notice that during colony management and on the main map it's fairly stable. As I perform massive numbers of invasions on a huge map, this is still the action that results in the highest increase in memory usage (although it's probably the combat textures, they are still in memory after the battle sequenc

Reply to Labs, Factories, and Focus in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

Maybe you're right. I will have to compare both situations. I normally have excess production, so I just build large warships. Since I am always focusing research on developed planets (no social queue), maybe it's unnecessary to have the social bonus. I do think the military bonus is important for self-sufficient colonies. Of course, surrounding colonies deep in your territory with starbases to increase research while not producing anything (unless at war) might help a lot, but I hesitate to do

Influence Calculations and Flipping Planets in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

I haven't been able to find any rigorous explanations for how the influence system works, just my general observations. Cultural Centers don't seem to be that useful, since they only give a bonus on the planet+population IP (which is likely smaller than the civ-wide bonus, and generally insignificant). Projects that give a civ-wide boost are worth it however, as are morale resources. The civ-wide bonus (given to all planets) seems to affect the projection of the IP field around

Reply to Labs, Factories, and Focus in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

That's fairly close to the lessons I learned while doing an all-lab AAR. I would rather have many worlds that trickle focused research than a few massive tech worlds any day. Part of the problem is that abilities add a trivial research bonus (though as you have noted, Altarians can get +65% and should; but I still did a factory build anyway). I don't play with tech trading, and I play gigantic maps, and this practically invalidates the all-lab strategy for me. I've also heard that power

Xenovian Lab Monkeys AAR in AARs GalCiv2 Forums

This time I decided to increase the difficulty to Painful. I wanted to try using all-lab builds to tech rush the AI. My settings are similar to my Altarian Afterthought AAR, except that I am using a custom race called the "Xenovians". They are the "Bringers of the Oblivion Node" (I stayed up too late last night working on a Physics idea, and I woke up this morning and it popped into my head. Wierd). +10 morale +30 economics +20 economics (federalist) +50 military prod. +

Reply to New Test Build 1.6a in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

It usually takes some time to process ship movements because I have speed 25+ ships running around. Is there an option that allows ships to move instantly like the AI ships? I actually have to avoid building many ships to meet up at a location because of this. I would like to report that the 1.6a patch seems to result in a crash right after the autosave on a new turn (I am autosaving each turn, so it's something that occurs right after autosave but before I get control, such as in th

Reply to Altarian Afterthought AAR in AARs GalCiv2 Forums

I ran some tests before and after choosing Neutral. The reason I didn't notice price reductions for buying ships is that I purchase them directly. The discount is given as a "25% interest" ability that reduces the length of a lease agreement only, not the immediate price or the monthly lease amount. It is therefor most useful when buying ships using the longest lease term, "Mitrosoft". This is somewhat useful in my lab-build colony rush phase because I realized that I can build economy more quic