Noctilucus

Reply to Kzinti Empire - offical empire thread in Metaverse GalCiv2 Forums

Hm, all these still on-going discussions make me want to play the game again. Unfortunately one of those pesky HP driver updates is giving me trouble: even after a complete re-install of GalCiv II, I get garbled graphics and a crash followed by a blue screen after a few minutes of gameplay. Even after toggling some graphics settings. Loupdinour: best of luck with those tough working weeks, I hope it's for a good cause (of course "good cause" also includes your bank account a

Reply to Question on how to give custom ships a ckassification ability(how do you)? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Do you mean "how can I build a survey vessel, a constructor, a colony ship, etc."? In that case, you need to add the corresponding component: you have weapons, defenses, engines, then a 4th category of ship elements and that is where you can find those components. Though for survey vessels you need to research some technologies first. Custom constructors and colony ships can be built from the start. As a specific example: you need to add a survey module before a ship can funct

Reply to Need some tips in Twilight of the Arnor GalCiv2 Forums

This will have some overlap with the previous posters, but I would see 3 possible reasons: 1) Tech trading is on and the AI is actively exchanging technologies. If tech trading is on, you DO need to use it or you will fall behind. Let us know if you want some specific pointers on tech trading (what to do and what not to do). Make sure you have a few research alliances with AI's. 2) Your building strategy doesn't focus enough on research. As Kontana already hinted at,

Reply to Really not getting to grips with this game in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

[quote who="Neilo" reply="5" id="2231290"] ... Take Noct's post for instance, everything he said to do in there has merit, will yield results and is a fine general strat. Yet i can think of games where the exact opposite is needed and is in fact even more optimal. ... [/quote] Of course! Just to be clear on this, I gave some general pieces of advice that are all over this forum and that will make for a quite standard strategy. Once The Chen gets this ove

Reply to Really not getting to grips with this game in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

Building on those general tips: 1) Maintaining money: I'd say it's crucial to develop your homeworld early in the game, so keep that one building at full speed. In a large galaxy you'll typically colonize several other planets and it's there that you need to be careful: - Don't try to colonize too many planets; take the high quality ones and don't be afraid to leave the low quality ones in the same star system for the AI. Once your high quality planet is fully populated, you s

Reply to few questions about trade, money and such in Twilight of the Arnor GalCiv2 Forums

There have been some discussions about morale buildings vs. econ buildings and from what I remember in most cases it's more profitable to build econ buildings and lower the taxes to increase morale. Exception is of course if you have morale tiles on a planet and your capital which does need some morale buildings to get a decent approval rating.

Reply to GalCiv3? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Well, it would be rather soon to already start working on another GalCiv release... Look at how some other companies are flooding the market with a new release of a certain series almost every year, causing people to feel "saturated" with that type of games. Then I prefer a company that takes its time to come up with a release that brings enough novelty value and improvement to really count as a stand-alone release :)

Reply to War Profiteering for the win? in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

I would also say it's mostly because you play on "normal" difficulty, plus a lot depends on which AI races you were playing against, which size of galaxy, whether tech trading was enabled or not, ... As soon as you play on "tough" or any harder difficulty, you'll notice it's no longer easy to keep up with the AI in terms of research or building your military.

Reply to Kzinti Empire - offical empire thread in Metaverse GalCiv2 Forums

[quote who="Snarkotamus" reply="12" id="2072082"] ....spend, spend, spend! Somewhere in the dark recesses of a spider-infested underground lair, my ex-wife just jolted awake from her hibernation. Now she's sniffing the air and doing the whole "radar-ears" routine. If I'm VEWWWY VEWWWY QWWWIET, she'll just belch a small fireball and return to her dragon nap....... [/quote] [e digicons]:grin:[/e] Awesome!

Reply to Difficulty settings in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

Speaking about allies and diplomacy, I'd want more diplomatic options to request a safe passage through my ally's territory in order to attack another AI. And an AI or player that's under attack should be able to invite allies to send some troops to the invaded territory. GW Swicord: very well put, though it would have to be very clear from the beginning that your ally will consider that creature to be an abomination (e.g. by having your ally tell you as soon as you start ca

Reply to Difficulty settings in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

I think I can understand where that idea is coming from: a devious player can be allied with an AI, then suddenly backstab it and take it down. On the other hand, a player can use diplomacy to befriend a superior AI and in a lot of games not worry about that ally anymore. However KnutAreMykland if that ally you're talking

Reply to Can anyone beat this planet in Twilight of the Arnor GalCiv2 Forums

Question: do you guys get these monsters on all-abundant gigantic? Did you pick "luck" in your abilities? Do you ever have any precursor tile on your homeworld? How often did you ctrl+N to get something even remotely like this? Just curious :)

Reply to Kzinti Empire - offical empire thread in Metaverse GalCiv2 Forums

Absolutely! And longevity for the game as well since most of the players' focus seems to be on Metaverse instead of scenarios or just Metaverse-less games. It's tempting to crank out another game trying to improve your personal best (or overall best for some of our fellow empire players) and jump a few places on the ladder.

Reply to The Bonfire of the BC's in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

Gigantic, all-abundant?

Reply to Will there be wild space in Elemental? in War of Magic Elemental Forums

Oh, but give nature a few years or so on scorched earth and you'll see vegetation flourish again - in fact the ash can often work as a fertilizer.

Reply to What spells do you want to see? in War of Magic Elemental Forums

Tenchifew: there were a few spells like that in MoM, with land-altering abilities for the good and for the worse. GreatVolk: your regeneration comment reminds me of the undead ability in MoM. In fact it's funny how much things we all bring up that were already implemented in some form in MoM, no wonder it's been the "standard to beat" for so long :) By the way, building on your idea of unknown versus known spells: how about an additional spell research tree (next to a rather stan

Reply to Will I be awarded for being the superior player? in War of Magic Elemental Forums

Seems a little harsh though, it would be nice to add the option that first everyone casts his vote. Then when at least 1 player or AI rejects the supreme leader, others still get the chance to join him. Otherwise being up against all AI's at once might be very tough, just because some guy started the election to become supreme leader :p

Reply to Beware the killer stack! in War of Magic Elemental Forums

I don't really see the problem, as long as the cost of units (whether economical or magical) is well-balanced. True, in MoM you could beef up a few heroes and make them almost invincible but then again with the same kind of money you could have trained and maintained hordes of berserkers / paladins / ... And if you manage to get a superior economy up, you should be able to pour that into military might, with a good time delay of course. Troop composition can be a tricky thing to

Reply to Dumb luck or design flaw... in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

[quote who="Extant Faora" reply="15" id="2018648"]I've never had any of my planets flip culturally. And you know what's a great band? IRON MAIDEN!!! RUN TO THE HILLS!!! AWSOME SONG!!! [/quote] Hm, I've also lost many more planets to influence than to invasion, once one of those pesky races gets huge due to a few AI's kicking the bucket and handing over all their planets to the same AI. Good song but absolutely horrible ridiculous video clip

Reply to Will I be awarded for being the superior player? in War of Magic Elemental Forums

It would be a huge exercise to incorporate all of that into a reliable rating. It would be an interesting task for that type of organic/learning artificial intelligence: let it gather all kinds of statistics on all armies and see what the outcome is of each war. Based on that it could come up with some statistical relation between those parameters and the real army's effectiveness. Of course this would have to be done with identical AI's fighting, otherwise the player tactic

Reply to Kzinti Empire - offical empire thread in Metaverse GalCiv2 Forums

Yes, Sole Soul has been doing an amazing job clarifying game mechanics, a very interesting read for all of us! Not related to this: does anyone else have the impression that the number of non-military metaverse submissions has fallen to almost zero, in particular on smaller galaxy sizes? Looking at the Altmeta it certainly feels that way...

Reply to Rock and hard place in Twilight of the Arnor GalCiv2 Forums

Ah, excellent point Loupdinour, how could I forget the historical friendship element? :) But it's true that it can be annoying sometimes that we don't understand what exactly flips the AI relation from 1 level to the next.

Reply to Uncertain Spell Research in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

I think after Elemental is released, someone should harvest all unused ideas and come up with a completely different game just based on those ;)

Reply to Rock and hard place in Twilight of the Arnor GalCiv2 Forums

Can you improve your diplomacy and get your own military rating up a lot compared to theirs? I can't remember what I did to finish that scenario (during beta-testing so it's been a while) but I do remember it took some less obvious moves. If you don't get there, let me know and I'll see if I can figure out what I did.

Reply to Dealing with pirates in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

Isn't buying transports terribly expensive? I've always found that while I can swindle the AI out of a decent part of their warships, buying their transports is even more expensive and often not worth the cost. Also, you typically end up paying several times more than such warships are worth (compared to producing one yourself and rush-buying it); on the other hand if you sell it to another AI even if it is in dire need of more military and your diplomacy is really high, you'll only g