Noctilucus

Reply to Important features that no game should be without. in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

A bit less technical but applicable for almost any strategy game: 21. No severe resource limitations (e.g. not like any of the Dune series where you're supposed to fight over a planet of immense wealth but you run out of resources in almost every scenario). Just use other levers to force someone to finish the scenario without endless resource gathering and building up a huge army. Limitations to food production would work to impose an army limit for example, without limiting

Reply to economic buildings vs farms in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

It all depends on your tech levels, but in these discussions people will typically say that you need 2 morale buildings to offset the morale penalty coming from the extra population the farm allows. Though of course this depends on your civilization and how far you researched the morale tech branch. Meaning that you need to compare the increase in population (X%, don't know the figures by heart since ToA) with the tax increase generated by 3 econ buildings. Personally I prefer econ bu

Reply to why twilight of arnor is slow on intel x3100 or intel 965 in Twilight of the Arnor GalCiv2 Forums

Even then, my Intel 965 uses a mere 64 MB shared memory (laptop player) and seems to work fine for Gal Civ II. So fiddling around with the settings - with or without Stardock staff help ;) - should to the trick. Don't update the drivers though, I did and all of a sudden I was facing garbled screens in more than 1 game, blue screens of death, task manager and antivirus software that freeze. So nothing Gal Civ II specific, just a general warning for Intel 965 users r

Reply to What is a good set-up?strategy? in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

I think the limitation to selling IP is that the amount of IP should be lower than 1000. Someone correct me if you have a different experience; mine is based on ToA, don't remember how it was in DL or DA. I've often received 347 BC or even more from an AI, but I've never been able to sell more than 999 IP at once. Particularly helpful during the initial phase in ToA when you're running out of your 3000 BC and anomalies.

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

Hi KzintiPatriarch, I was around when those swindles started but I have to admit I got lost in the huge discussions and explanations back then so I've yet got to try one for myself... Probably because they covered some more detailed tweaks to the strategy rather than the basic principles. So that write-up of yours would be very, very much appreciated, thanks! :)

Reply to Core Detonation: who uses it? in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

For me almost always information warfare (this often doubles my number of troops) even if the cost is a bit steep. Except of course if I need to send a second invasion because the first failed, then it's usually mass drivers. I consider the loss of a few tiles acceptable since my primary goal is to annihilate the AI - or bash it into accepting a peace treaty.

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

Wow, those are huge scores, impressive! I think I really, really need to make a few drastic changes in my playstyle now that I took back my Altmeta Sol-Civ 1st place and top 10 spot in Gal-Civ :p I can't remember the last time I scored over 20K and that was probably just a zero year win...

Reply to Anyone ever had this type of game? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Another possibility is to spam some of the AI's with influence starbases. Either they declare war on you or you start flipping their planets. Or simply go for a tech victory. In the cases where the same happened to me, it was often the assassination event that helped to break the standoff. Or the arrival of the jagged knife, leading to me taking over all jagged knife planets and increasing my influence significantly.

Reply to What is a good set-up?strategy? in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

My playing style is quite traditional, works fine for challenging or tough difficulty but I'm sure you'll be better off following other people's advice for any level above. Their strategies will be much more refined and competitive. 1. Setup: I go for the very classic econ, research and morale bonuses. For political party I usually choose federalists (extra econ) or technologists (extra research). All because I typically have a rather peaceful style in GalCiv II. 2. Always 2-3

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

[quote who="KzintiPatriarch" reply="5" id="2034240"] Quoting WIllythemailboy, reply 4 I'm with you KP, state jobs are great. They don't pay that much, but you get pretty good job security (especially since they rewrote my job description so that I'm the "only one" doing that - can't be redundant if there's only one, right?) and the benefits are pretty good, too. And dont forget a lot of holidays that most people dont get, like Columbus Day and MLK Day. [/quote

Reply to Peace and love in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Just an additional note, in my experience having a vastly superior military rating is often not enough to sue for peace; taking a few of their planets usually works better. Not sure how the AI reacts if you would for example wipe out most of their fleet with few losses on your side; I don't know if in that case the AI is triggered to accept peace offers.

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

Congratulations on the new job KP; especially in these times it's quite an achievement in itself :)

Reply to Difficulty playing in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Did you use tech trading and economic / research alliances? AI's tend to trade a lot of techs which greatly speeds up their technological advance, you should do the same except never trade away any diplomatic or military techs (except perhaps really weak weapons in a branch that you researched much further already). Especially if you say you were making more money early in the game than the AI's: if your income is positive you could pour some cash into buying techs from various AI's.<

Reply to Unbalanced Weapontechs in Twilight of the Arnor GalCiv2 Forums

Well, it starts to count once you upgrade a number of large / huge hulls packed with mass drivers. There you could say you're upgrading more ships for the same price, resulting in an overall stronger fleet.

Reply to Unbalanced Weapontechs in Twilight of the Arnor GalCiv2 Forums

Well, I think it makes sense to leave something that can break a stand-off plus it gives you some incentive to go down to the very end of that branch. Most long tech branches will give you something really worthwhile at the end (tech victory, spin control center, ...) so why not for weapons? I've seen a rather detailed weapons comparison on this board before but it's impossible to find it back :p I think the gist was that 1 branch was cheaper in the sense of damage per co

Reply to turn button disappearing in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Using the tab key will also cycle through the ships that haven't got a destination yet for this turn.

Reply to Stellar Cartography in Twilight of the Arnor GalCiv2 Forums

Indeed now it's only useful to know which stars don't have any planets. Or it lets you focus on those stars with a decent number of planets, because there you would hope to find more habitable ones.

Reply to Incremental building: good or bad? in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

If your economy can bear the maintenance cost, I'd say it's a great way to speed up your building without having to rush-buy too much which can easily turn out to be more expensive than supporting a few slave pits. However just calculate how much maintenance vs production your slave pits give compared to a smaller number of manufacturing plants (I don't know those stats by heart)... Too many slave pits though will take too much time, resulting in your other buildings being built very

Reply to Population 14-15 or 20-22? in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

Depends on your strategy: - If you go for influence or you're playing in a sizeable galaxy where you actually need that many inhabitants to put on transports for invasion purposes, 20 - Otherwise I'd say 15: to keep your morale at the same level you'd need 1-2 morale buildings on top of the farm = 2-3 tiles for 33% additional income. 2-3 econ buildings can easily give you more additional income by the time you'd have more than 15 population. So unless you really need the pop

Reply to Too much money?? in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

You can also buy loads of tech from other civilizations. Or do a massive upgrade of your fleets, tends to be quite costly so when you have plenty of cash it's the right time - just make sure your income is sufficient to bear the increased fleet maintenance costs. Depending on what type of victory you're pursuing, you could also convert some econ buildings to factories or labs to improve production or research.

Reply to Why me? in Twilight of the Arnor GalCiv2 Forums

It may also help to keep the war away from your planets: spam fortified starbases and/or military starbases combined with tons of tiny fighters at a nice distance from your planets. And if you see one of your allies is getting crushed, consider selling military techs to them (probably the only time you should sell military techs to an AI) though of course not your very best ones. It makes a good profit and it helps your ally to put up more of a fight.

Reply to Why me? in Twilight of the Arnor GalCiv2 Forums

It may help to take a look at https://forums.galciv2.com/336227 that has plenty of valuable tips on fighting a vastly superior enemy. I couldn't add on that as I consider the people replying there more knowledgeable than me on Gal Civ II :)

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

Maybe it's a similar case as in Belgium: the press is shouting that housing prices are dropping like bricks yet if you're looking to buy or rent a place prices are at an all-time high. In fact the renting price index increased by more than 8% versus last year. I don't want to criticize anyone, but having spent 3.5 months in the US I can agree that on average you guys seem to have an even bigger problem than say the average Western European country when it comes to spending money: ever

Reply to What Do YOU want to see in Gal Civ 3??? in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Whoa, plenty of ideas, long and detailed responses... My first thought would be more diplomacy: up to now it's still mostly limited to trading something of value A for something else of value B. Some addditional elements could be: 1) a factor that determines the AI's need for a certain tech branch (if they are getting pounded and are behind in military, they would value military techs much stronger; if their economy is in the red, they would greatly appreciate econ techs or cash,

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

[quote who="KzintiPatriarch" reply="22" id="2018235"] Get Civ4, we could play over the net. Been a rough few months actually. I got laid-off, and after a time of lingering mental and physical illness my gf's father died. Things are looking up a bit though... Had a few good interviews recently, and with money from the estate we should be able to buy a house within a year. So as usual, life has ups and downs. Sentient species tast