Oh yes, excellent ZYW score there KzintiPatriarch! :CONGRAT: CityMan: I played 2 ToA tournament games before but only for one of them my score got carried over to the ladder (#5 at that point in time; the other was something comparable). When it comes to ladders I do prefer the Metaverse League setups though :)
For the next few games, consider spending some ability points on economy, morale or both. As proven by some experienced players this is by no means necessary but it makes managing your economy easier. Is it the early or mid-game that gives you the most difficulties, as this will impact the suggestions that people can give you? Consider that maybe you are losing too much during the colony rush? The changed economy and reduced starting cash are specifically designed to make a big colo
I haven't built any mining starbases yet, so my advise will be limited to economy in general. One point though, did you research the necessary tech to be able to build mining starbases? As for economy: 1) Morale only needs to be high enough to have a good population growth early on. In the late game, you can have morale just above the point where you'd lose population on your least happy planet (mid 20% if I remember well), except just before the election, then 60-70% is a safe choi
I'd love to see the MCC finally at work, causing those AI worlds to flip to my side :) It's true that Good is still the weaker choice of the 3, even more so because if you would start neutral, for most events it pays off to take the evil choice. Access to psionic beams alone makes Evil an excellent choice, though MVL scores will undoubtedly suffer from the loss of 100% economic bonus.
Just be careful when the event wears off and all of a sudden you're going massively into debt every turn ;) Also there's another event with improved economy which multiplies tax income, which is just as impactful as the tourism event. By the way, since TA the key benefit of trade routes, rather than the small income they provide (nonetheless helpful on tiny maps), is the positive effect on your relations with the AI.
For the first point, did you check the "randomized soldiering rate"? I.e. just before the actual battle starts, the soldiering rate on either side is heavily impacted by a random factor, you'll see both numbers going up and down until the attack itself starts. It looks extreme in your case, but I've seen the random factor be quite high, such as 44 after randomizing whereas the soldiering rate was only around 20.
[quote]Alright I'm back and the problem seems gone. I updated my graphics drivers with latest Intel 965GM...[/quote] I have that same chipset on my laptop (though haven't changed to SP3 as far as I remember) and actually we're lucky that GalCiv II is so compatible! About half the other games whose minimum and even recommended requirements I exceed, fail to run on that HP. Before my latest driver update I even had trouble watching any movies, clips, etc.
[quote]Where did I go wrong??...[/quote] I think the key lies in the immense galaxy size; it will just take the Kzin some more months (years?) to reach the other races with an invasion fleet.
Mighty instruments, those organs [img]http://www.durhamcathedral.co.uk/introduction/gallery/image/organ.jpg[/img]
[quote]Any tips on Thalan invasions? Not only do they have stunted growth, they're soldiering is average at best, and they only get gas and info warfare to take planets (without stealing/trading techs).[/quote] In such situations I often find the "propaganda war" (however the exact name is) quite useful, especially after deploying a spy on any morale buildings present. Stockpiling troops is a very, very good piece of advise indeed, I should remember to do it as soon as any of m
Fully agree Mistralok, except perhaps for the point that the AI would grind to a halt because of its colony rush. At least on the tiny & small maps with rare stars, planets, etc. I usually play. There simply aren't that many habitable standard planets so the AI doesn't go bankrupt from early colony maintenance. On Challenging / Tough I do have to watch out once my population caps that I don't allow the AI to surpass me because they still have plenty of headroom to expand... Probably
Definitely interesting points, though I've still got to build and use my first TS in GalCiv2 (in GalCiv1 on the other hand...) One comment though: while it must be very annoying if some AI attacker manages to breach your convoy and destroy that precious sitting duck TS, I don't think that your suggestions would make TS a last resort for a weaker race: why would you research along that long path and fall behind even more in military compared to that stronger AI you want to take out?
[quote]Is the fact that new colonies with virtually no population can build spore ships really that much or a plus? As opposed to limited number of colonies that have a population great enough to fill a transport with 3000, at least early in the game.[/quote] It's a double-sided sword. On one hand you don't lose many soldiers during each invasion (and you can always move population from your bigger planets to the newly conquered ones afterwards) but yes, claiming too many worlds using s
GalCiv2 Forums
1) Don't forget to take a look at the AltMeta, where it is far easier to climb the ranks because it favours recent submissions ánd there are ladders in 6 categories (split into galaxy size and military vs. non-military victory) I'm living (more or less :p) proof that it doesn't take long and doesn't require drawn out games or maniacal score boosting to take some high spots on those ladders. 2) You could take part in the Metaverse League. Summarized every month there will be a new ch
I have the impression though that morale decreases slightly slower with increasing population. Not sure, but I had the feeling so far.
[quote]... I've finally got all my characters in the top 25 now...[/quote] Whoa, impressive achievement, congratulations!
I guess that's the difference: you're not supposed to blow up all your own planets. Just having 1 survivor planet seems to be enough. Machiavelli could learn from that :)
Uploading your score (submitting) is easy: at the end of a Metaverse game, the game will ask whether you want to submit the result to the Metaverse. Score consists of 4 parts: economy, social, technology, military. In addition there is the time factor: in general you are rewarded to finish the game as early as possible; for example having a good economy at the end of the game will not increase your score as much as having a good economy very early. Final factor is the victory ty
[quote]...If colony maintenance is a problem then you need to raze factories or labs that you don't need. You can always build them up again when your economic crisis has passed...[/quote] Actually that's a key point; I realize that I don't do this often enough, changing one type of buildings for the other based on that time's needs. I'm still too much stuck in the mindset of "planet surface used up --> only upgrade or replace by galactic achievements". Though initially I do th
I think influence is calculated more detailed than per sector, just see the difference in effect of building influence starbases on 2 planets in the same sector. It looks like further away from the starbase your influence will decrease even within the same sector.
[quote]Some good advice, Noctilucus, but I must take issue with this: ... The two techs you mention provide diplomatic bonuses. By selling those to your opponents, you are effectively ripping yourself off, as the prices they will be willing to pay for techs is determined by comparing your diplo score and theirs.[/quote] Hm, to be honest I never noticed that those 2 provide diplomatic bonuses :NOTSURE: I always went for the few hundred bc I got for selling them, but indeed it's bet
In the old days, the outcome of a game was largely determined by the initial colony rush: get your hands on as many planets as possible and you'd be in the best position to win. The increased maintenance costs and tougher economy are there to prevent this from happening. You don't need loads of planets dedicated to economy though. On small or medium maps I have maybe 1/5 planets dedicated to economy + a few econ buildings wherever my econ capital is (usually my homeworld) You c
A rule of thumb is to add 2 happiness buildings for each farm. Don't build farms on your homeworld (where happiness is enough of an issue once you reach the population limit without farms) or on farming bonus tiles. High populations have a big negative impact on happiness, just check the details of your planets' happiness. It's often worth specializing your planets (except for your homeworld and except for any bonus tiles on other planets). Have one with factories + starport to chur
First of all, pick some economy bonuses when choosing your race, abilities and political party. Secondly, it helps to spend some ability points on either a morale boost or extra population growth. Then during the game itself: - Don't grab planets of planet quality 6 or lower, especially not if you already have better planets in the same star system. Those small planets will come under your cultural influence later on and flip to your side. - Don't overdo the expansion becaus
TA is only available at the Stardock Store. But you can always contact [email protected] to see what kind of alternate payment you can use. Once you've found a convenient payment method, it's easy to order even from Europe (like me)