LTjim

Reply to Changing Colony Ship Hulls Without Killing People in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

I don't know of one, but consider the following. If you change a constructor to a colony ship in deep space and colonize a planet, you have some small initial population even though you never loaded colonists. I frequently use that if I send a constructor towards an anomaly or a border and inadvertently stumble upon (by scout, surveyor, or the constructor) a prize planet. Instead of waiting for a colony ship (and perhaps letting an AI snap it up), I convert the constructor

Reply to Why keep Influence Starbases in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

The only reason I can see would be if you have planets vulnerable to flipping/reflipping in the circle. For example, if you flipped a planet in the circle, the Q would be if it could flip back w/o it.

Reply to Manufacturing Centers and Research Acadmies, The Sweet Spot in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

In DA, I never research IS. SImilarly, I rarely research advanced farms. (I also do not research research bldgs in most games because I use All Fac and focus). In late game, as you begin to place spies and/or invade, you might want to take a few minutes and go around your colonies and turn off the auto-upgrade feature. It realllly sucks to "gain" Industrial Sector and find all your colonies auto-upgrading and axing your treasury in the process. Then, you have

Reply to What is your favorite invasion tactic? in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

On planets where the pop is high because of farms, I guess I use a two step process. First, put spies on the farms and wait a turn. This drops the pop to 6 if the spies live. Second, put spies on morale structures to see if it makes the planet morale low enough for Info Warfare. If not, then mini-soldiers. I use a three process when the planet has a high pop but not due entirely to farms. This is generally a Homeworld, perhaps one previously take

Reply to What is your favorite invasion tactic? in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

I agree with thorwik but with one addition. When faced with a high pop planet with high morale, one can do a two step invasion. First, invade with one transport and use mass drivers or some other high bonus approach that damages the planet. The damage is only inflicted on a planet if the invasion is successful, but the combat advantage is still applied in reducing the defenders. Second, invade with mini-soldiers to take the planet, needing only to fight the

Reply to DA Question on Thalians in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

The w/o Space Militerization scenario is well known. Are you saying that excess research points can carry-over in a non-path-specific way? That is, i often see that i have gained a tech or two and also made some progress on one more in a single turn ("carry-over"). But that carry-over was on the previous path, not able to be re-directed to a new path. Did your ZYW example use the Thalians? You have really done that? If so, then the ext

Reply to DA Question on Thalians in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

I do use sliders and take planets off research focus to avoid losing research points in those cases. In the cases where it is a 'retro-tech," there is still a serious loss of time or efficiency. In the war techs lines that branch out from a common root, I thought the Thalians started with the second +10% mil prod bonus tech (Space Mil) but not the first +10% tech (Galactic Warfare). Thus, researching the "retro-tech" of Galactic Warfare and having more than needed

Reply to DA Question on Thalians in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

I feared as much. --- sigh --- Removes some of the advantages of the Tahlians, though. I wonder if the AI ever goes back and researches those "retro-techs"?

Reply to DA Question on Thalians in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

I knew that ,if the researched tech was the last in its line, then the points were lost. My Q is what if one has tech #1 and 3 but not 2, 4, 5, etc. and one then researches #2 and has extra points when it is reasearched on that turn? Do the points go away because one already has #3? Or, are they applied to #4? In the case of Planetary Improvements, one may well want the three +10% bonuses, but what happens to the extra points if one is the Thalians?

Reply to DA Question on Thalians in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

I thought as much. Now, the second and larger Q is, what happens to the extra research points? That is, when one researches a tech and generates more research points than needed, the extra is carried over to the next higher tech in that same line. What happens when one researches a "retro-tech" and already has the next higher tech? What happens to the carry-over research pints? Are they lost?

DA Question on Thalians in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

If I start as the Thalians, I begin with two techs that are one step past Planetary Improvements but I do NOT start with Planetary Improvements itself. Researching Planetary Improvements gives one +10% in Military Production, Social Production, and Research. Do I start with those three +10% bonuses? Or, must I go back and "retro-research" Planetary Improvements to get them? I think another race starts in an analagous situation in the Space Militarization / Galact

Reply to Funding Research in Twilight of the Arnor GalCiv2 Forums

One thing not mentioned in the posts above - best I could tell - was if you had any mining bases. I have not played TA, but having a couple green economic bonus mining bases with lots of modules helps a lot in DA.

Reply to How to see Planet Types ? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

In Dark Avatar, I can see the icon before I get any tech. IIRC, I can get the planet info more than one way. I am not at my game pc right now, but IIRC, I can even see it on the main galaxy screen. Maybe right click on the planet? I do it so unconsciously after so many games that I cannot recall for sure! I have not played ToA, so maybe it is different.

Reply to break 2 ai treaties in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

Did the reports include the information as to why war was declared?

Reply to break 2 ai treaties in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

No, I am not sure. In DA, I do not recall learning detailsd as to why one AI declared war on another. Am I mistaken? Are such details provided in ToA?

Reply to break 2 ai treaties in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

Another "dirty trick" you can try: - build two warships - small is okay, as is cheap, - move one close to the homeworld or core planet of each empire, - "upgrade" both ships so that they have no engines, and then - trade, sell, or just gift them to the opposite race so that each has a warship beside each other's planet.

Reply to Research in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

As I posted in #2, the settings of the Empire-wide sliders are important. As Moosetek13 noted in #4, the Research slider must be at 100% to get all the points. However, I think the "Spending" slider must also be at 100%, as well. That is, the "nameplate" ratiing is achieved only when the Empire spending is at 100% and 100% of that spending is going to Research.

Reply to Strategies in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

The All-Factories approach has been somewhat nerfed in ToA, or so it has been posted here. I play DA and it is among my favorite strategies. There are lots of older threads about both All-Factories and All-Labs. The way I implement it is simply not to build Research buildings, but to use Focus-Research instead, channeling a percentage of production to Research. That lets Factories essentially do Research. There are lots of details, such as do racial Research bo

Reply to How can I change my CivCap to another planet? in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

I play only DA, and I've never been able to do it. Many's the time I would have loved to move it to a juicy high PQ planet I had just colonized. If there really is a way to do it (short of cheat code or tinkering with files), then I'll be delighted to adopt this into strategies.

Reply to Research in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

I'm not sure which screens are being mentioned, either. You might also provide the % settings of your empire-wide sliders.

Reply to Why are the evil AIs so weak? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Agreeing with Maiden666 - In almost all of the Suicidal games that I have managed to win, keeping AIs with greater military rating than mine in at least two wars at all times was just about the biggest factor.

Reply to 'standard' settings? in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

I have seen threads here that assert that the AI is optimized for medium galaxy games with major and minor race numbers in about the middle of the range. Thus, the tougher games would be at that size and AI count, other things being held equal. My favorite settings are to have as large a galaxy as the game will allow, be it MOO2, SEIV, GalCiv or any other. I like the early feel of open-ended-ness, and the brief lull of exploration before First Contact. Sometimes, I h

Reply to Influence starbase effect in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

The SBs that I see the AI build the most near my planets are the economic ones, to take advantage of multiple trade routes there. There are many factors that go into the calculation of influence, including population of the planet, the influence racial rating (increased by research), buildings on the planet, and the empire-wide things like Restaurant of Eternity. the SBs also can be upgraded to increase influence. Two other things Influence bases can do are to

Reply to "Militaristic" in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Great research, qrtxian! One thing I had considered testing, but never got around to it, was the relative values for racial traits of defense or offense. That is, I had intended to set up a series of 2-race sandbox games in the smallest galaxy, use pre-set make-up races, and iterate the values of those traits. Real life intervened, and (as i said) I never got around to it.

Reply to Newbie questions in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Google galciv2 wiki then go to that site and look around. It will answer many questions. On your specific Q, it is a little more complicated than you might think. First, Moosetek13 is quite correct that one can sometimes complete the research of multiple techs in the same line in one turn. The number of research points generated on a planet is determined by an equation with several factors. One is the percentage of production you have allocated to research in