LTjim

Reply to Random issues with this game that keep bothering me in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

There have been several threads on what the AI knows, etc. Posters have run tests and experiments based along lines similar to your experience, Scanian8. IIRC, one poster placed colony ships near planets in a corner such as you described and varied via saved games on exactly what turn he colonized the high PQ planet(s) there. No scouts ever showed, but colonizers would appear if the planets were not colonized, but would not come if they were. Enough variat

Reply to How do I? in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Many of your questions are addressed more fully in the galciv wiki. 1) Have you checked to see if they show up in the trade window? If they do not, then the only way is for another empire to destroy the starbase and you grab the resource first. 2) On spies, YMMV, but I first get a high intel value on every major AI so that I can see their ship destinations and such. After that, my uses vary by game and situation. A quick hit on a planet's farms

Reply to I won!!! in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

Congratulations! ;-)

Reply to Does map size have a different effect on Gal Civ II v. other 4X games? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

I have played a few 4X games and I do not really disagree. With that said, you might read the accounts of games played for high score at the highest difficulty. As I got more experienced, I found I could relax and not micro-manage and win. That's when it became time to up the difficulty another notch or two, and rinse and repeat.

Reply to Question about Military Starbase in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

Another use of the mil bases is the catapult effect. That is, by picking a spot to overlap a lot of bases with the speed boosters, one can have ships and fleets go a very long way on that one turn where they get all the stacked speed bonuses. On smaller galaxies, one can essentially conquer the map on one turn. On larger maps, one can conquer a race or two in one turn. To get the max advantage, one would choose the desired spot and then locate the bases, taking in

Reply to Does map size have a different effect on Gal Civ II v. other 4X games? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

On larger maps, increasing the body count of AIs and upping their bonuses both help speed up the apparent pace of the game. Micromanagement does become a serious issue, but it can be mitigated some by extensive use of the colony spreadsheet page. I have seen posters here assert that the AI scripts are optimized for medium size galaxies.

Reply to How do you create an alliance? in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

I've not experienced that behavior! That is, once I get the AI the alliance tech in the sequence above, the alliance option has appeared. I have eased off playing recently (DA). I have never had the Peacekeepers event or the Pirates one, though I have played a lot of games. Even the DLs seemed to have stopped showing up in my Suicidal games. Does Suicidal turn off some of the mega events?

Reply to How do you create an alliance? in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

After you achieve a "close" relationship with an AI that you want an alliance with, check their technology to see if they have the "alliance" tech. If they do not have it, as was noted above, you can trade or give it to them. However, there is one mistake I have made that you can avoid. Do NOT close out of the communications window with that AI once you have traded or given them the "alliance" tech. If you do, you will have to wait out the normal interval before you ca

Reply to Iconians weak? I don't think so... in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

What "picks" do the Iconians take when the programmed opponent plays them? Have you compared them to which ones you take? On fortuitous starting positions affecting which AIs pull away from others, I have seen that in my own games. In several early games, I went back to the original homeworlds of AIs and looked around at the inner circle of what had been their empires. (Each time at that point I owned most of the map.) I would look at the quality of the starter

Reply to Best Project/Super Project/Galactic Achievement in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

Not in Dark Avatar, sadly.

Reply to peacekeeper help in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

I have not had this event, sadly. First of all, do you need to defeat them? The other empires would seem to be toast. Can't you go grab all the resource anomalies? If you do need to beat them, can you not just research logistics and get fleets of your own? For that matter, if their ships are poorly weaponed with missiles and you have great missile defense, one or two of your ships might take out entire fleets w/o problem.

Reply to GalCiv2 vs MOO2 in PC Gaming GalCiv2 Forums

If you play MOO2, do make sure to patch it. The last patch added "initiative" so that battles would not simply be decided by which side fired first. That same patch nerfed plasma cannons enough to dethrone them from uber weapons. MOO2 was just a great game. I still fire it up sometimes. The Elerian researcher alone is worth the time .... ;-)

Reply to Engines vs AI in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

I see more rational behavior in Dark Avatar at the high AI levels. The AIs will send an unescorted transport at an undefended world, but not at a defended one. Instead, they will send fleets to beat the orbiting ships first.

Reply to Nothing has changed? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Did you patch the game to the latest version? That is, what is the game rev?

Reply to Shields? in Research GalCiv2 Forums

Google: galciv2 wiki There's a good wrirte up there with charts under "shields". Basically, you have to research: 1) Galactic Warfare, then 2) Space Militarization, then 3) Starship Defenses, then 4) Shield Defense Theory That gets you Deflectors (first level) with a defense value of one each. Each next level reduces size. Then you get Shields (first level) with a defense value of two each. Each next level

Reply to Engines vs AI in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

AIs certainly do research engines, but they generally have a pre-set or scripted sequence in which they research items. You did not say what the difficulty or AI level settings were in your games. Those settings greatly affect how quickly the AI can do research. Also, the game settings for research costs have great effects on what technology the AIs have at any point in the game. The attack values and weapon type (railgun) suggest that you and the

Reply to Everyone hates my custom civilization and want to fight me! But I'm peaceful! in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Other things being equal, the AIs see the weakest empires as resources to be harvested. Having a decent military rating is indeed the most common way to avoid the problems you mentioned. There are few more aspects worth mentioning, I believe. First, the AIs generally do not begin serious threats and wars until the colonization phase is ending. That is, AIs tend to expand first, and only start those other behaviors when their expansion has been halted. Thus, one

Reply to I'm new, and i have a few questions. in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Google: galciv2 wiki A lot of your questions will get answered there, along with others you haven't asked yet. If nothing else, wandering around that site will tell you a lot about the game. I think you may need to use Impulse to get the patches.

Reply to Research and manufacturing questions in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

If I'm interpreting your posts right (a big "if" ;-) ), then your questions come in three separate "flavors": conceptual, mechanics, and specifics. On the conceptual, I believe that you are pretty much right to see a lab as representing a "capacity". Each planet's total output is a value that is affected by many parameters and each parameter-enhancing planetary improvement "improves" the output in its specific area - - other things being equal, but they need not be equ

Reply to Research and manufacturing questions in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Try the wiki first. Just google: galciv2 wiki

Reply to How Enable Fleet Combat ? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

At the Intro page, select "Options" At the Options page, select "Interface" At the Interface page, choose what you want under "Battle Options"

Reply to Starbase Question in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

I think my break point is 5 planets, and I don't count ones under PQ 8. Look at what exactly your bases are boosting. If it's production, then it's all about factories. If it's trade, it's all about routes. Etc. For example, if the planets are ~all research centers, do production boosts help?

Reply to Starbase Question in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

In amplification to kryo's #2 - Starbases and their modules are time-consuming and expensive to build, need to be defended, etc. I generally don't bother with the production boost ones unless I have a fairly tight cluster of colonies that all will be within the base radius displayed on the screen. Thus, selecting a cluster set-up in the opening game screen has seemed to me to make production boost bases more likely to be worthwhile. You might play

Reply to Starting near Agressive Race makes game near impossible in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

I have found that being next to the most aggressive AIs can lead to the easiest wins. Simply bribe them to attack others. Get them in multiple wars and keep them there. The better your diplo, the easier it is. Note that if you can get them to attack any of the races that has the mega-ability to get others to join them in wars, then you can keep everyone in multiple wars all game long. Meanwhile, you prosper .... ;-)

Reply to Wormholes and Resource Points in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

Mottikhan - Interesting, your take on Yellow resources! I've always prized the Green and Red the highest, in that order. A Green might let me lower taxes, imcreasing morale while still making XXX BCs. A Yellow might raise morale enough to let me raise taxes and/or population a smidge more to get XXX BCs. I wonder which is better?