LTjim

Reply to Simple question...I hope. in Twilight of the Arnor GalCiv2 Forums

Well, I play DA, but I think it's similar enough here that I might offer some comments. First of all, look at the Yor ships/fleets in the viewer and see what their offense, defense, and hitpoints are. If the Off/Def stats greatly exceed the "nameplate" values the ship(s) has(ve), then the Yor may have some Red bases somewhere. They may also have put race points into offense/defense, and may have harvested some anomalies to boost their stats a little more. If the Yor

Reply to game setup for long game? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

... [quote]without running into the AIs too soon[/quote] Note that the AI difficulty settings will affect that answer. That is, the higher the AI difficulty settings, the more the AIs can support the Colony Rush economically, the sooner the AIs get faster engines and longer range due to research gains, and the sooner they get to colonize extreme environments. Also, if one has maga-abilities on or off affects if certain races can colonize certain extreme environment planets

Reply to game setup for long game? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

If you want a long game, I advise disabling the Research Victory. One of the most irritating things is to be lots and lots of hours into a game only to get the warning that some other race, perhaps a key ally, is one step away from that victory. One time, I got that announcement in a game and the race was hosile to me. I declared war and started conquering as fast as I could. I might have won the race to exterminate them before they won, but it turned out not to matt

Reply to Does the computer play by different rules? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Quoted, yes. My point, though, was that allowing some AIs to prosper at the advantage of others let them become dangerous enough to give me a fun game. At the settings much below Suicidal, I just steamrolled whichever AIs there were. At full Suicidal, I was among the steamrolled. It was sort of like "Suicidal-lite", with one or two Suicidal AIs instead of eight or nine, and who could feast on other empires besides mine and the Minors. In full Suicidal, the

Reply to Does the computer play by different rules? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Iztok - On random AI levels, I have done that sometimes to get a very different game. That is, before moving up to straight Suicidal, I found that random settings changed which AIs prospered. Unbalancing the AIs helped set up varying huge confrontations in the later game between my empire and the lucky-settings AIs who had crushed others.

Reply to Does the computer play by different rules? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

In DA, I have always had my pre-invasion spies returned to me after taking the planet. One loses spies if they are placed in the race passive espionage boxes when the empire ceases to exist. (As Loup has termed it, they become archaeologists, and will even send you reports on their incresing levels of espionage on the extinct race) The delta is important because one tactic in invasions is to reduce the population by nerfing the farms (in DA, it's 6B), as you said, then usi

"D'uh!" Why didn't I think of that sooner?? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

There's a "Tips and Tricks" thread somewhere, but I had a "D'uh!" moment last night and wanted to share it. Then I realized that others must have had similar "D'uh!" moments and reading theirs might save me some of mine. Thus, this thread! Here's mine from last night: I was trying to figure out which races to offer various trades to, and suddenly realized that a simpler way than iterations was to check how many BCs each race would trade me for 100 BC

Reply to Does the computer play by different rules? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

DL? DA? Or TA? I ask because I pretty much play just DA. One thing to check is (assuming you have some intel level) to go to the Diplo screen and look at the report data you have on the Krynn. Among the things it will tell you is the bonuses that race has, like eco mil, etc. Have you looked the map over for mining bases of theirs, especially green ones? I have seen races rush buy ship after ship which they could support with huge eco bonuses and

Reply to Does the computer play by different rules? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

DL, DA, or TA? What difficulty level?

Reply to Master of Orion 2 Memories in PC Gaming GalCiv2 Forums

I liked the tactical control of battles in MOO2. I miss that in GalCiv2. I really do. Even in SEIV, one could take tactical control. If one wanted auto-resolution, one could do that. Also, there was a wonderful option to let the battles play out as you watch, but to specify ahead of time important tactics, including targeting priorities, ranging, and formations. Those sorts of features made the SEIV battles something to really look forward to, i

Reply to (DA) A dismal failure yesterday! in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

Willythemailboy - I thought the bonus tile count behaved as you said, but was not sure enough to comment. And, if I can get the mega-ability thing straight, I just may try the custom route again this weekend!

Reply to (DA) A dismal failure yesterday! in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

Mascrinthus - Yes, Suicidal, I should have said that, too. I have been able to beat it with simple brute force on lower difficulties. Can one add a mega-ability to a custom race? If so, does it require going into the files? I'd like to try a custom race, but the absence of a mega-ability has been offputting. I might try it again, if it does not require non-pc-literate moi playing with files.

Reply to (DA) A dismal failure yesterday! in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

Similar to the post by LegacyCWAL, I have had success with Altairians, no mega-ability, technologists. I research down the diplo track fast, and then the influence track, making sure to get those trade goodies. I keep track of the Colony Rush going on, and (well before its over) make sure to get and keep every AI in at least one war and generally two. For the most threatening AIs, I even keep them in three, and I've gone as high as seven! Meanwhile, I score Eco

Reply to (DA) A dismal failure yesterday! in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

I did not say there would be a discrete break in the Colony Rush phases as there is at lower AI settings. The Rush will, though, last a bit longer. If you think the Terran mega-ability does not help you, try a game with mega-ability off.

Reply to (DA) A dismal failure yesterday! in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

One other thing, if you play a race but do not really integrate its mega-ability into your grand strategy, try turning off mega-ability entirely. If nothing else, it will extend the Colony Rush period some, as the two races which start with certain extreme colonization techs will not get them.

Reply to Combat in TA 2.03 in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Good grief! It kept saying that the post had not gone through! My apologies.

Reply to Combat in TA 2.03 in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

A few Qs, beside the obvious ones of relative racial points and red bases: Are the Yor Universalists and you're not? Did you not take luck and they did? Did you compare the adjusted strengths as well as the nameplate strengths?

Reply to Combat in TA 2.03 in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

A few Qs, beside the obvious ones of relative racial points and red bases: Are the Yor Universalists and you're not? Did you not take luck and they did? Did you compare the adjusted strengths as well as the nameplate strengths?

Reply to Combat in TA 2.03 in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

A few Qs, beside the obvious ones of relative racial points and red bases: Are the Yor Universalists and you're not? Did you not take luck and they did? Did you compare the adjusted strengths as well as the nameplate strengths?

Reply to Combat in TA 2.03 in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

A few Qs, beside the obvious ones of relative racial points and red bases: Are the Yor Universalists and you're not? Did you not take luck and they did? Did you compare the adjusted strengths as well as the nameplate strengths?

Reply to (DA) A dismal failure yesterday! in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

If you build your grand strategy around tech trading, are you not using the basic Terran advantage? If you want to play a different race with a different intrinsic set of advantages, I would think that you would need to change your grand strategy to better match up to those different advantages. For example, one of the races (Korx?) has huge trading advantages and get get the trade-based goods early (including Privateer in DA). It would seem the Korx would use a BC-based

Reply to The Millionaire's Club in Metaverse GalCiv2 Forums

Congrats, indeed! Was there any specific thing(s) that has (have) made this one higher scoring?

Reply to Using multiple weapon types? in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

A bit of that is unfamiliar to me, so they must be TA references. Sadly, any ship bonus planets I get seem always to be either low quality or in a distant corner, and often both. I seem to be able to crank those tinies out as I described. I use all-factories (and focus) and get the ASC, so maybe that helps.

Artificial. set-piece battles in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

One thing I miss in GC2 that was possible in some other games, is the chance to have set piece battles. For example, give each of two parties X research points and Y BCs. They can research whatever they want, then submit their ship or fleet for battle, which then gets run 10 times. The closest I can come to that in GC2 is ship-on-ship. To do that I have to get a game to a stalled full-tech victory, create two ships, give one ship to an AI, then attack it. I m

Reply to Using multiple weapon types? in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

The Q most often arises in full tech games. That is, how should one arm ships if one has all the weapons' tech? A similar Q arises in what defenses, if any, should one put on ships in full tech games. For example, in one recent game, I was at war with two strong AIs at the same time. Their worlds (and hence, fleets) were intermixed. Both used beams, but one had armor and the other had shields. My expeditionary force would almost certainly