LTjim

Reply to Don't Defend Your Planets. It's Pointless on Larger Maps With Lots of AI. in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

I agree! Also, some traits have what is essentially an "expiration date." For example, Super Adapter gets a head start on colonizing some world types that others cannot, but all races will eventually get that same ability through research. Analogously, the Super Breeder can be approached by being the first one to research Aphrodisiac, etc. Nonetheless, the Super Adapter can end up with more population than a Super Breeder simply by having more worlds and

Reply to First Game at Challenging Level in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

At suicidal the AIs WILL succeed, at least in DA.

Reply to Don't Defend Your Planets. It's Pointless on Larger Maps With Lots of AI. in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

In DA, of course, the MCC does not work that way, despite its official description. As for population as a defense, have you had success with it on Suicidal? The AIs are much more competitive on that setting, at least in DA. In my Suicidal DA games, I never have a higher military rating until long after the outcome of a war has been decided. As Gaunathor posted, one needs only very temporary and very local superiority to achieve invasion success. I try to pic

Reply to Dark Yor creates Mini Empire in Twilight of the Arnor GalCiv2 Forums

How interesting! I play only DA and have always done it! I used to invade minors' homeworlds when they were about to fall into the hands of an AI. I would always use spies to check for morale buildings and, if I found any, put spies on them as a matter of routine to check if Information Warfare was the best invasion tactic. Later, I would only declare war on a minor race if they had had the espionage event and it had given them a done of techs I wanted. I

Reply to New rig, need input in PC Gaming GalCiv2 Forums

Thanks! Very similar to what 'm considering (though I generally go nVidia for GPUs). I may try to hold out until Black Friday, though. Not only is that normally the best deal day, but I hope to go SSD-only and maybe the prices for them will come down by then. Have you run any benchmarks on your PC yet?

Reply to New rig, need input in PC Gaming GalCiv2 Forums

Nasarog - What are the specs of the rig you got from cyberpowerpc? Laptop/desktop? CPU, GPU, SSD, RAM? Benchmarks? I'm approaching the point of replacing my own PCs. I'm thinking i5, SSD, GeForce-770 (desktop), maybe GeForce-750M laptop (unless I can get better), etc.

Reply to Dark Yor creates Mini Empire in Twilight of the Arnor GalCiv2 Forums

In DA one can put spies on minors' planets, and also in their "spy boxes." I routinely put a spy on every minor homeworld briefly to check their tech progression.

Reply to Dark Yor creates Mini Empire in Twilight of the Arnor GalCiv2 Forums

I have seen several 2-planet minors, a few 3-planet ones, but never one with 4. Sometimes it happens if a minor race gets one of those intel harvesting events of a race that has already researched some colonization tech. One day, I will get to the end of a game and then go back one turn and: - get the last major race to declare war on one minor race (that I preserved) if they are not already at war, - give almost everything to that minor race, including fleets,

Reply to late game economy in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

The 20,000 figure is a known thing. That is, there are penalties for having a treasury higher than that. The first one (alluded to in this old thread) is a tax or some other income modifier that remains in place until below 20K. The "solution" to the 20K figure is to buy an improvement or a ship to get under 20K before you end the turn. Oh, be sure to move all your survey ships, though, even if you have to do it manually. If they find a cash anomaly that puts

Reply to New Masters of Orion please! in PC Gaming GalCiv2 Forums

MOO2 was and is a great game. Going back to the original post, the developers DID add initiative in the last patch (1.31, IIRC). Also, if one wanted an unpredictable tech tree, then all one had to do was to choose "Uncreative" in the racial picks. There was so much personality, with heroes giving local bonuses, and it rewarded the "Charisma" choice by having the best leaders more likely to offer their services to that player.

Reply to Ultimate Terrans in Twilight of the Arnor GalCiv2 Forums

Absolutely! First, though, do you know MOO2? It was done pretty darn well there. One aspect would be to make every choice now there include a negative. For example, the Economics race modifiers would start at, say, -20, -10, etc rather than 0. That would give a player MORE picks to use elsewhere. To prevent uber-races, one might start the key stats at a minus number, or just make the changes more expensive. Also, one might have fewer racial pick

Reply to Ultimate Terrans in Twilight of the Arnor GalCiv2 Forums

All depends on one's selected playing style for that game. I always max economics, generally through at least a point or two at morale, and then its a decision as to go a research path, a production one, or a diplo one. I never build freighters and trade routes, so anything there is a waste to me. One game change I'd like to see is the ability to have negative picks like in MOO2.

Reply to Neutralizing AI Ships Without Killing Them in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

You could also just englobe them. In the old threads, IIRC, one of the devs said the AI was optimized for medium conditions. That is, medium size galaxy, habitable planets a notch or two below the most abundant settings, one or two AIs below max, Minor AIs, two or three below max, etc. Anomalies also need to be set in the middle. The AI has trouble with either an extended colony rush or a too short one and, as you pointed out, with galaxy sizes both so large that i

Reply to Remove the Waste and you remove the micromanagment in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

I've never been interested enough in this "under the hood" part of the game engine to test it, but it could be done. Start a game, get to the spot. Save. Do it one way and check numbers. Reload and do it another (sliders, buy an extra factory or three first, whatever) and check the numbers again.

Reply to The case of the missing Dread Lords in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

Well, my personal theory is that they will not appear before a certain date and will not appear if a certain tech threshold has been crossed (or perhaps any race exceeds a certain military score). Thus, they will rarely appear in Suicidal games. Another possibility is that they do not appear in ANY DA games when the setting is suicidal. Has anyone ever had them appear in a suicidal DA game?

Reply to The case of the missing Dread Lords in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

Could you define what you mean by "habitable"? Do you mean larger than PQ1 and also not toxic/heavyG/rad/barren/whatever? I ask because I often notice late in games a stray PQ1 planet or three deep in AI space. I may try an experiment: isolate a normal environment planet with an eight ship blockade and see if the Dread Lords eventually show up.

Reply to Facing the Thalan Empire? in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

I also like spy bombardments of stock markets (and other eco bonus buildings), but note that on higher difficulty levels that the AIs get large bonuses, including economic, that reduce the impact.

Reply to Taking other races planets in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

In one thread a few years ago, I believe the answer was taking the last planet. One player advocated leaving the enemy one low pop planet in the midst of the others so that it would flip to you by influence. Of course, that does not really work in DA if one has built the MCC.

Reply to Bordered In in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

Remember that you do not have to send colony ships all the way out to a system to colonize it. That is, you can expend a colony ship to settle the best system planet, build a starport, and then small engine-less colony chips there to colonize the others.

Reply to Econ Bonuses Formula in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

I've never bothered to take the formula out from under the hood, but more population is generally better. With that said, however, you will generally have some high PQ planets that end up with high populations. For example, say you have a PQ 22 planet in a corner of a huge galaxy w/o any production bonus tiles. One good use for that planet might be research, but another would be economic. That is, pile on a few big farms, some morale buildings, and then fill it up with

Reply to If the XXXXX (Drenin, Korath, whatever) are about to attack you... in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

M&M Research? I had no idea that chocolate was so important to the devs that they put it into the game system!.

Reply to Good vs. Neutral in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

Thread necrophilia! Doesn't Evil also eliminate paying for invasions by building the No Mercy improvement? In a big map, that's quite useful.

Reply to If the XXXXX (Drenin, Korath, whatever) are about to attack you... in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

As Terran, can't you use your diplo to get AIs to declare war against each other? That is, ID the AIs on your border, ID ones on their OTHER borders, and get one to declare war on the other. I try to keep each threatening AI in not one but TWO wars. I find that much more effective than creating any early fleet.

Reply to Early Research Paths in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

In DA, I do about as you said. However, after planetary improvements (and maybe ion engines) i do the first diplomacy tech and then Trade. Trade has the benefit of the Eco Capitol and gives me something to trade to AIs that will get them to send me freighters that eco boost me and ease any early hostilities.

Reply to Constructor/Starbase bridge for Isolated Starts in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

Be alert for wormholes! That is, research sensors, pile on LS onto a constructor and/or colony ship, and send it through. You will probably end up somewhere useful. If not, nothing lost.