Valamir

Reply to Peition for lock spending & lock slider sommand, plus research & production overflow in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I'll sign on to that. I don't get quite so micro as Z but when I have military 60, social 15 and Research 25 and want to switch to military 15, social 60 and Reseach 25, I don't want to have to fiddle with all three to get them to take. Locking research would be good.

Reply to Top Tips Wanted! in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Vulture enemy starbases. Keep an eye on who's at war and park a constructor and cap ship adjacent to every resource starbase you can find. When one of those bases gets blown up during the war. Move in, claim it and garrison it before the AI (they NEVER bring constructors with them when attacking a star base...something I'd like to see them do). As a variant...rather than waiting for the fortunes of war to bless you with a destroyed base, send a BUNCH of capital ships next to the base

Reply to Strategy Help from experienced players in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

The tribute this is not quite so simple. I'd amend that to don't just automatically cough up the demands. The "never" is too strong. There are quite a few occassions where 600BC for a few turns of added peace are LOT better than going to war just then. Such as when your latest wave of capital ships is still 4 turns away from the front. You're 2 constructors shy of an active terror star. You're still trying to get additional frieghters into position with other powers so that whe

Reply to Dreadnaughts killing my Avatars? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Heh...yeah, I got a kick out of the "unrealistic" bit too. Because we do have a whole history of dreadnaughts attacking starbases to compare to after all. Quit the game...Unnecessary. THIS is the stuff GalCiv masters are msde of my friend. Ok, so the Yor were kicking your ass...sue for peace. Offer them money, tech...even a planet. Even a poor planet will usually buy you at least a temporary peace. Then find some other AI on his border and bribe them into attacki

Reply to Is SDC Down? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

the GalCiv website was down most of Saturday with an exceeded available bandwidth error. This apparently included something with Stardock because while the SDC site was available my log-in was also hosed. Also my Metaverse submission didn't take, though I got no error message upon submission. This morning GalCiv was up, my automatic log in to SDC was working fine and metaverse accepted by resubmission...so I think the problem was temporary.

Reply to Bored of Gal-Civ. End Game needs work in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Frogboy, the end game really isn't that bad. Its a mark of how fast the rest of the game is that people complain about the tediousness of the end game. The WORST degree of tedium experienced in GalCiv is a far cry less than the late game of CivIII or MOO2. One thing that would speed things up ENORMOUSLY however, is rally points. Its not enought to simply autolaunch constructors. They need to autolaunch AND head out to one of the 54 Starbases I'm building throughout the galaxy...wit

Reply to 1.03 in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

The initial morale plunge seems to be temporary. I think its an issue similiar to recalculating sector influence after a reload. It appeared to me that whatever register that morale info was saved in was cleared by the patch so that morale on ALL planets (even high PQs with low pop) wound up at 1%. Within about 10 turns they crept back up to 40-60, so I think there is some sort of moveing average calculation that goes into them. Morale is harder than it was prepatch to maintain. I a

Reply to Oh boy... in Strategies Stardock Forums

The cheaper way to get a starbase is to park a constructor and a couple warships nearby. Then bribe one of the AIs to attack the base's owner and give them the warships. They'll take your gift and blow up the starbase at which point you move in with your constructor.

Reply to Best Political Party Bonus in Strategies Stardock Forums

Pacifists definitely. EVERY single other bonus a political party gives you can be achieved by the Pacifists via their Social Production bonus. Build Econ boosters faster than the Econ Party, get more econ benefits than the Econ Party. Build Research boosters faster than the Tech Party, get more tech benefits than the tech party. Build Shipyards and Foundries faster than the War Party, get better ships than the war party.

Reply to Battlehammer just too powertul!! in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

All that is required is to reduce their HPs slightly and potentially increase the battle ships HPs slightly. This would also clean up Huz's list.

Reply to New Opening Strategy(large+ galaxies) - buying SE on Earth in Strategies Stardock Forums

Because Pink, alot of the early tech is crucial to the early land grab. For example, Propulsion, Cold Fusion, Impulse. I can't imagine playing a large / huge galaxy without getting Impulse tech ASAP. Its a HUGE advantage that allows me to nab 3-4 planets at least that the AI would have claimed due to the extra speed. I also like to get Habitat Improvement as soon as possible. I actually prefer 70/10/20 or even 60/15/25 as a spending start unless playing on Abundant planets.

Reply to Economics, Economics, Economics in Strategies Stardock Forums

First start with Soil and Habitat improvment. Anything that boosts PQ is a huge boon to your economy. Taxes come from morale, population, and PQ and morale comes from population and PQ so PQ gives you double bang. Then go for Banking Center next or Fusion Power plant and then Banking Center if you have that. Anything that boosts your production is good for the economy because it lets you build the econ boosters that much faster. In the long run getting an econ boost 15 turns earlier

Reply to What are your star naming conventions? in Strategies Stardock Forums

I've never changed a planet name...seems like a colossal waste of time to me. But I do rename starbases late in the game on a big map. I generally name sector starbases (the production and trade boosters) after the biggest system in the sector. I generally name resource starbases after the resource and compass directions i.e. Martial Far West etc. This makes it easier to manage the constructor caravans I send out so that I know which is which.

Reply to Ah ha, figured out what the start-up planet is! in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Those of us with an unhealthy obsession for geography noticed it straight off the first time we opened the game and didn't think anything of it... ;)

Reply to Defensive Ships in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

The Battle Axe is a better defender than the Defender and the Battle Hammer is a better defender than the Battle Axe. The Battle Hammer can already kick the shit out of Battleships if it is on defense (and still does decent damage but dies when on offence). In a system with substantial military upgrades from a starbase, a handfull of battle hammers can wipe the floor with Battle ships and Dreadnaughts. If you combine that with weapon upgrade techs and a military starbase, the battle

Reply to UP Council - trade federation in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Are you sure the treaty was successful? I've had that one a couple times and it always made frieghter immune (not sure about pirates and sharks though). In fact, in a bit of ultimate cheese you can send a bunch of frieghters to surround each enemy planet, and even if they go to war they can't attack the frieghters... There's nothing funnier than a dozen Drengin Dreadnaughts being blockaded by merchants :-). At least in my game the Drengin weren't able to figure out the benefi

Reply to "recession" ruined my game in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Well, it is imbalanced in the sense that computers are better able to optimize than people, so they have an edge in setting all of the setting right to minimize the effect. But that just makes things more interesting. Humans get the benefit of judgement and seeing the big picture. Computers get the benefit of super effective number crunching...in the end Computers are dumb. Even GalCiv AI.

Reply to NO RESOURCES - Must be a bug in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Here's how it works. 1st) you have the total potential tax you can collect from all of your planets. I don't know that there is anywhere that reports what this number is, but it is based near as I can tell on the population and planet quality of each planet modified by Econ bonuses for that planet and glactic wide bonuses. 2d) you have your tax rate which is the % of this total amount you actually get. Thing is moveing the slider has two effects. It increases the % of the to

Reply to "recession" ruined my game in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Yeah, because recessions never actually happen in real life. I mean the entire global economy wasn't ground into dust in the 30s or anything...millions of lives ruined. That can't happen...it isn't fair...you should be PO'd. God damn it why'd those slap nuts at SpaceDock have to go and make a game that actually requires me to think and plan instead of just click click click my way to victory. This sucks.

Reply to Was Morale nerfed recently? It seems way too easy to keep high. in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

The last game I won had EVERY planet except the most newly conquered ones at 100 Morale. My approval rating north of 80%, And my tax rate betwee 76-83%. Most planets I'd put in the entertainment network and stadium, about half (the midling PQs) had a Multimedia Center and a couple of the others like news net that give small boosts...but I didn't build a single VR center or Harmony Generator or any of the big morale projects. Morale and approval had essentially become a non i

Reply to Terror Stars! Now with pleasure palace and waterslide!!! in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Yup. I've even found a semi repeatable way to turn them on. 1) group fleet with TS, move 2) Ungroup fleet and move them away from TS 3) Move fleet back to the TS and group again 4) Then with final moves of fleet set a distant destination. Not only will the TS move again but the whole stack will get full move again That's worked for me about 3 times so far.

Reply to fed up with ctds in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

fleabit...THAT is why I only buy PCs out of the box from a reputable manufacturer. Home bashed and self upgrades may give you bitchin fast benchmark tests and lots of "cool tech cred"...but I have experienced ZERO crashes of anykind with GalCiv, Or EUII or M:TW, all games whose forums are full of CTD reports.

Reply to Why is PQ13 + soil + hab = PQ15 ? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Streg...the game does not model private enterprise. Who builds the Manufacturing Center...you the player. Who builds the Banking Center...you the player. Who builds the Entertainment Center...you the player. Now one could hold an interesting discussion, about whether this is You the Player as Emperor of Terra building government projects, or whether this is You the Player as representative of private enterprise building these projects after getting permits from You the Player as Empe

Reply to Why is PQ13 + soil + hab = PQ15 ? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

So, how are you disagreeing Popup? First you're talking about a strategy that is a very unique set of circumstances (takinging the 15% PQ bonus and setting low planet inhabitablity. I can't imagine how such a game is fun since you've essentially stacked the deck completely in your favor. Second, your strategy is exactly what I said to do. By infiltrating enemy space with lots of little planets you wind up winning the cultureal battle. You just set the game settings to make the AI

Reply to Why is PQ13 + soil + hab = PQ15 ? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

PQ16-PQ18 Planets in the end game SUCK. Even with an approval rating north of 80% and 90% of my planets at 100% morale, the PQ16 planets are on the verge of revolt. Even the spacing the population strategy barely works because you have to take it all the way to 50 million people before it has an effect. So colonizing PQ13-14 as a strategy for expanding your empire's size and wealth is universally a bad idea. BUT: There are some VERY valid reasons for SELECTIVELY taking PQ13-1