Cataleptic

Reply to Galactic Kiwis in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Dunno if an ANZAC empire would have enough muscle to hold our own... I wonder how many SAFs are out there? ~SDC~

Reply to Aussie Empire? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

My current kickoff is to set spending to 100/0/0 at 100%, taxes to 50% and crank out a scout then colony ships non-stop for about 3 years. I put 150-200M in each ship coming out of Sol. When they colonise a world, I set *that* world to making a scout, then colony ships with 50-60M in them. When *those* ships colonise a world, I set them on making constructors and try to tag as many resources as possible. Once I'm done colonising and have a few constructors spare, I chuck spending over to 0/50/50

Reply to Request- Terror Star .bik Cutscene the first time the Terror Star is used in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Someone could just rip the Alderaan-goes-kaboom sequence from Star Wars... that'd do me just fine :) ~SDC~

Reply to Starbase Maint Idea Thread in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I prefer short runs anyway, myself... preferrably with a minor race inside my own territory, as they usually have big, juicy homeworlds and aren't likely to turn on me :) ~SDC~

Reply to Suggestions for making Culture Bombs not such a cakewalk in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I don't think you could pull off a trick like that anymore without having at least a couple of fully exploited influence resources plus the usual gadgets like the Restaurant That Isn't At The End Of The Universe, The Book That Isn't The Hitchhiker's Guide and the Binford Distributor 9000. Cultural Domination no longer seems to be what happens when you're making other plans. ~SDC~

Reply to Morale Tips in Strategies Stardock Forums

I'm not sure that info is up to date, as the 1.03 readme says that it's easier to get more population now. Also note that the empire-wide morale stat is a boost applied to specific projects. If your empire has +20% morale and you build an entertainment network, the planet gets +24% added to its morale... this means that in the late-game, even medical centers can give a solid morale bonus. Actually, as far as mechanics is concerned, there's no point in thinking of planetary morale as a p

Reply to Request- Terror Star .bik Cutscene the first time the Terror Star is used in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Personally, I'd like to have the Capital Ship cutscene appear for the first time you build a Battleship *or bigger*... I never knew the thing existed until a few games ago when I accidentally built a BS... already had a few dozen dreads by then, so the cutscene didn't really fit very well :) ~SDC~

Reply to Now I know the AI cheats in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

The point is that not only do you not get the second item, it disappears from your build-list, so you will *never* get it. I don't really see a problem with being able to buy multiple things at once... it's *expensive* is all. ~SDC~

Reply to Aussie Empire? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

A white cloud is easier to live under than a bigassed cloud of red dust and woodsmoke :) ~SDC~

Reply to Now I know the AI cheats in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I presume the minor race in question had only one planet? Perhaps they bought one and built the other... I just found a bigass bug :) If you buy Soil Enhancement and Entertainment Network in the same turn, they both vanish from the list, but only one shows up on the projects list. The other remains absent, and cannot be built. The same goes if you buy something, and something else gets completed in the same turn. ~SDC~

Reply to Suggestions for making Culture Bombs not such a cakewalk in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

It's worked quite well in my last two games... both 1.03/Genius. I do rush-build as many of the culture-boosting wonders as I can, and my build-order is dramatically different. In my last game, I was planning on an alliance victory but about halfway through the game I had found and tagged so many influence resources, the little voice in my head become irresistable... I think I had about +450% influence by the time my plans came to fruition :) I'm rapidly becoming convinced that

Reply to Suggestions for making Culture Bombs not such a cakewalk in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

But I *do* like culture bombs... I just feel a so *dirty* when I use them :) Besides which, sooner or later the AI is going to be given enough smarts to use them itself. Currently, if the AI decides to gun for a culture victory, it seems content to go for a galaxy-wide push, rather than use it's boosted influence aggressively. Imagine how *you'd* feel if your major trading partner (or ally!) plopped a fully-loaded culture SB right next to one of your sectors. I don't think ther

Reply to Starbase Maint Idea Thread in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I guess if SSNs were dirt-cheap, they wouldn't impact gameplay that much, if they were expensive, they would penalise smaller empires. I also think that linear maintenance costs would amplify the dominance of a powerful empire without really helping smaller ones (which I guess is why the 1.7 solution appeared :) ) Regardless of anything else, it seems we're agreed that resource bases (and/or their extraction modules) should be exempt from any SB-limiting tactics, to keep things

Suggestions for making Culture Bombs not such a cakewalk in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Currently, the AI only objects to bombs in sectors where it has colonies, and it's only available response is to demand a handover... it seems completely oblivious to bombs in adjacent sectors. Also, it doesn't seem to mind at all as it watches its planets flipping one after the other. I think perhaps the game needs some tweaks to help the AI (and the player, if the AI ever gets it into its head to try the same tactic)... Firstly, I think there should be a minimum of at least 4

Reply to The 'Endgame' and 'Pop' in Strategies Stardock Forums

Bear in mind that Gigantic/Common maps have 240(give or take... err... a bunch) good planets, and the max population per planet is capped at 100b. In the last few games I've had, my research and culture-bombing efforts tend to converge at around 2210 (about 380 turns) and around 8 trillion minions (so much skin, so little time). I cheesed out a (non-submitted) game to around 20 trillion by belting the end-turn button ad nauseam, but I really don't think you could get more than about 12

Reply to Starbase Maint Idea Thread in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

The 1.7 method, although it looks like it would probably work quite well, is possibly just a *teeny* bit counter-intuitive :) I think we need to be clear about what sort of behaviour is being discouraged here. Mass-conversion via culturebase spamming wouldn't be very different, just more time-consuming... you just bomb the target cluster, wait for conversion, dismantle all (but 1?) base and move on. Do we want to punish those who build many small bases (i.e. the AI :), or a few large on

Reply to Leases, Loans, and other pesky drains on my cash in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

If you get yourself a good-sized economy (on Large+ maps, anyway), rush-buying any of the wonders with Mitrosoft is a pretty good deal and quite easy to absorb. ~SDC~

Reply to The Fundamentalists took *ALL* the Drengin and Yor planets! in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

It's probably cheaper to just build a warship and two (battle)transports at each system and keep them parked in orbit, and keep a home defense fleet hovering around. Remember that a) When a planet defects, it de-orbits any ships first b) When a transporter is automatically de-orbited, it loads up some troops first. Between those two factors, you get an assault ship, plus two transports (probably fully loaded for major planets) sitting right outside every defected plane

Reply to Cheesy Goodness? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Sure, it may be minor cheese (and I really don't think so), but as I've already pointed out, even a minor PQ or project hit from a failed invasion would be infinitely more abusable Remember that the effect of the tactic has nothing to do with the number of invading troops. If a failed attack using 1M troops + core detonation dropped PQ by a mere 5% (nevermind the full 20%), a simple rinse and repeat would completely tank the morale of your enemy's core world, at minimal cost to you. The

Reply to Enemy Cheat? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

That's a good point. There are also some other unknowns there. Does the blackmail logline also display any techs that were extorted? (in my experience, the AI *frequently* blackmails for cash+tech) Is it certain that tech-for-tech trades show up? Are there loglines that affect the Arceans, but don't mention them by name? What about the tech-swapping UP event? *shrug* As Brad and others have already pointed out, when the AI gets accused of cheating, it's invariably beca

Reply to Declaring War in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Absolutely :) The minors are particularly generous in this regard, as they often have copious amounts of money, and often end up at war with the more agressive majors. ~SDC~

Reply to The Fundamentalists took *ALL* the Drengin and Yor planets! in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I think it's got something to do with how much of the population believes in evolution :D :D :D ~SDC~

Reply to Is there any way to get a culture or tech win without a strong military? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Heh. In the last game I won (Gigantic/Crippling, 8000mpt), I think I built maybe a dreadnaught or two and an overlord... all by accident, and I decommisioned them immediately (had no use for them). Other than that, I only built constructors, freighters and colony ships. Had +70% pop growth, and (I think) +20% diplo. I started out in a good sized cluster all to myself, sitting, as it turned out, between the Tor, the Arceans and the Altarians. Once the planet-rush had finished, we all had

Reply to Can't Trade Constructors? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I suppose the minors could be hardcoded not to use them as anything other than trade-goods, so sure... why not? ~SDC~

Reply to Should you launch auto attack ships?? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Auto-attack is a bit borked currently, in that if a ship's current target vanishes, you have to nudge it to get it going again, which is a minor PITA. It can be useful just giving a few ships the AA order and letting them run around cleaning up drones and minis. You mean like an anti-matter missle, only with 1Att/100Def?... could be fun. ~SDC~