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Reply to What difficulty will your first game be? in Galactic Civilizations II Stardock Forums

One time I accidentally played a game against one bright AI and 8 fools. The fools weren't even speed bumps, I had half of a gigantic galaxy colonized, and none of them had a third colony yet. So I gave them all colony ships. Which they didn't use. MeridianMale- In the original backstory of GC1 there was an explanation for why the AIs knew where the good planets were. With the improved AI of GC2, that isn't necessary anymore, so it was

Reply to Galactic recession in Galactic Civilizations II Stardock Forums

Beta or Gamma, I can't think of more than once that I had more than one recession in a game, and I play long games. They certainly don't hapen even in most games, so I think you're seeing an extreme statistical fluke.

Reply to More Shipsets With The Bonuses/Expansion? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

There are currently 4 shipsets? in addition to human. They are Calamari, Draconian, Kodan and Vogon. Not exactly. They got renamed after different major races. Calamari became Altarian, for example. I think Vogon became Yor, but I'm not sure.

Reply to Tactical combat in expansion? in Galactic Civilizations II Stardock Forums

For example, the combat system used in the Fallout series was fantastic. From 4x space games to RPG, talk about apples and oranges. But I'll bite anyway. How does that address any of the actual issues here? The three big complaints against tactical combat in this thread consist of: 1) I

Reply to Tactical combat in expansion? in Galactic Civilizations II Stardock Forums

And having no weapon ranges and stuff DOES MOST CERTAINLY NOT mean that options like 'defend certain ship at all costs' tags mean nothing. Combat algorithms, which I imagine are pretty damn simple to begin with, can handily and happily be altered by such pre-combat choices to make sure the kind of tactics you want are applied, ev

Reply to What difficulty will your first game be? in Galactic Civilizations II Stardock Forums

As someone who's played the Gamma AI, all I can say is get ready to be spanked if you play normal or above on the same settings that gave an interesting game in the beta. My first game will probably be on a medium map with 9 opponents set to intelligent. <br

Reply to Tactical combat in expansion? in Galactic Civilizations II Stardock Forums

My points: 1) GC2 combat is too simplistic to make a tactical combat mode that won't radically alter the balance of ship design etc. Your response: "I thought that the MOO1 &2 combat system was pretty good." Not what I'd call a refutations. 2) An AI that can effectively deal with the complex variables of tactical combat as implemented like MoO 2 hasn't reached the consumers yet. Your response: "Sure, it may

Reply to Tactical combat in expansion? in Galactic Civilizations II Stardock Forums

No, I didn't miss your point, I disagree with it. Please read my posts again, I'm getting tired of repeating myself.

Reply to Tactical combat in expansion? in Galactic Civilizations II Stardock Forums

Misophist, the point isn't how good the combat systems are. I never played MoO1, but the MoO2 tactical AI was so simple to outmaneuver it gave me no satisfaction after I saw its blind points, and yet it was stupid enough that I wasn't about to let it be in charge of my ships. THAT is the point. Unless the AI is good enough to be equal to the player, that isn't going to change, and saying that an AI of that quality "may be difficult to develop" is sw

Reply to Your Favorite Joke in the Manual... in Galactic Civilizations II Stardock Forums

The tech description for Troop Transport tech wins easily in my mind. Something like: "Honor, courage, bravery. None of this matters if you can't get to the battle."

Reply to Tactical combat in expansion? in Galactic Civilizations II Stardock Forums

Misophist, I don't see it mentioned in this thread, but it's been brought up in other tactical combat threads. The reason is because most AI can't handle tactical combat even close to the level of the average player. So what happens is that people feel forced to micromanage combat to reduce their losses or have a better chance of winning because they know they'll do better than autocombat. I only liked tactical combat in MoO2 when I had a new ship c

Reply to first game: campaign or personalized game? in Galactic Civilizations II Stardock Forums

I never play campaigns until I think I've got a handle on how to play the game itself.

Reply to defense from planetary invasion in Galactic Civilizations II Stardock Forums

/quote]Bear in mind if you go the starbase defense route, it's all completely moot if they take you out before you fire back... A single decent ship with a starbase of its own backing it up can take out an undefended 110/110/110 starbase without taking a scratch. You make it sound like the starbase is defenseless. I had one game where each of my starbases had a defense of over 300 in each category (yes, over 1000 total). Even the Dread Lor

Reply to Ok I have to ask.......... Dont kill me..... :) in Galactic Civilizations II Stardock Forums

SrGalen, I agree completely with all your recomendations, loved Dragon's Egg. I also really like Robert Asprin, though I don't think his style has quite recovered from his hiatus. Actually, "Illegal Aliens" was coauthored by Phil Foglio, the guy that does most of the Myth series artwork, including the comic adaptation. In the comic adaptation, he took a great book and improved on it with a much better ending. If you haven't read the comic adaptatio

Reply to Race Creation in Galactic Civilizations II Stardock Forums

Right, some of the traits don't have a level, you either have it or you don't. Others have various levels. I think Econ has 4 levels, for example, not counting the baseline. Each level of the different traits has a specific cost in points and a specific bonus, and it isn't often linear. You might find that the third level costs less for the same additive bonus, or it might cost the same and give less bonus, for example. Also, some bonuse

Reply to Defences vs. Multiple Ships in Galactic Civilizations II Stardock Forums

No kidding, combining lots of small ships with starbase bonuses can be vicious, because every ship in the fleet gets the bonus. As for fighters vs a dreadnaught at an equal tech level, if the dreadnaught has appropriate defenses the fighters are probably going to be toast. Sans defenses, the dreadnaught is going to be in trouble.

Reply to Ok I have to ask.......... Dont kill me..... :) in Galactic Civilizations II Stardock Forums

And when you're done with the hardcore SF that takes itself too seriously at times (nothing wrong with that kind of SF, really, I just like variety) there's always Space Farce like "Illegal Aliens." If you like a touch of SF in your silliness, I recommend that one. Didn't like the last half of the book as much as the first half, but the first half had me in stitches at times.

Reply to Yor AI in Galactic Civilizations II Stardock Forums

Personally, I don't like it much. Thought Firefly was much better despite its flaws. The whole aliens/invaders that we can't tell apart from humans thing is so overdone in modern SF TV/Movies that I find it detracts from the story when relied on as a plot device. Find myself not caring about any of the characters, and that's never good. Not that I think it's a bad show, too many of my friends like it for it to be really bad. It just isn'

Reply to Defences vs. Multiple Ships in Galactic Civilizations II Stardock Forums

Stomko, I don't think that's the way it works, otherwise all your fleet would fire at the same ship every time. I've had times when in a 3 vs 3 fleet engagement, the enemy never got the chance to fire.

Reply to A dumb question regarding victory conditions in Galactic Civilizations II Stardock Forums

Oh, yes, one of my favorite ways to win in GC1 was to disable cultural victories, then culture-flip everything

Reply to Ship combat in Galactic Civilizations II Stardock Forums

It's eyecandy that serves two purposes: 1) pure eyecandy 2) letting you watch enough combat to see WHY your ships are doing as well or as poorly as they are. There's enough randomness thrown in that it doesn't always look the same, but it also doesn't grab you at the level that correographed combat from movies or cut-scenes would.

Reply to Galactic Civilizations: The case for no multiplayer in Galactic Civilizations II Stardock Forums

Agreed, I'm not saying that a good AI can completely make up for a talented and bloodthirsty human opponent, just saying that the weaker AI of RTS games in general means that the need for human opponents is that much stronger than it is in TBS games. I'm one of those that think that adding realtime moves to GC would have a negative impact. I can't focus on my empire if I have to spend every game moment watching everything that's going on to

Reply to Galactic Civilizations: The case for no multiplayer in Galactic Civilizations II Stardock Forums

Pirhana, I think there are two main reasons that multiplayer is manditory in RTS games and almost neglected in TBS games. First, there's the issue of changes to the UI. Lan/Internet MP is a natural fit for RTS, as you just need to make sure you avoid situations like computer A thinking unit 1 killed unit 2 before it died, but computer B thinks it's the other way around, which is usually handled by having the hosting computer make all the co

Reply to Some Questions in Galactic Civilizations II Stardock Forums

Ships: Agreed, as many as you can support. You'll need a fairly good machine or a moderate level of patience to put up with ten races all having hundreds of ships, but it can be done, especially if you trim down what you watch. Techs: Quite a few, though being a less military player, I'm more likely to see most of them before endgame than most. Probably well over 100, I think. Heck, you've probably got close to that just for the three br

Reply to Really annoying... in Galactic Civilizations II Stardock Forums

I'm playing with the AI on Bright I think (most algorithms, no bonuses or penalties, whatever the step right below Intelligent is). In Beta, I'd be able to out-expand the AI by ignoring my military and just expand like crazy making sure my economy was up to the expansion. I'd wind up surrounding at least one AI player by continuing to expand after they slowed down (on a gigantic map), and then building a military when someone declares war.