Basically it's a program that runs in the background that allows you to cheat in ways that aren't built into the program. They can do things such as eliminate the fog of war, give you virtually unlimited money, etc.
Ralegh: I'm not on masochistic yet, and even then that is usually what I do early in the game, until I'm at the point that I'm confident that I can defend myself against most threats (a three-on-one not considered "most threats" unless there's a three-way alliance out there). chaoticspyder: the trade strategy at the top of this thread *DEPENDS* on being able to establish as many routes between the same two planets, to make SB multipliers more effective.
In my limited experience, the Arceans tend to only respect those more powerful than they are, and if they've got a military edge, and no other major threats, their relations will deteriorate with you. BTW, you don't have to take out the minors to win.
After thinking about it, and reading these messages, I realize that I don't have all the answers, but I'd still like to add a comment or two. I don't have much of an issue with the PQ instead of population bonus. It hurts the builders, but that's going to happen in just about any case, since our game style most closely matches that of the abusers. Likewise, properly adjusting the diminishing returns of longer games would help as well. The current method, which as near as I ca
I've noticed that in general tiny maps are easier for the military-minded, and harder for the builders. I'm a builder at heart, but the ony way I get anywhere on a tiny map is to put on my marching boots and stomp on a few heads from the get-go. When that's what I play, I usually bee-line for starfighters, then start pumping them out as fast as I can, taking out as many freighters, trade routes, constructors, and even starbases as i can. The idea is to keep the AIs from developing whi
I know for a fact that the I-League is not immune to culture flipping, and I'm pretty sure that I've seen other non-Alexians culture-flip. I'm pretty sure that they don't culture-flip as easily as the majors do, however.
Cultural wins have been nerfed to the point they're not worth bothering. I scored 66 points on a cultural win, reloaded an autosave, took another 5 years (mostly because I had no military so I had to build up) to take the rest of the planets by combined culture/invasion, and wound up with a score almost 25 times higher. I'm now playing with cultural victory turned off. I haven't had a tech victory since 1.03, so I have no first-hand evidence, but I've heard that it scores lowe
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Rob: An alliance requires "close" relations.
tiny/rare is indeed a quite different game. That's what I play during my lunchtime at work. I guess when I say that this works best during mid to end game, I should specify that's a kind of mid to end game that doesn't exist to the same extent on tiny/rare maps.
Ichimaru: The improved Arcean AI only takes effect on 1.03 or later, and only at intelligent level or higher. Judging by your metaverse submissions, neither of those conditions apply to you.
PontiusBruinPilot: I don't think anyone wants to be able to have a recently colonized planet cranking out military at an enormous rate, unless by enormous rate you mean "as fast as it can now." On the once-stickied thread discussing this, I was strongly opposed to any of the ideas that transfered manufacturing capacity from one planet to another. Funding, sure, but not capacity. I don't see a problem with a new colony dedicating itself exclusively to social or military develo
DMF: A perfect diagonal, unless it goes exactly over the corners, will still go through more sectors and it will be spending less time in each sector because it's cutting corners. For example, a trip from the bottom left quarter of 0,0 to the bottom left quarter of 2,2, resulting in an identical, reversed path for the return trip still goes through sectors 0,0 - 0,1 - 1,1 - 2,1 - 2-2. Yes, it limits the number of choices, but even the best trade routes I've ever seen didn't bring in 4
I didn't answer this when I first saw the question because I'm not sure of the answer, but I think that it benefits all freighters.
Item 1 depends very much on the map. On a Tiny map with rare planets, you'll probably have a hard time finding a place to put the colony ship you start with, on a gigantic map with abundant planets I find that using your starting money to keep spending at 100% for as long as possible is more important. Between the two, there's an area where it's a race for the most best planets, and there you might need to lease a few colony ships. Other than that, I'd say you've got three solid tips
Actually, the base is 1, and "Trade" gives you your first +1 to trade routes. The base was 2 at some point in the beta, however.
As someone who recently pulled an all-nighter at work and spent 8 hours doing what normally takes 2, I can understand the caution. Installing an XML module required a huge long chain of required upgrades. By the time I was done, almost none of the software was the same as when we had started, including the OS version. And the worst part is that there's quite a bit of testing involved when you're done. I spent 3 hours after that 8 tracking down problems that had been tested on
Nyghtfyr: Funny, that was my first impression on seeing every one of those (except Anastasio). That two minds would come up with the same source for Eula is spooky :)
Just came across another star name easter egg. Tiberius. If I remember correctly, that's what the T in James T. Kirk stands for.
While I avoid rush-buying, except for trade goods/wonders that are important to me and that I suspect an AI might get soon, I'll admit that I'm overly cautious about it. Let's be real, sure Mitrosoft leases are for a very long time, but the game will be over before they're paid off. On the other hand, I like playing huge maps, and the ability to keep spending at 100% is pretty important, so I'd never lease more than one or two colony ships, and then only if I've already found that many
Alf's got some good points, most that I've already been using but hadn't mentioned. Though I disagree on the importance of long trade routes. In the early game it's more important to establish good relations with those close to you, in my opinion, and in the mid to late game trade-boosting starbases on short routes will blow away the same amount of trade-boosting starbases on long routes. Long trade routes are also more likely to be lost in times of war. Which reminds me of another r
Let's see if I can describe it in words. Lets say you've got your major econ world, where you want to run all your trade routes from, in sector 0,0, and you want to run and boost trade routes to a system in sector 2,1. Assuming that the freighters are going from the center of one sector to the other, and there's nothing that they have to go around, the normal path would be: 0,0 - 1,1 - 2,1 - 0,1 - 0,0, so you'd have to boost 4 sectors. Now lets compare this to trading
It's never worked for me, but that's probably because I'm not good at war. I can blow up ships like nobody's business, but bringing it together into a tool to defeat the AI, that doesn't come together well for me.
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Duglis: At the very beginning of tough. I've got the Arceans on Intelligent and everyone else set to Bright. I don't think I'd want to give up the challenge :)
I'm far from a great player, but I've managed to fund my entire empire off of trade at times, so maybe someone that doesn't have my weaknesses can make more of this strategy. Early on, I stick to trade routes with neighboring major civs, mostly to keep them on reasonable terms with me. Long trade routes just don't seem worth it. Also, unless you've already got a starbase somewhere, trade-enhancing modules don't help much early game due to the 5BC maintenance on them. I always
No, there's not. You can improve ships with technology, but that's as far as it goes. I believe it's been stated that GalCiv will never have this feature, either. I for one can understand their point of view. 1) It's too easy to come across a design that is far too cost effective. If the AI doesn't learn about that design, it gets clobbered. In addition, getting an AI to cope with squirly one trick ponies makes game design that much harder. 2) What about the AI's ships? Do