Popup Target

Reply to moo3 vs GalCiv feature comparison in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

ubertaco: I agree with the fact that both are significantly different games. I've owned both since the day of release (day before, in the case of GalCiv, thanks to a Drengin.net subscription), and am of the opinion that if/when the code patch brings the AI up to speed (at least a brisk walk), then the answer to "which should I get" may very well be "why not both?" On the other hand, I have to disagree. MoO3 has more detail, but not more depth. When have you ever seen the MoO3 AI do

Reply to I think I've found my level of play in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Za H, I was still researching the techs! I've *NEVER* lost the Terraformer before this game :) If I hadn't been tired of the war, I would have only made peace with two of them, let them redeclare war, then settle again a year later or so, catching up on tech completely. But no, I had to be nice (saintly, actually).

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

Ming, I feel sorry for you even if you are evil! :) What did you do to poor Earth to drop its morale like that? The first time I tried to play evil, the Fundamentalists popped up in the middle of a nasty war and half my empire defected. Needless to say, the game ended shortly thereafter, and I've always played evil a little bit differently since then.

I think I've found my level of play in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I've been rather cautiously increasing the AI levels for a while, and I haven't lost a game since I was just learning (Lost half my empire to the Fundamentalist event in the middle of a war the first time I played evil, etc). All the way up to all brights, it wasn't a matter of would I win, but how/when. Now that I'm getting into mixed bright/intelligent, I'm starting to feel serious presure. This is the first game that I could actually lose if the AI had the option of winning by Tech

Reply to capturing a planet with influence in 1.3 in Strategies Stardock Forums

Just realized that I dated myself with that styrofoam container comment. How long has it been since McD's stopped using those? The Geezer Empire: O.K., so maybe we *CAN'T* remember when our empire was grand, but we know it was!

Reply to invading with multiple transports in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Also note that by taking the soft targets, then culture flipping the rest of the sector, you're boosting your population instead of depleting it.

Reply to Possible glitch in peace negotiations in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Personally, I think that if the AI keeps getting dragged into wars that it wants nothing to do with, it should re-evaluate the alliance as well. In two seperate games, the Arceans have formed an alliance with the Altarians and Torians, then gone to war with me. In both cases, the Altarians and Torians begged for peace, I let them have it since I had nothing against them, but they got dragged right back into the war because the Arceans would go so far as redeclare war if needed. There

Reply to Feature Request: Infinite Improbability Drive in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

It's on the back of all four elephants at the same time (they stand with their back ends together). They've got an animation of it on both of the Discworld DVDs (Wyrd Sisters and Soul Music). For those of you who aren't familiar with Terry Pratchett, he did to fantasy what Douglas Adams did to SF. One of the most memorable (but not the best quote) comes from one of my favorite books, "Guards Guards!" An existing memeber of the night watch is breaking in a new kid, showing him the rop

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

Ever seen that happen? I'm not talking the Fundamentalists pop up and declare war, I'm saying the very event that created the Fundamentalists handed them every Drengin and Yor planet in the game. The Yor have been wiped out of two consecutive games that way (they were a minor power in both), and the Drengin from one of the two. And the game didn't even tell me that the races were gone! Of course, the first time it happened it was on a Tiny map, so I noticed during that turn, so I, be

Reply to n00b: How does combat work? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I can confirm that being in orbit increases the attack (but not defense) of starships. I'm trying to bribe the Torians into becoming close to me in my current game, and I found that by pulling up the starship list and sorting by attack, it put all the dreadnoughts that are defending systems at the top, and all the ones that are just sitting there (I'm finally at peace with everyone, and at better than neutral relations, so I'm trying to go for an alliance victory) at the bottom to make it easy

Reply to Feature Request: Infinite Improbability Drive in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I realize more people are familiar with the HG series, but I still say the game also needs a flat world, carried on the back of 4 giant elephants, standing on the back of a giant sea turtle. Bonus points if you can name all 4 elephants without looking it up (I can't).

Reply to Feature Request: Infinite Improbability Drive in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

A random event involving philosophers demanding clearly defined regions of uncertainty?

Reply to Anyone Else Missing The Two +10 PQ Tech Tree Bonuses? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Nicolas: either you're mistaken, or there's more than one "enhanced terraforming" tech in the library. the one I'm aware of has two social projects at +40% and +60%, and that can be seriously unbalancing. For Metaverse purposes, "the AI has access to them too" doesn't wash in this case because a +100% to PQ will seriously boost your morale and/or population, and if I'm not mistaken, both of them factor into the final score.

Reply to moo3 vs GalCiv feature comparison in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Before someone tears apart my comments on MoO3 tactical combat, I should explain. When you order a fleet to attack another fleet, that is its order. You can't tell it to attack from a long range, or to charge in while attacking. It will decide based on factors that aren't quite completely laid out (I've seen long-range attack fleets deliberately close to point-blank range against short-range attack fleets, which was very stupid). Yes, you can move ships by giving them movement orders, and ha

Reply to moo3 vs GalCiv feature comparison in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

If that's what you want, I'd suggest waiting for the reviews on the code patch for MoO3. Personally, I don't have the hatred for MoO3 that many do, it just got boring fast. 1) GalCiv has no multiplayer. I think GalCiv's single player is much better, since the AI plots, plans, and reacts, whereas the current MoO3 AI kind of just flails around. 2) MoO3 certainly has more stuff you can twiddle, more complex planetary systems, etc. However, GalCiv has the more complex game play, beca

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

Oh, one other note, the offensive vs defensive decision shouldn't be made at 1:1 If someone has a total attack of more than 35% larger than their defense, then I'd worry. If the trigger is having an attack larger than defense at all, then I'd be triggering it, because I tend to use battle hammers as defensive units post-1.03.57. I know, kinda expensive as defensive units go, less effective than two battle axes really, but there isn't that much I could do with two battle axes when I upgrade pl

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

The more I think about it, the more I like that idea. The AI could modify its behavior towards defensively oriented civs. The evil military civs could either plan a bigger offensive, or find another way to wear down that civ. The peaceful civs might have a better opinion of that civ without feeling threatened. On the other hand, just because someone had mostly attack points doesn't mean that you can walk all over them if you invade. Maybe use atk (+ 1/2 def?) for how concer

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

How about a system that tracks attack points and defense points seperately? Seriously, if your neighbor has a huge number of attack points, but not many defense points, they're either bluffing or preparing for trouble, but someone with few attack points but lots of defense points isn't much of a threat, but at the same time, that doesn't mean that they're a pushover that you can go to war with just because they can't come after you (at the moment).

Which thread for AI suggestions? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I've got one suggestion, a trick I use in combat to inflict 4:1 losses against the AI with only marginally better ships. Basically, I'll bring in several ships that are a little better than any of the enemy ships in that sector. Most of the ships then attack, and most of them survive with few enough hitpoints to make a second attack impractical. All of those ships then run to the same spot on the map, and two undamaged ships then plop down on top of them. This way, there are no easil

Reply to What are "resources" supposed to be? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

You're forgetting the green geodesic balls, apparently full of gullible venture capitalists. Those are my favorite, the red cones come in second (though not by much). I can always use more money, a better military only comes into play if I've failed my primary goals.

Reply to Metaverse Scoring Question in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I'm not sure, but population doesn't count as much as it used to, and you're also penalized for long games (double whammy, really). When they recalc the metaverse, I'm almost certain to loose the medal for "10 wins, score over 3000 points." I know the feeling about the Arceans. In my current game, they've got an alliance with the Altarians and Torians, but insist on picking wars with me, so Saintly "Yeuben Hadd" (no, I don't claim it's original) winds up fighting the Altarians, Torian

Reply to Where are the transports? in Strategies Stardock Forums

Actually, unless I'm planning on using them soon, I usually stick with standard transports, since the maintenance on them is 0 compared to 5 for the combat transports. However, if I know I'll be using them soon, the 5 standard transports it takes to match the capacity of one combat transport takes 2.5 times the production.

Reply to So *THAT*s what a wormhole is for! in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

yeah, I stopped using wormholes on huge and gigantic maps the first time it threw me somewhere where it took *YEARS* to get back into the ship's range. Ummm... Oops? Definitely avoid wormholes until Hero's speed gets to at least 4, and enough range to cover half the map.

Reply to capturing a planet with influence in 1.3 in Strategies Stardock Forums

Talk about a weird chain of thoughts. I've tried the Culture Terror Stars which didn't work out very well in the game I tried them in, the game was over before they got to their target. But still, while in route, I thought of them as the McStars, including the image of giant styrofoam deathstars orbiting a planet, and trust me, you don't want to know what comes out of them when the lid pops open. Anyway, back to the previous reasonable discourse.

Reply to What I learned from Dubya, McDonalds, and the Ferengi in Strategies Stardock Forums

Oh, and yes, I consider myself an "ethical ferengi" since I'll sell tech to anyone, seldom holding anything back for myself, unless it's someone that's goosestepping through the universe. I have even been known to sell tech to someone I'm at war with (how about a confusion factor, Frogboy :))