I tend not to focus on any one single part of the plan at any one time, but other than that, I do something quite similar to yours. I trade techs like crazy, keeping my eyes open for what the other guys don't seem to be researching, but would be interested in. My favorite techs to sell/give are the extra traderoute techs, since that will increase the money they have to pay for other techs.
Ellestar: Why banking only on planets with higher production? There's no maintenance fee associated, so I either make them a priority, or one of the first things to build when my social queue is empty, depending on the state of my economy.
Had something interesting happen over the weekend on a Huge map, with mixed Bright/Intelligent AIs. Hero was on the back side of the Arcean empire (one of the Intelligent AIs) when the Arcean line on the military graph spikes like nobody's business. I shift some production to military to stay in the ballpark, but not fast enough, they start making truely obnoxious demands that I didn't feel I could make and still be in the game, so I told them to take a hike. War is declared, and all
I'm pretty sure it's there as well, but not certain, and some people have claimed to have not seen it, so I felt it was only fair to throw in that caveat.
Unless you've got them set to the highest intelligence rating, they start with the same stuff you do. There's quite a few things you can/should do to keep up with the AI. In a gigantic galaxy, you should set your spending rate to 100%, keep your taxes as high as you can keeping your morale at 100%, and buy a scout the first turn. On a gigantic map, I find that keeping your funding at 100% pays off better than buying/leasing colony ships.
Combat in GalCiv is pretty simple. Each ship has three important factors. Attack, Defense, and Hit Points. Each ship takes turns shooting at the other ship, with the attacker always going first. Each shot is the done as two random numbers, the shooter's number is between 0 and his attack value inclusive, the target's number between 0 and his defense value inclusive. If the attacker got a higher number, the defender looses a number of hitpoints equal to the difference between the numbers. I
Or your treasury is below -500BC, and all production has stopped, but you probably would have noticed if your social projects weren't getting built either.
Stardock Forums
I've played that on huge, but not gigantic, Zorlond. I find that rare terran planets mucks with the AI too much.
Stardock Forums
As a lark, I'm playing a game on tiny. It's not quite my cup of tea, but it is a completely different game, and still kinda fun. Basically, I went into it knowing that I wasn't going to have the chance to do my normal peaceful empire thing, so I decided to be the b*****d warmonger of the universe :) I've been attacking everyone on sight, and after a while getting peace treaties with "all your tech, all your money, all your influence" as tribute. Haven't managed to get any colonies as tribute
Za H, there is a point of diminishing returns, but since it's based on a multiple of the planet class rather than the % funded, you tend not to hit it early on.
Scouts have an attack of 0, don't they? That means that they're not really military ships. You wouldn't expect to hold off an attack with colony ships, would you? Scouts are meant to be used in the early part of the game to explore the galaxy so you know where to send your colony ships and constructors.
moodgiesanta: I upgraded to .057 last night and both the 5% and 7% picks were available, so it was a transient problem, whatever it was.
Frogboy, I agree with you on Metaverse vs GalCiv for the most part, but that does beg the question "Then why are you majorly tweaking the metaverse scoring if it's not supposed to be important?" I'm not upset about it, or even annoyed. I mean, how many people that focus on competition would give themselves a handle like mine? I've played one game where my behavior was affected by the potential score, and that was enough. Still, it's fun watching my metaverse position bounce up and dow
Freya, sure, but everyone could play countless ways before it was changed, so that argument doesn't wash. Before, if you wanted to be metaverse-competetive, you had to play longer games. Now, you'll have to play shorter games. Vorlin was just pointing out that the score is always about the mechanics, which isn't the same as skill. It's just that in some cases, the mechanics happen to suit your particular skills. For example, in my typical tech victory win, I'm on Final Frontier befo
Stardock Forums
I'm not afraid of the AI getting a tech victory. I keep close tabs on the AI's state of research so that I know what ships it can start throwing at me when, and in only one game did it even make it as far as Overlord technology. That was because I decided that I wanted to see what an Excalibur could do, so I turned my research rate way down and built a few. Managed to field three of them before the Torians finished Overlord Tech. If you've let the AI get that far in tech and you're n
Excaliburs are supposed to be overkill. They come almost at the end of the tech tree, and if you've let the AI get that far without you, then you've blown the game anyway, especially if the game's changed to allow the AI to obtain a tech win.
Stardock Forums
The Leader: I agree, I don't think combat transports are too powerful, I just think that whatever defensive ship is in use at the time (in this case BattleHammers) should be able to take one out, since combat isn't it's primary purpose.
moodgiesanta: It wasn't available in the game I started last night 1.03A.056).
Request for Stardock: When you release an update like this, please give the stats rather than just saying "Battle Hammer tougher, more expensive." Now I have to wait another 6 hours until I get home to find out just how much tougher and more expensive it is. :)
With the new values, Rangers look better in comparision to dreadnoughts. Now they've got a higher defense rating. Of course, they're 33% more expensive, but I think the defense rating, longer range, faster speed, and better sensors will make up for it unless you're in a war of attrition.
Actually, I didn't state that bit about "assault ships toned down" very well. I know that the stats have been raised in some cases, but the cost and maintenance has been boosted far more than the stats. 1pt DEF and 15 HP for much more production cost and about twice the maintenance on the Avatar? Doesn't sound like a great tradeoff to me. So I'm thinking that the game may actually shift to a more defensive game, though I can't be sure till I've had a chance to play it.
Stardock Forums
I also noticed that the 5% PQ pick is gone, so I probably lost the benefit of that pick, which would have caused morale to tank on some planets during the last few turns while I was replaying the end of the game.
Frogboy, then Battle Hammers will become the standard defensive unit later on in the game (until dreadnoughts come along, at least), which is quite reasonable. Assuming that you raise the defense to be more than the current attack (5), will you be lowering the attack to compensate for the "50% of the defense value when attacked" modifier? I don't think that will be necessary, and it will make the Battle Hammer a little more viable as a defender in the late game, but I'm sure that you h
There's an archive function built into SDC, which as I understand it, is how you're supposed to back up GalCiv and any other Drengin.net stuff you've installed.
"That's just not right" (O.K., so I can't imitate Louie Anderson at all.) I'll have to play around and test that.