Def Zep

Reply to Frogboy - Remove AI's knowledge of yellow stars? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Perhaps Brad could make this AI advantage a player-selectable radio-button (with, perhaps, a small VP penalty for turning it off). I myself like giving the AI's this knowledge/ ability (i.e., Stellar Cartography) at the start; it makes the game very challenging at the higher difficulty levels. I prefer it to the Civ3 approach (on Deity level) of making the AI's research costs so much lower than the player's that it is far better to do no research at all (but simply buy the techs from th

Reply to Easter Eggs and such in Gal Civ in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

#1 Naz, A really clever one from Brad (took me some 5-6 times to get it): The illustration for the tech discovery "Transporters" (which gives you teleporters) is a Tardis (Dr. Who), i.e., a hi-tech English phone booth! ~SDC~

Reply to Ship Catapults Gone? in Strategies Stardock Forums

ZaH: Please give us your views on this excellent strategy. I have been using it to great success in my 1.02.049 game. Is it still practical under 1.03? Thx! ~SDC~

Reply to Early Strategy in Strategies Stardock Forums

#13 Agreed, Huz. In my second game, I am open to extortion by the two AI empires I have encountered. I have even been forced to cede a border system to keep the peace with the Drengin, who exceed my military by ~2x - 2.5x. I believe the problem is, I elected to pursue the military path vs. the comm path after my engine research was completed, so my diplomacy skill is relatively lacking. Gravity Accelerators are also the one trade good I really miss, too! I am so use to

Reply to Espionage questions in Strategies Stardock Forums

#10 Actually ZaH, my apologies...YOUR original post did mention the parameters under which you observed these costs. I meant the post Liquid998 wrote (#3), which I responded to. Doh! ;) ~SDC~

Reply to Espionage questions in Strategies Stardock Forums

#6 ZaH: As stated, my "break-points" occured at different costs than those you observed. My question was whether this might be due to a difference between the size of maps being played (your original post did not state the parameters under which your costs were valid). However, I too have now concluded the espionage costs are "fixed" across all map sizes, and the variation(s) I experienced are due to my having continued a 1.01 saved-game under 1.02.049. As Brad has now noted r

Reply to Excess Colony Ships - What to do? in Strategies Stardock Forums

#1 Librarian: As Hor said, simple move the colony ship to any inhabitable planet (even one already settled, such as its origin system). Once there, you can "re-land" the colonists using the planet sidebar (F2). Mouse-over the planet you want, and the cursor will change to a colony vessel; click and you will add its people back to your Pop. ~SDC~

Reply to NOTICE: 1.03 incompatible w/1.02 saves in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Oops! EDIT: "...newer or younger players [period]". (Board needs an edit function.) ~SDC~

NOTICE: 1.03 incompatible w/1.02 saves in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Players should be aware that upgrading to v. 1.03 of GalCiv will produce anomalies in any previous version's saved games. Should you intend to post a saved game currently in progress to the Metaverse, it is advisable to complete it first, before upgrading. This is noted in Brad's thread "1.03: Notice on saved games", but I can now confirm it. (Also, no offense or dup-posting intended; it is just that thread itself spun off into a discussion of SDC which is irrelevant t

Reply to Espionage questions in Strategies Stardock Forums

#3 Liquid998, The cost points appear to "scale up" relative to the size of Map. In one of my current Huge galaxy games, the "Low" threshold was set at 900gc's (v.1.02.049 of GalCiv). Can one of the BT's confirm? ~SDC~

Reply to Fun with AI in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

#8 Brad, Thanks for the explanation. The Arceans have never been a world power in the games I have played. The Yor and Drengin are usually the major challenges. I guess that's not the point, thhough. If their attorneys are anything like ours, it's not who wins or loses (the clients), it's who gets paid (the lawyers)! ;) ~SDC~

Reply to 1.02Z BETA in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

#62 But Brad, if I get Drengin.net, I'll lose play-time on GalCiv ;) Oh well, I could always quit work! ~SDC~

Reply to Minor Civs as your Buddies in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

The only Minors I don't trade with are the I-League. Any goodwill you engender with them is lost when you have to declare war should one of your own major systems get destabilized and elect to join them. Furthermore, every AI Empire is continuously at war with them, so even if you are their friend, you end up just losing out on some expansion possibilities. ~SDC~

Reply to Minor Civs as your Buddies in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

One thing I do, is use the Minors extensively as trading partners for my freighter runs. That way, I am not contributing to the economy of a potential enemy. Usually, I find diplomatic relations are more dependent on military strength (parity/superiority) and alignment than trade. ~SDC~

Reply to How do I get my ships repaired? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

#6 MoJojoUK, I, too, have noticed the SB Repair module is better than 1%. In this case, it appears to be much like a Speed increase: although expressed as a "+1%", it actually is +1 HP/+1 MP. ~SDC~

Reply to What are the asterisks for? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

In the Planet List sidebar (F2), it can be a quick indicator of "core" vs. "border/fringe" worlds should (like me) you only garrison your exterior systems. ~SDC~

Reply to Hey! Where did my transport go? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Vlad, In any military operation, there will be attrition. As Nicholas said, you only lose the TR if all it's troops are eliminated. Think of it like an APC or BMP - if the squad has to fight from its mount and gets captured/eliminated, the carrier's probably going to, too. Also, on larger maps, the TR "burnoff" can actually be a blessing in disguise. At the later stages, it is not uncommon to build Combat TR's to off-lift excess population. Your maintenance costs climb quickly

Reply to What are the precursers supposed to look like? in Mods Stardock Forums

Fist, Just pick up a copy of "Girls Gone Wild #17"! I'm sure the Precursors are in there on Bourbon Street somewhere! :D ~SDC~

Reply to What ships do you use to defend? in Strategies Stardock Forums

I build 1xBattleAxe per inhabited planet in each of my border systems to start, moving them as I expand. I change to BattleHammers once those are available. Eventually, I replace them with Dreadnoughts, Avatars & Overlords. I also maintain 2-3 Fleets: 2 for offensive operations against enemy Empires, and 1 as a reserve/counter-attack force should an initially neutral AI declare war or an alliance trigger. I supplement my border worlds with AMM's, and generally try to (eventuall

Reply to Editing my profile in Strategies Stardock Forums

#9 Jubala, An option you can set using the link you found is, "number of days threads are shown". The default is fairly low; I reset mine to 15 (2 weeks)... ~SDC~

Reply to Battlehammer just too powertul!! in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

#13 Excellent analysis, Huz. I had reached the same conclusions, though on much less empirical grounds. #17 I agree with Hab. For such an expensive tech discovery, BC's are disappointing. They are viable combat vessels only with the support of HP bonuses from shipyards, the War Party, etc. Stand-alone, they are too easily lost to maintain an offensive. Should their stats be improved to increase HP's (and perhaps speed & range to clearly distinguish them from BH's & FF's), they would be

Reply to AI and alignment in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Kevin, I think this is a good idea. It would be interesting to see the Arceans move off of "neutral", for example. However, I do not know if the AI's get the same chance for random events as the player. Also, it could lead to all the AI's tending towards the mean, i.e., "50". Perhaps one of the BT's could elucidate on how practical this could be. ~SDC~

Reply to Research question in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Alverin, I have encountered the same thing, and have concluded it is due to the rounding algorithym used by the program. It appears the Domestic screen calculates overall beaker production empire-wide (fractions and all, added together), then truncates the net sum. But when research progress itself is calculated, it's done planet-by-planet, with fractions being dropped at that level. Consequently, you can wind up 4 or 5 beakers short. What I do, is drop my Science spending unti

Reply to Status Bug crash! in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Atommannj, I encountered the same problem under 1.01, and had to start a new game. However, since upgrading to 1.02, it has disappeared, so I believe Brad has fixed it. You may want to restart and see if that solves things. The only CTD I am now encountering, is when I eliminate an AI empire and attempt to access its diplomacy or stats screens (to verify that I have taken all its planets or reduced its economy to zero). Should I wait a turn, though, the program will correctly c

Reply to How do I get my ships repaired? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Za01phod, Not that I know of. Replenishment of HP's is tied directly to your repair rate bonus; outside of increasing this through research and the SB repair module, I have not encountered any other methods in the game. ~SDC~