I don't think you're alone at all. As far as forums go this one isn't very good at all IMO. But it's free, the game is good, and the content and developer response here is generally good so I don't mind much.
I only ever checked out the demo (and didn't care for it) but I believe Space Empires IV is probably the closest thing out there to MoO2.
Interesting... I'd seen the same thing and figured the AI was subject to random events that give them cash, much like the player. Didn't know about the > -500 cash turnaround.
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Geez... who are you? China? Don't you support free trade? ;)
Terror Stars destroy the whole system, but they have no range... they have to "attack" the star from an adjacent parsec just like any other unit. Factor in their fixed maximum speed of 1 (no modifiers... except an occasional bug where you *can* increase their speed) and they become kind of difficult to use. Still cool though!
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Did you register your game with the Metaverse? It's not the same step as registering the game and/or for the forum. Go to the main metaverse page. Near the top is a link that says "Register your player". Click on that, enter a name and your CD-Key then try again.
- Blue Squiggles... can't say I know. - How can I know if an invasion be successful? It is rather hard to tell IMO. Experience, however, has shown that the odds are usually pretty well in your favor. Even going against 3-1 odds the advantage has usually been with the attacker (as noted in the manual, it's assumed the attacker has air/space supremacy and thus gets a big advantage). 3-1 is usually my comfort zone. That is, I'll send in 1000 troops for every 3000 population... but mor
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My initial game economy settings (I prefer medium-ish sized maps) go like this (note that I'm usually a peaceful economic minded player and haven't tried going offensive early on): - Tax rate to whatever keeps me over 50% (but still finding that "sweet spot" where I'm not getting less income). - Spend rate to 100%... I burn through the initial 1000 cash but to me that's what it's there for. I *don't* need to lease anything so the cash needn't go there. If my deficit gets extr
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Interesting ideas... care if I add some? More specifically, I'd like to see some spatial "terrain" so there's something other than just empty space out there. Like... Asteroid fields - Penalize movement while moving through this stuff, maybe even "dense" fields that prevent movement. Possibly even allow ships to hide in them? Nebulae - Same as asteroids but with defense penalties Radiation fields - Inflict gradual damage to any ships within Fixed Wo
You can find the techs, and every other tech here: http://webpages.charter.net/trevorpowdrell/index.htm In general, good gets a smattering of smaller bonuses, while evil gets a more concentrated dose in a few areas, plus a few more improvements. Beyond that, the general advantage to going Good is that relations with other good and neutral races will improve. Going Evil is *not* just a reversal of this... evil races distrust one another so your relations with other evi
I haven't seen any one race stand above the others. They've all had their time in the sun in my games thus far. It seems to be pretty much what you'd expect... starting position, luck in battle, etc. Although the Torians and Yor have given me trouble now and then. My current game has had two dramatic exceptions: - Altarians stuck in a corner with one class 15 world. When I invaded I first tried demanding money and they were -300 or so, and their sole planet was morale 26.
Well... "simply moving" a Terror Star isn't so simply considering they move god-awful slow. Best thing to do is gather a bunch of Constructors (enough to build the Terror Star) and move them into enemy space, then build it there. Otherwise you'll be moving 1 parsec per turn. But otherwise that's all you have to do. Right-click to attack the star and it'll go *boom*.
Federalist is nice, but if I'm going with an economic race I just buy the +20 Economy and pick the Mercantile party. +20 Trade *and* Espionage all in one package! Add in trade technology, well-upgraded trade starbases... trade can account for a lot of your income. Granted, espionage and spying doesn't seem *quite* as useful in GalCiv as in other similar games, but the added ability can't hurt. I assume it reduces cost and/or speeds up when I get info? As for racial picks, I've avoid
I experienced what I can only assume was a bug or some random loopiness with one of my Terror Stars. It was stacked with a fleet of several other ships that had a movement of 6. One turn I found that, to my surprise, the *entire* stack could move 6, including the Terror Star! I split the stack but the TS kept on truckin' at speed 6. Certainly helped speed up the end game. Haven't seen that happen since.
Oh... I should add that they did try to slip some transports to a few rear-area planets of mine that didn't have any ships in orbit. So presumably the AI was looking for soft targets, at least for easy planet grabs. Although, as others noted above they sent those transports in alone. Easy pickings for a few partol ships.
Very creepy... I experienced practically the same situation in my current game. The Yor and I had pretty much the same tech and ships (BBs, shortly followed by Dreads) but they had a *massive* hit point edge, due largely to their being War Party. I could match them in production, but one on one fights I'd always lose. Until I got a military star base up and running. By the time I hit +8 attack that hit point edge didn't mean much. Of course, that was only fighting in that
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Relatively speaking yes, improved class 15 planets will never be as good as natural 15s that get bumped to 17s or so... but they can be very useful. Add in a starbase with some productivity modules, a few of the basic planetary improvements and you're good to go. Perhaps going out of your way to improve some lonely 13-14 in an unclaimed star in an uncontested sector is a bit much, but why not backfill your existing sectors and stars once the 15s are taken?
Just to elaborate on what Phaedyme said... Resources add to the total, overall stats for your empire in a number of fields. An Influence resource will add to your empires Influence rating just as choosing +Influence as a racial trait, or researching a tech that increases Influence. A tab somewhere in the Empire menu displays your total percentages in the 30 or so stats. To start, building a starbase on a resource gives +5% (I believe) to the given statistic. Later on mining
Admittedly I'm still pretty new to the game, but I'm very deep into an all-two notches above normal AI game and have yet to see the AI do so. It's a medium map, and all the 15+ planets have been picked up for a long time now. Compared to my other games there are a lot of crap planets in this galaxy but there are a handful of 13 and 14 planets out there. I've seen two different examples of where I should think the AI should grab some of these but they haven't: - 2 of the 5 maj
I believe it's from the planet menu, near the top but under the mini-map.
No problem, they were ditched for whatever reason... but the manual wasn't or couldn't be changed before printing. With everything else that's been promised I don't see why new political factions couldn't be added, although I think the current mix covers things pretty well as is.
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Hi Bob Yes, I believe that's what is happening. I've found that I often want *some* military spending, usually for a key planet or two to build warships... but the rest of my planets would wind up wasting that. So I now have these extra planets work on Constructors all the time. It takes awhile, but Constructors are almost needed and it's nice when 4 or so "lesser" planets crank out a batch of Constructors. I vote for option B as well. No to spending sliders per planet thou
What should we be calling Terror Stars that are being used more for cultural influence than destroying planets? Several names have been used thus far and I think we need one unified term. In reference to a Saturday Night Live skit, I suggest: Happy Fun Star
Not sure how the scoring is weighed, but while you're increasing population and tech you're taking longer to win... and losing some points that way. Not sure how it balances out though. Hopefully more details on scoring will be forthcoming.
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I can't say I've played enough to notice but I was wondering if the various races have tendencies with all their starting picks... not just political parties.