Madfizzicks

Nastiest exploit yet? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I thought up and tested this one in my current game, a gigantic galaxy with all genius AIs. I call it the 'Money Multiplier' exploit. All you need is: 1) A minor race that you seriously outclass militarily (which should include pretty much any minor race). 2) Some cash. How much is up to you. First, take some warships and park them by the minor race's world. Then, open up a diplomacy window and check their treasury (ask them for money and see how much is shown as a

Reply to I hate the I-league in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

"The ability to turn off planet defections. Sometimes you just want to crush your opponent. I've played a dozen games and all of them have ended with the last opposing planets defecting to my civilization. I'd really like the ability to specify if I want that to happen." Yeah, that happens a lot. I think it was intentional, to shorten the 'mop up' phase of the game. If you really want to drag things out, you can always build a starbase with a party palace in their core sectors and the

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

"Right now, the AI just expands everywhere regardless of where they've been... " And you should too! Don't wait for your scouts to find stuff and *then* send out colony ships. Just send out colony ships to every nearby system. If there's nothing good, redirect them to the next nearest system. And so on. Since your home planet can make a colony ship in 3 turns and expansion planets can do it in about 5, you'll quickly have ships going just about everywhere. At least, that's

Reply to Military Power = Sum of Attack Points (Defense is Irrelevant, Cheese For Everyone) in Strategies Stardock Forums

Does anyone know if a ship's +attack bonuses from starbases get counted towards the military might? That would invite some mind-boggling cheese (sector with +12 starbase and hundreds of zero maintenance scouts, for example).

Reply to Major Diplomacy War/Peace Cheese at Intelligent levels in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I agree with Frogboy; mostly. It's not hard to *not* exploit the war/peace cycle once you've become aware of it (I certainly don't do it). But if the situation is subtle enough, like the situation where the AI declares war but will immediately accept peace, what should I do? "Fix" the situation by not asking for peace because the AI shouldn't accept peace, or "fix" the situation by asking for peace because the AI shouldn't have declared war in the first place? And yeah, I'm using 1.0

Reply to Playlist Music Problems in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

There's an option in the menus to turn off the game music so you don't have to drown it out.

Reply to Ground Invasion Options in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I'm really not concerned about the AI being able to do this sort of thing. The AI's ability to execute ground combat as it stands is not its strong suit (though it does some other things extremely well).

Reply to Major Diplomacy War/Peace Cheese at Intelligent levels in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Here's a variation I just saw. All intelligent AI's, and I've gone pure evil. The Altarans got stuck in a corner and were much weaker than me, but attacked anyway since I'm just so evil. The Torians declared war on me to honor their alliance with the Altarans. That's not the screwy part, of course. The very same turn, I offered to make peace to each race separately. Each agreed to give me loads of tech/cash in return for a peace treaty. For the war they just started this turn. It

Reply to Patch for Starting Bonuses? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I also get the hit point bonus. The thing I don't get is the production bonuses from spending points on military or social production. The research bonus does work, though.

Reply to I demand you fix the automatic micromanagement. in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

First off, you're way out of line coming onto a board set up for your benefit and demanding things. Second, are you sure you're doing it right? Did you actually click on the items that you wanted built in the order you wanted them built?

Reply to Ground Invasion Options in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

ZaH: I thought of that too, but I'm not convinced it's a problem. If you can maintain space superiority long enough to do that and afford the 1000s of bcs it would cost, why shouldn't you be able to wreck up their system?

Reply to How do you know what modules your starbases have? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Or just double click on the starbase. Gets you to the same place.

Major Diplomacy War/Peace Cheese at Intelligent levels in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Ok, last night I'm playing a large map with all intelligent AIs, and I find myself militarily superior to the minor races and altarans (who I am slowly conquering), but second militarily (by a little) to the Drengin. The Drengin are, of course, at war with everyone (except me.. I went pure evil and traded with the lil' bastards to keep them friendly ;) ) So here's what I do: The Drengin have *tons* of stuff that I don't, but that I really want. So, I offer to attack the Alexians and

Devs: Possible Ground Combat Bug. in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I mentioned this in a different thread, and Asharak suggested I try to find Brad and mention it. I'll cut n' paste what I wrote there: "...When you invade with mass drivers (or other planet destroying enhancements) and are repelled, there is *no* damage to the planet quality. This enables a mildly cheesy tactic, where I waltz into a fight that I know I'm going to lose no matter what (1 bil vs. 15 bil with tech disadvantage), use mass drivers to inflict 12 billion casualties without hur

Reply to Ground Invasion Options in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I used them a ton last night. There are cases, especially early game, where it helps. Large galaxy, all intelligent, I decided to go pure evil. Wouldn't ya know it, the altarans are right next door and start giving me funny looks. I was forced to attack pre-emptively at a tech disadvantage. Three of their six systems were in one sector and had something like 30 billion people total (I'm not kidding... one system had 20 billion by itself, and this was the battleaxe stage of the game... multi

Reply to Galciv Doesnt seem to like to share sound with winamp on 98se in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Are you using winamp for mp3s? There's an integrated mp3 player in galciv, on the main options screen. You have to toggle the little option for 'user defined playlist' (it's not that easy to spot if you don't know it's there). I've got a 98se system; for me the turns go by plenty quick, but I've also got a fast system. What are your specs?

Reply to To Stardock: Is it a bug that you can have identical trade routes? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Nope, this has been addressed in previous threads. It's supposed to be this way. It can make trade pretty profitable if you find a really nice pair, but you have to realize that you can get your whole trading economy wiped out in a flash if someone decides to attack these routes.

Reply to A minor suggestion regarding late-game constructor management. in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Pdifolco: You're right about that. Right now my dominant war strategy is to fleet up ~10 constructors and bring them plus a few warships into my target's most valuable sector. Just throw up a big starbase with +12 attack bonuses, smash their defenses, and invade, all in the same turn. This should probably be fixed.

Reply to Can you help my econ? (Screenshot inside) in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

If you've gotten all the upgrades, then you've gotten a bunch of the high-maintenance/low-effect ones that you probabably just don't need. This isn't like some other 4x games where you *want* every thingy for every base. Some are always cost efficient and useful, some have specific uses, and some (in my opinion) cost too much in maintenance to ever be good. I don't know what tech level you're at, but if you've got things like orbital hospitals and cultural exchange centers sitting around, scr

Reply to OK, what is going on here? (link inside) in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Let me take another look... Ok, well, I would have definitely put on the mining and defense modules. I would have also put on the repair module, since starbase hitpoints seem to degrade over time. If I was going for a culture victory and had a couple spare constructors, then yeah, I probably would have put on the culture modules. Even empty sectors count towards the number of sectors you need to control culturally in order to win. I'm playing a game right now (large map, all intelli

Reply to A minor suggestion regarding late-game constructor management. in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Romec: You're right, but it takes more mouse-clicking that way. If only 1/3 as many constructors actually pop out of my planets, it'd free up a lot of my time. Daetrinn: What version are you using? I've got 1.02 and I can put constructors into guard mode with 'g' just fine (I just went and verified this. Pushed 'g', and it sat there with the word 'guard' under it). Also, you can put all 20 into a fleet. Then you just have to re-guard or re-sentry the fleet as one big unit

A minor suggestion regarding late-game constructor management. in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Ok, I think anyone who's played a game on a reasonably large map has ended up having to manage tons of constructors floating around upgrading starbases. It'd be nice if we could cut down on the # of these guys. Would it be possible/helpful to add super- and ultra-constructors in the late game that cost 2 or 3 times as much to build but add 2 or 3 modules at once? It'd cut down on the amount of clicking necessary to build a well-stocked starbase here or there. I don't think there'd be

Reply to OK, what is going on here? (link inside) in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

You'll notice from the screenshot that the starbase is mining a military resource. Those are good stuff, and make any kind of defensive/offensive modules worthwhile (the offensive modules will help out the AI if it has to pull ships in to defend). The culture might be there to help contribute to a cultural victory. All you need is to dominate a large fraction of the sectors (with planets or otherwise, I think) culturally and you can win that way. I hope that made sense.

Reply to Hey... I realize I'm small potatoes in this game, in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

How long ago did you post? It takes some time for scores to update(usually less than a day in my experience). Also, did you check the right spot in the score list? The first time I looked for myself I wasn't 100% sure what my metaverse score actually was (you get a few different numbers to choose from at the end of the game). Fortunately, at the time there weren't many names up so I could just cycle through all of them.

Reply to ship combat - one thing I really hate :( in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

SirOscar: One of the things I find most exciting about this game is that it has a good shot of being perhaps the first strategy game that can put up a fight *without* resorting to cheating AI. I'd hate to see that effort end by throwing in a bunch of cheats now. I personally feel like I've got plenty of combat options. I don't much care for extra-detailed tactical combat. To me it seems that in 4x games which give AIs massive production bonuses, the only way to win at the