Gordeleth

Reply to Most Powerful ship is Surveyer in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

They are even great the second you find a weapons upgrade. I hamstringed an opponent by sitting at his home early on and killing his colony ships as he built them. Also, I agree you should always build another one on gigantic maps, but I suggest having USS Hero focus on the weapons upgrades (and any close 25% tech clouds) while your second one does the cleanup on the other bonuses. That way you quickly build your main ship into a versatile force. Happy gaming.

Reply to AI gives up too easily in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Give the higher levels a try, bro, and tell me what you think after, say, 2 games. I have seen them play quite differently than the Int or below games. They grow rediculously fast, though I have a slight chance of winning my second game if I can get the Altarians to ally with me. So far I have seen the following behaviors I have not seen anywhere else: * The AI has gone around a heavily fortified planet or ships multiple times to attack what's behind it as long as it's in their sing

Reply to AI gives up too easily in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Brysos: the simplest fix to this is to play on all genius+. I, too, had a fairly easy time with the other levels, but on all genius (with the normal spread of good/evil) you will not have time to "sit back" and build your culture bomb. I have found them far more agressive, with races less powerful than I (whom I was trading with) declare war on me, even though it destroyed his economy in the process. I am pretty sure he was paid to do this by the Altarians, who have us all beat. This will b

Reply to Something *really* odd: Dreads cost LESS than BB's?? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Olaf: Phoenix's are super-upgraded Starfighters - not all battles are fought by blindly smashing 2 giant ships together. A great tactic is to zip a smaller ship into the backfield and take out their trade routes and transports, but they have to be fast enough to get away from the enemy patrols (and cheap enough that you don't cry when they get caught). I used this tactic to bring the Drengin to a standstill (before I took him out he was at -4k or so money, lol). Also, the funniest thing is t

Reply to Improving the Military AI in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Ah, Horatio posted at the same time I did and answered my supposition. Well, we can all look forward to some thorough ass-beatings when the new AI gets implemented. ~SDC~

Reply to Improving the Military AI in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

The main issue may be far simple, actually. I consider that the military side of the AI is no harder to tweak than the dimplomacy side or the expansion side of the AI (which is at least as good as we can be for the most part). The issue lies in playability. On all Intelligent it should not be totally impossible to win, and given the improvements you are talking about in that setting it would make that the case. I have not been brave enough to play above all genius yet, but maybe that answers

Reply to Bug Reports in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Ah just finished winning on Painful - it was enjoyably painful ;) My new round of problems: - planet build cues sometimes change for no reason that I can detect (extra click somewhere?). ex, I will have a planet set to build a Dread yet the next thing I know it's produced a battle cruiser... Sometimes I will go check my cue and it will be building something off my gov's list vs what I had it set to (like a trade good). Very odd and hard to point the finger at any one thing, but it h

Reply to Perfect Playlist in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

If you like playing evil races, then Patrick O'Hearn's "Indigo" album is the perfect accompaniment - it's very dark and intense (New Age) - good stuff! ~SDC~

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

I 100% agree with the premise that "intelligent" races are far too slow to catch onto our endless deviousness. While they should not assume we will do these things, if we sue for peace and attack within less than 10-15 turns, then they should never pay us again (they should pay others to attack us if they can vs wasting their money and junk on us). I used this tactic once because it was a very amusing way to declare war (had an ally of the soon-to-be-victim pay me to attack them), but I'd much

Reply to Disappointed--my fault? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

See the thread "OT: Has anyone ever played Pax Imperia..." If you absolutely MUST play another game try that one - it sounds like you'd really like it (super fast pace, lots of strategic options, etc - and as a RTS, it probably will meet your wish of an "intermediate genre"). But my honest suggestion is learn this game in a way that suits your preferences - I did not like Civ much either and I love this game. It has random options for your opponents; lots of different tech pathing opt

Reply to Look at this pic...tell me what's wrong in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

ROFL! This is actually a new ploy to win by the AI ;) Since if you quit or your machine dies, then it wins. ~SDC~

Reply to This is getting old... in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Heh, I am not sure why you expect to win by fighting a spread-out war on 2 fronts, my frustrated friend. Some tactical tips to ease your pain: Never fight 2 wars, even if 2 empires are declared on you without having key systems fortified (so you can focus on one at a time without having one front decimated). Use spacestations to increase your defensive bonuses on defenders (put them as far away from the enemy as you can get them - ie, the "back" corner) - build Battlehammers for you

Reply to Morale too easy to manage now? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Is this a different name than who you submit scores as? If not, why make a suggestion when it seems you have not fully explored the changes on high difficulty levels (and if you have, then why not report it to the Metaverse). I personally have not got above tough (though I remedy this tonight), but how can something this insignificant be important at higher levels when the AI gets the same benefits? ~SDC~

Reply to OT: Has anyone ever played Pax Imperia: Eminent Domain? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I loved the game and wore it out. It's designed totally differently than this game though - it's real time, but still plays nicely like a 4x. But don't waste your time on it; hell, GalCiv should satisfy your gaming needs far, far better than Pax. I don't remember the graphics being any better and the gameplay takes a little less strategy and more of the Warcraft-ish style of "crank-em-out-as-fast-as=you-can." Maybe just a personal preference, but hope this helps. ~SDC~

Reply to Trading weirdness -- a little more documentation in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I thought about this a while, 'cause it seems if the calls for "balanced" trading were implemented, it would instantly be too easy. For example, most people are focusing on trade with one race (I don't get crap for my tech/item, etc), but always keep in mind there are 5+ races to trade with - if the trades were "fair" and you could repeat it 5 times, then you'd get the cheese wins with trades. Don't get me wrong: I'm not claiming this is Brad's reasoning, and I don't have an easy solution to t

Reply to How long does it take a newbie to get the hang of the game? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

In each of my first 5 games I figured out major strategic improvements. By the 3rd game (if you are a quick learner and read the boards), you can begin to understand the basic rules and how to best them. I just finished my 6th game and never had my spending below 100% with no economic problems or production problems (hint: learning how to control your production abilities allows you to control your economy - it's a fine balance between the two). This is a night-and-day improvement f

Reply to Suggestions in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Unless I am missing something, the mp3 player does not allow you to set diff playlists so your music changes when your alignment changes (I love that feature with the original music). This may be too much coding work, BUT if you guys get bored, I would love ya even more for this feature.

Reply to Bug Reports in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Several times I have double clicked on a starbase to see the info, and it asks me if I wanna trash it (yikes!). I have not been in enough of a hurry yet to accidentally say "yes," but if this could be fixed it would save me from getting pissed at myself. (Maybe happens when I move the mouse a bit during the double click?) Also, I may just not understand this properly, but it seems like the repair rate is completely worthless/broken. Only thing I can think of is the repair is spread o

Reply to Population maximums in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

There is strategy involved to growing your population (more production if you can handle the economics properly) - the better strategy you have, the more you can get outta your empire. This is a gameplay issue vs a "realism" issue. Please always keep in mind this is a strategy game vs a simulator (not SimGalaxy, hehe); for if you cap populations, you ruin some of the strategic depth in the gameplay.

Reply to Drengin AI floored me. in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

LoL I love stuff like this! I have been surprised by AI actions like this as well. But...we humans are still far more clever. ;) Fly 6 constructors into the "good" sectors, load a starbase up on culture units and then give or sell it to them (make sure this is all in one turn so you don't take their planets, unless you think that would be funny). This instantly gives them enough backbone to outlast any Drengin culture storm.

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

While this is topic is hot, let me remind Brad that there is a bug with stacked fleets and movement bonuses (ie, you lose your base-added bonus when stacked for no apparent reason) and I like to stack for the convenience of it. Hopefully this is a simple fix to get stacked fleets to keep their movement bonuses from starbases.

Reply to Why is late game impossible to play? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I think you guys are missing the point, so let me restate this as I understand it: morale and population growth are completely linked together. Think about what that means for a minute - high morale = you need to grow more (and will do so unless you are doing counter-productive things like shipping people off planet), whereas 50% morale = your planet is reaching it's comfort level of population. High morale just means your planet has some "growing" to do (if just from more reported

Reply to "Incredible" level AI and game balance issues in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

This is certainly the type of input needed to tweak the AI - as much as I hate to say "hey, please nerf my strategy," I'd rather have a challenge than get bored with an easy game. I firmly believe it's crucial that the AI take space stations more seriously. Make them bee-line for the stations and destroy them; make them understand that space stations are the key to a successful invasion (taking them out, that is). As it is, if you get 3 stations built up in the back corner of your clo

Reply to Wanted: Best solution for "wasted" resources issue (Slider allocations to non "active" projects" in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

edit: make that INactive workers

Reply to Wanted: Best solution for "wasted" resources issue (Slider allocations to non "active" projects" in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I may like to micro-manage more than others, but this is very rarely an issue for me (and when it is in the late game, it's not really an issue since I have most likely won). If this is an informal vote, I'd vote to keep it the way it is - resource management is an important part of this game, and there are clever ways to keep your resources from being wasted (if anything, it should slow your economy down to not have active workers).