Ray the Wanderer

Reply to 1.03 in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Has morale been tweaked? Noticed a morale plunge after loading up a save game with 1.03. Or is this a old version to new version save game issue.

Reply to Oh boy... in Strategies Stardock Forums

That seemed rather chessy :) but the underlying issue is that it is relatively easy to bribe AIs to go into a potentially cripplling war. And most of the time, they do fight very hard rather than declare peace soon after. Maybe bribing for war should cost you an arm and a leg. But it should definitely be still doable as I believe all of us liked being able to play puppet-master.

Reply to Is PQ worth it in 1.03? in Strategies Stardock Forums

Well, in 1.03, speed +2 now cost you 9 points. I used speed+2 before I was converted to PQ+15. Like yourself, speed+2 will now become one of my favourites again. Well, if one ability appears to be overly favoured by players, it would suggest some imbalance. So yeah maybe speed may be further tweaked if it becomes the refuge for ex-PQ junkies.

Reply to ICONS in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Or look under Legend in the Metaverse page.

Reply to v1.03, +10 PQ Ability has been nerfed in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I chose either speed or PQ ability picks exclusively due to their power. Both have been tweaked. Which is great IMO as I can now seriously consider other abilities which are more balanced. I believe the concern here is whether these game balances would "spoil" the game for casual gamers. I think the different difficulty levels make the game accessible to all varieties of gamers.

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

To think of it, I don't recall ever being attacked by an enemy AMM in my 9 games. AIs seem to prefer dreads a whole lot more. I doubt any race would field a complete AMM force. A screen of scouts could be taken out easily by any other warship before they send the AMMs in at your capitals. If the AI could do that, it would really be cool.

Reply to WAR! huh, yeah, what's it good for? in Strategies Stardock Forums

Won my last maso/gigantic without needing to fire a single shot but just decided to end the game by wiping out the remaining 2 minors. You will find that the AI is reluctant to declare war against an enemy with a huge military superiority. Before you get to that stage of superiority, you could simply pay the AI off. I switch off cultural win too. 1.03 is however supposed to make it tougher to expand via culture.

Reply to Is PQ worth it in 1.03? in Strategies Stardock Forums

As someone mentioned in the another thread, it may still push you over the edge to a higher PQ level in combination with other PQ enchancing social projects. But yes, for the starting game, it is much less useful. I think its a good move (even though I pick PQ15 consistently) as the majority of us have been picking it over the rest of the ability picks. Now we should see some more variety in our starting picks.

Reply to 1.02Z BETA in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Can some of the betatesters comment on how the game balance tweaks and the improved AI is working out?

Reply to AI defends its planets *very* poorly. in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Why shouldn't the Ais reach beyond tech and vaporise their enemies thus winning the game? That would lead to interesting late game challenges for humans who are lagging behind the Ais in tech. We would have to either play catch-up or attack an technologically superior enemy.

Reply to what advantages to being neutral? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Domestic screen, Society tab. IIRC.

Reply to what advantages to being neutral? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Pontius, I believe there is a correlation between the number of alignment points awarded vs the extent of the bonus or penalty. So stop picking the neutral option (like i did) when the really tough penalties come up and your goodness would rise much faster.

Reply to Cultural Victory. Does the AI recognize to stop you? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Just a thought that perhaps the AI is "smart" to not resist a militarily and culturally stronger race rather than to face genocide. Perhaps a good race should submit but a evil race should just declare war and fight to the last man.

Reply to Cultural Victory. Does the AI recognize to stop you? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

At higher difficulty, I believe they do turn hostile if you attempt to culture bomb them (though it could be because of my pure evil alignment :) ). However, combined with huge military superiority, the culture bomb strategy still works too well.

Reply to AI defends its planets *very* poorly. in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Horatio, For the time being, I would suggest you play with some house rules – say not building any culture starbases if you are using them extensively (noticed you won predominately via culture). That should really add to your challenge while the developers work to up the AI and bring back the more complex AI routines. I’m also one of those who have managed to win a few games at the higher AI levels but have been doing so predominately through the employment of the

Reply to Help for, Gigantic, Rare Habitable Planets, Tight Clusters, Masochistic please =) in Strategies Stardock Forums

Agree with Norin on the trade goods. Surprisingly, I still get most of them. Don't be afraid to lease much more agressively in gigantic as you would probably have the resources to pay it off. Ultimately, it is the early land grab and the proper defense of it that is the key to victory. Once you are past that phase, it should be smooth sailing.

Reply to Resources revisited. (regarding game balance) in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

How about making military resources starbases a high-value target (higher than most enemy systems or combat ships) in war at the higher AI levels? In peacetime, the AI is quite competent in grabbing resources as there are with their fondness of building large number of constructers. We have to remember that the bonuses work both ways so the AI could get pretty powerful themselves.

Reply to Scoring... in Strategies Stardock Forums

Thanks for invite, Norin. I think I should finish that game and post it in the Metaverse before anything else. Would love to get a few more masochistic games under my belt to see if winning that was a fluke. LOL

Reply to Scoring... in Strategies Stardock Forums

Thanks PT, I really thought that I had to get a total of 10 wins with one win scoring individually over 3000 points to get that medal :) Finishing up my first machoistic huge game and I am planning to drag the game out to near max tech victory before militarily crushing my last enemy planet just to see the best score I can get at this game setting (yes, as with many other posters, i would have very much like to spend that time spent endlessly clicking the turn button on playing my nex

Reply to Whats the best combo of starting bonuses? in Strategies Stardock Forums

Well, I can't call myself a follower but I did read this military classic. Since it seems that PQ is acknowledged as the best pick, I vote speed as No 2.

Reply to Whats the best combo of starting bonuses? in Strategies Stardock Forums

In my current game, I wanted to be a good guy to convince myself that the "Better Way" could work for me too. But so happended that I got a random event for a class 26 system offering the evil option for a 50% PQ boost. Alas, the Dark side proved to be too strong :) I've posted in another thread that my warmongering style suited the evil alignment for the quick PQ, produc tion and starship boosts together with the evil techs giving soldiering bonuses. Back

Reply to What do the bars to the right of medals mean in sigs here? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Anyone else thinks that medals should be awarded for beating Crippling or Machoistic games. That would be neat as beating higher AIs doesn't seem to help scores as much as they should.

Reply to Scoring... in Strategies Stardock Forums

Map size, pop and the closeness to victory conditions do seem do be the scoring heavyweights over other factors such as completion time and AI level. Weren't too concerned about my scoring initially but I certainly wouldn't mind getting one 3000+ game for that nice little medal :) ~SDC~

Reply to Scoring... in Strategies Stardock Forums

I'm no expert in scoring but I think Brad did mention that the speed in which the game is completed also influences the score so there could be a point whereby more pop and tech cannot offset a game that is taking too long to complete. ~SDC~

Reply to Whats the best combo of starting bonuses? in Strategies Stardock Forums

Just completed a game with speed+2, pop growth+20. My colony ships were moving 4 parsecs and were able to capture systems which in normal cases would have been taken by other races. The extra speed was useful beyond just the colonizing. Managed also to scout out and grab resources near enemy races before they could. Really enjoyed this set of bonuses and would definitely use this again for next game. ~SDC~