LDiCesare

Reply to Logistics in GalCiv 1.2 in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I don't think I'd like starbases limited to sectors where planets or resources are. Thi shas nothing to do with logistics, prevents using constructors to extend range and severely hampers culture bombing (I never build my culture starbases in the same sector, I don't want to be have the game lose a feature for a bug that others abuse). I think a flat-out number of modules per sector logistics ability would be enough : You could claim all resources you want (say there are 3 in sect

Reply to Maso Strategies in Strategies Stardock Forums

[quote]Seems a bit wasteful for those planets that are defended by loads of defenders and colony ships[/quote] I forgot to mention the survey ship and any free ship I got with it (starfighters, corvettes...) are there to get rid of colony ships. I rarely need more, and there are very rarely battleaxes or lower left when I decide to go to war. Since I'm usually quite far behind in military techs (I never research any of them), the ai tends to defend everything with avatars when I'm

Reply to No recources in Strategies Stardock Forums

The red User interface means you are EVIL. You probably decimated worms to get a boost to planet quality, or sacrificed lives to get more production, or whatever else you did. To come back to neutral user interface is a matter of choosing good events (like paying 1000bc to avoid too many deaths from asteroid rains), but it will do you little good if you are already in the red. Stay evil, it won't hurt you (though you'll get to be at war with the goody civs rapidly). As for not being able to

Reply to OT: PBEM Role Playing in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Plain schizophrenia would be enough of a reason. Of course, the DM can always come up with a backstory as to why the schizophrenia is there, and the character(s) would try to know where it comes from and get rid of it.

Reply to Maso Strategies in Strategies Stardock Forums

Wiley, you can do that on maso? I never build a military unless I want to use it. I usually only use AMMs and combat transports. If I wanted to get a military victory rather than alliance (culture is as tedious as military IMO), I'd build lots of AMMs and exclusively AMMs, combat transports and declare war, take a planet and ask for peace. If you have enough AMMs, your military rating allows you to get peace, you can then regroup, prepare more transports and continue. AMMs are the b

Reply to OT: PBEM Role Playing in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Evil Steve, I split my email work/home (which actually means week/week-end). I can't reach the groups from work, but overall it's possible to follow through the mails only. The problem being you have to reorder some of them as you can get the reply before the original post sometimes (in which cases I wonder whether I'm hallucinating or womething).

Reply to stealth ships in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Btw, does stealth do anything in 1.1?

Reply to Ctrl-n is over-rated! in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I never use CtrlN. Tried it once or twice, but generally, I start with what I've got. I believe that diplomacy is more important than starting position on maso. I once got cornered in my starting sector by all other ai's (medium maso). I had tried to settle PQ 14 planets two sectors away from Sol (no PQ 15 outside my sector in range) but they started flipping immediately. So I sold them. The result was I had a good Sol sector, true, but no expansion at all. I got the ai's to be at war al

Reply to +1 speed and +50 military on Gigantic in Strategies Stardock Forums

I didn't try but I know some people said that +50 military was a good altrernative to +speed picks. If you play with loose clusters or scattered, I think it can be worthwhile, but you must be able to sustain the continual expansion. This is the hardest part IMHO.

Reply to Logistics in GalCiv 1.2 in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I certainly hope they think of this. In fact there are 2 ways to deal with the cheese I suggested. The poor one is to check the value of the starbase in the diplomacy screen: If it's worthless, it's worthless. The best one is to routinely check every starbase to see if they are worth something. A culture starbomb that was useful to turn a planet 2 years ago may now be in the middle of your territory and no longer useful, particularly if it prevents you from culture bombing elsewhere.

Reply to Maso Strategies in Strategies Stardock Forums

I sometimes build embassies where I need culture boosts, but mostly I don't. It may help in the initial stage when you have neighbours with big culture to prevent a planet from flipping, and I prefer it to the News Network as the non culture effects are moe interesting. I don't usually build scouts on medium and smaller. I will use them on bigger maps in order to make contact faster with the ai.

Reply to Dread Lords in Strategies Stardock Forums

I don't see many random events. I'd like it if there were more. Didn't see anything new in the xpack (yet?)

Reply to Logistics in GalCiv 1.2 in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Limiting the number of starbases is a VERY BAD IDEA unless you make some changes in the ai so it learns to scrap starbases. (Cheese tactic). Build 1 starbase. Give it to your worst enemy. Repeat and rinse until your opponent cannot build any starbase. Do this to all opponents, prefereably in a corner sector far from everyone. You now have the opportunity to collect all te resources of the galaxy for yourself.

Reply to Can you beat Maso without cheese? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I don't use any of the 3 cheeses mentioned in the initial post. I sometimes gift 1 influence, but mostly because it looks more effective than giving a tech. I don't use that tactic very often. Right now I consider the biggest advantage I have is +80 diplomacy at start, so I started playing with only +10 diplo and another political party.

Reply to A Maso Small Map Guide For All The Family in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

[quote]ONLY Allie with AI's and minors when you have them all as "Close" relations[/quote] You can't do if you're not close... What do you mean? [quote]What happens when your allied with EVERYONE is[/quote] you win! Seriously, at this stage, winning a military victory is easy as you can get everyone at war against the enemy you single out. I am not sure that what you say is exact. I know the ai when allied to me and another ai will help me if their other ally attacks me. So

Reply to Happy Fun Ball to Land in Paris. in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Problem with that culture bombing in France is that some people actually bomb McDonalds.

Reply to Galciv Blog on Joeuser in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

fsk+, I agree that independent programs which could be either players or ai's over a LAN or the net would make for a fun game, and a nice Turing test experiment. I still believe that coding an ai is hard. I know Angband borg, but a borg couldn't be made to beat nethack (neither could I, by the way). Corewars appeals to hackers by definition. I know someone who isn't interested in ai at all but who would always have me play corewars. My main point is that the API has to give a lo

Reply to Galciv Blog on Joeuser in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

[quote]I would like to see an API which allowed people to write their own AI. Since the players collectively have more resources than the developers, players will eventually write a better AI than the developers could have.Plus, it would lead to interesting competitions for the "best player-written AI". All abuses exposed by these AIs would, of course, be fixed in the next patch.This feature would have to be designed in the game from the start, so it probably isn't an option for GalCiv I, but is

Reply to ok..... since maso seems to be the only way to rack up some points now.... in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I think that increasing the points value for maso is a good thing because I play casually and find it silly that a scoring system reward lower difficulty games more. There ARE casual maso players. They should be rewarded for playing that level. The casual gamer will never make it to the top anyway because there are people who play the MV, not the game, no matter what the rules are. Qui Gon Jinn, as far as protecting stuff and preventing reloaded games etc., there are many games with that pat

Reply to Modding Minors Out? in Mods Stardock Forums

[quote]You could always not sell them any tech. If you feel it is an abuse, don't do it.[/quote] Yes but they also act as buffers against the majors: Major civs will most likely demand tribute from the minors first, so they make your life easier even if you don't mess with them. True, the ai will get money from them, so your life may be harder. Anyway they change the game but you can't do anything about it. A slider option for the number of minor races would be cool...

Reply to Games not posted! in Mods Stardock Forums

Please post such stuff in the general forum, or (even better) look for other such posts (in the general forum again) and refrain from posting these which are very common. I think we miss a FAQ. The answer is: There is a bug somewhere, and some games never show on the metaverse. Noone knows the criteria. CariElf said at one point she wanted to track these but I don't think it's been done, nor will, since the metaverse budget seems to be over.

Reply to more than 100% ability level -- does it make sense? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

You start at 100% efficiency in fact. If you have +5% you are at 105%, so when you see +100% you are already at 200%. Higher than 100 percentage make perfect sense. Actually, % is just a way to present data,(100% = 100/100 = 1) so 9% is easier to read/grasp than 0.09.

Reply to What is your one wish for next Pack/Update? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

A map editor.

Reply to Maso strategy with no military. in Strategies Stardock Forums

I play much like this except I don't even build battle axes. If the ai attacks me, they are useless anyway. I prefer diplomacy to speed in picks Once I've used colony ships to settle all I could, I will prepare for freighters. I build freighters everytime the techs pop that allow me to have one more trade route. Otherwise, military stays at 0.

Reply to Maso Strategies in Strategies Stardock Forums

I tend to play much more pacifist (but then on bigger maps -around medium-): Populist, +60 diplo. Other pick used to be speed, I tend to think culture would be better on medium or smaller maps. The idea is to weather out until you can get everyone at war with one another, and build a strong culture base. By that time, since you have no military, you will give in to threats very often, but have the money to do so. Giving techs and TGs is also a great way to boost your love rating. (You ca