LDiCesare

Reply to Your alignment and why in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Good makes for better diplomacy and is definitely better than evil on higher difficulty levels, except maybe on smaller maps.

Reply to What does Good Pay? in Strategies Stardock Forums

Did you get many choices? Sometimes, you won't get many events when colonizing a planet.

Reply to I survived my first one somehow in Strategies Stardock Forums

[quote] I didn't even bother trying to find the other races and tried to be an isolationist until I had some research under my belt, but that didn't work either.[/quote] Do the exact opposite. I made my last win because I met Arceans asap (same turn I got the translators). That ment 2 free techs before the Arceans would research them themselves. I then met the Torians 2 turns later, and could get more techs, and then the Drengins, and I had some techs to give to them since they looked so pow

Reply to GCX Beta3 Commentary in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

[quote]Hopefully, doing so would place the cheat tag in all associated saves with the same game tag on it. That would put a damper in that.[/quote] Save-scumming would still work (rename the save directory, and voila).

Reply to Hex Editing in Mods Stardock Forums

Grallon, nothing is mandatory, you just don't buy if you don't want. Of course, that seriously hinders modding and replayability, but Stardock already provides text files for events, ships, etc. Brad said something along the lines that it was unlikely they'd develop a map editor (I think it was on the apolyton Galciv-general forum). I believe that is a mistake, because there is a huge difference in terms of appeal between a full-blown mod/scenario and what we call mods here, which are ju

Reply to GalCiv Writer in Mods Stardock Forums

I quit trying modding when I saw that I'd have problems with the Arceans and the special techs. I feel the tech tree is not modable enough to my taste. If only I could specify in a mod that arceans will research techs in this order, altarians in that order, etc., so they'd each receive special bonuses and be even more unique when the Terrans meet them (particularly if I could confine them to low speed/poor range so that contact between the races be less likely to happen).

Reply to Morale Tips in Strategies Stardock Forums

Yes, destabilization lowers morale, but I think it's only on the lowest-morale planet. Beware that it's destabilization, not spying, that causes morale to lower.

Reply to I survived my first one somehow in Strategies Stardock Forums

You don't really need scouts on tiny. You can use one (maybe two, but that's IMO a waste of production) to make contact fast with the other civs, but the survey ship does it quite well too. Once you've uncovered every star, scrap the scouts or give them to someone you don't like. That'll be 1bc per turn maintenance for them. Yes, without the diplo bonus, things are rather hard as you have more trouble convincing the ai to leave you alone. But that's why it's all the better when you win. ;)<b

Reply to What does Good Pay? in Strategies Stardock Forums

Yes, that's a pity. Moral shifts should be augmented on tiny maps so you can be good or evil.

Reply to I survived my first one somehow in Strategies Stardock Forums

[quote]Using the time machine does help you, imo, because you can try things different ways to see what does work.[/quote] Re reading myself I may have sounded extreme. I think it is very interesting to reload in order to understand how the game works (that is you don't know why an ai declares war and check for different things to understand it, or look at the effects of Diplomatic Translators on ai's on maso), whereas saving/loading to get a better turn makes games tedious. [quote]

Reply to GCX Beta3 Commentary in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

[quote]guess this means i'll never be able to submit a finished game since i am always gonna use this feature![/quote] Yes, I think it's a pity that Brad doesn't want these scores to be submitted to metaverse because, IMHO, it's no more a cheat that Ctrl-N.

Reply to Maso Strategies in Strategies Stardock Forums

[quote]By the way if you share a sector with the AI...does it still moan if you build influence starbases there? Hmmm, I bet it does...[/quote] Yes it does. But on maso, my experience is that the influence bonuses are usually so big that systems in a foreign sectors fall to the owner very fast, so maybe you'll get flipped or manage to flip the ai before they have time to make their demand. I also wonder what would happen if you built say 4 influence starbases at once. Maybe they'd ask just f

Reply to I survived my first one somehow in Strategies Stardock Forums

Congrats. You shouldn't consider "bad diplomacy" ment no tribute. You will never earn any money from a major ort starting minor on maso, whatever your diplomatic bonus (even at +100% or more). Not playing ironman, though, will hinder your learning more than help, imo, because you won't see as many different situations (sometimes you have to redo it from almost the start, as well restart from the start).

Reply to Why the difference in travel ranges? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Yes they are all adjusted. You get something like +1/2 map sizes if I recollect correctly.

Reply to What's the use of an alliance? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Here's a nice alliance I have right now. It's a bit of an unfair fight, but: Terrans + Drengins + Arceans + Torians vs. Yor (the Altarians surrendered to me while the Drengisn crushed them). What's happening: Torians don't do much. Drengins send lots of big big ships and kill whatever craft the Yor may build. Arceans send transports and take off planets. I send AMMs and transports to take a few planets too, mostly to build my cultural influence there, so I end up flipping

Reply to Just two Questions... in Strategies Stardock Forums

Durett, the events are random. You should be able to lmod the file to make them more likely to happen? Robert, you can't appy crippling strats to maso. The difference between crippling and maso reminds me of that between cakewalk and crippling (frankly). I still have to be ahead of someone in research on maso (except on tiny rare). They get huge bonuses (tech, PQ, ...) and they trade between themselves. You can and should also trade techs with them. That is the only way to get techs in m

Reply to What does Good Pay? in Strategies Stardock Forums

Good is great to get alliances. You can rely on the good guys more than on the evilones (not that much, but still). And fundies ARE nasty. Ever played an all-evil galaxy where the fundies suddenly take half the worlds???

Reply to Can't win at Crippling in Strategies Stardock Forums

Do you trade techs? That's a good way of avoiding war and getting techs or money faster. You can also pay tribute once if you want to trade with the demanding civ. Picks like + Military Prod (to get colony ships out faster) and +Speed help in the initial rush. Building a dterrant fleet (e.g.starfighters) is still a good option at Crippling, when you can frighten your potential opponents with a plethora of otherwise useless ships.

Reply to Preferred degree of scattering? in Strategies Stardock Forums

I tested this, and in fact tight cluster makes it easier to withstand cultural conquest. Makes maso easier.

Reply to Maso Strategies in Strategies Stardock Forums

I am interested in trying +60 culture. I am finishing a medium maso game with tight clusters, +10 culture (+50 diplo, +1 speed - populists). I think the tight clusters help fight cultural aggression quite nicely, which is a bit of a trouble with the maso bonuses (hence I lost 10 diplo for 10 culture in my starting picks). Now using scattered in order to have more stars to extend influence may be a good idea, but in my game, I settled a PQ13 near the Drengins in order to get a foothold,

Reply to Does this event always happen at higher levels? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

[quote]From what I've gathered, the "more and more powerful" event actually means that empire is very weak and needs help.[/quote] I had this yesterday on maso, and the Yor were NOT very weak. They were the second most powerful civ (after Drengins). They'd have been third if the Altarians (pure evil) and Drengins (sainlty) hadn't spent so much energy shooting at each other while I watched from the other side of the galaxy. I was the weakest civ military-wise, and that event, of course, didn'

Reply to Captured technology question in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

[quote]If you ask me, to close that loophole (including wonders/ capitols being built), if a planet is taken its prod should be set to 'none' and all work lost.[/quote] I totally agree. For all who find rationales for the current state of affairs: you've been pounding the planets with millions of soldiers, there have been fights everywhere on the planet, but not a single production unit has been touched by the war. Does that seem strange?

Reply to Preferred degree of scattering? in Strategies Stardock Forums

I guess I should stop using scattered on maso, since the ai culture bonus makes it very hard to resist on the borders in the early colonization phase. Getting a buffer so that I'd have some space to shield me from the ai would probably make tight clusters easier.

Reply to What does Good Pay? in Strategies Stardock Forums

Getting along well with others means you can be at war with one target and not have everyone declare war on you at the same time. That can make a big difference. And don't underestimate the havoc fundies can cause when tyou are the evillest civ in the universe, nor the power of trade centers (+15% to almost everything) vs. Lifeforce power (which gives +25% only to econ and yoy may be beaten to it).

Reply to How do you speed up research? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Best way to boost research through anomalies is to switch from the tech you are researching to the most expensive tech you'd like to research before entering the anomaly. This has the biggest payoff overall. Just switch back to the current tech immediately afterwards.