Gerakken

Reply to G.R.O.S.S. communication thread. in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Bah, let the Euros bicker. If it wasn't noble families trying to steal each other's lands (or whole kingdoms), it was this blasted Protestant vs. Catholic vs. Orthodox thing. They always had something to fight about. Can't you people see I am trying to install the Super Space Distortion Cannon on the survey ship? All this noise about tea time in Brussels is throwing my calibrations off! :D Just kidding there. Had to get it out of my system.

Reply to ANZAC Empire, 'Bridging the Ditch' Thread in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

"Don't worry about us GROSS people. We're (mostly) harmless, really!" - Gerakken the GROSS gunner, while he is installing the new Super Space Distortion Cannon on the survey ship. :D

Reply to How Do You Eat a Whale. . .and other Remarkable Tales! in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Richard, that is so forgiving of you to let the MOO3 folks try and redeem themselves if they did MOM 2. Some folks in my little neck of the woods thinks that they would rather shoot the developer than to let them defile another sacred relic. (Never let computer gaming ubergeeks run wild!) Personally, I feel that I have a choice in who fronts the cash to develop the game (I certainly don't have it), but I just hope that whoever takes up the challenge will realize that it is messing with a classic

Reply to G.R.O.S.S. communication thread. in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I was getting slightly worried for a little bit, Staffa. I did not know whether the powers-that-be were going to shoot you or give you a medal. :D Good job. If there is a hole big enough to drive a truck through then that has to be addressed. But the lack of trust on both sides became quite obvious. You didn't think you were being listened to, and they thought that you must have been laying on a lot of extra cheese because their people didn't think of how to push the scoring envelope

Reply to Tell me how galciv shocked you! in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Two cases really got me going. Case #1: The Yor were getting pounded on by a three way alliance. I was at peace with all parties. The Yor, down to two systems, surrender to ME. Now I am at war with 3 civs, and out of position due to the suprise. That took some quick thinking to extricate myself from. Case #2: I made four chaotic evil civs and one pure evil. I myself was going toward evil. The Fundamentalists show up, wiping out the Drengin and the Yor immediately. The Torians were down

Reply to How do you get a major power conquered before it surrenders to your enemy? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

That is simple. The word is: blitzkrieg! Just have the fleet of transports with necessary attack and defense ships around each of the few planets the fool has left, and simultaneously strike and invade them all on the same turn. Be sure you have more than enough to do the job. This has to be one shot, one kill. Works well when the alien only has 3 or less planets. But the bad news is that I have seen an empire 5 planets strong surrender before. This approach requires quite a bit of preperation,

Reply to What version is currently out? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Yeah, but the funny thing is that I got an old 1.03A game that can't be fixed without v1.04, so when it does trickle down to Stardock users, I am on it. But, I guess I can be patient enough to hope that enough bugs are swatted to make the wait worth it. Besides, what good are those front line Drengin.net beta testers if they don't catch a few bullets. ;)

Reply to G.R.O.S.S. communication thread. in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Taxes paid, but not quite the way I wanted. I was one turn from Beyond Human when the last Altarian planet flipped. That was the last major civ planet, so I got a military win. Close to the tech win, but no cigar. Still, I am happy with it.

Reply to Some thoughts on the Metaverse in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Given the choice about having the Galciv team spending most of its time policing the Metaverse or coding the game and getting AI ideas from the Metaverse data, I think I will take the game development over the Metaverse. I would rather have a better game, thank you. It would be nice if anything that is a major exploit and can quickly and simply handled be fixed, but us players are not in any position to know what exactly comprises simple or quick when we are not the ones who coded the thing.

Reply to why is always the same???? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Well, hosen is not saying the only way to win is a military victory. What is being said is that unless you have a mighty military rating to back your empire up, you will be getting into wars unless you keep paying the aliens off. Therefore, the argument is that it undermines the other types of victory conditions if so much effort has to be focused on military strength. A slow build technologist wanting to win with the least bloodshed possible should not need a mighty armada if he wants to resear

Reply to How I got to number one in metaverse. in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Well, I stand by reputation myself. It matters little to me if I am ranked somewhere in the hundreds while some cheeser-of-the-day is riding the top of the list. My accomplishments may be meager, but they are honest. If the outright cheaters can be caught, bravo! If every guy who does 70 MPH in a 60 zone while not wearing a seatbelt cannot be caught, at least it was not I who was doing it. And people will remember that reputation, good or bad. So, as I say, play hard, play fair, and let the chea

Reply to How do you keep track of ships during war? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Don't underestimate the importance of battlefield intelligence. Keep scout ships or probes along the perimeter to give you an early warning of when hostiles are coming your way. They will be the first things to die when the shooting starts, so if you can control the start of the war, either pull them in or protect them. Scouts on the perimeter are nice because one can use them as decoys and cause them to be chased around the screen, all while still watching the enemy. My personal strate

Reply to Have a Good Memorial Day Everyone. in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Memorial Day is a day set aside for Americans to remember their war dead. It is one of those American holidays that has been made into an excuse for a three day weekend. The modern observance takes place on the last Monday in May. The traditional day of observance was May 30.

Reply to Destabablization in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Well, let me see here. One, arrange to have any morale starbases of theirs destroyed if at all possible. This is not a requirement, but it would be very helpful if their empire wide morale fell by a good deal while you were doing destab. If someone else can't do it, then weigh whether a war to get the job done yourself is worth it. Not necessarily a war where you have to take planets (though that is good if you can manage it), but one to cripple their navy and destroy those bases. Then go to the

Reply to G.R.O.S.S. communication thread. in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Glad those anti-matter missiles in the headlights are still working well, with us moving on up another spot, but those MWC guys are close on our tail. And I am late paying taxes (darn late game complications). Looks like those good ol' plains people can be rather persistant, so we might need to pick up some +2 defense specials so we can stand some hits to our backside. Or pray for the extra speed event so that we can gain some ground. GROSS has done the easy part by getting where it is now. But,

Reply to How important are Soil Enhancements? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Very important. PQ means everything. I admit that full terraforming late in the game is very expensive, but there is no excuse not to put soil enhancement and habitats on every planet. More PQ means more income and more people. More people means more taxes and more influence. Exception: smaller maps. There, the war path is quite important and one can be forgiven for bypassing this kind of tech in order to pursue the enemy. But, those two early PQ techs means more people, which means more invader

Reply to Scattered or clustered? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Scattered, because it makes most of the map important. With clusters, there can be huge gaps in the map. Not too much fun to have this huge section of map where there is no action. You know, "Nothing out here in the bottom half of the galaxy except Starbase 134 and 562. Nobody's gonna come all this way where no one lives just to blow up a couple of resource refineries."

Reply to G.R.O.S.S. communication thread. in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Pontius, you did have our modded surveyor of doom flash twice before firing the AAMs in the headlights? Got to have some decent road manners when we pass folks up. Oh, I forget. You had to flash twice because that is the trigger for the missiles... It seems I will be paying my taxes tomorrow. My game is wrapping up. As a bonus, that crashed game of mine that was almost at the end can be submitted after v1.04 becomes available for general stardock users.

Reply to New around here... in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Hello, welcome to our version of madness. Please enjoy your stay and feel free to holler if you need something. We are always glad to have fresh meat! LOL Just kidding there. We are really a decent bunch. Nice to have you along.

Reply to How do i turn off Cultural Vic. while in a game? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Can't win culturally while at war with major civs. That makes it simpler. Just make sure that there is never a state of peace between you and the last major standing. In the future, resort to turning off cultural victory at the start if you are sure that you want to finish it some other way. I had to do that myself, because I tend to be Mr. Culture Bomb.

Reply to Give the MidWest Confederation Your Healthy and Rich in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

We don't need no maps at GROSS. In fact, the map seems to have been thrown out. People kept turning it upside down. (I refer to the non-updated Metaverse map, of course.) Our command ship has the "We brake for nobody" sign on the back. You worthy MWC guys are tailgating close enough on the scoreboard to read it. Just flash twice if you get your ship in gear to pass us, and beware of the anti-matter missiles we got in the headlights. (Stange command ship, really. Why GROSS flies around in a modif

Reply to Morale is broken in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

A lot of mid to late game morale problems are because of destabilization and not a broken morale system. Destab is a silent killer. You don't know when it is really hitting you until it is hitting hard it seems. Solution to long term destab, besides a war? Fight fire with fire. Spend a hundred or three a turn destabilizing the guy you think is responsible and watch his economy react to it. It will become a drain on both economies, sure, but the hope is that you have the stronger economy and can

Reply to G.R.O.S.S. communication thread. in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I told you that you would just love those Fundies, Pontius. They are a blast, especially if it is a game where everyone is evil. :)

Reply to EMPIRES UPDATE: Goodbye to All That in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Distraction is a very viable tactic in empire wars here in Metaverse land. In fact, hidden (and not so hidden) agents of misinformation roam the forum to attract attention away from playing and posting scores. Of course, more extreme variations of this, such as sending distracting videos into the heart of the enemy empire, can either be condemned as totally unfair or praised as inspired thinking. (Depending on if one is the victim of said tactic or not.) There are other topics related t

Reply to What am I missing? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Yes, one patch did make a difficulty difference. A lot of folks had to drop a level down and pick the slack back up because of a few changes. Luckily, I am still wading along on challenging, but I am not about to go up now. Need some new skills for that.