vincible

Reply to How could the exploration stage of Galciv be improved? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Maybe the cost of colony ships could be greatly increased. That would force you to make decisions about whether to prioritize colonization versus jumping out to a tech lead for quick invasions, or getting those freighters out, or grabbing resources, or even getting a couple more survey ships.

Reply to How could the exploration stage of Galciv be improved? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

[quote]Would having a ground combat sequence like MOO2, where outcome is already set, detract from AI? I don't know this so I'm asking[/quote] Eye candy like this only detracts from AI in that any time Stardock spends programming eye candy detracts from time they're spending on AI.

Reply to new son version 1.1 in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Problem it is only compatible with other XP products and will refuse to interact with any non-XP sons. This makes playtime difficult unless you buy upgrades for his friends. [Message Edited]

Reply to Fellowship of the Ring Empire Thread in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

[quote]Once you get the hang of playing Maso, I feel Crippling simply does not become a challenge anymore.[/quote] I will agree with that. If for some reason you fall behind on Crippling you just think "hey things were this bad the whole game last time."

Reply to Fellowship of the Ring Empire Thread in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I don't know how to judge. I've played enough that they're both rather easy at this point. I guess the key thing is that I can't conceive of circumstances in which I'd lose on crippling, other than perhaps starting in a corner with three stars in a Gigantic galaxy (now *that* would be an interesting scenario). A bad start would wipe me out on maso, but I feel like if I get a good start with the proper starting picks I'll almost certainly win. Other than that, I don't know how o

Reply to Fellowship of the Ring Empire Thread in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

The first turn influence bug is pretty handy. You probably know that you can check the influence ratings of civs in various sectors using that colored button in the top right part of the screen. (I didn't figure this out until I'd played seven or eight games.) Anyway, the bug is that you can check influence in sectors you haven't explored yet. So on the first turn you can find out where all the civs are by clicking on various points on the map and seeing where they have influence. If you are so

Reply to Fellowship of the Ring Empire Thread in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

[quote]I've already thought of one scenario which I always wanted to try. That's playing against just 1 Incredible AI.[/quote] Tried it once. Unfortunately the one AI got a corner start. (This was before I knew about the first turn influence bug.) I didn't bother finishing the game. Btw it ranks as "simple"--it seems to be evaluated as if you had four sub-fool AIs. [Message Edited]

Reply to 10 abilites in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

There's no "best" set of picks. What you should pick depends on your playing style and the map. If you enjoy invasions and wars, you should pick weapons or soldiering. If you want a peaceful game, you should pick diplomacy. And so on. On large maps, speed becomes valuable, but it's not that worthwhile on small ones. Some popular picks are speed +1, planet quality +5, diplomacy, economics, morale, population growth--you really can't go wrong with some combination of these, and they will

Reply to Resources-Life force?? in Strategies Stardock Forums

Never tried it since I thought it would be too unbalancing, and because I've barely been able to play for the last month or so. The description says its "uncommon" though, which could mean many things. You could probably download it and mess with the text file to adjust the frequency and to change the bonus to 1%. I'm sure some of the people on the mods forum could tell you how to do it if it isn't obvious. I've never looked at an anomaly mod before so I can't give you any advice.

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

[quote]2) With the two new civs, the option to disable civs. I wouldn't mind being able to play with all 7, or only have one nemesis to play against. [/quote] You already can do this. Just click on their portrait twice in the game setup screen.

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

I want the AI to realize that if you bribe someone to declare on them, it's a hostile act, and that if you give their enemies ships, it is a hostile act. I'm going to cheat and add one more, which is that the AI should recognize threats (both cultural and military) in adjacent sectors and not just its own. No more of this "don't you dare build a shopping district in my sector, but ten party palaces next door is just fine with me." [Message Edited]

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

Thanks Mexal! I'll send you the feat tonight, and send a brief physical/personality description to the list as well. By the way, is there a good place I can go online for spell descriptions?

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

Thanks. Btw I usually go by my middle name, Doug.

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

If I bribe X to go to war with Y, that should be considered to be almost an act of war with Y. Certainly relations should be downgraded to Hostile, and if already cool, wary, or hostile it should mean war. In addition, if X is at war with Y, then Y should consider giving gifts of any sort to X to be a hostile act.

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

I sent you my character a while ago and haven't gotten a character sheet from you. Is there something important missing?

Reply to Resources-Life force?? in Strategies Stardock Forums

[quote]I'd settle for a PQ +1% anomoly that only appears once in a while (say, 1 per size of the galaxy in levels)[/quote] There's a mod in the library that does that. "Abandoned Terraformer" by Parable.

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

Sort of. One of the things that makes Maso hard is that the trading system is different--the AIs will never give you any money. This simple rule change eliminates a crutch which many players depend on, and forces people to take an entirely new approach to quite a few aspects of the game. So it's not just that you're forced to be more efficient--it forces you to do entirely new things, not just to do the same old things only better. The intent of my suggestions was to come up with things

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

Wow, don't get me started on improvements to AI intelligence I'd want to see. I answered the way I did because Librarian specified no changes to the AI. Anyway, I'm not optimistic that we'll see any more major improvements to the AI. There are many well-known ways to abuse the AI, and Stardock hasn't fixed them. Don't get me wrong, they've made a great game and had great support, but it seems their emphasis these days does not lie in the direction of improving the AI.

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

[quote]Since the wizards are all gathered here and Ray opened the door, what would you tweak to create a level above Maso, assuming the AI as as good as Maso and the only difference is bonuses?[/quote] Interesting question. I think the easiest thing to do would be a simple trading nerf, so that no AI will ever accept a bribe to go to war with another AI (similar to the current cash trading nerf). Then greatly increase their cultural resistance stat--not so much that they're unflippable

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

[quote]Would people feel the current scoring of Maso was fair if all AIs in Maso games got a +50 diplo bonus (this in turn should thwart the tech trading frenzy)? How about if the +60% diplo pick was removed? The +60% diplo pick seems essential to beating Maso, right?[/quote] Not essential. Quite helpful though. [quote]In a broader sense, is there any set of AI benefits that would make skeptics agree that Maso is hard enough to make the current scoring fair (assuming tthe AI's

Reply to Veterans or who should be? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I think I got promoted after posting what I thought was a clever strat involving trading for AI freighters in the early game. But it might have been a coincidence.

Reply to Fellowship of the Ring Empire Thread in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

[quote]Yesterday, I was seriously considering wandering off this game and forum to something else because all these bad vibes were starting to get to me.[/quote] I've had the same feelings on occasion. I think part of the problem is that the forum is so focused on Galciv. So once you tire of that there's nothing left here. There's no off-topic chatter to keep people around after they move on from Galciv.

Reply to Fellowship of the Ring Empire Thread in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

[quote]Vincible. In my opinion, the Gal Civ Cranking Guide is a good tutorial walk-through for beginners. It is helpful when learning how to adjust the slider and what tech yields which trade goods, wonders, etc. It not only took a lot of work to put it together but to put it on a website and to pay for the space, etc. I think it is like "pre-season" or "warm-up" and after cranking for a while, most move on. I also run a small website and it definitly took EBZ some extra effort to do that. Any G

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

I wouldn't be surprised either. I bet there are several people who are capable of writing a cranking guide for tiny/rare/maso right now. Heck, you probably could after your one game--all tiny/rare games are very similar (and imho dull after you've done it a couple times, but to each their own). The only variaton is whether or not one of the enemy AIs gets two stars--if they do, you just send all the other AIs to war against them to hold them back, then pick off star systems one by one. [Mes

Reply to Veterans or who should be? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

By the way, don't think that the Galactic Council is a big deal. It gets one post every week or so. (Although with the new Xpack we've seen a flood of posts, one every day or so.)