vincible

Reply to What Are Some Good Star System Names? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

How about real astronomical star names? This overlaps a whole lot with the "books and games" and the "mythologies" categories.

Reply to Question: how to get a balanced, long lasting game? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Advanced start has been suggested in the past and almost everyone agrees it would be nice to have. I think it's one of those things that Stardock will add if they have time.

Reply to Question: how to get a balanced, long lasting game? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Play on harder levels--the AI will tech faster. In my last two games I *had* to build overlords. [Message Edited]

Reply to First post, in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

What he means is that game designers can't seem to design a game that has a good AI and yet allows good micromanagement. MOO3 has terrible AI but allows you to take charge of everything. Galciv has great AI but doesn't let you micromanage much of anything.

Reply to Is this a typical thing to happen in a game? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

It's not typical. I've gotten the escape once it what must be over 30 games. I get the zoo escape fairly often though. It's really annoying.

Reply to King of the Losers in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Don't worry AIL.ST. The English in your post wasn't that bad. Well okay it was, but "forum English" is generally terrible and the English in your post exceeds that low standard. ;) He was laughing about how it was possible to make it to 2240 without doing anything and still be in a decent position.

Reply to GC Not Cheating in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

You can spend money to rush-buy ships in a system.

Reply to First post, in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

You cannot design ships. There have never been any plans to allow ship design. If you really really want to design ships you shouldn't get this game. Combat is much like in Civ... attacker moves onto defender, and one or the other is destroyed. Outcome of combat is determined by the units' hit points, attack values, defense values, and luck. That said, its an extremely well-done game in most respects and has held my attention for longer than any other game has in years. [M

Reply to Mass purchasing of shipyard-type buildings vs "Shipyard worlds" in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I guess I compromise. Usually I have my top several colonies make combat ships (how many varies by map size, the PQ distribution of the colonies, and a host of other factors, but this can be over half) and these colonies get shipyard improvements. The rest of my colonies build constructors or maybe transports which shouldn't ever see combat.

Reply to This game sucks out loud. in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I agree that Starcraft is really, really, really strategically intense. Probably the most strategic video game I've ever seen, with the exception of things like online chess. Certainly much more so than any Civ-style game I've ever seen. I'd say 99% of gamers are completely unaware of how deep it is. However, let's not get emotional. Bobo is basically right that Starcraft is a good game for kids. The fact that it happens to have amazing strategic depth and complexity is wonderful, but t

Reply to Rushing an increadible AI... in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Tiny/rare is easy, even on maso, since all you have to do is take out one system in one turn and then you don't have to deal with their fleet at all. You can eat up almost every star system in the galaxy that way, one system at a time. You don't even really have to go out of your way to rush, since the AI defends its homeworld inadequately anyway. [Message Edited]

Reply to Cancelling Projects and Trade Goods (Bug?) in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

It's normal, you're only supposed to be able to build a capital once.

Reply to Unused money to garbage: why? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Another thing that would help the AI out is if every social improvement was actually worth building.

Reply to Help: Diplomacy & Trading in Strategies Stardock Forums

It's actually 68%. Basic starbase: 5% Resource refinery: 5% Advanced refinery: 7% Mining barracks: 3% HQ: 6% Hyper mining: 8% Ultra: 9% Nano: 10% Zeta: 15% scary that I just knew that off the top of my head...

Reply to Strategies in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Staffa: I haven't done any play-testing here, but I'm sure that the human can abuse trading far more than the AIs can. The only reason I can win on maso is by consistently doing trades to turn my one researched tech into ten new ones, and by playing the AIs off against each other. I certainly do FAR more trading than the AIs, and I need it more. You might be able to rush if you started off really near each other, or on a tiny map, but otherwise I don't think you could overcome the AI pr

Reply to Unused money to garbage: why? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I've read that it's because its easier to make the AI competitive with the current, simpler system. Personally I would MUCH prefer each governor to have its own set of sliders--that would mean that you could actually have meaningful differences and make specialized planets for research, ships, etc. But I've given up hope that this will be implemented.

Reply to Strategies in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I think the hardest game would against one incredible pure evil AI on a medium map with scattered stars, with the other four AIs turned off. If anyone made that a GOTM I'd bet a fair amount of money that no one would win. [Message Edited]

Reply to My ideal scoring system! in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I'd say dump the speed modification, but everything else is good (better than the current system, anyway). Two reasons for not rewarding speed. One is that if you win faster, you end up submitting more games, so your total score is enhanced anyway. The other is that rewarding speed encourages a certain type of play--early rushes. You're making the implicit assumption that a game won quickly shows more skill than a game won slowly. I disagree. To me the best strategy is that which gives

Reply to What starting abilities do people use and why ? in Strategies Stardock Forums

I've had most luck with populists/+50 diplo along with assorted other bonuses. I'm still experimenting with those but +60 diplo, speed, econ, pop growth, and +PQ are some of my favorites. Having the +70 diplomacy bonus allows you to pull off incredible trades with the AI, even on maso. When I play maso games the diplo bonus lets me keep up with the AI on tech--I research cheap tech and parlay it into seven or eight others, so I can get away with spending very little money on actual rese

Reply to Things you would like to see in a Galactic Civilization expansion set in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

This isn't a big deal, but it might be kind of cool to have a cutscene appear when a race's last planet flips culturally. This would be analogous to the "The X have finally succumbed to the relentless power of the Y" message that you get when a race loses militarily.

Reply to Request for additional difficulty level between Crippling and Maso in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I agree. I can win on Maso when I get a good starting position but it requires a lot of tedious stuff. It gets really obnoxious when every few turns I have to try to turn my one tech into eight by a whole series of careful trades. But after playing several maso games, crippling becomes really easy unless you get a dreadful start.

Reply to What are "resources" supposed to be? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

[Message Edited]

Reply to Which way do you prefer to win? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I think all the victories are boring. I rarely finish my games. When I get near domination of the galaxy, ie when my economy and military is larger than everyone else's combined, then I usually quit and start a new game. I have beaten it all the ways, though, multiple times. I do think tech and alliance victories are easier to achieve than cultural and military. If you're on the verge of cultural or military victory, you generally dominate the galaxy and could easily get yourse

Reply to Is Building Nothing Wasteful? in Strategies Stardock Forums

Yes, social production on a world producing "nothing" is wasted. The money is still spent to produce "nothing." Some people like this, some people don't mind at all. Anyway, it doesn't look like Stardock will change this anytime soon. Free production is proportional to your spending. You could see this by allocating zero to say research and seeing that your tech will never complete.

Reply to How do you maintain focus? in Strategies Stardock Forums

I almost never lose focus when the outcome is still in doubt. When the outcome is not in doubt, ie when I'm sure I'm going to win (or lose), then I usually just quit and start a new game. I only actually finish a small fraction of my games.