Richard Heaton

Reply to 1.04 AI cheats on tech tree, gets free techs from nowhere (bug?) in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

MadMirko- You are right about one thing, which is that I should probably give more credit to the developers. If it were any other game, it wouldn't even cross my mind to bother pointing out problems, since there is rarely any expectation that the developers will fix even obvious bugs (to say nothing of undesirable features). So thank you, FrogBoy and everyone else at Stardock. It's easy to get sucked in and emotionally invested in this game because it's so intense, and that makes it

Reply to 1.04 AI cheats on tech tree, gets free techs from nowhere (bug?) in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I went back to the save game and dumped my entire economy into spying on the Altarians, so that I reached Advanced level of espionage in like 5 turns. They do not have creativity, and battleship technology shows up as their most time intensive research. They researched it. -Drake ~SDC~

Reply to 1.04 AI cheats on tech tree, gets free techs from nowhere (bug?) in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

To follow up on the broader idea of the computer getting free techs from somewhere, here are the tech stats at the end of my most recent game. Considering how stingy the computer is about trading techs, I think they illustrate the point nicely. Player Techs Researched Techs Acquired % Researched Humans 77 122 63% Drengin 34 93 37% Altarians 20 87

Reply to 1.04 AI cheats on tech tree, gets free techs from nowhere (bug?) in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

And at any rate, you certainly cannot trade a tech to him that he already has. Interstellar tactics not only fails to show up on his list - it shows up on mine as an option for trading to him. -Drake ~SDC~

1.04 AI cheats on tech tree, gets free techs from nowhere (bug?) in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I am not sure if this was a problem in 1.03. The computer will skip techs and cheat to get big ship techs. Here is a saved game which proves the point (.rar format): http://www.restorethepledge.com/rapacity/GalCiv/techcheat.rar The Altarians have battleship technology. Now, there are only two ways for that to happen. The first is for them to get it from somebody else. Go talk to the other races. Nobody else has it, so he can't have gotten it from one of them. Th

Reply to Help! with early game economics in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Modemboy- "Richard" is my given name, and "Drake" is a name I have adopted since, so either is fine. The discrepancy is a result of the fact that Stardock user settings apparently cannot be changed. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Every time I think I have this game figured out, it throws me a new curve ball. -Drake ~SDC~

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

I think that $0 is way too high a price for Master of Orion III. We really ought to have a class action law suit against the programers for intentional infliction of emotional distress. I have never seen a game so anticipated, or one as bad priced at $50. The only way I will ever forgive them is if they do Master of Magic II, and without screwing it up. -Drake ~SDC~

Help! with early game economics in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Hello all. I am back for MORE advice from the skilled players out there. Where I'm at now, I'm playing on Intelligent and I win sometimes, but more often not. I think this is primarily because something is wrong with my economic development plans. Somehow the computer is still doing much better economically than me, and by a huge margin. If you want to see the stuff I'll talk about first hand, the saved game is here: http://www.restorethepledge.com/rapacity/GalCiv/econotarians.zip<

Reply to The computer doesn't cheat at Intelligent, and I am the Dalai Lama (with proof!) in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

What can I say? You guys were absolutely right. I reloaded the game and cranked the tax rate. Whamo. Instantly beating out every computer on every graph. MAN this game is subtle. Before I was stifling my population growth with excessive taxes... then I went too low and hampered development. Everything is such a fine line. I find that now that I know what I'm doing, I am *constantly* watching the tax/morale levels and also every one of the graphs except for influence. Tight play. <br

Reply to The computer doesn't cheat at Intelligent, and I am the Dalai Lama (with proof!) in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Feargus - that is cool. I am glad to know that it is possible, and I hope to replicate your victory soon. The saved game I have that's linked in the above post, I'm keeping around so I can try again and again from it. That should be a sufficiently enormous advantage that I can win once I figure out what I'm doing wrong. As far as what you said about whether the game cheating being much of an issue, I understand. Normally it is not an issue for me, and indeed I even expect AIs to che

Reply to The computer doesn't cheat at Intelligent, and I am the Dalai Lama (with proof!) in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Okay, forget those other two. Explain THIS saved game. http://www.restorethepledge.com/rapacity/GalCiv/supertorians2.zip It is before the Torians have even finished colonizing new worlds. They have 6 planets. I have FIFTEEN, including a PQ 20 Earth, a PQ 17 Jotunheim and several PQ 16 worlds. It was the best starting position imaginable. I also have a +30% racial/political econ bonus (Federalists, +10% racial). I am blowing the Torians out of the water in population.

Reply to The computer doesn't cheat at Intelligent, and I am the Dalai Lama (with proof!) in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Okay, thanks for the replies, guys. First, thanks to Dikdirk for correcting my urls. As for the bad start you mentioned, yes, as I stated that Torians game is the one in which I tried to get all clever and go with a new approach, and it stunted my growth. But the Torian charts are still way above where mine would be normally. In the Superaltarians game I had a 30% racial econ. bonus and a 100% military 100% spending expansion plan. Same results. Russell, whatever political party an

Reply to Too lucky in Strategies Stardock Forums

No, it was not a cooincidence. There has to be a glitch in the game. I have had the same thing happen twice, though in neither case was it quite as spectacular as the original poster's case. Take last time. I had the luck bonus. Nothing happens for a long time. Then I get four or five Rangers in the space of about 6 or 7 turns. After that... nothing, again, for the rest of the game. The time before that it was the same, except I only got like 3. -Drake ~SDC~

Reply to Extra capitals in Strategies Stardock Forums

The minor races do not appear to follow the same production algorythms as the player and (allegedly) the major race computers do. Try this. Start new games until you get one where there is a minor race very close to your homeworld, so you can watch them grow from the very beginning (when they have like 100 pop.). Build a fighter or a corvette or something and get ready to blow up their ships. Wait until they build their first military ship. Blow it up. The next turn, they will have another

The computer doesn't cheat at Intelligent, and I am the Dalai Lama (with proof!) in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Okay, I got sick of simply whining that the computer cheats and decided to develop some proof. http://www.restorethepledge.com/rapacity/GalCiv/superaltarians.zip That's a saved game in which the Altarians are blowing everyone away in every department for no apparent reason. Their economy is leaving everyone in the dust, and that is fueling everything else to also leave everyone in the dust. DON'T try to tell me that it's because they are exacting tribute from the other player

Reply to The races: Humans, Drengin, Drengin, Drengin, and Drengin in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Oh, and I should have added. The other piece of advice I took up was to keep the computers at war with each other so they wouldn't bother me. VERY effective and perfectly realistic. Thanks for the tip on that one. -Drake ~SDC~

Reply to The races: Humans, Drengin, Drengin, Drengin, and Drengin in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Okay, today I managed to beat the computer on intelligent. I did two things that made this possible. First, I focused on getting trade goods and sold them for enough to supercharge my economy.. allowing me to get more trade goods, and so on until even with 100% spending I was making a bunch of money every turn. Second, I learned to simply accede to demands when they are reasonable. The result was that I had lots of time to build up... when the Drengin finally declare war on me I had just fin

Reply to The races: Humans, Drengin, Drengin, Drengin, and Drengin in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Okay, maybe what I need is a general guide on how to play. Blow by blow, what you do, in what order, what you research, what you trade for, and so on. I keep trying but I am always lagging and get my butt kicked, and I have no idea what I'm doing wrong. As far as gaining an advantage in systems, yes, that is no problem. Especially as against the Drengin, who do not appear to be very agressive colonizers. I am consistently the player with the most systems, but it doesn't seem to make any rea

Reply to The races: Humans, Drengin, Drengin, Drengin, and Drengin in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Try playing with all the computers set to intelligent on a medium sized map. It should be the same on anybody else's computer, and I suspect that you guys are getting different results because you are playing on bigger maps. If somebody wants, I would be happy to save the next ten or so games at the points I give up at and post them on the web... you'll see the exact same pattern in every game. The charts even look almost identical each time. The Drengin beat every other race out on every ch

The races: Humans, Drengin, Drengin, Drengin, and Drengin in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Okay, this is starting to ruin the fun. Without exception, in every one of the last five games I have tried to play, the Drengin have got the brutal military AI. They bully all the other races into giving them all their income, and of course the other races bend over like reeds. So it's effectively like I'm playing against one other race that is four times as powerful instead of four independant races. The only way to compete is to do the same thing as the Drengin are doing. At the

Reply to Help: early game starbase problem. in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Okay, my last game was a little less insane. Like you said, the approval rate seems to more or less level out. Also, I'm not sure why, but it seemed to fluctuate less dramatically if I keep morale at like the high 80s or low 90s instead of 100 in the early stages. I think maybe the planets were overpopulating so fast that the morale was plunging into the 40s before feedback effect could kick in. I think I have got all the major kinks worked out and expect to beat the computer on intelligent

Reply to Help: early game starbase problem. in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Okay, I did what you guys said and it worked. Sort of. Your suspicion about the tax rate killing my population growth was bang on. I am keeping it closer to like 39% now and my population growth chart follows the computer's very closely. If I am agressive about keeping my approval rate way up there, I can surpass the computers, too. So naturally, I have developed a brand NEW problem. Mid game, long after I have taken planets and bases but way before I'm really built up, my approval

Reply to Help: early game starbase problem. in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Man. I have never had so voluminous a response to game oriented questions. I thank you all, and I'll let you know how my next couple games go. -Drake ~SDC~

Reply to Help: early game starbase problem. in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Okay, I am on intelligent now and at this point I am pretty sure that the AI cheats. I also noticed that whether he attacks you or not is based upon your comparitive military ratings, so I tried to employ this strategy: 1. Get planets in each direction until I run into the computer over there, then stop. 2. Get all resources I can beat the computer to. 3. Build up military so he won't attack me. 4. Build up empire and beat the game. If you can get past 3 this should be

Reply to Help: early game starbase problem. in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Conquering the Galaxy, Step 3: Okay. So I was able to figure out how to colonize agressively on my own. And with the above advice, I was able to get resources. So after I implemented that strategy I cheerfully kicked the computer's butt on sub-normal and then on normal. Now I am playing on bright, which I count as normal (that's the level where the computer gets the same return from planets as you do, according to the manual). So I raced out and got colonies, and ra