tetleytea

Reply to Paths to Victory Strategy Guide in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

I totally disagree with buying colony ships. Buy factories instead, and build the colony ships. Get +50 military as a race ability if it's important enough to you. Also, you suggested design-your-own colony ships is optional. I would argue that is NOT optional. What I would say is optional, though, is you can do the Ctrl-N cheese until you get a bonus factory tile on your starting planet (GC2:DL only). If your goal is to colony rush (and it should be), I disagree with researchi

Reply to Disappearing Anti-Matter Power Plant in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

Come on, man, they're not supposed to be there, they're anti-matter.

Reply to More bugs in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

You can invade a red planet with transports?!?

Reply to Secret Police & Galactic Resort in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

I expected the Police Center to add a straight 20% increase, just because I didn't have any other morale improvements on that planet. When I did add a Zero G, though, it added the same 19% improvement whether or not I had a Police Center, suggesting that the Police Center was just adding a regular 20% and not base. If something adds 20% to base morale, I expect morale to jump AT LEAST 20%, or more. It was less.

Reply to I'm playing a game with the custom race in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

In later builds of DL and in DA beta, the PQ bonus applies to worlds colonized, conquered, flipped, whatever. It's a % bonus, so PQ 5 turns into a 6. I don't think it particularly rounds up or down--I think it just rounds--because PQ 4 turns into a 5.

Reply to AI coding can be frustrating in GalCiv Journals GalCiv2 Forums

If Stardock had the resources, they could hire some high-powered people with Ph.D.'s who wrote their dissertations on this subject. The problem is we've all got six-figure jobs in the business sector instead. But when you talk about coding an AI, that is the calibre level of work you're talking.

Reply to I'm playing a game with the custom race in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

High PQ racial bonus makes sense in DL, but not DA. DA makes it so your low-PQ planets get more Soil Improvement tiles, so you're actually hurting yourself if you're colonizing PQ5 and below and you have PQ bonus. BTW playing custom race doesn't make so much sense in DA beta, either, because you lose the built-in racial bonuses.

Reply to Early Economic Crash, Need advice in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

Another factor about the 100% approval / tax base is that later on you will be researching Interstellar Republic & Star Democracy. Grow your tax base early, before you research those techs. Then you get the 25% bonuses on your grown population. Lowering your taxes early will only cost you ~20bc/turn, but later on it will cost more than that just to lower tax by one point.

Reply to Super Hive strategies in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

It's kinda a bummer, in a way. It's like the long-awaited official release is finally here, on February 14th, and your girlfriend is pissed because you want to spend Valentine's Day playing on the computer. At least I don't observe Valentine's Day the way the Thalans do. They eat each other.

Reply to things that i hope improve in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

I didn't see a hint of anything like this but I really like the idea. "I'll trade you these sweet techs and this fat pile of BC if you just break your alliance with those stinking, flathead Torians." I would chalk that up as yet another benefit of being good. A good guy would never do that. An evil guy would. So would Korx.

Reply to Winning DA on Max Difficulty (long) in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

I hear ya about the good diplomacy allowing you to get weaker civs to declare war on stronger civs. What I did in DL was I got the stronger civ (almost always the Drengin) to declare war on the weaker. That was much cheaper. The hard part was getting the second and third civ to team up on them. It cost much more to bribe the Drengin to open a second front. Frequently I wound up just attacking him myself; but that carried the pitfall in that the other civ would make peace before too long,

More bugs in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

1) Not sure if this is a bug or desired behavior: I had a toxic planet influence-flip to me and I didn't have toxic researched. I got the planet, it produced 0 production and the population grew & made money as always. 2) NASTY bug: When I research a Factory tech, all my Factories auto-grade, as usual. But--several planets auto-upgrade a factory THAT TURN, and I wind up paying for it. That puts a nasty shock on the treasury. In other words, you will see "Xeno Factory Cons

Reply to Starbase Strategies in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

I tried Economic Starbases in the DA Beta over the last two days, and they're actually pretty nice, because of the new Power Plants. What's more, they combine well with Super Hive. The AI is not very good, though, in the beta, so it's still hard to tell how they'll do when you've truly got aliens breathing down your neck. I was reasonably able to get Econ Starbases to encompass 5 planets, doing comfortably over 100 ip apiece (that's a conservative estimate), and I could reasonably ge

Reply to Starbase Strategies in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

What are the key indicators your playing above your skill level anyway? If you can't win without frequent save and reloads.

Reply to Home World Approval Lower than other planets? in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

At least in DA, my testing of the Secret Police Center suggests that it doesn't work. It's not boosting the base morale.

Reply to Starbase Strategies in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

If you can build 12 upgraded starbases in peace, I would say you're playing way BELOW your skill level.

Reply to Super Hive strategies in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

Looks like both your upgrade strategy and my decommissioning strategy wouldn't work anymore. I may not care much, though. If they don't nerf Spore ship I may be switching races on February 15th. I would say February 14th, but...on that day, I think I'll be, uh...a Super Breeder. In real life. Muahahahahahahahhaa.

Reply to Super Hive strategies in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

> Since military spending on a no-ship-production planet is 100% returned to the treasury, planets in mode 7 only cost maintenace (which is usually quite low due to level 1 factories). That's the difference. You're using Basic Factories. Factories cost 1 maintenance for 6 ip, which is 50% more than a Basic's 4 ip; and then you can go all the way up to Industrial Sectors which cost a whopping 5 maintenance. You can build Industrial Sectors, do your business, then Decommission.

Reply to Starbase Strategies in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

12 maxed out starbases?!? That sounds fine and wonderful if you're making your empire all pretty, but are you really winning games with that? So you're playing on high difficulty, aliens are knocking at your door, all hope seems lost, and...you pulled it out in the end by surrounding your capital with 12 maxed out starbases? I have a hard time believing that. In no small part because you can't max out starbases until you get industrial sector. That's end game. Besides that, for 12 maxe

Reply to Winning DA on Max Difficulty (long) in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

Do you postpone your Econ/Research treaties till after you get the Bazaar? Also, how do you keep the more powerful alien races in check? In DL, I had a problem with the Drengin getting too powerful (obviously not so in DA beta) because I could never get a decent deal in place to get multiple alien races to agree to attack the Drengin. How do you manipulate aliens to team up on the most powerful guy?

Reply to Starbase Strategies in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

What are you doing that's making you so much money? Are you not getting enough industrial capacity up & running, or have you discovered a magic trick like with the trade ships & starbases in GC1?

Reply to Early Economic Crash, Need advice in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

Credit (i.e. Mitrosoft) is nice in the end game, when the game is about to end anyway. For example, to finish a conquest victory, you can Mitrosoft a few transports on the front lines, and grab those last few planets. Or Mitrosoft a Neutrality Learning Center on your tech capital, to speed up your tech victory (especially if you're in a tech race). Can't honestly say I've ever used Mitrosoft to help change the game outcome though, except in the Dread Lords campaign.

Reply to Winning DA on Max Difficulty (long) in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

I can check into the Suicidal vs. Obscene thing. Maybe it's my bad. I'm doing the same thing as you with the Basic Factories & zero maintenance. We probably should start a dedicated Super Hive strategy thread. I did try the Super Hive + PQ combo, and I don't think it's a good one. The first reason I don't like it is because I think 8 ability points for +20% PQ is far too expensive for DA. All those class 1-5 planets are actually special in their own way now, since they have

Reply to Is espionage all about destroying improvements? in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

I really like Robert's idea of spying on the Entertainment Centers.

Reply to Espionage exploit? in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

I would be inclined to agree about just not allowing spies on farms, except that I've lost billions in population from stupid mistakes involving loaded transports as well. e.g. My AdvTroopx3 transport docks on a planet already maxed out in population and I forget to fix it before hitting the Turn button, and 3 billion instantly die. I think the real answer is to give you more of a chance to fix overpopulated planets before killing them off. Like put the Skull & Crossbones symbol on