Matthew Downie

Reply to Quick Version question in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I think the .071 at the end is just an optional extra. ~SDC~

Reply to Too Hard, Too Hard, Too Hard!!! in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

My incredibly simple guide to winning: Play on very low difficulty. Give your empire a high Diplomacy bonus Set Spend Rate to 100% Colonise some PQ 13+ planets Research Universal Translator Meet and talk to other races. Make deals with them as often as possible, trading anything for anything. (But never give away a planet.) Green text = deal that will be accepted. At this difficulty level, they are so generous that every deal can be in your favour. They will even trade money

Reply to Cancel Project in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Would the game be improved if you had to stop and switch off every manufacturing centre in your empire any time you set your research to 100%, to save on maintenance costs? Since all the alien empires have the same problem, it seems perfectly fair the way it is. Although I would like an option to, say, destroy every Planetary Defence in my empire, rather than having to do every one by hand whenever I culture flip an alien world. ~SDC~

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

Downie’s Eleven “I shall go over the plan one more time,” said Downie, pointing at a blackboard diagram with his bow. “At precisely 1200 hours, Fleabo will slip away from his kitchen duties and into the ventilation tunnel in this corridor here.” He tapped the board. “At the same time, Norrin, Dorrin, Colin, Sleazy, Dumpy, Tubby and Doc will start a fight in the inn across from the Tower. The objective is to cause maximum noise and disruption, and to draw away as many guards as possible

Reply to Pitches for new recruits in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

An elf steps out nervously, onto the stage. He carries something that is either a weapon or a musical instrument; after he's started playing it, you're still not sure which. "Hi. My name is... Well, never mind. You wouldn't be able to pronounce it anyway. Ray the Wanderer asked me to write a recruitment song, so here goes:" We won’t think you’re awful If you’re subnormal Or some kind of masochist. If you win with ease Or depend upon cheese We want you on our list

Reply to Maso Strategies in Strategies Stardock Forums

In my last game I moved up my usual game of 3 incredibles & 2 geniuses to 4 incredibles & genius Drengins. I stuck to my pacifist style. When the Altarians came to me and demanded I give them Sol, I instead gave them 1 Influence point, just as an insult. They were ecstatically grateful. It was scary how effective this was in boosting relations. I don't know if this is a bug or if it's fixed in the Beta, but it makes Maso seem a whole lot easier. ~SDC~

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

(Continued from #1614) The Wight House “Let’s hope there’s someone here who needs our help,” said Downie. They had arrived at a public house called, The Adventurer’s Rest. “And remember, this time it’s my turn to rescue you,” said the lady, light-heartedly. “I’m determined to complete at least one quest before I have my showdown with Ray,” he said, ignoring her. “You still want to go through with that? It’s madness!” “Some duties are absolute.”<br

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

I've decided to continue on from my story (#1578). Apologies in advance if it violates anyone's sense of taste, decency or continuity. Or if it breaks the whole board by being too long. (It's long. I've spent way too much of my time on this. And there's another one coming soon...) The Hounds of Hell “So, what’s your name?” said the lady, after they had walked together for a while. “In human towns, I am known as Matthew.” “And your real name?” “You w

Reply to Producing nothing in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I would really hate having individual sliders for each planet. In order to optimise my strategy, I would have to micromanage every planet individually, slowing the game down to a crawl. ~SDC~

Reply to Alliance worth more than tech victory? in Strategies Stardock Forums

On victory conditions alone then, you'd expect 4000 for tech victory to give just over 5000 for an alliance victory, not 9000, and it says you're not penalized for having a huge population and sitting on it, which implies that the extra three years shouldn't have been a problem. So it really isn't obvious why the difference is so big. ~SDC~

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

Ray isn't vital to the process. Any other would-be GMs out there? ~SDC~

Reply to trade goods / wonders strategies in Strategies Stardock Forums

Anyone know how often AIs sell Trade Goods to each other? It's usually best to keep things like Diplomatic Translators and Gravity Accelerators out of the hands of your more powerful rivals, which you have no control over if you don't own them yourself. ~SDC~

Reply to I beat maso in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Yes. It ought to work both ways; smaller and weaker AIs should realise that they can't afford to pay so much for things. ~SDC~

Reply to I beat maso in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I just won a Gigantic Maso very easily (with my pacifist playing style). It is easier to make peace at this level because you are likely to have a high tax income from all your planets, but the amount of money they demand for bribes doesn't increase proportionally. So I was able to keep the peace and ultimately buy up all the influence resources. With a total +700% influence bonus, it's pretty easy to win. I also set it to tight clusters, which helped. The AI was slow to explore the remote

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

I could give it a go. Never done play-by-email myself so I don't know how well it works. I could imagine it being really slow if you have to do combat one round at a time and wait for replies. ~SDC~

Reply to Tidbits in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

To get max BCs: Put what you're selling on you side. Selling one tech at a time tends to be more profitable. On their side, set the months to maximum. Set the BCs per month to minimum. Increase the BCs until the text in the window goes from green to yellow. Decrease the months until it goes green again. It may not be the absolute maximum possible, but it comes close, and it doesn't take too long. ~SDC~

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

[quote]Did you just dream up the song? [/quote] You don't just 'dream up' songs. You sit around for ages trying to think of rhymes for 'ship' that make sense in the context. But it wrote it myself, if that's what you mean, with only a very small amount of plagiarism. (The idea of a verbal component for a spell being concealed in a poetry recital appeared in a Michael Moorcock novel... The Jewel in the Skull, I think.) By the way, anyone who wants can use my character(s) in thei

Reply to Not So good Newbie in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Hard to say, but from what you've written: (a) Colonizing 'each planet in a system' is a bad idea. Did you mean only the good planets? Anything below PQ 13 or so is hopeless. (b) What difficulty are you playing on? (c) You say you trade technology when you meet the Neutral AI. It's usually best to trade with everyone. (Did you know you can tell if a trade will be accepted when the text in the window turns green? It took me a while to work that one out.) (d) Are you making 'evil

Reply to More penalites/reward for being good and bad in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

You do 'gain in other areas': people like you more. Isn't that enough? Isn't being good its own reward anyway? I'm playing on Masochistic difficulty, pacifist style (I never build a combat ship throughout the whole game). It's made a lot easier by the Altarians and Torians not threatening me all the time, because they recognise me as a fellow good guy. If I'd played as evil, they might well have attacked me. ~SDC~

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

Downie glided delicately across the tavern floor, trying not to inhale. “What do you want, pixie-face?” said the barkeep. Elves, it seemed, were not welcome here. “Is there any chance of a fresh pot of jasmine tea?” he said. “I beg your pardon?” “I understand you serve drinks here. Lotus tea, perhaps? Hot or iced, I don’t mind.” “We have beer, and nothing else.” “Even lemon tea would do.” “For someone with such large ears, you don’t hear too good, do

Reply to Newbie ?'s in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Sort of, but morale boosting buildings effectively allow a higher population to live happily. I don't put many people on my colony ships - if I know I'm going to be colonising a PQ 13 or PQ 14 world, I usually put just 1 million on board. Another population tip: Unless you have a morale of 1, don't worry about it much. Once you have a certain number of people on a planet, maybe 250 million depending on PQ, the production and tax bonuses don't go up very much beyond that.

Reply to Newbie ?'s in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Some answers: 2 Overpopulated is the same as low morale. If morale is below 55 or so, it is overpopulated. Conversely, if morale is high, the population will grow quickly. 4 I think the influence you can buy is only usable in United Planets voting? 5 A little skull and crossbones on a planet indicates that it is thinking about switching sides. (Also, there is a button in the top right of the main map window that shows you the influence level for the sector - if you are more than a co

Reply to trade goods / wonders strategies in Strategies Stardock Forums

I find it helps to maintain a 100% focus strategy. I invest 100% of my production into military until I have enough colony ships, then switch to 100%(ish) technology for a while. Once I feel ready, I switch to 100% social production and start building diplomatic translators and any other trade goods I have researched (while building soil enhancement, etc. on the weaker planets). ~SDC~

Reply to Maso Strategies in Strategies Stardock Forums

My two Maso wins have both been against 3 incredibles and 2 geniuses and in both cases it seemed helpful. They always survived a fairly long time and made my economic situation a lot easier. ~SDC~

Reply to Maso Strategies in Strategies Stardock Forums

I don't know if this has been discussed before, but I notice that you can set two alien races to Genius instead of Incredible and still have the game count as Masochistic. That means there will be two races who will pay decent cash for your techs. Do other people do this? Is it considered insufficiently difficult for true S&M fans? ~SDC~