Matthew Downie

Reply to Concept of Logistics in Strategies Stardock Forums

Building starbases now costs money - as a default, 200BC multiplied by the number of starbases you already have. However, the maintenance costs have been taken away, so in the long run having a small number of starbases is cheaper than before. There are three Achievments you can build to increase your logistics ability. Build all of them and you get +55% logistics, which will reduce the cost of building a starbase by 55%. [Message Edited]

Reply to Something missing? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I've never noticed the AI wising up... but they don't usually survive enough wars with me to get the chance. ~SDC~

Reply to I am being destroyed.... in Strategies Stardock Forums

Hard to say without more information. You can sometimes get peace by offering some money in exchange - spread out over a hundred turns is good - or techs or trade goods or whatever. The better your military is and the longer the war's been going on, the less it will cost. ~SDC~

Reply to Positioning Stations For Cultural Conquest in Strategies Stardock Forums

[quote]That has to be an accident. [/quote] It was well known for a long time and they refused to change it, perhaps because it took a lot of the tedium out of cultural conquest. They've finally decided now to make it harder to win this way, at least for Altarian Prophecy games (where you also have to pay a fee to build a party palace). I wouldn't feel too guilty about using this technique in any game where you're obviously going to win anyway. Just surviving to the point where it's poss

Reply to Positioning Stations For Cultural Conquest in Strategies Stardock Forums

To clarify your current situation: If you're not afraid of the AI declaring war on you, building them in his sector is significantly more effective. With your current game version, the bonuses for culture starbases within a single sector multiply together. So if you build one party palace, it will roughly triple your influence in that sector. If you build two, it will multiply influence by nine. Build three, and it will multiply your influence by twenty-seven. If you didn't know alre

Reply to questions about alignment in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Yeah, but I sent a job application off today, so who knows? ~SDC~

Reply to Positioning Stations For Cultural Conquest in Strategies Stardock Forums

[quote]Does upgrading create the same problems as creating an initial starbase?[/quote] Yes. ~SDC~

Reply to questions about alignment in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Twenty-four miles per hour. http://www.style.org/unladenswallow/ ~SDC~

Reply to Something missing? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I get the impression that if an AI pays you tribute for peace, it will be less willing to pay it to you again in future wars. It's a fairly minor penalty. ~SDC~

Reply to questions about alignment in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

[quote]Why does the ocean always connect to the land?[/quote] Well, in the olden days, there were often huge chasms separating the land from the sea, but these have now all been filled in by the government's Department of Holes, who felt these gaps were a hazard both to shipping and to sunbathers. [quote]Why do birds suddenly appear every time you are near?[/quote] I glue birdseed to my head. ~SDC~

Reply to questions about alignment in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Thank you. Anything else you want explained clearly? ~SDC~

Reply to questions about alignment in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

[quote]Matthew Downie of the Fellowship of the Ring has been testing different events to see what the alignment change is.[/quote] Bard of Prey said the change in alignment always seems to be within one point of (ActualBonusValue, multiplied by MoralityWeight, divided by 10). This is fairly consistent with my own experiments. ActualBonusValue is the number that appears when you see the event, like 36 if you're offered -36% morale, or 78 if you're offered +78BC. MoralityWeight i

Reply to Two newbish questions in Strategies Stardock Forums

Sorry if my advice didn't work - I've learned to avoid losing elections by techniques such as the phoney tax cut, so haven't been in that situation for a long time. You can see how long until the next election on the domestic / economic screen, below the senate diagram. ~SDC~

Reply to Opening moves in Strategies Stardock Forums

[quote]how easy it was to play Sid Meier's Civ II[/quote] It was pretty easy... if you were already experienced at Civ 1. [quote](presuming that my low scores might negatively effect theirs[/quote] The empire score is the total of the scores of all the players in the empire. So even if you have no points, you won't make them any worse off, and if you submit even a single game, they'll be better off. Apart from those empires that are 'invite only', you can assume that any emp

Reply to Two newbish questions in Strategies Stardock Forums

[quote]What are the best ways to QUICKLY regain control of the Senate? [/quote] Abolish democracy now! (Select Dictatorship government). Or offer 'declare war on X' to someone else as a gift, if there's anyone who will accept that. ~SDC~

Reply to Opening moves in Strategies Stardock Forums

[quote]When i went back the same turn and offered the same deal, they just turned me down flat.[/quote] When you initiate the trade, the computer calculates whether the AI thinks it's a good deal using a complicated formula. When the AI offers you a deal, they will sometimes be incredibly generous, and at other times offer you something totally unfair. You have to learn to spot the good ones, as you won't get another chance. ~SDC~

Reply to Morale Tips in Strategies Stardock Forums

[quote]If you have 80% morale and build something giving you +15%, do you now have 95%, or 80 + .15(80), giving you only 92%? And if the latter is true, if that 80% is really 60% with a 33% bonus already, does the +15% give you 60% + .48(60), which is really only 89% - and if this is true, how can you find a planet's base morale to find out the actual effect of a morale improvement?[/quote] None of the above. ~SDC~

Reply to Ascend? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

You ought to win as soon as you research the Final Frontier technology. If you didn't win, that either means that an alien race beat you to it (and the alien tech victory option was switched on) or that you switched off the tech victory option when starting the game. ~SDC~

Reply to Capturing planets with influence in Strategies Stardock Forums

I'm not sure, but I don't think destabilisation helps you to culture flip enemy worlds. I think it just lowers morale, which can cause them to declare independence and join the I-League, at which point they won't ever flip - like most minors, I-League have high loyalty (the factor that prevents flipping). The Drengin world probably had a lot of propaganda type improvements. The only way to overcome it is with more influence. A bunch of culture boosting starbases will usually do the trick - a

Reply to What is the differance between trade and economy? and how do bonuses stack? in Strategies Stardock Forums

You could buy stuff if you have that much money, on whatever planet you want. You can build more improvements to spend more, or build production booster starbases, or get some research resource starbases which will allow you to spend masses on research. But I like to have money in reserve, for all sorts of fun things; bribery, terror stars... If you have lots of money, it's almost impossible to lose. ~SDC~

Reply to Ventran players, what Settings do you use? in Strategies Stardock Forums

[quote]So military victory is the best?[/quote] Military victories don't have to be literally military - it just means you end up controlling every star in the galaxy. So you could do that through culture-flipping all of them.

Reply to What is the differance between trade and economy? and how do bonuses stack? in Strategies Stardock Forums

[quote]how do multiple starbases stack with trade?[/quote] Additive, uncapped. If you have three +50% starbases in a sector, then any of your mini-freighters passing through that sector will give +150% trade income. If you have a racial bonus of +20% trade, I assume that will effectively be +170%. [quote]my income on each planet was far below the expense to run the planet [/quote] Unlike tax income, things like research bonuses are not capped. So +300% research will allow you to

Reply to Ventran players, what Settings do you use? in Strategies Stardock Forums

'Rare' habitability is most common among experienced players. You get a higher score for playing on the bigger levels, but they take a long time if there are a lot of habitable planets. Tiny and Small galaxies don't score much so they're not good if you're trying to claw your way up the metaverse. They're fairly easy if you can build a military early and expand fast. Medium and Large galaxies tend to be the hardest. Huge and Gigantic are too slow-paced for some people, but score the best and

Reply to Early economy booms in Strategies Stardock Forums

Remember, you can also 'capture' trade routes. If you conquer a planet, you gain control of all the trade routes going to and from it (with some exceptions - it doesn't allow you to exceed your normal limit on trade routes, and you won't gain any trade if you're at war with the person the trade was with). If you can win a war easily enough, do not provoke wars between your enemies and their trading partners, since this will break off their trade prematurely, preventing you from capturing it.

Reply to Managing population in Strategies Stardock Forums

[quote]the problem is self managing [/quote] Not quite. The problem is, if you allow all your planets to fall to 54 morale, you will probably lose the next election. [quote]the faster way to have a drop in moral is to increase taxes. [/quote] Yes: if you allow all your morales to fall to 54 and you find yourself needing to increase taxes, then you will suffer seriously low morale. That's why I keep my taxes at 50% all the time - it stops planets getting overpopulated. ***********