HydroAC

Reply to Altarian AAR in AARs GalCiv2 Forums

October 2230 Well, that didn’t take long. In September the Drengin declared war, citing “We know what you’re doing, so we’re declaring war on you before you declare war on us.” They were probably referring to the three sets of transports with fleets I had in the sector by three of his planets. Apparently he took offense. The next turn I took those three planets, and then moved on a few turns later to take a fourth. One of those planets was from a former minor race with a large influence

Reply to Altarian AAR in AARs GalCiv2 Forums

Wyndstar, You are quite right, and I have to admit I do role play the races a bit since for me that is part of the fun. Getting the Altarans to Evil would be a chore since they start with a 99 ethos rating, but I could just choose evil and take the big eco hit. But consider that I could get no alliances since no AI has researched the tech. I’m using no tech trading, and in the three full games I’ve played with no tech trading after the patch the only race that has pursued that

Reply to Extortion in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

You can pretty easily get 'contributions' from minor and maybe major races if you have a respectable military. As has been said, this can add up to a nice sum in total. Just don't use it on people you want as friends. I usually ask for a contribution from minors before they are added to my empire. Evil? Nope: pragmatic. Hydro

Reply to Doing well in this game seems to depend too much on pure luck. in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

Or you can do what the AI seems to do: colonize every planet you can as it expands into the galaxy (although the AI seems to mostly ignore most PQ1 planets). Even the low PQ planets are a great long term investment, so grab them all (as long as they aren't in the middle of AI territory and may flip). Sure, go for the best PQ planets first (they have better morale and influence), but in the end grab what you can. Time spent in traveling is time not spend developing, so sending colony sh

Reply to Your ideas for the next update! in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

I’ve played the Krynn and Altarans in DA and, although the races have very nice stats, I have found their Super Abilities to be not all that useful. Alternatively – I haven’t seen and used their advantages to their full abiltiy, which is always possible. But based on my experience I think Super Organizer and Super Spy need to be enhanced a bit. For the Krynn, the first spy is nice, but the anti espionage building is only useful for the morale bump. It doesn’t kill current spies on the

Reply to Mine Field in Warfare GalCiv2 Forums

Yup, space is big, and it's 3D space. I'd imagine to get enough mines you'd have to deploy the mass equivalent to several planets or solar systems. You could deply them around specific points, say around planets or starbases. But then, that already could be part of the defenses starbases have. Not sure about planets. In other games I've played minefields are tedious in the extreme - micromanagement h*ll. Best to absstract them. Hydro

Reply to Altarian AAR in AARs GalCiv2 Forums

Each commentary is a snapshot, meaning I save, take a screenshot, exit the game, and write my observations for that point in time. I do not know how it will end, so any ramblings or speculation are just that. In this game I did start the commentary a bit late: mid 2229. I was lazy and hit One More Turn a bit too much, and all those turns seemed to slip by. The previous game (Krynn) was actually on a huge map and it took a long time, where I'd get a bit of time after work and maybe do

Reply to Oh noes, the evil Drengin Empire is defeating me wholesale.. in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

I think part of the reason is that the Drengin may still have a strong military rating, even if you win the battles. I've noticed the AI only sues or agrees to an even peace when it is on its back. Hydro

Reply to Tired of Same Old Game (AI WAR) in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

I am playing on the latest patch. In regards to research and production, I keep up just fine. The key is to have "a strong military". I strong military requires significant research into military items. Which means that something else has to suffer. I don't want a strong military (or rather spend resources researching one). Why can't I be Canada or Germany? Canada and Germany (and the rest of the Western nations, for that matter) can get away with small

Altarian AAR in AARs GalCiv2 Forums

I’ve never played the Altarians before. In GC2: DL there didn’t seem to be anything special about them. In DA the Altarian AI almost always seems to do well economically and by research. The base picks for the Altarians are pretty good: +30% eco, +25% research, +20% morale. I’m not sold on the Super Organizer, since it strikes me as being pretty limited. Perhaps the good racial scores will make up for this. I decided to try the Altarians configured as researchers. My picks were +30% ec

Reply to Krynn AAR in AARs GalCiv2 Forums

Scout – I did build the Eyes of the Universe. But getting the Super Scouts out before then gave me a huge peace of mind to know when the Drengin were trying to sneak through Yor territory toward me – which they tried a few times. I had fleets ready to intercept them. I didn’t know about the limit, so since a sector is 15 parsecs wide that would mean a maxed scout can see all of 4 sectors. That’s still pretty darn good! First spy – I did put him on the Thalian as soon as I could since th

Reply to Macromedia Flash Player 6 error message when entering GalCiv2 web site in Bug Reports GalCiv2 Forums

Thanks for the heads up. I went to Adobe and repeatedly tried to update Macromedia Flash (now Adobe Flash) from v6 to v9. It would simply not update, and the site’s tech help did not help at all for someone like me who is minimally competent and has no wish to be more than a user. So I uninstalled using their special uninstall tool and Macromedia Flash is now happily disabled. Now I get a tiny icon where the G4 image was on the GalCiv intro screen, and my PC no longer ceases to work wit

Krynn AAR in AARs GalCiv2 Forums

Krynn AAR I haven’t played the Krynn before. At first glance there is nothing special about them. Their super ability – Super Spy – doesn’t strike me as very powerful or especially useful. In most games I’ve played in DA spies have been annoying, my spies have died fairly quickly, and I’ve never gotten anything in the way of tech or even much infiltration of a faction. When I started to spec out the Krynn I noticed that they have a fairly nice set of basic abilities. In partic

Macromedia Flash Player 6 error message when entering GalCiv2 web site in Bug Reports GalCiv2 Forums

In the last few days when I first open the GalCiv 2 web site I get the following message: Macromedia Flash Player 6 The script in this movie is causing Macromedia Flash Player 6 to run slowly. If it continues to run, your computer may become unresponsive. Do you want to abort this script? Yes/No I’ve selected Yes. Otherwise the PC seems to freeze and I can’t do anything. Since I’ve just entered the site and haven’t activated anything I’m at a loss as to what

Reply to The One event that truely sucks in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

You can turn Mega Events off. Nothing I've seen alters the speed restriction (although I haven't seen how the starbase items work - I don't build military starbases). The Council passed a law giving Construtors a max spd of 7. Wheeee! Then I found they can only go spd 5 after all. Drat. It looks likes the Council can't repeal natural laws after all! Hydro

Reply to The Value of Victory in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

Note that a diplomatic victory seems to be very difficult when tech trading is turned off. In the few games I’ve played since the patch with tech trading off the AIs generally do NOT research the government/alliance tech line. If they don’t research Alliance then, of course, you can’t get allies. And you can’t gift the tech, get an ally when they are close – you have to wait for them to research it (and some never do). In my latest game almost all the AIs are Close (I’ve been a good Krynn), but

Reply to problem with custom freighters in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

Another idea - add a scout or survey module to your freighter. Then your freighters along your trade routes will keep an eye due to increased detection on the area they traverse. As kyro said, do check the auto upgrade. I made that mistake, too. It was a big pain to have to rebuild every ship from scratch, so I'm glad a friend let me in on the setting change. Hydro

Reply to Fighting 'Lower Life' as the Advanced Species in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

You need one or maybe two fronts, and being in the center of the map means you can't really play a defensive stance until you fix this strategic problem. Consider tidying up one front by crushing the AI until it gives up or is not a threat. Then you can turtle and no one can touch you. That is an isolationist thing to do. Hydro

Reply to Extortion in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

I haven't had any luck either since the patch. A sleaze tactic was to grind down a power or minor, extort everything they had, and then invade anyway. I'm guessing the devs decided to restrict this kind of abuse (even if it is somewhat realistic). Note that the Drengin's super ability gives them a heightened ability to extort from weaker players. I've noticed they get fairly frequent infusions of cash from other AIs when I look at the debug.err file or get diplomatic notices during the

Reply to The One event that truely sucks in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

It's hit me many times, and it appears to be for the whole game, or at least it has never ended in any game where it has occurred. It is not a Council resolution - it just happens. Overall it certainly stirs things up since I have to revise my strategies. Isn’t that the whole idea of Mega Events? Vinraith - you are quite right (and nice SF examples, too). Any conflicts are come-as-you-are! Hydro

Reply to Fighting 'Lower Life' as the Advanced Species in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

To have a few but very good fleets you need, obviously, very good speed, a decent offense, and a very good defense. An excellent defense is key to being able to survive the battles and then going immediately to take on the next opponent or fleet. Otherwise you’ll have strings of damaged ships that will eventually die at the hands of superior numbers. Make sure you defense is keyed to your enemies weapons, too. For instance, in a recent game I was able to hold off ~190 Drengin (!!!) tha

Reply to The One event that truely sucks in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

As I recall, there was a Star Trek the Next Generation episode where warp speed had to be reduced to avoid tearing the fabric of the universe. I think the devs must have borrowed that idea. The speed 5 event does radically change the game. For one, it makes propulsion techs completely pointless after Warp (and the +2 bonus). Since your ships are slow you can fit more stuff on them, like weapons, defense, transport modules. Also, in large and huge galaxies ships are obsolete by the time

Reply to Tech trading nerf??? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

What is really annoying is when the AI calls you up and wants a juicy tech (Impulse 3), and offers something utterly worthless in return (new propulsions, which my races skipped since I started with Ion). Then, when you take the same one-sided deal and offer it back just to see what happens they tell you to get lost! Examples like this and the Group AI Tech Research are why I'm strongly leaning toward turning off tech trading. Hydro

Reply to Tech trading nerf??? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Yes, it is now much more difficult to trade tech - or anything else, for that matter. The diplomacy of trading has been completely overhauled in DA. My guess this was done to pinch 'tech whoring', where a player would do serial trading of a single tech and walk away with the store (even without Super Diplo). Now the AI will generally never trade for weapons tech, and especially advanced weapons tech or any extreme colonization tech. Any trade you do get will generally be to your disadv

Reply to I'm a miserable failure... in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

First, the Starport is needed to construct ships. Strategies vary, but I put them on every single planet I have except the very smallest. Why? Because I hate to not be able to build a defender, or perhaps a transport, constructor, scout, or survey ship. Every planet needs to help in propagating my empire, and space power is a key to this. The guidance states that population growth at `100% morale is 2x normal, so this will really count up over the long term – even if on the short term