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Reply to Getting Spanked On Normal in Strategies Stardock Forums

oooops . . . it appears that the EBZeroMatrix Gal Civ Cranking Guide is no longer available. :( I had only checked the home page, which is still there and not the actual guide which is not. Sorry for any inconvenience. The Orion guide is still there. In addition to a fast colonization start, I think that researching and selling techs to the AI is the key to winning on sub-maso levels. If you always have lots of money, you can run the economy on full speed, pump up production, snag the t

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

[quote]Rick, our picking strategy is exactly the same.[/quote] Glad I am doing something right. ;) Vincible, Ray, and others . . . I put a maso question in the maso strategy thread but basically I am trying to learn maso level economics. I am mostly broke since I can't swap tech for cash on maso. It seems the obvious approach is pump up freighter trade with star base boosters and build up population for taxes. What am I missing? Please share your thoughts here or in the maso st

Reply to Getting Spanked On Normal in Strategies Stardock Forums

WileyCoyote gets the "helpful forum member of the day award" :) Here are a couple of links that may help: The Orion Strategy Guide (good explanations; well written) http://www.orionsector.com/pages/galciv/downloads/The_Unofficial_GalCiv_Strategy_Guide_v1_0.pdf The Gal Civ Cranking Guide (hand-holding walk-through tutorial for beginner level) http://ebzeromatrix.tripod.com/ Good luck. :) Rick [Message Edited]

Reply to Maso Strategies in Strategies Stardock Forums

Hi maso players: I have played two maso games on tiny, rare but my economy is really short on cash. The only reliable way I can figure to generate cash is through trade and star base boosters. At the lower levels, one can get cash for tech but not at maso so tribute levels are very low (4 for 20 months from minors when I sell them a bunch of tech or 1 for 6 months or so from majors). Working within the amount generated by taxes and trade means I can't run production at 100%. What do oth

Reply to Difficulty Levels Revealed in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Gerraken has been giving weekly updates so all is cool but I was just trying to figure out how many were playing maso. When Ray asked over the last few months, it always seemed less than 10 active maso players. Now there are over 20 and maybe closer to 30?Interesting . . . Rick

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

I have tried most of the options. My favorite for the last couple of weeks has been the +20 diplo, +20 morale party (populist?) and always choosing max diplo (5 points for 60%). That leaves 5 points left. On a large map (or bigger), I choose +1 speed and on a medium map or less (where I only colonize one or two sectors away), I choose +5 PQ to get that extra PQ. Then I put one point in morale to crank up that pop growth and the final one in influence both for the early game and because I prefer

Reply to Can you beat Maso without cheese? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

[quote]Buying enemy starbases with cash, especially influence resource starbases.[/quote] Granted I have only played a couple of maso games, but how do you generate cash? The only way I can figure out how is through freighers/trade with starbase boosters. On maso I can't get cash for tech swapping like I could on the lower levels (1 bc per turn for 5 turns when swapping 6 techs LOL). Plus my economy is pretty lame compared those incredible AIs. How does one generate cash on maso so you

Reply to Difficulty Levels Revealed in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Thanks Gerraken. If the maso honor roll includes those who have won at maso then add Blue Steel and me. That makes at least 20 total so the numbers playing maso are higher than ever (in my 3 months here) and growing quite rapidly - or as you desribe it, "maso madness" LOL. Rick

Reply to The ANZAC Republic in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

BlueSteel Congrats on the maso victory. I also won my first and wanted to thank team ANZAC in particularly Cotal and Jeff Desilva for unselfishly posting their successful strategies. Thanks. :) Rick

Reply to G.R.O.S.S. communication thread. in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Killa and PBP, thanks for the walk-through maso tutorials. They helped me win my first maso. :) Rick

Reply to G.R.O.S.S. communication thread. in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Killa and PBP, thanks for the walk-through maso tutorials. They helped me win my first maso. :) Rick

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

[quote]Rick, vincible,Cheese aside, how hard do you think Maso is over Crippling? Forget about scoring, I'm asking about difficulty.[/quote] Ray It is hard to say after playing one game of maso but it is totally different than crippling. Basically, there is never any surplus cash and one is alway behind. At the other levels a "good game" means dominating (number one in population, military, tech, economy, etc.). In maso I don't think I will ever dominate anything. I was just tr

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

Welcome to the FOTR gamer3999. Won my first maso today and it is a totally different game because there is no money and the human is always behind until the end. In spite of reading this before I played, it was hard to comprehend until one has played it. I broke out laughing a few times when a minor is only going to give me 2 bc per turn for 20 turns for six or more techs. Of course that is better because the major will only give you 1 bc . . . for 6 or 7 turns. LOL. I would ha

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

vincible thank you; I didn't know that was a "bug" but some sort of nifty terran intelligence agents. ;) I tried that large, crippling game again and it is history. After a few turns I hit retire and get zero mpts. Oh well, that's one out of fifty-something games that went anomalous so I am not complaining as long as it doesn't become the norm. I will have to live without having a crippling game in my player profile - at least for now. I think I might clean out my save games folders no

Reply to How to avoid anomalous metaverse scores in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

well I tried to replay it but when I saved the game and checked the "retire" I got zero mpts. Looks like I better bury that game. Anyone have any success replaying an anomalous game and getting it to be "un-anomalous"? :) Rick

Reply to How to avoid anomalous metaverse scores in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Thought I would bump this since 1.1 came out. Yesterday, in spite of no mods or cheats, I got an anomalous on a large, crippling but with 1.1 you can see it is zero mpts before submitting so I didn't submit. As per a tip from Ray the Wanderer, I checked all my save games and "retired" so I could see if any had points. The bad news is that my recent save games were all zero but the good news is that a very early colonization phase save game had some points. The bad new

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

Ray. Thanks. I think I will save hourly or so on a large game and do a retire to make sure I have points. In retrospect, the interface in the lower right corner (near the I key to inspect ships) got a little funny like two interfaces together at once so I saved the game ASAP. When I clicked the quit game the machine locked up and I had to reset button the machine, go through scandisk, etc. So there was something funny going on somewhere. In addition to routine saving and checking I guess my advi

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

Ray, you deserve my thanks for the tips on metaverse score submission. I got a zero mpts today on a large crippling 1.1. As per your tip, I went back to old save games and did the "retire". The recent save games were all zero scores but the one from 6 hours ago had points so maybe that is still good. Doh!!! I presume there was an electronic glitch somewhere but I am pretty sure if you get a score like 24k and below it where it usually say xxx mpts it says 0, that means anomalous. Oh well, what t

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

[quote]Anybody else feeling weary about all these scoring discussions? I am. Yesterday, I was seriously considering wandering off this game and forum to something else because all these bad vibes were starting to get to me.[/quote] It was bad. I had to break from Gal Civ and go watch football. Usually, I come to the forum to get pumped up to play more Gal Civ but you are right Ray, it was a downer. So to prevent this from happening again, Ray and vincible, let's get two things out in th

Reply to Maso Strategies in Strategies Stardock Forums

Thanks for the tips, particulary the walk-through tutorial. :) Rick

Reply to A Maso Small Map Guide For All The Family in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Thanks PBP and Killa for the maso walk-throughs. Rick

Reply to The ANZAC Republic in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Cotal & Jeff and others thanks for the strategy tips. Congratulations to ANZAC for 1 million. Rick [Message Edited]

Reply to The Metaverse Review is Launched! in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Theoden Very nice job. :) Rick

Reply to ok..... since maso seems to be the only way to rack up some points now.... in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

[quote]Just feel I should repeat the oft-said phrase - if you don't like the Metaverse, don't participate.[/quote] Hmmm. . . my Emperor Ray . . . I don't seem to recall that attitude after EBZ had creatively turned the metaverse on its head with a cranking strategy that a newbie could follow step by step and get a good (not a great) score. For those of us who read all of the posts during that era, this "love it or leave it" attitude does seem to be somewhat hypocritical and self-righteo

Reply to The ANZAC Republic in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Hi Cotal: Congratulations on your number 2 ranking and also on your maso wins, which are both major galactic achievements. I got confused when you said: [quote]Another cheesy thing I've been doing lately which speeds up the game heaps is securing an alliance with every species (if possible including Minors) as early as possible. This is super useful because you don't have to worry about so many distractions. Be sure to keep in touch with all your allies with a little espionage