Peter Harris

Reply to Known Bugs / Cheese Listing (Game Mechanics Only) in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Two varieties of cheese presented herewith: Repeatedly colonising, and immediately destroying colony, of some size 3 planet for sole purpose of getting events to change morality. Selling planets you know will flip back very quickly.

Reply to Ship assessments? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I think Starfighters are great for early deterrence (I play at Normal). They are cheap and can be produced quickly so I can soon have a little fleet of them, I leave them in orbit which gets me high enough on the strength graph to deter the AI for a long time. I can then develop in peace until I get battleships. The Starfighters are wonderful for deterrence but not much use in a fight (cheapness and speed make them ideal for chasing constructors and colony ships and disrupting trade though).

Reply to Anyone else sell planets to Minors very early? in Strategies Stardock Forums

I like to give or sell a system right in inside my territory so I can set up multiple starbase enhanced trade routes. Umh, all of my trade routes going from my juiciest system to that one system with lots of trade enhancing starbase modules along the way means plenty of money. These are very short but very rich trade routes which are easy to defend and sometimes not likely to be attacked much. They are particularly defensible if both systems are in the same sector which is what I often do. :) <

Reply to Is it just me, or are the Yor almost constantly destitute? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I think of the Yor as a Minor with pretensions. ;) I usually give the Yor an occaisonal free tech, later a few battleships and otherwise just ignore them. About the only times I ever hear from them is when they ask for aid because someone is destroying them, I usually give them some good warships. Relations with the Yor usually finish up as friendly or close (somehow I don't think they were designed to be a friendly race ;) ). Besides I would rather pick on those nasty extorting Dren

Reply to Flipping minors, a question. in Strategies Stardock Forums

OronHaus Do Minors attack? I have never had a Minor attack me or threaten me. (Although I assume the Fundamentalists may attack if I were evil). OTH I did once see a message that the Carinoids destabilising the Drengin and I though Minors were completely docile.

Reply to How About More Minor Race Interaction and Complex Morals... in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

EU2 style diplomatic annexation would be an interesting concept indeed. OTH Birth of the Federation style (how much is that planet in window) annexation would detract from the game I think. I think the process of annexation would be far more important than whether or not one could annex. Any annexation needs to be more than merely a question of a big empire throwing money at a little empire until it joins. I am not sure what the answer is. Perhaps it could involve

Anyone else sell planets to Minors very early? in Strategies Stardock Forums

Lately I have been trying an "expand like hell" early game strategy and sell anything to finance this expansion and subsequent basic development of my colonies. I find I can get up to 3100bc selling a system to a minor (who will then try to colonise the rest of that sector giving the added bonus of depriving the other majors of expansion opportunities). I want/need money right now to keep spending on an overextended empire at 100% so I can get those soil enrichment and banking centres in ASAP so

Reply to Destablization in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Destabilisation is, I think, the only serious flaw this game has. I no longer destabilise other races because sometimes that is just far so wildly successful it takes all of the fun out of the game. (Umh, I remember one game in which a huge Drengin Empire just went down the gurgler and I was shelling a tiny amount on destabilisation). OTH Sometimes destabisation has no apparent effect even if done on a massive scale for sustained period of time. (umh, remember spending 1000bc per turn

Reply to First post, in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

QUOTE: Seems that nobody can get the a.i. and micromanaging at the same time. ENDQUOTE Not sure what you mean. Although completely different from Chess, GalCiv is a game that is also easy to play but difficult to master. I find that the amount of micromanagement in this game compares very favourably to most TBS games. You can use AI Governors for your low value colonies, just set them to build planet quality and economy improvements so they chip in a few dollars each,

Reply to Win by alliance with all five races! in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

After seeing this thread, I though I might try this just for fun (tiny map, normal difficulty). The Altarians and Torians were wiped out too quickly but when I obtained the Alliance tech I allied with the three remaining civs and both minors. I had trade routes only with the minors but I gave tech (eg.including valuable ones such as shields and trade) as gifts to everyone every now and again. I did not have to give many gifts, just every now and again. They mostly hated one another so t

Reply to Anyboby Tech Whoring? in Strategies Stardock Forums

I don't let a little thing like being at war prevent me from trading techs. ;) Last game the friendly Altarians had some nice techs and I didn't have quite enough to swap for it. I was at war (as usual) with the Drengins who had some tech so I swapped with them (without making peace) to get enough to offer the Altarians. Am I a whore? ;)

Reply to Flipping minors, a question. in Strategies Stardock Forums

#11 OronHaus Umh. I really can't say whether it is best to snap up the minors or keep them alive and onside. For me, with my peaceful strategy, it works out much better to have at least one pet minor. OTH I grabbed both minors very early in one game and that worked out very well. I was trying an aggressive strategy and there was little room for me to expand. I think it may depend upon both playing style and game circumstances. Keeping pet minors seems more of a long term invest

Reply to A question about Alliances in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

#11 Parable I could not disagree more. I really dislike the idea of "buying an alliance". I like the present GalCiv setup in which you get close by swapping techs and setting up trade routes. Letting another civ get your military techs is the closest thing possible in a game to earning "trust" from the AI. As things stand I see a certain logic to when allies will help. A very weak ally seems rather less likely to join in against a superpower which is realistic. Strong allies se

Reply to A question about Alliances in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

#4 by Veteran Gerakken - 6/15/2003 3:39:33 AM .....allying with a minor civ is only inviting war from a major..... Not if you build the minor up with techs and trade. That takes a long time and involves handing over virtually all of your tech and trade goods for free (or at low prices) and plenty of trade routes with trade enhancing starbases along the way. Eventually the minor fills its' orbits with battleships and dreadnoughts (with the battleship and dreadnought tech you g

Reply to How do you maintain focus? in Strategies Stardock Forums

LOL So I am not the only one who loses focus in a war. I want a peaceful game so I tend to supply someone else with the stuff to put down my enemies. ;)

Reply to How do you maintain focus? in Strategies Stardock Forums

I just keep playing until such time as I feel a new game would be more interesting. Like vincible, I tend to start a new game when I know victory or defeat is inevitable. If I know I can win with a long war (plenty of help is always available) I can do without the war so I just start a new game. :)

Reply to Flipping minors, a question. in Strategies Stardock Forums

#5 by Citizen OronHaus - 6/18/2003 9:01:01 AM Extort the minors in your sectors as soon as you run into them. This will limit their ability to create a good defense and you can simply irradicate them at a later time. Why wait for culture!? I do the opposite. I sell stuff to the nearby minor early on to finance my growth (including selling them a colony so they colonise a second sector). I only charge them enough to pay for my needs so they can finance a fleet and pay for the

Reply to I have an idea... or a question... in Mods Stardock Forums

I also woulf like to be able to create linked events. I would like to able to create events that are not random. Events that occur on a particular turn. Events that occur if you/someone does a particular thing. Please with sugar on top. :)

Reply to Newbie in Crises in Strategies Stardock Forums

Cord In your post you mention that you have colonised one planet in the Sol system and one other star system. May I suggest that it would be better to leave Sol for the time being and instead grab other star systems leaving Sol until you have grabbed as many systems as you can. Umh, grab the systems with one colony each and colonise any extra planets in those systems later. Instead of leasing try putting you military spending to say 80% and your science to 20% and jack up your

Reply to Newbie in trouble in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

A tax rate of 45-50% seems very high and spending of 10-30% low. I suspect the high tax rates are annoying the population so much that is increasing very slowly (I reckon your planets would be much less populous than the AI planets, you could have a peek to see if this is so). It is all interrelated. Leaving the tax rate so high means smaller populations to pay for fleets and improvements so you then must lower the spending and on it goes. A more moderate tax rate is better ov

Reply to how do u invade and a few other qustions in Strategies Stardock Forums

A ship in orbit gets significant bonuses and battleaxes are tough little fellows, just send plenty of warships. To invade, build a transport, put troops into it, send over to the enemy star and just ram it into that star after you have destroyed everything orbiting that star. You will then be presented with four self explanatory invasion options. Hope this helps. :)

Reply to Newbie in trouble in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Don't fiddle the tax rates all the time because that finishs up annoying your population. Build freighters and establish trade routes. Build trade enhancing starbase modules to maximise trade route values. Don't build everything on every world. On a lousy world build all the free improvements: soil enrichment, habitat improvement, bank and economic exchange (if needed cultural resistance and/or influence improvements) and then pretty well leave them to generate a few BC, a bit

A few suggestions about minors and diplomacy in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I have been playing at “normal” difficulty and have some suggestions I would like to put forward. I would welcome comments from other players in respect of my suggestions because one needs to be very careful about changes to a game. I find, sometimes when modding a game, that what seemed like a good idea sometimes unbalances or otherwise spoils the game. Stardock reads these suggestion threads and just might do something! MINORS I would like to see minors t

Reply to New Starbase module in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

The production penalty seems a bit low. ;)

Reply to AI Starbases in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

It sounds like you are playing at sub-normal difficulty level or at least that is what I recollect the AI doing with starbases at that level. I think they put 3 or defensive modules and multiple improvements at "normal' level. As the difficulty rises, the AI usage of starbases gets smarter and more comprehensive. Umh. At fool the AI seems to put no defensive modules and no improvements at all. (Entirely appropriate for the level though).