Crushbone

Reply to Help! in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Well, there's plenty of good info floating around here on the public forums as well. One ironic thing I discovered is that I found the game easier as I made the AIs tougher, and that's because they had more money to give to me in return for techs that I had researched! Seriously, I found pursuing early trading with the AIs an essential part of the game. Trade your techs for their techs, sell them techs they don't have, and just keep the cycle going. Oh yeah, one thing you may

Hyper Sensor event - WOW! in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I've never seen it mentioned before on the boards here, but it happened in my game last night. WOW! My scouts went from about 17 parsec or so to 51 parsec sensor range. I only needed 4 scouts to see the whole galaxy =) Finally broke solidly into the top 100, too! Made #99 several weeks ago, but that didn't last long, since I only play about a game a week, but at least at #67, I should stay in the top 100 for a day or two =)

Reply to colonizing planets within system in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

That hasn't been my experience at all. I set my tax rate to 35% on turn one and never touch it. As far as morale, if you colonize the 13-14s with 100-250M colonists, initial morale is not a problem either. I do, however, colonize them quite early in the game, as soon as the 15+ are all taken. The earlier of a start you get on them, the better.

Reply to colonizing planets within system in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

[quote]So the only real way to colonize PQ13s would be if you have the cash to rush build the PQ improvements...or maybe I just have my standards too high [/quote] Well. I guess relative to me, your standards are set too high =) I just have the two PQ improvements first in the queue, and let them build normally. They're done when they're done. You don't want sub-16 planets long-term, but if you have some for 10-20 turns, it's really not that big of a deal.

Reply to Should influence be capped? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

[quote]But I can still flip planet after planet with little or no resistance, it will just take a little longer, that's all. This will just add tedium to the game, not strategy[/quote] No, it won't, unless you are just playing "cultural victory in military clothing", and really never actually attack the AIs. For those who play like me (using cultural pressure to flip some planets while mopping up), it won't extend the game (or tedium) at all, since I'm not using the cheese tactic of mu

Reply to Galactic Civilizations Multiplayer in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

[quote]In time people will get tired of single and lust the intensity multiplayer. [/quote] Yeah, and then you'll hit 40, and have kids running around the house, and realize that a nice single-player game that's there for those short periods of time when it's convenient to you, isn't such a bad thing after all =)

Reply to can anyone explain how PQ improvements work and why? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Sounds like a bug, when I build PQ improvements, they work as stated. You may want to zip up the saved game and send it to Stardock.

Reply to GalCiv questions?!:) in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

[quote]The part that really make me worry is my frigates could get about 50-55 HP but theirs had 130+ HP for the same class boat. What could they have done different than me to get that many more HP for their ships?[/quote] War Monger political party (or whatever it's called) and +HP ability picks.

Reply to colonizing planets within system in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

[quote]planets 14 quality or better should be colonized, if you go any lower you'll have a hard time establishing your colony[/quote] Agreed, unless you have the +5% PQ ability picked, in which case, PQ13s are fine to colonize.

Reply to Galactic Civilizations Multiplayer in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

[quote]Well, Crushbone, I also have examples of games that take ages to complete yet people still play them, Empire Deluxe is one of them[/quote] Yes, but the point is, how many NEW games of this type are getting development dollars spent on them? My guess would be a number approaching zero. The question isn't whether there are some people who would play, but whether there are enough of these people to justify the development costs. [quote]If people could take the time to pla

Reply to Auto survey in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

LOL, Hairy! I recently stopped using auto-survey, to stop hitting the stupid wormholes. I wish they had a button for atu-survey-but-skip-the-wormholes. Or have some advantage to hitting the wormholes.

Reply to Should influence be capped? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Well, the far more simple solution is to fix the bug that is causing Influence starbases to MULTIPLY, as opposed to ADD, like all other bonuses do. I myself use Party Palaces to help flip planets, to help speed up military victories. It would take forever, otherwise, so I'm not a fan of turning off flipping when cultural is turned off. Even if it means the AIs can't flip us, either. I do, however, limit myself to one cultural SB per sector.

Reply to How does the AI do it? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

[quote]von Schmidt: if you have espionage, you can see the current tech being researched *and* the computer's tech spending. You look up the tech cost on Javascout's web site and figure out how much time it would take to research at that rate of spending[/quote] Yes, vincible, that's it! Thanks for answering for me, I was busy yesterday =) I usually try to complete the trade a turn or two early for two reasons, though: 1 - They may spike up their spending, 2 - If it's not an exclusiv

Reply to Idea for new scoring system in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Umm, you forgot game difficulty. The present scoring system already discounts difficulty enough, no need to discount it further. To me, the lamest win possible on Maso should score higher than the best win possible on Normal, or even tough. Right now, that definitely is not the case. But I agree somewhat with the idea of decreasing the importance of LOTS of games running up your score. Then maybe non-college-students-on-summer-break will have a shot as well =)

Reply to Galactic Civilizations Multiplayer in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

The problem with multiplayer turn-based games is volume of sales. There aren't enough "hard-core" players around to sell to. People who aren't hard-core (i.e., don't have hours a day to play the game) don't buy the game, because if you only run a few turns (or 1 turn) a day, the games take forever to play out. A perfect example of this is "Stars!". They could never get the sequel game published simply because there aren't enough people out there to buy it. All the people like me and

Reply to Why won't the minor flip? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Is that right? Ships in orbit add to cultural resistance? That's the first time I've heard of it!!

Reply to How does the AI do it? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Well, the first level is pretty useless (although it does show spending in each of the 3 categories, and treasury balance), but I like the second level a LOT. It kicks in with 300bc cumulative spending on a given race. The reason I like it is this: it shows what tech the AI is currently researching. The AIs are very stingy with what they pay for techs, and it's also not smart to load up your opponents with lots of nice tech. So one strategy is to sell them only what they're research

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

[quote]Hey Ray I got this great plan to rocket our empire back to the top of the chart. All we have to do is give Staffa, Pontius, and EBZero one way tickets to some tropical island with scantilly clad women and NO COMPUTERS[/quote] Um, OK, now I'm thinkin, if you got the tickets, the island and the SCW lined up, you might just wanna maybe think about using those tickets yourself =)

Reply to Exp. Pack Question. in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

"Ach, mein lieben!!!" Brings back great memories, that does =)

Reply to Why won't the minor flip? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

[quote]Get the Carinoids early or it'll be nearly impossible to flip them. I had 4 party palaces in their system and they just wouldn't flip. And since it was near the end of the game and I had given them quite a few ships, I decided not to invade.[/quote] I am playing a game now with the Carinoids in the adjacent sector to my home planet. They flipped around 2186, with no culture modules built within 3 sectors of their home system. I did have 2 systems in their sector, and 3 systems

Reply to How does the AI do it? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

[quote]Now, how can they keep up colonizing, researching, building defenders like that? Someone can say that they are using the initial money to rush things. But if they have the same initial amount of cash that won't last for long for sure. Plus, they keep the same spending level unless they get into war (you can see this by the indicator graph in left lower screen).[/quote] This definitely has not been my experience, playing the last 3 games with AIs set to either intelligent or geniu

Reply to How important are starbases? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

[quote]Try a gigantic military victory. I've got one wrapped up, but it's 2227 and it's gonna take a *while* to finish everything up[/quote] So that still fits my recommendation, you can't have too many starbases, especially with culture palaces on board!! =)

Reply to Universal Conquest in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Mods, Please exile this guy already.

Reply to How important are starbases? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Well, consider this Q&A example: Q: How many starbases is too many? A: Nobody can count that high!! You should ALWAYS be building constructors at any planet not making warships, freighters, or colony ships. There is always a starbase to be upgraded, or a new location that needs one. Considering you can augment production, ship fighting ability, ship speed, and cultural influence, they are a key part of the game. The only possible exception is if you are going for

Reply to OT: Anyone here know of any X-COM like games? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

LOL, methinks HairyTheTaco never played EQ! <- 3 accounts times 2.5 years here, and 3 expansions = WOW, lots of cash sunk on a game!