Hermann the Lombard

Reply to Bug Reports for 1.13 in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

[quote]I just picked up GalCiv recently and was playing the 1.12 build during my 1ST Campaign EVER and saw that there was a 1.13 update. I said ROCK ON...updated my game (in the MIDDLE of my 1ST Campaign...groan...live and learn...HORRIBLE BUG that needs squashing...[/quote] Well, an "undocumented feature" perhaps (and actually a documented one, once you frequent the forum). I've seen this problem in many, many games and I've come to assume that this will be the case. The primary reason

Reply to how do you defeat big maso civs?? in Strategies Stardock Forums

[quote]If they're not all in the same sector it isn't as effective.[/quote] That's because influence SB bonuses in one sector *multiply* rather than add. If you scatter the bases I think the bonuses merely add: linear improvement rather than exponential! -- HtL

Reply to Lightning Alpha Strike formula in Strategies Stardock Forums

[quote]My current variation on the Lightning Alpha Strike technique is to ignore it during the interesting early game and just play however I feel is appropriate for the map; colonising what I can, building key trade goods, getting into debt early on and paying it off when freighters arrive at my planets. When I get into a secure position, I research to Terror Stars and go for a quick finish before I get bored.[/quote] M.D.: That makes perfect sense. The opening is often the most inter

Reply to Meta Posting Problem in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

[quote]Your score was there under "Enter a New Alias". There seems to be a bug in the submit code where it occassionaly will submit with the wrong name. [/quote] Hmm...anything you can do about crediting that score to my real alias? Should I try posting it again? It seems possible that on one attempt I forgot to change "Enter a New Alias" to "Hermann the Lombard".

Reply to Lightning Alpha Strike formula in Strategies Stardock Forums

Maxti: You mentioned that your original list omitted Organic Piecing as a pre-req for Genetic Mapping, but I think you also omitted three pre-reqs for Large Scale Building: High Density Metals, Tri-Strontium Alloy and Advanced Engineering. Usually I get to trade for a couple of those. Settings: I was wondering what you use during a speed run. I assume that you turn off following autopilot and alien ships and showing AI ship battles, and likely you turn off anomaly popups, bu

Reply to Meta Posting Problem in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

CariElf: I seem to have cleverly deleted the saved game...though I believe I have it on a diskette. [And this from an inveterate packrat. ] If I find it, I'll check debug.err and post here. Thanks. -- HtL

Reply to Bug Reports for 1.13 in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

This could be somewhere in this 8-page thread, but I don't remember seeing a report. In my current gigantic map game ships on sector sweep stop at the corners of the sweep. Clicking "i" and "done" releases them, as does pressing "w". I have saved games, if useful. -- HtL

Reply to Lightning Alpha Strike formula in Strategies Stardock Forums

Max: I may have missed it above, but what are your preferences for planet frequency? I'm assuming that "rare" is the easiest, both because fewer TS are required and because the AI doesn't cope well with scarcity. Of course if there are more planets then *I* have more planets, and thus more sources of constructors. Meanwhile, I have a couple of these games in progress. -- Admiral Glacier

Reply to Meta Posting Problem in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Bump. Hi. Before I try to post another game, I'd like to resolve why this one didn't appear. -- HtL [Message Edited]

Reply to Trade exploit in Strategies Stardock Forums

[quote]enough that I soon had 160K in my treasury[/quote] Be mildly cautious about very high treasury levels. There used to be a bug that caused posted games to be reported as "anomalous" if the treasury had gone over 250K. [I don't remember reading that this was fixed.]

Reply to Maso strategy with no military. in Strategies Stardock Forums

[quote]Happy New Year - oh, and dont drink very much alcohol on New Year's Eve, OK? [/quote] Happy New Year to you and to all the helpful folks on this forum! Now, how about alcohol in the very early hours of New Year's Day? ;)

Reply to Lightning Alpha Strike formula in Strategies Stardock Forums

[quote]Since we don't care about resources and know where the majors are, is the sensor drone scouting done to find the minors?[/quote] I think the idea is to find as-yet-uncontacted minors, to be able to send those "other things" just in case. It must be a bit embarassing to go two gazillion credits in the hole only to discover that you overlooked a late addition to an alien empire. :SURPRISED:

Reply to Bug Reports for 1.13 in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

[quote] 2 - There is no music when negotiating with minor races. The regular music instantly cuts out. VERY (!!!) annoying. At the very least the regular game's background music should play. Or the regular music should fade out over a second or two into silence. The instant cut (and cut back when done negotiating) is very jarring.[/quote] Not half as jarring as the Drengin theme relative to the others (I renamed the theme to get rid of it). :p I suppose the mild pastoral them

Reply to Lightning Alpha Strike formula in Strategies Stardock Forums

You're welcome; it's just my devious mind. Of course it may not work if the minor doesn't want the system. (I suppose that usually applies to low-PQ planets.) The other problem in this game is that the only minor I've encountered is the K-minor (name escapes me), and I don't know if they are flip-resistant. "Yo! Carinoids! Where ya hangin?"

Reply to Lightning Alpha Strike formula in Strategies Stardock Forums

Terl: culture scouting is not just turning on the influence display on the mini-map. You can also click unexplored sectors anywhere on the map, then click the sector influence button at the top right of the main screen, and you get the influence numbers for that sector, regardless of how far away and regardless of whether you have explored the area. If on the first turn you see 200+, you've found the home world of a major AI; if you see about 40 you're in an adjacent sector. This could be con

Reply to Lightning Alpha Strike formula in Strategies Stardock Forums

Mighty Max: Thanks for the ideas. I tend to like trying formulaic approaches sometimes, in part to speed my play from glacial to merely cold molasses. With your ideas I hope to finish a gigantic map in finite time...maybe only 1/10 as fast as you. ;) In my first attempt (now under way after a single Ctrl-N) I got great isolation in the lower right, with no majors anywhere near me. However, the K-minors started in the same sector and beat me to one multi-planet system. The only PQ15+

Reply to Two basic questions on Trade and Improvements in Strategies Stardock Forums

R.O. -- Here's my understanding of bonuses: Mining Resources: galaxy-wide for the owning empire only Influence: full-strength in the same sector, quarter-strength in adjacent sectors (but this still makes Party Palaces very powerful); owning empire only. Movement & Combat & Production: same sector, owner only (and I think the UP issue about sharing bonuses with allies does not work) Trade: apparently the owners of all trade ships (mini-freighters) in the se

Reply to Maso strategy with no military. in Strategies Stardock Forums

[quote]Hermann - never waste money.[/quote] You could have told me that *before* my Christmas shopping! :D In most strats that I play I come to a point which I think of as the transition from the "opening" to the "early game." At that moment I've completed the Manufacturing Capital on my #1 world, and a whole bunch of TGs and wonders are available...along with the Econ Capital. I used to build the Econ Capital on the #1 world before starting to build TGs there. Just latel

Meta Posting Problem in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

CariElf, now I'm having a problem posting a game to the Metaverse, leaving me stuck on 9 games posted. This was a 1.12 game at Painful or Crippling (I forget offhand), and I don't have any of those posted, so this wasn't an attempt to post the same game twice. I appeared to get Send Status 1, Error Status 0, but the game did not appear. I then took the game and loaded it under 1.13 and tried posting from there. Again, Send Status 1, Error Status 0, but no joy. AFAIK, both times I posted under H

Reply to Maso strategy with no military. in Strategies Stardock Forums

[quote]I usually end up putting the econ capital on the second best production world[/quote] I've taken to building it on the second-best econ world...which of course is usually the second-best production world. Seems fairly effective. Thanks!

Reply to Morale Tips in Strategies Stardock Forums

[quote]I just realized I spelled morale wrong in that entire post! [/quote] Too many late nights at the keyboard...I remember a Civ2 thread on Apolyton: "The worst mistakes you ever made in Civ" (or some such). There was a hilarious list from one strong player, each followed by "...I swear it wasn't the beer." ;)

Reply to anomaly boosts in Strategies Stardock Forums

IIRC, the percentage bonuses apply to your civilization, and the "points" bonuses (like hit points, defense, and attack) apply to the survey ship. You can end up with a very formidable survey ship, if that ship is lucky.

Reply to alpha strike? in Strategies Stardock Forums

Not only placing your ships around them, but even parking them one sector away can trigger war directly from "Friendly" and without warning. Note that this applies even to a single ship placed on "guard" on *your* starbase. [It does not seem to apply to ships in orbit.]

Reply to Maso strategy with no military. in Strategies Stardock Forums

[quote]what do you build on your primary production planet before starting on trade goods and wondersUsually just soil enhancement, habitat improvement, entertainment network, and Industrial Capital. I throw in Fusion Power Plant when it becomes available, and manufacturing center when convenient. This planet ends up with nothing but wonders/TGs, production enhancers, and morale improvements.[/quote] Thanks again for sending those files and sharing your advice...so to thank you I have a

Reply to Strategies on how to survive with two systems in Strategies Stardock Forums

Jexal, also look at Sirian's OSC (One Sector Challenge). That's basically what you have going, but he did it with ONE planet. I did it with one sector but two systems and four planets...but I'm a wimp. ;)