Philocthetes

Reply to Is the Ship Designer just a giant lego set? in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

Legos were second to plasticine modeling clay for me when I was a kid. I play on a sub-par video card, so I don't get as much out of ship building, but I know I'll put more time in at the shipyards when I finally upgrade. One big difference: Legos are wildly flexible. I didn't get many of the model kits as a kid (I don't think there even were any when I got my first general-purpose set), and even when I did I sometimes ignored what the box was "for" b/c my thing was building model alien

Reply to The so called good races in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Maybe change it to more of a political alignment. For GC3, I'd love to see alignment choice define your possible political party choices. Seems kind of odd that I could play the Drengin and run them as a Star Federation. But I'd also prefer to see the current alignment replaced with something a bit better able to deal with a galaxy full of sentient species. I agree that meanings of good and evil are very context-sensitive or even relat

Reply to Joining a Empire in Metaverse GalCiv2 Forums

interesting Any details on what might make an empire "interesting" to you? If the idea of a tiny crew of mildy disreputable GCII old hands and relative Metaverse newbies, you could consider the Empire of Standards. Emporer Wheeloffire is a rather feisty fellow, but he does seem dedicated to the fun of the game even if it isn't always that fun to read him explaining why <img src="http://images.stardock.com/gc2/T_DL/smiles/Laugh.gif" border=0 alig

Reply to The so called good races in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

My guess is that the randomness of ingame geography, how it affects the way each race expands (especially yours), that is what leads to all kinds of weird and wonderful influences on atitude. I often believe that The Map Is The Game, but I've also griped around here pretty much along the lines of the OP. Something about this thread makes me wonder if "good" and "evil" in GC2 are mirror versions of an alignment better named "love similar folk and hate dif

Reply to Empire of Standards in Metaverse GalCiv2 Forums

I know GW wants an EoS presence there. Are you talking about one of those Empire areas? I haven't gotten that far in my learning and hasty carrying-on. I'm sticking almost exclusively to the MVC areas at the Core, so I (unhumbly?) figured *I* was the EoS presence

Reply to Empire of Standards in Metaverse GalCiv2 Forums

Medal Definitions OK, that page severely needs both updates and amendments. Not that I work in documentation or anything...

Reply to Empire of Standards in Metaverse GalCiv2 Forums

I like that purple heart. Are you looking somewhere other than Evil's new bling? He's just got the 5-games medal, which doesn't say anything about whether they were wins or losses. On a related note, can someone point us Meta-newbies to a page or thread that explains the offical medals? I'm curious about ones like the oddly-named "Racial Victory."

Reply to Some help with resolution switching please! in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

I'm just guessing, but are you trying to run in windowed mode? I'm pretty sure that if you are running in full-screen mode, you should have no problem getting the functionality you want.

Reply to Empire of Standards in Metaverse GalCiv2 Forums

sorry if my posting losing games fudges the numbers Wouldn't that be a good thing for an empire dedicated to playing for fun before scores? I mean depending on how it happens, getting knocked over by a buddy in a play fight can be, well, fun (if maybe not so good for long-term brain health). As long as nobody loses an eye or anything...

Reply to Radioactive planets in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Popcorn, is the "mutants" event a good joke or did you find that in the XML?

Reply to GalCiv2 Used in Political Science or Economics Classes? in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

Communist, i.e. total state control of all means of production Please don't forget the fascists here. Nazi Germany was every bit as totalitarian as the Stalinist USSR, they just had different strategies for managing the national economy. In most science fiction settings, mega-corporations are very powerful, and rival, or even exceed the power of governments. I'd like to see a game with mega-corporations. <br

Reply to The forth alignment in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Heck, one of our assignments was to act like Socrates for 24 hours. Sounds like you might have a really good instructor. The no-Google oath makes much sense to me. I can get a bit lost poking around things like their articles on the U.S. Constitution, and I've got a Master's in Gov't (from a decent school, even!). *Sigh* I'm probally going to make a new post about this... Don't give up just b/c Wheel rol

Reply to The meaning of it all in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

That was interesting. Trying to follow up at Wikipedia and look into terms like "Brillouin scattering" reminded me why I stopped after two years of high school physics: calculus hurts my brain! I can say "light works like both particles and waves" but I just can't follow the math... Which oddly enough brings me back to my OP, which was about social laws and not physical ones. Just as we need folks with d

Reply to Do AIs notice that another player has given or sold ships? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

That makes sense. I asked b/c I've only recently started giving away ships and it really caught my eye when I later on saw one of "my" designs flying under someone else's colors. Seems like it might be worth enabling AIs to "see" this so they'd have a better idea of when a player or other AI was arming one of their enemies.

Reply to Is Stardock making a Fantasy TBS game? in Strategy GalCiv2 Forums

I really don't consider "Heroes of Might and Magic" series a "4x" series... it's basically just a turn based strategy game, where all you do is manage a couple of towns and build up your hero. You don't really manage an EMPIRE that much. I mostly agree with this, and it's sort of why I was excited when the MoM2 by Stardock talk was happening. Given how open the fantasy genre is, I almost pity the devs who are doing the initial brainstorming abo

Reply to "Speak To . . " in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]then I noticed that the computer was contacting other races on my behalf!!! And the contacted race would say "Thanks knownalien, but we have very close relations with [insert race]. Perhaps your informant was mistaken."[/quote] This sounds like it could be related to a problem I posted elswhere about "running into myself" in a DA game. Kryo, have the devs throughly scoffed the idea that the game might be losing its grip on identities? It seems possible they could have in

Reply to The meaning of it all in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

Researchers in Switzerland have succeeded in breaking the cosmic speed limit by getting light to go faster than, well, light. Boy I wish danielost liked sharing links at least occasionally. I couldn't find a hit for this with some searching, at least outside the realms of SF fan and consipiracy theorist sites. Are you sure you aren't confusing research into quantum tunneling (teleportation) with FTL? There's a pretty big difference between trave

Reply to Empire of Standards in Metaverse GalCiv2 Forums

10-4 on the beauty sleep. Second, and how. I've only had one serious "straight job," and one of the reasons I could hack it for a few years was that TPTB understood that if you let the talent put a sign on their door and take a midafternoon nap, they're more likely to put in the OT in the early evening. Plus some recent research suggests you cut down on your heart attack risks if you take naps regularly.

Reply to Do AIs notice that another player has given or sold ships? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

bump

Reply to The forth alignment in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

If you're neutral, you're going to be so-so across the board. I suspect rating aligntment choices depends on your play style, e.g. preferred win types. I like huge maps and I don't think I've ever bothered with a military win. Neutral is swell for me b/c I'm obssessed with tech superiority and, even in "nerfed" form in DA, the the tile upgrades are a big boost.

Reply to Recommend me some books please! in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Bingjack, I didn't mean to begin a threadjacking here and I sometimes want to kill my TV so I'll read more. Here's an attempt at better behavior: Kevin J. Anderson's Saga of the Seven Suns series Brian Herbert and Anderson's neo-Dune books (e.g. Butlerian Jihad and Machine Crusade ) Both sets are leavened with (weak, IMO) character stuff but the grand scale war story parts are OK.

Reply to Disable Agents in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

Maybe the beta testers like the new agents, a vocal minority if there ever was one, but from what I have seen that was by no means unanimous. I'm part of that beta "vocal minority," but my response to the new system remains mixed and leans toward an unfavorable opinion (probably influenced by my preference for Huge and Gigantic maps). I'd love to see a galciv2.com home page poll on this issue, something along the lines of: What do you think of t

Reply to Empire of Standards in Metaverse GalCiv2 Forums

I believe the game-count medals are only based on wins My question is based on looking into a Metaverse poster who shows the over 100 games medal and is ranked as a Lieutenant but whose record is overwhelmingly dominated by games flagged as cheats and/or defeats. Best I can tell, you can lose every game you ever post and still show medals that make you look "strong" unless someone checks your record.

Reply to The meaning of it all in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

The only real truth is 'truthiness' Superstantial evidence doesn't count

Reply to So I got the expansion you crafty crafty developers. in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

I have two legitimate, licensed copies of DL and only one gets used. Don't ask. But I have to. Why? Did you buy a copy as a gift and have it spurned? I'll have to turn in my Stardock cheerleader outfit if it turns out that you got double-billed and told "tough luck" or something.