doogles

Reply to Economic changes (not liking it). Am I alone? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Back on topic (for the OT MCC issue, my vote is a proper fix - evil already has it too good), I'm with the_spyder. I am playing the Korx in an immense galaxy with very few planets (I don't like to manage large empires, but I do enjoy when life support actually matters). I have all eleven trade routes filled, a few money-only planets (about 3 of my 13 planets), and most planets at 8 billion or more people. Yet for some reason my economy is just crap. I couldn't colonize as fast as other races

Reply to An Apology To Stardock in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

I agree with Luckmann - I'm glad you bought GC2, but don't apologize for piracy. In today's market saturated with utter junk, I have a really tough time rationalizing [i]not pirating[/i] a game. Yeah, I'll buy stuff I like, but rarely will I buy it site-unseen. Heroes IV taught me a valuable lesson - no company deserves your money just because they were successful in the past. Heroes IV was a great concept, but utterly destroyed by 3DO's greed and willingness to release a product so broken t

Reply to Screenshot gallery of Twilight of the Arnor in GalCiv II News GalCiv2 Forums

Very nice work. As usual, you guys rock. Can't wait to play a "proper" metaverse game with TotA. I suspect my scores will utterly suck, but it looks like there's going to be a whole lot more fun to be had all the same :)

Reply to So close... in GalCiv Journals GalCiv2 Forums

Hmm. After a long run with GC2 I've recently lost interest (temporarily, mind you). I just got into Oblivion again and the GC2 itch just hasn't been strong enough thanks to some Oblivion mods that (finally) take the game from "good idea" to "good game". But every time I visit here, I can feel that GC2 itch creeping up on me. I suspect I'll have to cave when the final release hits. Being able to play with (hopefully) well-balanced tech trees, the metaverse, and a good AI... I

Reply to Twilight Beta 6a in GalCiv Journals GalCiv2 Forums

Sweet. I don't even have time to play lately, but this is still pretty damn cool. Finally we can harvest resources!!

Reply to Must-Read Article in GalCiv Journals GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]yeah I agree, Steam as well has the direct purchase and download, I used it to buy the orange box - I doubt I would have paid the price the stores were asking. Where I live it's literally half the price if you download it.[/quote] Good point - and for those of us who want to support game developers who do the rare deed of building a really good game, we'd rather see our money going to the company anyway, not wasted on physical costs like transportation, cardboard, CD printing, an

Reply to Must-Read Article in GalCiv Journals GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]And if piracy helps get more people to buy the product then why don't developers just stop with the security measures and give their product away for free to everyone, or tell the pirates/thieves how to crack them? Why? Because that company will be out of business. It's not a viable business model. If it were, companies would be paying pirates to steal their product.[/quote] Stardock has proven that making something easy to steal doesn't equate to an incredible increase in pir

Reply to Must-Read Article in GalCiv Journals GalCiv2 Forums

There is so much misinformation here, it's terrifying. My background: I have been a cracker privately and very briefly for a large cracking group. I published a paper about cracking winzip on fravia's site, back when it was all about reverse engineering. I have legally cracked software for which my company no longer had the source in order to deal with a y2k issue. Sometimes I just crack something that's free just to see what kinds of fun things I can do by changing the machine code.

Reply to Can we tone down the unique tech trading some? in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

Well, after playing a lot with the latest beta, I don't think the problem is solved. I have had a tough time getting weather control, but only because the arceans are [b]way[/b] behind in the tech race. Everything else has been traded like mad. If it's unique and useful, most everybody has it. If it's unique and not useful, most everybody still has it. As the Korx, getting a free 10% morale boost from that first arena tech of the Drengin's (Arena of Agony?) was great - don't even need to bu

Reply to GalCiv II: Twilight of the Arnor Beta 5 in GalCiv Journals GalCiv2 Forums

The funny thing here is I JUST succumbed to my GC2 itch last night and started a new metaverse game of DA. First new game in ... I dunno, several months I guess. So this update looks freaking awesome, but I really want to finish my DA game first :) Oh well. I think the ascension victory sounds pretty cool. It's like a progressive version of the Spell of Mastery in Master of Magic. Instead of "I better not even start on this spell right now, I'm too militarily weak to fight

Reply to Barely alive in GalCiv Journals GalCiv2 Forums

Brad, rest. Don't try to work through the frakking FLU. It's painful. I just tried. It kicked my ass, laughed at me for a while, then kicked my ass again. Seriously. I ended up with pneumonia from my refusal to rest properly. JUST DON'T DO IT. BoogieBac, try to rest, too. You won't succeed for at least six weeks, but it'll be funny when you try.

Reply to Can we tone down the unique tech trading some? in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]I love tech-trading as is. It's probably my second favorite part of Twilight of the Arnor right now (behind the unique tech trees). One thing the argument that "everyone ends up with the same tech in the end" misses is that their is a difference between having a tech early game and having the same tech late, as well as value to being able to count on having a specific tech rather than hoping to trade for it. I think the current system works well.[/quote] Trading unique

Reply to Can we tone down the unique tech trading some? in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

Ah, but some unique techs really work with anybody, and make sense to be tradeable. The real problems arise on the special-case techs. The warp fleet bubbles make sense for anybody to get except perhaps the arceans due to their "speed limit". I think the best solution (short of rewriting trading or providing a dozen pre-game options) is a combination of methods we've all discussed: * All techs that don't make sense in widespread usage (Pain Amplification) are marked untradeable.<b

Reply to Twilight of the Arnor Beta 4C this week! in GalCiv II News GalCiv2 Forums

That's a good point (SD may just not want people to get the wrong impression of the quality of the beta), but the fact is they made what amounts to a "we'll punish everybody if this happens" threat. I respect their position and it would suck to see their work torrented half an hour after it's released. But the fact is, most of us are honest and don't deserve to even hear the threat.

Reply to Can we tone down the unique tech trading some? in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

[quote] The Yor, for example, are by design economically weak, but you can just trade for Star Federation and mitigate your weakness. The same thing with the Drath and certain population-growth boosting techs. It doesn't make any sense at all for the Terrans to want Pain techs from the Drengin, but it does for the Korath. [/quote] This is a point I don't think they'll be able to fix. Clearly if a race hasn't got a "general" tech in its tree, it's a stic

Reply to Can we tone down the unique tech trading some? in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

[quote] Yes and no. No one in this discussion thinks that Tech Trading as it stands does not need a big fix. What I and others are arguing is that simply banning it is not the answer. Right now trading technologies is too cheep and easy. What is needed is a way to make it more ballenced without making it illeagal. The other point is that anything that requires a major overhaul will probably not happen until GalCiv III. What is likely to happen: Most unique racial

Reply to Twilight of the Arnor Beta 4C this week! in GalCiv II News GalCiv2 Forums

[quote] First of all, no they're not. Stardock have never condoned that -anything- they make should be released to torrent networks. However, they've already made a commitment to supply the patch to us, the pre-orderers (even though I'm waiting for the next patch, first). The editors, however, is a perk. It's a bonus and can be withheld all the way until release, if they see fit. Thus, they can make this demand, wheras they can't make the same demand regarding the beta. So

Reply to Twilight of the Arnor Beta 4C this week! in GalCiv II News GalCiv2 Forums

I'm also baffled here. Frogboy, the game, the editor, and everything under the sun will eventually make it to torrent sites, *period*. I don't see how you can think otherwise. And I don't see how it's valuable to refuse to let us test the other editors just because of the actions of the few f***-ups out there. Piracy is something to work against, yes, but it's also something you have to accept if you want to continue making such excellent games (instead of sinking your time into futi

Reply to Can we tone down the unique tech trading some? in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

[quote] Once knowledge exists it seems to have a way of propagating itself . If we want to talk about how races should not go giving away their hard earned research which is granted to the because of how they think about the universe then only the Terrans would be

Reply to Can we tone down the unique tech trading some? in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

[quote] Don't call me out on this - I'm not calling anyone a moron or accusing them of having head injuries, or otherwise insulting the hell out of them with my disagreement. I'm not bickering, and do not tell me "it takes two," because it doesn't. It just takes one guy (Uranium) being abusive to end a conversation's worth. So, please, if you want to complain about someone being an abusive jerk in this thread, by all means call Uranium out, but don't

Reply to Can we tone down the unique tech trading some? in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

[SORRY - posted this before I realized there was a page 2 - looks like a lot of this message is redundant at this point] [quote] Yes tech trading needs a lot of work, but what it needs is upgrading not nerfing. [/quote] No, it needs (a) balance, and (b) realism. Scintor, do the Russians have a different physiology than the French? No, so OF COURSE THEY CAN USE THE SAME TECHNOLOGIES. But guess what? No human civilization will ever get widespread use of pain a

Reply to Twilight of the Arnor Beta 4b in GalCiv Journals GalCiv2 Forums

[quote] Lowering costs 1% doesn't seem like much. It is not really a percentage. The maintenance was reduced by 1 bc per ship per turn. Actually, a nice reduction Perhaps due to rounding it's at least knocking off 1bc per ship. [/quote] My guess is it's like speed, trade routes, etc. When you work at stardock too long, you express normal integers with a "

Reply to Can we tone down the unique tech trading some? in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

[quote] Well... it may only be 25% morale, but it is a helluva lot cheaper than the closest normal morale buildings. 25bc to build and 1bc maintenance compared to 250bc to build and 5bc maintenance for Extreme Stadiums (which only have 20% morale) or 300bc to build and 6 maintenance for Zero G Sports Arenas (which give +5% morale more). [/quote] Hmm, that's actually a good point. With limited planetary space, 25% buildings are still tricky, but all planets but homeworld are gen

Reply to Can we tone down the unique tech trading some? in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

[quote] Playing with tech trading off is no longer an option with some races having no access to starbase mining modules, good econ techs, morale techs (Hello, Thalans!), etc. I've heard this from other people before. I don't know how they miss it, but the Thalans have a pretty nice Morale building in their tree. [/quote] They have [b]one[/b] good morale building, and it's an achievement (one per empire).

Reply to Bizzare TAb4 AI behavior in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

The Thalan research building actually does far more research than is indicated. I have no idea how much, but when I upgraded from level 2 to 3, my research went up by a sizeable chunk (the planet had a tech capital, and I had research starbases and played as technologists, so I couldn't easily calculate how much research the building itself generated). Given its description in the tech readout, I assume the report of 12rp is just a typo. Also, for why they keep up so well in research,