Tiger8

Reply to Is it worth it? (Ship-building debate) in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

In most situations, a fast mobile response force is far preferable to trying to defend multiple planets. 90% of the time, it is far easier to retake the planet immediately than trying to defend it. The exception is when the AI uses destructive ground attacks such as mass drivers. Slow ships are only modestly cheaper than fast ships. What really costs a lot are the weapon and defense modules. If a player has to defend three planets, they need triple the force of the attacking fleet.

Reply to Somebody, anybody please help me with my economy in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

Let me add that having one or more money center planets helps a great deal. These tend to be large planets with 15 or more open tiles, with maybe three factories, five stock markets, three farms, three entertainment buildings (one farm per entertainment building). One of more of these money planets can fund an entire empire.

Reply to Somebody, anybody please help me with my economy in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

Some decent tips already posted. Morale buildings and techs can help as much or more than eco buildings and techs. For players in a mid-game economic crisis that don't want to start over there are a couple of possible remedies: Trade helps Morale tech and buildings helps If the situation is dire, lower the tax slider until approval is 100% on most planets. Then lower the production slider until the empire is at break even money flow. Several turns of increasing

Reply to Newbie question re: The research tree in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Using the stock designs will make the game about twice as hard. Even the first batch of ships is totally worthless, especially the scout. Best newbie hint, never build a stock scout, that alone will make you a 25% better player, vs someone who builds those things. Design a three or four move colony ship on turn one and never look back.

Reply to Fleets are way too small in Warfare GalCiv2 Forums

The easy change is to mod the game so ships count for less logistic points, and each race starts with more, and each tech adds a lot more.

Reply to True secret to getting good trade routes ? in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

I play warmonger. I usually only build freighters after the first war and I know who is going to be on my side (if anybody). I usually send all the freighters from one area or to one area so economic starbases will benefit all routes. If I build the freighters during the impulse age, I will look for closer planets. The person making big bucks is playing at a mid to low difficulty level. On higher levels, trade doesn't bring in that kind of money, though it is still useful.

Reply to Defensive military strategy? in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Keep your ships away from your planets. If they are faster, they can lead the enemy ships in circles, if they are stupid enough to continue chasing. Some consider this an exploit. I consider it, idiotic AI. Focus your fleets on picking off enemy transports. A huge enemy fleet can do nothing to your planet without transports. Park one or more fast transports in back of your planets. Take the planet back the same turn they are taken. This is close to another exploit, because the idio

Reply to Useless Scout? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

The stock Scout ship is a ruse to make the game harder for newbies. If the play testers actually built these things, I can see why they think the AI gives them a good game. The stock scout is among the worst ships a person can choose to build. On gigantic maps a small fast ship with sensors is useful for anomalies. On all other sizes, building colony ships is a far better use of time. Getting to Impulse tech to make the flagship have four moves is plenty to get most the anomalies. <

Reply to Can you stop the AI building something? in Modding GalCiv2 Forums

My suggestion: attach the building to a free tech that you get at the start, but it is near the end of the tech tree for the AI.

Reply to Is it me or did they AI got a tad smarter? in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

A couple more: Faster ship redesign Faster ships Gifting ships to me that I can actually use! That said, I am in the mop up stages of what seems like a relatively easy no-doubt win. I have gotten better too . One thing I have learned is that I can buy peace if I offer a planet. This is a good technique when fighting multiple opponents with lots of ships. Getting a powerful AI

Reply to Sensor ships in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Survey ships are only worth it on gigantic maps. On anything else, get impulse drives and a four move flagship will find most of the anomalies by the time the first or second survey ship is launched. The tech and the production are much better used elsewhere.

Reply to Colony rush help in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Depends on your style of play and map size. If you seek a diplomatic or tech victory without any wars, more planets are definitely better. If you seek military conquest, limiting the number of planets can result in faster wins. The reason is that these close in planets are easy to conquer, and you get buildings and tech for free when you conquer. A military transport only costs a bit more than a colony ship... For big maps, rushing factories on the homeworld is more effective than

Reply to What does approval rating change? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

As already said 75% approval and 100% approval give pop growth bonuses. Planets below 50% sometimes rebel and form an independent government. If approval is below 50% empire wide, and the government is Republic or better, a vote against the ruling party will give production penalties. Again, keep taxes very low for the first 20 turns or so to get 100% approval on all planets and the big pop bonus. It will only cost a few credits early on and pay off big time. Send 500 million per

Reply to Research tech idea in Research GalCiv2 Forums

It is a jumbled maze at first. However, after about ten or twenty games, it becomes easy to navigate. Too bad there is no easy to navigate big tech chart within the game. The one that is there depends on a player knowing the tree very well in order to pursue the better techs.

Reply to tech strategies in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

On challenging, I would say Planetary Improvements, then engines up to Impulse. After that depends on what style of play you prefer. There are a lot of options. For early military rushes go for weapons and Planetary Invasion. For diplomacy, focus on getting to Spin Control (that's not the name of the tech, but the building). For a mid-game, late-game attack, get Xeno Ethics and Neutrality centers to pull ahead in tech.

Reply to Developers please explain logic and reasoning of these two things in Bug Reports GalCiv2 Forums

Design decision and game balance. If a 100 billion world did 10x the money of 10 billion, it would make these things a must have, instead of an interesting novelty. As for the pop, I'm not sure why they did it. Maybe so when sending troops off for invasion productivity would not drop off the table. That would not be much fun, build a fleet and some transports and then have an empire unable to produce any more. Who would vote for that?

Reply to Suggestion: Colony Limit in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Set rare planets, rare habitable, rare stars, and a gigantic map, slow tech, no tech trading, and you'll eliminate the colony rush. Finding habitable planets will be like panning for gold. With a full board of opponents, the average will be like 6 planets each (on a gigantic map!). Of course a human player will have a huge advantage in such a setup because the AIs won't know to up their research. Maybe you can limit yourself to one lab per planet until all the planets are filled, to square t

Reply to Drath and Thalan in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

In my current game, the Drath have spread wide. The Thalans not. The Thalans only have one planet in their home system and that slows down their expansion on the highest difficulty levels.

Reply to N00b questions in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

For the homeworld, I like to rush buy a lab first, then three factories, then another lab, then an entertainment center, then two markets. That fills up all the slots on a class 10 homeworld: Lab, factory, factory, factory, lab, entertainment, market, market There may be other choices equally as good or better depending on map size. Alignment (good, neutral, evil) plays a big role in diplomatic relations. Trade helps (freighters), as does having a decent size militar

Reply to I need some help... in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

I tell people to polish up their early game. Depending on map size and available planets, there are certain paths that are far superior to others. There is a lot of good advice in the other post. However, one point is to go for very low taxes at the start to get the population bonus from 100% approval. This will pay off big time after about 20 turns. A player that has max approval will have almost double the pop of the one with normal tax rates. Pop and tech are what keeps you

Reply to class 5 starport planets (somehow stupid, bug/ai problems) in Bug Reports GalCiv2 Forums

There isn't much good use for the class 3 and class 4 planets. Early in the game they can produce useful ships. Later, not much, unless they have bonus tiles that can come into use.

Reply to I'm winning, but I go broke... in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

Economic starbases increase production and research, so they can actually cost a player money. There are freighter modules that boost income from freighters as they move through the area. There are also economic resources (green) that do boost income. Morale resources (yellow) are almost as valuable because they allow a player to raise the tax rate and still have high morale.

Reply to I'm winning, but I go broke... in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

The money thing was one of the hardest things for me to figure out. First set taxes very low to start so approval is 100% for about the first 20 turns. This boost in population will give a player a much bigger tax base later. The cost is only a few credits per turn early. Think carefully about what you rush buy. I try to keep about 2000 credits as a reserve to run a deficit every turn and pay for invasions (or tribute) later. Next, get planets to one billion pop as soon

Reply to Farming in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Build farms only when the planet nears its food pop limit and has good morale. The rule of thumb is one farm per entertainment building. Adjust for racial bonuses or wonders. One farm is plenty for average planets (6 to 9 initial tiles). Money planets with lots of farms, economic buildings and entertainment provide a real boost. Usually 15 tiles or more are desired to set up a money center planet. Of course if the map is poor, even small planets can provide some money. It is a g

Reply to The money penalty in a colony rush in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

I found the money thing to be the most difficult aspect of the game to solve. Full colony ships with 500 m per ship is the way to go, in order to increase the tax base empire wide. The home world is not going to be a big money producing planet, so it makes more sense to ship them out. The caveat is to keep taxes ultra low to get the 100% approval pop bonus for the first 20 turns of the game. Each planet needs at least one billion pop to get full growth. Starting at 100 m stunts t