SleekDD

Reply to one, or few, versus many ship combat in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

First a short run-down of how combat works: 1) Every ship will target an enemy and fire its weapons one by one. If it destroys its target, it will fire any unused weapons on its next target and so on. This means a big ship with many weapons may engage and destroy several ships at once. 2) Defenses now recharge per round rather than per attack. This means that one ship will have its defenses tested against every enemy in the opposing fleet. If it manages to survive the round, th

Reply to 1 sided scoring in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

I think there are two kinds of 'evil' if you will. One that thinks only of the ruler and makes his life easier at the cost of everything else, even his own population. This kind of evil could result in political instability and even uprisings if your security forces aren't up to the task of keeping dissent down. The other one (and one that isn't really represented in GalCiv) is being evil at the expense of others but in favour of your own people. Your people is the only thing t

Reply to Whats your fav game. in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

1) Galactic Civilizations II obviously, despite some balancing issues (good-evil, offense-defense,...). Still, it's the best 4X game out there in my opinion thanks to the AI, genuine attempts to tailor the game to suit the customers and a lot of other stuff I won't go into. 2) Tropico: You could consider it a bit like a politically incorrect Caesar-clone on a tropical island. Lots of options, nice in-depth gameplay and a good sense of humor.

Reply to Post your TA suggestions here in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

I've thought about the game a bit and found the following the enhancements might make the game even better (at least, to me): 1) Space combat: As it is now, most players (and all the AI I've encountered) just puts weapons on ships and ignores defenses. With good reason once you look at the math behind the system. The higher the attack value compared to the HP of the hull, the less useful defenses are because the one shot-one kill event is more and more likely to occur. <br

Reply to Annoying Allies in DA in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

I never said it's impossible for AIs to understand the concept of teams, I merely said that this particular AI apparently isn't programmed to make that distinction. What I mentioned earlier is just my personal advice on how you could proceed. I also never claimed the AI is beyond reproach (although I do maintain it is very good). I just said it looked to me as if it was designed for sandbox games, not for campaign environments. It's a personal impression, nothing more. By readi

Reply to Annoying Allies in DA in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

I doubt it understands the concept of teams as anything more than an unbreakable alliance which means it can't attack you. The points remain valid sadly. I've played the campaign as well (more out of curiosity to see where the story is going to) and I've found that teammates are best viewed as enemies you can't attack. Don't expect them to consider your needs and don't expect them to understand the mission's objective. One of the strengths of GalCiv is the AI's competence in playing the

Reply to Offense vs Defense in Design in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

As far as I know, defenses do stack but are drained during combat-rounds (they are recharged at the beginning of each new round). This would mean that in one-on-one combats, the system of DA matches that of DL. Only in fleets things change radically. In general, defenses are worth using when the technology of your enemy is low compared to your own hull size. A medium hull will survive a few rounds when the offense/defense values are around 5 while HP are around 15. Things change, howeve

Reply to Annoying Allies in DA in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

Alliances in GalCiv are more a 'do not invade' rather than a 'let's work together' agreement. Your ally will not keep your well-being in mind other than through the exact rules of the alliance: don't attack each other and declare war when your ally is attacked. This can lead to odd situations in which your ally may be instrumental to your defeat: Imagine your ally attacking/being attacked by a third nation. You, as an honest and honorable leader, decide to take up the gauntlet on your a

Reply to Yet another thread on ethics. in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

I don't mind that your civilization hasn't been locked into a certain ethic at the start. After all, at the beginning of such a big new step, many things might need to be re-considered. I quite like the concept of ethics choices but, like most seem to believe here, being good is hard work and the pay-off really isn't there. During the choices you make, you invariably gain less than choosing for evil and quite often, it is akin to shooting yourself in the foot. Perhaps the choice should

Reply to Post your TA suggestions here in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

I have a few ideas too, if anyone is still actually reading this. ;) I'm not sure how much effort they would require to be done, however, so some may (read: probably will) be too big to simply tweak. 1) Diplomacy (alliances): whenever an ally of yours is suing for peace with an enemy, he should strife to also include a peace-treaty with you and that enemy. Very often, I have been dragged into a war by an ally only to see my 'friend' cease fire a few turns after and leaving me to fa

Reply to Colonies Defense in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

1. That's probably an orbiting vessel defending against attackers. Colonies can't fight combat ships. 2. Constructors can't add modules to a colony directly. They can have an influence by building modules on nearby starbases to give orbiting ships bonuses or the colony itself a production/research bonus. 3. Orbital defence lets your orbiting ships act as a fleet with the maximum size depending on logistics. The use of building it is situational. By building it, a group of vesse

Reply to world specilization breakdown questions in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

The reason there aren't any strategy guides around is because there are many ways to win the game. GalCiv II is more of a 4X than other games in its genre and that alone gives it a wide spectrum of approaches. Early rushes are actually not possible. While in CivIV you can quickly build warriors/archers/axemen or some such to take out a neighbour, in GalCivII, you need to develop Planetary Invasion first, which is an expensive tech early on. Sure, you can get into fights early on but tak

Reply to WWIII --> a possibility? in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

I would consider the chance of a WWIII happening very unlikely. First of all, a country led by a dictator for life has a prevalent weakness: the dictator himself. You see, often, such a person won't care that much for his own population but he does care for his own well-being up to the point it dominates national policy. Recall that North-Korea was brought to the negotiation table in record time not by an general embargo that hurt his people but by blocking luxury commodities that he liked.

Reply to Do Mining Starbase effects stack? in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

They stack. From what I can tell, they stack with your ability picks - economy for economy, military for attack and defense and so on.

Reply to How to start a strong economy. in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

You can boost your trade income by building economy starbases near your trade routes (those transparant lines with a little freighter sailing to and fro). Those starbases can be upgraded with trade modules that boosts every trade route passing through its circle of influence. Those starbases stack, so building more of them adds to the trade revenue. Perhaps they got such a high trade income from that, perhaps combined with extra trade routes and trade boosters? As to your other question

Reply to A preview of the NEXT Galactic Civilizations II update! in GalCiv II News GalCiv2 Forums

I just thought of something: add some more humourous (spelling?) texts in the diplomacy department. I love those: 'I *see* those transports/influence starbases/whatever you're parking there'-remarks. Adding some for surrendering would be nice.

Reply to A preview of the NEXT Galactic Civilizations II update! in GalCiv II News GalCiv2 Forums

I would have just one suggestion for the patch: - Make the area of effect for starbases depend on the size of the galaxy. In smaller universes, a starbase has great effects on a significant part of your empire but on a larger map you need many more to cover the same proportional part. Whether this is achieved by fixing it for different settings or upgradeable is less important for me.

Reply to Are Defenses Worth Their Expense? in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

The defense roll just adds the direct defense and the square root of the others, and that´s it, it doesn´t recognize where each "defense point" came from. Once it is drained, defense vs that weapon type is gone for the round. Does this mean that, if you switch weapon types, you need to drain the defences again? Anyway, thanks for the heads up. I don't think it changes all that much regarding the new combat system, however. It's still going to get a lot bloodier out there. Wheth

Reply to Are Defenses Worth Their Expense? in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

There's a thread on the new combat system in the DA forum. From what I understood from the explanation, defences get drained by attacks during a round. This is how it appears to work: 1) Targets are selected using the same method as in DL (attack/(defence + HP)) 2) The attackers determines the most optimal weapon to fire with, meaning the one the defender has least defences against. 3) Weapons are fired one by one, targetting new opponents if the first target is destro

Reply to How to commence land invasions? in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

In order to invade a planet, you need the following: - Tech: Planetary invasion - Ship: Transport (the game has one template of a Transport but you can also design your own kind in the shipyard) - An enemy: On the whole, you can only declare war by actually going to war. You attack a ship, starbase, planet and the game will inform you you are about to commit an act of war. Just click 'yes' and you have your enemy. Invading a planet is considered an act of war too. <im

Reply to YOR Super Ability has to change in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

I don't have the beta but the super ability sounds pretty fun. Using influence is a nice means of cordoning off the effects but when hearing of influence starbases, it made me wonder. Captain: 'As long as we hear those annoying Korx ringtones advertisements on our radio, our engines will be just fine.'

Reply to Land Combat enchantment ideas in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

I have the impression the conscript techs are a level of abstraction to the current method. Instead of using your population, you're using your population X conscription bonus. This decreases the amount of soldiers in a combat. Balance this with having transports carry fewer troops and you're essentially back at square one with the exception of having a population left after the invasion was successful. The conscript tech tree is very similar to farming techs in that they boost the amount of sol

Reply to Land Combat enchantment ideas in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

I quite like the simplicity of having every registered citizen be a taxpayer and a soldier. It does away with a lot of the micromanagement in terms of building armies, garrisoning planets (and not losing track of those), and sorting out which armies are going to board transports to attack another planet. And if you're playing on big maps, this is going to end up eating a lot of your time. In the current system, the armies build themselves and if necessary, you can boost their efficiency

Reply to A RTS with truly cusumizable stuff in Game Ideas GalCiv2 Forums

To my knowledge games that allow you to customize units to a degree are Earth2150, Earth2160 and Warzone. The design phase is a little basic ie. you get to choose chassis, weapon and defence but the looks are off limits. You also can't stack more weapons than there are slots one the chassis and such things.

Reply to Discussion about constructor micromanagement in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

A possible issue with multiple construciton modules could be the situation where fewer building options are available compared to the modules on a ship. Unless the surplus is wasted of course but that might spark another annoyance. I was thinking about treating starbases similar to the way colonies are built. One module goes to building the basic component - the initial colony so to speak, and f