Brad's "Did you know you could do this" thread

Tips, tricks, and more

from GalCiv2 Forums

Welcome to another (or first) edition of "Did you know..."

Standing in for a dialog with a "show me more tips" checkbox is your host, me with a series of fairly random but hopefully useful suggestions that might make your gameplay more fun!

#1 You can "grab" the map with the left mouse button and move it around by holding it down.  You may never want to edge scroll again.

#2 You can RIGHT-CLICK on the ship built block notifications that flow down on the right and your ship will automatically be launched.

#3 On the planet screen, you can put your mouse over the approval and influence and it will explain where that number is derived from.

#4 In the Diplomacy screen, you can RIGHT-CLICK on tiems to bring up a dialog that gives info on that item.

#5 You can play a quasi-Hot seat game with someone by loading up the game as GalCiv2 cheat (use the cheat parameter).  Then when you set up the game, you let the AI play out a few turns and then have your friend pick one of the races they want to control. Have them select that unit and hit  CTRL-SHIFT-Z.

#6 CTRL-S is the quick save.

#7 You can double click on planets and various other items to take the place of having to place, or install or build or go to their screen.

faq support
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Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
Okay, I just want to say. THe right click ship built notifications trick is a frickin lifesaver.

Yes, I'm sad enough to surf the forums while I play in windowed mode
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
#5 You can play a quasi-Hot seat game with someone by loading up the game as GalCiv2 cheat (use the cheat parameter). Then when you set up the game, you let the AI play out a few turns and then have your friend pick one of the races they want to control. Have them select that unit and hit CTRL-SHIFT-Z.


So..Your friend takes over the A.I?

I wonder if this works in the dread lords campaign..*evilgasim*
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Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
Oh...OH Vincent, that's...just wrong.  So...wrong.
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Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
#3 On the planet screen, you can put your mouse over the approval and influence and it will explain where that number is derived from.
And for some reason the approval tooltip and the reading don't match...usually 4%off
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top

Fixed for Friday's build.  Retail version doesn't have that issue.  Made a change for 1.0D that caused that.

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Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
So if you play a quasi-hotseat game wouldnt you be able to turn that into a send multiplayer game by switching races saving the game and sending it to another computer. Might be a bit diffiicult to... NOT spy on your enemies tho.
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
You can "grab" the map with the left mouse button and move it around by holding it down. You may never want to edge scroll again.


That's why I couldn't understand all of the "no diagonal scroll" whining in the forums. Who needs it? I edge scrolled once. It was too slow for me. I never went back.

Reply #11 from Stardock Forums Top
That's why I couldn't understand all of the "no diagonal scroll" whining in the forums. Who needs it? I edge scrolled once. It was too slow for me. I never went back.


I was one of the "whinners" on the subject. Not having an alternative i switched to the right-clicking method and it's pretty practical. I don't care anymore about edgescrolling
Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top

#3 On the planet screen, you can put your mouse over the approval and influence and it will explain where that number is derived from.


Now if it only would use a better font
Reply #13 from Stardock Forums Top
Now if it only would use a better font

You've got a point there, it really is difficult to read.
Reply #14 from Stardock Forums Top
That's why I couldn't understand all of the "no diagonal scroll" whining in the forums. Who needs it? I edge scrolled once. It was too slow for me. I never went back.


Turn up your edge scrolling speed if its too slow. So its okay to click drag 20 times to scroll across the galaxy? Thats just lame. Allow me to edge scroll diagonally like EVERY other map type game made after 1990 to make my life easier. It should be easy to do, and I don't see why people are arguing against it.. just doesn't make any sense.

There are alternatives, but this should also be a basic interface 'feature' of any map type game.

Reply #15 from Stardock Forums Top
I heard that had edge scrolling but turned it off due to edge scrolling when clicking end game. I use the drag method and it only takes about 3 or 4 drags to get to the other side of the map on gigantic. far less time then the scrolling method unless you have the scrolling method really sensitive wich then makes it harder to control.
Reply #16 from Stardock Forums Top
Yeah, I'm not big on the font either, I commonly have trouble discerning 2, 3, 5, and 8 from each other in the places where the print is very small, like the population/money display on the main interface. I'm getting used to the drag method, but its not my favourite way of getting around. I still instinctively edge scroll a lot because that's what I'm used to from other games, and was really taken aback when I discovered that diagonal scrolling didn't work.
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Reply #17 from Stardock Forums Top
I don't miss diagonal scrolling now that I am used to click-dragging. If you have to move a large area, you can click on the mini-map, or zoom-out on the main map, click-drag, and zoom in again. It's very easy.

Tony
Reply #18 from Stardock Forums Top
One gotcha on the ctrl-shift-z thing -- the other player loses some of the bonuses that the alien player had.  So the more experienced player should play as the non-default player. It's not a big difference, but it is some.  Play at Normal difficulty for best results.
Reply #19 from Stardock Forums Top
Oh man, the mouse-over for Approval and Influence is SOOOO nice. Thank you!
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Reply #20 from Stardock Forums Top
I remember Brad saying that you could upgrade all of a certain type of vehicle at once, but I can't seem to find that post. How do you automatically update all of a certain type of vehicle? Also, can you upgrade vehicles when they are in the same parsec? I can never get the upgrade option to show up unless I move the ships to different parsecs. (I think parsec was the right term.)
Reply #21 from Stardock Forums Top

You can enable cheats by creating a shortcut to GalCiv2.exe and use that to start the game.

1) Use Windows Explorer to find GalCiv2.exe.
2) Right click on GalCiv2.exe and choose create shortcut.
3) Right click on the shortcut and choose properties.
4) Click in the target field and hit end.  Hit Space followed by the word CHEAT.  No switches neccesary.

Also, for CTRL+Shift+Z to work, you must have an alien ship or planet selected.

To upgrade all ships of a certain type:

1) Click on a ship of the type that you want to upgrade

2)  Click the upgrade button

3) Check the upgrade all box. Proceed as normal.

Reply #22 from Stardock Forums Top
When you upgrade a single ship, there's a checkbox above the list of target ship classes that says something to the effect of "Upgrade all ships of this class" Works great, but can be very expensive
Reply #23 from Stardock Forums Top
Thanks, I will try that. Also, is there a way to upgrade a ship without moving it out of a fleet first?
Reply #24 from Stardock Forums Top
No, you have to remove it from a fleet to upgrade single ships.
Reply #25 from Stardock Forums Top
You can enable cheats by creating a shortcut to GalCiv2.exe and use that to start the game.

1) Use Windows Explorer to find GalCiv2.exe.
2) Right click on GalCiv2.exe and choose create shortcut.
3) Right click on the shortcut and choose properties.
4) Click in the target field and hit end. Hit Space followed by the word CHEAT. No switches neccesary.

Also, for CTRL+Shift+Z to work, you must have an alien ship or planet selected.


Hmm, added the CHEAT in the right place, started a game, but how do I get to target an alien ship? Is there a nofog-cheat, or must I wait until I get into contact? In which case it'll be a bit difficult to let the 2nd player choose a faction they actually want.