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

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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
755,729 views 182 replies | Pinned
Reply #26 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Targeting a ship is the same as left clicking on it.

Oh...OH Vincent, that's...just wrong. So...wrong.


Hehe, Three things I'd like to say here..

First off this is the first direct-to-name forum post made by you (Brad/Frogboy/Draginol)

And second, I ment to spell it "Evilgasm"

Third: I..Kind of stole it from The Order Of The Stick, In particular, (OOTS#197 )


But still, I hope you were refering to the fact that you could crea..err..win with comparativly no losses against the other opponent
Reply #27 from Stardock Forums Top
And second, I ment to spell it "Evilgasm"

Third: I..Kind of stole it from The Order Of The Stick,


That strip is definitely one of my favorites from OOTS. I actually got the shirt with that line on it.
Siege of Centauri
Reply #28 from Stardock Forums Top
Cool..Got picitures?
Reply #29 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Sorry, I don't (no camera). Here's where you can purchase it, though:

http://www.cafepress.com/orderofthestick.39094843

Reply #30 from Stardock Forums Top
To scroll I just hold down left mouse button on the mini map and move the mouse around. Works good with a lapotp pointing device or a standard mouse. Fast as hell!
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Reply #31 from Stardock Forums Top
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.



Wow you actually take the time to edge scroll around the map? I just left click on the minimap to get where ii want to go instantly.
Reply #32 from Stardock Forums Top
But..When you change the camera angle it can get disorientating..
Reply #33 from Stardock Forums Top
This, this is useful stuff. Are there any other nifty things that the cheat code parameter adds in?

But..When you change the camera angle it can get disorientating..

Drag it along. Or zoom out to the "strategic" view if you don't know where you are. Now that the game is in a nice smooth 3D engine, I'm always using the mini-map scroll because it lets me get anywhere with little effort.
Reply #34 from Stardock Forums Top

Yes, but why can't I use the arrow keys to scroll? It's useless to have them move ships.

Reply #35 from Stardock Forums Top
Bnchad, perhaps to you. I've used the arrow keys to move ships, though not often enough that I'd miss it if it were gone. I'm all for making it a configurable setting, though that means more work on the part of the devs.
Reply #36 from Stardock Forums Top
How would I move ships if the arrow keys moved the map instead? You don't expect me to use the mouse for that, do you?
Reply #37 from Stardock Forums Top
When I select a ship component from the list and hit remove, the thumbnail of the componant sometimes stays in the list (while the part is gone). When I choose components by clicking on them on the model, this never happens.

Sometimes the game starts scrolling up automatically (save-load returns back to normal).

Creating fleets sometimes just doesn't work. I select the ships I want in the fleet, check my logistics count, and click create fleet but nothing happens.
Reply #38 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.


How about it, can anyone answer this?
Reply #39 from Stardock Forums Top
Another wonderful point. (Except it appears to CTD if done too much).

When you have your spying up to ADVANCED and want to examine your enemy's worlds just click on one of them. Then to move to the next, use the next button. You will cycle through all of that race's worlds. There is a problem with it however. I don't know if it is because not all of that race's worlds are currently visible (not yet found with scouts), or because it is just a bug, but after a couple of worlds you get a CTD. When this bug is fixed, this function would be wonderful to plan your Trade or Invasion strategies.

Chris.
Reply #40 from Stardock Forums Top
Another wonderful point. (Except it appears to CTD if done too much).

When you have your spying up to ADVANCED and want to examine your enemy's worlds just click on one of them. Then to move to the next, use the next button. You will cycle through all of that race's worlds. There is a problem with it however. I don't know if it is because not all of that race's worlds are currently visible (not yet found with scouts), or because it is just a bug, but after a couple of worlds you get a CTD. When this bug is fixed, this function would be wonderful to plan your Trade or Invasion strategies.

Chris.
Reply #41 from Stardock Forums Top
Didn't get the game yet, but, for hotseat, can we start the game with option to already be allied with one of the other races? Do we see his homeworld (and) ships, or go to diplomacy screen and somehow press CTRL+Shift+Z in the first turn from there, or something like that? In most of cases of hotseat, I play with my friend(s) to kick computers ass anyways...

when creating a game, can we adjust every race starting bonuses (if not in the game, then in some file) so everyone plays exactly what (s)he wants to play?

I dont like cheats, but, when we change one of the AIs into a human, can we save the game, start normal exe and load that game while still having more human players (as we had when the game was saved)? If we can, can we just start normal game (without cheats), save the game in the first turn, exit the game, and...hmm...modify the savegame that some coumputers would be humans?
Reply #42 from Stardock Forums Top
You can start off allied or as a team (which is even stronger), though I don't think you share each other's fog of war elimination.
Reply #43 from Stardock Forums Top
Well, the obvious solution is to use CTRL + T , to teleport your scout to their homeworld ( which you can see by looking at the influence areas ), then go CTRL + SHIFT + Z . And, blam, you got yourself Hotseat on turn one.
Reply #45 from Stardock Forums Top
Other cool things you can do:

1) You can upgrade colony ships to custom constructors and you can upgrade constructor ships to custom colony ships. This can be very useful if you get all the way to the planet and someone beats you to it, but happen to notice there's an unclaimed resource nearby.... Also helps when you've built too many CS and all the planets are claimed, just upgrade them to custom constructors and build starbases!

2) In the ship design screen you can rotate the view by clicking and holding the middle mouse button.

3) You can click repeatedly on a stack of ships and it cycles through each ship in the stack.

Reply #46 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
So its okay to click drag 20 times to scroll across the galaxy?


Don't try and click drag across the galaxy while zoomed in to the closest level? A few quick revs back on the mouse wheel should zoom you out far enough that you don't have to click drag very much to get across the biggest maps.
Reply #47 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
You can upgrade colony ships to custom constructors and you can upgrade constructor ships to custom colony ships. This can be very useful if you get all the way to the planet and someone beats you to it, but happen to notice there's an unclaimed resource nearby.... Also helps when you've built too many CS and all the planets are claimed, just upgrade them to custom constructors and build starbases!


Pretty expensive process though..
Reply #48 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Not completely sure if this is documented in the manual, as I've still yet to read through the whole thing (been playing too much to do that, lol). On each one of your worlds in detail view, at the top it has the shields, hammers and beakers, there's a little button at the upper right you can click to have that world focus its efforts on one of those three.

In my last game, I had several low-class worlds devoted entirely to research, with no starport, and little in the way of production gone to waste just by doing that. No sense in wasting a spot on a starport if you don't have the space for lots of factories to back it up.
Reply #49 from Stardock Forums Top
Pretty expensive process though..


Yes, but only about half the price of buying the same ships outright. Not something you'd want to do if you're not in a rush and don't have excess cash, but for those rush-times, it is important.
Reply #50 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Am I supposed to be able to upgrade one kind of Planetary Improvement to a whole other kind (i.e. Basic Farming to Basic Factory)? If so, neat (assuming it saves turns)!

But then what's the "Demolish" button for?