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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 #51 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
When you build a accidentally build a farm on a +400% manufacturing square
CursorFX - Customize your Windows cursor
Reply #53 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
#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.


I use this a lot, although sometimes the map seems to stick on the cursor and I have to click again to release. It's annoying when it happens. I'm not sure if I'm engaging some other feature though.
Reply #54 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I wouldnt wanna upgrade a colony ship to ANYTHING close to begining of the game, can hurt economy pretty bad if not done carefully, much less upgrading to a contructor, one of the most expensive units early on. its like 2500 $$ so imagin you go colonize a planet then the drengins get it, and then you see a military resource close by so your like OMGFG!!!! and upgrade, not only do you get fked on benjamin$ , theres not enough money to make the starbase!! and then you got to wait like 3-5 turns JUST to get back on track. Lolzz by the time u doing OK again there comes the drengin


Monc34
Reply #55 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Rather than upgrade the extra colony ships, I find alternative uses for them. One thing they can do is ferry population around; particularly, to those newly-conquered planets that only have 100 million population. They also serve as a deterrent for enemy transports. If a colony ship is in orbit, that stops a transport just as much as a Defender.
Reply #56 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?


I can't figure this out either. When you move from one type of building to another (even an upgrade of the same type of building) it takes into account all the previous turns building, and gives you credit for them. So why the heck would you ever want to decommission a building?! That's just a TOTAL waste of money & turns!

For example, if building A would take 8 turns to build at current manufacturing levels, and you want to build building B instead, that takes 16 turns currently, if you replace building A with building B, it will only take 8 turns to build it. VERY handy.
Reply #57 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
You get credit even if they're different types? So, if you've got an Economy Capital and want to upgrade to a farm, you always get it next turn?
Reply #58 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
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.


Maybe I should have post this to a thread "Did you know you could not do this"

It's a big drawback that you cannot use the keyboard to scroll map. If cursor keys cannot be assigned to scrolling why not some other keys in the keyboard ? Why cannot I choose to use my cursor keys either to control ships or scroll map ? It's a question of shortcuts and I found it very annoying that I have no keyboard access to such a basic operation as map scrolling. Based on the post in this forum some of you have found the drag scroll to be the best control but there are also many that disagree ... including me.

Why I prefer keyboard scroll ? Of course one thing is that how I have used to play strategy games but for me It's much efficient and usefull to use keyboard for scrolling and mouse for other actions. In fact this is the first strategy game that I have played where I cannot use keyboard for scrolling and I have played them a lot. It totally kills my wrist if I have to drag the view constantly and make the other control just using only mouse. Using minimap or edge scroll it's just the same thing.

So ... developers ... a humble request for you ... could you please enable the keyboard scroll in the future patches ?
Reply #59 from GalCiv2 Forums Top


For example: "C:\Program Files\Stardock\TotalGaming\GalCiv2\galciv2.exe" cheat



Cheat Effect
Ctrl + R Research current tech (Hold Shift for ALL techs)
Ctrl + J Completes social projects
Ctrl + 0-9 (NOT on num pad) Hail's major races
Ctrl + C Clones selected ship
Ctrl + B Adds battleship
Ctrl + V United planets meeting
Ctrl + H Heals selected ship
Ctrl + T Teleports selected ship to cursor
Ctrl + L Assigns remaining planets to major races
Ctrl + S Saves
Ctrl + A Upgrades selected ship
Ctrl + M Adds 10,000bc
Ctrl + N Restart on a new map with new race
Ctrl + P Adds 1 to planet class (this adds to the planet size, however you do not get the extra build tiles in the planet screen, so it doesn't help much)
CTRL+U Takes away Fog of War
In the game itself, hit CTRL-F

i dont know why but the cheats didnt work for me
Reply #60 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
You can buy others' freighters. When you do--they tend to be deep in their territory and boom--instant long trade route without spending the time waiting for your freighter to get there.
Reply #61 from Stardock Forums Top
You get credit even if they're different types? So, if you've got an Economy Capital and want to upgrade to a farm, you always get it next turn?


Yes and no. A Basic Factory can be upgraded to a Xeno Farm in the same number of turns that you could upgrade a Basic Farm. However, improvements that can't be improved or demolished (i.e. Capitals, RoE, etc.) cannot be "repurposed."

As for demolishing improvements before losing/trading away a planet...that's sneaky!
Reply #62 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Agree on the keyboard scroll thing. Please implement an option that lets us switch scroll to arrow keys. Using keys for my ships tends to just mean I accidently move ships I don't want to. I would much rather use those for map use.
Reply #63 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
So why the heck would you ever want to decommission a building?! That's just a TOTAL waste of money & turns!


FWIW I was playing last night and had a bunch of 30% ish happines planets with like 22B pop but only class 9-11... I had research all the way up the farms tree and it was way overpopulated. I decommissioned one "best" farm that was letting the planet get overpop'd by 8b to cut the pop and let approval go up faster than it would have done if I'd waited for the superfarm to be converted to the factory or whatever I replaced it with.
Reply #64 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Oh, the horror. That's 8 troop transports that could have been loaded before decommissioning the farm.
Reply #65 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
There is no need to left click and drag on the Mini Map.

Just left click on the spot you want and you will instantly go to it.
Reply #66 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Allow me to edge scroll diagonally like EVERY other map type game made after 1990 to make my life easier.


Actually, both methods (click-and-drag) and edge-scrolling are pretty lame. I just click on where I want to go on the minimap and bam, there I am!
Reply #67 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
When I purchase a Trade Good from another race it does not show on my list of available resources to sell. Why is this?
Reply #68 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I'm pretty sure the trade doesnt become yours, they already have a monopoly on it. It you get a trade good from another race it means you use it (and get the benefit) but you dont control its distribution.
Reply #69 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Cargo hulls loaded with sensors and engines make great early warning craft. You can set up a DEW line around an area for very little investment. They can move quickly to track incoming ships while staying out of range. Very effective against the AI tactic of sneaking in unescorted troop transports, expecially when you control a corner. At normal levels it seems to confuse the AI when all its transports get zapped as soon as they move into your space. The other day I sucessfully held off 3 technologically superior enemies while I came from way behind for a technological victory.

Troop transports can move population between friendly planets. So long as they are not used in a combat drop, the transports are not used up.
Reply #70 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
"#2 You can RIGHT-CLICK on the ship built block notifications that flow down on the right and your ship will automatically be launched"

Unfortunately I haven't been able to find this feature. Please provide more of a description of where this can be found "flowing down on th right" just hasn't been enuf for me to find this. I have RIGHT_CLICKED my way most everywhere and would love to find this feature, but have yet to find an easy way to launch ships. Am forced to follow GNN to planet and launch constructors in a most tedious fashion.
Reply #71 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Okay, you don't see the blue ship icons as well as the green planet icons moving down the right side of the big screen map? Quite large really.

You just left click on the blue icon and it takes you right to the planet that produced the ship where you can launch or as I just now read, right click an launch it right away..

Another way is to set up colony rally point. So all ships produced by that colony automatically launch to the rally point. Set up in the governors area or rally point area in the planet star dock screen.
Reply #72 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
This one may be too obvious to everone but here goes...

You can press spacebar to end any remaining moves on your selected ship (or fleet) and skip to the next available ship.

Amongst other things this is handy if you have ships you dont want to move that turn and you dont want to put on guard but you also dont want to miss out on moving any other available ships before hitting end turn.

Warning! You dont get the moves back if you want to move that same ship later in the same turn. The moves left goes to 0 when you press space.
+1 Loading…
Reply #73 from GalCiv2 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


How do you play in windowed mode?
Reply #74 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
As for the CTRL-SH-Z hot seat mode I have an idea. By CTRL + T one can place a flagship anywhere on the map to then choose to play another civ. & then CTRL + T the same ship back to where it came from. But you have to keep CTRL-SH-Z ing to switch control for another player, Not the best solution for a game. So try this --- start a game, CTRL + T a ship to another area. CTRL-SH-Z that civ, send the ship back. Save the file. Load the new file for your opponent to play. A variation of the Game of the Month (GOTM) theme in the CIV series. To make sure of no "cheating" save the original file also & load both using the normal load method. Not true multiplay but what the heck.
Reply #75 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
After a few weeks of owning and playing the game, I finally noticed that I can hit the 't' key to bring up a list of my current rally points when I have a fleet or a ship selected. Useful if you want to tell a number of fleets to proceed to a specific location when they are scattered all over the map.

I also recently figured out that you can double up a trade route, and send multiple ships to the same planet. Very useful if your favored trading partner does not have as many planets as you have trade routes.

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