bump

Bumping a really great thread .

Ray, auto-launch sends off 1/4 of the available load, not 1/2.

Hmmm...I thought it was 1/2 too. Have they changed that? I'm almost positive it used to be 1/2. :notsure:

IIRC, it started at one half in the very first version to have auto-launch, and then got bumped down to 1/4 in the next release. And stayed at that level.

Go ahead, try it out. You need to have a world with over 4000 people on it for an auto-launch transport to get 1000 on it. Check out your worlds auto-launching colony ships (to raise morale). They retain 75% of their pop at colony launch.

The slider for "How much to stick into this craft" starts at 50%. But auto-launch always loads 25% of the available people into the craft (maxing out at craft limits).

I've discovered a new strategy, and I'm mowing through games with it. Everything else is inconsequential to the fact that you can sell techs for money over time.

If I begin the game pushing 100% spending, 50% research, 25% social & military, and then I start chatting up any civ I find, I can manage to keep myself making a heady profit (i.e. 200bcs or so at 100% spending) through the majority of the opening of the game. If I allow for Culture victory in the game, I'll _never_ dip into the negatives, and I can occasionally buy into a nice trade or capital social project.

The best parts about this strategy are that 1) the civs all think they're getting a bargain, so they overspend, and generally go broke paying for my techs, 2) they think I'm the Bees-knees for giving them these techs, so they never threaten or attack me, 3) at 100% spending, I burn through the opening techs like you wouldn't believe.



~SDC~

Now the downside: it depends on the version and the level you are playing.
1) At 1.20 maso, you can't sell tech to major AI and early minor AI. But you can with later AI (who, when they appear, will likely to have all of your techs).
2) Before 1.20 at maso, only Alexians in the starting AI would gladly buy tech.
3) For lower difficulty levels, the ability to sell tech has been reduced in the 1.20 version

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"3) For lower difficulty levels, the ability to sell tech has been reduced in the 1.20 version"
tell me about it - those monkey creatures offered to trade tech with me, which i turned down as i wanted to check if i was getting a good deal or not. When i went back the same turn and offered the same deal, they just turned me down flat. WTF? I'm playing on beginner, but trading tech is almost impossible.

When you initiate the trade, the computer calculates whether the AI thinks it's a good deal using a complicated formula. When the AI offers you a deal, they will sometimes be incredibly generous, and at other times offer you something totally unfair. You have to learn to spot the good ones, as you won't get another chance.

~SDC~

Isn't it nice when they offer Dreadnaught Tech for Stellar Cartography? LOL

I'm a newbie. (Currently playing the demo, and expecting the full game for my birthday in a couple weeks.)

Could someone please explain the following statement to me:



Specifically, how can I start fights among the AIs?

Look for the Attack option in the Dipomacy screen (when you're talking to an AI). You can bribe AIs to attack other AIs by offering techs, BCs, ships, or systems (although I highly discourage ships or systems!).

There's also an Attack option on your side of the Diplomacy screen. You can offer a "gift" of you going to war with somebody.

Although this screenshot is from an older version of the game, you can see the options to go to war with the AIs on the left and right sides under the Treaties section:

http://www.galciv.com/images/screenshots/118200291356PM.jpg

Galactic Guardians: http://guardians.galciv.org
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Thanks Theoden! I am learning SO much by reading this thread. For example, up until earlier today I thought that you could only build a starbase on an existing resource. Then I read a post in this thread that made me think otherwise, jumped into a save game where I had a constructor handy and--VOILA!--I learned something new!

We're here to help!

If you have not checked it out yet, there is much more useful information in the Empires thread. Just post anywhere and someone will gladly help you out.

Everyone welcomes visitors.

Lothmorg the Black, thanks for the pointer. Quite frankly, I feel like I'm already in "deep-enough water" that I have plenty to explore, learn, and play with for some time. (Although I know that some of you guys are looking over here and laughing at the tall blonde guy thinking he's all brave and macho--while looking ridiculously silly in the kiddie pool! LOL) I looked briefly at the Empires section, and I don't even want to begin splashing around in those waters! (Although I will admit to having admired the icons that y'all have earned through your various conquests, as well as the empire icon and all of the various 'factions' to choose from.) Information overload can be a glorious thing!

Well, as an outsider looking in, what would you like to see? What would make you want to join an empire? What scares you the most about looking over there?

Just wondering what we can do to make it seem friendly to the new players.

Thanks.

Lothmorg, first off, thanks for even asking my opinion. That, in itself, speaks volumes about this community!

I was somewhat joking when I expressed "fears" about looking at the Empires area, and that whole aspect of the game. Although it is absolutely true that I am absorbing an enormous amount of information as a newbie to GalCiv.

I got in a heated debate with Will Wright (creator of The Sims) at a Developer's Conference several years back. He was fondly remembering how easy it was to play Sid Meier's Civ II--right out of the box. I basically told him that he had simply become accustomed to it, and had forgotten the tremdous learning curve.

As I see it, when you get a new game (particularly a strategy game), you've got two independent learning curves. First, learning how to play the game. What symbols mean what? How do basic concepts work? Et cetera. Once you get past that you can begin learning how to win the game. Which resources are most important/valuable in light of your play-style? Which techs/wonders/et cetera are equally critical? And so forth.

So, as an outsider looking in, I am finding everything I need to know via a) reading the manual (which I downloaded along with the demo), playing the demo, c) reading the strategy guide (which I found at JavaScout's excellent site, along with a slew of other information!), and d) reading posts and/or responses from the veterans.

One thing I did, to help me over the 'how to win' learning curve, was I assembled all of the tech dependency information, Wonders, Achievements, units, et cetera into a check-list. I Alt+Tab between it and my game--so that I can keep track of where I am, and plot out what I need in order to get where I want to go.

The only 'fear' that I have about jumping right into the Empires is making a complete fool of myself and/or dragging down others on the team (presuming that my low scores might negatively effect theirs). Beyond that, I will probably be looking for an Empire that is moderately successful and whose members are actively contributing members to the site (in terms of posts like yours--and many others--helping us newbies get a leg up on things). [Note: You and Theoden have both helped me in a couple of threads, so The Galactic Guardians is looking mighty interesting!]

I suppose other criteria might become obvious as I learn more. For example, I am tending to play with a Good bent right now. Not certain whether, or how, that effects Empire alliances. Or whether my inclination to experiment with those aspects of the game later on, might effect things for better or worse.

So, there's my two cents worth. (Now I gotta get back to GalCiv--I'm finally getting a handle on StarBases, have been able to keep my Spend Rate at 100% for the entire game, have managed to corral all of the available Wonders and Trade Goods, and am having an awesome time! Yeah, it's the kiddie pool, but it's the most fun I've had since when back in the early days of MoO2 and Civ2!)

Thanks again for your help, and for making me feel welcome!

A couple of points about this...

1. You won't be able to easily bribe the other AIs to attack the one showing as "strongest" on the relations screen. Your best bet is to get the "strongest" one to attack the "strong" one (it will all make sense when you look at the relations screen).

2. A nice side effect of starting wars is that any trade routes between the warring AIs are broken, and they are more likely to send their freighters to you.

If you're playing the demo, don't get too used to building starbases all over - it's been quite severely changed in current versions of the game, and SBs cost money to build.

Checkout http://guardians.galciv.org/faqstrat.html for a couple of useful beginner guides.

Most importantly, have fun!

This is a fantastic community.


Absolutely.


Me too.


Nonsense. Most of the empires are just a bunch of people that like to hang out together online. Most will tell you not to worry about your scores or alignment and just have fun. We like to help the new folks out.


Glad to hear it!


Not at all. Unless you want to join the Evil Empire.


And THAT is what it is all about.


Anytime. And thank you for your responses.

It was pretty easy... if you were already experienced at Civ 1.


The empire score is the total of the scores of all the players in the empire. So even if you have no points, you won't make them any worse off, and if you submit even a single game, they'll be better off.
Apart from those empires that are 'invite only', you can assume that any empire will be grateful for a new recruit. The Guardians are a new empire with lots of active players. Many of the older empires (like mine) have had a lot of their original members retire and are eager for new blood. A good way to choose is to look at the recent posts on the empire forums and see where you think you'd best fit in.

~SDC~

Let me comment on this for a moment. If you play Evil, you get really good bonuses in the short term and it may seem to make the game much easier. However, there are several disadvantages to playing Evil, not the least of which is the most devastating event in the game (in my opinion) which is the Fundamentalist appearance, which will take several (or even all) systems from all Evil empires...including yours if you've taken the Dark path.

I strongly suggest that you try to stick with playing Good alignment (or at the least Neutral) while you're learning the ropes. Though you'll miss out on lots of really good bonuses during colonization and random events, you'll see a much easier time in the late game when the Good AIs like you more and you see the more useful "Good" social projects (like Trade Center).

As far as the empire thing, I think Lothmorg, Magnum and Downie have done a good job of explaining the ins and outs of empires. I highly suggest you read the information in this http://www.galciv.com/forum.asp?BID=GF&id=132018#142150 , as it gives an excellent explanation of empires and also contains lots of "recruitment pitches" from many empires. All the empires are fun, though some are more active than others, so you might also want to check out the Empire Forums and read some of the communication threads to see who's active and who's not. Don't be turned off by threads with lots of posts (like the Guardians). The best thing to do is read the first page of the thread, then skip to the last couple of pages. You should get a good idea of the empire by doing this and it won't take you forever to read the thread!

And please, continue to ask questions! The questions you are asking not only help you but many others who need help!

DATarbell, you a game developer, or just a game reviewer?

I have to agree with Matthew Downie... Civ 2 was very easy to play out of the box, if you were a Civ 1 "grog". Will Wright was a definate Civ 1 grog.

In a later version of GC, they added in a basic Tech Navigator. It doesn't let you give a goal and see what techs you need to get it (ala Civ3), but it will let you research what any tech gives, and what it leads to (ala SMAC).

When are you upgrading to the full retail version of GC?

Alignment... from my personal experience, playing Good is a lot safer and more rewarding (via trade and more trustworthy allies) then Evil. I do on occasion play Evil, but those are due to an early Colonize Event offering a +33% PQ increase on a PQ 16 or better world. I haven't found any other Evil choice to be significantly worthly otherwise, except for the odd +50% production from slave race early on.

If your alignment is different from an AIs, then your relations degrade. This means that in time, you and they will be at War. If it's opposites (Good/Evil), it's a much quicker then just Extreme/Neutral. Now, strong/large amounts of trade will offset this natural "lifestyle" difference degradation. So you can be Saintly, and still have the Drengin's be your best buddy for the full game.

And the Good AI will beat you up and exploit you, even if you are Good, if you are too weak. So you need to keep a decent military and good trade in most games.

Have fun!

Star Pilot, I'm a game developer 'wannabe'. Software developer by profession for the last 25 years, with a strong bent towards game design, primarily in the TBS genre.

You're right, Will was a definite Civ1 grog. And I would agree that prior experience with Civ1 would reduce (but not eliminate) the learning curve on how the game is played. However, I still believe that the learning curve on how to win the game was substantial. [Edit: Look at me! It's five years later and I'm still debating with Will. And he's not even here. I gotta find something better to do with my time. Hmmm, this GalCiv game looks interesting... LOL]

And boy howdy am I having fun climbing those curves with GalCiv! My birthday is now a week-and-a-half away and I am fairly certain that I'll be getting the full version then. (If not, then I'll purchase it myself the next day!) I'm itching to jump in, but having a blast with the demo in the meantime.

And thanks again to Lothmorg, Downie, and Theoden for pointing me in the right direction. (I read several of the recruitment posts, as recommended. And even waded through a good portion of the Galactic Guardians post. Man that's long!)
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Don't say I didn't warn you! LOL LOL

It's great to see you enjoying the game! Have fun!