CaptainPatch

Reply to Creativity too strong on 'very slow tech speed' in Twilight of the Arnor GalCiv2 Forums

I think what they were shooting for under the label of "Creativity" was a research breakthrough. You know, those "Eureka!" moments when a scientist is overwhelmed by some insight. However, in ToA, it seems that Creativity always results in "research complete". Any scientist can tell you that on any given project, there will be a series of "Eureka!" moments. Very rarely does it result in "mission accomplished". More like a hefty jump forward, bringing the conclusion faster than normal ploddi

Reply to Bullying other races (and other moans about the diplomacy screen) in Twilight of the Arnor GalCiv2 Forums

The thing with diplomatic dialog is to NOT pay attention to the colorful language. Boil the dialog to the basic logic flow: Race X demands money (resources, ships, planets, Influence, whatever) IF "yes" GOTO .... IF "no" GOTO .... The wimpy dialog choices that you have to choose from are whatever the programmer thought would be entertaining -- to _him_, at that time when he did the programming. Underlying the creative writing are some very BASIC (as in, old programmin

Reply to New Minor Races appearing in Twilight of the Arnor GalCiv2 Forums

Use the Altarian tech tree (oriented towards a Research-intensive race) Immense galaxy Habitable planets abundant # of planets " # of stars " Anomalies " Asteroids " Star density scattered Tech rate normal # of Minor races 8 # of Major races 7 Economics +30% Morale +20% Research +20% Planet quality +10% (you start with a 11 quality planet, which ad

Reply to New Minor Races appearing in Twilight of the Arnor GalCiv2 Forums

"Unless they give all their tech to your closest competitor on the same turn they appear, I don't see it being such a big deal. If you really are dominating, just send a transport and wipe them out!" Way ahead in tech, but I haven't gotten around to Planetary Invasion just yet. Ergo, no transports. "You could also disable minor races to avoid this sort of thing. A little less dramatic than turning off trading altogether." Weeeelllll. The way I was working the economy

Reply to Why does a race surrender? in Twilight of the Arnor GalCiv2 Forums

Wow. Wierd indeed. However, that event worked _exactly_ as it was programmed to do. That is, _somebody_ programmed that contact dialogue. And whatever the reason, what was said was precisely what that programmer wanted it to say. I imagine that one of the designers had this flight of fantasy wherein he contemplated what some current German government might have to say about what happened during the Third Reich. Several generations of having the world pounding in the idea that the G

Reply to economy starbases confuse me in Twilight of the Arnor GalCiv2 Forums

Coincidence. The freighter routes probably pass along the same path. Somehwere in Options are a couple choices that will show on the map A) Trade routes, and B) resource paths from asteroids to planet of destination. Toggle those off and on and look at the map. Just to clarify things even more, Assign the Mines to a planet far away in order to move the resource path away from the planet in question. (That is, if the Mine is yours to control. If it isn't, then the path simply is wha

New Minor Races appearing in Twilight of the Arnor GalCiv2 Forums

So a new Minor Race appears. It has _one_ planet. But tech-wise, they have **exactly** every tech as the game leader -- me. I have a custom race that is massively tech-oriented. I have spent the entire game pouring 60% of my major empire economy into research. As a result of this program, I've created a tech lead that puts me at least several dozen techs ahead of my closest competitor. I'm flying around at Warp while most of the others are lucky if the

Reply to Why does a race surrender? in Twilight of the Arnor GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]Really the only explanation I could come up with is A: (you stated you never had any spies targeting you, so this leads me to believe that the iconians may have been the target of all the yor spies .to the extent that the iconians were crippled . the only problem with this is, that spies are applied and nobody knows the the person who sent them .) B: the iconians simply overextended ,or even worse for them. someone else recently surrendered to them and the influx of new planet upkeep

Reply to economy starbases confuse me in Twilight of the Arnor GalCiv2 Forums

Apples and oranges. The line from a Mined asteroid square to a planet is the flow of production resources to that planet. That is, the asteroid resources are being beamed through subspace to the planet; no ships involved. The effect is to add to the "hammers" for production available for that planet. Economy starbases are essentially collecting tolls from freightliners that pass through their Zone of Control. (Left-click on the starbase and a ring will appear on the map surr

Why does a race surrender? in Twilight of the Arnor GalCiv2 Forums

So, there I am, master of my Immense galaxy. I mean, I've got colonies and ships _everywhere_. With the Eyes of the Universe built, I pretty much see the whole map. I'm at war with the Yor, and have been for about half the game. I haven't developed Planetary Invasion, so I have to content myself with simply besieging his planets and killing his ships as soon as they launch. The bulk of his military is tied up doing garrison duty (which I've been continuall

Reply to Research oddities in TA in Twilight of the Arnor GalCiv2 Forums

I'll take a stab at this, though I'm certainly NOT an authority. For every category (research, production, ship production), you have a base amount = some number. There are numerous factors that provide a percentage increase: base number x X% = the modified total. Percentage increases are adjustments of that base amount ONLY. They do not add a percentage of a modified base. That is, for instance, you have a base research value of 10. You build a Xeno Lab on a Research tile that add

Reply to autoscroll in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]Putting the mouse on the edge of the screen where it's panning seems to occasionally fix this. [/quote] This works. Thanks!

Reply to Play with tech trading on or off? in Twilight of the Arnor GalCiv2 Forums

"Half of discovering new technology is simply knowing that it _can_ be done." The different tech trees reflect the different approaches derived from different perspectives. In the case of Earth (Terra), we have specialized in making machine aides. The primary reason why we haven't developed something like organic "tools" is because no one has spent any great effort (outside of SF writers) about _how_ to do something of the sort. But if our scientists were ever exposed to a new tech t

Reply to autoscroll in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Home. Turns out that _my_ PC is an Intel Pentium 4 with a 3.0 GHz CPU, and 1.5 Gb of RAM. (It's my wife that has the dual-core; she does lots of graphic artist stuff.) MY video is a Radeon X1600 series, with 128 or 256 Mb of video RAM. As far as I know, none of that hardware has any particular problems with GC2. What's a dual screen display? Some kind of windows option? Split screen? I only play my games as full-screen displays. (Not much for multi-tasking, man that I am

Reply to Would like to hear opening strategies for your race in Twilight of the Arnor GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]When you say that races start very far apart - are you able to set that as a variable somehow? or did you make a custom map? or do you re-start until those are the race positions?[/quote] Home. The "Close"/"Far Apart" options were in "Lost Empire: Immortals" (which I had been playing heavily just before ToA became available). Though LEI was a somewhat pitiful game, it had a couple things I wouldn't mind seeing in GC2: Up to 20 minor races. Close/Far start placement. It had

Reply to Perverse strategy in Twilight of the Arnor GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]I've never seen the AI put any value in the IPs during trade.[/quote] Usually the AI doesn't offer or request Influence. But on the contact page, right and left columns, top you can see listings for bc's and Influence. In essence, you can "spend" Influence, buy or sell, the same way you use bc's. Didn't know that those Influence acquisitions were only temporary. I thought they were simply added to your running total.

Reply to Twilight Feedback! Let us have it! in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

My main complaint is about Espionage. The pricing structure is EXTREMELY ludicrous, and losing those extremely expensive Spies is waaaay too easy. In GC2DL, Espionage boiled down to dumping in money and eventually getting detailed Intelligence reports on the spied upon race. In DA, Spies were added to get more of a "hands on" feel -- but that's also when the ludicrous pricing started. I think you should go back to the DL in-depth Intel reports, with an option to invest in Spy

Perverse strategy in Twilight of the Arnor GalCiv2 Forums

I usually play a research-intensive race. By Turn 100-150 I'm usually several dozen techs ahead of _everybody_. (I sell off a few particularly old techs to float the Treasury every 25 turns or so.) My perverse idea is: Instead of selling tech for cash, what would happen if I sold tech for Influence, as much as necessary to totally tap out ALL of the other races in their Influence accounts? Would that result in an immediate Influence victory?

Reply to autoscroll in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

The home PC is _is_ a dual-core. But note that I've experienced this same problem over three different PCs. Only the most recent PC is a dual-core. [I'll post the specs later when I get home this evening.]

Reply to Would like to hear opening strategies for your race in Twilight of the Arnor GalCiv2 Forums

Hmm. I'm at work now, so I can't check. But now you've got me wondering if I'm crossing memories with "Lost Empire: Immortals". [A pathetic game; don't bother with it.] That game also has Immense galaxies; like 5,000 _stars_. I'll get back to you this evening.

Reply to Economic changes (not liking it). Am I alone? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

But how does all that affect the bottomline amount of research and production? Those are my real objectives. If you can crank out the tech advances, you can make up cash shortfalls by selling off Ancient History techs (in comparison to what you currently have available). Like If I sell off Sensors I and Sensors II when I'm at Sensors IV, I'll make enough to float my Treasury for about 25+ turns. AND I can afford to sink 25% of GDP into Espionage. (By the time you have 20 stockpiled Spies, i

Reply to Would like to hear opening strategies for your race in Twilight of the Arnor GalCiv2 Forums

When you set the size of the galaxy and the number of major races, you can specify if you want them to start close to one another, or far apart. The idea is: close, conflict starts sooner, when the race is still shaping up; far apart, they get to establish themselves before serious hostilities break out in the mid-game. The wild card are the minor races: the greater the number of minor races, the more likely you'll bump into one or too in the early game, effectively cramping your resources. O

Reply to autoscroll in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Sounds like a possibility. Of course, it would seem I have had this same problem with three different PCs over the years. This one I _think_ has either 256 Mb or 512 Mb of video RAM. (Whatever it is, it was a LOT a year-and-a-half ago; just back of the then "bleeding edge".) I wasn't able to pull an info panel in the Control Panel that nailed it down. (Never was any good at hide-and-go-seek.) Thanks for the suggestion! I'll see what I can do to get a tweak.

Reply to Would like to hear opening strategies for your race in Twilight of the Arnor GalCiv2 Forums

Actually, instead of "trait", it's "abilities". (Third page of customization, second tab.) The special ability (right side of panel) of "Hive"-something makes you more productive while "Adaptive" allows you to settle Toxic and Aquatic worlds. So, it's one or the other, but not both (as I erroneously suggested). My first run through, I went with Hive, but I decided having Adaptive gave me a significantly greater number of worlds to colonize. And since colonizing rapidly increases your resear

Reply to Would like to hear opening strategies for your race in Twilight of the Arnor GalCiv2 Forums

Set up an Immense galaxy, with abundant stars, planets, resources, anomalies, etc. Starting races start Very Far apart. (Allows everyone to build up their base of operations before being forced to deal with nosy neighbors.) Usually 7 or more major races, with 8 minor races. I always play a custom race. That way I can pile on the Research advantages: Creative, Research +20%, +10% on planet quality, + Morale, Technologist Party in control. Starting tech focuses on ship propulsion sys