Arturus Magi

Reply to major lock up in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

'Can someone suggest a "blind" response that might gather crash data - that is, if I can't see a SE display what keys could I press to cause SE to at least store the exception data to disk?' If it is indeed related to SmartException, you could try hitting 'r,' which would generally be the keyboard shortcut for a 'retry' button. Just for reference though, I see it when I close GalCiv from in a game, and I haven't tried to restart SE yet after removing it to copy in that patch.

Reply to upgrade problems in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

'The old Drengin manager worked flawlessly so why is the new one so crappy?' The old DGM didn't work flawlessly, and the old DGM didn't have other things, like DirectSkin or the self-updating code, potentially causing unexpected problems.

Reply to User Interface in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

4 does already happen in some screens but not others.

Reply to major lock up in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

What's seems to be happening is that something is crashing while GalCiv is trying to shut down, and the dialog box isn't popping up on top because of some display bug. Hitting the space bar selects the default button, which should be 'abort.'

Reply to Beta 1Y seems much harder in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

' Because the AI purchased the colony ships (thanks for revelaing that Brad )' The other option, which I usually take advantage of, once you have diplomatic relations with the major races, is to buy the colony ships themselves as the AI builds them.

Reply to upgrade problems in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

'I'd like to try this game before my Drengin.Net account expires,' It's been explicitly stated that noone's account will expire before GalCiv is in final release. You'll have a while before this is a concern. 'People, it is VERY easy to write a download manager. All you need to do is compare the file on the local harddrive with the files on the download server. Whatever Drengin is doing, it's (a) broken, and (b) much too complicated. Keep it simple folks. ' It's not a

Reply to Beta 1Y seems much harder in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

The main problem with that idea is that bouys would almost certainly be easier to build than colony ships (if they weren't, there would be no use for them since you could get the actual colonies there faster), so one player could simply use them to claim every system within range. With someone focused enough on the appropriate techs, half the galaxy could be claimed by one player before anyone has more than three or four colonies, forcing at least one player (and probably all of them) into war

Reply to Large File download probs in UK. Frogboy please read in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

The DGM is supposed to recognize partially downloaded files, but I don't know if it works if you reboot before resuming. (For reference, I haven't seen it actually resume yet, but I haven't had to try with the current DGM version, so I can't say that I have any viable information to report.)

Reply to gnn message over invasion screen in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I just checked, and the thread name is 'Prioritizing for BETA2. PLEASE READ!' There is a longer description of the situation as I saw it in Beta1E there (and a complaint about requesting new features from the next person to reply... ¬.¬).

Reply to gnn message over invasion screen in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I mentioned this situation in the Beta2 prep thread (can't remember the name right now). The invasion screen doesn't come up until the end of the AI's turn, and gets overlapped with whatever windows are prompted by the start of your turn.

Reply to Stardock application question - not galciv in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

TrayMonitor/TrayServer is the module that allows DesktopX and ObjectBar to use Systray objects. It needs to run at startup in order to catch all the systray icons, so if you're using a skin in either of those programs that has a systray object you'll need to leave it in the startup.

Reply to Departing a planet... Is it a bug or a feature? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

It seems to be a bug. You may note that it happens to all ships the turn you finish researching a new drive tech as well, although that particular aspect may be intentional.

Reply to Strategies sharing: survey ship usage in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

If you want a good combat vessel, a Scout Ship can frequently fill the roll. In my last game, the U.S.S Hero made it up to 78HP, 212 attack, 18 defense (I think).

Reply to Tell me about Drengin Net - should I get it if I only want GalCiv? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Drengin.net is, as of right now, a collection of five games, all but two of which are, as of yet, at least partially incomplete. There is a sixth game that was on the old system, but is not up on this one, that was basically a simple Christmas-themed game. I don't know if it'll show up again this Christmas, or if you'll have to talk to someone at Stardock to get a copy of it. In any case, there is one game concept that was mentioned elsewhere that's very early in production (I

Reply to Two ships from two different empires stuck on a planet in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I have a few games with similar situations, but it's usually someone at war with me moving ships into the same location I already have others at. (In one case, the Drengin were attacking a stack of six transports, one was destroied, then the Drengin battleship moved under the other five and was unattackable until I move my ships out.) In that particular situation, the solution is simply to move all of the ships one space then attack. A stopgap solution to the problem while waiting for

Reply to Still can't get GalCiv... in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

If you mailed them at the support address, it may take a few days. They have apparently been a bit busy recently, and under normal conditions, the turn around can be areound two buisness days. That having been said, most DSL connections do have either a firewall, a proxy, or a router somewhere. The first two frequently cause problems which may or may not be easy to resolve, and the later can cause problems in certain situations, and I wouldn't be surprised in the DGM was one such case

Reply to Still can't get GalCiv... in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I've had problems with downloading things here in the pase. AOL really is not the sort of place you should be trying to connect to an ASP from in the first place though, so I doubt there's much I could relate that would be of help. (For reference, the OD.net CM still intermitently fails, or to be more accurate, intermitently works.) In any case, Stardock does have a history of finding some way to take care of problems like this, so it's more a matter of time and method then su

Reply to Planet class improvements on OS2 - how did the work again? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Hmm.... Definatly something we need to look closely at then. The question now is whether I'll be able to keep this game running long enough to find out. I'm now at war with everybody, and may have to bring things to a close. A quick way to check, in any case, would be to add more terraforming improvements with large bonuses and low building costs, build them on Earth, and check it against both formulas. (Then restore the old techs and start a new game without finishing the te

Reply to Defensive Ships in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I don't like the idea of being stuck with only defensive or offensive ships, but doubling up the ship techs so that every time they come up two techs would appear, one offensive and one defensive, then pruning off the other and its advanced forms, if any, once on of the two have been completely researched (or alternatly, once one has been built, to give an opportunity for technologists and/or militants an advantage in the form of greater variety).

Reply to Naming 2 stars the same renders a game unrestartable. in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I could always page down a mythology book, or something similar, and come up with a good sized list. We'd have to kill a number of the Roman names to avoid conflicts with named objects in the Sol system, but it'd still provide a good start.

Reply to Lemmings, Schools, and Wabbits....... in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

My comment was mostly to note that the AI do attack each other, and not just the human player. The multiple wars thing isn't too surprising, although they should check to make sure they can actually sustain two or more seperate wars before starting them. The AI may want to consider attacking things besides colony ships and transports from time to time though. I can't recall seeing them attack a combat ship if there were noncombatants around to bash.

Reply to Planet class improvements on OS2 - how did the work again? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

From what I can tell, it's cumulative. Soldering definatly is or I wouldn't have the +1740-something% I do now, and from what I can tell, most of the formulas follow a similar patern. I can't say I've looked too closely at it, but I will be able to tell you for certain as soon as one of these class 31 planets I have now finish building terraforming. If they come out 46, the math in that earlier post is correct.

Reply to Defensive Ships in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Survey Ships can get defense upgrades from anomolies, as could whatever higher class ships that can investigate anomolies. Also, I think some mention of combat worthy defensive ships being 'slated for future implementation' came up a few days back. (And incidentally, I've been using defenders for attack as well as defense, and once they gain some levels they can get rather impressive defence scores. I have at least one that can deal with battleships on attack, and can defend a

Reply to Prioritizing for Beta 2! PLEASE READ! in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Two other things that just came to mind, one a bug and one a interface issue. First the interface. If your plan to keep the current 'press spacebar' invasion system, the invasion window needs to be forced to the top when the computer invades one of your systems. In my current game I've lost several systems without being able to attempt to defend them because the GNN window and the research complete window both popped up on top of the invasion window and before I was able to dismiss bo

Reply to Prioritizing for Beta 2! PLEASE READ! in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

It happens in smaller ones too, it's just uncommon to have enough ships for it to happen regularly and/or noticibly.