Silphius

Reply to How do you feel about Ability Bonuses? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

I'm addicted to +30% Hit points and +30% defence. But thats because I use the Good alignment and focus on invunerable ships with solid defence values. Luck plays a big part as well. I realise this may not be the way to min/max the game to its fullest extent but I'm more playing for fun. Theres nothing like seeing your little ship wipe out an entire enemy battle armarda. 100 hp medium hulls rock :D Can only imagine how much better this would be if I could get around to ordering

Reply to Exploiting the fleet combat system in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

Ah cool thanks for the formula. Confirms my observations though I did not realise the HP was factored in with that much emphasis. Makes sense though. It explains why its so hard to level up a rook ship with a bunch of heavily experienced veterans of various hull sizes. Even the mediums start breaching 100 hp... I also stack +HP (The %bonus not the module I dont have TA yet) for anyone wondering how you can get that much hp on a medium hull - never losing a ship has its benefits

Reply to Exploiting the fleet combat system in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

I go with the good ethic choice and hence defences are quite important to my ship design. Personally i've found you want your largest ship targeted because it has the most HP and greatest potential for defences. Like Marvin Kosh said the AI may come up with the critical mass of offensive firepower to bleed through your defence. Its not pretty when that happens. The way to ensure your largest ship is targeted, barring command mods, is to make it the most dangerous while not outs

Reply to War Tax in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Take that warmonger! I'd drop the production slider back a little (if you havent already) and look at ways of strengthening the economy. 5 nations declaring war at once tells me that you've either annoyed the Drath or your military forces are not very strong (or both). Either way you are in pretty deep trouble. You can try and fight it out but it may be such a drain you never recover. If you choose to restart remember to keep in mind that having a strong military force is very

Reply to A simple, excellent improvement suggestion in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Click on the minimap to zoom it in and leave it zoomed in. One. Click. I am precise in sending out ships. I just send the colony ship to the star (its exact location selected through the minimap) and then evaluate the planets before proceeding further. Frankly Ubercat I'm disinclined to continue this discussion as you are becoming argumentative and aggressive with your posts. Making derogatory speculations about how I play the game when I'm trying to help you out is not terribl

Reply to A simple, excellent improvement suggestion in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

My reservations are about information overload. But its not the only reservation. After patient study on other aspects of GalCiv2 that did not immediately make sense or made me wish it was implemented differently I have, almost without fail, discovered there were very good reasons for why the game is the way it is. These things are not always apparent or simply require some time to become accustomed to. As I mentioned earlier I'm completely happy with the current implementation

Reply to A simple, excellent improvement suggestion in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Out of curiosity what size and resolution are you running at? What galaxy size? A larger monitor or more advanced use of the minimap may be a solution to the problem. You may have forgotten or overlooked the fact that you can zoom in on the minimap if needed - you certainally do not need to see the entire universe during the colonisation phase, especially on the larger galaxy sizes. I never find a need to squint but perhaps that has to do with my 22inch LCD Widescreen running a

Reply to A simple, excellent improvement suggestion in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Transference of minimap data would be fine I suppose. Its not a big thing for me but I can see how others would find it preferable. Personally when I want to send a ship towards a star in unmapped territory I send it by clicking on the minimap.

Reply to A simple, excellent improvement suggestion in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]I'm reminded of this everytime I see a purple star and start throwing money at getting a colony ship there first even if I have not confirmed the quality of the planets in orbit. I know there will be at least one extra juicy planet.[/quote] I was referencing my earlier post about how purple stars almost always have a class 20+ Therefore anything that indicates the presence of a purple star indicates (almost certainly) the presence of a very high quality planet.

Reply to A simple, excellent improvement suggestion in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Kind of forgetting its a game not a simulator. I'm all for realism but gameplay should always be a consideration. I think theres something about that jolt of excitement when you stumble across a huge class 20+ planet that just would not be the same if you knew where it was from the start and even discovered some enterprising fellow had set up a food court and a gift shop in anticipation of your colony ship. At that point there would also be less decision making on the part of t

Reply to A simple, excellent improvement suggestion in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Yeah I wondered why this feature was absent, particularily after the stellar class has an impact on the presence and quality of the planets in the system. Seems weird that stellar cartography provides hints as to the amount of planets in orbit of the star but no hints as to its stellar class. I strongly remember playing MOO2 with this in mind and always racing to explore the stars that lended themselves to habital planets. I'm reminded of this everytime I see a purple star and

Reply to Newbie Starbase/Repair questions in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Dammit wheres the edit function gone. With the missing bracket: [IMG]http://img390.imageshack.us/img390/4123/econms2.jpg[/IMG]

Reply to Newbie Starbase/Repair questions in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

I recently posted in a thread on starbases that you may find useful.[link="https://forums.galciv2.com/311531"]Here.[/link] In addition to what those above me have said... The radius that appears when you click on a constructor or starbase is the area of effect. This applies from freighter bonuses to ship assist missiles (yes - they really do shoot that far) As far as I know planets will always provide faster repair than just sitting in space - there is not tech require

Reply to It's quiet... in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Pay attention - this is how you gripe I'm absolutely estatic about the release of TA but I've still yet to purchase it. This is for several reasons, upcoming exams and the fact I can't just swing by my EB to buy it. Those reasons are pretty incidental. My biggest reason is i'm a bit shy about buying 'unfinished' games. When I say that I'm not levelling an accusation at Stardock - I simply recognise my tendency to become emotionally involved with too many

Reply to Fog of War & Curiosity in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Well maybe I can help you out in a rather roundabout way. Its not explicitly stated but the maximum sensor range on any given ship is 15 parsecs (please somebody correct me if im wrong - as far as i'm aware this is still correct) As such I build a non military specialist sensor/survey ship which job is rather similar to a modern AWACS or other dedicated radar craft. Its my eyes and ears and 15 parsecs [I]radius[/I] is quite large. [IMG]http://img363.imageshack.us/img36

Reply to Fog of War & Curiosity in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

I would imagine the fog colour is fixed. I've never really had a problem with the colour as space games have been using that colour for fog of war for a while - earliest that springs to mind being Homeworld. Its was the same dusty tone then as it was with the astroids that were mined (there is also the same colour tone similarity in GalCiv2 as well) so it wasn't a great leap to see it as dust and debris. Though I can see an argument for using Nebula gas it doesnt really have th

Reply to What does my population want? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Thanks for reminding me about Mote. I read that years ago and remember being blown away - I want to read it again now :) Also, on the issue you brought up Captain Patch, I would not entirely discount education of the population and a responsible cultural development to work within the limits of a planets resources. Are we not in the grip of working through these issues as a species? No doubt it will take something like permanent damage to planet earth and billions of deaths, b

Reply to What does my population want? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

I sometimes have a 3 farm planet or contemplate using the % food magigger. So some of them are not happy - how much is it really going to effect you? Having an odd 30 billion population planet in an empire of 400 billion or so is going to have very little effect on your overall approval if the rest of the planets are sitting on average 80-90% (for example) What you will want to avoid is the planet going into negative population growth because there isnt any room for anybody to

Reply to I really hate the way that starbases are built and defended in this game in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Ship assist values stack. Starbase attack and defence values are not ship assist values - only modules that state ship assist will actually assist ships (and this is function only provided by military starbases) To illustrate my point since it seems people don't like the wall 'o' text ;) I'll use a composite screenshot as the evidence and provide the text as backup for those requiring an explanation of what the screenshot means. I used a screenshot from my current game and unfortunately

Reply to I really hate the way that starbases are built and defended in this game in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]Totally support most of the OP's comments. Upgrading a starbase should just be something you do with a planets military production, with a line of mini constructors like the mini freighters for trade (speed reduces with distance but increases with technology)[/quote] Thats exactly what the current implementation is except with the added features of customisation of the 'constructor' as well as the flexibility of any planet can provide the production. If you want automation just s

Reply to I really hate the way that starbases are built and defended in this game in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

I have not yet made the switch to TA but I do not imagine the starbase dynamics have changed too drastically from DA that my comments would be without some small merit. I make extensive use of all three types of starbase when playing and find that, used correctly, they are incredibly powerful. So I do not think the benefit is underrated. However I am not making a 'you're doing it wrong' statement. I bashed my head up against the wall of starbases for a long time before I starte

Reply to should their be imagration in GalCiv? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

What Nickziller said - population growth is made up of several factors, one of which is population immigrating to become citizens. Easy mistake to make since the most obvious way to increase population growth revolves around fertility. If you want to blur the term a little, planetary rebellion is a kind of wholesale immigration. Also I don't really want to turn the thread onto a different subject, but your list or examples is a little... revisionist and erroneous.

Reply to Frogboy - What's the most interesting bug you've squashed developing GalCivII? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Probably a Thalan military grade trojan that tried to get his banking details and transfer the funds to an account entitled 'The Thalan Galatic Conquest Trust' Damn transdimensional bugs.

Reply to Last second observation/request for cut scene movies - TA in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Heh yeah that would be nice :) I run the game full widescreen 1680x1050 (my monitors native res) so its very stretchy and squished. I've kind of gotten used to widescreen support being lacking in anything but the very latest titles since I bought the monitor a year ago and to be honest unless it directly effects the gameplay its not that big a deal. I'd rather dev time went to gameplay etc, but it would be nice if the first capital ship launched by my empire wasn't the SS Spind

Reply to Which civilizations need my attention the most? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

I've transitioned to Painful from Tough to set the background of my AI experience. Generally speaking I find starting locations and available planets are the biggest factor in the success of an AI empire. Uranium outlined the Krynn, Thalans and Torians as being highly successful but I think that has more to do with the fact that these empires have a voracious appetite for expansion. All races are interested in expanding but I think these three are tweaked to expand harder than