adamb1011

I guess my point was that from an outsiders perspective, it looks like the devs mostly forgot about 4 races, or got so caught up in coming up with cool tech names they forgot to provide diversity in other ways. And perhaps Frogboy just doesn't like the Altarians!

I took a look at the other races too. Altarians are actively gimped - and severely so. Terrans, Krynn, Drengin and Iridium really all have roughly the same tech tree, with only slight differences. Yor tree and mechanics are unique Iconian and Thalan trees are really powerful comparatively to the other races, even though their mechanics are the same I rarely say this about the devs, but it just looks like they go

Can we get a balance pass on tech trees? pretty please?

Yeah the matrix is insanely good. They also get a whole tech tree path dedicated to combat improvements, and every tech in it is amazing. Generally, Thalan tech tree > iconian tech tree / yor tree > other tech trees >>>> altarian tech tree. Going back to the Altarian tech tree, I'd like to mention that for a supposedly research focused tech tree... where are the unique research improvements or bonus techs?

Yeah, the devs severely overnerfed them. A few of them were outright rediculous when introduced. Particularily the antimatter plant. You could surround any key empire-wide building with antimatter plants and it would double or triple its effectiveness!

The issue is that hives comes SO early. And its realllly powerful that early. Earlygame is the most important time in any game, since any boost you get heavily reduces how quickly you reach lategame. But its not just Hives... They have so many amazing techs etc that others don't have.

And dont even get me started on the Thalan tech tree, which everyone knows is rediculous...

Well, I think the best comparison for the Altarians is the Iconians. Compare the molecular fabricator with the social matrix. The fabricator is better in literally every way: It appears earlier in the tech tree. It gives a 10% bonus to tech and manu like the social matrix, but the fabricator also gives 10% food. The fabricator gives +2 adjacency to manu, tech and food. The social matrix gives +1 to manu and tech. Then the follow

Look, I broadly agree with you. What I was trying to say is that the developers have made quite clear that while they will provide and support multi player, their focus will be primarily on single player. That doesn't mean they won't fix serious multi player exploits, but my point was that if you are looking to play competitive multi player, or a multi player focused game, you've probably come to the wrong place. not my decision,

sure I do. If you are after balanced multi player, then you bought the wrong game. This game isn't even close to balanced, and I'm not even convinced the devs want to fix that.

mentioned this in the other thread - but the altarian tree is just trash. which is really sad as they are my favourite race lore wise etc. there's a difference between a slight imbalance and being completely gimp. terraforming issue literally cripples them late game. their special building (social matrix) is a waste of space and literally the worst of all the social buildings.

I really like the altarians... but with a few minor exceptions their tech tree is just awful. They need to get a much better terraforming tree - it screws them late. Also their special building (social matrix) is just plain awful. Needs huuuge buffs. And yeah, thalan tree needs nerfing into the ground.

It's an exploit. If you choose to play with it, and find the game easy, then I'm not sure why you are surprised. that said, they should close the loophole, but at the same time I'm not sure if it should be high priority?

ie, how long does it take to birthing subsidy your way up to a fully stacked planet with 50% farms? how many turns that could have been spent on other things?

I get where you are coming from... but there's huge opportunity cost there. ie every turn you spend on birthing subsidies you could be building constructors to get resources or improve your planets, or building improvements, or researching, or earning money, etc etc. early game is where these things matter most too, and where your micro time will have the most positive effects. late game micro matters a lot less.

birthing subsidies are good, but they also have a big opportunity cost except in rare cases on manu worlds

Yeah raw production and food is now really good. Due to the game mechanics, it's best to get a balance of the two. As I'm on my phone I won't go into the maths of it, but its made farms and +growth a lot better. It's why approval is now very important - it gives both production and growth. hence you should always beeline approval techs early on in the game to ensure your approval stays at 100% empire-wide without needing approval buildings. They just provide such a big bonus e

Very cool!

interesting that you push so hard up the tree. I actually find the choice at #11 (growth vs production) to be a tough one when you are not the yor. big advantages and disadvantages to both IMO. anyone got thoughts on which is better? early game and late

and finally, as someone mentioned - build factories on research and wealth specialised planets! I usually go for at least 2 and a solar plant. preferably 3. This, along with farms, is where the overheads come from. as for approval buildings, I usually consider them last resort. I'd rather beeline for +approval techs, or build star base modules, or get the tradeable resource.

As for how to specialise your planets, the decision is usually not too hard IMO. the key thing to realise is that manu planets benefit from being in close proximity since shipyards can have multiple sponsors. research and wealth planets get no benefit at all really. also, due to overheads, it's usually better if research and wealth world's are of higher class. finally, I tend to prioritise research over wealth. usually at a ratio of about 3 research world's for eve

approval is amazing early. supportive population is an instant 25% raw production. That makes you 25% better at... everything... I usually beeline it. Then movement tech and transport spec.

I think generally there's a few things you could do. Firstly, the idea that the AI runs everything on a galaxy-wide scale makes a lot of sense given what Im seeing today. Just fixing this will probably make a huge difference. Running each planet individually (governers) will improve their economic management 10x. Even with a load of handicaps, I still think it will be better longterm to have a more economically intelligent AI. Secondly, races of the same ideology should te

The AI was the single best bit about galciv2. By far. I cant wait to see galciv3 AI reach a similar point

But in all seriousness - do it! Start another thread, specify the exact map settings and rules, and see if anybody can do it. I'll give it a go! Got nothing else to do this weekend