Farms? (And a few other beginner questions)

(1) On ToA you should be able to build a farms just by researching it. Ofcourse it takes a few techs before farming but just follow the branches to Xeno Farming if you want them that early. In the earlier versions you could build one right away, but its not necessary anyway. Farms only increase a pop CAPACITY, not the growth rate, so they arent needed right away anyway since your colonies have many billions of people to grow before not having a farm is even noticed. Careful putting too many farms on one planet especially your HomeWorld but you'll see more about that later.   In the meantime, in order to have a manageable morale I will simply tell you not to exceed 18 or maybe 20 billion people per planet as all heck will break loose.

(2) Starting in order... IMO playing the campaigns would be more fun if done in order, but for the normal game, ToA is SOOOOOO much better than the its predecessors that the others would not interest me but remember you may really like them, so do what you want. ToA gives every civ its OWN tech tree, so you will get so much more color in your games. The campaigns were never that important to me, but others loved them.

Thanks for the response... I guess from my experiences with other games, I'm used to farms being one of the first things to build Is there a regular farming tech or will I need to go after Xeno Farming specifically to build any sort of farm?

There are three levels of farming technologies. THe first is Xeno farming and is required for an initial farm. The second which can be researched immediately after increases the pop bonus even further and the third farm even further.

Now, once you build a low level farm on a planet, it will automatically begin upgrading to lvl 2 when that tech is researched and to lvl 3 when that tech is. As long as you left the option to "Make better buildings on the same tile an earlier version of building was on"   checked and did not uncheck it.

Twilight of the Arnor works quite a bit differently (but Better IMO) than the earlier versions and there is no manual available to help beginners with it. It is pretty intuitive, but lots of trial and error are involved early on. The following Galactopedia helps a TON and is super easy to use and addresses ToA! In short, it is extra super! Check "Terran" on the tech tree section and explore away Or whatever other race you play later. You can also explore planetary improvements, resources, etc.

http://library.galciv2.com/index.aspx?m=775

if that did not show up as a link, then copy + paste it and walaa! you're there.

P.S. Netriak rocks

Ah, gotcha.

Are trade routes just established between factions or can they be made between planets I control?

I'm still trying to get the hang of how fast to expand, and what to produce and when.

No trade routes are between races only. They also help to improve relations with that race so you could use that to your advantage. The most lucrative ones are the ones that travel the greatest distance.

The first building and usually the second building also that I build on a planet is a factory. This helps all other buildings be built considerably faster.

How do I tell when my economy is ready for me to expand to other planets?

Hmm, that's hard to answer. Any new colony is going to lose money for you at first. You really have to watch your budget early on. In my first few turns I end up with three or four colony ships (the free miner is great to upgrade to a colony ship) and do a little bit of exploring. Grab any planet above 11 quality as soon as you see it. Ignore any and all planets that are below 7 at first (you can let the cpu settle the ones near you and eventually they'll revolt over to you thanks to influence). The 8-11 range is up to you on whether you want to settle it or not. Just pay attention to what the computer is doing. You don't want to lose them and get stuck with a 5.

If your budget can handle it, expand, expand, expand.

And remember, your budget is based on taxes which is based on citizens which are based on planets for the little people to grow on, so colonizing should be your top priority.

Step 1: Explore
Step 2: Colonize
Step 3: Colonize
Step 4: Colonize!

A new colony will cost you 10bc/week. You don't have to build a thing on the new planet. Just colonize it as soon as you can possibly afford another 10bc/week, and let it sit there and grow in population until it's making money, if you need to.

The last thing you want is to colonize too slowly, and then be stuck with a fraction of the number of worlds that all the other races have, and be forced to go to war (against a vastly superior enemy) just to get a little new ground.

Thats a huge one - and its at the heart of how to play GalCiv. There's no easy way to explain it - its like trying to explain the taste of Strawberries

Each player has their own style of play, and there are as many "Paths to Sweetness and Light" as there are players explaining the "True Way" in terms of Tactics to get there. At the end of the day, the game is all about the economy, how money is generated, its relative value for the items bought, and the severe limitations of getting that wrong. Its from an understanding of how the economy works that the game flows.

Ignore the economy, or get it continually wrong, and I'll guarantee you'll hate this game with a passion, ending up putting your fist through the screen . Get into the economy - and it takes tiiiiiime dont expect instant "sweetness and light". Expect weeks of working at it and many, many, "failed" games - and you'll then love it and get hooked for life...

A common problem we all have when starting to wrap our heads around this, is "going bankrupt" within a few game weeks/months. There are Zillions of threads on this, and its worth going through a few of them, a recent good one is :Economy Thread.

I suggest you select a map layout that you like, save it so you can restart it, then practice the early game over and over (up to - say - the first game year or so), restart it, practice the early game again etc. That way you do several early games a session and get into it quicker. Its all about the early game and how the economy plays in it. We all want to get into Fleets whizzing everywhere etc, but until you nail the economy and the early game, you'll never enjoy GalCiv.

If you get frustrated - honestly, we've all been there, however confident anyone may sound - dont give up, come onto the forum, post a screenshot of where you are at, and people will help you walk through a game if that's what's needed.

Anyone flaming a new player on this forum for asking basic questions dies a horrible Cyber-Death , so dont hesitate to yell as time goes on.

Regards
Zy

Thanks for the help and encouragement--it's appreciated!

I've been playing around a bit on a tiny map, and I'm bringing in plenty of money, but even with my tax rate at 0%, my approval rate is plummeting. I have three entertainment centers, but the approval is dropping steadily at about 2% per turn... how can I stop this?

Sheer guess - without seeing the planet screen its difficult to understand where you are. That sounds like an overpopulated planet with circa 22/24Billion+ people on it if 3 entertainment centres have not stopped the Rot. Really the practical "safe" max is around 16-18Billion, after that your population start moaning its too crowded - consider the hassles with 7Billion on this Planet - they probably have a point

My guess without knowing more, and considering your previous posts, and the 3 entertainment centres have not stopped the Rot, is you have put farms on a Planet. A farm will give you the capacity to grow population to an upper limit. Its an inexorable inevitable upper limit, you cant stop them reaching that limit. Therefore placing farms on a Planet needs careful thought to make sure you dont burst through a safe upper limit before they start to rebel.

Can you indicate what stage of the game you are at or post a screenshot of the miscreant Planet Screen surface? We can then suggest an alternate way of doing things.

Regards
Zy

Your approval rate is dropping simply because your population is growing. However, you did not tell us what that approval rate is. There is no need to worry if you have a very large population but an approval of 60% for instance. Approval rate per planet makes that planet grow people faster. Approval rate per civilization lets you raise more taxes. But once you raise those taxes (which is critically important to your economy) that approval rate will go down, but it's supposed to.

To increase morale:

1) Research +Morale/approval technologies
2) Build Morale buildings
3) Build morale trade groods, like Spices and Harmony crystals. Those are civ-wide and really help
4) Find those Yellow Resources on the map and then send a constructor to mine them and MORE constructors after a Starbase is built on that yellow Resource to add to that mining. Each new starbase module adds about 5 percent to the mining for a maximum of around 30 percent I think

Rememeber, higher morale lets you raise taxes which then lowers morale. It's all about money, your goal should not be a 90 percent morale rate as you are then literally wasting a lot of money. Except of course for a planet that is grwoing people, but they tend to have high morale anyway since they have so few people at first.

Its the 0% Tax Rate that draws my attention. At 0% Tax and three Entertainment buildings, they should be so outrageously happy that transformation into the next higher plain of existence should be imminent, not dropping morale by 2% a turn. Mind you there's Billionaires on this Planet who are still unhappy with their lot in life

Regards
Zy

FYI: I rarely allow more than 16 billion people on a planet, they're just too unruly to manage when the numbers get higher. Generally I don't like to go higher than 10 or 12 billion on a sub-10 quality planet. It really is dependent on how many slots I have on a given planet. I don't want everything to be morale based.

Ah, that makes sense; I had about 70% approval but the population had maxed out.

I'm pretty far into my game on a tiny map and things are going well. I have a great deal of income, spies everywhere on my opponents' planets, and my influence is growing rapidly.

Another question ... I just finished the tech that allows for insurrection modules, but when I sent a constructor to an influence star base, it wasn't available to build--it does go with that star base, right? I really want to start some uprisings

Okay, never mind, I figured out the insurrection modules

It can be done, but its a tough one with just influence starbases. The tipping point to flip a planet to you is the surrounding influence needs to be 4 times that of the planet being flipped. You can look for that by clicking on the target planet and looking at the stats for it (some don't show until you have the minimum espionage level).

Once the magic figure of 4 is exceeded, its then a case of waiting for it to flip. The flipping is random, it could be almost immediate, could be a game year ahead, but as long as the influence ratio is above four whilst you waiting for that to happen, it will eventually flip.

Usually, almost invariably, you also need to have a strong Influence in general in your empire, so if you want to do this, make sure you have a significant number of the yellow influence techs. The positioning of the influence starbase is also crucial, the closer to the target planet the better, if the target planet is in the outer squares of the starbase influence, you'll have a tough time flipping it - usually.

Dont forget whilst you are concentrating on this, the Galaxy moves on, keep alive to the other needs you have/what the nasty guys are doing before you press the Turn Button each time, else they'll swarm all over you as you dropped the ball on overall development and production of planets and military.

Last but no means least - the AI is not going to sit and watch you do all this, make sure you have some military around your enmpire. The AI will get seriously miffed at an Influence attack, and if you have no military - as such - it will be down your throat quicker than a ferret down a rabbit hole

Regards
Zy

Okay, I just won my first game, without firing a shot Granted, I was playing on the beginner difficulty so once I got my empire up and running the computer didn't really pose much of a challenge, but I really was using this game more as practice just to get used to game mechanics. It has, however, cemented my love for the game I'm still barely scratching the surface, but I think I'm ready to start increasing the size of the galaxy and computer difficulty.

Rock On

At this point I would suggest going up the difficulty level a bit further than you would as such, and discover the game level where you are zapped and cremated on a regular basis, then back off one, probably two levels - that will give you room to breath in this learning phase, but enough scope to do things as you drink in stuff at an ever increasing rate. Medium map size probably a good one to go for at this point. From that point on, its just a step by step process increasing levels and size as you get comfortable.

Regards
Zy

Yeesh, block your ears and start singing loudly on that suggestion QwertyUiop1011!

I ambitiously upped the difficulty levels and map size in an attempt to further understand the galaxy, tried a few unconventional tactics to see what happens, (95% tax anyone? Geez, I was expecting them to complain, but was quite shocked when an underling informed me my entire galactic population was now down to ... well ... two! Everyone else had decided the slave pits were a more attractive holiday destination. ) and suffered the consequences; namely, my own disgruntled people returning in war ships demanding their money back. (Mine I tell you, mine!!! Half goes to the underling...)

Zapped and cremated. Yup, tick, tick. Unfortunately by my own megalomaniac actions. Reckon I'll pick a level and map size somewhere in between for radical population experiments. Now where'd I store that stretching rack...

Subtle difference a full quote can make - mind you at 95% Tax I'm surprised they didnt put you on the stretching rack

But then I am a civilised Terran *snif*

Anyway at the mention of the words "slave pit" I always get a vision of Charleton Heston in the Roman Slave Quarry in Judea cracking rocks (movie - Ben Hur )

yea, yea, I know - "Charlton who?"

Geez todays whippersnappers

Regards
Zy

Okay, I tried a game on a medium map and normal difficulty and received a solid ass-kicking when the Yor invaded I had focused too much on economy and expansion without building up a military which I guess made me a pretty appealing target.

Another question that popped up in the course of this game... how do I form alliances? I researched that tech, but all I seem to be able to do is offer/demand economic and research treaties.

You need two things after researching 'Alliances' to get in alliances with others.

1) They need the tech as well. If they haven't researched it yet, you can 'be a pal' and give it to them. They'll like you more for it.

2) Your relations with that race need to be 'close'. Nothing less - friendly doesn't work, and certainly nothing lower than that. When you look at the race relations screen, look at what you get pluses and minuses for, and focus on getting more pluses with any given race if you want an alliance.

Once you've both got the tech and your relations are 'close', sidle up alongside and ask for that race's hand in alliance marriage. (It's on the diplomacy screen, with those economic and research treaties). It won't show up as an option unless those two stipulations are satisfied.

And then, after you've used them for all you wanted them for, you can always break the alliance and steamroll them.

Yeah, I usually play 'evil'.

How far into the game were you when they zapped you?

Regards
Zy