Quitch

Reply to Diplomatic Victory, so unfulfilling in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Brad (of Stardock) has already said that they won't use the Civ4 solution because that requires the AI to play unlike a human, using artificial measures to prevent trading. He's been working on improving its trading, but to me it's this ridiculous function where it picks someone at random to trade with that seems most useless. This is a stratergy game and it's picking random people to trade with? WTF? It needs to be much smarter than that, at the very least it could go for the race

Reply to AI player building waaaaay too many morale and culture improvements. in Bug Reports GalCiv2 Forums

The AI simply uses the governer for upgrades, so it gets upgrades built in the order research is done. As for the OP, it sounds like those AIs were simply pushing for a cultural victory. It's when they do the odd embassy I worry, because unless you're really pushing the cultural front, then why bother? Influence starbases are better anyway.

GalCivII - Good game, shame about the details in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

I don't have vast experience of 4X games. Colonisation and Space Empires III, those are about the only ones I played. Colonisation I beat as the English and never went back to it. Good fun though. Space Empires III though, that game got its hooks into me deep. It's the only reason I look at 4X games. The demo was addictive and the full game amazing. I wasn't one for multiplayer, so it was purely AI fights for me. On hard, in a large galaxy with maximum civs it provided a real challen

Reply to Influencer Starbase upgrade help in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Follow the Xeno Business path all the way to Cultural Conquest. That will give you the big influence bonuses. The top path, for various governments, also has a few modules but they're not in the same league and are only required if you're hitting that four starbases to a sector limit and still not making headway.

Reply to Selecting the 'right' political party..... in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Depends what your stratergy is, for example, if you want a high population then the Populists are a good choice as you'll need all the morale boosts you can get. What the numbers mean exactly... no one knows, and that includes Stardock. Brad has said many are hold overs and no ones sure if they're percentages, actual bonuses, etc. You can't go wrong with the Fedralists mind, you can never have too much money. More money = more ship purchasing power = ability to produce mi

Reply to Gifted AI intelligence? in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

It's a level just in-between those two added, IIRC, in the first patch. After Inelligent/Tough the AI doesn't get any smarter, it just gets bonuses like free tech or economy boosts, etc.

Reply to When can we expect 1.2? in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Well Brad is away for three weeks, so I'd say a month and a half to two months from now... at a guess.

Reply to Tech victory is just too easy in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

i agree tech victory is a little easy. i usually play with it disabled. half the time, i also disable influence victory. the AI usually doesn't pursue it unless they have a real clear advantage (played one game where the torians managed to grab 3 or 4 influence resources all clustered together... i was playing the Yor, and my colonies were rebelling. well, i had to take m

Reply to Tech victory is just too easy in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Crippling is also a level where the AI receives bonuses. Tough is the top "smarts" level, everything after that is the same AI, just with bonuses.

Reply to Favourite resource. in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Economy, because you can simply never have too much money.

Reply to Too Easy? in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

The problem with the campaign is that it asks you to play a crippled version of the game, but gives you no reason to do so. Westwood and Blizzard write good campaigns, and Stardock should look to games like Command & Conquer, Starcraft and Warcraft III for ideas on how to make me want to fight from mission to mission.

Random AI intelligence question in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

How random is the random AI intelligence question? Are we talking some AIs being Bright, some Intelligent and some benefiting for bonuses, or can you end up with AIs somewhere inbetween the levels?

Reply to Influence Starbases; a question in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Be careful about placing them in too remote a location, the AI won't like it on the higher levels. If you can cover a target AND your own planet, all the better

Reply to So what's your opinion on 1.1? in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

AI is better at trading, but I question whether it should be trading weapons or defences with me without direct cause to do so (e.g. needs money, I'm at war with an enemy, we're allies etc.) Still quite a few AI issues though, mainly a matter of the AI trying to be a jack of all trades, failing to choose one path over another. Unfortunately, 1.1 fixed almost none of the legion of UI issues, including the really annoying inability to upgrade while in fleet or stacked. I'm l

Reply to AI ignoring range? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

LOL! Too true.

Reply to Optimal Weapon Placement in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Basically each value represents a die, so with a beam of 6 you're rolling a D6 to get a score of between 1 and 6. The defender than rolls their relevant defence die, so say they had a beam defence of 5 they roll a D5 to get a score between 1 and 5 which they then deduct from your attack. This is then repeated for each weapon type. Now, one area I'm hazy on, non-optimal defences still count (e.g. missile defences can block beams) but only at half value, but I don't know if they are r

Reply to Having to activate a patch? in Ideas GalCiv2 Forums

Whats with having to activate a patch? I can't think of any other games that do this. I thought that stardock were trying to make things more convenient for the user by e.g not having the game needing the cd in the drive to play. I can't play the game anymore because I don't have an internet connection to activate. This level of anti-piracy is madness! btw I've seen stard

No medals against my account in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Why don't my characters' medals appear below my posts? What am I doing wrong?

Reply to Fix the f***ing save file problem. in Bug Reports GalCiv2 Forums

This would not be a show stopper IF the save game loaded properly. But no, you get ripped off of a production / research turn Yep, this is a really, really sloppy attempt to stop people saving and loading to play the perfect metaverse game. Unfortunately: a) It happens even in non-metaverse saves b) It's about the worst p

Reply to Tech victory is just too easy in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

The only time I tried for a tech victory, I got ruthlessly slaughtered by the Iconians (I came so close ). It's only easy because you've sorted out a tactic to make it work. If you dominate the galaxy then go for tech of course it's easy, but by that point you'd find any victory easy. I don't think the AI should try to stop you though. The whole point of the AI

Reply to Declaring war: AI wierdness and the way it should work in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

I am running 1.1, and this report is from 1.1, therefore it can't have been dealt with (effectively) in 1.1, and some of the above are suggestions rather than problems. As for attacking me when I have industry, that was rather my point. It should have attacked, as and when it declared war. Unfortunately it sat back and I had time to produce ships (I didn't bother because there was a lot of allied territory between me and them and I had plenty of time to see them coming), thus meanin

Reply to Random race personalities in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

No, but the game has a much smaller finite number of possiblities, and since i don't need a lifetime to understand the Dregin, I'd like to see the chance to have random race personalities so that I don't know instantly what everyone is going to bee like.

Reply to Tech victory is just too easy in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

If you focus on population growth and morale, it often doesn't matter if they do declare war. Their ships are useless because you don't have any for them to shoot down, and their invasions meet huge populations because you've got farms. Since populations don't require any spending you're free to focus on research. Generally, though, I just find I maintain good relations with everyone. I maintain a healthy economy and pay off people if necessary, I trade reguarly, etc. I have had t

Reply to You cannot bump your own posts in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Actually, Wade, I went to bed. The internet is international these days It appears I was wrong on 2, however you cannot bump a post that you were the last reply to (or original poster of). Trust me, I've tried.

Declaring war: AI wierdness and the way it should work in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

I was playing in a gigantic universe with nine AIs. I was 2nd or 3rd with no military to speak of, but a huge industry. The Drath, a race who I'd only established contact with through one of their ships entering my space (I never saw it, so it was likely coming in through a wormhole) decided to declare war on me. They were about 8th overall. I was evil. WTF??!! Firstly, while their military may be stronger, my industry was far more powerful. The only way a military nat