Moving on up (AI difficulty)

Help me win

from GalCiv2 Forums
Hello I am having trouble graduating to tough difficulty. I was having an easy time winning games through economy and diplomacy at normal and challenging but I've been trying tough for a couple days and am not getting the hang of it. My military excursions are usually more than well matched by my opponents even if I try to agressively research weapons. I just seem to start lagging behind my opponents early on. I have played strategy games all my life but I'm trying to take it a little more seriously so I can use some advice, I'm embarassing myself
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Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
dont want to post another topic, but i have noticed people having thier metaverse pictures on thier posts wassup with that
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I don't know about the metaverse pictures, sorry.

Regarding the difficulty level, I guess the whole point is to develop new strategies. What worked for you on lower levels may not work (as) well on higher ones. Part of the fun is discovering these new strategies and adapting old ones, by learning from what seems to work (and under what circumstances) and what doesn't.

I myself am discovering the game, and like you, I have played strategy games all my life. Since I don't want to spoil your pleasure, I'd rather not give you specific advice (your sense of achievement will be more pleasurable when you discover them on your own), but here are the broad lines of what I usually do to build my strategies:

1. Analyze the situation, drawing from past experience. What are your relative (i.e. relative to your opponents) strengths (military? technology? political? etc.) and weaknesses? In GalCiv (1 & 2), I pay particular attention to my economy, because it drives all the rest. I find that, as long as I have a strong economy, I can take a very flexible stance in the game, because I can divert lots of spending exactly where I need it. So think of what affects your economy: population (and thus planets and farm improvements), trade, market improvements, and economy resources come to mind. An important part of your strategy should probably involve these items.

2. Consider how you can capitalize on your strengths and diminish your weaknesses early on. This includes tweaking around with the custom race settings (you are playing a custom race, right?), and possibly with the galaxy settings too (although I personally tend to stick to huge galaxies with rare habitable planets and very slow research). Also make sure you can spend all that money you're hauling in. This is where factories and resarch centers come in. Find the right mix for you.

3. Particularly in GalCiv, your very first moves are very important. Think long term. What you do early on will shape your civilization's future. Think of it as an investment. Here's an example:

Identify opponents' potential expansion patterns, and make sure you grab those nice planets and resources before they do. This is probably a no-brainer if you have at least some experience with the game, but expand from "outside-in", meaning: a) use your flagship/scouts/colony ships/constructors to explore and stake out where you want your border to be (usually as far as your ship's range can go), b) colonize the planets closest to those borders first, and c) only then colonize "inside" your borders. This will have many good effects:
i. it is the best way to increase your territory and your overall range very fast
ii. it puts you in touch with your neighbors early on, granting trade and technology exchange opportunities
iii. those frontier colonies will be among your oldest and best upgraded by the time your opponents will develop threating technologies like planetary invasion.
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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
By metaverse pictures you mean the graphic in the top right? Like my 20XX Strong Bad pic?
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
i meant those little insignia pics with lieutenant, difficulty meter, etc. Apparently they come on by themselves.

Here is how I have been setting up the games:

Occasional habitable planets, common planets, abundant stars, scattered star density, common anomaly and normal tech rate -- I figured this is balanced and gives everyone a chance to get some colonies.

After my game this morning, trying Drengin, I noticed that by the time I was researching my weapons technologies in response to what my potential enemies had fielded, they were several tiers ahead of me. A few turns later when wars had started to be declared on me, their advantage had increased even moreso. (I was working on stinger 2 or something when I saw weapons in the middle to upper areas of the chains like singularity driver 3 etc). At that point I was already doomed.

What did I learn?
I think i need to figure out a way to incorporate a tech capital into my starting turns, and overall continue to improve my start.

Also, I am not sure what the civs do in the background, do good races collude technologically vs evil? I did notice the Yor gave me 1 ship when war was first declared on me, but it was of no real help.

I am not able to get achievements/trade goods trying my military strategy as is, everyone gets their announcements way ahead of my schedule.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
If you're only researching in response to your opponents choices, you will always be behind. Try outthinking them instead.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Yeah, you need to act, not react. You want to always be ahead in technology. Your economy is probably the only thing more important, IMO.

The first thing I do is get my economy growing, then get my research into high gear. You might want to examine why other civs are targeting you. Weak military? Poor diplomacy skill? Both conditions are easily solved through research or production.

If you're behind the tech or military curve, do what you can to get your research or production up, and keep a close eye on your relations with civs. You can always bribe them into liking you long enough to catch up.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Early on build defenders, 1 per planet, this will be cheap enough to not really take long and will give you a bit of a buffer before the other races start eyeing you hungriy. This works best if you do it before everyone else, the relations boost from having a better military than others gets your foot in the door to make a few friends before the others are breathing down your neck.
As has been said you economy is all important, also don't just dump a bunch of farms onto a planet as this will hurt you in the long run, 1 farm per planet over PQ 7 and upgrade the tech as needed rather than building more farms with 1 morale building to match.
Tech trade, as much as you can pull off. Research trade early and this will give you something to trade for several techs at once. (The AI really values trade. You can usually pick up several early weapon techs by trading it to multiple civs.
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
First off the early game is the most important. You have to be able to settle as much (or more) as the AI does. So make sure you can field some 3 or 4 move colonizers. Build some scouts and make sure they explore different areas. Scouts are cheap so you can buy them and get started ASAP. The AI is really efficient at colonizing and the player _Must_ be as good or better.

When you are able to talk to other races, DO trade/swap techs for techs even if you *groans* have to kick in some cash to get the alien buttwipes to trade. I wouldn't trade more than 2-3 techs for something, its too much a gift. These trades mean you don't have to research the ones you trade for and can move on to other things.

No offense meant by this next one, but peaceniks or pacifists generally don't arm themselves soon enough. After say you research xeno comms/ translator and have traded stuff - You should make sure you trade for the factory and planet improvements and some engine tech if you don't have that. Also any lab progression upgrades (research centers, academy, etc. ) Then bee-line for galactic warfare, space militarization, space weapons, pick a designated type to specialize in. (also just ignore the ones in list you already have). Research to oh say, Miniballs 2/Laser 2/Stinger 2 and design a small ship type carrying a weapon and an engine. You should have enough space to have a heavy fighter (what I call small hulls) with an attack of two in your chosen weapon field and move of about 4 total thanks to the engine you put on. Ok, after you have colonized all the worlds you can get. Build some 3-4 move constructors and take over any resources uncovered before your neighbors get them. Then, I'd start cranking out your defender fighters and send them off to defend planets. I generally station 3 per planet before I stop. If you have a planet thats done with its infrastructure you can focus it from social to military and have it help produce fighters.

What to do next? Trade. Research it or trade for it. Send freighters to as many different major civs as you can.
The AI should think you are not a chump, rather a tough nut to crack and militarily leave you alone (for now) the trades will bring about good relation (and you are relatively safer). Next to do - research a bit further down the tree like 2 techs down your military path.

I could keep going but I don't want to give everything away
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Yes Goodie Goodies will help other do-gooders and if you are evil they will gang up on you. Same can be said for Evil helping Evil and tag teaming the do-goodies too.
Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I personally never build a single defender until one of my opponents has Planetary Invasion. (I check for techs every 3-4 turns also.)

Up until that time I'm beelining the diplomatic techs and economic techs (I usually get the first two industrial techs and economic techs, and Trade, then make a run for Republic.)

Once I see someone has Planetary Invasion, I'll do some tech trading and build a few defensive ships, generally 1-2 per planet.

Then I promptly go back to economic development and trade and leave my military hopelessly underfunded until someone gets hostile.
Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
am i the onl one that doeast station any defender ships on planets ?? im playing on crippling difficulty and defending planets never was a problem ... when i decide to go to war or someone declares war i should have researched the soldiering tree and considering the ai never researches them im pretty safe. I susally always build ship for war- i mean what good they will do for you just sitting in your starports ... just make a few fleets around your part of the map and when the need comes its easier to attack, also when the AI i plannig a "sneak" attack they just send a swarm of transports to your worlds nad you always see the coming with your fleets
Reply #12 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I went back a couple more games and figured out that tech trading was definetly one of my major hurdles. I played a game where i traded heavily even if it cost me a lot of my own tech but I did stay ahead of the curve. Then, in another game, I tried tech trading disable and came within about 15 turns of a tech victory.
Reply #13 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I agree with those who said 1) develop a strong economy early 2) develop from outside in and 3) boost your research tech early (you might even try buying a lab on the first turn, if you have a research bonus tile on your home planet). In the early game, having a techno capital is less important than having several labs and 2-3 levels of lab tech. Also, try going with lower taxes & higher happiness at first; it will build up your popuplation (and your economy) quickly.