Minor bug in latest beta (.018) - contacting other races

from GalCiv2 Forums
Just for fun I was going through the manual, and I noticed that there are hotkeys to contact the other races (ctrl+0-9). I tried them out and, surprise, I was able to contact everyone. The bug comes in when it's the first turn and you haven't even moved your ships yet - and you can still talk and trade with the AI! I don't know if this is a bug or not, come to think of it. It sure is useful though, you can trade with the other civs for their starting tech and get a boost for yourself!
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Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Sometimes when I start a game I am contacted by another race before the first welcome screen comes up. It is immediately upon coming into the game. So I do not think your being able to contact them is a bug. And it is normally for a trade.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Sometimes they contact you at the beginning of the first turn but as I understand it that only happens when you start so close to each other that you can see them or their flagship from the beginning - same like when meeting them for the first time after a few turns.
I think what he meens is that you can speak to all the other 9 races from the beginning without meeting them. Normaly only the races you have met show up in the foreign relations screen and you are only able to talk to or trade with them. Right?

That is a "bug" of course or - at least it's not working as it's intended - but easily avoided if the player decides not to cheat and only trade with races you really know are "somewhere out there ".
Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
If you think about it, its not THAT unexpected- the races already had contact with one another, its just that it was really expensive to travel between the stars.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
It should at least not be possible when playing blind exploration, as you don't know which direction to send the message signals. Playing with normal exploration, you always have a good idea where everyone is. It seems like a bug to me anyway as it is impossible to use the GUI to do it, but Sephlock has a very good point storywise.

It should be fixed in one of three ways:
-Allow talks with everyone through the GUI or keyboard shortcuts
-Disallow all contact with the undiscovered aliens.
-Add a game option for which of the former should apply
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
How do you communicate? Don't you need the universal translator to talk to the other races?
Does the ai need the universal translator to communicate with the other players? I've had the drengin demand the universal translator in return for not attacking so probably not...
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
you can begin the game with universal translator already researched with a custom race

and indeed I tried a gigantic new game with 9 opponents, all were very far from me
and with CTRL-1-9 I could contact them all (in fact as I did not have the universal translator, a pop-up came saying that I did not have it to talk with this race)
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Yeah, you have to have the Universal Translator, but it does work even with races that you haven't (and couldn't) have seen yet. I was hoping you could contact races that weren't even on the map, ie: the 10th race that's left out when you play as a custom civ, but it doesn't work

Sure is useful tho