So - what exactly is the way you're supposed to approach this game?

Oh yeah - and research?

Is it generally best to concentrate on a main goal, and go with that?

Like... decide I want to be a military power... so I build up weapons and armor...

Or is it best to spread it all out and get as much as I can? Like research the cheapest techs there are and just do more expensive ones when I need to?

That's one problem I've had. I never really know how to go about the chart. I'm not quite sure what sort of path to take.

That's one of the best features of GalCiv, is that you have so many different choices, or ways to win that your not stuck with you MUST build up your base, you MUST make all the money you can because you MUST build all the weapons to kill everyone. Not saying that there is any thing wrong with that, just that you have other choices.

I am just like you in that I have just started the game(2 1/2 games so far), and I too am not sure how to go about the different ways of play. I'm not sure if most people play GalCiv this way, but this is how I have been playing: I start out thinking about how I plan to go about a game; then I set the game up (how many races, planets, etc.) and do my best to stick to my own rules. For example, I decided to play a game as androids which meant I had to research more computer based techs like research centers and sensors, but I also decided to make them curious like androids are normally shown so I also researched up the trade and deplomacy techs.

Best thing I could say is start off in small galaxies, one or two other races with an easy setting. Get a couple of games under your belt and then go bigger. Try to play a game all the way through. Try out all the different ways to win and find out which you like the best.

If you need some more help, just ask and I hope I can help.
Maybe we both can feel our way through.

Zephyr

If you feel it's too big, try a smaller galaxy. Pick a victory to go for, then get abilities that support that victory, and go for it

You probably want to get your infrastructure up on most of your planets before fighting anyone. I spread out my non military research to take advantage of all the bonuses and new buildings. Check to see if your neighbors like you or not, this will probably determine how worried you need to be about being attacked.

There are probably some posts around here about planet development, those can be helpful. Some people specialize each of their planets, I only specialize small planets and the 3 capitol worlds.

That is the greatest part of GC2, figuring out what to do next. I am a reactive player. I spend most of the game reacting to what the AIs do. That means I try to keep all the paths to victory fairly open. i will conquer the galaxy but im not gonna risk my standing with the other races to do so. this scenario usually ends with me allowing myself to become weaker in the eyes of the AI then paying the two most powerful AIs to go to waqr with each other. This usually starts a chain reaction where the entire galaxy falls into war. At this point I use my diplomatic abilities to focus the AIs newly built militaries against one or two civs at a time until they are so weak that they either pose no threat and I easily wipe them out or I just ally with them and end it that way. On occasion this pla doesnt go that well and I end up having to go for a tech victory. See the game is acually meant to be played from all angles, But people rarely do that, thus they get frustrated and think the AI is too hard or they find some nice exploit and say it is dumb.

I usually do engage in a lot of military activity but I usually build no more than one or two marketplaces per planet. My primary focus is production, my economy mainly exists to support it rather than buying it outright, so lots of marketplaces just strikes me as weird unless it's an Economic Capitol; and even then you want a few farms and entertainment centers to build up a large population. Marketplaces multiply population to determine revenue, but high morale keeps population growing quickly and is important when you get advanced governments. I usually buy one factory as soon as possible on any new planet, and I try to put a starport on all planets even the 'useless' ones-- this way even if it can't manufacture for squat I can purchase a warship in a pinch to protect it.

You want to make darn sure to get as many Resources captured as possible. A Research starbase is massively important, but a Military starbase can beef up your ships significantly. Economic Starbases are great around any concentrations of planets you have even without a Resource to plant them on. Once upgraded they'll boost production and research.

With ship designs I usually make them as fast as possible while still keeping offense competitive. Fast ships can avoid battles they can't win, allowing them to consolidate or prey on transport fleets. This has saved my butt in a lot of wars where I was outmatched.

You don't want to think about war until you have a strong economy to support it. In the first part of the game you want to grab the best planets and resources before the AI. Some players use their cash to buy the first couple of colony ships but this in expensive (it costs 10X as much to buy as it does to build). Instead I make sure my homeworld has a manufacturing bonus title (if it does not then hit Ctrl-N to get a new map) and I buy a factory on it, which allows me to build a colony ship fairly quickly when my spending is set at 100%. Placing multiple engines on your ships will allow them to go faster.

I set my tax rate the highest I can while keeping my morale at 100% so that I get a 100% population growth bonus. In the early part of the game you will want to adjust your military, social, and research settings optimally (e.g., you don't want to take 4.1 turns to build a planetary improvement or ship because that 5th turn is 90% waste). Build up your economy by building up your morale (build an entertainment center on each planet and mine morale resources (you can get up to 49% bonus from each one)) so you may raise your tax rate (while keeping morale at 100%). Also build up economic resources and each stock market (you may build more than one on each planet) gives your planet a 30% economic, 10% morale, and 5% influence bonus! Avoid researching the planet terraforming techs as you will get your planets automatically terraform when you choose neutral alignment. To keep from going broke you will need to trade extensively with the AI. The minors will give you the best deals; researching diplomacy will get you better deals so don't trade those techs. Finally build a network of economic star bases to give your best planets a production/research bonus (get as many planets in their area of effect as possible and you can stack them for maximum effect).

Researching the first level sensors will give your ships a +1 sensor range boost and allow you to build survey ships for exploring anomalies (the cash anomalies can bring in as much as $2500B). Also don't forget to research speed for fast ships. After I get warp engines I then research the remaining sensor techs so that I may build Eyes on the Universe (gives each of your ships and star bases 15 senor range) on my Manufacturing Capital. After completing the sensor branch it is time to research Xeno Ethics, choose neutral (you immediately get all your planets terraformed), and research Neutrally Learning Centers.

Then it time to research advanced weapons/defenses (you should already have basic ones from tech trading) then design and start building war ships for attacking your first enemy (look who is weak and near you, maybe a minor). While building your first generation war ship start researching the planetary invasion branch.

Good luck.

Meh. I like to try to go for a technological victory. My main problem is I can never get a technological victory. I usually end up getting one of the other types long before that.

Typically, when it comes time to design ships, I set the game on Cakewalk and use that for ship testing. I have to wait for pirates to start showing up, but that gives me plenty of time to design and build a variety of ships for testing purposes. The ones that prove useful are the ones I keep for my actual games. Sounds strange at first, but it allows me to build and test without worries about the AI.

Im always bent on galactic domination!

I start with colonizing as much as i can (and continue, based on the size of the map).
I research all the basics. Then continue... Dont rush ^^

Border worlds = Factories
Middle/back = Research/banks

Don't buy facilities on new planets - just leave them empty.

I always win my games despite only having my top 10 or so (out of 150) planets with things on them.

Building anything on planets takes money - money which would be better spent allowing you to colonize as many planets as possible (each colony takes up a certain amount of revenue).

Colonize the best planets first, always striving to expand your reach to most parts of the galaxy - they'll be time to come back to all the less valuable planets.

You flagship should be out looking for extra cash.

Doing this means that you get lots of planets quickly, that you get lots of high value planets, that your ship range is great and - perhaps the best of all - you deny other races the chance to get many planets and to get many high quality planets (as you've got them all). This essentially kills of any chance they have of beaten you later on in the game.

If you really want to buy stuff on all planets at some point then I recommend having 1 finanical facility, 1 moral facility and 1 farming facility. This will make sure you get lots of revenue from that planet.

As others have said there is no single formula. However, the essentials are to colonise as many planets as early as possible, then make sure you have enough money to do whatever you want. This usually means 70% of all your tiles will be taken up with market centres -> stock markets.

It's also good to stick a farm on each planet, sometimes on the 100% bonus but never on the 300% bonus unless the planet is huge! Also you should dedicated the whole planet to research where you build the technological capital, likewise for markets with the economic capital.

In terms of research, this is what I do if I just feel like winning but obviously it's more interesting to try different paths each game. I research up to Impulse (then colony rush); then Planetry Improvements and Basic Factory, then Market Centre(?), then basic farm. Next I research up to Advanced Miniturisation (build Micro Repair Bots), then I research up to Advanced Hulls (build Xeno Hull Plating). Next I research up to Xeno Ethics. Then I research up to Habitat Improvment (build Aphrodisiac) and next I research the whole Planetry Invasion Branch and also up to Advanced Planetry defence. At this point I look at what the enemy is building in terms of weapons and research that defence and whatever weapon I chose up to a reasonable level. Then I research Advanced Farms, some way up the Entertainment Branch, and up to Total Manjesty and up to Star Democracy. Then I go back to weapons and kick ass

I forgot to mention researching up to Neutral Learning Centre which I do at the opportune moment, i.e., when my research planet has finished build the last update.

Usually the first thing I do is buy a reseach building and design & start building a new colony ship; set research 50% military 50% and start researching Xeno Lab.

What i like to do is, first charge out with colony ships, send them to as many planets and quarters as you can at first, and once you have 10-20 planets (obviously this is not for small galaxies) then you should have developed your capital enough to get constructors easily.

while your charging, use your flagship to explore the space that's NOT around planets (your colony ships can do that) so that you find galactic resources, and grab any anomalies out there. then once your done colonizing, you know where the stuff is so you can get constructors out there. if you wait to long, the computer gets the resources, if you don't wait long enough, the computer gets the planets, ya gotta find your own balance.

For developing planets, you can have specialized planets for the capitals (political, technological, manufacturing, econonic) and you might have one with alota Galactic wonders or stuff. When it comes to wonders, i generally have alota money on big galaxies so i buy them, and on smaller ones if i don't have enough money, i build, or maybe just ignore. But on all my planets i like to have at least 1 farm, and 2 thing to raise moral, a stock market if possible. is also good. You will want at least one manufacturing building so it doesn't take forever to make all the stuff. once your all fully upgraded in a colony, you can always replace it with something else, or you might have a starport and keep it to make ships. The reason you want a farm is: more people, harder to invade, and moral goes without saying. Also, if you have alota planets with alot a population, your gonna get alota money. do the math, on a small world, 5-7 spaces, your not gonna get that much production or influence outa it unless you specialize, so i generally turn them into cash planets. they won't need much maintanence because there isn't really anything to use it on other, no factories or stuff. so that planet makes money, and if you have enough of these, you can support the heavily specialized planets that lose alota money.

When it comes to research, first i try to buff up my econony, going on to manufacturing, getting maybe 1 or 2 research upgrades (if your gonna go neutral ethics, then your gonna want to do it soon as possible to get those Neutral Learning Centers as Like ro2778 suggested, they provide 22 research, which is better then the 16 from inventing spheres so unless your gonna get a technological victory you don't need to worry about that path any more). After i get manufacturing up, i take a look at the galaxy and see, who likes me and who doesn't. If alta people like me, i try to up my diplomacy skills, so i can trade and eventually make alliances with the stronger of the people who like me. (also a word of advice about alliance research, don't EVER give it away except to people your already allies with. people will pay alot for it but there's a reason for that. once people start allying then one little skirmish can bring Galactic War I down on your head. EXAMPLE: i'm playin a Huge galaxy, i give away alliances to 4 people, they interally. i'm allied with only 1 person, the drengin. 1 of those 4 goes to war with me, now i got 4 enemies and 1 ally (who isn't very big). they don't want peace, so i'm not looking good. and to make matters worse, i'm at the center of the galaxy so i'm also surrounded. I'm dead, but that's gettin a bit of topic). Anyway, Habitat improvement, and the other 2 techs in that branch are nice for those smaller planets because then you can get another farm and moral to support it, which means more money. Getting the entertainment branch up helps so that if you upgrade your farms you don't need a bunch happyness buildings.

When it comes to bonus's that you want to get, it has been said before, and will be said again, it depends on how you want to win. I generally like to have at least one or 2 points into better population growth. With the rush strategy of takin alota planets, many of them will lose money until they get their population higher and pay more taxes, so the faster they breed, the more people there are at tax time.

Starbases: I love these things, they can be the deciding factor in many games. With me, after i've gotten as many galactic resources as i can and upgraded them fullly, i tend to build the econony and production bonusing starbases around my major shipbuilding planets and give them the production boost. Military starbases are good, but i don't use them much except around my very good worlds (15+, +12 in smaller galaxies) and my capital, but other then that, not really.

Well, that's what i tend to do, but you can make up your own mind. after all, that's what the whole game's about, you decide what to.

You have pretty much the right idea. First step: colonize. Second step: stabilize the economy. One thing I'd say about those two steps...remember your economy will grow with your population. It's very easy to desperately build market centers trying to get your economy into the black only to find a bit later on when your population has increased that you have far too much money and not enough infrastructure to spend it on.

However, once those two are done the beauty of this game is that all 4 victory conditions are pretty much equally viable. Pick one that seems suitable for the map you're playing and focus on it isprobably the best way to go.

It's amazing how much that big pile of "too much" money disappears when you have to upgrade a couple of dozen ships ;o)

That's why I always obsolete and rebuild.

Aside from any that happen to have picked up experience.

I find that the best way to approach the game is slowly, with your hands held down at my sides. Don't make eye contact right away, because the game sees that as threatening. Once you are just within arm's reach of the game, extand your hand slowly towards it, palm down, so that it can sniff you. It's okay to make eye contact at that point, although you shouldn't stare. If the game signals its acceptance of you, you can give it food from your other hand, or scratch it lightly behind the ears.

you have the rolls reversed, you don't feed it, it feeds you , and scratches you behind the ears, or maybe it just kicks your butt and then eats you alive. Depends on your cologne.

I have the same problem as the OP. I think I have played 100 games since release day and I have never beaten one.

As the guys from Penny Arcade put it, 'I find myself crippled with options'.

Start easy and small with only a few races, then work your way up. Go for wins like diplomatic and influence. Once you've won a few small easy games using the less involved ways to win, move up to bigger universes, more races, and harder difficulty. Try the military conquest.

Lots of ways to play this game, but that's what makes it great. Here's what I do (for what it's worth).

The #1 thing to concentrate on in the beginning of any game is to gobble up as many planets and galactic resources as you can. Don't play as Human, they don't start with stellar cartography which is a must-have. Custom or Drath is best. Daisy chain your colony ships off new planets. Build colonizers with one colony module and the rest engines. Speed is key. Research engines first.

Build a handful of cheap scouts with one survey module, two engines, and the rest life support. Put them on auto-survey until thay can't find any more anomolies then set them to auto-explore. Anomolies are profitable and the scouts will find glactic resources which are also key.

Once you have your chunk of the universe, concentrate on building what you have and forget about colonizing. Keep the techs coming in. Buy them off the other races as soon as your economy can afford it. I go for the yellow diplomatic techs which provide extra trading power.

Start building military ships shortly after you see the other races doing it. That keeps them from picking on you because you are relatively weak. I take a medium hull and put nothing but missles on it. I build those and leave them parked in orbit. Gives the illusion of military strength when actually you have little.

Use influence starbases to flip planets your way. Go for the yellow cultural conquest techs that enable modules which make them more effective. A fully loaded influence starbase parked in the adjacent sector of an alien planet will often flip it in a few turns. Concentrate on planets in the same star sector as yours. Aliens get touchy when you share star systems with them.

Upgrade factories and reasearch centers back and forth as your needs change. With a good economy, the expense is worthwhile.

When your economy and building power is massive, build your armada and take 'em all out. I use fleets with huge hulls as large as logistics allows.

Ok, hope that helps.