How do you activate hyperdrives?

from GalCiv2 Forums
I have only had the game about 2 days. I can play it well enough that I have won a game on Easy setting already.

But I have a question regarding propulsion: What is the difference ( as far as the game is concerned) between sub-light propulsion (Ion drives, Impulse engines, ect..) and warp drives?

It seems that no matter how many and what types of engines I use, my ships crawl across the screen at a snail's pace. Do I need to do something special to activate these engines? Do sublight engines have an actual affect on in-game movement or are they just modifiers for combat or something?
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Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
How do you activate hyperdrives?


Yr cptn stands on the bridge and says, "make it so" while making a funny hand gesture...  

No, research engines, impluse etc, then design yr ships with more engines on. U then get more movement points, there is no pretty warping effect or whatever.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Every ship in the game has a speed rating. A speed of 2 means it can move two squares a turn, speed of 3 means three squares per turn, etc. Ion and Impulse drives only boosts a ship's speed by one or two per engine (you can add more than one in the ship designer.) Warp and Hyperwarp drives give three (or four?) speed each, making them superior.

It is all one kind of propulsion ingame, you cannot travel with FTL engines and then switch to sublight (or anything of that nature.)
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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Do I need to do something special to activate these engines?


Yes. You need to install them on your ships!

Your ships do not automatically upgrade their engines. You must create custom ships with the new engines in order to take advantage of them.

Here's how it works:

-Normally, the technology affects the size of the engines, allowing you more room to add improvements to your spacecraft.

-Every once in a while (at those large jumps), the speed of the engine is increased by one square. You will, of course, need to design a custom ship to install the new engines.

-When designing the ship, the lower right corner shows the stats of the ship you're designing, including speed. The speed is how many squares your ship can travel in a turn.

-The best way to get a lot of speed is to add a lot of engines. Every time you add another engine, your ship goes faster.

-No, it does not affect combat. It may, however, affect how many weapons you can put on a ship, since higher technologies are generally smaller.

Custom ships are pretty much the bread & butter of this game. You'll find yourself designing ships for all kinds of purposes. The ships supplied by the game are okay for people new to the game, but you will find that custom ships are much better and are required for harder levels.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I just looked at the tech tree again, and saw that they are all on the same branch. So I guess only the names and stats are different. Thanks for the help tough.

And yeah, the ship customization was about 90% of the appeal this game had to me in the first place. I dont suppose that the developers plan on adding things like custom weapon colors and stuff like that? Just curious.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Another thing that can help with ship speed is to research the Miniaturization branch, which will give your ships more room to pile on more engines.

Some times I build empty hulls with just engines and life support so that they can get to their target area quickly; I then use the Upgrade feature to turn them into functioning ships for whatever task is at hand. It can be costly to do it that way, and empty hulls are vulnerable to enemy action, but I've had decent success with that strategy.

Another thing you can do is buy fast ships from other civilizations. Let them do the work of researching the techs. heh.