jujumbura

Join Date 03/2005

Lots of Questions

Hello everyone,

I’ve recently picked up GalCiv2 again after about a half year of neglect. When I first played it, I found it really difficult to infer what I was supposed to do to succeed, as opposed to something like Alpha Centauri. But I keep hearing about how deep and well done the strategy is, so I’m back for another try. If any of you could answer some of my questions here, I’d greatly appreciate it.

My first big issue: Starbases.

1) Does having two economy starbases around the same planet stack the bonuses? Do economic starbases benefit allied/neutral/enemy planets?

2) Do military starbases only confer a bonus to ships inside their area, or do ships BUILT in their area get a permanent bonus?

3) Are influence starbases only useful when placed around enemy planets? I don’t see any influence bonuses when placing them around my OWN planets… is there a way to see the effect they have? Can they be placed in empty space to swing that area towards my faction? Do the effects of influence starbases stack? Do two influence starbases of opposing races cancel each other out? ( you can see I’m very confused about these things… )

4) Is there an upkeep associated with having starbases? If so, where does it come from? The planet that built the constructor, or the planet the starbase is nearest to?

5) Do starbases repair my ships if I leave them there?

6) Do mining starbases confer benefits to ALL of my planets/ships?

7) Do sensor upgrades confer any statistical advantage in battle, or just the knowledge of what is around me?

8) Do trade upgrades increase the amount of income I receive both from MY trade routes and OTHER races trade routes going to/from that planet?

Thanks much for any advice you can give.
jujumbura

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1) Yes, starbase bonuses stack. Starbases only affect your planets (though there is a United Planets event available that allow starbases to affect allies, too.

2) Military bonuses only apply to ships while they're in the base's area of effect.

3) Don't know the exacts about how the influence starbases work, but they do extend your influence in the area they're built. How much this is reflected in real planet IP's, I've never investigated, but they will decrease your planet's external influence ratio (though if it's in your sphere of influence already, you don't need it) and raise enemies', if they're close enough.

4) No, though there may be a cost associated with building a new starbase, depending on your logistics.

5) No.

6) Mining starbase bonuses are applied to your civilization's global 'score' (as seen in the Stats & Graphs page), which do affect all planets/ships you control.

7) Just a longer view.

8) I think trading bonuses apply to your income from other races trade routes with you, but I've never gotten around to testing it.

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Thanks a ton for that info Kid.

My next big quandary: Planets

1) For one reason or another I ALWAYS get hosed in the initial planet race. Is it possible to win when I start with four planets colonized, and my neighbor starts with, say, 8?

2) What is a good way to use planets like Mars with only 4 buildable tiles?

3) Should I ALWAYS build a starport on every planet, even if it doesn’t have many factories? Does having more than one starport on a planet increase ship production?

4) On planets like earth that can support tons of people very quickly, is it a good idea to stagger my farm production so I don’t get TOO MANY people? My polls on earth always suffer… Or is it a better idea to get as many people as possible, and deal with the popularity as best I can?

5) What’s the relationship between population and production facilities? I know that building more factories makes my production quicker, but it also seems that having more PEOPLE makes production quicker as well. Do I need a certain number of people to be able to make use of multiple factories? Or do factories just apply some sort of multiplier in how much work the people I have do?

6) When there’s a bonus tile, how does that work exactly? Suppose it’s a research bonus: is it a flat increase in research points applied to anything I build there? Or does it multiply any research done by that facility by 2 or something?

7) How do special buildings like “Technological Captials” work? Do they just add a flat increase to one of the stats ( tech, manufacturing, influence, etc. ), or do they multiply all EXISTING facility output by something? Can I only have one capital type per planet? If I build a capital of one type on planet A, can I not build the same capital on planet B?

8) Are there penalties when your planet exists in someone elses area of influence? ( other than risking a revolt )

9) Is there any tech I can research that would make class 0 planets habitable?

Thanks again for all the help!
jujumbura

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1) A lot of it depends on your difficulty level, etc. In general, it's possible, but it may/will not be easy.

2) Different people have different preferences for this, and I don't think there's one best way. Personally, I usually make them research planets.

3) I usually don't build starports on low-quality planets, but it really depends on my specific strategic needs that game, so I don't have a hard and fast rule on this. Other people build 'em on all planets. You can only have one starport per planet.

4) You just have to play the trade-offs. More people = higher economy but lower morale. My general rule is to keep my population roughly the same as my planet quality.

5) Each planet has a number of manufacturing points available, based on the number of factories on that planet (though civilization capitals also give mp's). The population of a planet does not affect the number of mp's these structures produce, or their conversion into actual military shields, social hammers, etc.

6) The tile's bonus is applied directly to the number of points generated by whatever's built there, so a 4mp factory on a 300% bonus tile will generate 4mp's for the initial factory plus 4 x 300% = 12 mp's for the bonus for a total of 16mp's.

7) Tech, etc., capitals apply their bonus to the conversion of points to shields, beakers, etc. So if you have a planet generating 30 tp's from structures, if you build a tech capital there, you will still only have 30 tp's, but when they'll be converted to twice as many beakers (research points) as they would otherwise be. I could be misrmembering this, but I think half of that bonus is free (normally conversion from a mp/tp to a shield/hammer/beaker is 1bc per point converted. You can only build on capital per civilization, so pick your planet well. You can build more than one cap on one planet, though.

8) The higher your influence ratio is (the number in parentheses next to your ip value listing), the more dissatisfied that planet's pop is with your culture. At 4 or higher, you begin to risk a cultural revolt. There may be a relation between this ratio and morale, but I've not really investigated it. It won't affect your production/research, though.

9) No.

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1) There are some strategies to win when you are overwhelmed in numbers, but it's mostly for experts of the game to challenge themselves. If you're just starting out and getting into the game, you should concentrate on doing the land grab "right" so that you have a decent foothold. Know that you should buy the first few colony ships outright (and a scout if you don't see planets), so that you can get a quick jump at the onset.

2) There are various tips and tricks for using these, normally I build 1 factory, 1 farm, and the rest economic buildings. Once you have upgraded the farm and economic buildings to their max level, scrap the factory and replace it with another economic building. You might soon come to a problem where your population won't grow beyond a certain number (probably 4.5B), at which point, build some transports and move people from planets like Earth over. While they won't grow, and they might get unhappy, as long as you have the food to support them, they will stay there and give you a bunch of cash. This is the most effective use of these planets in my experience, as they are also a lot harder to invade due to the high population.

3) No, build starports of planets you intend to build ships at. Usually strong industrial worlds. Starports waste a slot, that can be used for something else, like strengthening your economy. Have your strong industrial worlds build ships, while weak ones producing money to fund them. As far as I know, you can only build one starport per world, if you can build more than one, it's a bug.

4) Don't go crazy with farms, 1 is usually plenty. The reason is high population leads to terrible morale. It is much more effective to build 1 farm (on a non bonus tile even), and fill the rest with economic buildings (just build a factory or two before hand to make the process quicker). On Earth, depending on how your empire is distributed, I wouldn't even bothering building a farm (because of the capital bonus) unless you have a much stronger industrial center and want to turn Earth into a cash cow.

5) Population doesn't affect production directly. Population provides tax, which in turn can be used to fund your production. Part of the game is to balance this so that you have enough people producing cash to fund your construction/research efforts. Aside the financial aspect, however, there is no direct correllation (such as multiplier and bonuses) between factory production and population even if the documentation seems to indicate otherwise.

6) Bonus tiles gives a bonus to the buildings that sits on top of them. If it's a research bonus, then it gives bonus to the research generation of the building. If that building normally produces 0 research point, then 100% more of 0 or 300% more of 0 still equals to zero. However if you had a research center that generates 10 research point, then the bonus will generate 10, 30, or 70 more respectively. If you upgrade it to a better research building that generates 20, the bonus will generate 20, 60, or 140 more. This only works for buildings that actually generate points (factories, labs, farms, morale, influence buildings).

7) The special buildings do different things, and there are too many for me to go into detail. However, capital buildings like Technological Capital increases the planet's technological output. If the capital says +100%, and your planet normally produces 100 rp (research point), then after you build it, your planet will produce 200 rp, provided you fund it sufficiently.

8) Risk of revolt is the main concern, that and the fact that the other player will go... "hmmm, that planet should be right fully mine, even if it doesn't culturely flip, I think I'll take it." Hopefully, you get the point.

9) No.

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Wow this is fantastic info. I’ve been totally clueless about most of this stuff, it helps so much.

OK, if you’re up for it – onto SHIPS

1) Is it just me, or are the default ship designs totally insufficient? I haven’t spent much time in the designer tool, and as a result I don’t really have much in the way of custom ships. After Star Furies, its YEARS before I get access to a new ship design. I get lots of new military techs, ( weapons, armor, engines ), but the pre-requisites listed in the tech tree are WAAAY out there. And it seems like the AI is building new ships that I don’t have access to, with components I DO have access to.

Do I just need to suck it up and experiment in the designer tool for a while?

2) I always seem to fall short in military rating. This is probably partially due to the fact that I have fewer planets than my opponents, and hence less resources, but I just don’t seem to be able to keep up. What’s a good rule for frequency of military ship production? Lately I’ve been alternating one domestic ship ( freighter, constructor, colony ship, etc. ) with one military ship out of my shipyards. Yet I still can’t keep up. Do I need to focus more on military, maybe 2 out of every 3 ships?

3) I have created fleets out of my star furies, but when they engage I never get the whole “Fleet Battle” system. It’s just a quick little shoot-out on the grid. What do I need to do for the sweet 3D battles?

4) Is it possible to repair damaged ships? If so, how?

5) When constructing trade routes, what are the factors that affect how much income I will get from the route?

6) I know ships take a toll on your income somehow, but I’m not sure of the specifics. Is the upkeep taken from the planet which created it? Or is it just taken from your total funds? Is there any reason NOT to simply produce all my ships at the one or two planets with the best industrial production?

7) If I notice a “neutral” constructor in my space, is there anything I can do about it? ( short of blowing it to hell and declaring war )

8) Is it useful to upgrade things like constructors and freighters?

9) What do you do with all of your outdated ships?

Thanks as always!
jujumbura

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1) Yes. Basic ship designs are useless. They're designed that way to encourage use of the ship builder.

2) Military rating is purely based on military ships. If you're falling behind, focus more on military (if you want to) to bring it back up. Try and stay above 100 rating.

3) Look through your options list. There is a "show fleet battles" option which should be always on.

4) Damaged ships repair naturally over time. They repair much faster around planets though.

5) Income of starting planet, income of finishing planet, distance, and economy starbases along the way.

6) Income is taken directly from your funds. Always keep your best manufacturing planets supplying the military, but I prefer to have all my planets working towards the fleet.

7) No. (Buying it used to be feasible, but because it was often cheesed it was made a ludicrously expensive way of doing things)

8) Constructors might want more engines if you're building a starbase while at war, and dont want them blown up. Freighters, no.

9) Keep them around my low PQ planets in case I happen to enter a war of attrition, or scrap them. Upgrading costs a lot, and I'm hardly going to spend a stupid amount of money upgrading when I could buy another fleet cheaper.

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We can keep goin'

1) Yes, you should. The default ships are, by design, going to inferior to what you will be able to design at nearly any given point in the game. The AI designs its own ships. If you're not interested in the cosmetic portion of the designer, you can simply and quickly stick your functional elements directly to a hull and run with it.

2) Keeping up with the AI can be a pain, especially early in the game, as they tend to focus on military techs more than I do. Remember that ship quality is as, if not more, important than quantity, and designing your own ships will greatly help your military might. Also note that most of the time, you can still hold your own against an enemy with a moderately higher score than yours. In a related note, miniaturization is good.

3) Under Options/Interface there are some selections you can make to determine when a fleet battle screen is used, such as only when both sides have fleets.

4) Damaged ships repair themselves automatically. This happens faster if the ship is in orbit around a planet.

5) Route distance, your trade score, and your trade partners' economy/size all affect trade income, but I don't know the specific numbers.

6) Ship maintenance fees are applied to your civilization's total treasury, not a specific planets, so it doesn't matter where you build them. Note, of course, that a planet's spending is higher while it's building a ship.

7) Nope. Shoot it or live with it. (You could always try to buy/trade for it, but it's rarely worth the cost).

8) It can be, mainly to add speed and/or range. Doubling up on constructor/freight modules will not help, though, so don't waste the money. Doubling up troop transport modules, though, can be very useful.

9) It depends. Use 'em for fodder, upgrade them (though this is often prohibitively expensive), sell/trade them to other civs, or just decomission them.

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You've received some very good answers to all your questions.
Here's my additional 2bc on a few

) For one reason or another I ALWAYS get hosed in the initial planet race. Is it possible to win when I start with four planets colonized, and my neighbor starts with, say, 8?

Yes, but as you get good enough to do this you'll probably get better at the colony rush and not have this as much.

2) What is a good way to use planets like Mars with only 4 buildable tiles?

I like a starport and some factories on all my planets including my class 4 and 5 planets -- they can pump out transports with 1 or 2K troops on them, constructors, or even a military ship every now and then. But there are several workable strategies -- whatever works for you.

) Is it possible to repair damaged ships? If so, how?

4) Damaged ships repair themselves automatically. This happens faster if the ship is in orbit around a planet.

The fastest way to repair a ship is via upgrading which completely restores HPs.

9) What do you do with all of your outdated ships?

I usually just end up letting them hang around but sometimes upgrade them. I have good economies and maintenance costs haven't been an issue for me.

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This Post is generating a lot of great info for new players. Maybe they should sticky it.

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DivineWrath

Join Date 05/2006

+135

A tip:
When building ships, sometimes less is more. You don't want to waste money on features you don't use. This allows you to build ships cheaply, and quickly, and that is a quality in it self.

An example:
The first military ships I tend to build is a tiny hull that has a sparrow missle launcher slapped on it, nothing else. Last time I checked my calculations, and price of parts, that design is the single most cheapest military ship you can possibly build.

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Hello All,

I've been absent a couple days, trying out some of your suggestions. They help immeasurably, as you can imagine

My time has gone to that, and programming my "for work" game. BUT! It's back to the GalCiv2 questions, if you can stomach them:

Diplomacy

1) Which of my actions actually affect my relations with another race? Do I lose/gain faction just by putting up offers on the board? Or do I have to hit "SEND" to actually make a difference?

2) Is it possible to be successful on a trade that comes up red? Is it possible to fail on a trade that comes up green?

3) Is it possible PERIOD to trade for planets/starbases?

4) What is the advantage of swapping trade goods?

5) What does my rating with another race actually affect? If I am friendly, are trades more likely? If I am cold, are trades less likley?

6) Who are good candidates for allies, and who are good candidates for enemies? Should I chose based on their alignment? ( and if so, how do I TELL what their alignment is? ) Should I chose based on their location? ( keep my neighbors as enemies to conquer? )

7) How the hell do I forge alliances?! I have alliances researched, but I do not see them pop up as a trade option. Yet, I attacked the Drath earlier tonight, and found the entire galaxy against me. How do I tell what alliances my opponents have?

8) Is there a good way to tell what tech trades are good for me, other than exiting to the research menu and comparing the times to complete?

9) Can my diplomacy actions with one opponent affect my relations with another? For example, if the Altarians are at war with the Drath, and I make a few tech trades with the Drath, does my relationship with the Altarians suffer?

10) Is it worthwhile to spy on people you are not planning to go to war with?

You guys are the best

jujumbura

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1) Pretty much all actions can affect your relations to some extent. Just playing around with trading screen won't, though. Only successful trades affect relations -- the better the trade for your partner, the better a relations boots.

2) No. Red and green indicate whether the other civ will accept the trade or not.

3) Yes, but very expensive.

4) They can be worth a lot, though I usually prefer to keep them to myself.

5) It's largely an indication of how close they are to declaring war. They will accept more favorable trades the more friendly they are.

6) This completely depends on the demands of the game. There are lots of reasons to go to war, and lots of reasons not to. If you're running a lot of trade routes with a civ, you'll probably want to keep it close to you. If it's small and in your way, it can be worthwhile to wipe it out. I guess if you had to distill it down to a few questions to ask yourself before going to war, they'd be: Can I afford this war now? Will this war further my cause enough to be worth the price? Can I win this war?

7) You have to be at Close relations with a civ before you can offer an alliance (note this can be difficult to achieve -- you may have to do a lot of sucking up). Under the foreign policy screens, the 'Treaties' tab will show you the other civs' relations to each other.

8) You can right-click on the tech from the trade screen to get more info, but that doesn't include research time. To me, though, research time isn't that big a consideration. If I feel I really need a tech, and I can get it for a tech that won't help them as much as what I'm getting, I'm happy, even if I lose out on the tech costs.

9) As far as I know, other civs aren't aware of trades you're making, so that shouldn't affect your relations.

10) I spy on everybody. It never hurts to know what your friends are up to, and you can steal tech from anybody.

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An addition to the planets questions:

Does having a farm make my population GROW faster? Or does it just allow it to exceed whatever the current max is? Maybe its an illusion but it always seems like my people breed a lot more when I have a farm...

Thanks as awlays,
jujumbura

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Hi!

Does having a farm make my population GROW faster?

It shouldn't. Farm only increases the number of pop that a planet can held.

Maybe its an illusion but it always seems like my people breed a lot more when I have a farm...

They shouldn't. The growth is explained the best in wikipedia https://www.galciv.wikia.com/wiki/Population . Check the section below "Initial Population Growth//Illustrative Numbers",

BR, Iztok

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Great thread for beginners like myself, answered many questions on my mind.

Re:Ship designs

I always design my own ships now. Every time I get a new ship tech, I make a new design and save it with a descriptive name.
ei - Fighter-LII-SIII-Ion indicates fighter with lvl 2 lasers, lvl 3 sheilds and Ion drive. This may seem complex but when you are constantly designing new ships, it really helps identify what various designs are.

The old design becomes obsolete unless there is some question of the new ship's effectiveness. Upgrades are only done if I REALLY need better ships on the front line.

I may be wrong about this, but it seems upgrading ships is cheaper if you are upgrading to a similar design. So upgrading from a laser3 to laser4 fighter is cheap, upgrading a missle fighter to a beam fighter is expensive.

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