Hello everyone....

from GalCiv2 Forums
My name is Scott, and I am addicted to WoW... or was anyway...

I was looking for a game to kind of take my mind off the upcoming expo, and it was either
battlefield 2492 or GCII, well, I picked up GCII and here are my thoughts.....



WOW! This game is freakin awesome..
I started off playing the campaign, and well, when the dreadlords took one of my planets with .1b soldiers (it said 10 on the skermish screen so I suppose that would be 10 million) that kind of turned me off, so I went and made a new game and set it on challenging.....

The AI takes into account everything it has to deal with when your at war with them... I suppose, economics, other races, expansion, tech tree, etc... and decides if it is "to busy" to deal with you right now in times of war. Also, if you have the most advanced military, that are very reluctant to trade you weapons technologies, which I definatly like. I love how this game does research, its very difficult to rush to something extremely advanced, lets say.. Phasors III early in the game, and if your diplomatic enough, you can just sit back, relax, and focus on economy and research with very little military at first (of course you want some, but you get the point)


I have a few questions to ask, but I will be looking around the forums, so no answer required really. But if you have time, id appreciate an answer to make my job a bit easier


When playing human, earth gets a low approval bonus, I goto the summary screen and it says things like ".... not being used to its full potential" or "... its the natural livabilty of the planet, not what the government has done" What are ways to keep a planet happy, or find out what they do not like and how you can correct it, I had two V-reality places on earth, and still it stuck around to about 40%, I was worried it was going to revolt.

What favorate race do you like to play.

And where can I download a very profesional looking custom ship mod? (comes with a bunch of parts to customize your own ships)

Any advice, tricks, random shortcuts that is good to know?


All and all, this game has quenched my thirst for a new game (playing World of Warcrack got old, and its been very hard trying to find a good game to compair) thanks for an awesome game .


Thanks guys, and I look forward to the expansion!



By the way.. whoever put together the dialog, I laughed so hard and some of it. Kudos.
4,975 views 17 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
What favorate race do you like to play.

The "best" race to play will be dependent a lot on your strategy. But with that said the Torians are probably the best all round race. They have an "inherent" racial morale bonus of 25%. In this game morale is money so a free 25% is a big advantage. The Drath are also popular and have the a good spread of free ability bonuses. Finally, the Yor are pretty powerful as well, they have a big miniaturization bonus and the best set of starting techs.

To truly play a race to it's best advantage you should customize the race's starting abilities. Check out my posts #5 and #6 in the following thread where I go into this in detail.

Race Creation tips
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
go to the libray and download kryo's hulls for the ships
WindowBlinds - Free yourself of the default settings, customize your desktop.
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
But with that said the Torians are probably the best all round race.


That's if you can stand the thought of those flat-headed "good means submitting to our will" rassa-frassa...

The "best" race to play will be dependent a lot on your strategy.


IMO, this is the "best" part of Mumble's answer, but I'd probably have said "play style" instead of "strategy." To my surprise, there seem to be quite a few folks around here who play to play as much or more than they play to win.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
What are ways to keep a planet happy


A planet's morale will decrease as it's population increases. The rate of taxation affects this. Higher tax rate = lower morale, and vice versa. Find and harvest morale resources, if you can. What Mumble says about morale being money is very true. Higher population means higher tax revenues, but is only possible if your morale can be maintained at a high enough level. The Torian's 25% bonus becomes invaluable for this. A good resource for info is the Wiki. Here is the link:WWW Link
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
So lemme get this strait about approval and population... its a good idea to not build farms when your population caps out on lower class planets? So while earth would be good at around..... 10 or 14 pop... a class 20 planet might be good around 20-25? Im trying to understand this here.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
a class 20 planet might be good around 20-25? Im trying to understand this here


I have found about 20B on most 12-20 class planets to be optimal. There is a sharper dropoff of morale after 20B up to 25. After 25B there is no more dropoff, but it takes several more VRCs at that point to maintain decent morale and tax rate.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I understand now, I figured that is why. I've been playing human with a point in creativity (it saves you a week here and a week their in research), 20% in research, 15% in moral, and 20% in economy (or a variation there of, not sure if I got that 100% right off the top of my head, I am at work atm), and technologists party. Ive read the guides now and I have a bit more understanding of things. I think im gonna go home and create a new game.
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
So lemme get this strait about approval and population


It isn't approval, it's morale that is important. Low morale=low population growth, and high population=lower morale. It can be a real balancing act. At higher populations, there is a huge hit to morale. (-80%) AFAIK, this is the max. The only planets that can realistically maintain a large population are the high PQ planets, since they will have the available tiles for building the large numbers of 'happy camps' that will be needed.
Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Hmm. Can't seem to edit. The terms 'morale' and 'approval' are closely connected. The planet's population will negatively affect morale as it grows, which will affect approval, which affects the rate of population growth. You'll have to play with the numbers until you find the 'sweet spot'.
Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Try not to raise taxes above 35%, 40% tops (and that's still too high). Lower productivity instead, then hunt for the reasons you're not getting that good income. Raising taxes too high is a downward spiral, people get unhappy, their productivity lowers, you collect fewer taxes . . . it just gets worse & worse.

My rule of thumb is to build minimum 1 trade building for Class 5/6 or below (sometimes two), and 2-3 for above that (sometimes as many as 3-5 on the really plum planets of Class 20+). Go for farm tech alongside approval tech & upgrade both in stages (first farm, then approval, then farm, etc).

The best galactic resources are the money ones. On the Colonization rush at the beginning of the game go for them like nutz. Upgrade them to get maximum mining, plant a ship or a fleet on them to prevent enemies from easily destroying them,they're that precious.

Get Trade early. Wonderful tech, gives you more $$$, more friends, and either more diplomacy or influence. Be everybody's friend until its time to be their conquerer.

Myself, I've played only Terrans, although I alter their bonuses to give them a little better morale, soldering, and trade.

Good luck! It is a righteous game
Reply #12 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I like the Terrans, the Drath and the Yor. I play the Yor when I'm feeling like more of a fight and the Terrans when I want to finesse a game. The Drath are my compromise "go to" race. I keep the Ethics nuetral for the Terrans or Drath but good evil with the Yor.
Reply #13 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Right now im still on the colonizing rush, have about 3-4 "probes" (custom ships with survey mods) so far doing pretty good, hard to keep up with the population growth... now basically im focusing on techs, social improvements, trade goods, and going around trading to minor races (my three opponents are still pretty far off) and gathering a stuff with my probes
Reply #14 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
You seem to be doing pretty well, Sabaar. Keep it up. The game only gets better with time.
Reply #15 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Quite right, what I said before was an understatement, it almost feels like cheating. I control alittle more than a 4th of the huge map right now. And still pumping out colony ships... I found 3 class 26 planets pretty quick in the game, and 2 planets with a +700 manufacturing bonus tile.
Reply #16 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Wow. That is just about as good as it gets. I should be so lucky.
Reply #17 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Yeah but id bet anything three races are about to go to war with me at one, thats what id do anyway