Which "benchmarks" do you aim for?

I aim for as many planets as are available to give me an advantage.

I also like Xinathium Hull Plating and Technological , Manufacturing and Economical capitals on my homeworld or the next best thing.

-Fire

I like aiming for trade goods. I tend to use small/tiny crafts more so than mediums, so I really like micro repair bots, they repair quickly. And diplomatic translators are great. I know a lot of people like the power of aphrodisiac, and I will build it but its not a high priorty.

I play more conquest oriented so I go for Engines and Eyes of the Universe. Engines let you move farther/bombard longer and eyes lets you intercept retaliation fleets pick off ships on their way to form fleets.

I think i go for almost all of them, especially since they are available ate differt times. There are a bunch that i almost never go after, achievments that is. depends on the game. Lately the AI has been declaring war on me early so i havent gotten around to many trade routes so the galactic privateer doesnt get built. The AI doesnt seem to want it either. I do go after every trade good though.

As far as techs, boy, i dunno, i cant say there are any that i don't want. i mean they all have their uses. engines are great but i will wait until i have a better research ability before pushing it too far. The only thing i really can say that i'll "rush learn" is the planetary invasion branch. When its time to start uinvading or if i think i might be invaded ill push my research slider way up and just get all of them, well except for the sub-branch, those will wit a bit longer. After that first tech the rest come at like 1 1/2 per turn. And yes, the Ur Quan errrr i mean the Tir-Quan training center is big for me. the more sodliers that survive the greater my new population.

For technology benchmarks, HyperWarp is especially my favorite. Fast, compact engines which look awesome when bolted on to the ship, and truly enable hit-and-run style combat for you. It doesn't take too much to research them either. HyperWarp 3 is even better.

Propulsion: Ion Drive -> Impulse Drive 3 -> Warp Drive 3/4 -> HyperWarp -> HyperWarp 3

Weapons: Harpoon -> Photonic Torpedo -> Photon Torpedo 2/3 -> Anti-Matter Torpedo 2 -> Quantum Torpedo (!) -> Positronic Torpedo 2 -> Black Hole Eruptor

Economic Buildings: Market Centers -> Trade Centers -> Stock Markets

Research Buildings: Basic Labs -> Research Centers -> Research Academies -> Invention Matrices(Good/Evil) -> Discovery Spheres(Good/Evil)

Hulls: Medium Hulls -> Huge Hulls

For everything else, it's natural progression without skipping anything.

For Good Alignment, I'd also set Defense tech benchmarks. I'd research Arnorian Battle Armor and forget about the armor tech branch until Black Hole Generators arrive, and research up to Dynamic Shielding in shields and leave it there until I have to face Doom Rays. For Neutral Alignment, I'd quickly run up to Neutrality Learning Centers(whether I build them or not) and get Terraforming as priorities. For Super Annihilator, I'd forget about Planetary Invasion and get my Spore Weapons early on. I've never played Evil, so I don't have any benchmarks for it.

Trade Goods:

Diplomatic Translators
Xinathium Hull Plating
Nano Recorders
Gravity Accelerators
Micro Repair Bots

Galactic Achievements:

Galactic Bazaar
Eyes of the Universe
Galactic Privateer
Restaurant of Eternity

Maybe the word you were hunting for is "milestones?"

I was railroad obsessed in Civs 1-3. For GC2, I worked for tech wins for a long time which made Neutrality Learning Centers a key tech. But I can't think of any single tech, achievement, or wonder that compares to the edge you get laying down the first comprehensive rail network in Civ. IMO, that's a sign of GC2's greater re-play value.

My most important milestone these days is getting my economy strong enough to rush build a factory whenever I colonize or acuqire a world while still adding cash to the reserves. If I can stay in the middle of the pack in terms of worlds colonized until I'm pulling in a one or two thousand BCs a turn, that usually means I've won "the infrastructure rush" and can only screw myself by mismanaging wars.

I am still sometimes tempted to ditch a game when an AI builds Tir-Quan before I can. I usually just mark the world and try to seize it as rapidly as possible if a war breaks out.

Sometimes in Civ1 I would get railroad before the date changed from BC to AD, so I always felt like that was an exceptional accomplishment.

Sentient species taste better...

GW Sicord --> Milestone! That's the word I was trying to think of... thanks! Man, we were going crazy last night trying to think of what the word was, heh.

PeskyFly --> You've been playing this game for, what, a week? And you already have favourites, eh? Intriguing... I'm curious, how many games have you actually played at this point?

I'd say Medium Hulls is one of my milestones, since I try not to build any warships until I have it, aside from cargo-sized decoys.

Tri-Quan Training and Aphrodisiac are my special project milestones. Restaurant of Eternity and Galactic Showcase are also up there. If evil, Artificial Slave Center is high priority. Tech milestones are Xeno Ethics if neutral and Terraforming if not (for Orbital Terrafomer). After that, it's weapons, Psionic Beam if evil, otherwise I just run up the missle branch. In Dark Avatar, colonization techs are a real biggie.

Since I like to go for the "Influence Victory", my milestones are as follows:

1)Governments: achieving "Star Federation" status as soon as possible (economic bonus 30%, diplomacy ability +10, influence ability +5).

2)Diplomacy/Trade: I'm not happy until I can place a "Cultural Exchange Center" (influence +25%), and at least 2 "Stock Markets" (economy 25%, influence 5%) on all of my planets.

2)Galactic Achievements: acquiring either "Galactic Showcase" (increases diplomatic ability by 25%) or "Restaurant of Eternity" (increases influence ability by 20%) will bring a sigh of relief, but prefer to get both as soon as possible, and if playing evil the all time favorite "Mind Control Center" (ensures that alien worlds that are ripe for defection, defect nearly instantly... oh ya, that's what I like to hear! ).

It would be even better if it actually worked that way, eh?

I use it for the economic bonus.

Ya ghost, sadly the case... a misnomer if ever there was one, but it sounds so damn cool .
I use it as well for the 100% economic bonus it offers (which is nothing to sneeze at).

I often wondered what would be better... fixing this so that it works as was originally intended or keeping it as is for the economic gain.
I tend to use strategically placed maxed out influence sb (although very expensive) they seem to do what the "Mind Control Center" (in theory) should have done, it just takes more work on my part to place all of these damn things all over the place, but at least the cost is offset a little by getting that 100% economic bonus.

Yes, HyperWarp is my favorite. The other stuff are just things I'd like to or am currently shooting for.

I got HyperWarp in my first game and it felt awesome. It allowed me to launch a surprise attack and topple the Drengin Empire in just two turns, before they could respond. I spent a while just researching from Impulse Drive 3 all the way up to HyperWarp and didn't use Warp Drive engines at all.

I've completed one DA custom-race sandbox game, completed two Dread Lords Campaign missions, and am currently doing a Terran Alliance sandbox game in DA.

Hmm...

Please don't take any offense at what I am about to say, PeskyFly, but do you really feel that the number of games you have played makes you qualified to offer advice with such authority? I see you offering advice to people who have, from their metaverse medals, played a lot more games than you have. Those players, I am sure, will dismiss your advice out of hand, but I do worry about new players who may think you know more than you actually do. You may want to add a disclaimer the next time you do so, to avoid any confusion. Just a thought...

On the other hand, you seemed to be curious about other players' preferences rather than asking for advice.

I don't know if I have anything to say that hasn't already been said. I do try to get the Restaurant of Eternity, because if I lose the race to a trade good, I can use my superior diplomacy (and trust me, my diplomacy is always superior) to take it for some useless techs, whereas the Restaurant must be taken by force (not that I'm against force). Same goes for the other buildings that aren't trade able. Diplomatic Translators are also a priority, to contribute to the superior diplomacy I mentioned. Medium hulls are also good; sometimes I even manage to haul it to Large hulls before I build any warships. I also usually get soldiering before I start researching weapons; I usually trade for those since everyone else already has a bunch of weapons tech.

I was not referring only to this thread, though perhaps I should have made that clear.



Wow. I've never made it to large hulls before a war is declared. What level are you playing at in those games?

The other concern I would have with that is that large ships take a long time to build, not just to research. I'd be worried about leaving myself open. Do you use cargo decoys to stave off attacks before then, at least?



You won't typically need soldiering until you've killed the fleets defending the target planets, though. I usually start researching soldiering techs only when the land battles start going badly for me. If it takes two transports to invade one planet, that's good enough for me, to start with anyway.

I like trade good (especially the diplo ones) and the SCC. The SCC is so overpowered on the tiny/small maps I usually play (imagine having 2 Planets with 4 identival ships each and building a Spin Center: 4x8+4= 36 ships, or a +450% increase in military for a six turn building!

Who to and when did I offer advice to experienced Metaverse players? That too, info that I myself hadn't learned from reading the experiences of much, much more experienced players than me?

"I do worry about new players who may think you know more than you actually do."

Sure... so are there any other new players who poked and pestered this place so much before they even got the game? If you find me wrongly advising a newer-than-myself player, feel free to correct it with your experience.

New players are not necessarily the only ones capable of thinking this. All advice regardless of source must be taken as what it is which is just one persons opinion and not the god given gospel.

Whether someone is new or experienced or hasn't posted a game or is the top metaverse player, can't be used to determine if the advice is good or bad. If the advice fits in with your style of play and it's something that makes sense to you then it's good advice. It doesn't matter if the best player in the world says to do something, if it doesn't fit in with your style of play or you just can't seem to make it work then the advice is no good to you.

There's nothing to say that an experienced TBS game player can't pick up GalCiv2 and have some useful thing to say about it after playing a single game. Don't judge a book by it's cover.

Be at ease, be at peace! (Les Misérables)

I loved Railroads in the original Civilization. Basically that was the point of separation from the computer players (I can't seem to grace them with the title of AI).

In GalCiv2 there really isn't a similar one single thing that once you get it then you've pretty much won the game, however I go with evil and once I get the MCC and the ASC along with psionic beams I usually feel pretty good about my chances in the game.

I suppose I break my milestones down depending on where I am in the game.

My games have gotten somewhat fluid lately, so it changes depending on what game I'm trying on. The following would be typical of a medium conquest one.

First, Impulse Drive. The +1 speed affects all ships without the need to immediately upgrade. (If the colony rush looks like a short one, I skip the engines and go for diplomacy.)

Trade, then Laser V. Once there, I go for Starbase Defenses, followed closely by Xeno Ethics. Combined, these are the fastest way I know of to gain and keep the diplomatic upper hand.

As far as Trade Goods and Achievements, I usually rush buy Diplo Translators for the diplomacy boost and the Mind Control Center for the economy. Other than those, I try to get whatever Trade Good or Achievement I can get my hands on.

I don't build the Spin Control Center, since I'd rather have a stock market. Economy is generally my driving force.

Also, priorities change as you develop your play style. There are several strategies that will work for your particular game. As you nail them down, your milestones change. For instance, my first few games, I thought engines were really critical. Now, I find myself researching engines later and don't put nearly the priority on them I did initially. My priorites have shifted in lots of other ways as well. Another example, weapons used to be further down on the list, now they're toward the top.

I usually play on Tough or Painful, with gigantic galaxies.

Firstly, this only happened to me in two games I can think of.

Second, I'm not counting my flagship (medium) which I do convert into a warship. Sometimes I can just park my uber flagship around a Spin control center and that's enough to deter my opponents.

Third, I try to avoid all wars, and I also start wars amongst other races so they deplete each others' arsenals. I also brown nose with tributes occasionally, to maintain relations. I will also try to mimic the alignments of my neighbors, so that it's easier to ally with them. I'm kind of a d*ck with allies; I steal all their planets using influence. That's my general strategy for expansion: ally and convert.



Fourth, who said anything about taking other planets? If #3 doesn't work, I mutter a few expletives to myself and then start building using whatever hulls I have. Usually my soldiering + high population + my flagship zipping around intercepting transports is enough to muster some defense in time. I play a very risky game, but if I am capable of reaching a certain "critical mass" before the other civs realize I'm a ripe target, I am so far ahead of them that they just can't keep up.

Fifth, a bit of luck I guess (and not the ability).

In more than a few posts, actually. And before you'd even played any games. I'd rather not go looking through old threads for them, but I will be happy to point this out the next time I see you doing it. I know you mean well, and I am not trying to make you look bad.



Not at all relevant to my point.

I'm sure, though, that once you have more games behind you, you'll be able to offer us a lot of new and interesting ways of looking at the game.



Will do, though there are plenty of players who are much more qualified than I am. In fact, this thread in particular was an attempt to glean wisdom from some of them that might help lesser players like myself.