Question about balancing

Torian and Iconian Refuge

from GalCiv2 Forums
I was just wondering why the Torian and Iconian Refuge (arguably the least powerful civs) have the fewest points of all the races to distribute on extra abilities - while many of the civs with incredible bonuses (krynn and Yor come to mind) are given more points overall.

Maybe its not really a balancing thing more than it is a game history thing, but it seems to me that every race should at least have the initial 10 points to spend on extra skills - or at least give the weakest races a little more "umph", you know?

For example, the Iconian Refuge's are supposedly very creative, so why not +10 research? Or the Torian's; since they have a population bonus, why not a little more economics since more people are around to tax.

Maybe I'm missing a cleverly hidden point, but I usually don't put them in my games unless I play as them cause they seem to just "inflate" the stronger races with more planets as they get crushed by superior races with superior abilities.
4,431 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Oh, and I think there are only 4 races that start with less than 10 pts to spend. I know the Krynn (9), Refuge (7) and Torian (8) are the first 3, but I forgot the last one. All other races start with 10.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I'd like to know what the rationale behind this is too.

I'd also really like to know why it's impossible in a lot of cases to make a custom race that's as powerful bonus-wise as many of the starter races.

(My xml coding doesn't count )
Siege of Centauri
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

I'd like to know what the rationale behind this is too.

I'd also really like to know why it's impossible in a lot of cases to make a custom race that's as powerful bonus-wise as many of the starter races.

(My xml coding doesn't count )
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You know, I was wondering about this for awhile to, but it doesn't bother me as much as it used to. Most of the pre-designed races have all the bonuses I want when I feel like specializing - plus more. I usually use Yor or Krynn for this, just because their bonuses outweigh everyone else. It would definitely be nice, though, to be able to choose different super abilities. Some of them just don't seem "super" enough.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The iconians were my fav race in DL now they cant do anything... I also wanna know why the torians have the pop bonus instead of the thalans. From a story point of view it makes sense that the iconians are a little weaker but then it doesnt make sense for the torians(or any race) to have more pop growth than the thalans. So it seems to have nothing to do with anything and im just lost on this one.


For example, the Iconian Refuge's are supposedly very creative, so why not +10 research?
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Yeah for some reason they are weak at research yet they created one of the most powerful races. Also a creative bonus wouldnt hurt.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Yeah for some reason they are weak at research yet they created one of the most powerful races. Also a creative bonus wouldnt hurt.
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Yeah, good call. I had forgotten about that. It does seem strange that they created the Yor, but don't have anything to show for it. I would think they would be one of the leading researchers, but Altarians strangely have that honor (I'm not sure why, they seem more like Greenpeace to me).