Playing the game vs. Playing a game

from GalCiv2 Forums
I find myself when playing GalCiv doing many things and making many choices that really don't have a marked effect on the game, but for me make it much more fun.

For example, destroying my planets that are about to be conquered purely to spite the AI, making ridiculous demands that I know the AI won't accept so that I could have some basis for then declaring war, targeting home planets and then renaming them (even if it isn't the best military choice to seize it in the first place), or prolonging a war just so that I can wie out each and every star base.

I realize that this isn't necessarily the best way to play the game. It wastes resources that could be used somewhere else, and sometimes ends up hurting me more then them. However, to me it plays an important role in playing a game. By doing so it makes it less a game about number crunching and turn ending, and gives the events a story and back drop.

I figure that I'm not the only one who does such things, so I am curious what you all do to make the game more interesting. Do you have any personal tactics or goals that really don't do anything beyond making it a better experience?
15,013 views 13 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Yes, occasionally I like to provide some sort of roleplaying background to my games. It just makes for a more relaxed, fun way of playing.

MVL games or the upcoming tournaments are a different matter, though.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Playing for points is a thing I will never understand. A galaxy with hundreds of planets? That takes ages and does not sound any fun. It sounds like a matter of execution.

But on the other hand, I would like to be on top of the ladder, too.
Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I always end up playing like America before WW2. I'm peaceful and prospering, when some arsehole decides to attack me, then I start building military stuff. Because of my high production my military skyrockets and they start pleading for mercy, but I'm just not the type for that sorta thing.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

...I'm peaceful and prospering...
End of quote


I dunno about prospering, what with the Depression and all.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top


...I'm peaceful and prospering...


I dunno about prospering, what with the Depression and all.
End of quote



I dunno about peaceful, but let's not go there...

Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I admit, I tend to role-play to some degree in 4x games as well. It makes the game more enjoyable to craft the story of your civilization as it progresses (that sounds terribly hokey when I write it down). It makes for good AAR's, too.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Peaceful compared to the Axis powers at the time  

Getting back to the original post, though. I have on several occasions declined the money that races offer me as gratitude to my awesomeness for roleplaying reasons. Definitely not the smartest thing to do since free money is always good, but if I'm the Korath or some other race that views themselves as elitists, why would I want an inferior races dirty, stinking money when I am about to eliminate them anyhow. I need not your charity, slaves!
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

but if I'm the Korath or some other race that views themselves as elitists, why would I want an inferior races dirty, stinking money when I am about to eliminate them anyhow. I need not your charity, slaves!
End of quote


You could accept their bribe, laugh in their face, then attack them anyway. Sort of a "take their lunch money then beat them up" maneuver. But, whatever makes you happy.

Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I normally don't declare war since the race I created is very peacful, but if attacked it's worse than waking a dragon. I normally don't trade or anything because my people (in the game) stick to themselves for fear of being backstabbed. I also find myself unintentionally creating a story with the game...so it's not always planned that it happens...XD

Enough of me ranting...XD
Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
hmm... I always imagine myself yelling out orders to my military commanders...   
Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Definitely not the smartest thing to do since free money is always good, but if I'm the Korath or some other race that views themselves as elitists, why would I want an inferior races dirty, stinking money when I am about to eliminate them anyhow. I need not your charity, slaves!
End of quote


If you don't except their money because you know that you will eradicate them anyway, it means that you have some sense of being moraly correct...

which means that you have a tiny little miniscule amount of goodness in you!   
Reply #12 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I sometimes set side quests for myself to make the game more interesting. My favorite is to 'adopt' a minor race and try to keep them alive until the end of the game. I will go so far as to ring their planet with constructors so that races who aren't at war with me can't get to the minor and take it out. This can tie up several alien fleets, which will remain outside my ring just waiting. Then when I get around to attacking that major race, their ships are sitting ducks. When I play evil, though, I always pounce on the minor at the very end. Suckers! Muahahaha!
Reply #13 from Stardock Forums Top
I almost always try to run the tech tree out, just to please myself, regardless of what kind of victory I am pursuing. Of course, I don't bother to research the really useless stuff (in an All Labs strategy, for instance, all power plants & advanced evron. techs are useless except as trade goods) until the very end.

This has become much more intrieging with the TA beta, because I have now made the challenge to get as many TOTAL techs as possible. Well, even though the concept of that Slaveling Lab is pretty useless to the Terrans, they can always trade it to the Carinoids.

drrider