Is there a slightly more advanced newbie guide?

from GalCiv2 Forums
I read the newbie guide stickied in the forums here, I watched the tutorials, and I still suck at this game. No matter how well I start out, by the time I've colonized the four or five decent planets I can reach, I've started running onto other races, who always seem to be able to do *everything* faster than I can. I'll be struggling to get basic weapons, and if I offer to trade techs, they'll have phasors. Not that it does me any good, since I usually have to offer to trade three or four of my best technologies to get them to give me Beam Weapon Theory. And in the few cases where I've actually managed to make something like decent progress, the entire freaking galaxy declares war on me. (So far my record is for five of the nine races I can see to declare war on me over about three turns, including two races that I thought I was on decent terms with. Six turns later, half my planets rebelled to form the Jagged Blade.)

Maybe I'm misunderstanding - I would assume that setting the AI to Normal should have it running at a semi-beatable level. Also, from reading the manual and watching the tutorials, I still don't have a clear idea of how a number of things are supposed to work. I'm not sure what switching production focus is for, or why I would want to.

I really want to like this game, but at the moment, I play for about three hours and either have to quit, because I'm so far behind that there is absolutely no way I'll ever catch up, or I get flat out obliterated because I'm suddenly at war with a race that swarms in with fleets of battlecruisers, while I'm still trying to get more than three Defenders in the same place at the same time.
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Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
First, you might want to switch off Mega Events. That means no more pirates, Jagged Knife, Dreadlords...

Second, I remember that the devs said 'normal' or 'challenging' should be able to beat a significant amount of players. The AI only starts getting boni at levels above 'tough', but even on the levels slightly below that it's really competitive.

So don't feel bad if you have to start out at the lower levels. The AI was designed to beat the majority of players withour resorting to cheating, and it gets better with each update.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
perhaps you can give us a specific example or instance then we can evalutate and help ya out. anyway, heres a tip if didnt already know it. at the start of the game try to make your approval 100% so your pop grows faster. then when u have too little cash increase the tax rate so that the approval is 45%. then the money comes in.
Sins of a Solar Empire II
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Start a thread with a beginning of a game, with a screen shot. Also, note the options/conditions etc. Include a save, so someone can load your start position and play along.

Let persons on the board make suggestions before you start... then play for 20 or so turns and post again with results, including screen shots of particulars like tech, planet development and the like. Be ready to accept some healthy "critiquing"...

Continue posting every 20 turns or so, and allow time for others to post suggestions in between your moves. In this way, everyone plays along with you... you get to see different strategies in action, along with differing schools of thought on how to get from A to Z. It allows you to experiment with gameplay and see the results instead of trying to figure out what the heck someone like me is trying to tell you...

Screen shots can be hosted free on photobucket, and they make the links up for you making it very easy to post them here. As for the initial save... There are file sharing sites all over too, and you may be able to post it here, provided it's tiny.

Other than that, you would be best off to post specifics pertaining to which version of the game, map size, options, races etc, along with specific questions.

To answer the one specific question in your OP... the focus buttons allow you to direct resources to specific activities. Military means your ship will get built faster. Social means the planet improvement will be built faster and research boosts the amount of it being done on the planet in question. How you use them depends on what you are trying to accomplish... an easy example is a good production world with a free tile. You find you are able to build the Diplomatic Translators project. By setting the social production as focused, it will be built faster... hopefully before anyone else.

I use them in the early game during the colony rush to make colony ships faster. On a good world you can pump out ships every 4 or so turns. On planets with research bonus tiles, I use the social focus to get all the improvements built, then switch to research focus to boost science to the max on that planet. When a new research improvement comes available, I switch back to social focus to upgrade all the tiles quickly, then switch back.

I pop in when I can, and will be happy to help anyway I can...

T
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
With money you are a tiger. Without them you are a dead meat. Quickly get some good planets. Build exactly one farm on each of them. 6 mil. colonist is very little (without farm). With two farms you will have problems with the morale. Do not build any farm on your homeworld.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Having recently passed through the phase you are in I can sympathize. Some things I learned during my first month with the game:

- This is a strategy game - if your strategy isn't working discard the game and try again. If you find a map you really like save it early and replay it until you find the combination that works.

- if the AI is too strong give yourself an extra bonus. use CTRL N to regenerate the map until you get a 300% or 700% manufacturing or research bonus tile on your home world. This will make it a lot easier to keep up with the AI in the early game.
- don't wait too long before building your military. A few small hulls fitted with a stinger or a couple of lasers/railguns will be enough to keep the AI off your back in the early game. Don't bother with engines, sensors, etc... on these ships - their purpose is to get your military rating up to 100 so the AI will respect you. You can upgrade them later if you want.
- research diplomacy and trade fairly early. Trade increases income and diplomacy lets you negotiate better deals. I've been playing as the Terran Alliance thus far and you start with a nice diplomacy bonus. When distributing the bonus points I pick luck, creativity and economics - I'm still experiment with the rest but speed is useful.
- I buy a factory on my home world, build a lab second and a market center third. Since your only source of income at this stage are the taxpayers on your home world, the market center gives you an instant 10% boost in revenue - you should be able to trade for xeno economics as soon as you start meeting the AI - I don't think I've ever had to research this.
- if the AI isn't willing to do business for the techs you have offered - check to see how much cash it will take to close the deal. You may be pleasantly surprised. Likewise be sure to check if the AI is willing to add cash to its offer whenever you trade.
- don't build up all your colonies in the early game - you simply don't have enough revenue to support the construction and maintenance. Pick the colonies that will become your capitals and build them. Leave the others until your economy is in the green. Population (and tax revenue) will grow even if you don't build anything.
- Autosave is your friend. If you get a mega event that wrecks your game simply quit without saving and restart loading the autosave. You will lose a few turns - which can be useful if you made a mistake and want to try different choices - but the mega event probably won't recur.
- Read the Wiki. Much of the information there is for DL but remains useful for DA. Likewise read the strategy section of this forum and the AARs.
- Have fun.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
You didn't mention if your playing DL or DA, but JPinard wrote an excellent and in-depth strategy guide for DA that can also help DL players out too. You can find it Here
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

You didn't mention if your playing DL or DA, but JPinard wrote an excellent and in-depth strategy guide for DA that can also help DL players out too. You can find it Here
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I agree. That tutorial was what helped me finally get a grasp of the game. It is a very good tutorial, and really helps one understand a lot of things. After that I made changes, but that's the point isn't it? Learn and evolve.
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Thank you. That tutorial helped. Apparently, I was doing several things wrong - when I colonized new worlds, I was buying a factory and immediately queuing up other structures, including farms, so all my worlds were spending far more than they were taking in. I was turning the tax rate up and production down so that I wasn't losing thousands of BC each turn. When combined with the overpopulation that all the extra farms produced, my citizens all hated me. And since production was turned way down, my research and shipbuilding progress was almost non-existant. Sine my military strength was effectively nil, all the computer players seemed to feel that I should be conquered immediately. Since I had no money and no technology worth having, I couldn't improve diplomatic relations by trading things. And playing as the Yor probably didn't help.

Fortunately, I think I've got it figured out now, since I've lasted long enough to max out research on beam weapons and all the defensive techs. In fact, when I saved and stopped for the night, one of the other races had just lost a war with the Drengin, and surrendered to me rather than be wiped out. I wasn't even aware they could do that.
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
In the new TA beta, the Drengin have been ratcheted up a little... they like to pick me as their first conquest alot... bastages. I start every game now with priority number three being: Kill the Drengin... ASAP. Just because. Unless they get that event where they accept the flower at the airport and suddenly become sweeties... Then i let them live an extra week. ;)

Nice to see you are progressing... Post once and awhile and let know how you're continuing on.

T
Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Antracer's idea is the best one as far as us being able to help you is concerned, Katoran. Start up a thread, probably in the AAR's forum section, and make sure you include screenshots and what you think your next move should be. We'll all jump in and give you advice (probably too much, we're all a little bit too enthusiastic about the game here) and help you progress as a GalCiv2 gamer so you can appreciate the beauty of the game without getting squashed. I've been playing since just after DL's release so I didn't have to go through the same stage as badly as the new players (Things were a LOT easier back then), but we all still have valuable insight into the game and any questions you might have. The galciv wiki is a great help too, it has some general strategies for a few of the more main stream races along with all of the advanced info you could ever dream of if you get to the stage were GC2 takes over your entire life like us :CONGRAT:

Good Luck, we hope to be helping you soon!

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