How do you watch AIs play together?

from GalCiv2 Forums
Is there anyway to watch the AIs play so that you can learn from them?

I prefer that the game go automatically and you don't have to keep clicking end turn. 


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Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
You can enable cheats by creating a shortcut to GalCiv2.exe and use that to start the game.

1. Use Windows Explorer to find GalCiv2.exe, or right-click the game in Stardock Central and select Open Folder
2. Right click on GalCiv2.exe (not GC2Launch.exe) and choose create shortcut
3. Right click on the shortcut and choose properties
4. Click in the target field and hit end, then hit space followed by the word CHEAT (no switch marks necessary)

For example:

"C:\Program Files\Stardock\TotalGaming\GalCiv2\galciv2.exe" cheat

For Dark Avatar, the shortcut should be:

"C:\Program Files\Stardock\TotalGaming\GalCiv2\DarkAvatar\GC2DarkAvatar.exe" cheat

The cheats can then be enabled in game by pressing control and one of the key listed below. For example, pressing control and m at the same time will add 10,000 bc to the treasury. Some of these combinations, such as Ctrl+N, are not technically cheats and so do not require the procedure above to enable them.

Ctrl +

* A - Upgrades selected ship's quality, hp, and movement
* B - Adds battleship
* C - Clones selected ship (does not work on starbases, and may result in crash to desktop as of 1.1)
* H - Heals selected ship
* I - Shows selected ship info
* J - Completes the next planetary improvement or military project in the build queue of every world in your civilization
* L - Assigns remaining planets to major races
* M - Adds 10,000bc
* P - Adds 1 to planet class — does not add terraformed squares to colonized planets; instead, destroy the colony, run cheat, re-colonize.
* R - Research current tech (Hold Shift for ALL techs)
* T - Teleports selected ship to cursor
* U - Reveals the entire map
* V - United Planets meeting
* W - Selected race loses next turn (If none is selected you lose)
* Y - Create a Mega Event

[edit] Ctrl + Shift +

* B - Spawns different starbases, including mining starbases
* D - Adds a minor race to the galaxy
* E - Triggers all planetary events
* H - Damages selected ship
* J - Completes other races' projects
* M - Triggers the Alignment Selection Screen - Still costs money [ Also gives you all techs except Miniaturization and Technology Victory ]
* P - Increases the Planet quality of all uninhabitable planets to PQ 10.
* R - Research ALL technologies
* T - Hail yourself
* V - Force vote for political party
* X - Quarterly Reports
* Z - Enables autoplay/Quasi-Hot Seat Game (the AI takes turns without waiting for the user)
* W - Selected ENEMY SHIP or PLANET will turn into your unit or base.
End of quote



Just get cash, reveal the map, get spies, spy the planets of the enemy until you get full ability to watch them. Maybe the only way to watch how they play.
SoundPackager - Customize the Windows sound scheme
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
No.

And even if there was, you would still have to keep clicking the end turn button.

This is a turn based game, after all.
So even if you could be in a third-party mode, simply watching the AI against the AI, you would still have to end the turn at some point to move on.


And what would you watch?
The ships move during the turn?
Would you go to every screen and record every change of every turn?
That would give relative results, but not the reasons behind those results.


You are better off just playing and learning as you go.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I have to admit, I really like this idea. In fact, I've even suggested it myself a time or two. Watching AIs play against each other is of interest for learning more about some of the intricacies of the game, as well as being a useful debug tool for when the expansion is released with editors and modding tools. A reason particular to me, would be with the proposed available options available in the expansion, setting options in such a myriad of ways, and see the AIs reactions. I know it's a TBS game, but would make an interesting simulation to tinker with and watch the results as well.