Kevin Dreese

Join Date 03/2008

Newb - Feeling lost with understanding game mechanics (tech tree, improvements, etc)

So I am new to the game and have the expansions up to Twighlight of the Arnor. Overall I am having difficulty getting into and understanding the game... I guess part of my problem is I am used to the Civ series of games... maybe the tech trees there are more intuitive to me but some things I am confused about include:

- Tech Trees - I search through them and use some of the tools online to review the tech paths but I really feel kind of aimless as to what strategy/path I want to follow... the names of the techs are confusing to figure out what to first, then next, etc... are there good things to start with and then lead to a balanced tech approach? I never seemed to have issues aligning the Civ techs to my strategies but here I am having issues. The manual doesnt seem very helpful here and the online stuff I have found have not really offered what I am looking for. Any good guides out there? Is there a retail guide that can be purchased? I looked around but couldnt find one.

- Planet improvements - Any recommended strategies here? I read some posts on this but heard conflicting info on best to have planents specific to different pieces of the strategy (e.g. one focused on commerce, another on culture, etc)?

- Overall speed to produce - Ships seem to take 13 weeks to build... what is the best way to increase this? I could just buy them but that wont work forever.... I guess what I am looking for here is some information on how the game works... for instance what are the levers to pull to increase production (shields), tech speed (commerce?), happiness (culture, etc)? Is there a place to read up on the game mechanics?

- Exploration - This may seem really stupid, but I realized part way through a game that I can actually cross borders to explore and colonize planets... I guess I was just thinking in the Civ mentality of not easily being able to cross borders and colonize to after you have treaties with other civs... I know this is not Civ but I didnt read (or missed) that point in the manual that it is free roming maybe until war? These are points I wish were clearly outlined about the mechanics of game play. Is there a place where these are described?

Maybe I just need to spend some more time with the manual and maybe some direction on posts or websites would help, but I am real excited about the game but having issues getting into the strategy. Any help would be greatly appreciated... I want to start understanding how to dominate the galaxy!

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Philocthetes

Join Date 10/2003

+153

If you haven't been doing it, adding site:forums.galciv2.com to the end of a search engine (e.g. Google) entry can help you find posts around here better than the local search.

The two expansions include some major additions and changes from the base game, so "good" answers to some of your questions will depend on which game you're playing. DL is simpler, and some folks around here recommend starting with it until you're comfy enough to start messing with extreme environment colonization and civ-unique tech trees.

If you run Vista or have .NET installed on an older OS, you can try the free Galactopedia app. It reads the XML for the tech trees and provides a GUI to help you poke around and learn about things like Stock Exchanges having a lower maintainence cost than Banks.

Planet improvements: single best advice I have is go slow in adding them; you need to build up your income before you build up your infrastructure.

Ship production speed: more (& better) factories can help here, as can Econ starbases with the right modules added. Rush-buying is very common for players who run huge economies. Starbases can also help research production, as can some trade goods and unique improvements like Nanorecorders and the Tech Capital.

Exploration: the influence zones throw lots of people to start with, especially if you have a strong Civ background. Yes, you can place colonies (& starbases) in another civ's "territory." But you should be cautious about it--if their influence is very strong, you're probably just saving them the cost of a colony ship because the world will flip to them pretty quickly.

I'm unreasonably fond of this game, but have to respectfully admit that I believe documentation is their weakest area. These forums are a good resource--plenty of folks like answering questions. There's also a Galciv wiki.

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For researching, I like to get some basic infrastructure techs done early on. Any cheap tech that gives a xx% bonus to social, tech, or military production, and economics or population growth, etc. I also like to get engine techs for faster ships, and techs that upgrade my basic structures (labs & factories) to the next level. After that, it depends on what your overall strategy is.

For build strategies, specialize your planets to do one of these three specific things: economic output, tech, or military production. Influence is another option, but not one I use with the strategies I employ. The fixed Mind Control Center opens up new possibilities there though...

To increase production and build ships faster you have a number of options. Build more factories, fiddle with the production sliders (social, military, tech), or use the "focus" button to increase military production on selected planets.

The shaded areas of cultural influence are definitely not restrictive as in Civ, so dicarding that thinking will help you out. At first I found it very odd too, but eventually you get used to it. I think the idea is that it's space, which is too vast and empty for borders to be enforced. Planets can culturaly "flip" to another empire's control just line in Civ, if the influence of that culture in that area of space is 4x that of the planet in question. These cultural border remain "open" throughout the entire game, although it will make your neighbors unhappy if you have warships flying around in their space.

Sentient species taste better...

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Now my 2 bc.

AS you have discovered there is no good manual. As stated by GW you can look on those sites. For specific questions you should always come here. Chances are you'll be told more than you wanted to know.

The reason you get conflicting reports about how to build up your planets is because there is no right or wrong way. This game lets you adapt your own strategy. For what its worth, I only specialize the planet with my research and manufacturing capitals. Keep in mind that your economic capital only gives the bonus to your tax income for that planet, so there is no need to also fill it with banks etc. (Something I did early on). Just put that one on the planet with the highest population; mine always goes on my home world since it has the highest population early and that's when I build the capital. For other planets I usually have something like a 50/50 mix of factory and bank types buildings with one farm and no morale structures. Each planet will also get at least one lab, more if there are bonus tiles.

The other guys' suggestions of how to bump up production are right on. I just want to add that with more income comes more production. By having more money coming in you have more money spent on shields, beakers and hammers. When you have a large economy you will see the same ship on the same planet take less time to build.

The thing to understand about "territory" is that its described more as an area of influence and not "owned" space. So you can cross into anyone's area at anytime, even wen at war. The shaded region on the minimap just shows the limits of your cultural influence.

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There are some things that can make the territory borders more important. The Super Isolationist ability makes opponents go slow. Some ship modules provide a bonus to attack or defense in your area of influence. There's a united planets law that removes ships from each other's territory when war is declared. There may be more effects (is upgrading ships cheaper in your territory?).

The borders also help you see whether you have a chance to culture flip a planet. If it's deep inside your territory you should be able to push it over the edge pretty easily. Once the crossbones appear you're good.

To get better just play for a while, then read some stuff about econ. People on these forums are very helpful, plus there's a wiki. If you get your econ under control a non-cheating AI will not provide much of a challenge.

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WIllythemailboy

Join Date 03/2006

+70

Upgrading ships in your territory isn't cheaper, but it is faster.

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In addition I would recommend starting with the Terrans since their tech tree is less "exotic" than most of the others so it may be more intuitive to find your way there first.

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Philocthetes

Join Date 10/2003

+153

Upgrading ships in your territory isn't cheaper, but it is faster.

I'm pretty sure influence is not a factor here--my impression is that the variable is distance from your nearest planet or starbase, and sometimes that can be in another civ's influence zone.

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The ship upgrade time is dependent upon proximity to an influence-generating feature...starbases and planets...but not the relative strength of the influence.

Sentient species taste better...

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The ship upgrade time is dependent upon proximity to an influence-generating feature...starbases and planets...but not the relative strength of the influence.

You answered something I've wanted to know for a while but never remember to ask. Well played my feline compatriot.

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Upgrading ships in your territory isn't cheaper, but it is faster.

Sorry about being the latecomer to the conversation. If you're looking for the absolute lowest cost (which is usually the fastest) way of building a ship, make an empty hull of your choice and buy it. On the next turn, you can start it moving in the direction you want and upgrade it to the type of ship you want. In the mean time, buy another blank on the planet.

To rapidly build in the early part of the game, I'll tend to buy an empty cargo hull on a max lease and upgrade it to a fast hull with only life support and engines. When I get it close to its destination, I'll upgrade it again to whatever type of ship I wanted. Usually a colony ship or constructor. If you do this, pay close attention to life support and distance from your nearest influence producing structure. You can shave a turn off of the total trip by upgrading before you get there, but you'll also have a worthless ship if it doesn't have the life support to accomplish its task.

This method works extremely well for colonizing the center of the map and for grabbing those far flung econ resources before the AI does.

A tip to keep things clean...Turn off the option to save ship designs to the hard drive. Otherwise, you could end up with a lot of one-off designs cluttering up your ship designer.

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One thing I forgot to mention, the distance from an influence-producing feature and upgrade time scales with map size. For example, for a 1 turn upgrade on a tiny map you need to be 1 or 2 spaces away, but for a gigantic map its within something like 10-12 spaces.

Sentient species taste better...

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Once you understand the games mechanics you realize how broken the whole thing is.

Just play against normal AI and pretend you are a real space empire~

If not you will find yourself with nothing but a bunch of research worlds exploiting tech trading and doing massive pushs where you quickly eleminate entire civilizations in a single turn with rush bought battlefleets because they were broke and helpless only having the crappy technology you sold them so you could afford to buy the fleet you killed them with.

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Quoting Elysion,

reply 12

... Just play against normal AI...

That's the key points. Increase the difficulty a few levels and you'll notice the AI will often outrun you in tech and fleet building.

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You should also note somethign I haven't seen anyone else explicitly mention that is completely different from Civ and is very important for you to wrap your head around.

In the Civ games, you just flat out make hammers, or research or whatever. In GalCiv, you buy them.

This means, that when you build a factory, the factory takes money from your economy to opperate. I BC for everyone unit of production. The same is true for science. So you can't just ramp up one of these areas of production by itself like in Civ, you have to make sure your economy keeps up with your science and industry. This often means not building the best or latest factory, or putting it off even when you could easily build it.

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