GalCiv and "rubber band" mechanics

from GalCiv2 Forums

I've been noticing that in GalCiv empires tend to get wiped out fairly often by mid game...at least in more crowded and smaller maps. Now I know that is to be expected, but I still find myself enjoying the maps with many more smaller empires because of all the complicated politics and trade issues that accompanies such maps -- as opposed to the maps with one or two superpowers you have to kiss ass for in order to survive.

Anyways, my question: Does anyone know if the game has any settings along the lines of a rubber band mechanic that I can turn up? In other words, something that helps out smaller AI empires and hampers the creation of super-huge empires. Thus far all I've managed to come up with is spreading out the playing field (lowering star count while increasing map size) to slow down the pace of the game. Can any more experienced players suggest a better solution?

P.S.: I also considered turning down the AI's aggression level. But my goal is to reduce the odds of smaller empires being exterminated, and not simply to stop combat alltogether.

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Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

The only thing close to doing what you want is trade.

You could try uping the techs for trade, such that trade is x10 better.   Trade as it is now is worthless for larger civs, and even at 10x would still be. (because all the nerfing, and hardcoded limits)

However, small civs I would think would do better.

But I can't imagine it making nearly the impact you're looking for.

 

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

I do this by increasing the amount of points needed for all of the techs on the "Planetary Invasion" line. I increase the points needed to complete the research by a factor of 10 or more. This dramatically slows down the ability of races to invade and take over others. The effect is that it allows your race and others to do more tech research and build more powerful ships for better and more exciting space battles. It also allows you to actually build up your Trade and Starbases to the point where you get to use more of the cooler modules. Of course, to do this, you need to "mod" the main Tech Tree for all the races, so if you are not into "modding" the game, then this won't work for you.

Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

This dramatically slows down the ability of races to invade and take over others.
End of quote

Except for those nasty Korath.

Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

IronBat1, all things being relative - there's sooooo much to mod into the tech trees that someone can certainly have incredible influence over multiple features & gameplay balance that it's all worth every darn last xml editing of other similar files too.

Political parties aside, i guess the RC is at the core of a bazillion different GC2 games. Not counting the usual incredibly variable settings.

Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

The Korath spore ships by themselves are not hard to stop.  A tiny hull with 1 gun (incase the spore ship is armed) in orbit and the sporeship is not a problem.

The problem, of course, is stopping the Korath battlefleets from swatting those ships...

Anyway, I have found that rare to occasional stars in tight clusters on the bigger maps creates the desired effect, since many of the empires cannot access each other at first.

Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top

Oh yes, the Korath. In order for my suggestion about "increasing the amount of points needed for all of the techs on the Planetary Invasion" to work, I DO have to deliberately leave the Korath out as one of the other races. I kind of hate to do that, but the Spore ships with their instant planetary takeover throw the game too much out of balance for me. Of course, the Korath have been known to FORCE me to send a fleet over to their planets and constantly have to destroy anything and everything they produce (i.e. ships, starbases, etc.). Kind of like a permanent United Nations "Peacekeeping" team permanently on station ; )

Then there are the rare situations where I have Terror Star Development (before I have Planetary Invasion), and, well, you know that the Korath System kind of looks a little like Alderaan. Hmm, we need to test the full destructive power of this fully operational battle station....