UP restiction???

"-Upon declaration of war, battle-ready vessels from both sides will be forced to move into "Neutral Ground"

I'm a long ways from being ready for war, but this game, the Gods of GalCiv have smiled on me, squishing 3 other races together in one corner of the galaxy and allowing me to grab over 60% of the galaxies planets, without encroaching on anybodies territory.

Heavy early reseach in Toxic, Radiated, and Heavy Gravity, has left me with many underdeveloped and underpopulated worlds, but I am leading in propulsion and diplomacy research and playing as the Terrans, against the Altarians, the Torians, and the Drengin. The Drengin ambassador just boasted that his people are working on Lasers now, so I'm playing catch up.

I've never fought a space battle, or been at war. I just grabbed all the assencion crystals early and went for an easy assecion victory.

Relations are favorable with the other 3 races since I destroyed my three assencion starbases, and my people are happy. My average planet has one research facility and one factory, and 3-4 billion people.

I think I have a fighting chance for a combat victory, but I don't understand the UP rule.

What is "Neutral Territory"?

Forced by whom?

I'm really not building anything on my planets now, just moving people around with my transports, my funds are down to 2,000 and most of my planets are in the red. Most of my money comes from tourism, and the 33% tax rate, and I get very little from trade, even though I wasted money in trade ships with better engines.

This UP rule is in effect perminately, and I don't fully understand it.

I do have more population than the other three UP members combined, so I could over-turn it, if it came up for a vote. It was enacted at the first UP meeting, and it stands in my way for a conquest victory.

...or it could be to my advantage, since my ships are curently faster than anybody elses.

If I break the rule, I could be at war with everybody at once...right?

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WIllythemailboy

Join Date 03/2006

+70

This UP rule either annoys the hell out of people, or is the most hilariously overpowered AI screwing mechanic in the game - and occasionally does both at once.

"Neutral Territory" means nothing more than outside your (or their) influence border. When war is declared all armed ships, transports, and spore ships are automatically repositioned outside the other civ's border, at the position nearest its previous position. This rule is permanent, it won't come up for a vote again. Leaving the UP *might* get rid of it for you, I've never tried.

The annoyance factor: this rule is designed to disrupt prepositioned blitz style attacking, so you have to prepare in slightly diferent ways. This is most prevalent when the AI declares war on you before you have your preparations done.

The AI ass-kicking factor: what could be more fun, the game conveniently gets rid of all the pesky crap ships that wander around inside your empire, picking off undefended starbases, freighters, constructors, and whatever else they can get. Even better, with a bit of planning you can know *exactly* where they are going to land, and be waiting with fleets to exterminate them. I've even gone so far as to gift an AI an influence starbase inside my space to create a "bubble" of their territory in which to set up my killing field.

The same can be worked in reverse; build an influence base inside their territory and park all your ships inside the safe zone. Also, ships in orbit are not affected, so if you have a planet in their territory you have another safe zone.

Note most of the plans above are dependant on the player having a significant edge over the AI ships. If you are even or behind in tech, that killing field tactic would get you killed instead.

You don't need to worry about everyone declaring war on you if you "break" this rule - you can't break it. If you attack while you have ships in their space, you just get kicked out.

FYI, faster freighters don't really get you much more trade income. All they do is get the route started faster. Yes, starting earlier gets you money sooner, but it's not a huge leap in income and is generally not worth it on big maps. Heck, trade in general is not a huge income except on the smaller maps or ones with very few planets.

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Just my 2 cents...

Leaving the UP will rid you of having to follow this rule, if I remember correctly. The rule still may apply to the AI even if you are not in the UP--I'm not sure on this though. Basically, if you don't like the rule and you're not reliant on trade for income, you can just leave the UP.

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