New player with a few questions

from GalCiv2 Forums

Bought this game 3 days and this game has consumed all of my free time.  I haven't played a game this good in years.  I've only played a couple of games so far.  I have a few questions though I can't seem to figure out.  These are the questions I couldn't find an answer for using the search function.

 

Stations and ships.  Is there any way to get them to coordinate together?  It seems every time I have any ships on the same tile as a space station and someone attacks that tile they only attack ether the station by itself or the ships by themselves.  Never both at the same time.  I have yet to attack a tile containing both a station and a ship.

 

Planetary approval.  Does this statistic help in resisting influence take overs?  The reason I ask this is because the AI colonized 2 planets in my space that where in the same solar system as one of the planets I had already colonized.  I wasn't able to build up enough influence on that planet alone to flip ether of them over (I know you need 4 times the influence before they start converting) so I built an influence station right next to one of those planets and researched the influence tech most of the way through.  Please correct me if I am wrong, but as I understand it the closer a planet is to an influence starbase the more influence rating a planet receives against it?  I upgraded this station all the way up to +152 influence before one of the planets finally flipped and it was the farthest planet with more population than the one I built the station next too.  I had to build a second influence station next to that planet and upgrade it to +152 influence as well before the closest one finally flipped.  This while time that planet had over 10x the influence rating to flip it, as opposed to the minimum 4x, yet it was the last one to flip.  I knew this because of spies.  Is the length of time required to flip a planet dependant on the influence rating only or are there other factors involved such as planetary approval?  I hope this explanation made sense.

 

Trade goods.  If you build a trade good is the effect empire wide or does it only effect the planet it is built on?  I know some specifially say they effect all planets but some are pretty vague.  An example.  The repair bonus from that nano repair bot trade good (I forgot the name).  Does that only work on the planet its built on or will it work on all ships regardless of where they are?  Another example.  Afrodesiac.  Does the 50% bonus effect all worlds under your control or just the world it is built on?  More examples.  Xanathium Plating.  I think I spelled that wrong.  Does the increased HP % only work on ships built from the planet that trade good is on or does it work on all ships regardless of where they are?

 

Repairing damaged ships.  I know you can accelerate the repair amount by parking them in orbit around a planet, but does the repair amount increase if that planet has a starport?

 

Construction ships.  Two questions here.  First, if I design a construction ship with 2 construction modules will it allow me to add more than one upgrade at a time?  Also, if I build a starbase with it will it allow me to do the initial construction plus starbase upgrades?  The same goes for trading modules.  Is there a benefit to adding multiple trading modules to the same ship?  Second question.  I've noticed if I try to build the default construction ship from scratch the build cost actually increases.  For example, the initial construction ship costs 55 to build.  The same cost as just the cargo hull with no mods on it.  If I try to reproduce that same exact hull the cost becomes 55 for the hull and 20 for the construction module.  Its the same ship, same exact stats (speed, range, etc), but suddenly it costs 20 more?  Is this a bug or are default ship designs supposed to be cheaper?  The same goes for trading modules.  Is there a benefit to adding multiple trading modules to the same ship?

 

Non-mechanics related questions now.  Is it worth upgrading the basic freighter ship to add engines on it?  Will it increase trade income because the ship makes its trips faster?  Is it also worth putting weapons and hull plating (+ HP mods) on them to prevent them from getting blown up in a war or will it even make a difference?

 

Are there any benefits to forming an alliance with another race if you're not going for cultural or diplomatic victories?

 

What do economic and research treaties do?  I don't fully understand the explanation in the manual .

 

These are all the questions I have for now.  Thank you in advance for answering any or hopefully all of these questions.

6,972 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Stations and ships. Is there any way to get them to coordinate together? It seems every time I have any ships on the same tile as a space station and someone attacks that tile they only attack ether the station by itself or the ships by themselves. Never both at the same time. I have yet to attack a tile containing both a station and a ship.
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Fleets and ships take attacks before a starbase does. Unfortunately, there is no way for a starbase and a ship or fleet to work together.

Trade goods. If you build a trade good is the effect empire wide or does it only effect the planet it is built on?
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Yes, trade goods provide empire-wide bonuses. There are some other unique improvments that are planet-only, e.g. Hyperion Shipyards.

Repairing damaged ships. I know you can accelerate the repair amount by parking them in orbit around a planet, but does the repair amount increase if that planet has a starport?
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Not that I know of, but I'd love to be corrected if I'm wrong.

On the two construction or two trade modules question, no to both. You waste money and space if you add more than one colony, constructor, or trade module to a ship.

Faster trade ships will get a route established more quickly, but after a route is there, a 'mini-freighter' replaces the unit you built and always moves at speed 1. (If you add non-engine features to a freighter like sensors, weapons, or defenses, the minifreighter *will* have those abilities.)

Are there any benefits to forming an alliance with another race if you're not going for cultural or diplomatic victories?
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Probably depends on your play style, but even if you're going for a research or conquest win, you might sometimes find it handy to have an ally who's stronger than you or a weakling ally who might give you a 'legitimate' excuse to start a war you want without seeming like you are the aggressor.

What do economic and research treaties do?
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Basically two things: they help you earn more BC or do more research, and they improve your relationship with another civ. The BC and research bonus amounts can vary widely depending on how large the civs are, but even though I prefer the largest maps, I mostly think about them in terms of the diplo context and count any bonus resources as gravy.

Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Fleets and ships take attacks before a starbase does. Unfortunately, there is no way for a starbase and a ship or fleet to work together.
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Not true, at least the fleets being attacked first bit. The starbase is treated like any other fleet. When someone attacks the pile, the strongest opponent is chosen as the defender. If that happens to be the base, it will defend instead of the ships. This is occasionally useful in defending a transport fleet with a heavily upgraded base. Or to screw over an AI, don't arm the base at all, then park hordes of minimally armed fodder on top of it, without putting them in fleets. Each bullet collector will waste one of the enemy's move points until they finally break through to the base. This can buy you time to get a real fleet there to destroy the attacker.

Re: Multiple trade/constructor modules. You can't, simple as that. Try it, the game won't let you do it. You CAN put multiple colony and troop modules on ships, but all this does is carry more people. You still lose the ship when it is used.

Re: Armed/speedy freighters. You can, but there isn't much point. Speed doesn't gain you anything once the route is established, but it does get the freighter there a few turns earlier to start the route sooner. At best you can break even on the more expensive ship used to create the route. Arming the ship will give you the same weapons/defenses on the minifreighter, but it can't be fleeted with anything else and will likely get destroyed by an enemy fleet anyway.

Re: Econ/research treaties. They don't cost you any output in these areas, but they can occasionally come back to bite you on the ass. Keep in mind that they cannot be casually broken once given; only war will break them, and you will take a diplo hit if you are the one that attacks in that situation.

Also, you are sharing 10% of your economic output or research points produced each turn. Giving either to someone who is a potential enemy can often be a bad thing

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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

WIilly's a lot sharper than I am.

But his take on the econ & research treaties is a little off if you're not going for a war win. An econ or research treaty can be the lynchpin in strategies to keep aggresive civs from picking your civ for their next war, especially if you traded treaty-for-treaty.

Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Unless you have an alliance with them, there is always the possibility of being forced into a war with them, either by them being the aggressor (rare, but it happens) or due to you being allied with a third civ that they attack (far more common). In the second case, you take a diplo penalty either way; you must either attack someone you had a treaty with, or fail to support an alliance. Both earn you the Can't Be Trusted tag. 

I entirely missed the influence questions.

Planetary approval.  Does this statistic help in resisting influence take overs? 

No effect whatsoever, as far as I have been able to tell

Please correct me if I am wrong, but as I understand it the closer a planet is to an influence starbase the more influence rating a planet receives against it?

Correct. Planetary influence decreases in a roughly linear fashion, but starbase influence decreases with distance squared.

Is the length of time required to flip a planet dependant on the influence rating only or are there other factors involved such as planetary approval?

Only one other factor comes into play, and I have not yet attempted to quantify it - loyalty. Once you hit the requisite 4x influence ratio, whether the planet flips is based on a random chance each turn. All you can do is get the 4x ratio and wait. The loyalty stat does not seem to increase the influence ratio needed to flip a planet, but rather adjust the odds that a threatened planet will flip each turn. I haven't been able to put a number to the baseline flip probability or determine how the loyalty stat affects it. It does seem to operate only in defensive situations - it won't help you flip other civs' planets, but will help prevent yours from flipping.