Newbie stuff

First of all, I got an error when I clicked on a thread just now, it said "Server GetMedal failed with error:" or something along those lines. What's that about?

I got Galciv2 Ultimate Edition from Level a while back, and after a talk with a friend, I installed it and checked it out. It's very similar to Ascendancy, which is one of my favourite games ever. So I've been playing for some time now, and hit the usual problems.

I read some posts here that answered some questions, but here are some more.

If I use the main launcher, the one that gives me the option to change chapters, the game doesn't start. I get a blank screen for a while, then back to Windows. Going into the individual game folder works, though. It only crashes after the 2hr point, sometimes as much as 4-5 hours in. It's not a big problem (or maybe it is, but I play too much FO3 and Oblivion to care?), since I'm pretty good about saving. But if it can be fixed, please let me know.

Is there a "Force Peace" option? I want to take my time in a game and research everything, or at least most of it, without having to deal with a large galaxy size and the mess that causes. If not, what's the quickest way to make an unbreakable alliance with one other player and then ignore them aside from trade while I focus on research?

Is there any merit on focusing colonies on a certain aspect? Such as one with mainly factories, one or five with research labs, a colony to pick up the slack in the economy angle, etc ? Or do factories only affect the current planet production and have no empire-wide benefit?

And a question I'm sure you're all sick of seeing... custom ships.

I'm not bad at making my own ships, but I'm never sure if it's going to be better than the core stuff or not. Is there an easy way to check without clicking on a ships and looking at the components? Is there a way to get ship designs from other players that doesn't involve complex mods?

And that's my wall of text. I'd be grateful for any other hints you have for a newbie to Galciv2 (playing mostly ToA now).

Edit: Also, an "How to NOT fail in 3 easy steps" guide would be helpful, but I'll look through the wiki for it.

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Check the link on your launcher and make sure it's going to the actual .exe file.

If you want to R&D all game, either use a custom map or just set the game up for just two players.

If you really want to "play the game," design your own ships and don't worry about the default ships. Nothing beats "learning the hard way" when it comes to design. The 'game built' ships have a flaw in their designs as they could never be designed by you in the same game. The AI builds slightly more powerful ships then you could.

1- Expand early and don't build up planets till you have the population and infrastructure to do it.

2- Concentrate on building up your better planet first.

3- Smite all your enemies early and don't worry about losing any planet until you actually see transports.

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How can I check the launcher link? It's an exe in the main install folder, not a shortcut. The folder structure is like this:

Galciv2UE\Galciv2.exe - this launches the basic GC2, Dread Lords

Galciv2UE\GC2Launcher.exe - the launcher I mentioned, it has a Play button, update and stuff like that, and Switch Chapter, which cycles between DL, TA and DA

Galciv2UE\Twilight\GC2TwilightoftheArnor.exe - Twilight, obviously.

Galciv2UE\DarkAvatar\GC2DarkAvatar.exe - Dark Avatar.

I play Twilight, is there a reason I should play the others? I've tried them briefly, but Twilight has more and more interesting features, from what I saw.

How do I get to keep my designed ships? I saved some models to Templates, is that all I need to do? Will the ship be available when I have all the tech for it? Making them each game would be a huge pain. Are there other player-built ships anywhere to download? Or at least component lists? Or a small guide? I tend to end up with ships that are either too slow, or can't go very far, or don't have enough damage...

Thank you for the tips. I usually fill up the queue right after colonizing, which might not be a very good idea. I'm going to see about focusing on one or two planets.

I had my R&D game ^^ It was 4-man game, although by the time I was ready to end it, it was only me and the Terrans left, and they were 1.7wks away from total annihilation.

Thanks again.

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Create a shortcut to the launcher. Drive:\GalCiv2\Twilight\TALaunch.exe

Saving as a template will save the ship design, but none of the components(for that race only). This is what you want to use as you may get ships that you can never build again. I had a game where I captured three planets with hyperion shrinkers. Those ships will never be available again, unless I get the miniaturization level again.

Once you play ToA you probably won't want to play the other games, unless you want to try the scenarios.

Check the wiki site for ship design.

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Thanks.

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Check the "save ship designs to hard drive" option in the main options menu. Previous ship designs for a particular race will show up in new games once you've researched the prerequisite techs. I never save ships as templates since it only saves cosmetic components. I don't use those much so it doesn't help me. Some shps you may not see again because of unique game conditions as mentioned above. However, ships designed early in the game will always show up.

Ship files can be manually saved off and restored prior to a new game. They're located in My Documents\My Games\GC2TwilightArnor\ships. For Metaverse games, they're under the Metaverse directory. I redesign all of my late game ships, but I have a base set of ships I restore prior to starting a new game.

Filling the planet build queus right away is a common newbie strategy mistake. I actually build planets very little until mid-game when I have some production and economic horsepower. There are lots of strategies about what to actually build on your planets. There's a good amount of information about that in the wiki.

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