Evening the odds...

from GalCiv2 Forums

So im running dread lords and twilight expansions and enjoying myself but for 2 things.  The first thing that is driving me nuts is the fog of war.  The ai obviously has no such mechanic and keeps going right after the stuff right around me.  Well seeing as im already investing too much into exploration and still missing things id like to know how to turn this function off once and for all.

Ive tried the 'create shortcut and modify it' thing, but this doesnt seem to actually do anything, and every site ive seen doesnt have any more info on how to complete the process other then this (frustrating to the extreme), and then almost every site ive been to has conflicting lists of what cheats are even included in this game, with once again conflicting or vague information discerning the info.

The other question i have is: how/why in the hell does the ai get so much tech at the beginning, not to mention how does it acquire planets so quickly?  I know for sure if im that race they are going to make me wait for almost 25% minimum of the game just to acquire planetary invasion, but everyone else on the block (including the supposed peace loving pacifists who in reality are more militant than any of the other races?)  come with it seemingly from the start.

Can someone help me with this cheating madness?  If i go lower ai the game is just way to easy, and if i play on the level i want the opponents just mass territory faster then i possibly can and invade me with tech i cant possibly acquire :(  when i can get on my feet the ai is perfect, but the game just seems to give blatant advantages to the ai early game.  I can hold out, but every time my neighbor picks a fight with me first, i can do well, but then the rest of my 6 opponents all gang rape me when they see im in conflict with anyone.

 

12,364 views 22 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Normally the shortcut created when the game is installed is to an intermediate "launcher" program. The problem is that cheat mode cannot be applied to the launcher. You have to create a new shortcut directly to the game executable and add the word "cheat" after that.

The best source for GalCiv2 info is the Wiki at https://www.galciv.wikia.com/wiki/Galactic_Civilizations_Wiki.

From the GalCiv2 Wiki article https://www.galciv.wikia.com/wiki/Cheats_and_keyboard_shortcuts

For DL use: "C:\Program Files\Stardock\TotalGaming\GalCiv2\galciv2.exe" cheat

For DA use: "C:\Program Files\Stardock\TotalGaming\GalCiv2\DarkAvatar\GC2DarkAvatar.exe" cheat

For TA use: "C:\Program Files\Stardock\TotalGaming\GalCiv2\Twilight\GC2TwilightOfTheArnor.exe" cheat

Of course the full path will depend on where you first installed the game. Ctrl-U eliminates the fog of war and the article lists a bunch of other options.

As far as how the AI does stuff the answer is that the AI does in fact *mostly* play by the same rules as the human. There are a few differences. One is that every time you load the game the AI gets a "production" turn. So if you loaded, saved and reloaded the AI could possibly have already rush bought 2 building on their home planet whereas you could only have built one. This is actually pretty minor. The more major thing is that the AI does know where the good stuff (resources and planets) are. Again this may seem like a big deal but in practice it's really not all that big. As long as you start as a race with stellar cartography you can tell where the stars are and how many planets they have from the mini-map. You don't know the PQ of the planets or whether they are immediately colonizable (DA or TA) but if you blindly send a colony ship more times than not there's something there for the colony ship to land on and if not there then the next system over probably will.

The key thing is the AI level that you're playing against. IIRC Tough is pretty much the "fair" level to play against and can in fact be pretty tough. At that level the AI plays to it's full capabilities but does not get extra resources. Below tough the human actually gets extra bonuses and above tough the AI gets extra bonuses.

The thing is that you will get used to a level and what seems impossible now will seem easy later, so start out where you're reasonably comfortable and when you master that level then crank it up a level. But watch out for that last step. The jump from Obscene to Suicidal is pretty huge.

 

Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

appreciate the response, altho thats more or less what i had been doing for the cheat command, and i still am not having any luck.  Maybe im just stupid. 

and Im wondering if i didnt change the ai of this other race when i had been playing them previously and forgot about it (was awhile back).  These thalans had max creativity and research cranked not to mention the natural production bonus's.

 

nyways, thx again.

Groupy 2 - Organize multiple applications into grouped tabs on your Windows desktop
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

One is that every time you load the game the AI gets a "production" turn. So if you loaded, saved and reloaded the AI could possibly have already rush bought 2 building on their home planet whereas you could only have built one. This is actually pretty minor. The more major thing is that the AI does know where the good stuff (resources and planets) are. Again this may seem like a big deal but in practice it's really not all that big. As long as you start as a race with stellar cartography you can tell where the stars are and how many planets they have from the mini-map. You don't know the PQ of the planets or whether they are immediately colonizable (DA or TA) but if you blindly send a colony ship more times than not there's something there for the colony ship to land on and if not there then the next system over probably will.
End of quote

Just wanted to say that while it's not a big deal for the AI to know where habitable planets are (which I am not 100% certain it does), it's highly irritating that it does know where all the resources are. Normally, each individual AI tends to have many more resources then I do, because you can't simply send constructors off fishing the way you can with colony ships, at least not as effectively. This is one advantage to having minor races - you can track down resources by following their speed-1 constructors to them, then use your own faster constructor to beat them there. Nonetheless, this has always sort of annoyed me.

Also, I never knew that the AI got extra production turns when you load a game. How did you find that out?

Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Also, I never knew that the AI got extra production turns when you load a game. How did you find that out?
End of quote
As far as I know it's been like that for a dog's age. They may have fixed this in some Rev or other but like I said it's really not all that big a deal. The AI's don't get any more cash than the human does. Even at Suicidal where they will in fact get more income simply because they have an econ bonus they don't get any extra starting cash. So the worst case is that the AI gets two buildings on their first turn where otherwise they would have had to wait for their 2nd turn if you didn't save and reload before your first end turn. Even if you saved and reloaded dozens of times before taking that first turn there's only so much the AI's can buy with their starting cash.

Plus therre's a real easy way to avoid the issue just don't start the game and save and reload before you've even taken a single turn. I think "eventually" once you do have to save and reload the AI will inevitably get one more chance than you to build buildings but their ships don't get extra moves and in a game with as many moves as this one as I said it really doesn't matter.

You can tell in cheat mode where you can play as any of the opponents by selecting one of their ships and using Ctrl shift Z to take over the selected AI. If they have two buildings on their planet then that pretty much answers your question. However I did just try it with DA 2.01 and I had some difficulty so perhaps this has been fixed. However the difficulty was that I couldn't take over another AI after a save and reload, and so I really could't tell as I had no problem taking over the AI prior to save reload.

I don't have the time at the moment to chase this down.

As far as cheat mode it *does* work. I'm not sure what you could be doing wrong. Try dropping the quotes surrounding the command and also don't use quotes on the word cheat either. This is exactly how I've used it.

C:\Games\GalCiv2\DarkAvatar\GC2DarkAvatar.exe cheat

Don't forget to use the Start In directory as: C:\Games\GalCiv2\DarkAvatar or wherever your files are located.

Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

As far as resources being gobbled up goes, you could really do with having some cheap constructors built during the colony rush.  Your survey ship (and scouts if you build any of those) often uncover resources and if you're paying attention you can easily beat an AI constructor to them.

However, even if the AI does beat you to them, you can be pretty sure they will get into a war at some point and if it goes badly for them all their bases will go poof.  Have a few constructors on standby in that case, and you could easily snap up those resources without a fight.

If tech trading is turning on, then you can bet that AI civs will trade for Planetary Invasion early on.  I sure would if it was going.

Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

i am unable to remove the quotes from the command line.  It tells me the location is invalid whenever i do.  Infact it tells me this whenever i do basically anything to that line even when adding the 'cheat' to the equation.

We are talking about the 'target' command line in the shortcut properties menu (the start line wont let me add anything at all)?  because everything everyone has ever said tells me invalid as above.  Ive got to be on the wrong menu or something but im following everyones advice word for word. 

Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

and concerning research trade, i had to turn all tech trading and brokering off.

Every difficulty requires you to give more and more for every piece of tech, and im finding at this difficulty i have to give 10 times teh tech value before they are willing to give anything up, and they (the cpu) trade back and forth without penalty seemingly so one or two factions balloon up with tech and roll the rest of them, so i turned off all tech trading/brokering.  I was getting upset giving all my cutting edge tech to someone for something that would only take me a turn or 2 to research myself, even when i have higher diplomacy etc then turn around and watch my tech fall into the hands of my enemies through the a fore mentioned npc tech trading.

Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

We are talking about the 'target' command line in the shortcut properties menu
End of quote
Yes that's correct.

i am unable to remove the quotes from the command line.
End of quote
It sounds like you are logged on as a guest or are otherwise restricted from editing the Start Menu. That would explain your difficulty.

Can you log onto your machine as Administrator?

 

Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

and concerning research trade, i had to turn all tech trading and brokering off.
End of quote
That's the way I started out as well. I always felt that I was being shortchanged in pretty much every transaction and so I simply disabled it so that the AI's couldn't trade among themselves.

However by doing this you are definitely limiting yourself more than the AI. For one thing you should research diplomacy and never trade any techs that give a diplomatic bonus. If you can get the Galactic Baazar then your trades will go real well but that's not a requirement, *any* significant diplomatic advantage over the AI will help. Also make sure that whatever techs you trade to one AI you also trade to all the other AI's all in the same turn. If you have 9 opponents then although you might not get a huge amount for any one tech from any specific AI you should at the least get something from *every* AI. Don't give one AI a tech and then allow that AI a chance to sell it to the other AI's before you do.

Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Can you log onto your machine as Administrator?

 [/quote]

easier said than done with vista, i dont want to have to sit there and make multiple accounts, go back, make one an admin, reset the pc, go back activate administrator mode through the cmd etc etc .  Ill just come back if i get too frustrated.  This puts my pc at risk if i do something wrong when disabling this mode again (or so im told) either way this was not the most thought out process in the world and im done messing with it for a smallish advantage.

And good idea with the resource trading trick, altho i dont always have access to all the factions my opponent does especially early game but ill try this out.

Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

easier said than done with vista
End of quote
I'm still with XP and currently feel no need to upgrade. There's nothing about Vista that I've heard that makes me think I'm missing anything. Win 7 seems like it may not be all that bad but who knows perhaps I'll make it to Win 8 before being forced to change.

I can understand not wanting to go back and forth however it seems a little strange not to be able to manage my own start menu, but then I'm kind of a throwback having grown up from the days when PC meant Personal Computer. I still like to think I'm in charge of what my PC does and why it does it. To me there's not much point in having a 3.2GHz Quad processor if you have to wait 2 minutes because the processor is off doing some god knows what task for no apparent reason.

However I'll give one more try to help you out. Perhaps you can't *change* a current shortcut because it's created under the "All Users" Start Menu and your user account doesn't have sufficient privdlege to modify it. However you still should be able to create a new shortcut under your own personal Start Menu or failing that at least be able to create a shortcut on your own desktop.

PC's are a tool to be used by people, not the other way around.

Reply #12 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

ill try this out next and let you know how it works out.

And i tried the tech trading thing with much success in combination with changing the ai personality to races that feel more natural.  One of the changed races bugged out completely and just sits on its single planet like a minor race does, but the rest of them are now progressing at a very natural rate, and seem to be alot smoother then the default behavior. 

I think my next game ill start experimenting with changing around alignments of the current favored ai's, and see if i cant recreate the races im having problems with using a new modified personality from the other factions ai mode.  Im hoping to make my weaklings more powerful, and perhaps slow down my uber expansionists.

Reply #13 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

hmm maybe i should retract my previous statement on the ai, im now hitting turn 250, and i think my ai's all gave up. 

Ive not seen any of them do much of anything for 20-30 turns, for 5 different factions.  Everyone is supposed to be at war with someone or another but i dont see any ships moving from any faction anymore with a exception or two.  My enemy for instance has not really defended himself since about turn 200 and just keeps pumping out colony ships to try and send at planets on the other side of the verse.'

something is definitely wrong with twilghts ai.... :(

Reply #14 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

something is definitely wrong with twilghts ai....
End of quote
I haven't played TA (other than a test run to make sure my installation works) so I don't really know much about it.

I do recall a problem where the AI wouldn't send out colony ships mid game into areas of other peoples influence because it was assumed they would simply flip. I thought that was in TA but I also thought that had been addressed. Seems you're having the opposite problem though.

As I said I have no real TA experience but when in doubt I would be suspect of too much tinkering with the opponents configuration. You might want to move and save your raceconfigxml's somewhere else and start a more vanillia game using the default AI's and see how that plays out.

Reply #15 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Quoting Mumblefratz, reply 1
 ...The more major thing is that the AI does know where the good stuff (resources and planets) are. Again this may seem like a big deal but in practice it's really not all that big. As long as you start as a race with stellar cartography you can tell where the stars are and how many planets they have from the mini-map. You don't know the PQ of the planets or whether they are immediately colonizable (DA or TA) but if you blindly send a colony ship more times than not there's something there for the colony ship to land on and if not there then the next system over probably will. 
End of Mumblefratz's quote

I have to disagree that this is not a major problem.  It's really annoying that the AI bee-lines directly for every good resource and planet on the map.  This is my #1 gripe that I hope they fix in GC3.  

Reply #16 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Quoting Mumblefratz, reply 11

easier said than done with vistaI'm still with XP and currently feel no need to upgrade. There's nothing about Vista that I've heard that makes me think I'm missing anything. Win 7 seems like it may not be all that bad but who knows perhaps I'll make it to Win 8 before being forced to change.

I can understand not wanting to go back and forth however it seems a little strange not to be able to manage my own start menu, but then I'm kind of a throwback having grown up from the days when PC meant Personal Computer. I still like to think I'm in charge of what my PC does and why it does it. To me there's not much point in having a 3.2GHz Quad processor if you have to wait 2 minutes because the processor is off doing some god knows what task for no apparent reason.

However I'll give one more try to help you out. Perhaps you can't *change* a current shortcut because it's created under the "All Users" Start Menu and your user account doesn't have sufficient privdlege to modify it. However you still should be able to create a new shortcut under your own personal Start Menu or failing that at least be able to create a shortcut on your own desktop.

PC's are a tool to be used by people, not the other way around.
End of Mumblefratz's quote

I was a big XP fanboy and hated the idea of Vista/Win7, but after building a new PC, I bought Win 7 home premium 64-bit...it is the best OS I have ever used.  It's very fast (much faster than my old PC running XP), very stable, it looks beautiful...it's awesome. 

Reply #17 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

I was a big XP fanboy and hated the idea of Vista/Win7, but after building a new PC, I bought Win 7
End of quote
Not quite the same thing that I said. I said "I'm still with XP and currently feel no need to upgrade. There's nothing about Vista that I've heard that makes me think I'm missing anything. Win 7 seems like it may not be all that bad".

What I'm a fanboy of is being in control of my own PC. I'm using XP both at home and work and at work it sucks simply because of all the crap that is required to run on it.

Here's a screenshot of the processes running on my home system. This includes an open browser along with my full AV suite.

When I get to work I'll post the same thing from my work computer and it will be very obvious why one system is far better than the other.

I don't know about Win 7 but I've never seen a Vista system anywhere near as clean as this.

Reply #18 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Here's the corresponding screenshot from my work PC. The bulk of all this extra stuff is from the overblown AV suite that I'm forced to use along with System Center Configuration Manager used to push unwanted updates to the unwanted crap installed on my PC.

Note that both my home and work systems are running XP Pro Service Pack 3 and the screenshots are taken with only a single instance of a browser open. In the work case below the userinit service does eventually terminate but I didn't bother waiting the 10 to 15 minutes that this takes to occur. I have no clue as to why I need 7 active svchost services or why there are always 2 active wmiprvse services. I guess I should consider myself lucky that at least two of the four of these started on bootup actually terminate.

With crap like this always running is it any wonder how I can sit in Notepad waiting close to a minute to enter an ascii character while the fan comes on full and the processor is off in the weeds somewhere doing god knows what?

Reply #19 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Quoting Mumblefratz, reply 17

I was a big XP fanboy and hated the idea of Vista/Win7, but after building a new PC, I bought Win 7Not quite the same thing that I said. I said "I'm still with XP and currently feel no need to upgrade. There's nothing about Vista that I've heard that makes me think I'm missing anything. Win 7 seems like it may not be all that bad".

What I'm a fanboy of is being in control of my own PC. I'm using XP both at home and work and at work it sucks simply because of all the crap that is required to run on it.

Here's a screenshot of the processes running on my home system. This includes an open browser along with my full AV suite.

Reduced 46%Original 833 x 946

When I get to work I'll post the same thing from my work computer and it will be very obvious why one system is far better than the other.

I don't know about Win 7 but I've never seen a Vista system anywhere near as clean as this.
End of Mumblefratz's quote

 

I know, I didn't say you were an XP fanboy, I said I was.  My processes list right now has about ten things on it.  It's smaller than your first screen shot.  My Win 7 runs very lean...and I have as much control as ever over my PC.

Reply #20 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

My processes list right now has about ten things on it. It's smaller than your first screen shot. My Win 7 runs very lean...and I have as much control as ever over my PC.
End of quote
Sounds good. If so then I won't feel so bad when I'm inevitably forced to change. It's just that I've been through so many new systems and OS'es that it just gets old. When I was younger I was always overclocking and updating my system to stay on the bleeding edge of performance. These days it just annoys me to have to figure out the ins and outs of a new OS every other year or so, it's just really not worth the effort.

Inevitablly my current system will either die or become to slow to run something that I'd like to run and I'll be forced to buy a new system and also be forced to accept the OS du jour that comes with it. At that point I'll have to deal with it whether it's a deprovement like Vista or an improvement like Win 7 but until then I'm firmly in the "if it ain't broke don't fix it camp."

 

Reply #21 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

I hear you.  I hope Win 7 is here for a long time, I'm not big on changing (buying) new OS's often either.  It really is good, though...

Reply #22 from Stardock Forums Top

I still remember the good old days of OS/2 Warp... the only OS I've run that seemed to get faster over time.