Oxonian

Symbiance hit upon a crucial point that has largely been ignored: many small ships are more flexible to deploy than a few large ships. They can be spread in a cordon defense, grouped into large strike forces, and switch quickly between those two extremes. If I'm approximately equal to my enemy, large fleets of tiny ships can have incredible first-strike capability: I've assembled fleets of 17 ships, each armed with Psyonic Beams, that could

For once, I actually knew what the strip was about. Joy. Mod idea: replacing the Yor with "Soviet copy protection vendor slash crime syndicate Starforce." -100% loyalty but can steal opponents' income.

If you research Good and Evil, you'll get access to Balanced Vision tech as well. As I recall, you get the Temple of Balance (galactic achievement, you get a fraction of all trade conducted by fellow neutrals) as well as something that increases the chances that another civilization will surrender to you.

It is a D&D thing. Moreover, it's a WRONG D&D thing (the good-evil axis runs perpendicular to the lawful-chaotic axis)! For "chaotic evil," read "They're semi-evil. They're quasi-evil. They're the margerine of evil. They're the Diet Coke of evil: just one calorie -- not evil enough!"

Is it me or do the "good" options never result in bonuses? I recall one about some native animal life forms. Allowing mass hunting resulted in a +3% morale boost. Why not have a neutral or good option that allowed them to be caged in a zoo for all to enjoy (perhaps a + approval bonus). The good options don't seem to benefit the empire other than what other good races think

I'm not sure what you mean "it does not work." I look at the ships in range of the starbase on they have boosted defense. However, I note that there appears to be a one-turn delay in the effect: i.e., if I move a zero-defense fighter into range of a starbase with defense-boosting modules, it has no defense at that time. At the beginning of the next turn, it displays a positive defense value. This works in reverse, too: a ship that's been sitting in range of a defense-boosting starb

Upon consideration, the judges rule that Franco fx wins on points due to excellent use of Larry Niven reference.

Thank you, Mez-Jr. Now I will be unable to play GCII without picturing Will Ferrell thrusting sweatily.

OK, so we've gone through several discernible stages here: Thread title: "Stardock Spyware is slowing down my computer" Now, I'm no expert in how to interpret English sentences (oh, wait, I am), but this would seem to imply that the program in question may fairly be categorized as "spyware." Second post: indicates that, unless you buy the retail version of the game, you can't install patches without also installing stardock's "sneaky little program," again identi

Even building the appropriate structure on the bonus tile, however, does not result in obvious effects. E.g., if I build a basic factory on a 100% manufacturing bonus tile, the main planet screen shows that tile as producing, IIRC, 8 mp, just like all the other basic factories that are built on ordinary tiles. If I go to the summary screen in the planet viewer, all of the basic factories are listed as producing exactly 8 mp, despite the fact that one should clearly produce 16 mp. Most signifi

Gamespot clearly has a high regard for its readership: In the case of Galactic Civilizations II, an epic spacestrategy game set in space... A bold, even daring, design decision. <TABLE cellpadding=8 width="95%" align=center bgCol

Cloning, or in the case of the Yor, manufacturing. Not sure why morale would affect pop growth, though... Nine words: "Not tonight, honey, I just don't feel like it."

There are developer posts floating around here somewhere analyzing that question: the short version is, at each level of technological development, the advantage changes. The first-tier missiles might be better than first-tier mass drivers or first-tier lasers, but the second-tier lasers are clearly superior to their contemporaries. The point being that, regardless of which weapon tech you pick, you'll go through stages of advantage and disadvantage relative to your enemies. Also, y

If you buy the retail version of the game you can bypass the stardock spyware but it sounds like they are trying to monopolize the patching process. What does "trying to monopolize the patching process" mean? Are there other computer programs for which patches are provided by a classic perfect-competition market? Is Stardock facing intense c

My biggest objection is how unrealistic the game is. I mean, c'mon! Everybody knows that it's the year 2006, not 2225! Plus, I'm pretty sure that we ALREADY have factories and research labs and stuff on Earth already.