BigBadB

How I understand it: Each weapon type is calculated seperately. The attacker does a random amount of damage from 0 to the rating for that weapon type. (Not sure about the 0, but I'm sure I've seen a Beam 1 fighter do 0 damage against an unprotected ship) The defence against that weapon will be the total of the defence rating against that attack type (shield for beam, and so on), plus the square root of the values for the other two defences. The Defender blocks a random amou

Scaled Size is "kinda" like a percentage of the overall size of the ship. These things tend to not benefit from being made smaller all to much. It depends - I think different techs have different 'scaling factors'. Beams, for example, seem to get larger than missiles, making missiles better weapons for large ships.

I believe, in addition to Metaphase's list, population also affects Influence.

Indeed, and Influence Starbases represent a much larger investment than an Embassy. As far as the defensive structures, I think they're more intended for the AI, to help them in defending their planets more effectively. Personally, I never build them.

1. They work as you have guessed. And yes, overlapping Military Starbases can make even a humble 1 attack 0 Defense fighter into a force to be reckoned with. 2. The 'sniper turrets' for Starbases are just the Mass Driver version of the 'attack assist' options for Military Starbases. They are identical in function to the Laser and Missile versions, adding +1 to the Mass Drive attack of friendly ships in their AoE (Area of Effect). As far as I know, 'sniper' ships just have

I think it depends on where the ships are - I seem to remember it having something to do with distance from the nearest friendly world or whether they're in your 'sphere' of Influence. Bear in mind that while being upgraded, a ship only has 1HP, as far as I know.

2: As has been pointed out to me, weapons research is strategic. Beam weapons are the weapon for the early game. They have low tech costs, so you get more bang for your tech buck. But they're get really big when they go into large ships. So, in the early game that is dominated by small and mid-sized ships, lasers are a good idea. In the long game, missiles dominate. If you

i started a new game, and after I hit the turn button for the first round, came a GNN breaking news, that the Drengin has built a Manufacturing Capital, w00t! Do Drengin start with the tech to build these (am away from my home PC, so can't check right now)? If so, they just purchased it on their first turn...

its just stupid since with sentry available then guard is redundant No, it's not. Guard and Sentry do different things. If I remember correctly... When set to 'Sentry' a ship will reactivate when any ship from another race comes into sensor range. When set to 'Guard' a ship

I think that, at present, the button only appears after you've finished your turn, a ship finishes its move with some remaining, and you have the relevant option (can't remember what it's called right now) unchecked. I believe Space does the same thing during your turn.

What version of the game are you playing, how large (how many planets) did the Tor have, had they been at peace for most of the game or constantly at war, how long had they held the planets you're talking about (had they just captured them, or held them for years)?

Or, to put it another way: Please don't feed the trolls.

I use this combo because high population has so many other benefits that I like: Increased industrial activity on a planet... ...increased resesarch output (even without labs) Erm, are you sure about these two? To the best of my knowledge and experience, military/social production capacity and research are

Tough, with the 'randomise AI' option at the moment. Having fun, but may try the next one up soon.

I'd really like somebody to throw up some numbers they're positive are correct. It's really quite essential knowing whether it's important to keep happiness above a certain level. Are there no break points between 30 and 75%? Not for pop growth, as far as I know. But if you switch to one of the more advan

They are essentially forcing me to declare war over two influence starbases. Or to build your own Influence (via starbases or planetary improvements) to counter theirs...

Strategist, please don't take this the wrong way, but how much have you played Civ IV and GC2? As far as I can see, while the Civ AI is impressive, the different civs all use the same one. The only difference between the civs lies in the bonuses that they each recieve, which in turn influences how they play. In GC2, each race has a completely unique AI, and the more I play it, the more impressed I become with how differently they

Journal entry seems amazing even though your start settings (eg planets, map size) were pretty crappy imo. I believe, based on previous Journals, that he specifically chose them to give the AI a hard time. If I remember correctly, the AI generally does best on Medium maps with lots of planets. By limiting t

It's not a bug - it's how the system is designed to work. I think it's kinda confusing until you get your head around it, and can perfectly understand why some people don't like the mechanics, but it's working the way it's intended to.

If you have production allocated to both military and social, and you have no improvements to build the production is funneled into military (in v 1.1) yes? If you have no military to build, it's dumped into social, yes? If you have neither to build, do you still spend money on useless production that does nothing for you?

Ok I think you're right about that. But there's one thing i don't understand. Why is full research funding mutually exclusive with full military or social production? I can understand military and social having a tradeoff because they're using the same factories, but if I have the funding why can't I run both my factories and my

Correct me if I make a mistake here. I think you have... It starts off with a tax (or trade routes). My citzens are taxed a certain amount based on my

My guess is it is a population issue. As far as I know, population has no effect on production or research. While I don't know the specifics on his game, I had that proble

Never, ever buy PC games through Ebay. If they're cheap, there's a reason for it, and it's rarely a good one.

I know where you're coming from, DethPete - it took me a while to get my head around it. The key for me was to understand that the output listed for an improvement is its 'maximum capacity'. Your research facility doesn't provide 5 units of research - it provides the 'capacity' for 5 units. If you set your spending to 100%, so your entire workforce is actively employed, and you set your research slider to 100%, so all of