player1_fanatic

Iconians are great universalists, since most of their best research, economy and industry building are planetary projects, so you want one of them on every world you have. On bad side, they are missing government techs and their economy buildings (exempt Emporium) aren't much great, so economy can get bad in late game, especially if not using Tech Trading to get missing techs. Also they have above average morale and farm buildings right from start (although they are missing bet

[quote]True, but then again, Stardock isn't like Microprose.[/quote] Which doesn't matter since MOO3 was made by Quicksilver. ;)

Trade routes: other races Economy buildings: your own race Anyway, from gamplay sense, it's not much of penalty since they do start with ability to build Economic Capital (and only capitols bring money in early game). Still, from flavour standpoint it's kinda strange for race that sells anything to anyone to don't know how to utilize Market Centers from start.

Some good points. Lower economy (due to morale hit) does make their trading skills more important. They also have some good starbase modulus (Refining line), so if they get morale or economy resources they'll use them betting then other races. Still, kinda strange they don't start with Market Centers (even Drengin have Black Markets at start), considering their whole corporation background.

Well, they can't build Market Centers. They need to go for Xeno Economics to get similar building. Kinda strange for Trade civ to lack Market Centers. At least they have Economy Capital from start. Another thing that bugs me is they are limited to using Entertainment Centers (10%) as morale buildings. Plus one Festival of Capitalism per planet (25%). This, with no passive bonuses to morale avialable from techs, means that they can't tax their population too much or build big economy wo

[quote]all of the above according to the situation.There are 2 main rules I try to follow:- grab those Minor-race-planets asap (or at least all that are somewhat nearby) and ignore the diplo penalty-[/quote] This proved disastrous for me. Played Large map with 9 races and 8 minors. Conquered 3 minors and everybody started getting mad on me for being conqueror. After some time almost every race went berserk with me. Even if I signed peace treaty with any of them they declared wa

War strategy for Thalans in ToA: Hyperion Starbase tech is wonderful thing. Among many things it gives is Singularity Armor, which adds +24 to all 3 defenses. That, plus some attack module (like Battle Stations), makes pretty much invulnerable space station (at least until late game weaponry is discovered). The great thing about that is that AI likes throwing their ships on those bases. Waves and waves of them, while your base doesn't lose a single hit point.

And Thalan Xeno Influence Module (from good tech tree) can't be used at all, since it requires Insurrection Coordinator module they can't build.

On similar note, there are several races that gain Smart Drones economy starbase add-on from Advanced Computing, but have no access to, since they are missing it's prerequisite Massive Scaling Center, because they use different industry tree then default (Thalans, Drengin, Korath).

For example, Focused Distruptors gained with Distruptor tech, can never be added to Starbase without it having Hyper-Phasors. But none of the races with Distruptor tech have Phasors. There are several other "holes" too. Races that have Sigularity Driver techs can't add Neutrino Snipers (gained with Black Hole tech), since they require Gravitron Snipers added first (which require Graviton Driver IV tech these races have no access to). Also, races that don't have Lasers or Rail Gu

On related note, is Traditional Research supposed to be tradable? Some races, like Humans or minors can't trade it, while many other races can. Kinda strange. Similarly, Specialized Research (lab tech) from Korath clan can be traded, while Drengin version can not.

On the other hand, due the way how orbital battles are done in the game, player already has huge advantage in offense when AI defenders just sit in orbit and wait to be destroyed one by one.

[quote]Why would the Yor or Thalans care about money?[/quote] If you read some of the tech backstory you would know why Thalans require money. For black market to buy primite fusion reactors they can't make and weren't avialable in their reality as well as several other key low techs tools.

Warp Bubbles also help when in Yor space too.

For some reason, in TotA expansion, Krynn can trade starting Industrial Revolution tech to other races. First time I noticed this was when I saw that Yor started polluting their planets with Traditional Factories and Entertainment Centers. After some investigation, I pinpointed that problem lies with Krynn tech tree and nowhere else. None of other races can do that.

Actually, Yor can research Xeno Engineering and gain access to MiningCenter. Look tech tree more closely.

Real pity... This is no beter then Starforce, just different...

By quick I mean, either people will quit early during the game, or there would a be some acclerated game mode so it could be finished in singe session. It's just hard to find dedicated players. I'm just basing it on experience from other TBS games that have multiplayer, like Civ.

Keep in mind, that different type of peaple prefer different type of multiplayer (this thread is about Hotseat, not generally MP). Usually TBS games are not too much suited for internet play, since one game takes too long, so it's difficult to find dedicated players did will continue the game after one session. This often leads to 1vs1 or 2vs2 derivated and quickend gameplay (fast build/research), so it could be finished in one session. On the other hand, hotseat or PBEM playin

Ok, I understand. I didn't knew there was so much hardcoded logic that depended on having only one player designated as human. I though it would be mostly interface tweaking... P.S. You are right about message code. I remember that Civ3 Hotseat was disaster since only 1st player was getting important messages, while other got skipped.

So, please endulge me, what feature I missied, exempt extended diplo inferface to make hotseat work? And maybe main menu... I'm really curious (not only for this game, but for similar possibility for MTW2, and few other games that could be hotseat capable with a bit of work).

Hotseat is tradition of TBS genre. That's what made Heroes of Migh of Magic famous (in pre-internet time). And Master of Orion 2 too (MOO3 was BIG minus for missing this). Same for Civ2-4 hotseat play. Beautiful. And it's actually a social activity at a level of pen&paper FRP. And is least time consuming MP mode to make. A real pity it didn't make it into "expand

Hotseat is tradition of TBS genre. That's what made HOMM famous. And is least time consuming Mp mode to make. A real pity it didn't make it into "expanded" dark avatar feature list. I mean, you can already through cheat swap the active players, only thing missing is diplo interface and a few tweaks. I would be bold to say making this is more a patch material then expansion feature.

AI ships should redesign every time it enters a war with a race that has an advantage in configuration of weaponry. Agreed. Isn't that time when human player does the same most of the time.

Hmm... Where exactly can 1.3A be downloaded? Only 1.3 is here: https://www.galciv2.com/Downloads.aspx