Purge

I like numbers because it's just easier when I'm up at 3:30AM with insomnia. Remembering the alphabet can get hard!

I typically don't play with mega events myself...If I'm going to play a game with them on any of the larger maps, I would be sure to save regularly and just reload if I got the speed limit event. The other option would be to simply abandon the game like you are contemplating...Why play it out if it stops being fun? In fact, I would recommend saving regularly under different names anyway. Every now and then I get a save game file that I can't load. I lost three months or so of game pl

You know, I think a big part of the problem is that people are used to things both coming easily and not needing to learn or think. I've dealt with training a significant number of people on the basics of computer support over a number of years. There is always a point in time where you just tell someone that they should have the tools to figure out their own question themselves and it's time to start working on teaching them how to ask the right questions to draw on their knowledge.

Size, Weapon, Version. So: M Photonic 3 Since I know the order of development of the weapons, this tells me how old the ship is....Although occasionally I can't remember what revision I am on, so I'll just add one or two to the version. This has one nice side benefit. The sizes just happen to fall alphabetically. H = Huge L = Large M = Medium S = Small T = Tiny And as I tend to go up ship classes further into the game, new ships tend to g

Noctilucus, you only need to be online to start and post a metaverse game. The rest of the time you can save, load and play it just like any other game. When you finish the game, it even makes a final turn saved game (EndGameSave.sav - always the same name, so be careful to not overwrite it before posting the first one) that you can just load it and hit end turn on when you are back online.

"If you have one bucket with 5 gallons and another bucket with 2 gallons, how many buckets do you have?" I think in such a world I would perish. Are we discounting alternate time lines and parallel universes?

Indeed. StarDock gets a good chunk of my gaming money largely because I am sure I will get a game that actually runs without crashing every couple of minutes and one that is likely to be entertaining for the strategy minded. Those two things are enough to put it in an almost unique status. Having a feedback loop that is actually used....Thank you!

It doesn't affect scoring at all. Also, you don't need to improve your popularity to declare war. Your senate votes for war, so again you only need high approval during election weeks. This is another case where extremes are better. I run my popularity basically the way Mumble describes. I like to play with superbreeders...If I could get significantly more taxes out of lowering the rates, I would run always 20% or 100%, not 40-50% or 100%.

The Galactic Diplomats never die...We just rotate in and out! Seriously, the longevity of the Galactic Diplomats is one of the reasons I joined back when my old empire died out. I started up my follow along game over in our forums. Here's hoping I don't screw it up in some major way, though it looks pretty good so far. I'm playing it under my Junta Clown character, mostly because it's

So here is my dirty trick of the day....So, the AI just built some wonder you want? Often on the higher levels the AI puts them on very low population worlds (I think it is just buying the wonders outright in some cases). And as low population worlds are frequently cheap to buy, it's sometimes cheaper to just buy the planet rather than trade for the trade good. Of course, when you buy the planet you get the trade good!

When I don't want to look like the game chump to the other AIs I will often build a handful of smalls with weapons only towards the start of the game.

DA, you have too high of an opinion of my skills...I'll take it! MTM (Cardassian) Welcome! Good to see you float back around!

Pardon my ignorance, but WHY does morale decrease with population? Shouldn't it decrease only if the population exceeds the carrying capacity of the planet? Are farms increasing the carrying capacity or are they merely allowing the increase in population and leaving the carrying capacity as it was? If the latter, perhaps there could be a new line of technology (Housing Tech?) that would step up the planet's carrying capacity and thereby negate a

Rexpen, Account->Edit my characters and select one as a default. Then your medals will start to show up.

I find that people often approach this kind of game wrong. They often want to get in and just start winning against the AI on a middle level difficulty or better....This is a path to frustration. You have to build up to it. If you actually do want to try to enjoy the game here is what I would recommend. 1) Make it your goal to get in a very easy game or two, so that you are not struggling with the interface, just the game. I typically play my first game on a new strategy ga

The numbers are the straight up rate that soldeirs are killed on both sides. So 20/7 means take twenty away from one side and seven from the other, until one side runs out. All soldiering bonuses are immediately applied. Including to in route transports.

CraigHB, have you tried using the Torians (or rather custom Torians, you get an extra point or two)? The nice part about their super ability is that you can reassign all the points you would normally put into population growth into something else...In particular, you can now fill up all the economy and morale boosting categories, strengthening your ability to run a larger industrial base at 100%. Works best with an all industrial strategy, letting you do factory builds in a near Thalan time fra

mini-soldiers are a good option if you want to improve your attack odds without hurting the planet. You occasionally will destroy a planetary building, but you never damage the planet....It also significantly improves the odds.

Apparently we are all taking a nice depth breath, sipping on our daiquiri's, fiddling with the metaleague (in some cases) and enjoying our recent victory in taking back the #1 spot from the HCH. Not a bad life!!! I know I promised to make my next game a follow along game over in on the Galactic Core . I think I might be up for starting that in the next week or two. Large suicidal, using the same custom race I used for my mega game seems li

I think this is the strategy guide GW was referring to: Jeff Pinard's Guide

I'd support a slow stream of expansions you get for N tokens x year. Keeps fans warm as long as you don't go in red. One easy, possibly free or packed with others, would be to pack best modding. Personally I didn't mod my GC2 because have no time to understand how, but would be interested in a one-click (we can deal for 2) option. I like carriers, strategies in fleet combat, mines and mine sweepers, permanent wormholes.

Just flip around the settings and it gets hard again. I had never lost a game until about two months ago....But switching from a Suicidal gig, abundant all, galaxy to a tiny suicidal with nine races and very fast tech for a quickie hour or two of play did me in.

Let me second DA's advice here...Especially the swinging from 100% to 50%. Never run in the middle if you can avoid it, but at one end or the other. Check, occasionally, what the tax situation will be if you have to go to 50% (toggle it down, check the numbers, toggle it back up without hitting the turn button) If I start to run out of cash early, I will often flick back and forth between 100% and 50% for a few turns. On the flip side, if you are playing the Torians, I oft

In a new game, while you get a survey ship, you can't build one immediately. If you look down the sensor tech line, one of them offers up a survey module. You need that to build survey ships.

Let me be the contrary opinion....Just looking at that map makes me tired. I'm afraid that would qualify for one of my very rare ctrl->n's. It may be winnable, but I don't like starting neck deep in a hole, just from a bad starting position. I feel different about holes I've chosen or dug myself...