Jacob Marley

I personally found the game disappointing. It is pretty much a dumbed down version of Railroad Tycoon 2, but with prettier graphics (albeit somewhat cartoonish). The stock market is a particular disappointment, since you can only buy stock for cash and so can never engage in serious stock market manipulation simply because you lack the resources. Finally, the track laying is cumbersome and difficult to do correctly. The result can easily be an unwei

Another point to consider is that military rating is not an accurate picture of how much power they can pring to bear on you. The computer ties a lot of its power up defending planets, which means that if you leave most planets undefended and group all your ships into fleets, you can often project more actual power into the conflict. I've had games were the AI had a bigger military rating but I had the only fleets actually in space. Their total combat power was concentrated

Concerning your alliances question, when the first enemy attacked you, were they already at war with your allies? If so then, of course, your allies will not declare war again. I've personally never seen an ally fail to join the war when I am attacked. (Though they do not join the war if I am the attacker.)

I haven't used it much, by I do agree that it is a very good early choice. Those early tech boosts can go along way. Later in the game when you have your tech infrastructure build up and humming along, it's not so helpful, but if it let you build an early tech lead, you don't need much help by then.

My new prediction for the finals: Ducks Rangers![e digicons]:grin:[/e]

In TA, I like tidal disruptors alot if invading a planet that has a lot of improvements I can't use anyway (like playing as Terran and attacking the Drengin). Since all those improvements will be lost anyway, why not wipe them out invading and get the bonus? Of course, if I'm invading a planet with similar improvements (like Terran against Krynn), this is less helpful.

Ok, I'll take Anahiem as my second choice. That way at least I'm garanteed to be in the 2nd round :)

Da' Sharks!

Serpentine and pacman on the Apple 2+. Boy do I feel old. Heck, I was a veterin gamer when Oregon Trail came out.

Successful companies stick to their core competencies. For Stardock those competencies are making and supporting great software. Companies that try to diverisfy away from their core comepetencies tend to suffer.

My guess for GalCiv 3 is that it focuses on the Thalians trying to save the universe from the humans and ends with Alan Bradley being sent back in time to ancient Alteria to become Draginol.

One idea is to set a rally point to a starbase under construction, then have planets automatically launch constructors to that rally point. Combined with automating build order, you could ignore an SB after its initial placement until it is finished. Or, have tour planets building attack fleets pointed to a fleet rally point and then manually move the fleets after they are assembled as you wish.

The Korath spore ships by themselves are not hard to stop. A tiny hull with 1 gun (incase the spore ship is armed) in orbit and the sporeship is not a problem. The problem, of course, is stopping the Korath battlefleets from swatting those ships... Anyway, I have found that rare to occasional stars in tight clusters on the bigger maps creates the desired effect, since many of the empires cannot access each other at first.

I was playing Nightmare, the final scenario of the TA campaign. (Incidently, this is the only campaign I have completed, and had the following outcome: SPOILER WARNING Very early in the game, I contacted the Krynn (of course, they are close neighbors

I like to create a fast cargo hulled ship with good life support and (if I don't have Eyes of the Universe) sensors. I also add one laser or such for commerce raiding (killing freighters, asteroid mines, etc).

For one thing, the fix for removing the civ-wide agents will be included. That's the only bug I've encountered.

I'm playing my first 2.0 game, and have noticed that once I place a civ-wide agent, I cannot remove it. Whenever I click the remove button, it simply scrolls me to one end or the other of the bar of available civs.

The first warning sign will be the appearance of the book "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Organic Superlubricants (But Were Afraid to Ask)" at your local bookstore...

The irony of all this, is that computer software is about the only place where people act as though they are entitled to everything for free. When is the last time any of you walked into Macy's, picked up an expensive designer watch, and expected to walk out with it for free? (Unless you really want to take a ride in that cool black and white car with the flashing lights in the top?) For the most part, people understand that money is exchanged for goods and services, it's just that for some r

Finishing second in the standings was the biggest mistake SJ made, we should have angled for 8th so we could play more road games, then maybe we would have a chance... ;)

My all time favorite is "Night Terrors" from TNG. The way they built up the suspense was awesome. It took me an hour for my heart rate to return to normal at the end. I also liked "Yesterday's Enterprise" a lot.

I definately second #8, and would add having numbers instead of the rotation dials to that. Another suggestion is the ability to build one side of a ship, then have it automatically mirror on the other side, so as to easily make the ship symetrical.

Try going to a bank and getting a prepaid credit card. Then use that to order DA.

Part of the problem with ferrying colonists in DA is that speeds have been nerfed so much. YOu have a very hard time building a colony ship/transport fast enough to make it worthwhile until late in the game when I find that you don't really need to move pop anymore.

I'd advise going straight to DA. I have never played either campaign to completion, and DA just gives more to work with. Once I got DA, I never went back to DL, and never will.