Zarnick

[quote who="Zarnick" reply="2" id="3386940"]I always get "lets not waste spies on minor races" just for trying to look in.[/quote] ...except for the Dread Lords in my current DA metaverse game; so maximum spies on there hoping to steal some of their techs. They have rush-bought 3 industrial sectors to now. I can't speak with them, I've only ever been able to do that after clicking on one of the war declaration messages (at the beginning of a turn).

[quote]...grinding back and forth taking, losing and retaking planets?[/quote] Its rare in my DA metaverse games to be in the planet taking/retaking situtation. Usually the AI have colonized the region with less than maximum initial population - therefore their nearby developed planets are also low on population; their shortage of troops will hinder their retake invasions. [quote]Only side effect is after gaining all the colonies you run into a defeci

How did you get spies on minor race planets? I always get "lets not waste spies on minor races" just for trying to look in. Rare it is....my current (DA metaverse) game the Carinoids have at least two planets and an ECONOMY STARBASE [e digicons]:O[/e] with upgrades (I've seen plenty of minor race influence starbases); in the busiest most crowded part of the galaxy.

I sometimes get a black screen when coming back to GalCivII from ALT-TAB or task manager. It can return to normal after a minute or two, but the quickest way is to press ESC which opens the load/save menu (similar to the trick of moving the mouse about until something reponds). [EDIT 20 AUG:] Similarly with other PC games.

Don't colonize in other races' influences! When other races colonize in my influence, I think "Great! That will soon be mine (hehehe [e classic]:congrat:[/e] )". Be ready to give away weak undefendabale planets if you colonize as many as you can. Defending it all: I admit I choose to play galaxies with stars in "tight clusters" so that my planets are in, well, tight clusters. Ships can planet-hop to defend

An AI player upgrading a ship; negative hitpoints, and the weapons are all zero. Maybe the hull is made of antimatter.

[quote]Is there a command to order all my ships to group accrodingly and move/attack a given point?[/quote] In the "Civilization Manager" screen, click the "Governors" tab. There you can reroute all ships of a given type (I have used this mainly for mobilizing my transports to an unexpected new warzone; I believe they can only be rerouted to a rally point). There you can also multi-change other stuff such as shipbuilding and ( as MarvinKos

[e digicons]:digichet:[/e] Its that pesky caps lock key, I bet. [e digicons]:D[/e]

I believe it is a bug. Sometimes the component icons (e.g. weapons) at the top shows parts which aren't placed: they don't contribute to the defence or armour, and they don't use space, just like they are hull-design "extras" and there is no effect when they are removed. It happens to me and I never use or upgrade core designs.

There was thread about this about a year ago. Try the forum search option.

Are there two AI Drengin players?

[quote who="qrtxian" reply="15" id="3267700"]The obvious problem with this strategy: what if they destroy the defender, then invade that same turn?[/quote] As I played at more difficult settings (DA metaverse games), I found more AI transports (and colony ships) have weapons; and AI constructors with engines and weapons.

[quote] '0's-not-mistaken-for-'O's[/quote] I had problems reinstalling/re-registering my game until I noticed I had mistaken a "D" for a "O".

I'm playing the Dread Lords campaign again. I researched quickly to Starbase Fortification III and at the screenshot have a level 17 military starbase as yet with no ship assist modules and not the maximum shields. Most of my BCs went on rush buying constructors (I chose neutral alignment for this rush-buy discount) and repairing the starbase: <img src="http://home.btconnect.com/worldsonscreens/inlinks/SB_L17.jpg" alt="Military Starbase L17" width="752" height="

The saved data appear as RACENAME.customracexml files in the My Documents\My Games\GC2DarkAvatar folder (in DA). Move or save them somewhere else if you don't want them in the next game (if you don't use it, one of the AI can, even races with your own custom name).

[quote who="MarvinKosh" reply="1" id="3235764"]If you want the AI to give you a run for your money, you need to crank it up to at least Tough.[/quote] Then you also might need to use different research routes. Setting minor races to maximum (8, in DA metaverse) gives you some tech trading opportunities; then your research route depends on what you get off them. Set less planets in the game setup so the AI has more of a limit.

[quote who="Franton" reply="3" id="3236851"] sending some transports to ferry over people didn't cost me anything[/quote] [e digicons]:digichet:[/e] [e digicons]:digichet:[/e] [quote] Building influence starbases. (Why not?)[/quote] Other races dislike influence starbase building. Many times do I get a message from another leader saying that some race is building influence starbases to "deliberately magnify" their influence.

[quote who="LTjim" reply="10" id="3234845"]DA: I put only the very cheapest ship in orbit around each planet, solely to prevent unescorted transports from doing snap invasions. Its very cheapness will let me replace it in one turn, complicating any invasion attempt.[/quote] With some minitiarization, the cheapest attack 1/defense 1 (sparrow + armour plating) fit into a small hull. Also good for building up a respectable military when these ships are relat

4. Use some of your abilities points on influence bonus in your race setup. 5. And choose the pacifists party. 6. Rush-buy cultural exchanges. 7. The propaganda center prevents cultural rebellion on its planet, but it can only be built once.

[quote]Just felt this was odd that it was hard to find, I'm expect "good games" to have either a wiki that describes this or a player base that has documented this somewhere online[/quote] There are so many details in GalCivII that I, for one, don't read many of the posts/documentations beforehand. I've come close to reading all the manual that came with the game. Am I in a try-it-first-read-the-manual-later minority?

[quote]You start off being aware of all the other races in the galaxy even though you haven't yet begun exploring the galaxy. [/quote] Set "blind exploration" in the setup, then you can only see what you have exploered. I get a "first contact" screen when I first contact a race which includes some introductory message from their leader. I guess you must be talking about the campaign scenarios. [quote]The AI seems to be able to colonize w

Maintainance costs are fairly small compared with (factory/lab) worker costs, especially early in the game. Asteroid mining bases don't seem to need workers, and production bonus tiles don't need extra workers. It does need experience to know how to time the early game economy and military. And diplomacy.

[quote who="spqrein" reply="3" id="3207183"]...just wish star bases didn't need so many construction units to build them up...[/quote] There is a speed-build: when a fleet of constructors are next to a starbase being upgraded or created, the upgrade-windowmenu stays open until the available constructors (displayed in the bottom-right corner of the menu) are all used. You still have to create the fleet but you can set

Try running it in "windowed mode".

Awesome - from the gameplay to the user interface to the stories/AIcharacters; and for a recently released game relatively few bugs (less bugs than myself accidently mouse-clicking somewhere I didn't want to click). [e digicons]:thumbsup:[/e]