clanlindsey

Jonnan, I, too, have been playing with my military slider locked to 1% for several weeks. I rush buy a couple of factories on my home planet and then leave my social queue there empty so production goes to starships. Ergo, my home planet pumps out ships, and my colonies rapidly improve. This seemed to improve efficiency on my games considerably and I just beat a suicidal level game. I don't take any starting racial military bonuses so I wasn't worried about losing military bonuses to

Just completed my first suicidal game using the Drath and my fourth MV game. Consequently, as a newly minted, neutral, Drath Lieutenant, I am seeking new challenges and am open to offers of gainful employment in the "empires" out there. First though, can someone explain what an empire is, why I should join one, and which one I should join? I love playing this game! Thanks!

Hello?? Hi. I am a new player. Got the game a couple weeks before Christmas and have been playing it a lot. Absolutely love it. I figured out how to join the MV and did so last week and now I have four games there. I am clueless as to what an "empire" is though, how I join, why I should join, or what empire I should join, or why I should join that specific empire. I've read the entire thread but like with all things GalCiv there doesn't seem to be a manual or explanation, lol.

Nope, you have to download them. I found this out after shopping at three or four retail stores for them. they are definitely worth it though! Also, once you've dowloaded it, you can always download it again, no charge, say if you get a new computer or play on a desktop at home but on a laptop when traveling (as I do). Stardock is great!

Sure, you just go to their trade screen on the diplomacy tab, open negotiations, put peace treaty on their side of the table, and add whatever you have to out of techs, BC's, IP's, and ships on your side until you get the green text indicating they will go for the deal. Alternately, ditch the objective and just kill them all. Cleanse your universe of their foul presence with glorious genocidal wars. [e digicons]x_x[/e]

Hey Loups, I, too, just beat my first suicidal game about 10 minutes ago, and came rushing back to this forum to shout in delight and let everyone know about the experience, but you beat me to it! [e digicons]8(|[/e] LOL I, too, played the Drath and my first observation is that I feel comfortable I can beat the AI using the Drath on any difficulty setting. They are mondo powerful. I just keep everyone at war with each other full-time. It increases my income an

I've never had that problem. Generally the Drengin go beserk in my TA 2.02 games. Maybe try reinstalling the game?

Thanks everyone! That clears it up.

Thanks Zydor! I thought something was rotten in the state of Denmark. I appreciate the excellent advice! I am running at 1920 X 1200 on a 24' inch Dell monitor, but I don't think that is the difference. BTW, to anyone considering the Blackbird computer, I bought it for a gazillion dollars last year when it was the top of the food chain. I can't say I've been completely happy with it. It ships with Vista (ugh) and while it does work well, I've never felt that I was ge

In the colony rush phase of ToA one must contend with the extreme planets. Can anyone tell me what the difference between basic and advanced colonization of an extreme planet is? I would guess that "advanced" lets the planet behave as a normal planet, but that basic hampers planet development in some way. But I am only guessing and can't find any documentation on this. Right clicking on the basic technology tells me that it "allows partial colonization". What penalties are applied under "basi

I am playing ToA. One mistake I may have made was that I selected "throttle frame rate" in the video options. I deselected that and turned off almost all the special video options and now the game is running better. Note that I only have an issue when I have 9 big empires, each with hundreds of ships and planets, engaged in total war on a huge map. I also have the computer show me the auto-move of the ships. I may de-select that as well because I spend a minute or two every round just

Back to planet renaming....I actually have a lot of fun with this. Originally I renamed all of my planets after different countries and tried to tie the nature of the planet to the country name I selected, i.e., a good production planet would be called Germany and a high PQ planet would become China or India. I got bored of countries and then renamed planets after cities, then in additional games I cycled through companies, fish, and universities. This was fun, but didn't really do what Tetle

Can anyone speak to the relative merits of courage versus soldiering? In the beginning, when selecting your bonus abilities there is an option to pick +25% courage which the game says is effective in land battles. It doesn't describe how this is effective though or how the game mechanic works. There is also the option to spend points in soldiering which is pretty straight forward. So, can anyone shed any light on the merits of courage relative to soldiering?

Thanks for the reply Mascrinthus. I, too, play the game well zoomed out for the better overall view, but am still having the problem. Have you encountered the same problem on huge maps, tons of planets & ships? Or is this something that is just happening to me? Thanks Infernal, I like the different visuals and zooming in and out as well but I tend to stay fairly well zoomed out for the big picture. Any ideas on how to improve performance when playing well zoomed out on the 2-D map

I am kind of fond of long, drawn-out campaigns and have been playing huge universes with abundant everything. When I begin to amass a lot of ships and planets (say over 50) my ship movement, which had before been a silkily smooth thing of beauty becomes a herky-jerky caricature of itself. The movement is stuttery, performance is laggy, and my machine is laboring mightily. Do others have this problem? I thought one of the advantages of this game was that it ran well. even on low end syste

Thank you!

I've been playing the gme on my MacBook, similar specs to yours, and it runs just fine.

Great topic and great posts. Here is my two cents: 1. I'd like to be able to differentiate my planetary improvement options into "favored" and "less favored" categories as opposed to "new" and "old" categories. It is a pain to have to look at a lot of improvements you know you aren't going to use, or aren't going to use right now, every time it comes to making an improvement. It is also a pain to have to go look for an improvement in the "old" section when that improvement makes so mu

No doubt about it, Eyes of the Universe. I invest heavily into sensor research very early to make sure I get this pretty promptly. Tir-Quan training is my second favorite, followed by the speed improvement achievements.

I've been playing for a month now and upgraded to TWA last week. I have to say that this is one of the most enjoyable and definitely the most addictive game I've ever played. I was still playing Master of Magic until I picked this up last month, lol. The game is lovingly crafted and it shows. Almost every time I have had a question, or thought there was a flaw in the controls or handling of the game, with a little thought and patience I have been able to figure out how to get the game to

Thank you for the complete and very thorough answer, very helpful!

I lucked out and bought Dread Lords right before Christmas for $7.50 at Target in their bargain bin. That was the best bargain I've ever had!! I've been playing non-stop since, with many sleepless nights. The wife is starting to get upset, lol. Despite the warning looks from her, I'd still like to add the DA and Arnor expansions but can't finnd them at Target, Gamestop, or Best Buy. I know I can download them from Impulse, but I prefer having my games on hard disks. It makes it a lot easier w