Franco fx

does anyone know if it's possible to take over minor race planets with influence? Apparently not. In GC!, there were some that would flip easily (Alexians I think) but no more.

In my experience, the neutrality auto upgrade of tiles does not work on conquered planets and I am not certain it works on planets colonized after the event (don't remember). Maybe a bug, maybe that's just the way it works. I can agree that it should work like you say but either way it is not a big deal to me. I would much rather have a flag on starbases that are open or become open for new modules. <img src="http://images.stardock.com/gc2/T_DL/smiles/Smile.gif" border=0 A

Watching the various comments on the forum in the days since release I have seen much ado about so called "bugs" and gameplay. From my own perspective, I have been lucky enough to have had zero crashes and my overall opinion of the product is very good. Of course there are some issues. I have found an analogy with TV that goes something like this: I am not a huge TV fan but I occasionally get hooked on a scifi series and I am also a big fan of the seri

the AI could treat them essentially as rally points Actually I don't think the AI does use rally points. With their perfect little AI minds they have always got a handle on what goes where. They just don't always know the whens, whys and wherefors

I really hate to make evil choices and my nature is to nearly always be neutral. However as I move up in difficulty in big map games some of the evil choices are hard to pass up. I am currently in a game on a giantic map with all the other races at the challenging level. Having gotten a good start, I have made some horrible choices (slavery) to increase production etc by substantial percentages. I fear that I have come too far to turn back and I am totally on the dark side for the first time. Wh

Once you espionage has maxed out you can shut it down without losing anything. You will still get stolen techs.

Yes they should have a design utility. Until they do, remember you can start a game in the "Battle of the Gods" scenario and have all the hull options available.

I agree. I was playing a tiny map game today on challenging and was ahead in everything. Playing against the Altarians, Arceans and Drengin, I had just been in a war with Altarians and had taken 4 of their 7 planets when they agreed to give me nearly all their tech + money for peace. Bad mistake, I could have wiped out the Altarians and the Drengin in about 50-70 turns max but I was a bit bored with the war and being #1 in all categories, I figured I could take my pick of military or

Version 1.0X.010, released late today (March 6), has removed the ability to edit an existing ship design. When you update a design, the new designe must start from scratch. Not for me. I updated several ships today after the new patch

I think you have the right idea. Market centers are the right improvement to boost income. Your home planet gets an econ bonus so I often have my econ capital there. Mainly because you can get the benefit earlier than waiting to develop a Higher PQ planet. If you study the planet detail screen you will get a better idea where to put what capital .but your building choices are correct

In GC1 you could ship out 50% of your population. Now that could be called an exploit. I have never noticed that much effect from shipping out 500K souls at a time but I guess if you pumped them out fast enough it would make a difference

A Galactic Emperor long ago changed the name of a month to a week and all other time designations shifted accordingly. No one seems to know why he made the change but rumor has it he bet someone in the royal court that he could bring forth an heir in 9 weeks. This is the reason that some documents that pre-date the change still refer to months.

I gotta laugh. Don't get me wrong some of the ideas are fine and some of them might find their way into the game but if half the ideas presented were put in you would have a completely different game. Also, when you start putting in new this and new that, you have to keep in mind the law of unintended consequences. That law is the main reason it usually takes two or more years to develop a game. What I hope for is that the game will be refined and made to work th

I notice you are using the small triangular hull. If you open up a BOG game you will have access to the medium hull which is a more perfect saucer shape. It might also help your scaling problem. Very nice work.

Help you what? It does seem odd but I assume you can still play the game. Other than the visual impact, the zero planets are useless anyway. I wouldn't worry about it until it starts happening in all your games.

Regarding Stargates: I mentiopned this in a thread recently and a developer (not Brad) said that he had been lobbying for gates but there was a balancing issue. It seems that the AI can be programed to build them but getting them build them in the right place and to use the gates properly is more difficult. It would be an easy addition for a multi-player expansion, if they do one.

Oh Yeah, I have mentioned this a couple of times elsewhere but I will mention it again. Put in a visual cue to tell when a starbase is full of available modules, (cue goes off when new modules are available). I can rename a starbase when it is truely full, (Maxed Out Moral Mine) but it would be helpful to know when they are full at current tech level and when new stuff is available.

Perhaps simple, perhaps not (I never know) For ship design it would be great to have some different hulls with only hard points and no attachments or texture. What I have in mind is a simple spherical hull, a cube, an ovoid, etc, etc. For instance a Cylon Raider would be fairly easy to design if there were a simple ovoid hull and many others would be easier if there were just blank shaped hulls and the parts to work with. Also the ability to place and delete hardpoints woul

Balance is a matter of perception. First thing set your spending at 100%, next raise taxes until your moral is about 50-60%. Set military spending at 60% and research and social at 20 each. With these settings you should have a positive cash flow at the start. Use your 5000bc to build a factory on earth and on the first couple of planets you colonize and buy at least the first colony ship. It is also a good idea to build a faster colony ship before your first turn <br

We can ask France and Germany

What everybody said- True dat.

If you look at them on the screen you can pretty much pick out the design modules used. Compared to some of the screenshots I have seen they are not complex at all. If you look, notice that the weapons modules do not match the description. Nearly all the weapons are lasers even whem they are supposed to be mass driver. They perform correctly but the visuals are incorrect.

I haven't gotten around to naming my planets yet but I recall some of the conventions used in GC!. Some of them were Bysantine. I name ships in a way that keeps them in order. Prefix A=tiny B=small C=medium D=large E=Massive. This is followed by BS for beam ship GS for gun ship and MS for Missile ship. I have others for combined arms and work ships but you get the idea. I use colors and numbers for fleets, Red1, Blue2, Yellow1, etc. I also name the starbases to keep track o

I think it is obvious that as far as buying colony ships and factories goes, some do and some don't. I think it can work both ways. Map size makes a difference On a tiny to small map I personally don't buy colony ships or factories early on. I set social and research to 15% and military to 70% this gets me a colonly ship evrey four or five turns on Earth. All colony ships are from Earth the new colonies start on constructors. If I don't get most of the habitab

I wonder..... Shadow mentioned Alpha Centauri above. In that game I got good enough that I could win without establishing a single colony other than home base. One I got air power I would just go out and get what I wanted. Have any of the power players around here evre won without a planet rush ? I seem to recall that some did in GC1.