tetleytea

I most definitely build Embassies and Cultural Centers on almost all Influence bonus squares, regardless of where the planet is. Embassies are cheap: only 30bc. Culturals aren't that far behind, at 100bc. Regardless of where the influence is coming from, there is also civ-wide influence; and that matters. I have noticed that all of your planets/starbases have a stronger aura about them if you have a strong civ-wide influence. </

You know you could always...accidentally...leak this out, too...hmmm.... Just sayin', just sayin'.....

I think I'm ready to surrender to the Arcaeans now.

I don't have a hard preference. It depends on what the AI does more than anything. Really, my priority is Missile Defense, because once I max that out (which is hard, but not that hard), I get Hyper Computers. Then I've got +20 research, which helps get me whatever else I need more speedily from there. Regardless, Aeron Missile D modules are sweet! They even do a decent job against non-missiles. It makes ships more upgradable, too, because I need only

[quote]Just remember not to complain about anything government does or doesn't do. No votey, no gripey.[/quote] Absolutely I'm going to gripe. I'm going to gripe that they rigged the elections, and subcontracted the tallying process to foreign companies.

The whole election is a sham. And even if it wasn't, it really doesn't matter which candidate gets in. I'm boycotting.

I do know of one merger that makes sense: Stardock and Papa John's Pizza. Oh yeah, definitely. When you consider the developers are there however long every day, you just throw meat in their offices every now and then, and order out for pizza, it makes sense that Stardock should just buy out a pizza company. Now THAT'S a recipe for some good games!

Space Ghost, and the Brak Show. Very much quality entertainment. [e digicons]:thumbsup:[/e]

This is looking an awful lot like another HOMM or Age of Wonders so far. The HOMM series had about 6 schools of magic, and they also got bonuses within their own type of landscape. The biggest things looking to set this apart are the MP and the modding. Warlords 2 opened it up to modding, and that didn't work out very well. I would have loved to see a fantasy version of Civ, but it's not to be on this one.

Yeah, 3DO laid off 3/4 of the staff and all of the R&D ahead of HOMM4, and somewhere in the middle of it they transferred over to SSG. SSG has always been awesome: I liked all of the Warlords titles, turn-based, real-time-strategy, and all--and they put out Panzer General and Fantasy General. I figured the HOMM4 flop had more to do with the less-than-glowing transition from 3DO to SSG. And anyone with just a little common sense should know that if

I really liked the Heroes of Might & Magic series, from the first one on up to HOMM3. HOMM4 was a bomb. I'm kind of expecting this to be something like that. But it would be really cool if you could found your cities anywhere (like in Civ), research all your spells, fantasy techs, & stuff, or even better, if you had zones of influence (like in Civ and Galciv) where you could cast kingdom-wide spells and it affected your whole land. Actually, I'm surprised

Fantasy Civ IV. That's what I think.

It's because some guy on galciv2.com razed hell and told everybody not to be RA3 because of DRM. [e digicons]:grin:[/e]

Maybe we should be turning our attentions to Blizzard instead. SCII and D3 are not released yet.

[quote] tetleytea: I play at normal research Speed and only Large Galaxy. With Abundant Anomalies setting, there's maybe 10-15% left anomalies by the time you get to the point where you can research and build Galactic Guide Book. By that time, you could probably more usefully sweep the remainder with what early Sensor ships you've had built.[/quote] Is this in DA, or TA? DA, I think GGB is useless. You can't get it out on time.&nbs

Maybe we could all be jerkheads, buy the software retail, but then decline the license agreement. Just go back to EA and say, "I wasn't aware that I had to agree to this-and-that to play it...". Demand a refund. I happen to have an EA branch in my state; I could take them to small claims and win.

I just passed up RA3 today. Not because of DRM, but because it was $50 and no patches yet. Based on this info about DRM, though, I'll probably pass on RA3 indefinitely.

Why are you out of money? If you are that late in the game that he's getting Rangers and you have no money, something's wrong with your economy. That's the first place I would look. Normally 120 weeks would be plenty of time to just research & build fleets that could take out the Rangers fine. Even if he did get P.I. first, just back-door him. The Rangers can't be everywhere at once.

In DA, I would agree with you, but--I don't know why--but ToA is a different ballgame. By the time I get the Guidebook up, about 75% of the anomalies are gone. But that's okay--25% is all I need. Now instead of investing tons of military into building these big, Cargo hull, survey ships with engines, I just spam itty bitty Tiny hulls all over, and they double as Sensor ships. They are just as good as if I had the Eyes. And all those Small ships

I would just assume tack on more weapons/defense techs at the end, and make them incrementally better; the same way as before. Not terribly difficult to balance. And players get a kick out of building these big behemoths. Maybe Big Bang Eruptors (after Black Hole), or DreadLord Death Ray, or Quantum Telepathic Defenses. Or Subatomic Miniaturization (description: This technology utilizes the empty space within the suborbital regions

[quote]If Eyes isn't worthwhile, how much do you want to bet the Book isn't?[/quote] Apples and oranges. If you get the Guidebook soon enough, you can spam Tiny ships and grab all the anomalies, too. Making the 400bc back is not exactly difficult.

Yeah, I often bribe the strong guy to attack somebody else, and then I turn around and attack him while he's still at war. I have to pull my spies from his planets, though--he'll use the money I just paid him to nullify my agents. I need those guys to nullify his morale buildings ahead of an invasion. No matter--I just care about getting Medium or High espionage level, so I can track his ships.

You need the new Galactopedia. It doesn't hand-hold as much as one might like, but it's the most helpful thing I know of. Also read the "ToA 101" thread at the top of the Strategy section of these forums. Galactopedia: http://library.galciv2.com/index.aspx?m=775

[quote]I usually research up to about Sensors 2 and then start putting an odd Sensor on my Small ships [/quote] Put in that one extra turn and get Sensors 3. That gives you Nano Recorders. That costs a whopping 100ip to builid (the same as an Advanced Xeno Factory). Another trick you can do, if Sensors w/o the Eyes is what you want, is build the Galactic Guide Book. Tiny Hulls can house about 4 free sensors, at a cost of 25bc for the entire ship. &

A cool announcement I would like to see? "Galciv ToA 2.0 has been released." Now THAT would be a good announcement.