HydroAC

Scenario background: The dust has settled and only those that did what was necessary have survived the Dread Lords. The weak races are but a lingering memory of ineptitude, and some of them have made worthy slaves. Ah, but there are others. Perhaps they are not so soft, but that will make victory all the more delicious (literally!). GC2: DA (pre patch) Player: Korath, optimized for conquest; War Party 5 AI players: Drengin, Yor, Korx (evil); Krynn, Thalians (neutral) 3 minor

Niven’s Ringworld would have ~3 million times the surface area of the Earth. There are tiny problems with stability, finding appropriate materials to construct it with, the mass of materials needed for construction (equal to all the planets in a solar system or more), keeping its orbit stable, and the amount of energy needed to build and then set the object in motion around the sun. Details, details. Still, it is a nifty idea. Hydro

Best Alpha Centauri – it has depth, amazing innovation, and terrific atmosphere. I actually cared when Morgan betrayed me, or Yang went on a rampage. Hands down - #1. The AI needs help, but as has been mentioned already it is great for 1999. Terrific for multiplayer, too. SF genre at its best. Too bad there will probably never be a remake since it is caught in legal limbo. MOO2 – still play occasionally, lots of fun, first multiplayer I can remember (even if it was a tad unstab

I wouldn't recommend the 7300. It might be good enough for Dark Avatar, but it's getting a bit long in the tooth for any other games that are coming out these days. That's why it's only $79, it's pretty much obsolete. I wouldn't recommend anything lower than a 7600 on the Nvidia side, or an X800 for ATI. There's more to a video card than the amount of RAM it has, today's graphics processors are far superior to what's on the 7300. It won't be long before even the 7950 i

I was having the exact same problem. I installed another 512 333MHz DRAM for $50 last Saturday and my performance is MUCH better. My load times are much shorter, time between turns (which wasn't bad before) is better, and animations and graphics are much smoother. Even the intro and end of game movies are smooth, and before they were so choppy I ignored them. Note that I have anti aliasing set to 4 and none of the video options disabled. I looked into a better graphics card (upgrading

I've noticed strange AI behavior, too. In my recent Yor AAR I gave the Terrans a chance at peace, assuming they sweetened the deal just a bit. They said no. Then I simply offered peace (they had only Mars left with no ships, so they would never be a threat to me) and they said no. Then the opportunistic Drengin declared war on the Terrans, so I ended the situation with a transport into the undefended Mars. Game over for the Terrans. Hydro

If you go to the debug.err file you'll see any number of events (tech trading, random event) including AI elections. I don't recall if it tells you the result. Hydro

AAR: The Yor 1 I decided to try the Yor. I really liked them (in an evil sort of way) in GC2: DL and was interested how their Isolationist super ability worked. Moreover, many of the exploits of GC2: DA have been nerfed in the lastest patch 1.50x. So I started up a game: • Large galaxy, common everything • 6 random AI (which turned out to be Drengin, Arceans, Altarans, Drath, Terrans, and Krynn) • 4 minors • Yor – most points in economics and some in morale and

Tech trading was made much different after the 1.50x patch. This was likely done to combat ‘tech whoring’ and abuses of the AI by players. One of the questions that has come up since the 1.50x patch is to what degree is the AI trading tech between each other. Well, it turns out the answer is quite a lot. Below is documentation of AI tech trades from debug.err file for AAR Scenario 2: Korath from Jan 2226 to Feb 2227. 1. Year: 2226. Yor Collective traded Xeno Communications to t

DL and DA have been truly excellent games, and I appreciate Stardock’s dedication to its game and fans (which are, in a way, one and the same). My wish list parallels other suggestions: Spies: Be able to ‘generally’ spy on an opponent instead of trying to place spies on his worlds (and have them countered two turns later). Also, this won’t hurt a race that is nominally your friend but that you’d like to keep tabs on. Ship Update: Have an Auto Update of ships that wil

I've noticed this too with the 1.50x patch (I play at painful). There are some techs the AIs simply won't trade for: weapons, extreme colonization, and defense. Others come at a ridiculously high price, where I give 20+ turns of research (at a much high research rate, mind you) for a tech I can research myself in 4. And this is with a diplo ability bump, a good number of diplo techs, the diplomatic translator, and feedback that my diplomatic ability is 'incredible'. I've only played one game ful

May 2230 Diplomatic victory in May 2230. I gifted the Korx Alliance and then offered – they accepted. The rest of the races were already allied with me. [URL=http://imageshack.us] [/URL] Image 11: population and some events in May 2230 A few thoughts: • Once the Terrans had 2x the planets of anyone else the game was almost over, pending a nasty Event or ineptitude on my part. The g

March 2230 A few more Drengin planets and mining platforms have defected to the Terrans, and the Krynn are rolling over the Korx, who are down to their last 2 planets. The Drath were doing OK against the Drengin, but then the Drengin started constructing high-firepower ships that wipe the map with Drath. My Terrans are able to make comparable ships, but only with superior tech and 2 military galactic resources. Maybe these are the Evil super-weapons? I haven’t played evil all that much

Aug 2229 NOTE: I upgraded GC2: DA with the 1.50x patch. Ok, something odd is going on. I’ve set my tax rate to 72% and my morale is still 100% at all planets! I’ve never seen this before. I only have 1 morale galactic resources (maxed out), and many but not all planets have 1 morale enhancement tile. Most of my planets are at either 6B to 12B (depending on whether I built farms or not – if I do usually only 1 farm). So what gives? Normally if I’m evil or good with a s

Nov 2228 I’ve finally committed to neutrality and am building neutrality learning centers, which should give the Terrans a huge research boost. I’ve never played neutral before, although I’ve seen the prestigious amount of research these babies crank out. I also like the neutrality trading with the 3 extra trade routes. The improvement that gives me a portion or neutral trade income is a bit dubious, though, with only the Krynn likely to be neutral in this game. It would make much more

May 2228 Most of the 30 Terran planets have close to their population maximum. The economy is rolling along with a weekly surplus of 400 BC/turn. Overall the Terran is at 8 time (vs Krynn) to 3 times (Torian) than any other empire. We’ve built all of the early projects and trade goods, and there is rarely any technology that we don’t have. Moreover, Terran influence is spiking significantly. There is one influence starbase and the Restaurant of Eternity. Almost all of the Dren

Aug 2227 The Terrans now have 27 colonies, 2 of which revolted from the Drengin. A few other Drengin planets revolted to other AIs, too. Apparently planting small population colonies in someone else’s sphere of influence is a bad idea. Imagine that. [URL=http://imageshack.us] [/URL] Image 6: Galactic map August 2227 – revolted Drengin planets My economy has really turned around: Korn’

February 2227 NOTE – my previous posts incorrectly stated the year was 2229. Oops. Only off by 3 years (and 156 turns). The second wave of colonization is on and almost all the races are in the game The Drengin got aquatic before I expected (their tech rate said 24+ turns), so I took my eye off the ball and they grabbed a bunch of great aquatic worlds (PQ10-12). Regardless, a veritable fleet of Drengin colony ships are now running through the galaxy. The Drengin now have 10 co

July 2226 The first round of colonization is done and all that are left are extreme worlds. Most of the AIs are researching one of more of the extreme techs, and so are the Terrans: High Gravity Worlds. There are three or so near me, and I guess I’ll be able to trade this to the other AIs for other colonization techs – and get a bonus in the process. I completed the second round of Super Diplomacy, with similar results. Korx deal Terran – advance computers, xeno e

15 March 2226 Wow. All I have to say is WOW! I’m really starting to like the Super Diplomat ability! I made contact with the Korx, Drengin (of course), Torians, and Krynn and made my first deals. Here is the rundown: Korx Deal Terran – Economic Treaty Korx – Eco treaty, research treaty, Planetary Improvement, Trade, Advanced Trade, Master Trade, Space Militarization, Xeno Biology, Galactic Warfare, Ion Drive, 266 BC Drengin Deal Terran – T

This is a technical AAR which describes my exploration of the Terran Super Diplomat ability. It also provides some insight into my strategy and techniques (for what that’s worth). I haven’t really played the Humans before, and certainly never the humans with the DA Diplomacy Super Ability. Moreover, these humans are goosed with even MORE diplomacy – they have a 75% bonus, all totaled. That includes the 10% diplomatic bump from the Pacifist Party, which also has a nice 10% morale bump,

Screenshot instructions (in case you need them; courtesy of yin26): * Locate the screen in GC2 to the point-of-interest. Hit the Print Screen button (which works on my Dell keyboard). NOTE – I have to exit GC2 after the screen shot instead of tabing out. If I do tab out and then go back into GC2 I find it has completely locked up my PC and I have to hard boot. * Drop the image (Cntl V) from the clipboard into the Paint program that comes with XP. * Clip out the portion that

I base my naming on one of my favorite games: Star Fleet Battles (SFB). These names are very roughly based on naval ships. Tiny: Frigate (FF) Small: Destroyer (DD) Medium: Cruiser (CA) Large: Dreadnaught (DN) Huge: Battleship (BB) For specialty hull I use the following conventions: Cargo-base survey: GS for galactic survey ship (a type of ship in SFB) Scouts of all sorts: SC Transports: Trans (I don’t build many of these) Heavy transport:

I had the same thing happen to a recent DA game. One of my planets was invaded with no war, the invasion succeeded (it was a PQ1 world, so I didn't really care), and when I checked diplomacy the invading race was not at war with me. Very strange. Hydro

*~*~*~*~*~* Well, all the screenshots are almost illegible. It looks like 800x600 won't fit at the GC2 forums, and the images are more than a tad pixilated. I’m not sure what I can do about that, unless there is another way to render the screenshots with better definition. Hydro