GalCiv2: Dread Lords

ThunderTitan · Unread postby **ThunderTitan** » 29 Sep 2009, 06:34

Uh, it's in Level... i might buy it then:

[img]http://www.level.ro/galerie_imagini/ima ... ombrie.jpg[/img]

Avonu · Unread postby **Avonu** » 29 Sep 2009, 20:35

LoL - that version was also in some Polsih game magazine from September - already bought - now it seems that Kalypso (publisher) is selling this game everywhere they can.

Kalah · Unread postby **Kalah** » 29 Sep 2009, 22:37

Let us know if the article says anything interesting.

ThunderTitan · Unread postby **ThunderTitan** » 30 Sep 2009, 08:01

Which article?! It just gona be a short description of the game...

Deadguy118 · Unread postby **Deadguy118** » 02 Oct 2009, 05:43

GalCiv II is definitely one of my favorite 4X sims of all time. However, I have noticed that the easiest path to victory is through a combination of diplomacy and force (at least on Normal Difficulty).

Obviously the Terrans have the easiest time with this, as they can focus on the diplomacy techs and get everything else through trading, but I have managed to do it with the Drengin as well (albeit on a galaxy without many good races and on normal difficulty)

Tech victories bore me, as they require a lot of time but not much effort. Influence is far more fun, but is only really viable on smaller maps. Ascension feels artificial, as the computers who haven't allied with you will decide to declare war on you one by one as soon as you reach the 100 week mark.

So, to prevent the game from getting stale, I think I might try a higher difficulty either with a militaristic race that everyone automatically hates like the Korath or with Diplomacy victory turned off.

Kristo · Unread postby **Kristo** » 02 Oct 2009, 15:08

I suggest upping the difficulty to Tough. That way you play on equal economic terms. And be sure to turn on all of the complex algorithms.

Kristo · Unread postby **Kristo** » 08 Dec 2009, 01:57

I just finished a 1v1 Terrans vs. Yor in a small galaxy on Tough. I got a lousy draw on colonies - one PQ 11 and Mars. The Yor had 5 colonies. Earth and the good colony had some nice bonus tiles though so I was cranking really well on research and manufacturing. What I missed out in colonizing I more than made up for in mining. I owned every resource on the map. Earth's manufacturing capital allowed me to spam constructors every other turn.

I was able to keep up decent relations with the Yor for the entire game through good diplomacy (shocker) and trading. With so few planets though, I was behind in every category except research (hooray for Neutrality Learning Centers). I probably would have lost if I let the game go indefinitely. My espionage showed that the Yor started working on Master Hull Building to go towards huge hulls. I was only at large and didn't really have the funds to support a much bigger military. The break I needed came in the form of the economic boom event. That gave me the tax revenue needed for one all-out strike. If the event ended too soon, I was pretty much done.

It lasted just long enough. My four-ship fleet of large missile cruisers (total 120 missile attack, 4 missile defense) laid waste to the Yor's entire military. He only had two Orbital Fleet Managers and they weren't on the good worlds. For some reason, the AI in defensive mode doesn't fleet its ships to come attack you. I lost one ship in the process, which I replaced with production on a conquered world. Since this was a 1v1, I went with Mass Drivers for invasions. I didn't care about using his worlds, just about winning. I needed all the help I could get too. The final pop on Earth was down to 780 million or so. My other colony ended around 3 billion. Like I said, this was my one shot. If it didn't work it would've been game over.

Not counterattacking with fleets turned out to be the AI's downfall. I had maybe half the military strength he did but was able to come away with minimal losses. The other interesting thing was tech trading. Even with one turn left on a tech, the AI still appeared to give full value to it. I could sell him the tech he was researching and still get a good deal on it. Overall, I continue to be impressed with how well the AI plays. I plan on buying the ultimate edition (which includes DA and TA expansions) soon. I'm looking forward to seeing how they've improved the computer's play.

Corelanis · Unread postby **Corelanis** » 08 Dec 2009, 03:50

From my experiance on tough in TA they still dont defend very well. No large defensive fleets moving around their territories or anything like that. Instead they have lots of small ships around each individual planet that makes their forces look big and powerful but they really arent. Also after you break their offensive fleets it takes them a long while to form new ones and i often see them sending unarmed undefended troops ships striaght into my territory. The ai also seems more aggressive in TA then DL
they build a enourmous numbers of ships even during peace times, they typically out number me 2 to 1 the drengin its 5 to 1 or more if they fight a lot of wars. Even so TA is awesome lotsa fun stuff.

Banedon · Unread postby **Banedon** » 21 Dec 2009, 08:21

I won my first try on Obscene

It turns out that AllLabs remains extremely effective all the way up to this difficulty setting. The game was even quite effortless ... with a fast Planetary Invasion and Mass Drivers / Information Warfare (unfortunately I'm not the Korath) I took over two home planets within the first year and soon had an unstoppable advantage. The 1 beam attack 0 everything else Star Fury you can build with just Beam Weapon Theory is just that good, lol. Of course later in the game other races with combat ships did declare war, but with so much more production, mass soldiering tech and the AI being unprepared for war when they declare it (declarations without Planetary Invasion ...), I soon scorched my way to better weapons tech and won.

Also watched my brother win one as the Korath. He went with +40 to miltary production, rushed Spore ships and the same 1 beam attack Star Fury, took out two races and then forced a victory with Dark Influence. Spore Weapons is such a powerful ability! You take over planets guaranteed without having to invest in invasion tactics, and if your opponent takes it back it's still a radioactive world they can't get production on. Having zero population when you take the world over may be bad, but production matters more. The planets will grow in time, and you not only gain production for yourself you deny them to your opponents. Dark Influence is so powerful as well - after a few turns the galaxy simply flipped to Korath.

We should probably try Suicidal next ...

Ethric · Unread postby **Ethric** » 21 Dec 2009, 13:10

I was thinking of playing this again soon. Though I usually never play on anything above medium difficulty (the one where all is equal and no-one cheats, can't recall what it was), because I find rushing like you describe too stressful. I like planning and scheming elaborately, and then when no-one expects I roll out the superadvanced death machines

Yeah I suck at MP-strategy games. But I recall one time I was playing M:tG (the card game), with a super-loopy deck of all colours (with no duplicate cards, just one of each) that seldom worked. Well this on time it DID work, everything came together and I crushed the three other guys utterly. Satisfaction like that makes up for usually loosing

Kristo · Unread postby **Kristo** » 21 Dec 2009, 15:23

FWIW, he's not exactly rushing. The AllLabs strategy simply means building nothing but research structures and using focus to enable social/military production. As you can imagine, it quickly yields a substantial tech advantage assuming you can keep your economy afloat. If you can walk your way up the Planetary Invasion tree that fast, it's hard to restrain yourself from a-conquerin'.

Ethric · Unread postby **Ethric** » 21 Dec 2009, 15:34

(FWIW?) Yeah but playing on difficulties where the AI gets large bonuses usually means you have to rush in some form or another, else they'll quickly swamp you.

Banedon · Unread postby **Banedon** » 21 Dec 2009, 17:23

Kristo wrote:FWIW, he's not exactly rushing. The AllLabs strategy simply means building nothing but research structures and using focus to enable social/military production. As you can imagine, it quickly yields a substantial tech advantage assuming you can keep your economy afloat. If you can walk your way up the Planetary Invasion tree that fast, it's hard to restrain yourself from a-conquerin'.

It is rushing actually ... relatively early in the game I go for Space Weapons, build the Star Fury and then move on to Planetary Invasion. It takes a while to get the Transports up (usually 7+ turns) but after that it's immediate war. It's certainly possible - but I doubt viable - to continue researching weapons, research techs, diplomacy techs, and so on. I think it's fair to say though that you have to rush, or the AI's multiple influence / production / economical advantage will overwhelm you.

By the way FWIW = for what it's worth, if I'm not mistaken.

Ethric · Unread postby **Ethric** » 19 Jan 2010, 21:35

I get a bug where my ships are stuck out of range, can't move at all without getting the "Afraid of the dark..."-message. Well they aren't, doesn't matter where they are or try to go.

The bug reoccurs on the same turn even if I go back both one and two autosaves, and once the bug has occured, it's there on all saves until I restart the game. Then older saves work again, but the bug still pops up on the same turn again.

Anyone else seen this and maybe know a cure/what causes it?

Banedon · Unread postby **Banedon** » 20 Jan 2010, 02:32

I remember this happens because the flagship (that's the one that scans anomalies) went through a wormhole and wound up at a distant corner of the universe ... but then again I also remember the flagship is unique in the sense that it doesn't need Life Support. Hmmm... still I also remember that you can call the ship back to the zones that are within your Life Support radius. Does that work?

Ethric · Unread postby **Ethric** » 20 Jan 2010, 15:02

No

Ethric wrote: doesn't matter where they are or try to go.

To elaborate: when it happens it bugs out ALL my ships, everywhere, even if adjacent to a planet I own. I have seen it mentioned by others here and there, but not with a solution.

But yes, when not bugged, there's no problem calling back a ship that's gone to far through a wormhole. But perhaps there is a connection, could be what triggers the bug in the first place. Wild guess, but who knows.

Kristo · Unread postby **Kristo** » 20 Jan 2010, 18:45

Are you running the latest TA patch or something earlier? They kinda forsake the original DL game - this sounds like one of those bugs deemed too unimportant to fix. On a related note, I really wish you could Auto-Explore all anomalies except wormholes.

Ethric · Unread postby **Ethric** » 20 Jan 2010, 19:34

I'm running 2.03 Twilight of the Arnor. It wasn't clear what else I could run, but there wasn't any more updates. Have I missed something?

Kristo · Unread postby **Kristo** » 20 Jan 2010, 21:32

No, that's the latest version. I'm running 2.02 TA from the Ultimate Edition box. I haven't patched because I heard bad things about 2.03. I have not seen this bug myself, but then again I've not yet jumped through a wormhole to Never Never Land.

Ethric · Unread postby **Ethric** » 20 Jan 2010, 22:57

Hmf, happened again, this time much further out (in a new game). No fun if any game can be permanently broken any time and for no reason. And it's got nothing to do with wormholes, it just happens and then no ship can move anywhere.

Guess I could try reinstalling and patch manually up to 2.02.

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GalCiv2: Dread Lords

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