Some GalCivII THoughts

[atlascott]

I havent played the beta since it first came out. After loading the newest stuff (the beta 4d?), here are some thoughts.

First, WOW, what a gorgeous game!

Second, it is fun in a detailed way, and definitely has that 'MOO2' "one more turn" vibe like eve GalCiv did to a lesser extent.

Third, as far as I can tell, everything look, and plays better, and military threats are the least of your worries! There are so many ways to sin the game, this is no mere "build an armada' game.

Fourth, I am aa vet of these types of games. I tried to get eve to mid-game 4x and then I turned the difficulty down to Beginner, and still, after about 50 or 80 turns, everyone wwas outstripping me in tech, Massively.

I think the computer sta4rts with massive resporces, ship, and planet advantages, right? Or, all the AI knows the optimal upgrasde and construction paths.

Its a fun game, but too difficult.

Are there any online resources that I could check out to give me some info on what build orders work better than others, and what tech research orders are good for the various stategies?

Its a fun and beautiful game, but im getting creamed every time...

Im buying an additional copy for my brother the minute it comes out...

[ashbery]

Some people just suck at games.That's life.

[Eric_Chan]

Sounds like there needs to be a strategy guide or something.

[Darkstar]

Well, as a player of Beta 5, I'll post some big tips.

I found that it is easiest to learn the game and tune your strategy by first, limiting the amount of worlds there are. This is *very* important, as the AI is fairly good at getting themselves rolling along. The more usable worlds are out there, the quicker the AI will be knocking on your door. I'd suggest you start out at something like Medium map size, rare stars, and rare planets. After you've played a few games and gotten comfortable, then experiment.

The AI really respects that military graph. This means that early on, you need to get a real weapon component, which means you have to go through the techs until you get the actual component for mass drivers, beams, or missiles. Then you have to design a basic little fighting ship that mounts that weapon, and make enough of those things to get your military graph higher then the majority of the other AIs military rating. You'll also need to maintain your navy to stay a strong military force, if you want the AI to leave you alone. So you'll need to occasionally update your navy, selling off or upgrading your old units for better/more weaponed units.

Trade is fairly far up the tech tree. You can wait until your are getting desperate for money before going for it if you prefer. But eventually, you'll have to get it.

If you want to wage war, you need to get the planetary invasion tech so you can build or design your own transports. And you'll want to acquire some logistics, so you can build bigger fleets.

Don't forget, that when you first start out, set your spending to 100%, set your tax rate to something like 50%, and try out different starting splits. I like to go 50% military and 50% social and 0% research at the start, so I can quickly build up Earth and Mars while running off a few scouts and colonizers (as needed).

The main thing is to keep your military graph line up in the top 50% (preferably top 25%) so that you can have peace long enough to do whatever you want.

Have fun.