Tips for larger then medium galaxies?

[Lemmy]

I'm thinking about starting a game tonight on a large map, i've never played beyond medium, and my latest game was on a smal map. So any tips for larger maps?
I'm thinking about researching propulsion techs to get to the planets faster, and don't do communication untill i've found another race.
But beyond that...i have no idea, i probably will play a trader/builder game, as a good guy on Sub-Normal, or Normal.

[Fried-Psitalon]

In my sub-normal gigantic game, I chose the technologists and gave my bonuses to faster ships. This allowed me to "Seek out" at high speed. I alternated my research into propulsion (when your ships move double the other guy's, this is a good thing) with research into "Green mind" stuff- research enhancement and more importantly, growth.

Right now I'm having trouble (well, not yet, but I'm betting I will) in my next gigantic game because I spread my population so thin with my early expansion. I have 36 colonies (on Normal) as compared to the Altarian's 7, but my population is perhaps 10 percent of his. I didn't notice until now that population growth is on a curve . I think as long as I can keep him off my back for now, I'll win out in the end when my population catches up. Except that I'm borderline evil, and he knows it.... (I just can't turn down the planet qualty increase choice!) In large maps, sensors, growth, and propulsion are probably the big ones, although if you don't mind producing a bunch of scouts, you could go for something else there instead of sensors. (Say, choose the Populists or the Federalists instead of the Technologists.)

[Lemmy]

Cool, thanks, i hadn't thought about the propulsion bonus yet .

Did you try lowering your taxes and increase propagande to increase your pop? I've found that it increases a lot faster if morale is high.

[Fried-Psitalon]

Hmm...hadn't fiddled with that- I might try it. We're talking ultra-low populations, though- some of my planets have populations below 75. I *have* been sticking it to them with taxes, though. Maybe I ought to back off that a bit.

[Ellestar]

Btw comp colonizing with 20 pop colony ships. Just edit any first tech to say cost 5, then change Eye of the Universe tech need to this tech and bonus from 10 to say 5000. Don't forget to backup original files of course.

Edit: So all map is open on 3rd turn.

With universal translator you can see comp techs (via diplomacy screen).

It's almost always a good thing to see how comp playing in any new game.

http://www.galciv.com/browser/msgboard.asp?BoardID=GS&id=24810

If pop growth is 6% max, then 20 pop will grow by at least by 1. So it's the minimum population for clolnizing a planet.

[Fried-Psitalon]

Why would I want to do this? Knowing where the computer intends to colonize is a pretty serious cheat in this game, particularly since you can beat him to the choice worlds in that area. There's a reason stellar cartography was put in the game (though that needs to be fixed) and sensors/speed is important in the early game....

[Ellestar]

Fried-Psitalon

I think you don't understand me. I mean that in every new stategy game it's always good to see what AI doing because game designers know game better than you and so you can gain some useful insights. This is also true for GalCiv. That's why i said about backup - to restore original files before playing.

[duodecimal]

I'm very worried about moving to the largest maps for the following reason:

I won an earlier medium game by cultural victory against a bunch of fools. My current game is against sub-normals in a large, loose galaxy.

For a long time, I thought my move past "Beginner" was a mistake. I struggled for several long years with a tiny population from my corner of the map. I saw no end to my debt, and my high taxes and non-existent spending had choked off my expansion, building, and research (I colonized five worlds very quickly by not buying a constructor). Things got worse after I lost an election. Population stayed at less than 2 billion, I was last-place civ in every good category, and the Drengin were starting to look at me funny.

But I stuck it out and managed to squeek out a freighter. That one trade route changed everything. Taxes eased up, population grew, slowly, and research restarted. A second trade route put my civ into high gear, about the same time my leases from the first colonial expansion finally ran out.

I now have 75% of galactic influence (I turned off cultural victory this time) and am the most powerful civ, after having absorbed the Drengin, Wischnikins (or whatever they were), and Alterians. My population is over 200 billion and I have the Yor, the #2 power, as the only outsider of the Great Trade Alliance between me, the Arceans, the Torians, and the Vegans.

And now I dare to think that "sub normal" is too easy for me.

My problem is this: In a gigantic galaxy, how will I ever get that priceless first trade route before being completely left behind by the AI? In a gigantic universe, should I avoid the deep-debt leasing of the expansion burst and do it more slowly instead?

[LDiCesare]

You can trade with minor civs. That doesn't have the advantage of making a major race wanting to stay peaceful, but you can often crank up that route earlier. Send your scouts wide and far, and trust the ai will find you if you don't find them.

[Ellestar]

In a gigantic galaxy money = production or research. Because you can colonise a big number of planets, and perhaps you don't run out of uncolonized planets to the time you run out of money, it's not worthvile to rushbuy anything IMHO.

So if you buy colony ship, it gives you somewhat more production at the start, but you lower your Sum(Production) from turn 1 to turn 30 too much.

IMHO you can rushbuy if you have very low number of planets in home sector - then you don't have good starting production (~first 10 turns).

[Fried-Psitalon]

In Gigantic size galaxies (which is all I play) I never buy more than two colony vessels (my first two) and that's it. I just don't let any planet build anything BUT colony ships (although I do produce two scouts very early on) until every single planet within reasonable range is colonized. Then I shift everything to defenders, 1 per planet per system (very needed, as my military shows at 0 and if I wait too much longer people start getting funny about that whole tribute business) which generally catapults me from smallest to largest military, and then go berserk with constructors. I usually have my most remote planet go into freighter mode when everyone else is building defenders...

And rarely do I ever go into the red with the above strategy, if at all. Hope that helps.

[Ellestar]

http://www.galciv.com/browser/msgboard.asp?BoardID=GF&id=41989&cmd=showall

[Brazuca]

Relax

Hey...relax...i an playing my first game with a normal AI in a gigantic galaxy, i really hate small ones, bigger is more fun,i have lot of colonies making Battleships in 40 turns and i an holding the Torian, the mos powerfull with a southern line os heavily fortified starbase that gave combat bonus to my ship ( +9 or more ), i don't know if i can win the game, my economy is horrible.

[Vynd]

I'm with Fried and Ellestar. Don't rush out colony ships in the larger galaxies, or at least don't rush very many of them. This will help a great deal in keeping your economy running well without trading to prop it up. Instead, develop techs that increase range and speed, which will help you to take advantage of the larger map. The AI civs don't seem to place any special value on these techs, so you will be able to push your colonies further from your home faster than they will, even if you aren't building as many colony ships early on as they are. And since they, once again, don't have particularly good range, you can leave planets closer to home for later knowing that they can't reach them.

[duodecimal]

Thanks for the input. I'm playing a gigantic normal game now, and was surprised by how easy it was to expand without buying anything.

The Yor and Drengin are beating the snot out of the Alterians who are pinned between them. The Toreans and Arceans are marginalized chumps. I've been fairly lucky in that I'm not in the main 'arc' of tight clusters, and have focused on research and infrastructure (especially building up a single starbase in my four major sectors). I might be able to hold off an assault, but I doubt it.

I'm about to start turning out rangers, even though I can't really afford them. My trade routes are dying due to all the warfare. Sooner or later I'm going to need to strike hard at the core worlds of the Drengin, hopefully while they're still distracted by the Yor and Alterians, since they're starting to become a military juggernaught (all three major races are at war with each other).

I thought I was getting to the top of the tech tree, but when the little progress list at the bottom of the menu screen shows me at only 15%! I will need to go to war just to keep the evil civs in line if I expect to finish the other 85% of the techs. I'm not optimistic.

The only thing that may tip the scales are the eventual effects of a recent UP measure. The Alterians and I managed to restrict all evil races to a single trade route. Hopefully this will ruin their economies enough that they'll be forced to cut back on their hideously excessive fleets.