Destabilization countermeasures ...

[civer3]

If rival civ is conducting destabilization against you, is there any way to stop it? If Espionage bonus is very high shouldn't your agents be able to apprehend those agents responsible for destabilizing your empire? Is there an option to reduce destabilization by rival civs without using the propaganda options on every planet? Very tedious work setting each propaganda slider when you have more than 30 star systems. Also, the amount you of effect that you can used through the propaganda slider is limited.

Seems like the GIA should be used for this. But for now it doesn't seem to be doing anything. Which makes it useless.

[bonscott]

I think there are a couple things you can do:

1) Build anti-propaganda Social projects like the News Network (+10% Influence resistance), Propaganda Center and the Secret Police.

2) Get your Influence UP! Make sure you get your influence higher then the Civ doing the action.

3) Get your Culture up! Make sure you maximize your culture to lessen the effectes

4) Keep Morale high. This I think is probably the most important. If you do the above 3 things, Morale will go up anyway. Research techs that increase morale automatically and give you projects that boost morale. Do things like increase planet quality (always a morale booster). LOWER TAXES. It may hurt but nothing seems to raise overall empire morale then lower taxes.

5) And of course, counter with your own espionage and destabilization measures.

Unless your influence, culture, and morale are really low, I don't think you have to worry about it much. If you have a system with the skull and crossbones icon, then it has failed it's first check against alien culture and then you need to be really worried. Keep your culture up in that sector and you should be able to avoid it.

Just my thoughts anyway. Isn't this game great!

[civer3]

Originally posted by bonscott
I think there are a couple things you can do:

1) Build anti-propaganda Social projects like the News Network (+10% Influence resistance), Propaganda Center and the Secret Police.

2) Get your Influence UP! Make sure you get your influence higher then the Civ doing the action.

3) Get your Culture up! Make sure you maximize your culture to lessen the effectes

4) Keep Morale high. This I think is probably the most important. If you do the above 3 things, Morale will go up anyway. Research techs that increase morale automatically and give you projects that boost morale. Do things like increase planet quality (always a morale booster). LOWER TAXES. It may hurt but nothing seems to raise overall empire morale then lower taxes.

5) And of course, counter with your own espionage and destabilization measures.

Unless your influence, culture, and morale are really low, I don't think you have to worry about it much. If you have a system with the skull and crossbones icon, then it has failed it's first check against alien culture and then you need to be really worried. Keep your culture up in that sector and you should be able to avoid it.

Just my thoughts anyway. Isn't this game great!

Yes it is great. One my systems had a system with the skull and crossbones icon and it was a system I could not afford to lose. I built a News Network (+10% Influence resistance), Propaganda Center and as a last ditch measure, a Political Capital in that system in three turns. Glad they warn you about that. How come that icon doesn't disappear now that my influence on that system is higher than that of rival civ's influence. Mine is 42. Theirs is 38.

[LDiCesare]

The icon doesn't disapear because your system would defect if it failed its second check. It won't, because you won't let the influence sink (hopefully).
I think increasing spying might help with countermeasures, but I am not sure. I know it does prevent some nasty events.

[bonscott]

Might also be a problem if you waited that long to actually build a News Network. It should be one of the first things built right after founding a colony. Gotta get the key social improvements built before their is a problem.

And yea, the icon will probably stay as said above because one more failed check and it will defect.

[Fried-Psitalon]

Originally posted by bonscott
Might also be a problem if you waited that long to actually build a News Network. It should be one of the first things built right after founding a colony.

I really wish people would preface remarks like these with "on such and such size map." On larger maps up to gigantic, building a news network early is not only a unneccessary, but a bad idea. You should be building the core manufacturing/planet quality improvements.

On worlds near the back of your empire, influence/minor economy (2 or 5% economy structures) should probably go way in the back of your build queue.

[Eric S]

bonscott, have to agree at least partially with Fried, I've never built a News Network unless I needed the benefit. No reason to get stuck with a permenant maintenence fee for something that I may never need. 2BC every turn across an empire can add up to quite a tidy sum.

Then again, I don't play on maps smaller than medium, so my advice may not apply there.

[bonscott]

Yea, I've been playing on "Large" maps. I've found the News Network a real cheap morale booster. Now I don't build it for a while, but when I finally start building social improvements, it's usually the 3rd thing on my list after the Fusion Power Plant and Soil Enhancement.

But them I've only played 5 games total and I tend to build just about every social improvement under the sun on every planet. I make plenty of money so I've never seen a negative to my cash flow from it (I trade like a madman). So far I have usually crushed the AI, haven't lost yet. As I start moving up the AI intelligence level I may need to adjust (been playing sub-normal so far, trying out different things) what gets built.

[Garth Vader]

Originally posted by civer3

How come that icon doesn't disappear now that my influence on that system is higher than that of rival civ's influence. Mine is 42. Theirs is 38.

There is another influence number. Up on the top right of the tactical map near where the sector number is displayed is a button, it will bring up the sector influence. That is the more important number (In my experience anyway).

[Madine]

What Bonscott said in his first post is right.

I generally don't build news networks and other improvements whose primary benefit is cultural resistance.

Unless a system is threatened, it's a waste of money.

[Eric S]

bonscott, I just don't have morale problems. I usually pursue tech/trade goods to handle it. I'll agree on the News Network being the most cost effective morale booster, I just don't see it being needed that much.

I'm also not a big fan of the Fusion Power Plant on less than really big planets, unless my budget is to the point that I'm funding at 100% and still don't know what to do with all the money. My reasoning is as follows:

it's a 20% bonus to your manufacturing ability (40% of which is free), and a 10% bonus to your economy. However, it costs 3BC/turn. So, unless the base tax rate of your planet (rate without any other bonuses) is 30BC/turn or more, it won't pay for itself directly. However, it isn't quite as bad as it looks, as it gives you an 8% free production bonus. So for every 12.5 points of production you're financing, it gives you another point for free. Still, early on in a planet's development, it's not going to have the taxes or the production to make the fusion power plant cost effective. Of course, if you're in the "more money than you know what to do with" phase of your budget, why not? I just prefer not to get too tightly bound to high-maintenance projects, as a sudden war taking out trade routes/trade partners can cause an economy enough damage without the extra help. Just a matter of priorities, really, not a wrong decision either way.

The Anti-matter power plant is a much bigger manufacturing boost for a third the maintenance cost, so if I've got the tech, it's my preferred power plant, though it does have a longer build time.

[bonscott]

Eric, I agree with you. After a similar debate on the galciv forums I sat down for an hour and loaded up a copy of a game and ran the numbers.

Fusion plant, as you say, really isn't worth it unless your planet generates 35 or more I'd say. However, it's a nice boost to production early if you really need it to crank out early war machine. Plus it's cheap to build. I'll keep it out of my build queue the next couple games to see what happens.

News. In my current game I actually didn't build them at all early as I was going more tech/trade this game vs. other games. However, if you have morale problems early, it's a nice cheap morale booster and you can cancel the project later on and save the monthly cost.

I also discovered some other interesting cost vs. maint. issues too. I just never ran the numbers. Was having too much fun just playing!

[civer3]

That star system's influence has increased to 67 and it still won't disappear. I have the largest galactic influence. 50% voting power so I don't know what's going on although rival civ's star system began to display that symbol of a skull and bones.

[bonscott]

The icon will not be going away that I know of. You really don't need to worry about it. Sounds like you sucessfully countered the issue and now might have the other star system revolt over to you. Good job.

[Daetrin]

I've noticed the same issue with the icons sticking around, however the explanation that "it failed one check so if it fails another it will defect" doesn't make any sense.

According to the docs, the symbol appears when the colony is in danger of defecting, which doesn't necessarily mean after it fails its first check. Personally i think that would be a bit late to start warning you about the danger.

Second of all, the docs also say that you have to fail the check twice in a _row_. If you fail once and then correct the influence/morale situation, you shouldn't be in any more risk than you were before the first failure, so having the skull sit around forever is kind of pointless.