drrider

Reply to (0) class planets in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

You could take a transport with troops on and set them down on (0) planets as miltary outposts. They can do research on the planet to trigger mega events such as finding ranger class ships. Occasional Ranger finding is not one of the Mega events. Its just a somewhat specialized regular random event. Plague across the entire Galaxy is a Mega event. A 100+ pirate ships that are individually equivalent to Rangers is a Mega event. Dread Lords set

Reply to Sci-Fi Books - Shaped my perceptions in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

I hate to hear people calling Verhoeven a fascist; he actually grew up in Holland while it was occupied by the Nazis, and mentions this in the commentary. That said, the imagery in Starship Troopers was intentionally fascistic, just not in a way that promotes fascism. Unfortunately, I think the film does fail in that, else people wouldn't go around calling it pro-fascism, heh. Still, it is kind of a fun watch. Did I miss it? I don't recall anywhere in t

Reply to Sci-Fi Books - Shaped my perceptions in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

I have to admit that there is no science fiction writer I have a more difficult time reading that C.J. Cherryh. I slogged through both Downbelow Station and Cyteen and couldn't wait for them to be over. I have no idea how she won the Hugos for those years. Read Merchanter's Luck and the entire Pride of Chanur series (3?). They will make you much friendlier to Cherryh's work. And although it has virtually nothing to do with space travel (

Reply to Influence Calculations and Flipping Planets in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

No research, just observational evidence from a series of influence wins (or conquest wins where the conquest was cultural). Very much greater-than-minimum Influence advantages over planets DO improve the likelihood of flipping, but as you surmise it has to be some sort of limit function which never reaches 100%. Possibly it only approaches something like 75% as a limit. Its definitely difficult to feel an increase in likelihood between ratio of (6.2) and (16.9), but at a ratio of (16

Reply to How can I thug the other civs? in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

I don't like risking wars if I'm unprepared. Not paying them always seems to cause a severe drop in relations, usually directly into hostile. : ( I never pay them. But I do turn around and immediately make them a small deal for something , anything, for a hundred bc or so. As long as I still have at least 500bc in working capital. Following that pattern, I often spend most of the game on "close" or "warm" relations with everybody

Reply to Also, wanting to know about the numbers in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Oh. I forgot to mention. In DA (not DL necessarily), always colonize/develop your low PQ (1-5) planets. Planetforming techs will eventually expand them to more useful territory than most middle PQ (6-11) worlds. drrider

Reply to Also, wanting to know about the numbers in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Go here. Load the applet. All the numbers you'll ever want. http://www.kynosarges.de/Galactopedia.html Also, for more advanced play, there is no standard "kit" of improvements for each planet, so consider doing specialized planets. For instance, many good players recommend never growing the population of a given planet large enough to get truly dissatisfied. (6-16B) That allows them to avoid wasting tiles on "happiness" improvements at all, never research farms, and only b

Reply to No Open Border in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Possibly because Civ4 is an apple, and GalCiv2 is an orange? drrider

Reply to I've got a lot to catch up on! in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

2) Extreme colonisation really adds long term depth to the game. It is common even late in the mid game to find absolute jewel worlds uncolonised because the AI has failed to achieve the necessary tech. The highest I have found in my game is a PQ 27 Radioactive planet sitting in the star system next to the Korx homeworld. Jaw dropped, fingers trembled as they found the nearest planet and rush-bought a long range coloniser!! What measures did you take to

Reply to Sci-Fi Books - Shaped my perceptions in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

Eh he is ok, but I prefer Mythos vs. pure fiction cause at least in Myths the person is not just dreamed up. Do I understand correctly that in your definition of myth or mythic character, Hercules, Theseus, Paul Bunyon, the Headless Horseman, and Galahad are not myths, or mythic characters, because they are not demonstrably based on historical figures? Is that not nearly the opposite of the conventional definition? drrider

Reply to Sci-Fi Books - Shaped my perceptions in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

Oops! Since some of the folk here are emphasizing authors with matching chromosomes, I can't let us leave out a recommendation for C.J. Cherryh. The mistress of...disturbing...space drama. Also perhaps the greatest living filk composer. drrider

Reply to Updating freighters in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

Ooh! New strategy / management datum. Thanks, kyro.

Reply to Sci-Fi Books - Shaped my perceptions in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

I don't know why your all so hard on the Starship Troopers movie, I liked it The problem is us geezers remember the book. The movie, though entertaining and enjoyable, wasn't close at all to the book. The novel had some interesting themes of individual responsibilty, citizenship, and community service. The movie was just a big shoot 'em up. I also saw an interview with Michael Ironside where he commented, with approbation, on how one of Pa

Reply to Some returning questions..... in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

I haven't noticed (in the 4-5 months I have been frequenting) the pirating of threads for "my pet idea" rants too much. Actually, the community seems to request a clam up on that sort of thing if it goes on too long. Some prolonged debated about "fix this vs add that" in some threads, but they were honest give-and-takes. The one or two folks that add a high proportion of "when are you gonna fix my issue" only seem to do so in selected threads, and in their defense seem to b

Reply to Web site problem in Bug Reports GalCiv2 Forums

bump, for kyro attention. drrider

Reply to HELP. Can't log to site on new PC in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

All right, got it. Feel dumb, too. For future ref: Cleared cache and cookies, to no effect. Then thought to check Privacy settings. Young friend who had completed the build/load on the new machine (hey, he has an engineering degree in this stuff - and free) had set the IE Privacy to Max/Block All. After checking the laptop settings (egad! wide open - revised upward), I started backing off levels one at a time. Had to go to Medium to get the login to work initiall

Reply to HELP. Can't log to site on new PC in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

from laptop (successful) 1) launch IE7 2) type URL "www.galciv2.com" into navigation bar 3) site launches 4) type "[email protected]" into "Enter e-mail address or nickname here" field 5) type appropriate password (checked yesterday via Stardock e-mail) 6) after ~5-10 sec, recieve "welcome drrider" message in upper right from new PC (unsucessful) 1) launch 1E7 2) type URL "www.galciv2.com" into navigation bar 3) site launches 4) type "dreamrider@

Reply to Creativity? in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

(Citizen)XelNagiTemplarJune 16, 2007 00:23:57Reply #54 ... What if they made a better definition of it, and it turned out to be: Creativity - To keep idiots wondering. Actually, what Creativity does in game has been described by kyro quite authoritatively and precisely. See posts #2 and #9. Then look at some dbug.err files of your games where you have selected the Creativity ability (or look at any of the several examples of appro

Reply to What does population actually do for you? in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

In GalCiv, population and taxes are the primary source of money (+ trade +tourism, but those are secondary sources except in the case of some Mega events). But don't discount the importance of that. In this game, EVERY other economic activity is only a POTENTIAL, which has to be PAID for to become actual. Factories and labs do you no good if you are not bringing in the money to pay for them to run. And as you mentioned, population is also the underlying source of influence, m

HELP. Can't log to site on new PC in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

kyro, et al. Last week fired up the new built, AMD Dual-core and XP-based, new PC. All is working OK, game is working OK, but when I am browsing the web site on the new machine, the site will not accept my account/password. This is regardless of connecting via AOL or via IE/broadband provider. Won't even let me sign in via the Stardock browser. As you can see from this post, from my laptop, which I used originally to register to the GalCiv2 site, my member login and site rig

Reply to Some returning questions..... in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

Other points: - 2 new races: Krynn - most powerful overall set of traits yet, but somewhat skewed from straightforward play. Korath - Think Drengin, only grumpier, with stats to match. - A number of races have had traits shuffled - look carefully i.e. Altarians, Iconians - In general race traits have more impact, because all the default traits are permanent, with usually a larger number of add-on points available. - Planetforming makes more sens

Reply to Size matters? in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

I'm just glad this thread dealt with space ships.... So what does this imply for the Yor, for whom minaturization is an important trait? drrider

Reply to Sci-Fi Books - Shaped my perceptions in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

World War: In the Ballance is the first of a four book series that, in my oppionion, is as good at being a book as GalCiv2 is at being a computer game- kick ass, and unappreaciated. It's set in the middle of WW2. The Britian, America, Germany, Rusia, China, Japan, fighting. But then the Aliens drop in. The Aliens werent expecting man to be as quick as he is at inventing things- they were counting on tanks being overkill against men with clubs throwin

Web site problem in Bug Reports GalCiv2 Forums

Hope this gets to the webmaster. Has anyone reported that the Library of mods/downloads effectively does not allow sorting beyond the first page? After sorting by Rating, or any other parameter, the list will sort correctly. However, as soon as you make any attempt to move to another page of the listing, the sort parameter reverts to the default, Updated, and the 2nd (or other) page that is displayed is the from the list in the Updated sort order. I tried it multipl

Reply to Sci-Fi Books - Shaped my perceptions in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

David was the primary re-designer/developer of the 2nd edition of Starfire. Original Starfire was designed by Steve Cole, the Star Fleet Battles game creator/designer, as a quicker, simpler, more fleet oriented tactical space wargame. I think David Weber may have contributed some add-ons to the original game, before becoming the lead on the 2nd edition several years later. If you know the Starfire rules, you can really see their bones in the "ficto-physics" of variou