drrider

Reply to The most dangerous people alive. in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

All right, if we are going to stay on the "good or evil" political motivations twist of this thread for awhile... Please note that the United States does not import significant amounts of oil from the major Near East oil fields/refineries (no, not even Kuwait or Iraq). Most of that flow goes to Europe, Japan, Pacific Rim, and China. Our degree of on-the-ground influence and control in those producing areas is not, so far, steering actual oil shipments to U.S. terminals. Now,

Reply to Quick Strat Question in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

Rynx, With fully developed econ starbases around a system near a sector intersection, it is possible to get production and research bonus' of over 400%...not counting any research resources. If you can lay out your trade routes to exit the system through that big cloud of starbases, you can have trade multipliers over the first 15+ spaces of the TR of >150+% drrider

Reply to The most dangerous people alive. in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

By this I think these are the top 5 people that could potentially be the most dangerous to human lives. by global instability, Whether directly or indirectly. NO SPECIFIC ORDER. Just a list. I think that most of the replies in this thread are ignoring the basic premis. the Idea was to talk about the 5 "most dangerous to human likes", presumably the 5 who by their personal actions could potentially cause death/harm to the most human lives. NOTHI

Reply to Buying New Comp - Need Advice Please!!! in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

One small correction of factoid: SLI (and AMD/ATI's similar CrossFire multiple GPU technology) works regardles of the programming of the game (or any application, for that matter). Unlike the software graphics manipulation techniques embodied in DX10 or some of the CPU instruction set enhancements, SLI and CrossFire dual card technologies are hardware solutions that operate after the application has "drawn" the content frame and released it for display processing. They are

Reply to How old are you? in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

I'm 56, til May. 1st "adult", "strategy" game: D-Day (for you young guys, on a mapboard, on a table). Risk actually came later. I think I was 12, so my pal's game must have been brand new. 1st personal computer: TRS-80, Mdl 1. I actually thought I was moving slow on the subject, at the time. I really should know a lot more about it than I do, by now. And, yes, I bought it mainly to play games. The big advantages of being an older gamer are that you can affo

Reply to Grumpy as hell in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

Some shows airing 1st run in the States this season and last (at least) are available in their entirety on the show's web site starting anywhere from a day to a week after original broadcast. I know Heroes does this, and I think the Stargates do also, maybe Dresden Files. If you have reasonably fast download (or alternatively, a stable slow connection and lots of patience), check around the official websites of shows that interest you. Oh, and BTW, there was nothing sci fi with anywhe

Reply to Grumpy as hell in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

The cancellation of Star Trek...the original series!

Reply to A Stargate Total Conversion Mod in Modding GalCiv2 Forums

Don't forget a random event for running into the Furlings...of course, the net result would be that the player has forgotten all the details of the encounter.

Reply to serial number for the gold edition ? cant find mine in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

For wilsonrx (and zheos): When properly packaged, you cannot miss the SN in the boxed version of the game. It is on an white (tightly) adhesive sticker ~5 cm x 1 cm in size, across the back of the plastic jewel case that protects the CD. On the outside. If it is not there, there was a manufacturing/packaging defect. The good news is, based on past history, Stardock can probably issue you a replacement SN via e-mail, in just a few minutes. But you have to get hold of

Reply to Galactic Achievements? in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

I have been playing the boxed version of DA (and the latest beta, partly, also) for a month near continuously. It has been extremely stable, not a single CDT, even with maxed out gigantic galaxies late in the game. Now, admittedly, I have not been playing the campaign. How close to the minimum system standards is your rig? And have you tried dialing back some of the game settings from the options screen? Especially, back all settings off to the next-to-top preset (AAx3, etc), turn o

Reply to Sins of a Solar Empire featured at Gamespot in GalCiv II News GalCiv2 Forums

Hmmm...I've never noticed that there ARE any benefits to so-called "Real Time" Strategy (ain't that a confusing phrase!) gaming. Now, pausable continuous action makes some sense, mainly because it saves play time; and 'real time' for a TACTICAL game/situation fits the appropritate decision cycle (though most gamers might think of that level of games as 'squad based shooters'). However, RTS as usually implemented has always struck me as nothing but an extremely artificial way t

Reply to Asteroid strikes and PQ in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

Hmmm...here we have a game about starfaring races that can iform worlds...that can disrupt tides and move tectonic plates remotely from space...that use asteroids on occasion as a pre-invasion barrage. There darn well BETTER NOT be a way that a random (ahem..unassisted) astroid can hit an inhabited world. drrider

Reply to AIs ignore PQ 1 planets in Bug Reports GalCiv2 Forums

Unfortunately, there's a huge lack of logic, and ultimately of creativity too, in the development of this game. I'll try that again. LOL!

Reply to AIs ignore PQ 1 planets in Bug Reports GalCiv2 Forums

LoL.

Reply to Karl Rove in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

This really would seem inappropriate, unless Karl Rove is posting an unusually high Metaverse score.

Reply to Bonus Tiles in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

I, for instance, seem to find specials at a 'normal' rate. Most commonly about 1 planet in 3 with none, a third with maybe 1-2 low levels, about a third with something nice. That's with the DA 1.6b1 beta. drrider

Reply to Bonus Tiles in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Yes, the Planet Quality bonus ability inreases the planet quality number, and likewise the number of usable tiles on every planet that you colonise. This includes a bump for any planets that you conquer from any race that is not using PQ Bonus. I'm not sure what happens when a civ with no PQ bonus takes over a planet from a race that has the bonus -- I suspect they lose a usable tile, though possibly they retain it if all tiles are already developed. Note that planets of PQ11 and abov

Reply to Games I want to make! in GalCiv Journals GalCiv2 Forums

6. No annoying losing battles The engine can cheat, I don't care, but if I find myself expecting to lose a battle even if my troops are stronger than the computer's, then something is wrong. Isn't this called "Good opponent using clever tactics"? In historical terms, Alexander did this and Henry V did this and we call them brilliant. And after all, you are talking about an AI to be designed by BRAD WARDELL here! dreamrider

Reply to Creativity? in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Question for kryo: Does Creativity give random RPs in fixed amounts, or in amounts relative to the player's research infrastructure? Fixed amount random bonuses would be worthwhile in at least the early going of a balanced effort or production focused game. Creativity bonuses based on how much effort your civ is already devoting to Research could really reward a research-focused style of play, with the greatest benefit occurring when the weekly research points were cranked

Reply to Foreign Starbases around my planets in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Nobody has mentioned that resource starbases serve a secondary function of extending your range. Not everyone plays on abundant everything maps , ya know. dreamrider

Reply to Tell us what you'd like in Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar 1.6! in GalCiv II News GalCiv2 Forums

-How about a way to launch just the shipyard, to do extended ship design without your computer being burdened with having the full game engine (and a game) loaded....dreamrider

Reply to Missing tech? Psionic Beam in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

The missle tree has more damage overall, throughout development. The beam tree tends to be (slightly) quickest to research each step, and to take up the least room, least cost when mounted. Nano Ripper is nice, but amazingly expensive to mount. Often you can put other combinations into the same space for less cost that collectively do similar damage. dreamrider

Reply to Is Tech Victory meaningful in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Actually, the general tenor of posts to this forum is that at challenging and above, the Tech victory is the easiest, or at least the potentially shortest, course for most games. Many people say they turn off TV for that reason (unnecessary really, since you have to choose to research those last five ascension techs.) Personally, I like to try to finish with a Tech Victory AND a fully researched Tech Tree, with research set on very slow. About 40% of the time, I either get beaten, or

Reply to Beta 1.6 status in GalCiv II News GalCiv2 Forums

Geeenfrog... There was a 1.5xxx series update available in SDC a couple of days before Frogboy's note above on the "informal" 1.6 beta. That is NOT the 1.6 beta, but its a good update and you should DL that first. For the bleeding edge 1.6 "not official yet" beta, see Reply #13 above. Works fine; according to accompanying note from Brad W. its just a bug fix so far...but despite what he says in the notes, ship stacks still disappear! dreamrider

Reply to Tell us what you'd like in Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar 1.6! in GalCiv II News GalCiv2 Forums

Could you cut down the footprint of the game a bit? Given that you don't have to be carrying / swapping the game disk for DRM reasons, GalCiv 2 is a great game to haul around on your laptop. However, laptop HDs tend to be a bit smaller and, in my case, fuller than the home tower system. GalCiv is a big app, and apparently unnecessarily so. There is what appears to be a great deal of redundancy / duplication in even the nominally integrated Gold Edition. I know for certain th