IBNobody

sorry for sounding ignorant... but who is trip?

The demo should give you enough of a taste to see what I'm talking about in regards to percentages.

When in doubt, try the demo... Demo Link

GalCiv 2 is a love-hate game. If you don't mind being in a universe where everything is a percentage increase, you may like GalCiv2. If you like games that unlock new features and abilities as you play (MoO, MoO 2, MoM), you will not like GalCiv2.

I've finished documenting the sovereign traits. I'm now working on the comments/ratings.

Look on the bright side... They didn't decide to hire anyone from Quicksilver.

I agree with all of this. I also hate how you can't tell if a square can be passed through. Other Civ-like 4x'ers did this right. Why can't Elemental?

I'm not a fan of this spell. The last thing I need is more monsters running around my land.

I've now started documenting the sovereign traits. I'm going through them one by one, looking at the XML files to try and figure out what they really do.

Ugh... If there was more spreadsheet in Elemental, I'd quit. I get annoyed with everything being percentage bonuses and numbers. Good 4x games need new abilities to unlock and not new percentages. Do I want another +50% to my basket weaving ability, or do I want to nuke an enemy city by raising a volcano under it?

I've been coming through the XML files and I found two abilities that I don't think do anything. 1. A_Influence, which is used by the faction trait "Influential" (Magnar and Pariden) claims to increase the area of influence by 1 tile. This does nothing. Area of Influence/Zone of Control/Kingdom Boundaries are all tied to ZOCMinRadius/ZOCMaxRadius. 2. A_Learning is tied to the "Stupid" Sov trait. This trait is supposed to make it harder

I actually agree with him. GC2 is like playing a spreadsheet. But aren't we on the wrong forum to post this?

Now that I have more hours under my belt, I've taken a whack at rating the traits from 1 to 10. I've yet to rate the tech, but I'll do so in an hour or so. I'd welcome anyone's opinions.

FYI: The campaign does have an auto-save. It's a different auto-save than the free world. -------------------------------------------------------------- Ok... I was too harsh in my last post. While I can't stand moving units around (can't see where they can move to/can't see how they are getting there/etc), and I hate the slow combat speed, I think the game has potential. I rated the game when it first

Thank you for the update. It was nice to have the AI pose a little bit of challenge. (See my post in the mobility thread.)

[quote who="phauren" reply="10" id="2858305"]No what I am saying is if you use that strategy multiple times a turn you will not have any mana. I tried it on rid/rid when v1.1 first came out. I started a war and was still actively defending my borders on a large map with 3000 mana. Between the proposed strategy against endless stacks of hammer boys, 13+ roaming monster stacks and teleport at the end of the war it was down to 400. Magic is weak. You

The Green Thumb (GT) sov trait does not work properly 100% of the time when starting a game. Sometimes, when I start a game, the GT food shows up in my resources. I can immediately start building housing on turn 1. Other times, I did not have my food on turn 1 and was forced to start building the beacon. Workaround: If I saved a game w/o food and reloaded it, my food showed up. Start Game - Save - Load - Start buildi

[quote who="phauren" reply="6" id="2857121"] Well I understand your concern for normal/normal difficulty, but I would have to disagree on rid/rid difficulty. Reading your post I am going to assume you never have played rid/rid difficulty because using magic is like a bee stinging an elephant. With your proposed strategy your global mana pool would be empty real fast once you start a war. Trust me on this one because I have done it. Your startegy does wo

I did try it on Rid/Rid. See my post above.

[quote who="Corbeaubm" reply="4" id="2857042"] Quoting IBNobody, reply 3 You may deal more damage, but you also open yourself up to attacks. Teleporting around the map keeps you from being hit at all. Not that the AI really uses them, but what about archers?[/quote] You either kill them ASAP, or you bulk up in armor. If you tech up enough in magic, you get access to some expensive artifacts. EDIT:

[quote who="Gene1966" reply="1" id="2856971"]IB, Have you tried this strategy on Large/EPIC/Ridiculous AI settings? I agree on Spell immunity being OP w/o mana upkeep I wonder if that is more of an oversight (bug) than intentional though.[/quote] I never play huge maps, but this strategy should scale. (Larger maps make mana gathering easier because there are more shards, and epic pacing would also increase the mana you store because you spend more time resea

FYI: If you suspect that your AI is stuck, just check the kingdom report page. You have an uncanny ability to see how many cities they own, etc.

If you make a smart sovereign (high INT) with the combat and mobility books (and you can secure enough mana), you'll win the game. 1. Research Blink (mobility). 2. Keep increasing your spell level until you can learn Arcane Arrow (combat). 3. Amass Mana. 4. Kill any enemy sovereign of your choosing. 5. Keep increasing your spell level until you can learn Spell Blast (combat). 6. Keep increasing your spell level until you can

After more time playing the game, I've come to the conclusion that I can't stand it yet. Why? The UI gets in the way. Tactical combat is sloooow. (See previous comments.) You can't rearrange the build queues. You have to pre-spend your resources on things in the queue, which means your queues are often shallow - too much micromanaging. Managing multiple units on the map is a nightmare. You can't easily see where they are go

Empire pioneers cost the same, and they aren't affected by the civilized trait. Here is my faction load-out for a turtle victory: 1 - Civilized 1 - Influential 2 - Educated 2 - K: Civics or Trading / E: Habitation 2 - Arcane Lore 2 - K: Exploration (or Mapping to exploit the bug) / E: Mapping Civics or Trading is a toss-up. you have to learn Civics to unlock most of the Civilization Tr