Phaedyme

Reply to Transports launching half-full in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]One word; Fertility Clinics.And, if you do get X-Worlds 05-F... the new gimmick in town - Demographic Capital.[/quote] That's [i]totally[/i] two words, mang.

Reply to GC2 - Dread Lords in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]You are much better off designing your own ships. The core ships are never very good.Research the hull techs to get the larger hulls, and research the weapon and defense techs that can counter what the AI is using.It's a lot more fun to design your own, as well.[/quote] Plus, it takes a while for the core ships to adjust to shifted priorities. I like that if I manually update a design, that all the planets building the old design switch to the new design, so I can get a

Reply to Agents - how is this a good addition? in Twilight of the Arnor GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]Yes, it is CRAP. I seriously doubt the AI is smart enough to do anything like that anyway. And I'd also argue that doubling the strength of a planetary invasion is WAY out of proportion for how much it should be allowed to help. I don't care if this is James Bond working together with Jason Bourne, no stupid "agents" should be a deciding factor in any PLANETARY scale invasion, ever. So I don't see the point, other than that it added a bullet that Stardock could put on the expansion's feat

Reply to Agents - how is this a good addition? in Twilight of the Arnor GalCiv2 Forums

Just to be on the clear side, I'm not saying that the current system is perfect. It has some good applications that weren't possible with sliders, and I'd hate to lose those. It does, however, need the overhaul it'll hopefully get in 2.0.

Reply to Agents - how is this a good addition? in Twilight of the Arnor GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]It's a crap feature that we'd be better off without.[/quote] No, it's not. What we should have is the option to use the old sliders instead of training agents. When I can use spies to double the strength of my invading troops, though, I have to argue that they're not crap. The problem is that the feature isn't well developed. Also - ToTA is fanmade? No, it was designed inhouse at Stardock, by people who worked on the first two installments. Plus, 2.0 wi

Reply to Few thoughts after my first game in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

It takes billions of troops to successfully invade other worlds. When you take those troops off of their worlds, they stop paying taxes. The population growth technology means you get your population back faster. As for the boosting tech, you can balance your population against your morale ability - races like the Krynn can afford to add a few farms for more population and thus more taxes without breeding a rebellious populace. Your normal colony has a population maximum of 8 billion, w

Reply to Agents - how is this a good addition? in Twilight of the Arnor GalCiv2 Forums

The spy system is mostly superior to the old slider method, given that you can use it to help invasions or make worlds more vulnerable to influence flipping. Of course, the problem is that the AI likes to flood you with spies. If you have multiple opponents, they can easily overwhelm your ability to counter them (until you get counter-espionage centers online, but those are not cheap).

Reply to Really unhappy in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]Were the Thalan adjusted between February and launch?Most definitely. I wasn't paying close attention to the costs, but the tree gained essential starbase modules and advanced governments.[/quote] Good stuff - I was really hoping they'd get something. I think part of the difficulty I had at first was how they played vs. everyone else, but part of it was the lack of essential techs, and part of it was just plain having to spend forever getting to the point where you could

Reply to Really unhappy in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Were the Thalan adjusted between February and launch? I played them recently and found them a lot easier to handle than during beta. Specifically, it seems like tech costs were reduced significantly for the early pre-industry/economic/research techs.

Reply to Girls that play RTS? in Everything Else GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]I guess I just figured a game where you can have sex with hookers then kill them to get your money back would be a turn off for females. But hey, I'm male, I know I sure as hell don't understand women, and probably never will.[/quote] I've never done that in the GTA games. GTA is [i]not[/i] explicitly about luring sex workers into your car, having sex with them, and then killing them to get the money back. That's one thing you can do in the games, but you do have other options. T

Reply to Cant make terror star with V96 in Twilight of the Arnor GalCiv2 Forums

It's easy to forget UP resolutions. I'm hypersensitive to that particular resolution because it derailed one of my GalCiv 1 games. :(

Reply to Index Of Tricks in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]Use the spy on farms+morale buildings prior to an invasion (1 turn before for farms) - makes it much easier![/quote] I would've posted this - I think it's probably the best use for spies in the game ever. :) You also don't risk losing them as the AI never gets a chance to counter them. You don't need to put spies on the farms/stalks whatever one turn before invading, though. I found that while the planet information still reads the original population (say, 10 million fo

Reply to Girls that play RTS? in Everything Else GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]People play games they like regardless of their sex.You'll find girls playing Total-War games and you'll find guys playing Hello Kitty adventures*.* I don't mean that to be sterotypical, just for an example...and to poke some fun. [/quote] Yes, exactly. There is nothing "inherent" about gender-based videogame likes and dislikes. It's all social.

Reply to Girls that play RTS? in Everything Else GalCiv2 Forums

I play GTA. I have GTA 3, Vice City, and San Andreas. Been too lazy to pick up IV.

Reply to Girls that play RTS? in Everything Else GalCiv2 Forums

I find most games specifically aimed at girls to be extremely patronizing. That said, I don't think there's anything wrong with designing and marketing games with women in mind. I don't think any really big budget projects are likely, though, for the same reason that Fox canceled Firefly (even if they can get a large female audience, they don't want that audience). I also think that lots of guys do spend too much time discussing whether women play video games (and how well or p

Reply to Girls that play RTS? in Everything Else Stardock Forums

I...downloaded the Sins demo earlier today. Not sure when I'll get around to playing it, though, or if I'll buy the game. I still have yet to play through all of the Dawn of War games, the LotR RTS games, Company of Heroes, Supreme Commander, and so on. Been too busy with RPGs, and currently Galactic Civilizations. The thing about Sins is that I've never liked mixing 4x and RTS . . . so I'll give it a try, but I'm not holding out high hopes that I'll like it. That's not a comm

Reply to Girls that play RTS? in Everything Else GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]can we please let the girls have a chance to post? umm... *hint* maybe topic should be like, where are the "girls that play rts" [/quote] "please let the girls have a chance to post?" What are you getting at?

Reply to Girls that play RTS? in Everything Else GalCiv2 Forums

I saw this repeated several times in the thread, but, really women [I]do not[/I] have an aversion to videogames, innate or otherwise. Women do have an aversion to people who like to make gross generalizations about women, though - as I'm sure many men are averse to people who make gross generalizations bout men. There is cultural pressure against women adopting geekish pursuits - interests in Star Trek or playing video games. But that's cultural, not innate. Stating that there is an inn

Reply to Cant make terror star with V96 in Twilight of the Arnor GalCiv2 Forums

They removed terror stars from [I]Iconians[/I] in the campaign so you would have to research the tech rather than bypass research and trade for it. Terror stars are still in the game. 1.96 doesn't even mention them in the patch notes. Okay, so to run down the list: * You researched terror stars * You sent constructors to build a terror star * The option to build one was not available Are these things true? If so, is there a UP resolution in e

Reply to Weirdness in TotA campaign in Bug Reports GalCiv2 Forums

I...do, actually. Well, I have the save. I have no idea if I can reproduce the specific "I have one surviving troop, but the defenders win," but I can try to see if the military shoots up. [email protected]?

Weirdness in TotA campaign in Bug Reports GalCiv2 Forums

I was busy smashing the Korath to pieces, killing all of his ships, and got him down to his last planet, invaded, and had something odd happen. I got particularly unlucky with the odds thing, and ended up going down to 1 of my invading troops to zero remaining defenders. When I exited the invasion screen, the planet was still Korath, with 20 million population. The next turn, the Korath military rating climbed very high, despite the fact that I outnumbered and out-teched the Korath. <b

Reply to RELEASE: Kryo's Hull System Mod in Modding GalCiv2 Forums

Ah, man, I've been trying very hard to hold out against installing Impulse. Now you force my hand.

Reply to Beta 5: Weird surrender behavior in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]There is something wrong with surrender in the game. The AI seems to follow some general rules of thumb that aren't always relevant.[/quote] I had this exact thing happen to me. The Altarians were outside my reach, I was playing Korath, but they surrendered to me two turns after all the good civs declared war on me.

Reply to Dear Brad: Please Stop Working in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

This is good news. I hope Brad continues to refine the AI. :)

Reply to Beta 5: Weird surrender behavior in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

That's probably why it happened, although it's still silly. A better AI would try to dig in with the new worlds and build up a bigger fleet before giving up - that is, assess its economic might as well as military. I'd love to see more of that in the game, or I guess there's always turning off surrender. Not really commenting on the "no surrender right after someone else surrenders to you" suggestion. I don't really have an opinion on that.