Im looking for input on how people:
1. Set up their civilizations
2. What you build on planets
3. How quickly you build it
4. What you research
5. How quickly you get into warfare/ship construction
I understand everyone plays differently, but i still would like to know how people do things.
Typically, i spend a year or two colonizing and setting up colonies to about 85-90% of the tiles. And only once my economy is totally secure do i start to research/build starships, and engage in warfare. But usually by this time, other civs have already built up their fleets, declared war, and i cant stand up to them. Feel free to point out any flaws in my strategy.
My playing style is quite traditional, works fine for challenging or tough difficulty but I'm sure you'll be better off following other people's advice for any level above. Their strategies will be much more refined and competitive.
1. Setup: I go for the very classic econ, research and morale bonuses. For political party I usually choose federalists (extra econ) or technologists (extra research). All because I typically have a rather peaceful style in GalCiv II.
2. Always 2-3 factories or similar to get production up, at least on decent quality planets (around 9 or above). Then production and research bonus tiles get the corresponding building. My capital is usually a mix of factories, labs and econ buildings + econ capital + political capital. The second planet is dedicated to research. Many others are almost purely dedicated to economy.
3. I rush-buy the first 2 factories on my homeworld and occasionaly the last step of other buildings (cheap and it gains you 1 week). For other planets 1 rush-bought factory + the occasional last week.
4. Usually first the techs that give me +10 social & military production, research. Then the first yellow techs all the way to trade, to get my econ capital up fast and quickly trade cash for some techs. Then either some additional techs to improve production and my economy before I move on to small or medium hulls. After that a few steps down the weapon branch to churn out a few phoenixes, defenders or battle axes. In my experience this initial military score keeps most AI's from attacking me prematurely. From then on I try to stay ahead of all AI's in military score, both to be able to put up a decent fight and to deter them from declaring war on me.
Of course it always helps to bribe one AI into attacking another, keeps them out of your hair for a while...
Here's usually the strategy I follow, of course I often tweak the sliders every turn.
1. I usually play Terrans or Alterians. And like above, federalists or technologists. I tend to always choose creativity, and extra population growth (this helps to bring in cash faster), then choose either economics or more research. I prefer technologists because you also get +1 to sensors which is helpful early on spotting planets to settle. In beginning of game, always set your total production slider all the way up to 100% and leave it there! Never take it down. If you are going broke, research and build economics, or quit building military on some of your worlds. Trade your Influence points for AI's gold! (<-- do that before trading tech's for gold), trade influence points for AI spacecraft, and trade Influence points for their tech's.
2. Factories are expensive, build the minimal amount of them until your economy picks up! Initially during colony rush, I build ONLY 1 factory, 1 recruiting center, 1 starport, then any appropriate buildings on special tiles, then all economic buildings. On earth (starting planet), I will build at least 3 factories (usually rush build the first one), build the special unique starting improvement (terrans gives +1 speed and some other stuff). I initially set the sliders to high social production to get Earth's factories done and unique improvement done. Once those are completed on Earth I set the social slider to 0. and set military/research to a 70/30 ratio (but I change it every turn to make sure I get best colony ship build time). For the rest of the game, I leave social production at 0, and use FOCUS on planets that need to build social improvements. This goes for all newly colonized planets.
This way Earth can spit out a colony ship every 2-3 turns, and you will still be getting good research in. Eventually once colony rush is done, my slider ratio tends to gravitate towards a 50/50 ratio (military/research) as more expensive techs need to be researched.
3. Build time is not quite as important on immense maps or larger maps. Newly colonized planets will build a factory in around 10+ turns, I just let them do it. I use Earth as the primary source of colony ships, and I usually grab many planets this way (more than my equal share's worth, even on Suicidal difficulty).
4. I tend to research tech's that give +bonuses to economy, social, and military first. Playing as Terrans, I research to Universal Translator first, because then I can use my diplomatic power to my advantage in trades. Xeno Engineering usually comes next, along with Planetary Improvements, Galactic Warfare, Space Militarization, Xeno Economics.. then I usually beeline for Sensors to get Eyes of the Universe. After that, I tend to try to get to Interstellar Republic and more Economic buildings to help my cashflow.
5. After colony rush is complete (or during), I start my constructor rush to grab resource mines. The planets with highest production will make constructors, while other planets will make cheap little Star Fury's for basic planet defense. If I have very few resource mines, I will use constructors to make economic starbases, and I will also make freighters. This is usually the 'I need more money and will do whatever I can so I don't go broke' phase. After this though, once my economy starts picking up (usually after 1-2 years), there's nothing else to build but military and more constructors, so that's all I build for the rest of the game. I try not to start a war until year 3 into the game, when I have a firm footing, but if it happens before, I just deal with it the best I can.
This way, most all planets will have their focus on social, but will still be producing military and giving a fair amount of research. You will research quite faster having 50/0/50 than having sliders at a 33/33/33 setting. And your production will also be better overall (I have tested both, 33/33/33 is the worst thing to do). In fact even the AI uses the 50/0/50 setting and uses focus for social.
For Maso difficulty and above, you need to use the influence point trading scam on the AI to survive. The AI greatly values 999 influence points and below. You can get ALOT for IP's!
I don't use that, since I was playing well before it-or for that matter War Profiteering.
It's not a need, but it would certainly help.
What exactly do influence points do?
They give you voting power every December for the UP proposals. Every point is essentially one point of influence over the decisions of the UP. That's how you measure up to other empires when it comes to voting time - whoever has more Influence Points has more voting power.
~ Cypher ~
ive tried to sell influence points. but the ai NEVER buys ANYTHING i try to sell.
if i offer EVERYTHING i own, including planets, ships, and techs, then ask for only 1b credit, the ai says it is a "bad deal".
WTF???
oh, but whoever said to put production capacity at 100% with 50-50 research/military, thank you.
i am now dominating games with no problem. i cant believe i never tried that. i used to always go 33-33-33.
Well, with the Terrans diplomatic bonus's it's much easier for that civ to do.
Trading Influence points does you the most good in the beginning of the game. For instance, to trade for gold.
The AI will only trade small amounts of BC per trade, so you can't do it all at once. Put 100BC down to trade for the AI, then hit your IP and it will tell you what amount the AI will want. If it won't do it, then try lower amounts, like 50BC. Then just repeat.
Same with techs, try each tech 1 at a time, and throw an AI tech down that you want. Then hit the IP and it will show how many they want (trade turns green if it's good, if it turns red, they won't trade the tech for IP's). Doesn't work for all tech's, but does for quite a few.
Ships that the AI makes initially you can usually get for IP's as well, it is time consuming, so I don't do this very often.
Yeah, I always trade techs one at a time.
I'm curious though, about trading influence points. Does this reduce the boundaries of your civ? Is the effect permanent. e.g., my boundaries will always be calculated based on IP - what I sold?
Your influence itself (which can be seen on each planet, starbase) makes the IP's each turn, which are then used to so you can vote during the UP each year. That is pretty much it, it has no bearings on your boundaries or anything else. I usually use it during the first 1-2 years when playing maso and above, but that's it.
So your influence at the UP is not what you happened to have been generating that turn, but the sum of what you generated each turn for that year. From this total is deducted what you traded to other civs.
Your boundaries are determined by how many IPs your civ generates that turn, which is independent of what you trade.
Right?
Yes, it is the combined amount of influence points you have generated through the whole year, as well as any points you have traded for (so you can trade for other civ's influence points, to increase your vote at the UP). In instance for doing this is against minors, if you are going to invade a minor, make sure you have enough transports to take them out in 1 turn. Before declaring war, trade them ALL your techs for ALL of their influence points and gold. Once they are wiped out, it's no threat to you because theres no way that minor ever had the chance to trade those tech's to anyone else.
Yes, you can trade every influence point you have through the whole game, and it does not effect your boundaries on anything else. The only thing that happens, is that your vote won't be worth crap each year. But the way I look at it, on very tough difficulties, my vote usually isn't anyways in the first couple years, so might as well reap in some gold, military craft, and tech's with those influence points.
Last game I actually traded most of my influence points for about 35,000 BC in a single turn. Although this is very time consuming, since you are forced to do the trades in 100-150BC increments (AI won't trade over 200BC for influence points, I don't think). So when I did that, took about 200+ times doing the same thing over and over, and about 20 mins. Last time I will ever do that again, but it is possible.
Very useful, thanks.
I think the limitation to selling IP is that the amount of IP should be lower than 1000. Someone correct me if you have a different experience; mine is based on ToA, don't remember how it was in DL or DA.
I've often received 347 BC or even more from an AI, but I've never been able to sell more than 999 IP at once. Particularly helpful during the initial phase in ToA when you're running out of your 3000 BC and anomalies.
Yea, 999 and lower is the magic number. You can still reap in alot of BC from the AI, but you just have to trade say 100 BC for some IP's over and over and over again, until either their BC is drained, or you get sick of doing it.
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