Hello all,
I bought GalCiv2 last week (Ultimate Edition) and so far I am having a blast! While there is a lot of stuff I don't understand yet, there are a few things in particular that I'm wondering about which I think are important for the early game so I figured I'd ask the community for help.
1) A lot of the guides I have read recommend upgrading the colony ship to better models such as a Fast Colony Ship or a Long Range Colony Ship. I've seen this recommended even for the Terran alliance, who start with the basic hyperdrive. Now, on turn 1 when I go to the shipyard, the hyperdrive is listed with a size of 21. The cargo hull has a capacity of 60, which means I can't put two hyperdrives (42) and a colony module (20). Adding to the confusion, when I look at the specs for the default colony ship, it seems the hyperdrive on that is size 6 or 9 or something (can't confirm from here). Can anyone shed light on this?
2) Suppose I have a Mineral-focused planet that builds a freighter. I would like this freighter to establish a trade route between my future economic capital and some alien planet. In that case do I need to move the freighter to the ecnomic capital, go to orbit, then launch again and go to the alien planet? Or does the economic city itself need to build the freighter?
3) Same question as 2 but for Constructor ships. If I want a mineral base X to create a constructor that will mine a research resource for research base Y, can it be done? Or does the planet wishing to obtain the mine output need to build the constructor? Or does the mine output go to the nearest planets no matter what?
I realize I could hopefully figure out 2 and 3 with more testing and my important question is really the first.
Any help would be appreciated!
An avid newbie
1) There was some bug about component sizes and automatic/built-in ship designs; I'm not a maximizer, so I didn't care much about it and can't remember if it's been fixed. The real point is that you're better off designing your own ships and making sure your colony ships are as fast as you can make them. IMO, cargo hulls for colonizers are a stopgap until you have enough drive, miniaturization, and hull tech to put at least 2 drives on a medium hull with a colony module.
2) Yes, the world you want to be your trade center needs to build your freighters. Freighers can only establish routes from the world that builds them. I'm not sure whether the Econ Capital would earn you more if it was on your trade center colony, but hopefully a scoremonster will check in here and give you a solid answer.
3) It sounds like you're confusing asteriod mines (Space Miners) with resource nodes (Constructors). Resource nodes provide empire-wide bonuses. Asteriod mines default to boosting production on the nearest colony, but you can reassign them with the Assign button that appears below the main map when you select an asteroid mine you've built.
An unrelated question about ship speed. While having strategically fast ships is an obvious advantage, does this apply tactically as well?
Regarding AI behavior. I'm trying to make a custom opponent that will colonize aggressively. Which of the existing AI algorithms best does that?
@GW Swicord: RE: "IMO, cargo hulls for colonizers are a stopgap until you have enough drive, miniaturization, and hull tech to put at least 2 drives on a medium hull with a colony module." Why is this the case? Are Cargo hulls cost-inefficient?
Thanks for the answers guys. Few more comments in light of the answers you've given:
1- Yeah I figured there might have been a bug with the engine size showed on the default model. As for the need to build faster colony ships, I'll make sure to try and get those asap because it definately sounds like a good idea. I just didn't understand how it was possible at all to build a faster colony ship on turn 1 with the Terran alliance. Maybe I assumed the guides were talking about turn 1 (for terran) but in reality they were talking about doing it after researching HyperdrivePlus or for another race altogether. In any case, AncestralHamster has confirmed he can't do it either with the Terrans so that means I'm not crazy
2- Ah, so my trade center(s) will need a starport after all. Kinda makes sense, doesn't it... Your answer also raised the possibility that the trade center may not be the optimal place to put the economic capital. Interesting. I plan to delve more into the topic of planet specialization later after I get the hang of the game, and I'll keep that in mind. It's just that in this game (my first real game), I stumbled upon a size 26 planet and figured it would be a good place to build an economic capital with a lot of markets and that I might as well setup trade routes from that city.
3- Empire-wide bonuses eh? Now I feel silly for asking Thanks for clearing that up.
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