I needed something to fill some time until the new X-COM unlocks, and had been meaning for some time to give Gal Civ II a try. So I finally fired it up and plunged in, after taking a few minutes to view the tutorials about basic controls and systems.
So far, it has been fairly entertaining. I have no idea what I am doing, of course, but so what?
It is a first game, Beginner difficulty, medium galaxy with default settings, Humans. I have expanded a bit, settled 3 more worlds -- habitable planets are awfully scarce, I am tied for the lead there. I have developed some of my planets' available tiles although without much idea of what is truly useful, other than tiles with specific resources. Researched some techs, built a few ships, explored some anomalies (seem to be like goodie huts), set up a couple trade routes, etc.
Really I am just blundering around the game, wondering what I ought to be doing, and just going for random things. "Oooh, that looks shiny! Let's do that for a while!" :D So I thought I would ask a few questions, see if anyone remembers enough to answer them.
1) No way to attack anyone without a bunch of techs, no way to invade someone without considerably more tech. So what do you do for the first however many dozen turns? Land grab I guess, but there is very very little habitable land -- like fewer than 1 in 20 planets is habitable. Maybe I should have tweaked those default settings after all?
2) What are starbases for? I can build them with these constructor things, but what is their purpose? I built one on a space resource, but have not actually noticed any effects. I put a couple mining modules into the station, but as far as I can tell it doesn't seem to be doing anything.
3) Do the borders actually mean anything? You can cross them at will, even settle planets inside other people's "control" or set up asteroid belt mining stations in their territory. What actual effects (if any) do they have?
4) In the domestic economy window there is a slider for how much of your productive capacity you want to use. What is this, and why would you want to use less than your maximum? I assume there must be a reason/benefit to doing so, since it is rather prominent in the controls.
5) Are all those class 0 worlds useless forever? Or is there something later in the tech tree to make them worthwhile. Seems pretty pointless for 90+% of the galactic map to be meaningless.
Anyway, just curious as the game doesn't seem to have much happening so far. It is beginner, so I seem to be solidly ahead of the AIs despite not knowing anything about what I should be prioritizing. Twice everyone else's population, way ahead on techs, fair bit of cash in the treasury. I just don't really have much idea what I am supposed to be doing. It has been fun enough exploring and developing my worlds, but I have to assume I am missing a lot -- like most of the game.
Any answers or suggestions are much appreciated!
So far, it has been fairly entertaining. I have no idea what I am doing, of course, but so what?
It is a first game, Beginner difficulty, medium galaxy with default settings, Humans. I have expanded a bit, settled 3 more worlds -- habitable planets are awfully scarce, I am tied for the lead there. I have developed some of my planets' available tiles although without much idea of what is truly useful, other than tiles with specific resources. Researched some techs, built a few ships, explored some anomalies (seem to be like goodie huts), set up a couple trade routes, etc.Really I am just blundering around the game, wondering what I ought to be doing, and just going for random things. "Oooh, that looks shiny! Let's do that for a while!" :D So I thought I would ask a few questions, see if anyone remembers enough to answer them.
1) No way to attack anyone without a bunch of techs, no way to invade someone without considerably more tech. So what do you do for the first however many dozen turns? Land grab I guess, but there is very very little habitable land -- like fewer than 1 in 20 planets is habitable. Maybe I should have tweaked those default settings after all?
2) What are starbases for? I can build them with these constructor things, but what is their purpose? I built one on a space resource, but have not actually noticed any effects. I put a couple mining modules into the station, but as far as I can tell it doesn't seem to be doing anything.
3) Do the borders actually mean anything? You can cross them at will, even settle planets inside other people's "control" or set up asteroid belt mining stations in their territory. What actual effects (if any) do they have?
4) In the domestic economy window there is a slider for how much of your productive capacity you want to use. What is this, and why would you want to use less than your maximum? I assume there must be a reason/benefit to doing so, since it is rather prominent in the controls.
5) Are all those class 0 worlds useless forever? Or is there something later in the tech tree to make them worthwhile. Seems pretty pointless for 90+% of the galactic map to be meaningless.
Anyway, just curious as the game doesn't seem to have much happening so far. It is beginner, so I seem to be solidly ahead of the AIs despite not knowing anything about what I should be prioritizing. Twice everyone else's population, way ahead on techs, fair bit of cash in the treasury. I just don't really have much idea what I am supposed to be doing. It has been fun enough exploring and developing my worlds, but I have to assume I am missing a lot -- like most of the game.
Any answers or suggestions are much appreciated!