Tod Jones

Reply to Ship Maintence on ships with no weapons in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]UGH!!! Again I'm glad I don't have to bother with the TA beta. However I have a question for you TA owners: has anyone checked if the tax revenue has been changed? Since so many cost in the TA have gone up significantly, the game should be mostly unplayable, but that doesn't seem to be from players' reports. [/quote] I'm not too sure how you would know for sure whether the tax revenue has been adjusted or not, but I've never noticed any world making more money t

Reply to Arcean Slowpokes in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

Tir-Quan is actually 25% soldiering bonus. Ok, I grant you that the cumulative bonus of Cathedrals could be worthwhile with lots of planets if you have the tiles to spare. However, the improvement is still broken. If you read the description it's suppose to give a 33% planetary defense bonus, which it currently doesn't at all give you. The Arceans would be alot tougher if the Cathedral did what it said it suppose to do. I should also point out that the Yor are only ordinary soldiers onc

Reply to Arcean Slowpokes in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

I haven't finished a game yet with the Arceans, but what I've seen of them I do understand what their advantage is suppose to be. They get the space cannons which give a 50% planetary defense bonus plus a small morale bonus. Then they get the Cathedrals of Valor which I think still needs to be fixed, but in theory should give you another 33% planetary defense bonus but right now only gives a 2% soldiering bonus which isn't worth it. Then you have the Stellar Forge and the special ability which i

Reply to New beta scheduled for today? in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

Well the Altarians definitely need some work on their tech tree just so the non-ethical alignment tech tree is more than just a cut-and-paste of the Drath. The Yor are suppose to get some new invasion tech from one of the previews, and could use some tweaking as well. I'm mostly interested in seeing the new victory condition though. Was it last week that there wasn't suppose to be a beta or this week, I lost track.

Reply to Feedback From beta 0.95b in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

I don't know if this is a bug or purposeful design change, but I did find an uninhabited class 29 radioactive world in a game I started playing. I remember that the maximum size of a planet is suppose to top out at 26. Could this have something to do with the attempt to fix the lack of tiles for Gaea worlds, or was it just decided to up the maximum planet size in the game? I'm going to have to try colonizing this one and see if any bonus tiles are available on this planet and get back t

Reply to Turning off Tech Victory for AI in game in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

I think one of the most fun games I had was when I had tech victory on and I had to rush ahead to destroy an opponent before he reached an imminent, and ended up just narrowly succeeding in taking him out. Of course this alot harder to do on a gigantic map as your playing. Depending on what he has on his worlds though, you could possibly catch up by grabbing his most productive research colonies. However, it's most likely you'll lose this game, especially with the size of the map your

Reply to Feedback From beta 0.95b in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]Minor Civ's as protectorates.. or someway of telling the AI not to screw with your trading partners.[/quote] This right here would make a great UP issue. Pick a random (or the weakest) minor race and vote on whether to make it illegal to go to war with that race. Just made sure that the code automatically excludes the Dread Lords and the Jagged Knife as possible candidates for this law.

Reply to Korath and their Pop Growth Bonus. in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

To be honest, I've played with the Korath a bit and I didn't even notice that the farms gave pop. bonuses to the Korath but that other races lacked that advantage. Netherless, it's still very rare that I will get to the farm techs before the dreaded expansion crash usually happens anyway. Without the farms, your looking at most a 10% bonus to population growth, and that's only assuming that the other races don't decide to go for their own fertility acceleration techs. What settings are you runni

Reply to Ship maintenance is killing me, where is all the new money again? in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

I wonder if it would imbalance things too much to have a tourism slider in initial settings. Assuming that wouldn't be too difficult for the AI to adjust to of course.

Reply to Thalians are weird (TA beta4) in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

I took the issue from another angle and decided to test how the Thalans would play as an opponent, and more specifically whether I could just rush them early on and take them out. I played a large galaxy, crippling, very slow tech and no tech trading as the Korath. Luckly, not only did I start out adjacent to the Thalans, but I also had a precursor library on my homeworld. Now I didn't just go straight for planetary invasion which I probably should of, but I did have to balance my econ

Reply to Twilight of the Arnor: BETA 4 and beyond in GalCiv II News GalCiv2 Forums

[quote] I just tried my new beta with this game. Playing Terrans and having 50% economic bonus (30 race abilities, 20 government.) and I was bankrupt in no time. Before I had my forth coloney colonised I had to have my taxs set all the way forward so that I had 49-50% happyness and spending all the way to 0. I was still at -12 BC a week. I don't know if this is a fluke or bug yet, has anyone else had this kind of trouble? [/quote] I was earlie

Reply to Post your TA suggestions here in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]One last thing the new penalties are really nice to mix things up... Now another opinion. Korath should also have a diplomatic penalty like 30% cause all they want is to kill everyone off. The Thalans should be 20% not 25% cause they are not evil... well not evil yet depending on your future choices... Ya they are new to this universe and as you said not the creative but still dont make it that bad... [/quote] Weren't there quite a few people complaining before about the Dren

Reply to Thalians are weird (TA beta4) in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

[quote] The Altarians could use a few more alignment techs, and they don't get access to any of the standard good, evil, or neutral techs. I realize they're still under construction, but you only get additional techs if you pick "Good." [/quote] They get the normal neutral techs, they just aren't placed after the xeno ethics but in branches associated with the type of tech that they are (Neutral shipping after trade, etc). Has

Reply to Twilight of the Arnor Beta 4 in GalCiv Journals GalCiv2 Forums

[quote] Ok, why don't the Korath get a penalty as well as the Drengin, if not a steeper one? I think if Korath get a penalty- it could be in military and social production due to lack of slaves... [/quote] Probably because the Korath didn't get a speed bonus. And military and social production penalties wouldn't be in keeping with the races strengths. The Korath still use slaves anyway, they just don't want new ones (they can cl

Reply to Twilight of the Arnor: BETA 4 and beyond in GalCiv II News GalCiv2 Forums

[quote] I #3 invasion tactics. right now there is an exploit where if you use mass drivers or some other detrimental attack but fail in the invasion .then planet quality does not drop and improvments are not destroyed. this should happen regardless of success or failure. and here is why.knowing that i can attack a planet with 16,000 troops ,and use only a invasion fleet of 1000 but use mass drivers ,i gain all the benefits of this tactic and cause massive enemy casualti

Reply to Twilight of the Arnor Beta 4 in GalCiv Journals GalCiv2 Forums

You forgot to mention that the Stellar Forge appears to be fixed and that the Terrans and Drengin now get speed bonuses (and the Drengin a diplomacy penalty).

Reply to Why is X race your favorite? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

In DA, it was the Krynn, mostly because I liked the morale bonuses of the race. Also because it was convenient to just to put counter-espionage on every planet early in the game and not have to worry about the computer spying on you. In TA, I'm going to have to go with the Korath Clan. Good military production and morale, strong ships, dark influence, very little maintenance and spore ships. Their weak research line can be upgraded by going neutral and getting Neutrality Learning Center

Reply to Krynn consulate lost Stellar Cartography in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

They are also missing hyperwarp on their tech tree. I'm going to do a bit of mind reading here and say it's probably intentional and that the designers intend the Krynn to be more of a turtle race like the Arceans, if nothing else to counteract the incredible morale and influence bonuses they get. I know in Dark Avatar they were one of the most powerful races due to their bonuses despite having a mediocre super ability. Of course I could be wrong here, but it does seems a reasonable dis

Reply to Thalan and their technologies in GalCiv Journals GalCiv2 Forums

[quote] My favourite part of TA is stealing other race's unique techs in order to enhance my strength or eliminate weaknesses. There are some deadly combinations to be had, like playing the Terrans and combining their warp bubbles, the Impulse, Warp and Hyperwarp speed bonuses and the Arcaeans' navigation techs. You end up having decently fast ships with no engines with all that extra room for weapons. Can't wait to see what I can do with the Thalans. <br

Reply to WHO declared war on me? in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

[quote] It also smells a little fishy in terms of AI fairness vs. the player... like all the AI races actually know who the players are in a game, before any official contact, and they're making backroom deals based on that information. The player isn't privy to that info about un-contacted races in the game. I thought the GalCiv AI is supposed to be programmed so it doesn't have any artificial advantage the player doesn't have, at evenly-balanced difficulty settings.[/

Reply to Thoughts on Drengin as of beta 3d in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

Ok, I got a chance to play a game as a Drengin part way through a game (the game hangs up when doom rays and nightmare torpedoes are used, either I'll have to wait for the bug to be fixed or played all the rest of my games on super slow tech) Race: Drengin Political Party: War Party race abilites: weapons +20, economics +30%, hit points +10%, soldiering +50%, morale +45% Large, no technological victory, allow surrenders, mega events enabled, 1 minor race, disa

Reply to Of the Altarians in GalCiv Journals GalCiv2 Forums

[quote] Ha! It sounds like the Terrans are desperately trying to avoid the cuts of Occam's Razor. Rather than the simplest explanation, the one that allows the denial of things in Heaven and Earth that aren't dreamt of in their philosophy. [/quote] I think you have that backwards, the Terrans are effectively using Occam's Razor to avoid opening the huge can of worms that the alternative would imply. Which to me, is giving humans

Reply to Thoughts on Drengin as of beta 3d in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

I'm going to have to add something I missed earlier as a difference between the Drengin and Korath. The Korath are missing the planetary defense techs. That means the Drengin actually have +40 soldiering bonus on the Korath as opposed to just a +10. The Drath still beat the Drengin out by a +5 soldiering bonus when both races fully tech out, but considering that the Drath are running at a -30 penalty to population compared to the Drengin, that still makes the Drengin the best race to use for inv

Reply to Thoughts on Drengin as of beta 3d in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

[quote] Hmm... if the Korath align as Neutral, do they get NLCs? [/quote] Yes, I've used them myself. Ironically, at least three of the four evil races (Drengin, Korath and Korx) usually have more to gain by becoming neutral than they do by staying evil.

Reply to Thoughts on Drengin as of beta 3d in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

[quote] I think that, before I continue to argue for the quality of the Drengin or if they do or don't need any buffs, I'm going to have to finally play the Korath. Your continual comparison between the two makes me curious. [/quote] I played the Korath in a couple of games and I have compared the Drengin and Korath tech trees carefully, here's the differences between them. Korath get a +10 moral and loyalty bonus from corrupted Genetics, and