Justin Howell

Reply to Military Starbases in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

How do you guys afford these enormous slingshot arrays of military starbases? I find that mining and a minimal set of economic starbases (just ones which can affect 4+ worlds) bring me to the point where new starbases cost 1000+ bc. Mid/late game economies could afford that, but that's money which could instead be spent upgrading veteran warships, buying improvements on newly acquired planets, etc. As a result, I've never been able to use large numbers of starbases (particul

Reply to Should Stardock provide alternative IP protection? in PC Gaming GalCiv2 Forums

[quote who="WebReg" reply="1" id="1915770"]Steam has an offline mode. [/quote] The problem with Steam is that it requires the user to reset offline mode from time to time. I'm not sure of the details, but I know from experience I can't just activate the game, set offline mode, and play it whenever I like over the following months or years. Since I very rarely go online from my gaming PC, this is a deal-breaker and I will never buy another Steam game.

Reply to Apocalypse in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Building constructors was a mistake, but not a fatal one. Dread Lords find starbases irresistably fun to destroy (keep this in mind in other scenarios where you see them, such as in the DA campaign). Building freighters was a good move, though try to arrange the routes to be as far as possible from the DL (right hand corner to the Altarians or Iconians, for example). This scenario is incredibly annoying and tedious, but you're doing fine so far. You may well lose the

Reply to Dreadlords campaign played inside of Gold Edition (Dark Avatar) = bugged? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

This mission is discussed in detail [link="https://forums.galciv2.com/171018"]here[/link] Bottom line, it's not bugged, it's just a huge pain in the ass. :-) Sounds like you're doing great with tech, at least. Don't ever use starbases in scenarios involving the Dread Lords. It's a complete waste of resources, the DL will run straight for it and blow it away. The link discusses key strategies like having fast fighters to take out the troopships. Losing worlds and taking

Reply to DA Campaign : The Hearts and Minds of Robots in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

The Drengin homeworld in scenario 10 is completely empty - no Initial Colony structure, or whatever the name of that thing is. So you have a planet with population 1 billion out of a maximum of zero, with zero production and research (you also start with a second world which is perfectly normal). If you're willing to have a seriously gimped planet, I suppose it's possible to play that mission. But you'll have to buy a factory and several farms to get your homeworld to be comparable to

Reply to DA Campaign : The Hearts and Minds of Robots in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

The wiki has good info on alliances. You need a net seven + symbols on the Report screen. You should get to net +4, +5 or so by normal play (big diplomacy bonus, trade, similar alignment, treaties, -1 because the Yor are militaristic). To get over the top just do a massive military buildup, military can give a total of two plusses. I believe starbases count - anything that has an attack score. I fortified all my starbases pretty heavily when the colony rush was over but I didn't yet have th

Reply to Dark Avatar Campaign mission 3 problem in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

Think like a Drengin. Dringin and Korath are major races. Everyone else is a slave waiting to be put to work. So, yes, you're supposed to go forth and crush the Terrans, Korx, and Altarians. :D Actual alliances don't matter until mission 8.

Reply to Dread Lords Campaign - Mission "Exploitation" in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

Thanks! It's good to know how the game actually works. My Terran interceptors must have been rolling 0s a lot. Their Drengin counterparts in the DA campaign have been doing quite well for me lately. Still, I should do a redesign to get that precious 4 attack value. I like the sound of that Milky Way map, I'll have to check that out when I'm done campaigning.

Reply to Dread Lords Campaign - Mission "Exploitation" in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

Question for PeskyFly and darkviking - how did you manage to kill transports with 1-attack ships? The tie rule gives the win to the transport in that match-up. A small early-game fleet can kill one while only taking minor losses, but one on one attacks by fast fighters with a single gun just don't work. Did you guys use fleets of your fast fighters for transport-hunting? I also don't see how fleets of 46 attack value Large hulls are going to kill DL warships without losses. Kill, ye

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

Not sure if something like this has been suggested before, but I'd like to see battle damage decrease the attack and defense values of ships. This came to mind because of the DL campaign "Apocalypse" scenario, where Dread Lord ships kill ~50% more ships than they should thanks to the tie rule. Fleet 1 attacks DL Escort (attack ~150, defense 0, 11 HP), tie rule gives the win to the Escort leaving it with 1 HP. Then Fleet 2 attacks and loses about half its ships as it kills the Escort. Seems a