Feedback: Play balance
Non-violent game
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GalCiv2 Forums
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I saw someone else post how they did a non-violent game, I thought I would try similar to evaluate the game. I know you can't do culteral, someone will get p*ssed off enough and attack.
Short version: Too hard to get Technology victory, at some point the AI will decide to attack you and there's nothing you can do. Takes far too long to research final stages.
Human: racial bonus were planet quality (to fit more research tiles) and, uh economy I think. I had a better than average start, several 11-14 planets that I managed to nab uncontested early in the game. Game difficulty was at Challenging.
I balanced my culture carefully, I didn't want to piss off my neighbors and rarely researched that tech tree. I frequently paid off anyone who started looking grumpy usually in lumps of 5k cash. I carefully managed my trade routes, had a large planet in a corner with Econ capitol and a row of Econ starbases to max my income.
It felt kind of "dirty" but I frequently had to pay off other races to attack when someone just started getting too grumpy with me. I went back over some auto-saves to see if I could alter outcomes by giving away larger gifts, rarely with any effect. A big blow was when Torians attacks, I payed off Alts and Dregs to attack, they took some of my planets and got all my top-end Diplomatic skills (Majesty, Good and Evil, etc) and of course, within a few levels everyone else had most of them too
At the end of the game, I had more than 50 days left to research Tech victory (40+ planets, the only things on them were farms, some factories, stock exchanges, a few random cultural exchanges, and stadiums, the rest was all research). The only ships I built were freighters and a few constructors. I limited my economic bases to only in my core, I didn't want to force my culture out any further than I already was. I had Dominion and Arcean both surrender to me when they were about to lose.
Last handfull of turns, I played several times over, I gave gifts to both Altarian and Dregan, no matter how large of gifts I gave, they insisted on attacking me. As a test I gave them all my tech, all my starbases and all my planets except Earth, they went from Wary up to Friendly, then attacked in 2 turns. Once they did attack, I couldn't pay them off (all planets, all bases, etc)
Dregan had turned Good with a random event, Alts were still good, I was good as well. They just insisted on taking me out.
I did manage to survive until I had 30 days left to research the final tech and never researched a single "red" military tech. Still had Galactic Warfare staring at me in the research screen. I researched diplomatic, research and most of the industrial techs. I picked up only a few of the cultural techs, mostly to keep my "borders" at an even keel, if they started shrinking I researched a tech, it was easier to manage by just building a cultural exchange center on a planet usually.
Anyone have similar experiences?
Short version: Too hard to get Technology victory, at some point the AI will decide to attack you and there's nothing you can do. Takes far too long to research final stages.
Human: racial bonus were planet quality (to fit more research tiles) and, uh economy I think. I had a better than average start, several 11-14 planets that I managed to nab uncontested early in the game. Game difficulty was at Challenging.
I balanced my culture carefully, I didn't want to piss off my neighbors and rarely researched that tech tree. I frequently paid off anyone who started looking grumpy usually in lumps of 5k cash. I carefully managed my trade routes, had a large planet in a corner with Econ capitol and a row of Econ starbases to max my income.
It felt kind of "dirty" but I frequently had to pay off other races to attack when someone just started getting too grumpy with me. I went back over some auto-saves to see if I could alter outcomes by giving away larger gifts, rarely with any effect. A big blow was when Torians attacks, I payed off Alts and Dregs to attack, they took some of my planets and got all my top-end Diplomatic skills (Majesty, Good and Evil, etc) and of course, within a few levels everyone else had most of them too
At the end of the game, I had more than 50 days left to research Tech victory (40+ planets, the only things on them were farms, some factories, stock exchanges, a few random cultural exchanges, and stadiums, the rest was all research). The only ships I built were freighters and a few constructors. I limited my economic bases to only in my core, I didn't want to force my culture out any further than I already was. I had Dominion and Arcean both surrender to me when they were about to lose.
Last handfull of turns, I played several times over, I gave gifts to both Altarian and Dregan, no matter how large of gifts I gave, they insisted on attacking me. As a test I gave them all my tech, all my starbases and all my planets except Earth, they went from Wary up to Friendly, then attacked in 2 turns. Once they did attack, I couldn't pay them off (all planets, all bases, etc)
Dregan had turned Good with a random event, Alts were still good, I was good as well. They just insisted on taking me out.
I did manage to survive until I had 30 days left to research the final tech and never researched a single "red" military tech. Still had Galactic Warfare staring at me in the research screen. I researched diplomatic, research and most of the industrial techs. I picked up only a few of the cultural techs, mostly to keep my "borders" at an even keel, if they started shrinking I researched a tech, it was easier to manage by just building a cultural exchange center on a planet usually.
Anyone have similar experiences?