New to the game

a few questions

Hi all. I'm very new to GC2, got the game only a week ago (bargain, £20). So far, I have to say, it's the most fun I've had with a stratagy game since Alpha Centuari (which is the greatest PC game ever, possibly). I'm just finishing off my first game on challanging, which is where my first question will be. The names of the difficulty ratings seem to be different than in the manual - I wanted to play the most difficult AI without having their economy boosted. Is that the right one? (1.3b version).

Something I'm just getting into is the ship building thing, which is incredibly enjoyable. I was really inspired by some of the fantastic (couldn't think of a better word) designs in the stickied thread for showing them off. I'm making a little bit of progress, but damn, I can't concieve of how they do what they do. I mean, theres some resemblance between the bits that you're given in game and what they have made, but not much. So I have lots of questions on this:

First is there some good guide on shipbuilding?
Second, do people import their own bits?
Third, is it possible to start construction on a null hull? What I mean by this is, part of my problem is building around what is alreay there. It's offputting among other things. So is there a blank hull to download or unluck or program in somehow?
Fourth, making a frame is the biggest difficulty. I use those big long, thin, "plates" and normaly a bigger center piece to start off. Is there a better way? Small girders maybe?

Somethings thats been bugging me a bit is the starting positions. I've only had one game so far where it's been too bad for me to continue, I only had 4 planets on the second biggest galaxy before running into a brick wall of opponants. Thats ok, I made mistakes anyway and ended up resigning the game as defeat was almost certain. But it's the computer I worry for more! The randomness is really great, honestly, I hate playing the same thing over and over so this is very cool - but - so often a lot of computer opponants will get trapped with not enough worlds to sustain it. And in this current game I'm playing, I only had one really competitive AI to deal with - I took care of them and am now dragging the game out. I have huge hulls, with nearly 100 damage points (psyonic laser thingys), and they can't even manage 20 damage points in a fleet!

So only 1 competitive AI out of 9, on the second biggest galaxy. I maybe got lucky being in the centre (but thats not always good as you can get attacked from enemies on all sides). So what am I doing wrong? Just rank up the difficulty, giving the AI cheating economies or is their a good way to set up a competitive endgame with the random galaxy generator? All ratings are over 400 (economy, military and research), it feels like cheating lol.

Thanks for any help, especialy with the ship building. This game is unbelievably good in so many ways, despite some obvious deficiencies. Looking forward to the expansion!
38,036 views 9 replies
Reply #2 Top
Welcome

Kryo will be along shortly to answer all your questions and point you in the direction of his mod
Reply #3 Top
Kyro's Hull Systems Mod

It has blank vessals of all classes, and allows you to use entire ships for jewalry. Read the readme, it'll explain all you need to know. It also has "fake" modules that look like colony modules, trade modules, etc.

Very useful. The Dread Lord vessals are also included as jewalry, so you can have, say, a blank huge hull, the Dread Lord medium ship as jewalry, then put on weapons on the hard points.

If you want to see the description, sort all the mods in the library by author name, and it should be only a little bit down. Make sure nothing's in the search bar.
Reply #4 Top
Thanks, will give it a go tomorow
Reply #5 Top
The names of the difficulty ratings seem to be different than in the manual - I wanted to play the most difficult AI without having their economy boosted. Is that the right one?


A couple of new levels were added in 1.3 and the old ones were adjusted. If you want to AI at full steam without any extra bonuses, set the individual AIs to Intelligent.

Second, do people import their own bits?


You can, though it takes some doing. You'll need a 3d modelling program with the ability to export in DirectX9 format and add hardpoints to the models ('helper' objects in 3DSM, may vary in other packages).

Third, is it possible to start construction on a null hull? What I mean by this is, part of my problem is building around what is alreay there. It's offputting among other things. So is there a blank hull to download or unluck or program in somehow?


Yep. My mod does exactly that, and lots more. Check it out at the library here.

Fourth, making a frame is the biggest difficulty. I use those big long, thin, "plates" and normaly a bigger center piece to start off. Is there a better way? Small girders maybe?


My mod includes 'hardpoint formations' that make it easier to create a cyndrilical fuselage, among other things, without having to include extraneous structure pieces.

Somethings thats been bugging me a bit is the starting positions.


Yep, things can sometimes be *too* random. You can press Ctrl-N if you don't like the galaxy you get to quickly regenerate a new one with the same settings.
Reply #6 Top
Nice, and thanks for the advice too. Hopefully I can start making some half decent looking ships today
Reply #7 Top
A couple of new levels were added in 1.3 and the old ones were adjusted. If you want to AI at full steam without any extra bonuses, set the individual AIs to Intelligent.


I don't have an Intelligent option. Hopefully that's not the game having a go at my IQ. I had the same problem in 1.2 as well, beginer just before normal? Still, I'm non the wiser.

Oh yeah, brilliant mod, instant change in the quality of my designs. I might have a game on the most easy AI with this mod, so I can get huge blank hulls and really make some worthy battleships
Reply #8 Top
I don't have an Intelligent option. Hopefully that's not the game having a go at my IQ. I had the same problem in 1.2 as well, beginer just before normal? Still, I'm non the wiser.


Intelligent is a setting for the individual AIs, not an overall setting. Click each AI race in the game setup and set it's intelligence to Intelligent (you'll want to do this anyway, as the overall settings have a bug where some AIs get set to brain-dead regardless of the difficulty you put it on).
Reply #9 Top
Ooh ok, didn't try that, do'h. And that makes sense, because some of the AI are just complete dummies compared to the rest. Hope this gets fixed in a patch!