On my 3rd day in this particular game... is this normal?

Plus: All kinds of questions that I'm sure you'll have fun answering, just because...

from GalCiv2 Forums
Wow, this is messed up. I'm still playing the same game three days in a row, and it's not as though I only play a few hours a night. I'm talking playing long enough to get yelled at and denied any sort of physical contact for hours on end, that's how bad it is. I'm actually considering quitting for good just to keep the peace... but, nah. Anyway... hm. So the game has the Altarians (me), Torians, Arceans, Yor, Iconians and Korx. I am way ahead of everyone, especially in Technology. I have about 17+ planets now, getting 1850+ Technology in my Tech Capital, 800+ from another Tech planet, and 400+ from another. I have over 9 economy planets and would still be going broke if it weren't for using all my trade routes. I have about 4 or 5 production planets, one of them class 26+ (Manufacturing Capital). I have already researched all the best buildings so all my planets have the best stuff on them. I even have about 5 or 6 Super Projects and Trade Goods. Yet, even though the AI has terribly set-up planets (I've checked their planets with spies, and they're all pretty pathetic), the Iconians and Arceans are spreading out like cancer, their influence overpowered. The Yor have 46 ships, I don't even know how they afford them, but with Low Level Espionage on them, they're doing fine financially. Somehow. Anyway, I could probably go for a Technological victory about now, even though I haven't seen any combat and was kind of hoping to. I have yet to see a ship in combat, ever.

Now for some serious questions, while I'm thinking about it.
1. Do you think I'm doing well? Or did I just waste too much time building up planets with no definate goal. I'm thinking the latter.
2. Is it worth it to stay with the United Planets? There was a vote that limited Starbase modules to 2... TWO!!! This pretty much wasted all the ones I had planned out. They all have 2 modules. I was thinking about telling the UP to kiss my hiney.
3. Is it worth it to form a government? I'm still Imperical. Apparently so is everyone else.
4. Is it worth it to choose an alignment? I still haven't. I wanted to go Neutral, but being Altarian that would have cost 2,500 BC. Didn't have it. So I re-loaded and didn't research Xeno Ethics.
5. There was a law passed about having to declare war before attacking, so how do I declare war without attacking? There doesn't appear to be a way.

I guess that's it. Hope that's not too wordy, I'm just moronic.
strategies
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Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
2. If you leave, you can't trade with other races.. ever. This will hurt your economy if it gets a boost from trade routes.
3. Each form of government provides more economy bonuses than the last. Rather simplistic really. The only catch is that you must have a high approval rating to keep your party in control of the senate in the yearly votes; and to declare war.
Still this is rather easy, at 80% approval in a Star Federation my guys always win and as long as your party is in control they'll always approve your wars.
4. If you don't have the money, you can pay money gradually for your chosen alignment. I believe it's 10bc for 300 weeks or something like that.
5. Talk to a race in the diplomacy screen and select Declare War. It's in the same group as Alliance, Attack and Make Peace.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
wow, some pretty crappy laws got passed in your game. If you think you can get by without trade (I always need trade) then you should consider leaving. This is permanent though.

If you're managing your morale well you should upgrade right away. The bonuses are a huge 25% for each production type per government upgrade. I notice that the AI doesn't upgrade very often as they are quite poor at managing morale. It's not unusual to see AI planets at 40% morale or lower, especially during war. This means lots of propaganda invasions for me. Sometimes I can send 1 troop and sucessfully invade if my soldiering advantage is high

If you haven't had any wars yet it's because no one sees you as a juicy target and that's good. You can continue to build your planets as long as you maintain enough military strength to keep your neighbors from looking your way for expansion. As long as you keep on par (or better yet, higher) militarily than the top ranked civ, you are free to pursue whatever victory you want.
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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The bonuses are a huge 25% for each production type per government upgrade


This was an old rule for government upgrades. Now, each form of government appears to only add a cumulative 10% to your economy (so +10% for republic, +20% for democracy, +30% for federation), although I think there is also a hidden morale bonus. All you ever need is to keep morale at 60% and you will win all of your votes.

jwburks, I would try and figure out a way to drop your trade income and just leave the UP. What percentage of your income does it really represent? Also, when you have to declare war, you can still just attack another enemy ship to declare war. What will happen is you attack the ship, and a dialogue will pop up telling you that this is an act of war, but you can't attack till next turn. So your ships don't fight on the turn you declare, but you can still declare without going to the diplomacy screen.

On my 3rd day in this particular game... is this normal?


It really depends on the size of the map you play on. It also sounds like you are still learning the game. I have played (way too) many galciv2 games - but I also don't have a lot of free time thanks to work, and women just don't... understand spending lots of time on this game. With practice, I find it takes me 2-4 hours per map size, so 2-4 hours to play through a tiny map, 4-8 hours to play through a small, 6-12 hours to play through a medium, etc. The range is because map sizes are also effected by the number of habitable worlds, number of opponents, research rate, etc.

Sounds like you can win any way you like with a healthy tech advantage. Good luck on your first vicotry.