Info on game settings such as "Rare", "Common" etc

from GalCiv2 Forums

The manual is sorta skimpy on details on the game settings Habitable Planets, Number of Planets, etc. (Rare, Uncommon, Occasional, etc.)  Is there anywhere I can find the actual numbers.  For instance if I set Habitable Planets to "Rare", Number of Planets to "Uncommon" and Number of Stars to "Common", how many of each will I get?

BTW, i only have Dread Lords, vers 1.53

 

Also, can i get more detailed info on difficulty levels.  My manual lists:

Fool:        AI Economy at 10%

Beginner:  AI Economy at 25%

Sub-Normal: AI Economy at 50%

Normal:    AI Economy at 75%

Bright: AI Economy at 100%

Intelligent: AI Economy at 100%, plus better algorithms

Genius: AI Economy at 125%

Incredible: AI Economy at 200%

Which is only eight difficulty levels.  However, my game actually lists 12 difficulty levels (Cakewalk, Easy, Simple, Beginner, Normal, Challenging, Tough, Painful, Crippling, Masochistic, Obscene, Suicidal), few of which correspond to those listed in the manual.  Is there somewhere I can find what the AI's Economy is at say Crippling level?

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Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

The Fool to Incredible list describes the intelligence level of your AI opponents, and not necessarily the difficulty of the game.

The Cakewalk to Suicidal is.

The reason why they are separate elements is because you can customize the intelligence of the races, so you could have some really smart and some really dumb AI opponents in the same campaign.

Whenever you have a mixed bag of AI intelligence, the game tries to average it out to determine an overall difficulty level which is where the 12 different levels come in.  Or you can choose a difficulty level, and the computer will adjust the AI intelligence accordingly.

That's all I can help out with for now.  I don't have any hard figures on planets and such. 

 

Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Is there anywhere I can find the actual numbers.
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Not that I've ever heard of, of course there's also variation in any one setting as well as the fact that rare implies a density not a total amount and so the numbers will also vary on the basis of galaxy size.

The only way to find out is to start up a few games in cheat mode and then count the number of planets and habitables. This gives you an idea of the range of values to expect for those settings and then you can adjust to taste from there.

Also, can i get more detailed info on difficulty levels. My manual lists:
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A much better source of info is the Wiki article, https://www.galciv.wikia.com/wiki/Difficulty_level, but even that information is not known for sure.

The bottom line is that in all these things and many more the absolutes are not known but that really doesn't stop you from getting a handle on how they work. It simply relies on a bit of experience and adjustment. It's the relative differences that are more important than the absolutes. All you need to really know is that if you're accustomed to playing at one difficulty then going up will be harder. How much harder is difficult to say even if you do have some kind of absolute measure of the differences. Is a 400% econ bonus twice as hard as a 200% econ bonus? Maybe yes maybe no.

The most important thing to note which is brought out in the Wiki article is that the jump from Crippling to Masochistic is probably the most difficult one to make. Other than that the differences between one level and the next are not all that great.

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