avonhill

Reply to Improve Minor Races in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

YES!

Vacation to Aomori/Hakodate pt 2 in Vacations JoeUser Forums

Well for part two of my vacation, I went to Southern Hokkaido, to the city of Hakodate. Hakodate is a really nice city, it is fairly historic (one of the first ports to open at the end of the Edo era) and well serviced by public transport. The train system in Hokkaido is actually Trams! Adds to the historic flavour. I stayed in a fairly upmarket hotel (all the others

Vacation to Aomori/Hakodate in Vacations JoeUser Forums

2 weeks ago I went on vacation to Aomori and Hakodate. Aomori is the prefecture and city on the northern tip of Honshu (Japan's main island) and Hakodate is the city on the southern tip of Hokkaido (japans most northern island). For this first installment, I will discuss Aomori. (http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/location/regional/aomori/index.html) Upon arriving in

Japanese Pizza! in Diet JoeUser Forums

There is a lot of crazy Japanese food over here, but nothing beats the pizza. We went to a Pizza restaurant (all you can eat for 787 Yen! Obviously not designed for foreigners!!!) and have a look at what was in store for us <img src="http://img475.imageshack.us/img475/765/cornandtunapizzaaz4.jpg" border="0" alt="Image Ho

Odawara Hojo Festival in Fun destinations JoeUser Forums

Well a bit late, but better late than never right? During Golden Week in Japan (one week of holidays from the end of April to the start of May) I went to a samurai festival in Odawara (a city near Yokohama) at Odawara Castle. The festival is to celebrate the feudal lords who used to rule this area, the Hojo clan, during Japan's warring states period (1467-1603). There

Reply to Favorite Race in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

The Korx. You can get a large trading empire going early by using trading ships as explorers, and I love evil capitalists!

Reply to MORE Mega Events! in GalCiv II News GalCiv2 Forums

I would like to see some sort of crusade event, where all the good races in the galaxy, and every minor race, form an alliance. The neutral and evil races must fight them off or be picked off one at a time! I have heard that the game intelligently picks mega events, so it would be good if this one happened when an evil/neutral race is dominating.

Reply to The Yor are BROKEN in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

And then you get the Iconians who just get shafted.

World Heritage Site review - Nikko (Japan) in Reviews JoeUser Forums

Last Wednesday I went to Nikko. Nikko is a world heritage site north of Tokyo, famous for the tomb of Tokugawa Ieyasu, founder of the Edo period. For a map location of Nikko and details of justification for inclusion, see here http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/913. Anyway for my review (and future reviews of World heritage Sites) I will list 5 sections, with marks gi

Reply to Brad the bee keeper in Pets & Nature JoeUser Forums

My parents used to keep bees. They got rid of them when I was young though, so I can't help you much but one thing you should have a look at is what flower types are around the property. That will affect what the Honey will taste like. Some varieties of flowers and trees can produce quite exquisite honey. It is more work than it immediately appears, if you want to actually produce honey from it. Another thing, 100% no additive honey actually goes hard

Cherry Blossoms in Japan in Fun destinations JoeUser Forums

Cherry Blossom season in Japan is a pretty big event. It happens in Spring, usually around the start to mid April (in Tokyo) and goes for a paltry one to two weeks. The cherry blossoms are really short lived. The Japanese have a picnic during this time, called 'hanami' (literally flower watching). The main foods are sushi and sake (Japanese rice wine). This party be

Reply to Minor Races? in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

certainly not the case for me. I have never ever seen minor races do anything other than die in EVERY game I have played without supporting them. Now I find it kind of fun to try and help them live. I go as the Drath and if anyone declares war on them, pay off other civs to whack the aggressor. btw it is impossible for minor races to dominate influence wise because they generate no influence. Only major races generate, and are affected by influence. For some reason though you can get the negativ

The Land of the Rising Sun in Welcome JoeUser Forums

Well this blog is to describe the places I've been and the things I've seen in Japan, mostly for the benefit of friends and family back in Australia, because I am too lazy to write individual articles to each one of you :) For everyone else out there, I work as an English teacher for NOVA in Japan. Currently living near Yokohama. Japan really is a unique place, with an incredible

Reply to Stardock Horror Stories in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

You're probably thinking of Starforce, not Stardock. Starforce is indeed the tool of the devil. It runs lots of nasty background programs and causes freezes and crashes. I will not buy a game with Starforce. Stardock is cool. No intusive and inconvenient copy protection programs, and imho hte best game developer out there.

Reply to Minor Races- Questions in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Minor races neither generate (until a major conquers their planet), nor are affected by influence. So all those influence starbases they are extremely fond of building are totally wasted, apart from increasing range.

Reply to Tell us what you'd like in Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar 1.6! in GalCiv II News GalCiv2 Forums

I would like to see minor races be unable to produce ships with construction modules (like they never produce colony ships). They just waste resources churning out masses of starbases and would be better off building ships instead. Plus they wouldn't then steal all the resources like they do now. Sure they couldn't extend their range a lot but that kind of fits the theme of minor races being minor localised powers. I also agree with Wyndstars idea about evil races being able to break a

Reply to Minor Races in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

I wonder how much better they would perform if they were simply forbidden from building construction modules on their ships. It is quite reasonable I think, as it would reflect the fact that they are localised minor powers and not galaxy wide. I agree with col80's point about getting them to join you like in BotF, that would be cool. I could imagine after researching xeno ethics or something, with good, neutral and evil giving the minors different names when they join- something like Good -

Reply to Lame Game in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

It always amazes me when people post to complain about how overpowering and game finishing the mega events are. The developers have already said that it is UNBALANCING. If you don't like the fact that your game can totally be thrown out of whack randomly, then there is a simple solution - turn off mega events. I know it sounds crazy, but you can actually turn on and off the checkbox options. I swear its true. If you don't like something, turn it off. There, that solves two or three out of four o

Reply to Races Lost... in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

*****CAMPAIGN SPOILERS***** I think the Drath and the Korx. The Drath get wiped out in the first mission by the Korath and the Korx shortly after. I find it rather disapponting that the Korx are going, they were only just introduced in Dread Lords and now they are gone for good without any real backstory given. The Drath I can understand, as their role as the espionage/manipulative race could be filled by the Krynn. But there is no other real moneymaking race like the Kor

Reply to I want my Drengin back in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

actually I think the AI does use your configuration. When you give a race the plus speed bonus, and then have them as an AI opponent, you can see their flagship and colony ship starts with the speed bonus (4 or 5 speed as opposed to 3 for the flagship). I always reset bonuses for everybody now before starting!

Reply to Tope three features you would like to be added after DA in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

1. Heroes added. Great for extra roleplaying and makes it more fun I think. 2. Updated/Expanded role for minor races. Smarter, and more unique. Maybe be able to get them to join your empire peacefully. 3. Expanded ground combat.

Reply to Independent Corporations and Smuggler Groups in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

I think this is a great idea - perhaps a modified minor race could do this. A few different minor race categories would be good - 1. actual new civilizations 2. outcasts and smuggler groups 3. Aggressive and expansionist minor races (Snathi, Dark Yor) all with different AI algorithims so they behave in a different way. I think the super ability the Drengin have would be good for the smugglers (the one that give you free ships when war is declared) so they would be a bit to

Reply to Favorite and worse super ability in your opinion? in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

I think Super Spy sucks big time right now, absolutely no reason to go it for a custom race, however I think the Krynn are fairly balanced, because of their crazy regular stats, like +50 Espionage, Morale and Defence, plus diplomacy and economics. If super spy got buffed, their other stats would have to be decreased. I think the best is Super Warrior.

Reply to Pink Goo Event Text Incomplete in Beta Reports GalCiv2 Forums

for many of them you need to scroll down with the mouse wheel to see the whole text. I thought it was cut off in mid sentence too at first, but it's all there.

Reply to A little help with these forums and Firefox. in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

I use FF and have exactly this same problem. But it doesn't do this for other forums, so I don't think it is a firefox problem/setting. Sorry I can't help anymore than that.