they specilised their planets and prob put all their funds on mainly tech and social so they could get a head start then all onto millitary to build their Invaiding fleet...





Oh they also did their homework







as in I mean they probably been spying on you

oh they may also have had some HUGE bonuses on their planets like 700% tile for Research and Manufacture

I'm assuming you were playing with more than 1 opponent. In that case, the computer was doing what people call "tech trading," which basically causes all computers to share all their techs (not quite that simple, but it happens). Anyhow, what this means is that a player who does not participate in this trading is going to fall way behind in tech (and better tech allows a better economy and better ships).

There is good news though, I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance by switching to Geiko.

Seriously though, in 1.1 there will be an option to disable tech trading. That will probably even out the playing field.

"Tough" is the difficulty at which the computer plays its best game without cheating. If you play higher than tough, the computer is getting production (or economic, I forget) bonuses.

actually, i think intelligent is the final non-cheating level. unless you count knowing all known human tactics and countering each one of them cheating

I personally don't see any point playing on any difficulty above cakewalk.

the bonus points you get as you increase difficulty is not enough compared to the increased difficulty.

Its like on Freespace 2, the points you get per kill and mission is based on your difficulty level, but i have learnt that the bonus points you get in insufficient compared to the difficulty increased.

So i see no point in playing on higher difficulty.

I have noticed the AI produces ships and research vastly faster then me....they always have Master trade within 10 turns of the game starting. :/

i still see no point in playing any difficulty above cakewalk...you don't get anything special for doing it.

Technology, upgrades, starbases, there are many ways to upgrade your production capibilties. Just watch out for them to sneak up on you. Tech-trade a lot in the beginning while keeping diplomatic technologies to yourself (to keep a good bonus). Trade strongly with the weaker civs, attack them only when its to your advantage. Build up tech, social, and keep an eye on them for your military. Build Starbases later on and get out the economy/influence. Build and get em!

trust me, its true.

especially when its the Altarians.

I doubt it.

i still see no point in playing any difficulty above cakewalk...you don't get anything special for doing it.

The reason to play above cakewalk is to have some real challange. If you never go above you'll never learn to deal without your bonuses. I've NEVER played cakewalk and I'm doing well with the Beginner AI. It's not that the AI is super human, it's just knows what it's doing well.

I personally don't see any point playing on any difficulty above cakewalk. the bonus points you get as you increase difficulty is not enough compared to the increased difficulty. Its like on Freespace 2, the points you get per kill and mission is based on your difficulty level, but i have learnt that the bonus points you get in insufficient compared to the difficulty increased. So i see no point in playing on higher difficulty. I have noticed the AI produces ships and research vastly faster then me....they always have Master trade within 10 turns of the game starting. :/

It's not a question of score. It's a question of whether you are letting the AI play to what its capable of. The settings for the overall race intelligence run Cakewalk, Easy, Beginner, Normal, Challenging, Tough. After that the AI starts to have production/economic bonuses. It is only at Tough that all the algorythms for the AI are unlocked. Any time below that you are basically playing a crippled AI.... on cakewalk and easy, they even have production and economic penalties.

Now for me, I don't see any reason to play beyond Tough. I've never liked the AI getting free stuff even if they need it to win. Civ 4 for example, I managed to beat the game a few times on Deity but I vastly preferred playing it on Prince. Deity was a constant stress and a focus on one single strategy to beat the AI down, Prince was a balanced fun game where I could relax.

One thing that's really important in Galciv is that on the lowest difficulties the AI is plain stupid. It doesnt do much and what it does do it does inneffectually. By playing on that, it's like have a clay pigeon shooting contest with a blind man.... or any other unfair analogy you can think to insert here.

So yeah JamieKirby, it is your game and play it as you like , but I think you will find that the game has a lot more shelf life and variance if you play to your level.

Thats whats good about games like this, you can actually play on the lowest level and try to beat your score each time. Me, I usually play GalCiv2 and CIV4 on average (or slightly higher) levels just so I can have fun and at the same time try new strategies and see how well I do each game, attempting to better my scores each time. Since these games are a new game each time, you never know what you run into. I have had times when I played a CIV4 game on the same exact level with the same settings trying the same strategy, I would get owned in one game and dominate in the other. Now GalCiv2 is the same way, heck I even had this happen in GalCiv1 more then once. Can you say replayability??

What's the point of playing GalCiv2 on Cakewalk?? I think most 7 yr olds could destry everybody in 2hrs like that... wait a minute... 7 yrs old/not liking a challenge... I think I'm beginning to see a trend here...