Short on time, need quick answers, thanks.

from GalCiv2 Forums
Experienced player (old MOO, MOM and CIV player), love the game, having trouble getting my head around a few concepts. Thanks for any input, no flames please.

1. Is there any benefit to putting more than one engine on a ship?

2. Civs I'm at war with keep surrendering to other civs. I keep moving backwards in power instead of forwards when I go to war. Any way to prevent this? If not, the military solution does not seem to be a viable way to win.

3. What real benefit am I getting from sensors? Do they help in combat at all? What weapon system would they benefit (guns, beams or missiles)?

4. Armoring a ship design allows me to place a little pod on the skin of my ship. Am I correct in assuming it armors the whole ship?

5. I've researched Planet Bombardment, now how do I do that? I can't build bombs and I don't see anything else in my arsenal I can use. I keep having to attack planets with a 1gig size army. Any way to whittle that down without turning the planet into a smoking hole?

6. It would seem my intelligence reports are seriously lacking when it comes to telling me the size of the land army I'll be fighting. I keep landing on planets with a 1k army having to fight 1gig armies. Am I missing something here?

7. Any way for my spies to steal tech or sabotage surface installations?

8. How does the Planetary Defense system work? Am I a passive participant or is there anything I can actively do when my planet is being attacked?




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Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
1) they can move further per turn.

2) There is a formula for who they decide surrender to.

3) Sensors reveal more of the fog of war around your ships/stations. They don't offer any actual combat benefit, but assist in your own personal decision making tactics.

4) Yes, ships aren't divided into parts. It's one big (or small) lump of HP with a lump of Attack and lump of Defense.

5) Planetary bombardment allows an invasion tactic called mass drivers that you can choose when invading. The tech also add a small amount to your soldiering skill.

6) The number of troops you have on your ship will go up against the entire population of the planet your are invading.

7) Once you have achieved Advanced for your espionage rating on a Civilization, you will sometimes automaticly steal a technology from them. There will be a popup saying your spies have stolen the technology, but I don't know what factors determine how often you will steal something.

8) Planetary Defense Tech raises your Soldiering which will help your population be slightly better at defending. It also allows your to build a few improvements on your planets that can help with defending.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Regarding sensors, at most, you should make a sensor ship using a cargo hull. Just put alot of sensors, engines, and some life support. Don't ever put them on your warships. You can even skip the sensor ship by researching up to Sensors IV and building the Eye of the Universe achievement, which gives all your ships and stations a sensor range of 15 parsecs. It's relatively cheap to research and the AI doesn't often bother with sensor tech, so there should be little worry about getting there first.

Regarding engines, in my recent games I've most often not put them on my warships. The AI rarely does until later in the game, so it's generally sufficient to research up to Warp Drive for the intrinsic bonuses so that even ships without engines can move 3 parsecs per week. Of course, sometimes I will build a very fast ship with a single weapon, simply to intercept unarmed enemy ships (like troop transports) and destroy unarmed stations.
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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
In order to get the most out of your war efforts, make sure that you strike quickly. If you can't do a blitzkrieg style attack, make sure that you take the GOOD planets that you can reach...that way when he surrenders, you won't be giving a potential rival phat planets.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
It troubles me that questions can be asked about ship design when the answers are in the summary window. Did you try adding two engines? If you did, you would have seen the speed increase. Adding a sensor would have increase the sensor range, etc.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Have your troops transport ready before you start a war and have more than enough of them. They'll surrender only when they know they will lose for sure, ie they're ten+ times weaker than you are, so if you concentrate on invading planets instead of hunting every enemy ship, you'll be sure the war will last a bit longer and you can be sure of having an advantage after they surrender.

What's also fun is you get very friendly to a civ that you know will lose a war against the other civ and they usually will surrender to you when they're almost wiped out. Happened to me twice in one game.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
@*xM3N*

Leaving you with undefended planets ready to be taken over if you're at war with another..Getting those extra worlds can be a hit on your economy if you need to build up some defences asap.

Works the other way around as well offcourse.. In my last game I was at war with the Torians and the Arceans. I had the Arceans crushed and they "surrendered" to the Torians... Leaving 10 worlds undefended.... Easy pickings