Wow! The difficulty level...

from GalCiv2 Forums
Is hard. I am playing the campaign for the first time. I am on the second mission, and the Drengin are kicking my everloving butt.

I cannot seem to research as fast as they can, although I am doing like 78% of the research in the galaxy. Tehy are way ahead of me in weapons tech. Not only that, but although I colonized 5 of the 7 planets, they seem to be able to pump out ships much faster and at a faster rate than I can.

Also, it seems strange to me that when they would seem so far behind, they are actually so far ahead, and quick to blockade my planets and destroy any ships I am able to build.

They had plasma weapons, when I had laser II, advanced hulls, advanced or better logistics, and frigates. I wass still building defenders. The game told me I had a military rating of 128 and then the Drengin started whooping on me.

I guess what i need are some pointers on what to do in the early game. I always tend to research in these games befor eI do much of anything else. I research the research options so I can research better and faster, but then find myself getting invaded. I restarted the mission and spent less time on research and more time on space weapons of different kinds. Didn't seem to help. I had almost my entire economy geared towards research, and the Drengin were out researching me.

Also, why is it that in this campaign, everything seems to be beam weapon based, but the defenses are armor? Wouldn't the research centers be more worried about defending against lasers if the enemy were shooting lasers at them?
10,395 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Same here, at least with the campaign. I know the word on the street is that the game doesn't cheat but I find the AI is almost always ahead in every way at least initially and I play very aggressively. They also seem to magically know where the best planets and resources are. I've seen their colony ships take bee lines through fog of war to such planets and resources far away from their homeworld in the early game when I know there is no way they should possibly know where to go, but they do rather mysteriously.

Maybe it's because they trade techs with each other. I don't usually like trading techs at all and perhaps this is part of my problem. In any case, I'm looking forward to the no tech trading option in the next release.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
in this game ur pretty much forced to trade tech because thats the only way to stay ahead of the ai though there are certain techs, such as weapons techs, that the ai wont trade over there dead body (well u can sometimes steal techs over there dead bodies)
Fences - Organize your desktop icons today!
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Also, are you using the in-game ships? You mentioned "frigate" and "defender"..... Try designing your own, hopefully with better engines... an AI can rarely beat a human in maneuvering even with a slight edge in firepower. Also, you don't need frigates (mediums hulls right?) until way later... like after plasma (phasors?)
Get miniaturization and get ur laser tech up (laser 3,4,5 should take like 2 turns each?)

Also, if the campaign is too tough at the moment, try skirmishes... Im a bit farther than you in the campaign and the dreadlords are raping me...
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Well, the Stellar Cartography tech allows you to see planets, but it doesn't tell you if they are habitable or what quality they are.

I have noticed that the AI don't have a range limit, because when i was the Iconians, i was out of range of these planets (3 20+ Quality) i was out of range and i checked the other races, i was superior in range and yet i couldn't reach those planets, but the AI could and i was alot closer to them then the AI was.

I think a good feature to put in this game is placeable starting positions, so you can put each race in the corners of the galaxy and give you more elbow room.

Yeh, the Dread Lords are nightmares. :/
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I know the word on the street is that the game doesn't cheat but I find the AI is almost always ahead in every way at least initially and I play very aggressively. They also seem to magically know where the best planets and resources are. I've seen their colony ships take bee lines through fog of war to such planets and resources far away from their homeworld in the early game when I know there is no way they should possibly know where to go, but they do rather mysteriously.


They know where the planets are because of stellar cartography - doesnt mean they know the quality of it. They also scout *a lot* at the start. Frogboy once posted the code to show that the AI didn't have any idea where things were anymore than the player. Just because you dont know that they know, doesnt mean that they dont know!! (*re-reads sentence to make sure it made sense*..... yeah!)



I have noticed that the AI don't have a range limit, because when i was the Iconians, i was out of range of these planets (3 20+ Quality) i was out of range and i checked the other races, i was superior in range and yet i couldn't reach those planets, but the AI could and i was alot closer to them then the AI was.


The minor races dont have a range limit from what I have seen.... but the AI definitely does. Perhaps they built a starbase along the way that you didnt see?