Good early game/beginners tips?

There's a strategy forum for this kind of thing. You might want to look through it.

There are lots of ways to keep up, and I don't know what exactly you're doing or what type of galaxy you're in, but a typical starting strategy is to set spend rate to 100% and 100% military production and churn out colony ships until there aren't enough planets in your area to make it worth continuing. (Buying ships early on is dangerous to your finances.) Then switch to research and go for Universal Translator. Other good early techs include Diplomacy, Nano-Metal Composition and Basic Environmental Contronl. You don't need to research everything yourself - you can compensate for being behind on techs by researching something that none of the AIs has and then trading it round to all of them.
Try and get some trade going as soon as possible - it brings in money and improves relations.
Don't build too many social improvements. Things that improve planet quality are well worth it, and some of the Wonders and Trade Goods and Capitals, but many of them cost you money every turn and give only very minor bonuses.
Don't modify your tax rates too much. I set mine to forty-something percent at the start and only lower it if I think I'm going to lose an election. If you lower it for no reason, then your population may grow too far and then if you have to put taxes up again you'll have severe unhappiness.

You don't need to keep up in every field. For example, if you can build a strong economy and pay the occasional bribe, you can get away with having no military.

If you do get left behind, don't panic. I actually prefer things that way - the AI looks like it's ten times as powerful as me, but I still win in the end. It gets easier later on in the game as you get hold of more money and techs. If you have too few planets, find someone weak whose planets aren't too well protected, build up your fleet, and... BLAM!

I perused the strategies section, and saw some interesting stuff, but actually, your suggestions were more what I was looking for. Just general global strategies, not so much Steps A, B, and C strategies (which seems to be more what I find on the strategy center) or narrowly focused strategies (IE: how to stop a transport rush).

I guess maybe I'm bailing too quickly on my games and should let them play out a bit more. I'll just have to mess around with things.

FWIW, I'm playing typically gigantic galaxies, loose or tight clusters, and on "normal" settings for all the AI. I usually have two neutral civs, one pure good (altarians), one chaotic good (torians), and one pure evil (dregin -- duh). I know some say to set everyone to evil in case the fundamentalists show up, but that just seems to rob some of the complexities from the game. Plus, it seems to cut your victory options (IE: if you're good, you're not gonna get an alliance victory with all evil civs, I'd imagine).

Anyway, thanks for the tips!

Actually, I almost always get alliance victories with Pure Evil aliens. The Drengin, when week, often surrender to me, not other evil. I am always working toward Pure Good, but usually end up as Chaotic Good.

There is only one thing needed to ally with a civ: to have the relation status set at close. Sure, good civ will have hard time to improve relations with evil civ but high diplomacy, trade routes and bribes (BC over 100 turn or tech) can be helpful.

If you plan an alliance victory, try to ally with all AI in the same turn if you don't want to be dragged into war.

I tend to give up as soon as I start losing my good planets. But merely being behind isn't as serious as in, say, Civilisation 2. If I survive into the late game, I always win, one way or another. I'd give you a list of the techniques I use to do this, but the game's probably more interesting when you don't know the cheesy tactics that fool the AI every time. Just remember that what looks like an overwhelming AI military advantage in the tables can be often overcome - they might have a lot of small and ineffective ships, or might have lots of good ships but all in the wrong places. And think how satisfying it will be when you win from a no-win situation!

True. I'm used to games like Civ2 and 3 where, if you start getting behind, unless you have geography working for you, you're in bad shape. That's one of the few things I miss about the MOO games -- the star lanes concept. You could have real lynchpin/crossroads planets and other planets that were farther away and MUCH easier to defend. In some ways, I actually prefer a corner start position because it limits my exposure to attack and gives me far better defensive posturing (which I tend to prefer). In the Civ games, though, if you get too far behind, you're really up the proverbial creek.

What gets me, however, is how one AI civilization can seem to dominate EVERYTHING from early on. IE: the Yor can get the most tech, ships, and money right off the bat (or whoever, just for the sake of argument). Anyway, I'll just have to try sticking it out longer.

It seems that different factors such as location to other AIs, planet types, trading of Techs and general trade contribute to how aggressive and successful an AI is. I have played games on easier modes where I was the aggressor and the AIs took a subordinate roll.

Once you are on a good roll in this game it is easy to stay on top. It is also easy to get behind if you concentrate too much in the wrong areas. The nice thing about this game is, even if you are behind you can stay alive and even win the game.

Being patience is the real key to any victory. This is especially true when playing in a gigantic universe. Right now, I'm playing with all the civs in GalCiv's AP and it should be interesting.

Don't rush to conclusions in the early games. I've have started behind in some of my games in tech, military and economics and only to pull ahead to victory. In one game, the Arcean (neutral) were dominating in everything. I was just not able to win via military or alliance. However, I notice via observation that victory could be won by tech and that is what I strove for in the mid game. That is exactly how I won. The Arcean, btw, ended up being behind me, Altairans and the Torians - techwise.

I, too, am a newbie, but I've found at least one way to remain financially solvent: selling technology.

In GalCiv techs are VALUABLE! If you research a few cheap techs you can sell them to the whole galaxy. Any one civ might not pay a great deal, but getting paid 6-7 times makes up for it.

If you buy a tech from an AI, get it out to the others as quickly as you can, and recoup some of what you paid.

Diplomacy is also extremely important. You can't sell a tech 6 times over unless you have 6 civs willing to pay.

Try to hang onto techs that provide "Special Projects" (Wonders, Trade Goods, etc.) until you've built the exclusive, though. "Minor" civs are particularly bad about sitting on a huge pile of money, looking for something to build. An "exclusive" tech in their hands might as well be a ticking clock.

Yeah, I hear ya. I'm in a game currently where I've got about 8-10 planets colonized in a corner of the map, and am behind on techs and military (and most other things). But, I've got good positioning, and I'm learning that techs can be obtained VERY quickly, once you get far enough along. I'm trading for techs as much as possible, and have a decent cash flow, so I'm not selling 'em much. The majors seem to be bankrupting themselves currently, though I've only contacted two.

The minors have gotten most of the trade goods, which doesn't really bother me so far, and I'm currently building a couple wonders (which should be done in about 18 turns or so).

In short, I'm feeling like I've got a good shot at this game. I'm learning also that positioning is key. I set the habitable planet types to "occasional" for a huge galaxy game, and found a good cluster of stars to start in that let me get a good base of planets going. The other races seem to have more population and influence, but they may be building/buying influence stuff very quickly.

Quick question -- does population in the game grow exponentially? It seems to be, but I can't tell for sure.

I think it is +3% growth for planet morale of 60-99 and +6% for a planet for 100%.

One thing in trading techs, I never trade Terracomputer.

Absolutely the most valuable Trade Good are Diplomatic Trarnslators. After settling all the available planets, switch to 100% research and get Diplomacy as quick as possible. Research Med Theory and Environment Improvement. Trade for Tech (but keep Diplomacy. Build Soil, Banking, and then have your most productive planet build Diplomatic Translators. Never trade this advantage to any of the majors.

As a side note, I have heard that when selling techs, you can get more money from them by having it paid over time. I have sold a batch of high techs for 100 bc for 24 months often! It really boosts your economy, but just remember about its transitory nature before you decide to build that 6 bc maintenance improvement.

True. Sell tech for someting like 20 months. Be warned that this is a beginner strategy. And it doesn't work well at higher level: AI will give you less money.

It's often cheaper to trade for the trade goods than to build them - typically you can buy DipTrans for around 35bc for 100 turns.

Alex


~SDC~

Yes, but building TG give you some metaverse points. Unless you are scoring 60K, this particular aspect can be useful. This is the reason why I am able to score 55K with galciv 1.20 : I try (and sometimes succeed) to build all TG.