Influence Questions

from Stardock Forums
I'm still relatively new to GalCiv, having played two games to their conclusion one on Beginner, one on normal. I've bumped up the difficulty to Normal, and find myself wondering what is up with influence -- more specfically, what I'm doing wrong.

Both games I've won, I did so by alliance. I focus heavily on diplomacy and trade, only building militarily defensively to make sure people don't demand tribute of me. I've found in the normal games, that I just can't cut it when it comes to sector influence. The game I won, I was pinned in a corner. I had a decent amount of planets, but the Torians had every empty sector around me. The only ones I could control were the ones I had planets in... I had cultural star bases out everywhere, and only managed to claim some empty sectors.

The game I'm currently playing, I felt I was doing good. Did a massive planet grab, as I had a good start location. Then I met the Drengin empire. They manage to grab 1 planet that I hadn't backfilled at, and sectors went to them left and right :notsure:. Three sectors that I had planets in (one of which their planet was in, two others around it), were controlled by them. I found it mind boggling -- I had all of these star systems right around this area, and their one planet swung the influence to their favor. The rest of their planets are quite a ways off.

I build news networks, keep morale high with entertainment networks, and try to build embassies and cultural exchanges, as well as starbases with culture mods on them... but nothing seems to work. What is it I'm doing wrong?
157 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
Maybe they had a starbase heavily mining an influence resource (blue cube; should be high priority along with econ and military). Population and certain trade goods and wonders also matter.
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
No starbases, that I could see. I haven't gotten enough of his area to explore to see if he has any blue cubes being mined, though I have one going pretty decently. I have all of the trade goods researched thus far (diplomatic translators, aphrodisiacs, tri metal, and frictionless clothing). Not sure about the wonders he has built, I can only remember the Yor building one, but I might have just missed it.

Only thing I can think of is population, but I don't think his population in that area is all that much more vast than mine.. unless population, as a whole race, influences it that much.
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Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
Other considerations: the AIs get racial bonus picks just like you. Sometimes they go culture nuts. I had a game I lost yesterday where not only did the Arceans get 2X the systems that I did, they must have had a massive culture boost because a couple of years into the game, my tiny empire and everything around it was all yellow.
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
CM,

That seems to be the most remarkable thing about this game, that it can vary so dramatically from one game to the next. Half the fun of this board is hearing about different things that happen to people, like the thread where the Independent league (which I haven't seen yet) eliminated all spacecraft not in orbit. It's amazing to hear people say things like "savor that, because you may never see it again" about a computer game.
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
I think my video card is getting out-dated, because when i click on "show sectors influence" nothing changes on my mini-map. I have Geforce2 64 mb, i wonder if i need to changes some settings for Galciv, any body else had this problem/ know how to fix it?

SoulWound
MCW Member