Do Civ4 strategies apply in GC2?
from 
GalCiv2 Forums
GalCiv2 Forums
I've come from Civ4. A great game. But I've always wanted a "Civ4 in space" kind of game. Galactic Civilizations II is definately that game. I'm having a blast.
However, I'm looking for some advice on my strategies. I thought I could directly transfer my Civ4 strategies into GC2. It didn't work well at first, but I'm starting to improve.
The resources in the two games are different. In GC2, as far as I can the 3 resources are production (both social and military), research, and commerce. In Civ4, the 3 main resources are commerce, production, and great people.
In Civ4, I would highly specialize my cities. Each city would have a specific purpose. It would either pump out high production, high commerce, or high amounts of great people. Generally, depending on the size of the map, I would have 1 or 2 production cities, 1 or 2 great people cities, and then the rest would be commerce cities.
I attempted to directly transfer this strategy over to GC2. On a huge galaxy, I grabbed about 8 or 9 planets before I was surrounded by the other empires. 2 of them were made into production planets ( 1 of them had the "precursor factory" special on it, increasing production on that zone by 700%), 2 of them were made research planets, and the rest were all turned into commerce planets.
This didn't work. I was number one in commerce by far, having 4 specialized commerce planets. I had money out the wazoo. So much I couldn't possibly spend it all. However my research was abysmal. I was keeping up in technology simply by purchasing it from other races, but I was never able to get a technological edge, because I couldn't research fast enough. Every time I'd research something, the other civs would already have that advance, plus 2 or 3 more.
In retrospect, I evaluated my strategy and found 1 large flaw: In Civ4, commerce = research. The more money you have, the more money you can devote into research. In GC2 however, commerce does not = research. Research = research
So to only have 2 specialized research planets I was a major flaw. In Civ4, the more money you have the more advanced you can become in research. But in GC2, having loads of money means that at best you can only stay even with the other civs through trade, but never pass them in tech.
I started a new game, and things seem to be going much better. Once again I've grabbed somewhere around 8-10 planets from the get go. 2 of them are production planets (though I didn't get the precursor factory this time... man that thing was sweeeet), but the rest I evenly distributed between commerce, and research planets, instead of having just 2 research and the rest being commerce.
I've found that most of my time is spent trying to balance my research and my commerce. I try to keep myself researching at my max possible rate, while keeping my empire afloat economically.
Now, all of that being said, here is my main question: It seems to me from other threads I've read here that most other people don't specialize their planets as much as I do. They tend to make jacks of all trades, but masters of none. For example, I never have starports on anything other than my production planets. If it's a research planet, it's entirely dedicated to research, and keeping the population happy. If it's a commerce planet, it's entirely devoted to commerce, and keeping the population happy. Production planets are entirely dedicated to production, and are the only planets that get starports.
So what's the best plan? High planet specialization, or making highly self sustaining planets?
However, I'm looking for some advice on my strategies. I thought I could directly transfer my Civ4 strategies into GC2. It didn't work well at first, but I'm starting to improve.
The resources in the two games are different. In GC2, as far as I can the 3 resources are production (both social and military), research, and commerce. In Civ4, the 3 main resources are commerce, production, and great people.
In Civ4, I would highly specialize my cities. Each city would have a specific purpose. It would either pump out high production, high commerce, or high amounts of great people. Generally, depending on the size of the map, I would have 1 or 2 production cities, 1 or 2 great people cities, and then the rest would be commerce cities.
I attempted to directly transfer this strategy over to GC2. On a huge galaxy, I grabbed about 8 or 9 planets before I was surrounded by the other empires. 2 of them were made into production planets ( 1 of them had the "precursor factory" special on it, increasing production on that zone by 700%), 2 of them were made research planets, and the rest were all turned into commerce planets.
This didn't work. I was number one in commerce by far, having 4 specialized commerce planets. I had money out the wazoo. So much I couldn't possibly spend it all. However my research was abysmal. I was keeping up in technology simply by purchasing it from other races, but I was never able to get a technological edge, because I couldn't research fast enough. Every time I'd research something, the other civs would already have that advance, plus 2 or 3 more.
In retrospect, I evaluated my strategy and found 1 large flaw: In Civ4, commerce = research. The more money you have, the more money you can devote into research. In GC2 however, commerce does not = research. Research = research
So to only have 2 specialized research planets I was a major flaw. In Civ4, the more money you have the more advanced you can become in research. But in GC2, having loads of money means that at best you can only stay even with the other civs through trade, but never pass them in tech. I started a new game, and things seem to be going much better. Once again I've grabbed somewhere around 8-10 planets from the get go. 2 of them are production planets (though I didn't get the precursor factory this time... man that thing was sweeeet), but the rest I evenly distributed between commerce, and research planets, instead of having just 2 research and the rest being commerce.
I've found that most of my time is spent trying to balance my research and my commerce. I try to keep myself researching at my max possible rate, while keeping my empire afloat economically.
Now, all of that being said, here is my main question: It seems to me from other threads I've read here that most other people don't specialize their planets as much as I do. They tend to make jacks of all trades, but masters of none. For example, I never have starports on anything other than my production planets. If it's a research planet, it's entirely dedicated to research, and keeping the population happy. If it's a commerce planet, it's entirely devoted to commerce, and keeping the population happy. Production planets are entirely dedicated to production, and are the only planets that get starports.
So what's the best plan? High planet specialization, or making highly self sustaining planets?
Stardock Forums
)..... Have a few dedicated planets but try to have a large number of Jack of All Trade planets that can help you in all areas of your civs development; and *build more starports* - you'll thank me later when you up the difficulty level! 
I would have a couple planets that were generalized, and had a limited amount of production capability, instead of having only the 5 mega production planets. The reason for this is mostly due to military transports... I found that one major problem for me in military expansion was getting enough military transports produced quickly. With only 5 production planets, I was severely limited in my ability to churn out high numbers of transports when I was gearing for war. Plus a LOT of production was wasted when I would devote my mega producer planets to building teeny tiny transports for a couple turns on end. I think it would be beneficial to have 5 to 10 more planets with at least 1 factory and a starport, so they could put out a steady stream of transports.