Galactic Noob Question (on Research and some other stuff)

from GalCiv2 Forums

Hi! I bought the Ultimate Edition some time ago, as part of a collection of more sci-fi games. I just recently started to get really into it, but there are some things that puzzle me and the manual, forums and wiki did not help.

 

First, how is research linked with production? I understand that I can use the Production Capacity-slider to choose how much of my research/production capacity I want to use. Then I have those three sliders for military, social and research. So I can adjust what percentages of the "hammers" gets to space ships and to buildings. I see that I research techs faster, if I assign a greater percentage to research, at the expense of social and military production. But I just don't understand how production and research are linked in this game since "hammers" come from factories, while "beakers" come from academies and such. Do I need a "hammer" + a "beaker" to generate a tech point?

 

After playing some normal games (beginner & simple), I tried the Dread Lords-campaign (normal difficulty). I found the first two missions simply boring, I just conquered almost passive opponent. Does it get any better later on? And are there missions that allow victory without just conquering everything? What are the other campaigns like?

 

I also noted that at the beginning, I can build basic farms, but they vanish after a few turns. I checked the tab for old buildings too.

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Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

After playing some normal games (beginner & simple), I tried the Dread Lords-campaign (normal difficulty). I found the first two missions simply boring, I just conquered almost passive opponent. Does it get any better later on? And are there missions that allow victory without just conquering everything? What are the other campaigns like?

The campaign becomes a good deal more challenging when the Dread Lords show up. The first few missions against the Drengin seem more like tutorial levels then anything else, but there's only three of them, then things get interesting.

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Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

You don't need a hammer and a beaker to generate a tech point, no.  You have a form of inefficiency while any of the sliders is at less than 100%, because although you are still paying the same credits to maintain all those colony buildings, you are getting less from the ones that have less funding.

Each hammer or beaker costs 1bc to make, except for bonus hammers or beakers which you get because of your civ's abilities or from economic starbases, those cost half so 1bc for two (summed up under Bonus Production/Research on the budget).

What this means is that you will want to adjust the sliders according to your situation.  If you really don't need any new ships, you can set the military slider to zero.  If you're not building any new buildings, you can set the social slider to zero.  If for some reason you need to crank ships or buildings really fast, you can set the research slider very low or at zero.  You will never be able to get 100% efficiency across the board, but when you need it you can get maximum efficiency in one area.

Bear in mind that if you set a colony to produce no ships or buildings, the military and social funding it gets (Spending) will not actually be spent so you can cut back on outgoings that way too.

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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Thank you for the explanations. I find it somewhat unintuitive that I can't operate my factories and labs both at full power if I'm willing to spend enough, but well, at least my opponents can't do it either.

Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Well, in the later stages of the game, if you have lots of planets and lots of tiles to build income-generating buildings, you can get around the lowered efficiency by increasing the basic output.  To do this you can build economic starbases, or you can simply add more buildings (power plants can also help in some cases) or you can do both.  It really depends on whether your colonised planets are clustered (close enough that you can boost the production on several of them with one or more starbases) or scattered.

Each building may eat credits in maintenance though, which is why when I conquer planets I tend to demolish anything on the planet which does not fit in with my current plans, except recruiting centres and economic buildings which usually only cost 1bc apiece.  The initial colony on its own adds 10bc, and the basic production it generates can cost more than that.

I know that it seems odd to demolish a perfectly good factory or lab, but thing is, if I've got to the stage of invading a planet I already have a factory or lab somewhere else doing the same job.  I've now denied the enemy the use of those factories or labs, and on the off-chance that he re-conquers the planet, he has to waste time and credits rebuilding again.

Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Plus the AI tends to be somewhat stupid on the planet design of the buildings, like he will build many factories or labs on a planet but don't have the money to maintain all of them.

Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

One of the reasons for this is those basic labs or factories that get spammed onto all tiles as the AI notices empty tiles and thinks 'Need MOAR Research!' and 'Need MOAR Production!'  Then when it finally gets round to researching Xeno Economics practically all its tiles are full and it can barely squeeze in any Adv Market Centers.  Oops.

Giving the AI (and the human player too) less choices about what to build in the very beginning may mean a slower start overall, but one that lays a good foundation for the rest of the game.