I had the same problem - the more I wrote the less it made obvious sense. I'm terrible at that kind of stuff.

As for the Terrans, their TechTree is fine.  From a player's perspective, all of the tech trees are pretty much fine.  It's the way they AI sees them that causes problems.  If you really want to just check TA out and give the Terrans a test drive, you pretty much have to fix the TechTrees to really enjoy the experience.  Otherwise, you'll end up let down by AIs that can't build fleets or research their unique techs.  I feel a little weird saying "use my mod, use my  mod, use my mod" in a bunch of threads, but I just want people to enjoy the game to the fullest.

Sooo . . . my general opinion is . . . use my mod. I feel that it's close enough to the vanilla version that it's not like you're missing the experience, but without it you're definitely missing a big piece.

I do want to submit a few MV games under TA, but yes, TA always for me was going to be my mod expansion. Your tech tree mod, Logics, high res mod and my own race mod (when i finish it) should make for a near total conversion (except for screens and the like, thats all fluff to me).

thanks for the info though, i want to get a feel for the Terrans diplo power and may as well do it in TA and power on with influence as well. I never really played the Terrans, even in '06 on DL...the Torians and the Thalans always fascinated me more.

Everyone, thanks for the info!

Sole Soul your post is amazing but at first read it seemed mighty complex. You managed to explain to me the basic concepts though, which is more than I need to get started. I'm no stranger to strategy games but I'm no expert either. It's really weird that there isn't an actual base population growth number in DL - players shouldn't go to extremes in order to find some basic info. Anyways, I actually printed out your post for future reference.

What I can't understand fully is why sometimes my net profit goes up when I actually rise a slider. Some costs from the right screen disappear but I don't really understand the mechanics of it (probably because I'm being thick).

I took the advice from the first answer in the previous page and started a gigantic galaxy with abundant everything, normal tech growth and scattered stars. I picked the Terrans and went as Pacificts as it's the way I like to play (war is always the last resort).

I filled my tiles with factories and labs and farms (also one entertainment center) and created two more scout ships (man they seem to cover so little ground in the vastness of space). I plan to create some of my own designs when I discover some new techs - for the moment I can't even have lasers on my ships!

Should I try to take advantage of the planets near earth (not for habitation of course but for raw materials?) Can I even do that (do I need some special ship?

Also, should I attempt first contact as soon as possible or not?

Sorry for all the noob questions.

 

 

 

If you increase one slider, the others will decrease, thereby lowering your production and spending in those areas.


You should be careful not to overextend yourself in the beginning. To many factories and labs early on can wreck your economy. Also, don't build to many farms or you will have problems with approval eventually and lose population. One or two per planet is enough.


You can only colonize planets with a planet quality (PQ) of 1+. In DA and TotA some planets require a certain technology before you can colonize them.


This depends fully on your play style. Making early contact can give you access to new technologies. You can also sell old technologies and ships you no longer need to make money. You still have to find the other races and have "Universal Translator" researched before you are able to speak to them, though.

Or you can contact the other races only to declare war on them.

I thought this was what you might be getting at.  The answer is pretty simple - the percents aren't money, they're capacity.  25% research doesn't mean 25% money spent, it means that you're using 25% of your total research capacity.

Since the three sliders must equal 100%, if you raise one slider, one or both of the others must go down.  If you want to use 25% of your research capacity, then you can only use 75% of your manufacturing capacity.  If you want to double research to 50%, then you can only use 50% of your manufacturing.  So, say you have 10 labs and 100 factories.  Boosting research by 25% and reducing manufacturing by the same 25% means you put 2.5 more labs into use, but take 25 factories out of use.

Wait, did I just say that using 2.5 labs means idling 25 factories? Yes I did.

Does it make any sense? Not to me, but that's how it is.

 

It would have made more sense, if there were only the slider for overall production and the two for social and military.

But that is just my opinion.   

More to this, on your homeworld, no farms are actually needed, since the native pop cap on a HW is 16B, one entertainment facility (always max this line of tech out to gain the Virtual Reality Center) is all one will ever need on a HW. For other planets, 1 farm, 1 morale is the key. Avoid using farm bonus tiles, but do use morale ones!
There are certainly plenty of ways to go beyond this, but you never want your population too high. anything above 13B (your initial colony pop + 1 Xeno Farm III) and then you will require two morale structures. For larger planets this is fine, i do this for anything class 20 and above, but the more pop u have the more morale you need and the less econ structures you can place, so it becomes cost prohibitive, cash wise. Also the size of a planet will also affect population. Anything under a class 12 i will never take beyond 13B, your morale will suffer, since the planet is too small to support a greater population.

As you progress you will start to familiarize your self with planet focus. Here is where you can mess with your production quite an amount. I don't want to overwhelm you with information your not ready to grasp just yet, but building both factories and labs is often counter productive. With planet focus you can use your research points to focus on manufacturing, and vis-verca, though it is at a reduced rate, Sole Soul knows the math, but i'm sure you lose at least 25% of the output.

Take advantage of bonus tiles early on, but do pace yourself with your planet improvements, but focusing on labs will net you a higher gain, though cost more, but you can make that up by selling the extra tech you have to the AI.
A very popular strategy, especially, and in fact specifically in high scoring games is All Labs.
The title implies all one needs to know about the strategy, nothing but Labs, and using planet focus to a high degree. (though i wouldn't recommend jumping into this right now, it's for the experienced GC2 player)

 

Yes you should. The Terrans strong suit is in Diplomacy, so to make full use of your race abilities, dealing with the AI is a must. The Terrans ability in negations with the AI is fantastic, and only grows in Dark Avatar.
Using your diplo advantage you can sell tech for a higher price, or gain tech at lower prices.

One thing of note, you said you took Pacifists and that war is a last resort. what you need to make sure is that you do not neglect your military. The AI will go after the weakest, and fast. It's not at all surprising that if you are behind in military, then every AI will declare war on you. This won't be so appraent on the difficulty levels you are at, but it's best to be aware of it from the get go.
To check your military score against the AI, go to your colony Management screen and in the bottom right there will be the Military score vs which AI you have selected. Try and be in the top 3, and always above 100.

 

Yup, that was called for in the Beta i believe and was debated here on the forums from very early on. Hardcoded too, so no modding can help...

I don't know the math and it would make the game boring if I did TBH.  But I'm giving the Terrans a test run in DA in my current game.  The Terrans are somewhat of a mystery to some of us older players.  (We were scoremongers in the old days and didn't use the Terrans since they weren't good for score).  I'm running with vanilla Terrans against vanilla AI.  No mods, ARC, advanced tricks or anything like that.  Abilities are default, but I chose Technologist for politics.

Anyway, Right now, Earth is 17.496b pop at 73% approval.  I have 1 basic farm and a political capital for the 50% morale boost.  I figure you're probably going to build the political cap there anyway.  Earth is also my tech and econ capital, which might go against the grain for some, but we all have our own ways of playing.

I don't build entertainment structures at all, but things like the pol cap, frictionless clothing and such are a good idea IMO.  I should also mention that I have all yellow techs except counter espionage if you're doing calculations.  Difficulty is suicidal, gigantic map, scattered stars, abundant all, 9 AI, 8 minors, very fast tech.  I chose the evil options when they were presented and went evil when I got Xeno Ethics.  The date is 22 Jul 2227.

The Terran's diplomatic skills put them in class by themselves.  I'm really impressed with their ability to get pretty much whatever they want from the AI.   What they lose in scoring ability, they more than make up for in diplo.  My worst relations are with the Altarians with negatives for "Our Ethical Alignment" and "Our Alarming Influence".  Even so, it's still "Warm".

I'm not sure if this helps or not, but I figured it might give you a sense of what the Terrans are capable of in a vanilla game.  It's a meteverse game, so I'll post it when I'm done with it.

I'm looking forward to seeing how that goes mate. I'm still working through my epic military game atm, but them i'll start a Terran TA game and see how that fairs as well.
Will post score breakdowns and such when done, but i expect that to be some time away.

I wasn't around during the Beta for DL (joined in April '06), but I remember some of the later discussions, especially for DA and TotA. Too bad nothing ever came of it.

Golden info in this threads, really great stuff.

I'll be back with more question and progress info, just for the fun of it.

I finished my Terran game and posted it to the metaverse.  I posted the individual scores for comparing strength and such in our team thread

https://forums.galciv2.com/154389/page/131/#3075710

It looks like a quick game, but it took me several days to complete it.

I'm taking the Torians out for a spin now.