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Reply to ?? About influence/stations (Being new sucks=( ) in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

To get really fast ships doesn't require excessively long build times. Keep in mind I utilize the speed abiilty, for a base +2 movement, and I primarily go for the engine techs for the free +speed to all ships, raising their speed without raising their production times. Starting with +2 speed, then gaining another +2 from some relatively easy researching is causing my first wave ships to move 3X faster than the opponents, which is extremely significant considering the production time d

Reply to How do YOU plan your home planet? in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

Awesome! Thanks for all the feedback guys It appears the general consensus is, no matter what your tastes are, a balanced home world is ideal. No major stacking of 1 type or another seems very popular. Several factory type buildings, then a variety of economy/research/misc buildings is the pattern. And to answer MrVegetable's unsure statement of the pop cap: even in DA, the

Reply to How do YOU plan your home planet? in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

Yep, just the kind of responses i was hoping for. It helps quite a bit. I build mine similarly. I play huge maps right now with low threat opponents, just so i can get the familiarity of expansion under my belt before taking on aggressive opponents. --End Transmission From: Obnoticus: Lord of the Rediculoids of planet Home Depot II.--

How do YOU plan your home planet? in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

Just wondering what people place on their first planet and why. Being still new, there's a lot of options, and it's always a hard decision. I usually stack with about half factories, a few research buildings (depending on bonus tiles), and an economy building or two. It takes a while to pull out of negative income, and I'm seeing that this is one of the harder, more important hurdles to conquer, is an early stable economy. So what do you guys put on your home planet

Reply to Auto-upgrade obsolete/old buildings question in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

"--End Transmission From: Obnoticus: Lord of the Rediculoids of planet Home Depot II.--" LOL... Rediculoids - that's awesome!! Thanks I like it too, the name came

Reply to ?? About influence/stations (Being new sucks=( ) in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

To the guys mentioning "speeding up their constructors" - it sounds like a great idea... same w/making Freighters/colony ships/etc faster.... BUT if you add advanced engines... it drastically increases the time it takes to push said ships out of the shipyards = how does that really help in the longrun??? I've tried this strat you guys speak of, but the time would go from (for example) 4 weeks for a normal constructor to say... 6-8... and if t

Reply to Auto-upgrade obsolete/old buildings question in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

I hate auto-upgrading--particularly with factories that may bankrupt me. This is my biggest gripe about the game--which I like anyway. I realize that you can turn this off per planet in DA (though I don't remember how). I think when you get a new tech from conquering a planet, you should be asked whether you want to upgrade at all (for all planets). If I want to upgrade planets later, fine. There are times when I have to go through all the

Reply to ?? About influence/stations (Being new sucks=( ) in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

Yeah I play gumpy-no skill required difficulty still (im only on my,like, 3rd legit game) and being a big fan of the Civ line, I quickly identified that the speed ability with its 8 point cost is extremely valuable, and quite addicting. Needless to say I shoot straight for some research techs (Im trying different starting tech spreads), then pound out to warp engines. It's a hard grind, kinda makes me nervous, but having colonies and constructors with a 16 (Or whatever it ends up being) speed

Reply to Auto-upgrade obsolete/old buildings question in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

I am noticing this when i start to get soil and habitat upgrades to free up new tiles. Maybe my inconsistency or confusion is caused because upgrades cease when new tiles become open? then resume after all the open tiles are filled? My colonies have auto-upgrade checked, im just confused as to how this system works. Thank you!

Auto-upgrade obsolete/old buildings question in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

So, I play gold edition, no downloaded updates (gonna get used to the game first), and I noticed a peculiar inconsistency, and im unsure of how to approach a solution. I notice no matter what, my factories type buildings always auto upgrade, as do my farms, apparently, but my influence and research buildings do not. Though sometimes i think they do, Im not sure. (im playing grossly huge games with lots of planets to just get used to having to manage my colonies, so It's hard t

Reply to ?? About influence/stations (Being new sucks=( ) in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

Thanks for all the feedback! I raised the question originally when i discovered the max modules for influence starbases add up to the final one adding 100%, seeming to make them extremely potent, for whatever their primary use was. Unfortunately for me however, I attempted to flip 4 starbases of an un-allied krynn opponent (they got in MY galaxy), and their military blossomed before mine so they decided to systematically exterminate my starbases. Do the negative relati

Reply to Guides or generally good strat thread? in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

There is a basic starting strategy guide written by Brad when Dread Lords first come out in the databanks area of this site. It is mainly just to get people started. There is also an excellent in depth Startegy guide written for Dark Avatar by Jpinard. You can find it Here There is of course a whole lot of good info to be found around this forum, just takes some searching at times <IMG id

Guides or generally good strat thread? in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

Are there well known guides, or threads, offering just general tips, basic strategies, priorities for goals, and random tidbits? I have so many questions and there seems to be so many X-factors to everything that it's becoming very difficult to break the threshhold from 'just started playing' to 'i know how the game works, and now i can manipulate it'. I feel like I'm blindly going on instinct, and not fact or reason when I'm making my choices. Leave my first expansi

Reply to ?? About influence/stations (Being new sucks=( ) in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

Influence Starbases boost your influence independantly, they don't really need a planet nearby to do their thing. But the range of an influence base is limited. If you click on one, you'll see a circle around it. This is the only area that is affected by that base, it's influence won't expand past that. So if you're trying to flip a planet, you have to make sure the base is properly positioned in order to have an effect. Incidentally, another use for influence

Reply to ?? About influence/stations (Being new sucks=( ) in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

upgrading your resource starbase over an influence resource increases your overall influence ability, also you can use constructors to focus your influence in specfic locations(ie building 3 influence starbases in an enemy sector will increase your tourism income and your overall influence in that sector maybe even enough to "flip" the planets to your control). be aware that flipping the AI's planets to you control will hurt relations with that civ and they may declare

Reply to ?? About influence/stations (Being new sucks=( ) in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

Oh yes, I forgot, one last question. Are resource mines flippable, or only conquerable via combat. I assume the latter. Thanks so much again

?? About influence/stations (Being new sucks=( ) in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

I just started playing a few days ago and after reading forums a bit, I just want to first say that everyone here seems very nice, and very helpful, so I thank you in advance for any assistance you might give. I have the gold edition, and no downloaded updates, first off. My questions are simple. I enjoy the influence systems in the game, and am wondering about the interaction of influence stations and over-all influence. If I have influence powerhouses deep in my ter