factions and starting bonuses

from Stardock Forums
Hello,
I've bought the game three days ago and played 3 games so far. One as Populist with bonuses in pop growth, diplomacy and speed, another as Universalist with bonuses in luck, morale, diplomacy and sensors and the last as Federalist with maxed economy and large boost to diplomacy. Since all games had different PQ settings (last with federaleists was at 'rare') I can't exactly said what combo was the best.

As Populist I was getting biggest part of income from tributes due to selling tecs (second lowest difficulty, first game, ya know). As Universalist economy played an important role but ocassionally I could sell tecs for good coin to most opponents (sub-normal). Third one was bit surprising to me. Starting from ~2183-2184, I had my spendings at 100% and still got surplus money on regular basis. Two times went below -500bc due to expensive invasions (normalized in 1-2 turns), and got ~50% from trade by end game.

Questions are:

1. What is the best combo for different strategies (like blitzing in Tiny-Large galaxy, tech superiority in Gigantic world, etc.)?

2. What bonuses are too expensive point-wise? I could think of extra trade routs vs. general economical bonuses.

All answers and suggestions are really welcome.

~SDC~
2,489 views 11 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
I think that the bonuses are reasonably well-balanced right now. It's hard to go wrong. Other games have picks that dominate. There have been picks that were overpowered, like +planet quality and +speed, but they were rebalanced.

+1 speed helps on huge/gigantic maps. It lets you grab a lot more planets and resources in the opening, especially when you set military to 100%.

+trade routes helps on tiny maps. If you build trade starbases, they can be a large part of your income. On tiny maps, since you have shorter trade routes, you can get them going earlier. On huge/gigantic maps, you will get deeper into the tech tree and get more of the techs that give you extra trade routes.

+luck is worth experimenting with

I also like +morale and +research.

There is rumored to be a bug with +production. Also, +economy does not work in the way you might expect at first. Remember that +production doesn't really do much for you unless you have enough money to fund at 100%.
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
Just a few tidbits:

From a pure number-crunching viewpoint, the Technologists are -surprisingly- the worst Party: They give you advantages worth 3 ability pts. while most others give 4.

Speed is very strong, perhaps too strong. As fsk says, it helps on large maps, but it also helps on small ones, which you can quickly dominate. AND it helps -a lot- in tactics: With 1 more Movement Point, you can stay just out of range of an enemy, so it´s your choice to attack, defend or flee. A slight difference in speed can often save -or doom- an entire fleet.

Diplomacy is very good for trading techs and trade goods, and for playing the Ais off against each other.

Morale is a very flexible advantage zhat allows for higher taxes OR a larger population OR less entertainment OR settling lower class planets.

Last, but not least: Join a strong Empire, such as G.R.O.S.S.! :D
Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
I believe in having some balance in your style: amplifying the stuff you are good at usually leads to death. So I reckon think about whatever your weakness in the game is, and choose picks to help with it. So:
- often beaten to the planets by the AI - take speed (and possibly range if you like maps with lots of empty space)
- can't seem to win the fights? consider HP + REPAIR (together, very powerful), possibly some DEF or ATT
- people seem unhappy all the time - take some morale
- want better diplo deals - take diplo (but not so useful at higher levels of AI)
- can't handle aggressive AI at very high levels - take attack (impacts their calcs - common choice at masochistic)

That said, I always take PQ+5, and supplement with the above logic.
(Choose the bonuses you want first, then the party to get some from that, and then fill in the rest.)

~SDC~
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
Thanks everyone for replies. I'll try to play with speed + range +sensors next time just to see how fast i can expand. Btw, industrialists with maxed mil production bonus seems to produce colony ships at double rate than others right at the start.

~SDC~
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
That's my IMHO

+2 Speed is maybe most powerful - too many reports about winning with it on masochistic.

Morale is almost useless - Entertainment Network gives same bonus as gives +200 to empire morale.

Economy gives half of it's bonus to taxes from population. So, +20 economy gives you +10% taxes. Note that you also get revenue from PQ (just set taxes to 0%, and you'll see it), revenue from PQ don't increasing by Econ bonus.

+Production bonus gives only capacity at the start (not sure that happens if you get +Production buildings/starbases). So, you can spend to production more, but you don't get free production.

+Research - same as with +Production, but also you'll get more %free research with this bonus if you have +Research buildings/Resource bonuses, so it's worthwile later too.





~SDC~
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
I'm sort of new at GalCiv myself--playing at slightly above Normal diff, small maps--but I've been having REAL good luck with the Populists. I maxed out Pop Growth at 5 pts/+70% and threw another point at +1 Morale, for a total of +3 Morale with Populist. My early game absolutely rocked. Overcrowding simply wasn't a problem, because I'd simply bleed off pop with Colony ships. And then the new colonies started off with enough pop that they could produce their own Colony ships right away, so I was leapfrogging. By the time things were settled, I had a little over twice as many yellow star systems as my nearest competitor.

My original game plan at this point was to invade a neighbor for some more living space (pop = soldiers), but that didn't work out. Every time I tried the damm victim would keep sending me freighters! I think the AI likes big planets to trade with. So I started colonizing class-14's and enhancing them instead. Overcrowded planets were donating about 1.5b pop, and the new colonies were getting Soil up in about 5 turns.

I won a cultural victory. All those planets and pop proved too much influence for my neighbors. Another thing I figured out was that you can trade those crappy class-14 and 13 star systems on your home turf (to major races) for a handsome profit and then culturally assimilate them back, but that's a borderline exploit.
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
+70% PopGrowth is good. I'm playing with it now.

//thing I figured out was that you can trade those crappy class-14 and 13 star systems on your home turf //
They'll disband it on next turn in 1.03 patch, and you'll get nothing for them anyways.


~SDC~
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
I'm playing 1.03 patch now. What I might have left out is I enhance them to class 15 before trading them. 13's take ~500bc to get to 15, and I usually get ~800bc for them on Intelligent AI. The beauty of it is, once it's PQ15 that's it. It's not going higher.

Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
It may not be the best but I like the War Party. My Vikings take 30 in economy, 40 in repair,15 weapons and 10 hp. I always get these trade goods/wonders:
1.Diplomatic Translators
2.Tri-Strontium Steel
3.Micro repair Bots
4.Galatic Stock Exchange.

I love my ships being tough. I recently won a military victory on a medium map on the tough level. Presently my Vikings are the 2nd best race on the painful level.

But the way I figure it, with my picks I can compete with ships that are more advanced. Especially if I lure them into sectors where I have a starbase or two.
Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top
The War Party looks like the best party on paper. +50% hp costs 6 ability points--more than any other faction. My problem is, Isimply don't go to war, so I haven't gotten it yet. How does the +50 bonus stack with the Shipyard, etc. bonuses? Is it just additive? I need to practice not being so doggone nice. :)
Reply #11 from Stardock Forums Top
I've played as War party with max bonuses in soldering, some in defence and offence, and +1 speed, tiny map and normal difficulty. It was peace of cake. Most of the time I wasn't investing in techs (after getting star fighters and transports). I think that soldering is more important if one plan large scale invasions. With AI troops advantage 1:6 it was a sure win for me. Only one invasion to Torian home system failed (1b vs. 9.5b, ~2b left).

Now I am playing as Federalist on huge map with +2 speed and +10% economy, normal difficultiy. Got for planets in the sector bordering Altarians which was 4 sectors from Sol.

~SDC~