DavidBeoulve

Reply to Tuesday Evening Reading in Just Hanging Out JoeUser Forums

Good reading, most of those links.

Reply to Hobbies in Life Journals JoeUser Forums

I love to torture small children (I have three girls, ages 10, 7 & 4 and a 2yo baby boy) and chase my lovely Latin wife around the house. Definitely invest time and effort into your hobbies outside of computers, especially those kids of yours. It's rewarding and you have earned it. As for the car - again - you've earned it, so enjoy that. Continue your effort to find other car lovers; if it doesn't pan out quickly it will eventually.

Reply to Extreme Colonization in DA in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

1) Definitely should be a slider to select how common these planets are. 2) Random atmospheres would only be subject to the materials in that solar system as it forms so - unless there are some exclusionary factors, total randomness is "in." Look at our solar system, Sol. 3) Not sure on this one. AI doesn't like low Planet Quality that turns into higher? Sounds like a future AI update.

Reply to Great XP in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

The custom opponents allows you to set how Good or Evil they will lean towards. It's the last screen, I believe, where you set their AI levels, CPU usage, finance levels, etcetera. Truly a most wonderful feature. I immediately created four races from my Sci-Fi stories and watched them all behave rather predictably. Apparently, until I relearn playing the early game (which is vastly improved and requires new strategies), I now suck as a leader of my old custom race for the same

Reply to Espionage in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

Mmm, 2nd thought - what we're missing from the old method is the "fire and forget" aspect. You could just manage sliders and these agents handled themseleves invisibly. Now it's an active aspect of the game, where you have to choose where to put them and what to put them on (I noticed the AI left agents on non-valuable resources longer). So if you miss being able to adjust sliders and forget about it, this new mode simply won't appeal to you. If you enjoy crushing the productio

Reply to Espionage in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

Actually I found it takes less time to reach higher espionage levels with agents (having 3 in a civilization) than the old way. True, I found it a tad odd, somewhat tedius, but once I saw the benefit I deemed it cool. It is costly to build agents fast, however, and you can't "info creep" the AI by spending a little espionage money on EVERYONE. Honestly, it's more realistic in a sense because you have to manage who you put where, though the agents being able to teleport anywhere

Reply to Advice for Game Settings in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

I wish asteroids were in open space, not just around stars. Ooooh... you want to get beaten up by all the Astronomy minors out there.

Reply to OK I give up. how do I open the galaxy pop up map? in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

Ahh, answered a question before I knew I had it.

Reply to Dark Avatar is AWESOME! in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

While I've had several hiatuses where I haven't played Galactic Civilizations II, I've always come back to it. Supreme Commander Beta sure put a dent in it, as did my stints in the most excellent Medieval II: Total War, Company of Heroes, and the serviceable Battle for Middle Earth II: Rise of the Witch King. However, playing Dark Avatar yesterday, I can say it's vastly improved. Gone is the planet rush, gone is the "Let's use diplomacy as an 'I win!' button!" This game is real

Reply to AI dies of plague in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

All right, I'm sorry, but this truly reminds me of "War of the Worlds."

Reply to Do you have two computers? Then get Multiplicity in GalCiv II News GalCiv2 Forums

Just be sure to add a link to more info when pimping cool products. While I have two computers and might get this, I'd prefer the bulk of GalCiv2's website to be, you know, GalCiv2 stuff. Just the intro text and a screen shot and a link to more info is better.

Reply to Galactic Civilizations II v1.3 BETA 1 change log in GalCiv Journals Stardock Forums

I think the Stardock team has done an outstanding job with GalCiv 2. I can't wait to play it on an E6700 CPU with Crossfire. Imagine the AI on that beast of a CPU. With the amount of time and energy and fixes they have put into this game - and by fixes I include UI improvements, AI strengthening and so on - Galactic Civilizations 2 is just an incredible buy. 2nd Best value per dollar spent game I've ever bought after Neverwinter Nights.

Reply to Getting new Ships in the game in Modding GalCiv2 Forums

Actually this is easy enough. I have two questions: 1) How can we avoid overwriting each other's ships? In other word, if I want to add a lot of custom models, how do I do so without doing it by hand every time? Here too, if I do add these custom models manually, that means that I can't download SHIP files other people have made using these custom models and expect them to work unless I used the exact same naming convention in the XML. Fhew.

Reply to No trade and no thief tag ? in Trade GalCiv2 Forums

Nice ideas guys -- I'd love to see the mods you come up using this (if it gets added, though they have a lot on their plate and I won't pretend to know what's most important -- not out of fan service but because I'm not them ).

Reply to Was Raymond Feist involved in Galactic Civ II? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

So your game isn't running -- but this game is just like it? How do you know Stardock actually delivers on bug-fixes and content addition. Work on the support forum threads to get your game on.

Reply to Duh, how do I ally? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Thank you guys! The Drengen AI (at one notch above "normal") suffered a crushing defeat when the Iconians(?) allied with me (I had wanted the Altarians to) and I played "America after Pearl Harbor" and churned out battle cruisers (large hulled ships) with a lot of firepower, enginges, and no armor and raced over the map (the AI doesn't account for "Gigantic Galaxy" sizes well pre-1.1 beta patch), smashing the Drengin military and then following with troop-transports that could outrace

Reply to v1.1: How to report a CRASH! in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

I can't use this page -- it's too wide Can you please edit your posts above?

Reply to Duh, how do I ally? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Ah, my thanks. Advise on how to get "Normal" AI to have "Close" relations with you?

Reply to AI question about tech trading among themselves in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Read the developer docs, blogs and interviews. The AI does not cheat. It caused them many headaches getting it working right while doing that -- no shortcuts.

Duh, how do I ally? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

I know this is a really stupid question and I hate putting my name to it -- but the Tutorial on Diplomacy doesn't touch on how to create an Alliance between yourself and other races. I assumed that both you and the other race had to have the technology, so I gave the Altarians the "Alliance" technology and they are "Friendly" with me -- still, no option. How do I form an alliance, or gaud them into it?

Reply to Getting my ass handed to me in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

That's far to much. Just take a cargo hull, fill it with sensors and place them at strategic points, cheap and effective. I love that idea.

Reply to Getting my ass handed to me in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Daemon Jax: Describe how you use Military Star bases. I put them up and add some basic offense so they're not sitting ducks and then add "assisting" weapons that help ships in their area fight. However; it seems difficult to get the AI to actually engage in battles at this location more than a few times, so I need to build more (than one on one good spot). What is your strategy? Weyrleader: How do you keep the Drengin from realizing you are a threat

Reply to GalCiv II: v1.1 BETA Change Log in GalCiv Journals Stardock Forums

I continue to be impressed by Stardock. The gameplay changes are marvelous -- I am sad they didn't have time to put them into the Gold release (1.0) but time and budgets are what they are. There are some brave changes to the way the game works -- namely population and extensive AI work. The greatest thing I can say about Stardock , other than their continued support of products I've already bought, is th