20-06-2004 20:28									#31
	Inflate your Upload Space

Another thing you can do is go demo/lith/LHW and wait until evolutionary mutation to give you either sub or +2 res or +2 prod or whatever.

	23-06-2004 22:09									#32
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Yeah, I was about to suggest the unitol race, but it looks like you found it. I prefer warlord as the other 4 points, mainly because I prefer to have large fleets in the early and late game, which is more difficult without the +2 Command Points per colony. Also, with unitol I don't recommend population growth penalties. I tried it, and maybe its just the way I play. I found myself building housing too much.

Another tip I have is kill one or two of the lesser races, then attack the strongest AI, before attacking the rest. My reasoning is they will get too big, and usually the AI's keep each other in check by attacking each other. If you eliminate the strongest race's enemy, then you will have to trim down their massive fleet. They usually are weaker at the begining.

	28-06-2004 20:49									#33
	Re: MOO2 General tips and pointers, specific play advice Suffering from ads?

quote: Originally posted by AvA_Majestic While I can beat the AI on impossible sometimes when the chips fall my way, usually I find I'm coming second in every game I play. I'll be taking on other races fine, until the superpower race decides to end my fun with 50 titans or so, be it Sakkra, Psilon, or most frequently, Silicoid.

It's really simple: play creative race, research everything and then build the Ultimate Doomstar (tm).

Put the following systems on it:
- battle pods
- reinforced hull
- damper field
- high energy focus
- achilles targeting system
- structural analyzer
- time warp facilitators
- inertial nullifier

Then fill the rest of the space with Af dispruptors, make some of them Hv too (warning: do not select shield piercing ability, it's waste of space.) Also remember to select a good leader for the ship.

This Doomstar can easily knock out 50 AI-designed Titans, methinks. You can select "auto" in combat mode, because the AI should manage this ship well enough.

	29-06-2004 02:04									#34
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The problem is getting to that point though, you have to fight with what you have if the AI forces the issue.

	29-06-2004 03:30									#35
	Got spare money?

quote: Originally posted by Whoha The problem is getting to that point though, you have to fight with what you have if the AI forces the issue.

Yep... but the human-designed ships are much more effective than the AI could ever manage to create.

If you have less tech, maybe you should stick to building titans (or maybe battleships), for example. Some very good systems for smaller ships are:

- reinforced hull (always this)
- battle pods
- damper field (capture Antaran ships to get this, also remember xentromium armor)

These may not come so early in the game, but they are good too (select whatever is available):
- high energy focus
- achilles targeting system
- structural analyzer

Then fill the rest of the space with Af (and Hv) phasors.

	29-06-2004 19:42									#36
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Doomstars? I rarely even built a titan, battleships are plenty. If I do build a doomstar (only as a creative), it will be to mount a stellar to destroy planets.

I bust planets to avoid the AI recolonizing them and my having to come back to dust them again.

As a non creative, I won't have Doom or Titan tech.

	30-06-2004 07:11									#37
	Increase Your PM Length

yeah help with building doomstars not so much what i'm after.

Some of the other posts in this thread have been very useful, i've won a few times with production races now, but i'm still trying to do it with tech.

I do enjoy playing creative, can someone give me a good setup for a creative race, maybe one thats expansionist and one thats nonexpansionist?

	30-06-2004 10:13									#38
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uni/aqua/creative is good
lith/creative is also good.


tack feudal onto lith/creative if you are having trouble building ships, but you do take quite a research hit for that.

	30-06-2004 10:21									#39
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The demo game going now is this race:

Settings: Rep -GC -SD Dict +R +P Creative Aqua AHW Huge PreWarp Aver Age 8 players Impossible

So you can look at that game to get some ideas.

Fast tech without creative :
Rep -GC -SD Lith Dem LHW RHW Huge PreWarp

	30-06-2004 10:25									#40
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations: Deluxe Edition

Want a fairly fast one:

Settings: LowG -GC -Spy Creative Sub LHW RHW +P Huge Adv Tech Organic Rich 4 players Hard Anties ON Tactic Combat.

T0 R-Tele Training (defense for spy and leads to Terraform
Hire Urro send to Tucana because it will not be building ships and is AW with 2 plants
HIre Cyr redesign ships to get rid of Bombs/anti rockets/mercs/security station all that junk.
You have start and T0 to see the changes.
T6 Visited all planets in range. Found Sparky. Three good systems so let BB on them.
Some planets building RL, some AF others PP. Depends on the amount of pollution.
Production then comps as we will get plenty of research soon. Want to get the ships refitted.
T9 R-scanner could not use terraforming right now.
T11 Hire Altos
T14 make spy
T16 start comp
T17 R-Terra spy 5% Agent 15%, srt Cloners on some.
T20 Psilons steal tech, I demand they stop.
T22 Soil
T23 R-cyber link
T24 Have 4 spies now refit crusier and refitting start for BB
Some getting missile base and fighter garrison, some terraform
T31 R-sub farms
T35 R-classIII
T38 CB on Nazin
T39 R-renewers
T44 R-racks
T47 R-Ion drives
T50 R-Grav Gen
T51 R-stock exchange sent out an OP (out post) will use to get a marine barrcks on planets I want Look at the difference the Generator made.
T57 Ground Batt
T58 Hire Emo (leaders are all low level ones, but two scientist
T60 R-stealth suit
T R-inter (sorry I forget what this was but it should be obvious)
T66 anties attack Poc (funny huh
T68 R-autolab
T69 stopped trying to shuffle workers for food control
T72 R-Recycle
T75 sub comm
T78 R-astro
T81 R-zort armor
T83 R-drive
T87 R-robotic fac
T90 R-hi intel
T92 R-phasor
T94 R-deep mines
T98 R-class V
T101 R-food kill antie some planet
T103 R-Imperium
T106 R-megaflux
T108 R-adv city planning
T111 some steals against me, my bad I got lazy
T112 will build a bunch of spies
T113 R-plasma (do another redesign and refit
T116 R-bio (demanded a system form Psilons and Saks (I think it was them))
T119 Killed guardian R-evolution
T125 R-drive used three picks to reduce -spy to 0
T127 R-Hard
T129 R-class VII
T131 R-disrupters
T133 R-andriods Anties to dragon Demanded a system from both again
T13x R-Virt Net
T137 R-Hyper space
T139 R-star gate
T143 R-zeon capture Suji
T144 captured Junga
T145 R-M.comp Demand sysyem
T147 R-galactic exchange
T151 R-teleport
T153 R-class X
T154 capture Chort
T155 R-drive
T157 R-adv techs
T158 Eliminated Bul or Saks which ever one I was warring with
demanded Remus
T184 demand Tai
sent fleet to Tai so it could take out their large fleet.
I had 27 BB and 4 DS, they had 2 DD, 3 DE, 5 CA, 33 BB, 34 Titans, 18 DS.
sent some to destroy nearest planet and waited to put Marine barracks/AMC/Armor Barrackson Tai
Then sent fleet to Anties to end the game.
No one had much in the way of ships anyway.

	30-06-2004 10:29									#41
	Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

This game was one I play for someone on another board that was having problems with this setting. I did not realize it was only 4 players on hard. I remember now that he was using 3 players and I played a game at 3, 4 and on up to 8 to show him how it went.

	18-11-2004 00:15									#42
	What not to do. . . Support Apolyton, buy Civilization III: Complete

I only recently discovered these boards, and was pleased to find that I'm not the last person on earth still playing MOO2.

First, thanks to all of you who have posted such helpful tips here. While my strategies have been moderately successful, it seems that there are still many aspects to this game that I have yet to explore in any depth. (I'm sure that my wife, who refers to MOO2 as my "electronic crack," is delighted. )

Second, for those out there who are still new to the game, I thought it might be helpful to explain not only what some good strategies are, but also to explain what are some really bad ideas. To kick this off, here's my tale of woe:

Back when I first got MOO2, in 1998 or 1999, I played several games where the Klackons handed me my butt on a platter. As I recall, in one of those games, they got doom star construction and equipped the afore-mentioned doom stars with 68 grav-beams. So, I took to playing a custom race, using the Klackon picture, which, of course, took them out of the game.

Eventually, I discovered the joys of unification government. In addition to the bonuses that go along with unification, checking the morale of a planet causes my game to crash about 95% of the time. One less worry.

While clicking along happily one day, I had gotten to, as I recall, a point where I controlled about one-third of the galaxy (on huge), the Psilons controlled a similarly-sized part, and the rest was a patchwork of other species. The Psilons were ahead of me in tech, and I had just discovered Galactic Unification. Oh, joy! But I'm not a patient man, and I didn't read the description of Galactic Unification all that carefully. So when the Psilons approached me and offered me some nifty piece of tech which I didn't have, in return for Galactic Unification, I thought, "Cool! I'm going to get this nice, shiny tech, and they get something they can't use!" This turned out to be a colossal blunder. Just because they could not research Galactic Unification on their own most certainly did not mean they could not use it. Next thing I knew, I had a fleet of Psilon death stars pummeling my colonies.

Moral of the story: If you're the only Unification government in the game, no matter how great the trade looks, do not trade the Galactic Unification government, unless you're prepared to clobber the race to whom you trade it right now! (Before they can make any use of it or trade it to anybody else.)

Last edited by GameGeek on 07-12-2004 at 00:11

	18-11-2004 00:25									#43
	Support Apolyton, pre-order Civilization IV

BTW you can monitor the morale status by the icon. I reflects the level.

The real morale of the story is to not trade at all, but instead to steal. (evil grin goes here)

	18-11-2004 00:33									#44
	Browse Apolyton AD-FREE

quote: Originally posted by vmxa1 BTW you can monitor the morale status by the icon. I reflects the level. The real morale of the story is to not trade at all, but instead to steal. (evil grin goes here)

I know that I can monitor the morale by the icons, and I know that I can measure its impact in production by clicking on the production section of the colony screen. It just doesn't seem as cool to say, "Well, I'd better build a holo-dome on Nib II. They've got two frowny faces."

	18-11-2004 01:52									#45
	Browse Apolyton AD-FREE

Sorry it was just and FYI, in case you were not aware.

	18-11-2004 02:04									#46
	Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

No apology necessary. I've seen a number of things on these boards that, by now, I should have been aware of, but wasn't.

	18-11-2004 04:54									#47
	Avatar Enlargement: We've got the solution

quote: BTW: I'm not an Aqua specialist, but I have the feeling that hydro is a waste of time/money/prod. Hydro produces only 2 food, it's less than an Aqua farmer.

Playing a non-Creative race, I never choose Hydros over Biospheres, and playing a non-Cybernetic race, I never build them.

quote: tack feudal onto lith/creative if you are having trouble building ships, but you do take quite a research hit for that.

Feudal looks even worse when you treat it like a baseline and then compare it to Unification. You'd basically spend 10 picks to get +100% research, +50% food, and +50% production. That's more than worth the cost in picks, and the "penalty" of paying 50% more for your (much more effective) ships.

In short, take Feudal only if all other attempts at losing a game of MOO2 have failed because you're too studly for your own good.

	01-12-2004 22:01									#48
	Put an end to popups!

I like capturing certain races to use for, well, breeding purposes, and then transporting those pop units to my other planets to expand pop capacity, especially Sakkra, Silicoids, and Trilarians (for obvious reasons). Does anyone happen to know whether cloning centers placed on a planet prior to complete assimilation will produce assimilated or conquered pop units?

	07-12-2004 00:09									#49
	Help yourself to an AD-FREE life

Also, does anyone know when captured races retain their race-specific bonuses? It's apparent that the Trils, Silicoids and Saks keep their respective pop bonuses. But I've never really been able to tell, for example, if the Klacks keep their production bonuses or if I get any boost from capturing the (telephathic) Elerians, such as diplomatic or spy bonuses, or, for that matter, if captured Psilons really make better researchers than anyone else. I've typically just gone ahead and captured all species, because capture is just faster than breeding new pop units. Any insights here?

	07-12-2004 01:01									#50
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization 2

I tend to not use captured pop if I am using a strong race. That is because I choose good traits in the first place.

If I want to up pop allowed, then I will send over a Sak or some max pop race. I do not use Klac for traits, just kill them. Once I go into capture or raze planets, I am in command anyway.

	07-12-2004 01:22									#51
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization 2

You get the +food, ind, res bonuses, but not anything like spy, tele, or GC bonuses.

I always like capturing sillicoid planets because they are tolerant.

	07-12-2004 23:33									#52
	Help yourself to an AD-FREE life

quote: Originally posted by Garth Vader You get the +food, ind, res bonuses, but not anything like spy, tele, or GC bonuses. I always like capturing sillicoid planets because they are tolerant.

Any idea on pop bonuses? I like to use the Saks where feasible (non-toxic worlds), but I'm curious as to whether they continue to breed like rabbits after capture & relocation.

	08-12-2004 00:44									#53
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Yeah they still do.

	11-12-2004 20:53									#54
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Thanks for the info, everyone. One more population growth question, though: Does climate affect rate of growth, or just pop capacity on a planet?

	11-12-2004 22:08									#55
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"Thanks for the info, everyone. One more population growth question, though: Does climate affect rate of growth, or just pop capacity on a planet?"

Not directly....

Climate affects the pop capacity......
and the pop capacity (POP max) affects the growth rate.

But 2 planets with same pop capacity have the same growth rate.

The "basis" growth rate is:

[2000*POP*(POPmax-POP)/POPmax]^0.5

This value is always rounded down.

	11-12-2004 22:41									#56
	Help yourself to an AD-FREE life

quote: Originally posted by siron "Thanks for the info, everyone. One more population growth question, though: Does climate affect rate of growth, or just pop capacity on a planet?" Not directly.... Climate affects the pop capacity...... and the pop capacity (POP max) affects the growth rate. But 2 planets with same pop capacity have the same growth rate. The "basis" growth rate is: [2000*POP*(POPmax-POP)/POPmax]^0.5 This value is always rounded down.

So as planets approach max cap, growth slows?

	11-12-2004 23:02									#57
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

Yes. Growth slows down then.
the maximum of the basis growth rate is at a 50% full planet.

But be aware that 1pop-housing planets are pretty efficient.

	11-12-2004 23:50									#58
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If they have cloners, they can be.

	12-12-2004 00:40									#59
	Support Apolyton or Terrorists Win

Dont think that cloners are an big issue here.

I just wanted to add that 1pop housing is almost for every good race more efficient than growth via growth picks at 50% full planets.
--------------------------------------------
Uni tol which rarely take cloners has often dozens 1pop planets early on. With autofacts and robos these planets are surely pretty efficient. When I find some nice 3-5 planet systems in my corner I have often 160-200 pop at turn 100.

Uni aqua takes often cloners but has less housing planets. With cloners I have sometimes 140-180 pop at turn 100. But this largely depends on the number of wet planets. So even with cloners it rarely can compete.

And if we talk about non prod races. Cloners eats a lot of prod and time. Often the simple autofacts-robos solution is there preferred too.

	12-12-2004 01:53									#60
	Got spare money?

I am not sure I follow the logic. AF and Robo will add nothing to the pop growth. The will add to the production, but really you will not have them on the early planets right away.

The cloner gives +100K to growth, not going to improve upon that with an AF.

Now I agree that I won't have the cloner as a Uni Tol or probably any race other than a creative. I prefer to 1 pop house unil my HW is up to speed. I will add AF and RL on the housing planets as well.

Non cloners are going to be 43k to about 67k without the 100k cloner. So you will at least double the speed. If you intend to pop other planets from their, it is surely a good investment. Triples the growth of some races on some planets (43k vs 143k).