Galactic Civilizations
FAQ/Walkthrough
Copyright 2003
Wraith10
[email protected]
Version 1.1
===============================================================================
Distribution Info
-----------------
You may use this FAQ for yourself personally, make copies for your friends, or
host it on web pages provided NO MONEY is made off this FAQ. If you choose to
post it in a public domain (webpage) please send me an email detailing the
webpage location it will be posted on. I reserve the right to ask for the
removal of this FAQ from any page deemed offensive. Anyone displaying my guide
must credit me for it and not alter it in any way. You are responsible for
getting the latest version from gamefaqs periodically.
===============================================================================
Purpose
-------
The purpose of this guide is to give a detailed full faq/walkthrough for
Galactic Civilizations for PC, and to try and cover as much material as
possible. If you have anything to add or think I need to cover something in
more detail please feel free to contact me. Please note this faq was written
for the patched game version(1.05.071) For details on the changes please see:
http://sdcentral2.stardock.com/public/gc1/production/history.htm
Don't correct me based on the game manual, a number of things were changed that
are not shown accurately in the manual. Where possible my data is based on the
game from my experience and those of other players.
===============================================================================
Contact Me
----------
Let me know if you if you find any mistakes in the guide, or if you have
anything you want added or clarified. Please write "GalCiv FAQ" or something
like that in the subject line of your message or most likely it will be
deleted as junk mail. If you do not receive a reply within 2 weeks this
likely happened and you can resubmit the tip. Please do not ask for serial
numbers, or request technical support. For technical support try www.galciv.com
My Metaverse player is Wraith10 and my empire is Mid-Western Confederation. I
am not interested in switching empires at this time, please do not contact me
about switching.
Questions, Comments, Corrections:
[email protected]
===============================================================================
Version History
---------------
1.0 First Edition
1.1 Spell Checked and Submitted
===============================================================================
Contents
========
Section 1: Overview
Section 1.1: Background Story
Section 1.2: Victory Conditions
Section 1.3: The Main Menu
Section 2: Starting a Game
Section 2.1: Starting a New Game
Section 2.2: Restoring a Previous Game
Section 2.3: Loading a Saved Game
Section 3: The Metaverse
Section 3.1: Rankings/Empires
Section 3.2: Medals/Morality
Section 4: The Game Interface
Section 4.1: The basic (visible) interface
Section 4.2: Controls/Hotkeys
Section 4.3: Planet In Depth
Section 4.4: Domestic Interface
Section 4.5: Foreign Interface
Section 4.6: Menu Options
Section 5: Game Information
Section 5.1: Colonizing
Section 5.2: Anomalies
Section 5.3: Alignments
Section 5.4: Conquering
Section 5.5: Building Things
Section 5.6: Morale/Cultural Influence
Section 5.7: Trade
Section 5.8: Resources/Starbases
Section 5.9: Scoring
===============================================================================
Section 1: Overview
===================
Section 1.1: Background Story
-----------------------------
Fifty years ago earth first made contact with alien civilizations using star
gates to speak to them. Now in 2178 the hyperdrive has been invented and the
race is on to explore the galaxy. The aliens have the edge of knowing where
the habitable planets are already, so humanity will have to move fast to scoop
up the prime real estate first. You start the game with a colony ship and a
survey ship to explore and settle the galaxy.
Section 1.2 Victory Conditions
------------------------------
There are several ways to win a game of galactic civ:
Technology Victory: Research as far as you can into the tech tree until you
research the Final Frontier tech that will advance humans into the
next level of existence.
Alliance Victory: Make an alliance with everyone you can and conquer the rest.
Military Victory: Conquer all the major civilizations.
Cultural Victory: Dominate 7/8ths of the sectors culturally and hold for a few
turns.
Section 1.3: Main Menu
----------------------
The main menu contains several buttons. Start New Game lets you create a new
game and customize all the starting features. Restore Civilizations works with
the autosave feature. This allows you to recover from a crash or a power outage
with minimal data loss. Load Game lets you load a game you have saved, or load
an autosave point. Metaverse launches the online metaverse website, more on that
later. And credits displays the game credits.
===============================================================================
Section 2: Starting a Game
==========================
Section 2.1: Starting a New Game
--------------------------------
Starting a new game gives you access to the most settings that you need to
customize. When you first start a new game you will be presented with a large
screen of options.
First you have to give a name for you civilization. The default name is the
Terran Alliance, but you can easily change this if you don't like it. You are
also prompted for a name for your leader. This is how you will be referred to in
the game, it doesn't affect submitting your score the metaverse so feel free to
type in what you want.
More complicated is the political party box. You will have to select one party
to be throughout the game. Each party has their own unique benefits. These
benefits are shown in the box to the right of the political party box, you can
also hit the details button for a quick summary of the same thing. The political
parties are as follows:
Federalists: 20% economy bonus
Industrialists: 20% social production bonus; 20% military production bonus
Mercantile: 20% trade bonus; 20% espionage bonus
Pacifists: 20% influence bonus; 20% social production bonus
Populists: 20% morale bonus; 20% diplomacy bonus
Technologists: 20% research bonus; +1 sensors
Universalists: 5% economic bonus; 10% defensive bonus; 10% population growth;
25% luck
War Party: 50% hit points bonus
Note: The progressive party listed in the manual was removed from the game.
All the bonuses were also changed.
The next is the abilities selection. You are given 10 points to buy abilities
with. Each ability has it's own cost, advantages, and benefit amounts. The
abilities you can buy are as follows:
Courage - Benefits your soldiering and possibly culture
Brave 25% 1 point
Creativity - Affects how often you get tech breakthroughs from anamolies
Highly Creative 25% 1 point
Defense - Affects your defense
Advanced 10% 1 point
Gifted 20% 2 points
Master 30% 3 points
Diplomacy - Affects you diplomacy skill/getting what you want
Talented 10% 1 point
Skilled 20% 2 points
Master 50% 4 points
Expert 70% 5 points
Economics - Affects your economy
Advanced 10% 2 points
Gifted 20% 4 points
Master 30% 6 points
Espionage - Affects your espionage skill, including destabilization
Advanced 15% 1 point
Gifted 30% 2 points
Hit Points - Affects your hit points
Superior 10% 1 point
Exceptional 30% 3 points
Invincible 50% 5 points
Influence - Affects your cultural influence
Advanced 10% 1 point
Gifted 20% 2 points
Master 30% 3 points
Commercial Giant 40% 6 points
Loyalty - Affects how likely they are to defect
Most Faithful 10% 1 point
Devoted 20% 2 points
Luck - Affects your odds at invading/random events
Exceptionally lucky 25% 1 point
Military Production - Affects your military production
Advanced 10% 1 point
Gifted 20% 2 points
Master 30% 3 points
Ultra 50% 6 points
Morale - Affects the morale of your people
Naturally Content 10% 1 point
Naturally Happy 15% 2 points
Naturally Joyous 20% 3 points
Planet Quality - Affects the quality of your planets
Green Thumb 5% 3 points
Magical 7% 8 points
Population Growth - Affects your population growth
Frisky 10% 1 point
Very Frisky 20% 2 points
Fruitful 40% 4 points
Don't Ask 80% 6 points
Range - Adds to your initial travel range
+1 parsec initial reach 2 points
Repair - Affects your repair ability
Gifted 20% 1 point
Master 40% 2 points
Research - Affects your research ability
Advanced 10% 1 point
Gifted 20% 2 points
Master 30% 4 points
Ultra 50% 6 points
Sensors - Affects your sensor range
Advanced 1% 1 point
Gifted 2% 2 points
Master 3% 3 points
Social Production - Affects your social production
Advanced 10% 1 point
Gifted 20% 2 points
Master 30% 3 points
Ultra 50% 6 points
Soldiering - Affects your soldiering ability
Hardy 10% 1 point
Tough 20% 2 points
Invincible 30% 3 points
Speed - Affects you ship speed
1 parsec/month 4 points
2 parsec/month 8 points
Trade - Affects the revenue from trades
Gifted 10% 1 point
Superior 20% 2 points
Master 30% 3 points
Trade Routes - Affects the initial number of trade routes available
Gifted 1 route 3 points
Superior 2 routes 6 points
Master 3 routes 9 points
Weapons - Affects your weapons and attack
Superior 15% 1 point
Master 30% 4 points
True Warrior 50% 6 points
The abilities categories are completely changed in game from the way
they are listed in the manual.
There is also a button to turn the tutorial mode on if you so choose.
The next major section deals with setting up the galaxy you will be exploring.
The option to control galaxy size sets how many sectors there will be on the
map. The galaxy sizes to choose from are tiny, small, medium, large, huge, and
gigantic. The bigger the galaxy the longer the game takes to complete. Star
density sets how close stars are together. You can set them as scattered, loose
clusters, or tight clusters. You will also need to set the amount of habitable,
over 15, planets. They can be abundant, common, occasional, uncommon, or rare.
The rarer you set the planets, the more you will have to fight for them and the
harder it will be to establish your production base. Morale will also be lower.
Galaxy Type Size in Sectors
Tiny 4 x 4
Small 5 x 5
Medium 8 x 8
Large 12 x 12
Huge 16 x 16
Gigantic 24 x 24
There are three boxes to check or uncheck victory conditions. Unchecking takes
that condition out of the game. You can disable culture, tech, and alliance
victory conditions.
After that screen is the setup screen for the other races. The Drengin,
Altarians, Torians, Yor, and Arceans. You will have to set the alignments to
either pure evil, chaotic evil, neutral, chaotic good, or pure good. The
alignment does not set how aggressive a race is, but rather how it will vote
on issues, and how it will interact with other races. You can also set it to
random.
Next you set the race's intelligence level. It's recommended beginners start
on the lowest level. The intelligence levels are fool, beginner, sub-normal,
normal, bright, intelligent, genius, and incredible. You can also set the
intelligence level to random, which is probably not a good idea until you've
had some experience.
Depending on your intelligence settings the game auto calculates the difficulty
level. Basic ways to achieve each difficulty level are as follows:(5 races)
Cakewalk: 5 fool
Easy: 1-4 beginner
Simple: 5 beginner
Beginner: 4 sub-normal
Normal: 3 normal
Challenging: 2 bright
Tough: 1 intelligent
Painful: 5 intelligent
Crippling: 4 genius
Masochistic: 3 incredible
Section 2.2: Restoring a Previous Game
--------------------------------------
Ever had something happen that you crashed the game or the power glitched?
Lose several hours of work? Well no more. Thanks to an autosave feature you
can restore the last civilization you played. You can set how many turns it
autosaves after as well.
Section 2.3: Loading a Saved Game
---------------------------------
If you choose load game you can load either an autosave, or a saved game.
All the saves are time and date stamped so you know exactly what you're
picking. Then just take off where you left off.
==============================================================================
Section 3: The Metaverse
========================
Section 3.1: Ranking/Empires
----------------------------
The Metaverse is an online scoring and ranking system which can be accessed
from the main menu on your game or from www.galciv.com. On the metaverse
players are ranked by their point totals on a leaderboard. In addition there
are empire (clan) rankings on a separate leaderboard. The best way to gain
ranks is to play often and get good scores, what a surprise.
When you complete a game you will be given an option to submit a score
under your player name and email address. You will have to be registered
on the metaverse in order to submit a score. You should see the website for
details on how to do this and have your game serial number (cd key) ready.
There are tons of empires to choose from all with their own themes. You can
pick one that appeals to you, or pick one of the top ones. Perhaps one with
a good community with a website or forums. After you pick one you will be
identified on the empire information page, also sorted by points, and a logo
for your empire will be placed in your player profile.
Section 3.2: Medals/Morality
----------------------------
Your player profile on the metaverse includes a number of rankings and symbols.
One of them is you galciv access level that ranges from Citizen, Veteran,
Diplomat, Ambassador, Governor, Senator, Avatar. Basically this is your message
board rank, that can only be upgraded by the official site's people. To get an
upgraded rank play a lot, get good scores, visit frequently, and give good
advice. And never ask for one.
Your player rank is represent by bars that are either solid or broken, think
naval rankings. The ranks are not set according to point totals but done by
some sort of overall mathematical calculations with your score, number of
games, etc. There are three rows of bars.
First Row Second Row Third Row Rank
none none one solid Ensign
none one third-left one solid 2nd Lieutenant
none two thirds-left&right one solid Lieutenant
one solid none one solid Commander
one solid two thirds-left&right none Captain
one solid two thirds-left&right one solid Fleet Captain
one solid one solid two thirds-left&right Commodore
none one solid one third-middle Rear Admiral
one solid none one third-middle Vice Admiral
one solid one solid one third-middle Admiral
one solid two thirds-left&right one third-middle Fleet Admiral
Players are given an alignment based on the alignments of submitted games. The
alignments correspond to the game alignments of very evil, chaotic evil,
neutral, chaotic good, and very good.
They also can earn medals for special achievements. There are medals for the
following:
Top 25
1st place
2nd place
3rd place
5 games won
20 games won
5 games won with score over 1000
10 games won with score over 3000
And you can earn stripes for the number of games you submit.
5 games submitted -1
10 games submitted -2
15 games submitted -3
25 games submitted -4
35 games submitted -5
==============================================================================
Section 4: The Game Interface
=============================
Section 4.1: The basic (visible) interface
------------------------------------------
It should be noted that the actual visible interface can change colors in this
game. This depends on your alignment. An evil alignment will bring on a darker
red interface, while a good one will give you a lighter blue interface. Neutral
is how you start off.
In the top left corner is the date, every turn is one month in time. On the
right side of the screen there is a box that looks like a square cut into four
pieces, each a different color. If you click that button it will bring up a window
that tells you how many sectors each civilization is controlling currently
(influence). Beside this button it tells you the current sector co-ordinates.
You read it like you would a battleship grid. The across (x) co-ordinate that
runs up and down the left side is read first, and the down (y) co-ordinate that
runs left to right across the top is read second. The grid is numbered top to
bottom, left to right.
In the bottom left corner your treasury (money) is listed. If your money falls
below -500bc your production will be halted until you regain some money. A
figure in yellow indicates you are losing money. Orange is the standard color.
There is also a pie graph that shows the spending power of each of the race's
organized by colored sections.
On the bottom bar of the screen the first button is the sector map button. It
toggles the main screen that you see as an alternate to pressing the done button
on many of the sub screens.
There is also a button to toggle the planet list. The planet list shows the
morale, population, income, and expenses. There is also a button to toggle
between the standard (star) view and the tactical (mini-map) view on the main
screen. Aside from the overview details the planet list can be sorted by class,
name, income, expenses, morale, population, military turns left, social turns
left, military production, social production, production, star, governor,
military project, or social project. It also shows what each planet is
building for military and social and the number of turns it will take to
complete.
The bar on the right side of the screen has two buttons at the bottom of it,
find and turn. The find button finds units that still have available moves and
toggles between them. If there are none it makes a tone. The turn button ends
your current turn.
Along the bottom bar there is also a box that shows the details of the currently
selected unit. It gives an ownership crest, moves, sentry button, guard button,
disband button, name, class, hp, attack, defense, level, number of troops. There
is also an "i" button. Pressing it takes you to a more in depth screen with
information. There you can order a sector sweep or auto-retreat. You can also
see a unit description, sensor range, travel range, experience, level; and hp,
attack, defense and speed ratings.
If you click on a star system you can see a planet list and stats including
population, morale, revenue, and spending for the entire system. There is also
a summary of influence, ownership, system population, and a rename button. As
well as a box to view ships currently in orbit. Putting your mouse over a
planet gives you a view of what the surface looks like. An asterisks by a name
indicates that that planet is in a colonized star system.
The mini map in the top right has a bar across the top for zoom %. This is
especially important in larger map games. Under it are several buttons,
Show/hide stars, show sector ownership (influence by color), show ships,
show autopilot paths, show population (dots swell), show production (dots
swell).
There is also a stacked ship list that shows an icon for every ship on a
selected square. You can hit the fleet button to join them all together.
A final square on the side bar is the graph screen. You can see comparison
graphs for population growth, military, economic, technology, influence,
and manufacturing.
The star ship list button gives you a summary of fleet size, maintenance cost,
military ranking, and number of starbases. You can also sort the list by name,
class, attack, defense, total hp, current hp, level, crew, total moves, moves
left, cost, maintenance, action, star orbiting, sensor range, sector range,
sector, destination, fleet ID, or starbase/ship.
Finally there is an infonet notification window. Special notifications like
completed projects are summarized in that window. Click on them to go to the
event.
Section 4.2: Controls/Hotkeys
-----------------------------
To highlight something, left click it. Hold down shift and drag the mouse to
select multiple items. Right click to send the ships somewhere. You can also
hold control and left click to select multiple ships.
You can use the arrow keys or the number pad (with num lock off) to move ships.
S - sentry
G - guard
tab - next ship with moves (find)
spacebar - skip turn for that ship
F - make fleet of stacked ships
U - unfleet
C - center on selected ship
A - auto survey
F1 - galactic map
F2 - planets
F3 - star ships
F4 - domestic
F5 - foreign
F6 - research
F7 - planet view of first planet in civilization
CTRL R - refresh sensors
Enter - next turn (turn)
esc - close dialogs, game options screen
ctrl n - new galaxy with same settings
Section 4.3: Planet In Depth
----------------------------
The detailed screen you go to when you double click on a planet contains many
more options. You can see the name, planet quality, morale, population, income,
expenses, military/social/research resources, projects and months remaining,
purchase projects, pic and project summary, and a button to autolaunch completed
units.
There is also a details button to take you into another screen. That shows you
projects completed, the current governor, destroy colony, propaganda spending,
planet description, domestic and galactic rankings, location, population growth,
maintenance costs, revenue, and total defense.
If you planet has a skull and crossbones indicating that it is culturally
rebellious you can increase propaganda spending to try and bring them back under
your control.
Section 4.4: Domestic Interface
-------------------------------
The domestic interface has several different tabs. However on each screen there
is a summary of the senate. The summary includes bonuses for you party, numbers
of seats for each party, when the next election is, and who controls the senate.
The economic screen shows your tax rate and revenue from taxes. If you set the
tax rate too high your revenue will actually go down as people dodge taxes. The
spend rate is how much to put into military and social projects. It also shows
the amount you are currently spending, active spending.
It lists your income and breaks it down into tax, trade, tribute, and gives a
total. It also lists your expenses as military, social, research, maintenance,
leases, GIA, espionage, destabilization, tribute, and gives a total. From this
it gives you your net income.
You also have an approval rating, over 50% is good to stay in control of the
senate. It lets you set the percentage of resources to go to military, social,
and research.
The government screen lists the current government; imperial, republic,
democracy, or federation. As well as all the ones currently available. It offers
a change government button if you want to make the switch. If you switch to a
government requiring elections there will be one after you switch. If you have
a government requiring elections there will be a vote on whether to switch.
Governments will not be available until after you research them.
Imperial - offers total control of the senate
Republic - you must win enough seats in the election, 20% economic bonus
Democracy - you must win enough seats in the election, 40% economic bonus
Federation - you must win enough seats in the election, 60% economic bonus
The governor screen lists four governors, Mr. Ford, Ms. Kolaz, Dr. Marshall, &
Gen. Kuperman. For each of them you can specify a building priority list. The
cities that have them for a default governor would then build the projects in
order without any additional prompting from you. You can also swap all cities
that are currently building a certain military unit, and have them build a
different unit.
The trade screen shows your trade routes numbered. You start off with only
one trade route but can gain as many as ten. Each route has given stats,
empire, rank, established, origin, designation, turn (how far along route),
maintenance, tax, and value. There is a sector map that shows the routes and
gives you the option to show all routes or just your routes. You can also kill
a trade route.
The stats screen gives your civilization's overall rankings in population,
economics, military, technology, morale, approval, treasury, influence,
production, and overall. You can click on the ability tab and see how you
are rated in each ability (amount modified + or -). The economy tab gives
spending; total, military, social, research, destabilization, espionage, and
tribute. As well as income; total, tax, tribute, and leases. The society tab
gives the emperor, morality, population, approval, number of colonies, and
government type. Military gives the percent of income to maintain and rating
(over 100 is good). The graphs tab gives graphs for a selectable amount of time
for military, research, influence, foreign relations, treasury, population,
morale, diplomacy, and manufacturing. The miscellaneous stats show several
categories; military, social, economic, and research. Including, most powerful
ship, best defended planet, alien ships destroyed, personal ships destroyed,
current research, most time intensive tech, average approval rating, happiest
planet, soldiers killed in battle, and most populated planet.
The research screen shows what you are currently researching and the number of
months it will take to complete. It also shows a summary of the selected project,
social, military, and modules it will make available, and future research. The
archives button shows the past techs. The tech list can be sorted by tech ID, name,
cost, months left, category, and prerequisite.
Section 4.5: Foreign Interface
------------------------------
The relations screen gives the name/crest, military rating, economic rating, and
current relationship with your civilization. You can also set funds to try and
destabilize the government or for espionage. If you have an alliance there is a
break alliance button. You can enter negotiations with the speak to button.
The stats screen functions like you domestic stats, only about other races.
It also offers the standard speak/destabilize/espionage options.
The report button gives any current events effecting that race and a description
of the history of that race.
The treaties screen uses lines drawn between the civilization icons to show the
various conditions in play; alliance, war, trade, and peace treaty. This comes
in very handy after things get complicated and certain conditions affect each
other and intertwine.
The united planets screen gives you the option to leave the united planet,
but if you do so you will not be allowed to trade. It also gives a breakdown
of voting power, majority wins. And there is a list of laws that are currently
being enforced in case you forget.
The minor races screen functions like a mini foreign relations interface, it
gives you the speak to option, a description, the leader name, the home planet,
population, approval, military, and relations.
Section 4.6: Menu Options
-------------------------
The top menu can be accessed from the top middle bar that says menu. Also by
pressing esc from the main screen. It gives you the basic options of continue,
save, load, delete, main menu, and quit.
There are also a number of other options that you can turn on and off in the
menu. Auto turn, auto build, draw grid, end turn skips moves left, galactic
news (occasional popups in the game with info on how you are doing), follow
auto pilot ships, follow alien ships, show visible damage, show human ship
battles, show ai ship battles, explosions, active gov ignores GNN, show
anomaly popups (when you collect anomalies), animate ship in data window,
build starbase prompt, upgrade starbase prompt, harvest resource prompt,
governor overrides projects, tutorial mode, userdefined playlist,
background loading, autosave & number of turns to save after, soundfx,
music.
It also lists the percentages you have remaining for each victory
condition; military, cultural, research, and alliance.
===============================================================================
Section 5: Game Information
===========================
Section 5.1: Colonizing
-----------------------
At the beginning of the game you start with one colony ship. Colony ships are
used to claim a star system. Even though you may initially settle only one of
several planets in the system the entire system is owned by you and cannot be
settled by any other player for as long as you occupy at least one planet. A
good world to colonize is one with a PQ (planet quality) score of 15 or higher.
The higher the PQ the better. While a PQ can easily be raised over 20 through
improvements and bonuses, natural planets are from 1-20. With Gaia at 26.
Higher PQ's result in better production, income, research, and morale.
If the planet you colonize is under PQ 15 it costs 5bc per turn for life
support. Under PQ 10 it costs 5 plus 10 times the government level.
Imperial 5 + 1 x 10 = 15bc/month
Republic 5 + 2 x 10 = 25bc/month
Democracy 5 + 3 x 10 = 35bc/month
Federation 5 = 4 x 10 = 45bc/month
So you see the lower the quality the more "not worth it" it is to colonize.
However sometimes you might need a strategic base and that is all there is
available. In that case a class 13 or 14 planet could be improved using
things like habitat improvement and soil enhancement social projects.
Reasons to colonize lower quality planets:
To extend the range of your ships.
To extend the range your sensors can see.
As a staging point for an invasion or war.
For additional cultural influence.
Low availability of planets/you can improve it to over class 15.
After you receive notification that a colony ship has been created you will have
to launch it. Move the slider to select how many people to load, be careful it
decreases the population of the world! Then click the green launch button and
send it towards a world.
Colony ships have a limited range. The range varies depending on your abilities
but basically there is only so far you can travel from a friendly planet or
starbase.
When you are looking for worlds to colonize it should be noted that YELLOW stars
are the most likely to contain habitable planets. The best star systems are ones
that contain multiple habitable planets.
When colonizing you should first try and claim all the stars that contain at
least one habitable planet. Then you should send extra colony ships to claim
other habitable planets in the systems you already own. The key here is to get
the most good systems as fast as you can. The AI will not claim sub PQ 15
worlds so you are safe leaving them until you have a good reason.
It's recommended you purchase colony ships for the first few turns to get a
jump on anyone else. Try to moderate between which lease (payment) option you
choose. If you pay too much you will bankrupt your treasury too quickly. But
if you pick the lesser options it will destroy your long term income.
When a colony ships orbits a desirable system (just steer it into the star) you
will see a list of the planets and their PQ's. Move your pointer over the one
you want (you will see a ship icon) and click to colonize. Do the same way for
colonizing secondary planets in an already claimed system, you may have to
click on the ship in the ships in orbit box.
If you have too many colony ships or lose the race to all the planets you can
bring them to an inhabited world and drop the population back on it. You could
also make sure that there are no worlds you can colonize in systems you own
already, or that there are no class 13 or 14 worlds that you could raise the
quality of.
Section 5.2: Anomalies
----------------------
At the beginning of the game the other ship you are provided with besides a
colony ship is a survey ships. Survey ships are special in that they are the
only ships that can pick up anomalies. Anomalies range from colored swirls, to
asteroids, to twirling wrenches. If it's not a star system, and not player owned
it's either an anomaly or a resource, more on resources later. Anomalies can
give you just about any benefits in the game, research, soldiering, etc. It is
good to note that each bonus you pick up also denies your opponent of one. You
can build other survey ships but this is not recommended except on very large
maps. The resources can be better spent elsewhere, and there are cheaper ships
to use for recon.
You can put a ship on auto survey if you don't want to be bothered by having to
seek out all the anomalies yourself. The hotkey for this is A.
Section 5.3: Alignments
-----------------------
In the game you are given an alignment based on your reactions to various
random events. The alignments are on a scale from 0 to 100. 0 being evil and
100 being good. 50 is seen as neutral. The alignments that go with this are
very (or pure) evil, chaotic evil, neutral, chaotic good, very (or pure) good.
When you land on a planet or randomly throughout the game there are random
events that give you three choices. The top choice will give you a good
alignment, the middle neutral, and the bottom evil. However a neutral rating
could bring up an evil one or bring down a good one. Same will good brining up
evil or evil bringing down good. The point scale means you can be in between
or closer to one end and every decision will have an effect one way or
another. Unless you are at either extreme (0 or 100) and the effect would make
you go below 0 or above 100. Of course being at 50 and choosing neutral would
also have no effect. You start the game at 50.
In the game being the opposite alignment of other civilizations often leads to
more conflict and poor relations. It also gives you a slight difficulty bonus.
There are some technologies that can only be researched by good or evil
civilizations. In order to get a tech that requires you to be bad you must have
an alignment equal to or less than the requirement.
Good Techs:
Xeno Trade Persuasion 65
Cure for Depression 70
Hyper Warp 70
Benevolence 70
Hyper Trade 80
The Better Way 90
Galactic Pacifism 95
Evil Techs:
The Dark Side 10
Galactic Domination Philosophy 10
Xeno Brain Washing 10
Advanced Slavery 25
Thought Police 30
Smuggling 30
Master Race 30
Mind Terror Weapons 30
Xeno Intimidation 35
HyperSoldiers 45
If you play as an evil civilization you will gain many short term bonuses and
improvements from events, the easy path. If you play as good you will have
better diplomatic relations with others and other less obvious improvements.
The larger the impact, negative or positive, an event has the more of an
impact it also has on your alignment.
Section 5.4 Conquering
----------------------
The other way to acquire planets is by conquering them. The first step in
conquering a planet is to eliminate all the defenders using your own ship.
When you have done so the shield icon around the world will disappear. Then
you have to load transport ships with troops. You do this the same way you
would load colony ships. Land the transport on the planet to bring up the
invasion screen. There are several methods of invasion and all have their own
pros and cons. Some lower planet quality, if you expect to take over a viable
planet those are not good options to use. Some take out improvements, which
you might want to leave in tact. Others cost a lot of money, or are not very
effective. You will have to weigh your options on a case by case basis. After
you pick one and select attack you will go to the next screen. Here odds will
cycle up and you will have to hit spacebar at the right moment to stop them.
Then you will see the result, advantages, casualties, and overall result. If
you win, you will take control of the planet and go to the planet screen. If
you lose, the transport and everyone on it will be destroyed and you will have
to try again.
Section 5.5 Building Things
---------------------------
There are several types of projects you can build on your planets:
Social Projects: Ordinary social projects are permanent improvements to a city.
They improve economic, manufacturing, morale, planetary defence, planetary
quality, research, ship quality, or influence. Some social projects cost money
to maintain, while others do not. The amount it costs varies by improvement.
The cost to build them also varies from one to the other. You can build one per
planet.
Military Projects: Military projects are units that you can move from place to
place. They do not have to have any attack rating to be a military unit. Even
things like freighters, colony ships, and constructors fall under this heading.
You can build all the units you like.
Starbase Modules: If you bring a constructor to an already existing starbase
you can build a module on it. Modules can improve attack, defense, hit points,
production, mining, trade, culture, repair, terror stars, etc. Each starbase
can only have one of each type of module.
Wonders: Only one wonder can be built per galaxy. Wonders improve your economic
and influence stats. Some also have other benefits as well. Wonders are under
the social side of the build lists.
Trade Goods: Only one civilization can invent each trade good. However you can
"trade" the rights to them to another civilization as well.
Achievements: One per civilization. Achievements vastly improve one or two
stats. Including manufacturing, economics, morale, influence, research, and
ship quality.
Section 5.6: Morale and Cultural Influence
------------------------------------------
It is generally good to keep an approval rating over 50% so you can keep
control of the senate. The more people live on a planet the harder it is
to keep morale high.
Planets with low morale tend to defect more than planets with high morale.
If another civilization exerts more cultural influence on the planet than
you do it will get a skull and cross bones showing it is culturally
rebellious and likely to defect. Having more ships in orbit makes a planet
less likely to rebel as well.
Certain improvements and modules increase cultural experience. Owning planets
in a sector do as well.
How much influence you have affects your voting power in the united planets.
Section 5.7: Trade
------------------
After you research trade you can build freighters and set up trade routes.
There are a number of things you can research to expand the number of routes
you have, as well as united planets decisions.
Remember that when you trade with another civilization they make just as much
money off of the route as you do. However, getting another civilization to be
dependent on income from you makes them less likely to go to war with you and
more likely to come to your aid if you are attacked. The further along a trade
route a freighter is, the more money it will be contributing to your income
for that turn. Longer trade routes are worth more than shorter ones. If you
build a starbase along the route you can boost how much you make from the
route. The wealth of the star system you trade with is also a factor.
Section 5.8: Resources/Star Bases
---------------------------------
When you build a star base you can also build several types of modules on to
it. Cultural modules increase your influence. Military modules help ships of
yours in the area and hinder those of your opponents. Economic modules help
trade ships passing through that sector. Mining helps you get more resources
from that sector. Defensive helps defend the star base.
To build a star base or add a module to one you need a constructor. Star bases
are more effective if they are built on resources. The types of resources they
can mine are; morale, economic, military, influence, and research.
Mining resources of course provides an appropriate boost to that ability for
your civilization.
Note: The life force resource listed in the manual was removed from the game.
Section 5.9: Scoring
--------------------
Your overall metaverse score is calculated by taking the sum of your scores
and dividing by the square root of the number of games. This rewards players
for playing more games.
What about how the scores themselves are calculated? Several things factor in
to that.
Difficulty Level:
The vast majority of the score is made up of the intelligence level of the
computer (which makes the difficulty level). It also looks at each turn and
how much different your alignment is from the other players, but this is a
much smaller factor.
Galaxy Size:
The adjustment for galaxy size is quite small compared to how much longer
a game on gigantic will take compared to a game on tiny. The overall scoring
difference is only around 3 to 1.
Population:
Having a larger population at the beginning of the game is worth more than
later on. Population is a minor part of scoring however. It also counts
the percentage of the total galaxy's population you are taking up.
Technology:
How much of the tech tree you have researched in what amount of time provides
a modest bonus. Good to offset tech victories a bit.
Economics, Trade Goods, Wonders:
A few hundred extra points on a fair large (10k+) score is about all these will
do, but hey it all adds up.
Victory Condition:
The score is multiplied by the victory condition. Conquest is 10, Alliance is 9,
Culture is 8, and technology is 7.
===============================================================================
Credits
=======
General
-------
Strategy First: For making this game and providing excellent support for it
GameFAQS: For posting this guide
You: For reading this guide
Me: For writing this guide
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Content
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Strategy First/Metaverse Players: www.galciv.com
