Let's Play GalCiv2: ToTA

[Vehrec]

I know quite a lot about economics in this game actually. Trade, Tourism and taxes are your big sources of money, but anomalies are also profitable, especially in the early game. Trade is a non-starter at the moment. Tourism is based on influence, so we might have a shot at a good income from that. Additionally, our taxes are tied to total galactic population and influence, so growing both benefits us greatly. Taxes are...complex. Higher taxes decrease morale, which slows population growth. Slow population growth means that the total number of taxpayers is constant, and you're also making more ships, buildings and colonies, all of which cost money. That's bad. You want to grow your population, so you should always keep taxes as low as possible during rapid expansion. We can also cap that Morale resource (CAP THAT MORALE RESOURCE) to increase our population's happiness at the cost of a Constructor. Happy people means more people fill out the census and have babies. Taxes are the fundamental underpinning of the entire economy, and the only biit we currently can directly influence from turn to turn.

Doom, if you're going to cut taxes, you will also need to slash spending to nothing at all in order to grow the population without rebellion. Farms might be more important than economy buildings actually.

Tax income on a planet is determined by this formula. [Constant] * sqrt(population_in_billions) * tax_rate * (1 + (sum from buildings on planet)) * (1 + (sum from racial bonuses/maluses) )

[doom3607]

OOC:

A) We don't have farm tech yet, but I'll get it soon.
B) There is also an economy resource right next to the morale. Which do we need more?
C)Believe it or not, a minor race has set up a trade route with us, averages 9 bc.
D) I already have a constructor in the works on Home. I'll start building another on some other planet if I think I can swing the cost of that, too.
E) Tourism will be negligible, for the Order of the Void is not going for a culture win. We will purge those xenos. Then purge them so more. Then more for good measure.

[Vehrec]

A) That can wait a bit, but the difference really is impressive. On the other hand, more population=more difficulty with moody population.

B) Economy. That's a flat 5% bonus right off the bat, whereas the morale one might let you bump taxes up a point or two.

C) Get Trade at some point. It's mostly a diplomacy tool, but it can take a lot of the edge off ecconomic problems.

D) Ok

E) Tourism just happens, and our best Morale buildings are the ones that increase influence as well with this tech tree.

[doom3607]

OOC: This LP is actually helping me learn about the game! Also, anyone has an idea but needs to look at a specific screenshot for data- I'm fine with getting it. The more suggestions from you guys, the better, because I get the feeling we'll be eaten alive by the Torians without some good help from people who can actually play this game!

[OmegaChief]

OOC: If we crush the terrans quickly enough, we'll have a united front to strike at the Torians from, basically, press into the Terrans blitzkreig style then pull into a defensive formation to shield our worlds from Torians. Ideally you might also want to look into cheap plantery defence craft, IE ones that don't have logicstic moduals or engines, wh can jsut park in orbit and act as meat shields to stop invasions. Very handy when combined with the structure that lets everything in orbit fight as a massive fleet too.

[doom3607]

OOC: Exactly. That was why I was hammering at the Terrans as brutally as I was.

[Lord Relvenous]

Any progress?

[doom3607]

Gyah. My apologies for the lack of recent posts, the computer I had the game on wasn't cooperating and letting me use it. Fortunately, it turns out I may actually be able to run it elsewhere, so this should start up again shortly... Hopefully with me researching spore weps and medium ships. I'll put it this way- our flagship is sitting near the Solar System for a reason...

[RecklessPrudence]

Actually, there's something I've been wondering for a while - combat in this game is essentially Rock-Paper-Scissors, right? So is it better to specialise both ships and research solely to hit with one of the three and defend against another, or research all and specialise ships (meaning that, while ships are cheaper, your research is split in three times as much for combat and any one of your technologies will be weaker than someone who specialises, but you'll have an answer somewhere in your fleet for anything), or research all and make everything multipurpose, making for bloody expensive ships, as well as split research, but having a solution for everything, kinda?

Just something I've been wondering. Most playthroughs I've seen have gone the completely specialist route, I was curious whether that way had an advantage.

[doom3607]

Specializing is probably a better idea. Let me put it this way: The endgame weapon on each branch will let you build an endgame capital ship that does about 300 damage. Said endgame capital ship has about 100 health. Unless the enemy ship is effectively all defences, you just one-shotted a dreadnought. A small group of fighters just one-shotted a dreadnought, even. There is a massive leap upwards in quality when you get to the endgame gun. And that is why you specialize.

[RecklessPrudence]

What about defence? Should you specialise so you can shut down even high-level attacks of what you're good at while being absolutely useless against everything else, or should you have some defence against everything, but you're going to take damage, no matter what they shoot you with?

[PainRack]

What about defence? Should you specialise so you can shut down even high-level attacks of what you're good at while being absolutely useless against everything else, or should you have some defence against everything, but you're going to take damage, no matter what they shoot you with?

There are two schools of thought on that.

Ideally, the best defence works in multiple of 3. Ideally, you could research tech such that you can put in 3/3/3, giving you an effective defence of 5 against any attack. This works in the intrim process, but for endgame, specialisation in one area is significnatly cheaper, easier and works arguably as effective as 6/6/6,9/9/9 or such.

Of course, the real grunt is that everybody knows that in endgame, attack is the best form of defence. The only time this isn't true is in the early starting phase when you don't have the economy to sustain a large enough fleet to replace or repair losses.

[doom3607]

With the size of the map, by the time we're getting into any real wars we'll probably have maxed out missile tech anyway, obviating the need for anything resembling a defence. We just use swarms of strategic fighters that blow the shit out of entire fleets in their first salvos.

[PainRack]

With the size of the map, by the time we're getting into any real wars we'll probably have maxed out missile tech anyway, obviating the need for anything resembling a defence. We just use swarms of strategic fighters that blow the shit out of entire fleets in their first salvos.

Hey.... can I be the captain of a support ship? You know. Those kinky little vessels which either increase your warp speed, defence rating or such?:D


I have fond memories of disasters, in which said support frigates were the first one targeted by the enemies, routinely immolated, and brought literally piss all to the combat effectivess of my navy. Well, apart from speed cult:D 10 movement parsec for uber victory!

[doom3607]

Sure. Krynn TT has some really awesome support stuff, too! Maybe not quite as helpful as Terran Fleet Warp, but still...