The Galactic Civilizations Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)  Document. 
 
By Mark Anderson 
Some editing by Brad Wardell (just an itty bitty tiny little bit). 
(Actually, if there is something that sounds real authoritative and 
 deals with some of the intricacies of OS/2 and GalCiv, it's Brad's 
 fau... handiwork.) 
 
This document can be freely distributed. 
 
Please Feel free to contribute to this document!   
My internet address is:  wombats@nmrfam.wisc.edu 
Send all your wishlists, cheats, questions, etc. to me! 
 
This document is broken into the following areas: 
 
 
[1]     The Game 
            1.1 Description 
            1.2 Hardware Requirements 
[2]     Frequently Asked Questions (Strategies and other hot tips) 
[3]     Cheats 
[4]     How the AI is done 
[5]     Data and Numbers (incomplete) 
            5.1 Technology Tree 
            5.2 Projects 
            5.3 Galactic Achievements 
            5.4 Technology and Ships 
[6]     Wishlist 
 
**************************************************************** 
 
THE GAME 
Chapter 1.1 
 
GalCiv is an interstellar strategy game that puts humanity in the 
position of getting a fresh start with chance to re-direct the 
path of humanity for good, evil or shades thereof.  The premise  
of the game has an interstellar colony ship from Earth jumping to 
some other galaxy via a freak wormhole.  This forms the core of 
humanity.  The new galaxy is already inhabited by one to five 
(player selectable) other space-faring races.  The 
"personalities" of the races can be determined randomly or they 
can be chosen by the player, but the range of variation is less 
if this is done. The human player (the actual "alien" in this 
setting) directs the research paths of humanity, the planetary 
construction and the ship building endeavors of the planets.  
More importantly, various "events" occur that require the player 
to make distinct choices between good, evil or neutral.  These 
choices can affect planetary production or budget levels, but 
they also affect how the various alien races interact with the 
human player.  The game is allows the player to win by either the 
classic, total conquest mode or a more cooperative mode of 
allying with all of the factions of the galaxy. 
 
One of the greatest appeals that the game has over other strategy   
games is that the multi-threaded, multi-tasking architecture of  
OS2 permits the use of real (whatever that means :) AI.  In play 
terms, it means that your opponents actually use better strategy 
at the harder play levels, rather than relying on various 
"cheats" to give them enough advantages to make the game a 
challenge.  The level of "smartness" is adjustable for each race 
in the game and varies from "brain-dead" to "incredible" in 6  
steps.  The smartness levels less than "genius" are actually 
handicapped.  Brad Wardell's discussion of this feature is 
detailed below. 
 
 
 
The game features economic and population growth models that take 
into account the level of taxation and the level of happiness of 
the people.  The level of happiness is related to the level of 
social amenities on the planet as well as the degree of freedom 
that is availible within the type of government.  The game 
designers admit to being influenced by "supply side" economics, 
so your strategies in the game should take this into account.  
The more democratic forms of government (Star Democracy and Star 
Federation) have a senate that has elections every decade.  Your 
level of popularity determines your level of support in the 
senate.  The senate has the power to reject declarations of war 
_or_ changes of governmental form.  They actually vote on these 
decisions and are not a rubber stamp for or against your 
decisions. 
 
Hardware Requirements 
Chapter 1.2 
SDS recommends at least a .... (i will look this up), about 14 MB 
hard disk free (plus the swap space requirement of about 12 MB, but 
remember that this is a SYSTEM swap space, not just for GalCiv), 8 MB 
of RAM and all the speed you can get.  (not that you need the speed  
to run GalCiv, it's just that it's more interesting to drive a Lotus 
than a Yugo.)  This is, more or less, the full installation with  
..avi files and sound. 
 
***************************************************************** 
************ STRATEGIES and OTHER HOT TIPS ********************** 
***************************************************************** 
Chapter 2 
 
How do I ???? 
   The on-line help files actually make some of this faq a bit 
   redundant.  Most of the button, menus, windows, etc. appear to 
   be nicely arranged in a hypertext file.  Since this is an OS/2 
   program, help is just another window you can consult during the 
   the game.  Play with it, it's informative.  This is not to say 
   that the help is complete.  It is missing some of the "Data 
   and Numbers" stuff I've outlined below, and has two large sections 
   wherein it explains that something goes in this spot. 
 
How do I find the best planets? 
   Scouts seem to be the best way of locating any planets of 
   worth.  Sometimes, if the geometry of the situation is 
   right, you might be able to predict where another race's  
   colony ship is headed and beat them to the spot.   
 
   John Martz suggests using 2 scouts to block another race from 
   colonizing a choice planet before you do.  This strategy works 
   until impulse when you need 3 scouts.  There are seldom any 
   planets left to colonize once you get Warp Drive. 
 
   Other than this, send your scouts out on an ever increasing  
   spiral and send out the colonists.  The scout can be sent on 
   a diagonal sweep through a quadrant to pick up >50% of the 
   area in one pass or send it on a U-shaped course to pick 
   up 100%.  The path of the "U" can be adjusted to have the 
   scout adjacent to the next target quadrant when it finishes. 
   Two scouts could be used to map a quadrant in one pass. 
 
 
 
How does the economic system function? 
   There are three factors that affect the economy directly. 
 
   1) the tax-n-spend icon [$]: This icon gives you access to two 
   sliders that control the taxation rate and the spending rate.  
   Each represents the percentage of the availible that you are 
   tapping into, be it taxable income or spending capacity.  Set 
   the % at 100 for taxes and you're taking all of the peoples' 
   money.  They will not like this.  Set the % at 100 for 
   spending, and you are spending at your maximum ability to 
   spend.  If you take in more money than you spend, it builds up 
   in a treasury.  Aside from overt taxation, your government 
   sponsors inter-galactic traders that give you a cut.  This 
   helps fund your ambitious goals of ....inter-species alliance 
   or galactic conquest.  It should be noted that Dean Iverson first 
   proposed a model similar to this one to Brad and company.  
   Continuing efforts on the part of Steve Lamb, one of the beta  
   testers, helped convince SDS to implement this model in the game. 
   This is a compliment to Dean and Steve since the previous one was 
   a bit...less flexible. 
         
   2) the allocation icon [three horizontal sliders]: This icon 
   gives you access to three slider that control the % of your 
   spending that is going into military projects (star ships, 
   including colony ships and freighters), social projects 
   (entertainment centers, antimatter plants) and research 
   (technology advancement). 
 
   3) the planets [planets]: Each planet can handle building one 
   project or one ship at a time.  If no planets are actually 
   building something, then you are not actually spending any 
   money and any reserve goes into your treasury. 
  
How do I allocate my funds? 
   Funding is divided between ships (military), research and 
   social spending (planetary construction).  In the early game, 
   I've tried pumping out the colony ships as fast as possible 
   with a 60/30/10 split on resources, plus setting my spending 
   level at 80% and keeping taxes at 28%.  Observations: it's not 
   a sure-fire plan.  I seem to spend too much time playing 
   "catch-up".  I need to catch-up in research, social spending 
   and despite the high spending on colony ships, planets.  I'm 
   now trying a more even split.  Any comments on this would be 
   appreciated. 
 
   A more successful approach that I have using lately was 
   suggested by John Martz.  Set the the resource sliders to a 
   25/50/25 split.  This game is driven by technology.  He with 
   the best tech wins, or at least has a good shot at winning.  
   Getting to Impulse as fast as you can is paramount.  Now, pump  
   out the colony ships and use you're hopefully superior movement 
   rate to compensate for your lack of omniscience.  On the  
   technology front, shoot for Universal Translator and then  
   Galactic Trade. 
 
How do I increase the population of my planets? 
   Make happy people.  Happy people do happy things, and one of 
   those things is to increase the planet's population.  One main 
   influence is taxation.  If the tax rate is too high, then the 
   population does not grow, and in fact, even decreases.  It is 
   not so much that you're taxing your people to death but that 
   instead of staying in your little settlement, they've joined 
   the Inter-stellar Posse Commitas.  A planet is a very big 
   place, and a few hundred thousand, spread out, would be real 
   hard to find.  However, be careful about lowering the tax rate 
   since the population gets even more unhappy about raising 
   taxes once they've been lowered than if you had kept them the 
   same. 
 
  
 
   Taxation aside, another method is to increase the moral of the   
   people through various social programs.  Planetary programs 
   have primarily three functions: increase moral, increase 
   production or other.  Most programs have mixed benefits but 
   some target one aspect in particular.  Example: Entertainment 
   Networks.  They do not help research or starship attacks, but 
   your people are much happier. 
 
   If your people are unhappy living where they are, ship them 
   somewhere else; off to war, for example.  I've been known to 
   stick them in orbit, waiting for the next war.  Reducing the 
   population of a planet is one way to make the remaining people 
   happy.  It's best not to speculate why.   
 
   Reduce pollution.  Polluted planets are unhappy planets.  
   Although Earth First! would not be a good name for unhappy 
   people in this situation, the projects your planets are 
   building may have to be put on hold to prevent widespread 
   revolt.  Consider building pollution abatement projects. 
 
   And lastly, reform your government.  The increased freedoms of 
   the Star Democracy and the Star Federation can generate 
   happier people.  However, if you already have low morale (40% 
   or less), going to these forms of government may actually 
   foster widespread revolt.  While I've not tested it 
   personally, I am under the impression that Imperial 
   Governments do not suffer revolts.  Or, at least, it has 
   to get a _whole_ lot worse than under the other two forms. 
 
A GENERAL NOTE!!!! 
   DON'T FORGET THE RESOURCE ALLOCATION BUTTONS!!! 
   The details window of the planet can let you fine tune the 
   amount of resources you spend on various aspects of your 
   planet.  You can vary the allocations between social projects 
   (the cornucopia), military projects (the open-end wrench), 
   research (the OS/2 terminal), and morale (the microphone). 
   Consider allocating resources at the local level instead of 
   doing it galactically with the sliders.  (thanks, John) 
 
Which research path should I select? 
   The beginning is easy.  Take General Cold Fusion, followed by 
   Impulse Drive, then Universal Translator and Galactic Trade. 
   Start your trading empire since money is the key!!!!!  Then, 
   pick up Galactic Diplomacy and race for Warp Drive (via  
   Antimatter) and Shields (via Deflectors).  Then, grab 
   Battle Tech I.  Above all, trade, trade, trade.  Tech and 
   goods.  However, don't trade Battle Tech unless it's with 
   an ally!  John Martz first articulated this strategy in 
   several of his posts to comp.sys.os2.games. Of course, there 
   are lots of ways to play the game, this is one that works for 
   many. 
 
What's the best way to conduct a war? 
   Aggressively!  Given the design of the game, being the  
   attacker is _the_ bonus.  What I mean by this, is that you 
   should _attack_ incoming, enemy vessels, rather than letting 
   them attack your systems and using the planetary defense bonus 
   as your protection.  Cover your home systems with one 
   (maybe 2) ships and have a fleet nearby to attack incoming, 
   enemy vessels.  It can also be handy to leave one planet 
   unguarded to act as a trap for enemy transports.  Some of the 
   personalities in the AI do not see ships sitting in space as a 
   vicious threat, which they are.  They only occasionally 
   attack them.  Beware of Draginol.  This military commander 
   was tweaked to counter this strategy and makes extensive use 
   of stealth cruisers. 
 
 
 
How do I make friends and influence enemies? 
   Trade.  Other routes of influence are the "secretly declare 
   war" option and the "destablize" option under the GIA. 
 
How do I select the best trade routes? 
   Rich planet to rich planet, I think.  I must admit to not 
   being very quantitative on this one, but that is what I think 
   I've been seeing.  Do note, that as your planets improve, 
   you will need to send out new freighters to take advantage 
   of your increased planet wealth.  New technology begets new 
   products for trade that in turn require new trade routes to 
   be established. 
 
How do I bargain with those dirtba.... the customers? 
        hmmm????   
   In general, there are three basic characteristics for the race 
   with whom you are attempting to bargain.  The first is their 
   "greed" level.  I guess this affects how quickly they are 
   satisfied with a deal.  The second characteristic is how 
   ethical they are.  I suspect this governs whether the initial 
   bid will be reasonable or not.  The last racial trait is 
   guillibility, which is easily tied to how tough it is to just 
   plain bargain with them.  As a note, your fifth bid is your 
   last bid.  If that bid is not accepted, you have lost the 
   deal. 
    
 
Which planets should be doing what construction? 
   Obvious suggestions: always opt to increase production on a 
   planet, but other than that, chose military projects for the 
   frontier planets and social/research projects for the interior 
   planets.  Beyond this, any planet I've colonized has built 
   "Soil Enhancement" followed by "Schools" and then 
   Entertainment Network".  All three are cheap to build. Schools 
   have no maintenance cost so that is why I include them.  The 
   choice of the Entertainment Network may be dubious.  It is  
   expensive to maintain. 
    
   John Martz suggested Schools then Soil Enhancement.  Since  
   a solid research program can be the key to this game, I concur 
   with this strategy, unless your tax rate is too high.  If the 
   the tax rate is high (40%+) then the morale of the inhabitants 
   may be too low.  Schools do not add enough morale, but a Soil 
   Enhancement project may. 
 
Aside from an Excaliber, are there really any better ships than a 
starfighter? 
   Yes, there are.  From reading the net posts, the most  
   commonly used ships for offense are War Hammers, Interceptors, 
   and Battle Ships.  Interceptors, with their superlative speed, 
   are good for scouting out what, if any, enemy ships are 
   approaching the area.  Use the interceptor as a lure to drag 
   the enemy ships away from the vulnerable system.  Interceptors 
   are just good enough to try and whomp the occasional 
   transport.  However, they will often take damage from these 
   attacks, so caution is advised.  War Hammers are 
   a poor man's battle ship.  Yes, they can take out a Battle 
   Ship now and then.  But, they will often take damage from such 
   an encounter.  The AI will usually not attack a ship at full 
   strength but seldom lets a wounded foe escape.  The Battle 
   Ship (and its off-spring) is the queen of the battle field.  
   Keep one or more handy near the home worlds for defense and 
   send the rest out on conquest.  Watch the damage they 
   accumulate.  If one takes too much, send it home for repairs.  
   They cost too much to try and rebuild from scratch.  In 
   addition, Battle Cruisers are a good ship when you can't build 
   War Hammers.  They are cheaper than Battle Axes, with a better 
   defense and higher speed.   
 
   For defense, the Defender, in orbit, is a good ship.  If you 
   opt to be a good player (or you manage to trade for it), the 
   Corvette is an excellent ship on defense.  In orbit, it can 
   take the occasional Battle Ship.  This is definitely worth it! 
 
   As for the other ships, one of the most important is the 
   transport.  Although I have yet to use this strategy, it would 
   seem that building some transports on a planet when it's not 
   doing any other projects is a good idea.  You can blast the 
   opposing star fleet to radioactive debris but you've done 
   nothing unless you can invade! 
 
   And for completeness, the colony ship is, of course, without 
   peer for being important!  Next, try the freighter.  Without 
   enough revenue from trade, your dreams of empire will most 
   likely come to naught.  I would suggest holding a few 
   freighters in reserve for the inevitable lose of a trade or 
   two during a conflict. 
 
 
 
I'm getting some crazy swapper growth. What did you guys do? Can't  
you write a simple video game? Where's my lawyer??? 
        Swapper growth was one of the most trying problems we had  
with GalCiv.  Because there are few large scale games (at the time  
of GalCiv, there are no others that we know of), many of OS/2's more  
obscure API calls were not well tested. As a result, tiny leaks in  
OS/2 never got caught.  Lucky for us, GalCiv uses those calls a lot  
and  those tiny leaks add up.  There are, however, some solutions to  
the problem (if you are getting it). 
        #1      Make sure you have GalCiv v1.01c or later. It works 
                around most of OS/2's leaks. 
        #2      MOST IMPORTANT: Set your swapper file size to default  
                to at least 8 megabytes. This can be done by going to  
                the config.sys and changing the second number in the 
                swapper path statment to 8092.  We do not know why  
                this works but in my experience, this completely  
                eliminates swapper growth. I theorize that once your  
                swapper starts to grow in OS/2 (particularly OS/2 3.0) 
                it will just grow and grow and grow.  By the way, this  
                advice applies to every OS/2 app, not just GalCiv. 
        #3      If you are still getting growth, try turning off the  
                sound and making sure Fastload (Windows) isn't activated. 
        #4      If none of the above work, contact IBM or SDS or AIMS. 
 
 
 
How to I invade other colonies? 
   You need to build Transports.  You obviously can't take over an  
   entire planet with a star fighter so you need troops.  When you build  
   a transport, you can put troops onto the ship and then take it to an  
   UNDEFENDED planet. 
 
 
I haven't bought GalCiv yet. What other games is it like? 
   It is most like Civilization with respect to the fact that you are trying  
   to create a civilization.  It is like Empire in terms of how you work  
   you strategy. Each ship is its own unit.  It also combines some elements of 
   Masters of Orion since you can win the game by forming a united galaxy  
   and diplomacy is a much more important aspect of the game than in  
   Civilization or Empire. 
 
 
I really like GalCiv but I miss the feature in Masters of Orion where I  
could design my own ships.  Is there any way to make GalCiv more like  
Masters of Orion? 
   On January 1, 1995, SDS will be releasing Shipyards for GalCiv which  
   will be an add on that lets you do just that. When Shipyards is  
   installed, a new button will appear on the icon bar that will let you  
   create new ships. Your opponents will also be able to build their own  
   ships. You can even choose how your ship will look like.  One added  
   feature is that you can "steal" ship designs from your opponents. 
 
 
Is it easier to win by being good or evil? Where's the payoff for being  
a good guy? 
   Being a nice guy has never meant that you get rewarded. It works  
   like this though, good guys are treated better by other nice  
   civilizations.  Being a bad guy offers a lot of short term benefits  
   but good civilizations will likely come after you while other evil  
   civilizations won't lift a finger to help you. There are about a  
   dozen technologies available only to good guys (there are also about  
   10 technologies only available to evil players too). 
 
I've been hearing a lot about GalCiv but where I live there are no stores  
that carry OS/2 software. How can I get GalCiv? 
   The best thing you can do is to try to get your store to carry it.  
   However, if that doesn't work, you can order it from numerous sources  
   including SDS.  SDS's number is (313)782-2248 (FAX: 313-782-9868). All  
   you need is a credit card (or you can order it COD). They'll need your  
   name, address, city, zip, credit card number and expiration date.  A  
   distributor called Micro Central will be the place to tell stores that  
   they can get it from. 
 
I don't have OS/2, just Windows 3.1.  Will there be a Windows 3.1 version  
of GalCiv? 
        No. 
 
 
 
How do I repair my ships? 
   Take them home.  A ship can only be repaired by placing it in 
   orbit about its home-WORLD, not system.  Also note that if a 
   ship is in orbit about it's homeworld and it takes damage, it 
   is not automatically repaired.  Take it out of orbit and back 
   in to repair the damage.  Shakedown cruise?  ((This may not be 
   true for the GA.  Let me know about this.)) 
    
What does it mean that this game has a configurable set-up? 
   For me, it means that I can move the quadrant map to the left 
   hand side of the screen, move the button bar to the middle and 
   over-draw the graphs and button bar with my star map.  If I 
   need the other two, I use the RMB to pop them up. 
 
 
***************************************************************** 
************ CHEATS and OTHER BLACK HOLES *********************** 
***************************************************************** 
Chapter 3 
 
There are at least two little "holes" in the game for 
unscrupulous players to exploit.  Or frustrated players.... 
Or those days you just wanna trash the galaxy and you don't care 
how you do it....Or.... 
 
1) "REAL" Warp Drive 
    If you move your ship out the corner of a border quadrant at 
the border, your ship will appear in the next quadrant in the 
same square you attempted to "leave".  This is obviously a way of 
moving REAL FAST  (done in a Dave Barry voice). 
 
2) Population Growth via "Shore Leave" 
   If you remove all the troops from a transport, leave and then 
return that ship to its homeworld, it will instantly gain another 
20,000 troops (20 legions).  Repeat as needed.  As a note, this 
is also a bug.  In the bug state, your transport full of legions 
gets "repaired" to the 20 level. 
 
3) Prescience 
   You can always save the game after it starts and then map out 
the universe.  It would probably be easiest to do a <print 
screen> and then annotate the print-out.  Then, restart. 
Since the AI doesn't cheat, you can be a true prophet and 
know exactly what is going to happen. 
 
***************************************************************** 
***************************************************************** 
The following is courtesy Brad Wardell of Stardock Systems,  Designer 
of GalCiv.  Brad hides at 22wardel@cs.wmich.edu.  I did some editing. 
 
The AI: 
 
The AI is split into two modules: SDSAI.DLL which is a general 
artificial intelligence engine that we'll be using in other 
products and GCAI.DLL which is specific to GalCiv. 
 
The key thing to remember about the AI in GalCiv is that it does 
not make a distinction between you and the computer players.  It 
uses the same code as the human players does for moving ships, 
building projects, etc.  It plays by the same rules except for a 
couple of important differences:  
 
#1  The Computer players are NOT currently allowed to purchase 
ships. We felt that it would make the game too difficult if the 
computer players were allowed to (like you can) just use their 
treasury and buy a ship every turn.  If people are able to beat 
the AI regularly on the higher levels then we may reconsider this 
but for now, this human advantage is in the GA. 
 
#2 Human players cannot send the AI nasty messages like the AI 
can to you.  This is obviously for entertainment value.  Human 
players also can't ask for help from friendly players in the form 
of "give us ships".  This may be  added in a v1.1 or something. 
 
#3 The computer players start out with a planet whereas you start 
out in a space ship.  This is for plot reasons.  Unlike the 
betas, in the GA you will have the possibility of having type 16 
planets in your starting quadrant (in the betas, you only got 
class 12 planets guaranteed). 
 
#4 The Aliens already know what color all the stars are in surrounding 
quadrants.. This is a huge advantage since yellow stars almost always have 
a nice planet in them.  This was put in for plot reasons (beta 1 testers 
complained that it didnt' make any sense for the AI not to have mapped 
out most of the galaxy (afterall, we earthlings have in our native galaxy 
over the milenium). 
 
 
Other than that, the AI follows the same rules.  If you find that 
the AI is doing something you deem unfair, email me with a bug 
report because that is what it would be, a bug.  The AI doesn't 
distinguish between you and other players for among other things, 
the possibility of adding modem/network play in later versions 
(should the game do well in the market). 
 
GC/AI: 
        The GCAI is what we could call the politicians.  IT 
decides when to go to war, how to talk to you, how to approach 
you in dealing with things.  It takes into account when dealing 
other playres (including you): 
        Their good/evil alignment. 
        Their relative military strength. 
        Trade agreements and how nice things went. 
        Their aggression level. 
        Their cooperation level 
        Their ethical level 
        Their greed level 
        Their insanity level* (the computer looks only at its 
                               own. It doesn't know the other 
                               players' insanity level) 
         
        (all of these they look at their own level and the other 
players). 
         
        * note, the AI may not KNOW all of these about a player, 
they go with what information they have available. 
 
        All of the above information is available to the human 
player either directly or from spying.  In fact, none of the 
above things require you to even spy on them, since you can find 
this information in the GIA window and under the 
espionage/military window under the GIA. 
 
 
Good guys tend to bond with other good guys.  They don't worry 
about how tough or powerful the other good guy is (in general).  
Keep in mind, only REALLY good guys will totally neglect your 
military or trade with them when deciding to be nice to you or 
someone else.  There are 20 shades of Good.....EVIL (You can 
select 5 differenet level of Good or evil for them but if you let 
it randomly choose, it will have a finer granularity). 
 
Really bad guys will look a bit more favorably on other really, 
really bad guys but they don't tend to bond as well as good guys 
do.  Bad guys may not declare war on each other but they will 
also not ally together quite as often.  Still though, the end 
result can be a game with Good vs. Evil if you select extremists. 
 
The down-right neutrals (shade 10 out of 20) only care about 
trade.  You want a Ferengi-type race, choose a neutral.  The 
EXACT neutral type has extra logic to make it a fence sitter. 
 
There's, of course, a lot more detail in this but I don't want to 
spoil the game too much ! 
 
 
SDS/AI: 
 
        The GCAI are the politicians, the SDSAI are the generals.   
The GA version of GalCiv has 5 different release level 
Personalities or Advisors.  You can imagine each personality 
being a separately programmed entity.  They share some common 
code for things such as dodging obstacles and finding undefended 
star systems that they know of, but most of what they do is 
unique.  This is important because if people say, "The AI was 
dumb, it chased my scout all over the place while I trashed the 
rest of them, heh heh", they really should say "Advisor N is 
dumb, they did ..." because the others may not (and do not) do 
things the same way..  Some Personalities go for having a large 
trading fleet, others will play vulture and will quit colonizing 
quickly and then build trasnports (gee, I bet none of you guys 
did something as low as that, eh?). 
 
     The Advisors Code names can be found by looking in the 
Espionage Window under "Military".   
The names are: 
              Sauronir 
              Denethor 
              Draginol 
              Mascrinthus 
              Calor 
 
        Not all of the personalities will use Terror Stars, for 
example, because of their destructive value.  People who die as a 
result of being killed on a transport (when you destroy a 
transport) or on a planet due to a terror star are now counted as 
part of the overall casaulty list. So if you get Terror Stars (or 
the AI uses them), you'll know how many troops (in legions: 1 
legion = 1k troops) have been destroyed. 
 
End submission by Mr. Wardell 
 
**************************************************************** 
*****************  WHERE IS THE xxxx?  ************************* 
**************************************************************** 
 
- autopilot on/off? 
  Under the floppy disk icon is the setup button.  This button 
pops up that function and other useful functions such as sound, 
avi, etc. 
 
- background process control? 
  Under the floppy disk icon is the setup button.  This button 
pops up that function and other useful functions such as sound, 
avi, etc. 
 
- place to reform my government? 
  Under the icon up from the floppy disk icon is the reform gov't 
button.  It's the "Reports" icon that looks like a sheet of 
paper. 
 
- the reports of how I am doing? 
  There are four types of "how am I doing" information.  All of 
this information resides under the "Reports Icon" (the sheet of 
paper).  The first option is the "Top Five Planets" listing.  One 
should strive at all times to keep this free of alien riff-raff.  
A second option is the "Demographics" listing.  This is a screen 
of statistics such as % of galactic population, absolute and % 
production values, etc.  A third option is the button that 
compares humanity to all of the other races in the game.  It's a 
relative scoring that shows how much you're pumping into R&D 
relative to your competitors.  The fourth option is the score 
button which also gives you a good/neutral/bad ranking. 
 
- listing of my ships? 
  The icon with the Earth over a triangle is the fleet icon.  
From here, you can click on a ship and then either pull up the 
ship display window (if it's in orbit) or it will plop you into 
the quadrant that the ship occuppies and highlight that ship. 
 
- place to find out how much damage my ship has taken? 
  There are 3 ways to find this out.  One, use the RMB to pull up 
the ship control menu.  Two, look at the strength number at the 
bottom of the screen.  Three, look at how many black smudges are 
smeared across the ship menu at the bottom of the screen.  The 
more smudges, the worse off the ship is. 
 
- that planet that was preparing to rebel? 
  Click on that planet in the GNN window when it appears.  You 
will then be flipped over to the planet menu to deal with the 
problem.  For getting to a planet in a more general way, use the 
icon with the planets on it to pull up an alphabetical listing of 
all of your planets. 
 
 
 
 
 
***************************************************************** 
TECHNOLOGY TREE  (or "Can I get Artificial Life if I can't Phase 
                      properly?") 
***************************************************************** 
Chapter 5.1 
**** under construction **** 
**** please bear with us *** 
 
Nano-Electronics  
     -> Nano-Frequencies -> Brainwave Mapping 
           -> Instant          -> Cure for Depression 
              Communications 
                 -> Star Federation 
     -> Nano-Metal Composition -> High Density Metals (destroyer) 
                                     -> Tri-Strontium Alloys 
                                          -> Large Scale Building (warhammer) 
 
Brainwave Mapping 
Large Scale Building 
     -> Terra Computers 
           -> Advanced AI's 
           -> Hyper-Computers 
                -> Interspecies Philosophy 
 
General Cold Fusion (small fighter) 
     -> Impulse (transport) 
           -> Anti-matter 
                 -> Warp Drive 
                       -> Hyperspace 
                             -> Hyperwarp (if a good race) 
 
Phasor (interceptor) 
     -> Turbo-phasor (battlecruiser) 
           -> Advanced Phasor (if a good race) (corvette) 
           -> Mega-phasor 
                 -> Antimatter Weapons 
 
Photon Weapons (star fighter) 
     -> Sensors (battle ax) 
 
Organic Manipulation 
     -> Genetic Mapping 
           -> Transporters 
 
Universal Translator 
     -> Galactic Trade (freighter) 
     -> Galactic Diplomacy 
           -> Alliances 
           -> Star Democracy 
 
and there's more... 
BIG NOTE!  missing the evil technologies!  there are lots of 
them, such as Galactic Collusion, Distruptors, Master Race, 
Thought Control, Clever Chip, and more! 
 
***************************************************************** 
PROJECTS - (or "Gee, we need 0-G porta-potties.  
                What does it do and how do we do it?) 
***************************************************************** 
Chapter 5.2 
 
 
The following is an alphabetized listing of the various projects 
that can be built on a planet if the technology is available.  
The project names were, in some cases, abbreviated to near 
obscurity.  I was attempting to get enough room on the right-hand 
side to put in the technology necessary to achieve the project.  
They didn't fit, so I duplicated the list and used full names. 
The various abbreviations for effects (first list) are as 
follows:  TI = Trade Increase;  Mor = Morale;  Ship A = Ship 
          Attack; Ship D = Ship Defense; Gnd Def = Ground 
          Defense;  Res = Research;  Env = Anti-pollution Effect; 
          Maint = Maintenance;  Cost = Cost in bc. 
 
It should be noted that since I usually play the good-guy role,  the 
projects here include many of the projects that only "nice guys"  can 
get to such as Advanced Hospitals.  In GalCiv, what technologies 
are available to you depends on whether you are good or evil. 
 
 
               Production  Ship  Gnd 
Project Name  |    TI Mor| A  D |Def|Res|Env|Maint|Cost| 
--------------|-----------------|---|---|---|-----|----| 
Adv Hospital  | 15 05 10 | -- --|-- | 05|   |  4  | 900|         
Adv Mil Trn   | 15 -- 10 | 35 --|60 | --|   |  0  |1100| 
Adv Poll Ctrl | 30 10 20 | -- --|-- | 01| 10|  3  |1500| 
Antimtr Plant | 83 33 50 | 02 --|-- | 02|   |  4  |1000| 
Cont Environ  | 30 30 -- | -- --|-- | --|   |  0  |2000| 
Currency Sys  | 25 15 10 | -- 01|-- | 01|   |  3  | 500| 
Defense Sys   | 06 01 05 | 10 15|45 | 01|   |  5  |1100| 
Entertain Net | 37 02 35 | -- --|-- | --|   |  4  | 100| 
Environ Ctrl  | 05 -- 05 | -- --|-- | --|  3|  2  | 500| 
Fusion PP     | 35 25 10 | 10 --|-- | 05|   |  3  | 500| 
Gal Curr Exc  | 72 20 52 | -- --|-- | --|   |  5  |1000| 
Gal Ent Ntwk  | 35 -- 35 | -- --|-- | --|   |  4  | 500| 
Gal Info Net  | 22 10 12 | -- --|-- | 30|   |  4  |1000| 
Gnd Defense   | 04 -- 04 | 03 03|50 | --|   |  3  | 200| 
Hydroponics   | 30 10 20 | -- --|-- | 10|   |  3  |1100| 
Im Poll Ctrl  | 15 05 10 | -- --|-- | --|  5|  5  |1000| 
Info Net      | 10 02 08 | -- --|-- | 10|   |  2  | 100| 
Int Security  | 06 01 05 | 02 08|-- | --|   |  1  | 300| 
Mil Academy   | 10 -- 10 | 15 05|50 | --|   |  2  | 380| 
Mutat Ctrl    | 40 10 30 | 01 01|-- | 02|   |  1  | 900| 
Multimedia    | 20 05 15 | -- --|-- | --|   |  4  | 800| 
Phasing PP    | 40 20 20 | -- --|-- | 20|   | 10  |1000| 
Planet Poll   | 10 -- 10 | -- --|-- | --|  3|  1  | 500| 
Schools       | 06 02 04 | -- --|-- | 15|   |  0  |  50| 
Soil Enhan    | 32 02 30 | -- --|-- | --|   |  2  |  50| 
Treat Ctr     | 17 05 12 | -- --|-- | --|   |  3  | 600| 
University    | 10 05 05 | 02 --|-- | 20|   |  2  | 200| 
Virt R Ctr    | 60 10 50 | -- --|-- | --|   |  5  | 900| 
 
Evil Projects - I have yet to map out evilness. 
Gal Collusion 
etc. 
.. 
.. 
 
Advanced Hospitals - Viral Elimination 
Advanced Military Training - Terror Star 
Advanced Pollution Control - Planetary Destruction 
Antimatter Plant - Antimatter Weapons  
Controlled Environment - Replication 
Currency System - Star Democracy   
Defense System - Planetary Defense 
Entertainment Network - (given) 
Environmental Controls - Nano Electronics 
Fusion Power Plant - General Cold Fusion 
Galactic Currency Exchange - 4D Phasing 
Galactic Entertainment Network - Star Democracy 
Galactic Info Net - Terra Computers   
Ground Defense - (given) 
Hydroponics - Organic Manipulation 
Improved Pollution Control - Planetary Destruction 
Info Net - Terra Computers 
Internal Security - Sensors 
Military Academy - Shields 
Mutation Control - Evolution Control 
Multimedia Center - 1D Phasing 
Phasing Power Plant - 3D Phasing 
Planetary Pollution Control - Artificial Planets 
Schools - (given) 
Soil Enhancement - (given) 
Treatment Center - Advanced Pain Treatment 
University - (given) 
Virtual Reality Center - 3D Phasing    
 
 
***************************************************************** 
GALACTIC ACHIEVEMENTS (or "Inter-stellar Merit Badges Made 
                           Easy!!) 
***************************************************************** 
Chapter 5.3 
 
  Cloaking Device - need: Cloaking 
                    cost: 2000 bc 
         expiration date: NONE! 
                   bonus: 30% ship attack, 1% defense 
            worth it????: yes, plus the big bonus of all ships   
                          that are built are now equiped with 
                          cloaking tech so they can't be tracked! 
    what if my neighbors  
              build one?: don't worry, every one has secrets. 
 
Controlled Wormhole - need: Spatial Rifts 
                      cost: 1400 bc 
           expiration date: ...forgot... 
                     bonus: +50% trade! and 10% research 
              worth it????: maybe...depends upon if you're racing 
                            for the tech that ends its useful 
                            life. 
      what if my neighbors  
                build one?: I don't know.               
 
        Crystalai - need: Advanced AI's 
                    cost: 4000 bc 
         expiration date: none 
                   bonus: adds +1 to all inhabitated planet class 
            worth it????: it's a LONG project!  But it is  
                          worth the increased population growth. 
    what if my neighbors  
              build one?: anyone can improve their homes through 
                          their local Planets-R-Us dealer! 
 
    Dinosaur Park Wonder: Replication 
                    cost: 2000 bc 
         expiration date: Artificial Planets 
                   bonus: +50% production 
            worth it????: if you're racing for Artificial 
                          Planets, then this is not the project 
                          for you. 
    what if my neighbors  
              build one?: sorry, only one per galaxy.  Copyright. 
 
     Deep Thought - need: Terra Computers 
                    cost: 2200 bc 
         expiration date: Omni Computers 
                   bonus: +40% research for _ALL_ planets. 
            worth it????: Definitely one of the Wonders for which 
                          to strive.  The 40% research boost is 
                          wonderful. (what? me? pun? nyah.) 
    what if my neighbors  
              build one?: The galaxy can only have one Deep 
                          Thought. 
 
    Eyes of the Universe: Sensors 
                    cost: 1000 bc 
         expiration date: none 
                   bonus: none 
            worth it????: in a huge universe, probably so, 
                          especially if you push straight for 
                          it and gain its use for colonization. 
                          Otherwise, it's of limited use 
    what if my neighbors  
              build one?: you're blind. 
 
 Galactic Stock Exchange: Star Democracy 
                    cost: 920 bc 
         expiration date: NONE! 
                   bonus: +50% trade 
            worth it????: Without a doubt!  The only drawback 
                          is the pollution it can create on a 
                          very productive planet.  Poor baby. 
    what if my neighbors  
              build one?: too late.  you lose.  start over. 
 
HyperSpace Project- need: Hyperspace       
                    cost: 1000 bc 
         expiration date: none 
                   bonus: none 
            worth it????: if you're at war, the +2 move can be 
                          a real nice advantage.  If you're foes 
                          have it, you are at a real 
                          disadvantage, so you'd better get 
                          building! 
    what if my neighbors  
              build one?: read the above carefully. 
 
 
    Life Creation - need: Artificial Life 
                    cost: 2600 bc 
         expiration date: oops! 
                   bonus: +25% morale, +30% research 
            worth it????: the morale and research bonuses are 
                          nice.  The project is a bit expensive 
                          but if you want to stay ahead...? 
    what if my neighbors  
              build one?: don't know that one either. 
 
 Nano Robot Wonder- need: Nano Electronics 
                    cost: 500 bc 
         expiration date: Terra Computers 
                   bonus: none 
            worth it????: sure, why not? not much more expensive 
                          than a fusion plant and gives more 
                          output.  But, if you're after those 
                          info nets in a big hurry, don't bother. 
    what if my neighbors  
              build one?: no problem, build your own! 
 
  Peace for a time- need: Interspecies Philosophy 
                    cost: ???? 
         expiration date: ???? 
                   bonus: ???? 
            worth it????: no clue.  I've never had a chance to   
                          build this project.  Wild speculation? 
                          It can only be built by alien races. 
                          That would be cool....in a way. 
    what if my neighbors  
              build one?: You're assuming you can. 
 
      Trison Ring - need: Large Scale Building (I'll say!) 
                    cost: 1200 bc 
         expiration date: none! ha, ha, ha, ha 
                   bonus: +40% trade, +1% defense, +10% research 
            worth it????: YES!  Just like the Galactic Stock 
                          Exchange, build it! 
    what if my neighbors  
              build one?: too late. 
 
 
  Tur-Ahn Training- need: Planetary Defense 
                    cost: 1100 bc 
         expiration date: Replication 
                   bonus: +40% attack, defense, +100% ground def. 
            worth it????: if you are at war, want to go to war, 
                          or fear being at war, don't hesitate. 
    what if my neighbors  
              build one?: hope they are your friends. 
 
    Utopia Colony - need: Utopia  
                    cost: 6000 bc (ouch!) 
         expiration date: there is one.... I think. 
                   bonus: +20% trade and morale 
                          +5% attack, defense and ground def. 
                          +20% research. 
            worth it????: it gives a lot of bonuses.  It costs 
                          a lot!  It comes very late in the game. 
                          More experience is definitely needed. 
    what if my neighbors  
              build one?: I hope everyone can have a utopia! 
 
There are other evil Wonders (Super Projects/Galactic  Achievements) you  
can build too but those are not mapped out here. 
 
********************************************************************* 
TECHNOLOGY AND SHIPS  (or "something clever goes here") 
********************************************************************* 
Chapter 5.4 
 
-i think i'm going to re-do this in the style of the project table above. 
 that would be more useful. 
 
 
Battleships <- Battle Tech I  <- Warp Drive  <- Antimatter 
                              <- Shields     <- Deflectors 
 
Battlecruisers <- Turbophasors  <- Phasors 
 
Battle Ax <- Sensors <- Photon Torpedoes 
 
Corvette <-  
Defender 
Destroyer <- High Density Metals   
                  <- Nano-metal Composition   
                           <- Nano Electronics 
 
Interceptor <- Phasors 
 
Small Fighter <- General Cold Fusion 
 
Star Fighter <- Photon Torpedoes 
 
War Hammer <- Large Scale Building 
 
 
***************************************************************** 
 
********************* Future Wishes ***************************** 
 
 
 
***************************************************************** 
Chapter 6.0 
 
Player Options (those changes affecting the player only) 
 
- let the player ask for aid from the other races (net) 
 
- the windows for fleet display and the planet display should be 
sortable on any of the columns in the display.  (i.e.- ship name, 
planet name, production, location, ship class, etc.) (net) 
 
- let the player choose the military advisors of the alien races. 
Go for the ultimate punishment of chosing the nasty AI for all 
the opponent races (or the opposite). (John Martz. The 
masochist!) 
 
- the naming of the star ships should allow for the place of 
origin to be displayed _without_ having to pop-up a window.  This 
is vital information!  (John Martz) 
 
- or, put a "Return to Base" button in the ship display window. 
  (John Martz) 
 
- there should be an increased number of options availible for 
the player under the GIA button.  These should include, but not 
be limited to, requests by the player for aid; requests for 
territory and/or money as a settlement for stopping a war (this 
should include lump sum and "leases"); mutual treaties (ie - in a 
2-on-1 war, you _and_ your ally would negotiate an end to the 
fighting); "giving" technology to another race; foreign aid to 
another race; treaties such as non-aggression pacts, warship size 
limitations, planetary colonization agreements, etc.; and any 
other options we can imagine!  (net) 
 
Alien Options (those changes affecting the other races only) 
 
- each race should have its own grammer.  It should not 
necessarily be tied to any given race all the time. (me) 
 
- more races for opponents with pretty pictures.  Obviously, this 
is a CD-ROM option given all the various resolutions that this 
game supports.  Maybe have the format for the pictures and their 
number known, so that anyone can edit a race. (me) 
 
Both (ah, obvious) 
 
- multi-ship movement such as escort, fleet movement, and have 
this reflect in the combat in some way.  A fleet of ten 
starfighters should be more of a force than ten individual 
starfighters.  Escorting ships should be attacked first, or maybe 
even get first attack?  (net) 
 
- projects should have variable affects on the different planet 
classes, possibly at different times in the planet's history. 
Examples: Entertainment Networks should be more effective on poor 
planets than better planets.  As the pollution level increases, 
the effectiveness of an Entertainment Network should get better, 
but not enough to offset the pollution losses.  (me) 
 
- mining outposts, or resource allocation outposts should be 
availible as either projects or military ventures.  These should 
be used to exploit other systems that don't have "habitable" 
planets.  They should increase production without pollution but 
should create more unhappiness at the home system.   (net) 
 
- espionage should give the alien trade route table as one of the 
possible outcomes.  From here, the player could use "destabilize" 
money to indirectly disrupt trade (a steady decline in income or 
maybe an abrupt ending of the route) or assign ships to play pirate 
on one or more trade routes.  Conversely, a player should be able 
to pull ships off the "line" to guard trade routes, either directly 
or maybe in a "Q"-ship role.  (me) 
 
Game Characteristics (changes that affect game play and 
environment more than any particular race characteristics.) 
 
- the planets list should be unique for each race and possibly 
modifiable by the player.  This would permit the player to 
customize his "own" race and pass it around for the delight of 
all. (me) 
 
- reduce the amount of "vacuum-effects".  What I mean by a 
vacuum-effect is the Trison Ring description.  In this 
description, it claims that the three planets were consumed in 
making the Ring.  If this is a real effect, then the Trison Ring 
should only be built in systems that have three or more planets 
of the type that can be used to build the Ring and the system 
display should remove those planets once the Ring is complete.  
In the best of all possible worlds, the system display should 
include a separate graphic for a Trison Ring. 
 
 
 
- the rebel planets need more personality.  It should be possible 
to negotiate with the rebels.  Possible results would be trade, 
non-aggression, chance to join the player's government.  (net) 
 
- related to the rebel planet personality is the idea that if 
enough planets go into rebellion in a particular race, than those 
planets can form a new, independent government with its own 
personality with a possible minor shift in the race personality.  
(me) 
 
- GIA espionage information needs to be expanded.  The current 
information, while interesting, is not all that useful.  If the 
above treaty suggestions are added, then better intelligence is 
necessary to check those treaties. 
  Examples of needed additions would be production/project/ 
population read-outs on individual planets; number of ships in  
the fleet and a listing of types of ships with maybe the addition  
of rough estimates of numbers (%s +/- 10?); estimates of planetary  
defense fleets; etc.  It should be possible to target a given  
planet to discover specific information about that planet.   
  It would also be good to tie the reports of racial standing with 
the other other races to only those races of which you have 
intelligence data. (net) 
 
- wars should have more effect on the population than just a draw 
on the economy.  There are two main paths this idea takes, one 
for democracies and one for totalitarian governments. However, in 
both governments, the longer the war, the stronger the needs and 
desires for peace. First, the democracy: if the democracy is at 
war with a neutral or good race, then the rising tide to stop the 
war should be much stronger.  Only evil governments should be the 
targets of sustained conflicts, and then only if the race has 
engaged in genocide should there exist strong enough support for 
a really sustained and nasty war to the bitter end.  This assumes 
the democracy is winning.  If it is losing, then the population 
should have some sort of siege mentality and be able to "tough it 
out". 
  If the government is totalitarian, then the population's will 
is much more ignorable, but there should be some chance for the 
creation of "rebels".  Recall that a planet in rebellion does not 
necessarily mean that the population of that planet has had a 
change of heart.  It most likely means that the local government 
has declared its independence from the central authority for its 
own needs.  (me) 
 
- to stay on the topic of war, I find it a bit disconcerting that 
it is so painless to go to war with a former ally.  Maybe it's just 
my altruistic viewpoint.  Consider that after making an alliance, 
fighting other races for decades (if not a century or so!), you just 
tell them, "You're not doing you're part" and then the alliance ends 
and you go about declaring war on them and then trashing them (that  
was the goal of that, wasn't it?).  Somehow, this seems akin to me of 
the US deciding to invade Canada or Great Britain in this day and age. 
Even ignoring the general moral/support hit the government would take 
for this action, the economic devastation alone would raise a hue and 
cry that would sink the leader attempting such a plan.  Remember,  
such an action would most likely come from someone playing the "good" 
path of the game.  I think that there should be some mechanism to 
make alliance breaking reflect more the _type_ of government the 
person is attempting to play.  (me, obviously) 
   
- not all technologies are equally good for all races.  Again, 
this follows the idea that good and evil races have different 
needs.  For a good race,  the building of Government Collusion 
should have a negative effect on citizen happiness.  The same 
should be true for evil race but for different technologies.  The 
Info Net is one example of a technology that should increase the 
chance that a planet goes into rebellion if the race is evil 
since this Net would allow the local cronies to be more able to 
band together, ignore the far-off central government and exploit 
the local resources.  (me) 
 
 
- there need to be some technologies that are present for the 
"neutral" races that would benefit their particular needs.  (net)   
 
- there need to be more options for government types. Suggestions  
  would be the space equivalent of a merchantile government  
  (obviously one for a neutral race). (net) 
  
(attributions: if the item was plucked off of the net and I 
cannot recall the source, I appended "net" to it.  Otherwise, 
the suggestion will have one or more names associated with it.  
Why all the bother?  I believe in giving credit where credit 
is due.  This game was programmed by real people (Brad, too) and 
has had lots of input from us, the beta group.  I think this 
tradition should continue!  I would also like to point out that 
all of the (me) attributions are due mainly to A LACK OF INPUT. 
....that's not too subtle, is it?) 
 
