Galactic Civilizations - Getting Started release 1.1

Last updated:	01/29/95

Comments on updates:
 * (01/29/95, r1.1) Latest game version and AI level are 1.03 and 1.05, respectively. Added paragraph on WWW in OTHER SOURCES section.

Copyright 1994, 1995 Shaun Burnett. All rights reserved. Feel free to distribute this text as long the original contents remain fully intact.

Galactic Civilizations, Drengin, Drengin Empire, Yor, Altarians, and Torian Confederation are trademarks of Stardock System, Inc (SDS).

Civilization, X-COM and Master of Orion are trademarks of MicroProse.

OS/2 is a trademark of IBM Corporation.

AIMs and AIMsBBS are trademarks of Advanced Idea Machines, Inc.

Special thanks to Brad Wardell for the initial walk through text.

FORWARD

After I received Galactic Civilizations (GC), I was unable to get into the game after installing it. Had I played Civilization or Master of Orion, I may have been able to immediately begin playing. This walk through is for people that have purchased GC and do not know where to start. It assumes the reader is comfortable in navigating OS/2 and familiar with the mouse lingo.

If an explanation on how to accomplish a task is given once, it probably will not be given again. So if you are lost, back up. If you are still confused, e-mail me so I can improve the readability of the document.

This walk through will not make you an expert player. Do not e-mail me asking for tips since I am far from an expert. In fact, I have yet to read the GC FAQ. One of GC's weaknesses is also its greatest strength--lack of documentation explaining the internals of the game. This "lack" of documentation reminds me of X-COM's documentation. This greatly extends the playability of the game since a lot of time will be spent investigating the game's internals on your own. If this type of documentation does not appeal to you, refer to the "OTHER SOURCES" section at the end of this document for ways to improve your play.

Shaun Burnett widow@u2peoria.org

Galactic Civilizations is an immensely complicated and challenging game. It will take you many hours of play to fully explore all the features of it. This walk through will help you get started in your new galaxy.

CONFIGURING THE PLAYING FIELD

Open up GC and click on the "Start a new game" button. The "Setting up your opponents ..." window will pop up. Set the Drengin Empire's intelligence to "Brain Dead" and all of the other opponents' personalities to "Not Active". Click on the "Accept" button. The next window that will be displayed is titled "Opponent Personality". Go ahead and click on the "good" radio button and then the "Accept" button. This will give you only one opponent in the game that will not be aggressive in waging war or colonizing planets. So you will have plenty of time to get the hang of the game.

The "... About your civilization..." settings window. Click on the button below the graphic of the universe until it reads "Small". Hopefully this will decrease the chances of having another race in the same quadrant or in a neighboring quadrant. Click on the "Done" button. You will see a couple of windows welcoming you to to GC. Click on the "Done" button in each of these after you have finished reading them.

COLONIZATION

Research before pleasure. Before you start on your quest to colonize the galaxy, you will first have to select a project to research via the Research Manager window. Double clicking on a technology will bring up a window displaying what will be gained by researching that particular technology. Click on "General Cold Fusion". At the bottom of the Research Manager window, under the words "General Cold Fusion" is the approximate amount of research time needed, which is forever.

Do not be alarmed. Since you have zero resources this makes sense. After you colonize a planet, this value will change. You can check on it later via the Research Manger icon which is the third button from the bottom in the icon bar (left hand of the screen). Go ahead and click on the "Done" button.

Your first colony wagon the Santa Maria, has just emerged from a wormhole. You do not know where anything is in this new galaxy. You first task is to find a suitable star system to colonize. You will want to do this in the first year, if possible, since the Santa Maria has twelve moves in its first year. After the first year, it can only move one parsec per year. The number of moves is displayed in the ships controls (lower right section of the screen) which is can be used to control the active ship.

Begin searching for a star system by using the cursor keys or the mouse (point and click) to move the ship. When you discover a star system, click on it with the right mouse button to view the planets within it. In general, the right mouse button will gather any information about any object in the game. The left mouse button will select most objects in the game. Double clicking will perform a default action if any.

Yellow stars generally have the best chance of having a planet that we humans could survive on. For entertainment purposes, the number of nice worlds in the game is much higher than it probably is in reality. In GC, planets are complicated things that are simplified in terms of how useful they are overall. In many games, a planet could be a "mining" world while another would be a "farming" world. To try to keep some element of reality in the game, SDS chose to make the worlds scalable from "crud" to "incredible". In our limited exploration of our solar system, it has been found that most planets are generally made of about the same elements. We have not come across a planet made of gold or platinum (unless you hitchhike across the galaxy and get stuck in a planet catalog :). A planet that is richer in ore but is extremely hostile to work on is not going to generate as much as a less mineral rich planet that is easy to work with. This is why the scale of planets ranges from 1 to 26 on a linear scale (in terms of production, the scale is exponential).

Right clicking on a star system will brings up the Star System Information window. This displays the planets in the star system along with some other information. Hopefully, the star system is not controlled by an opponent. (If it is, the icon of the planet would have been that of an opponents.) A right click on a planet will scan the planet and present the results in a window. If there are other planets in the system, you probably want to scan them too. Investigate all star systems that you discover, to find the best planet to colonize.

Tip: To reduce the amount of mouse movement, you can use the spacebar to "click" on the "Done" key in the planet scan window. This works since the button is the current focus of input. Using the spacebar is the same as clicking on the button which will close this window.

Once you find a suitable planet to colonize, move the Santa Maria into the star system. You will be prompted to name the system. To colonize a planet, double click on the planet, or left click on the planet and then left click on the "Colonize" button. You will then be asked to name the planet. You may be prompted with an event window. If so, select the button corresponding to your decision.

MILITARY AND SOCIAL PROJECTS

Planet View window will be displayed. This window will give you basic information on the selected planet. (If you wish to access this window from the Playing Field window, right click on the solar system and double click on the colonized planet. If you right click on the colonized planet, you will get the Planet Details window instead.) The two list boxes allow you to set the current social (left list box) and the military project (right list box). Only one project can be selected in each list box.

To start off with, click on "Soil Enhancement System" in the social list box. Double click on it to see what benefits and costs are associated with this project. This particular social project is good to start out with since it should not take too long and it increases productivity.

The military project that you should start out with is a "Scout". This allows you to relatively quickly map out quadrants since a scout has five times the movement of a colony wagon.

Below each list box is the estimated time until each project is completed. Depending on the proximity of alien races, the time listed may be too long. Here are some ways to speed up the amount of time.

1) Solar System/Local resources. From the Planet View window, click on the "Details" button. Depending on uninhabited planet resources in the current solar system, you should have at least one icon under the text "Solar System Resources". You can allocate these resources to improve morale (default), advance military or social project development or advance research.  Click once on each icon. This will shift these resources from morale to military. Returning to the Planet View window via the "View" (or "Back") button, you should notice that the length of time until your scout is completed has decreased. If it has not, the amount of resources you have is insignificant. Close the Planet View window.

2) Economic Ratios. The Economic Ratios icon is the fourth icon from the top of the icon bar. It determines the ratio of how money is spent between military, research and social projects. A suggested rate is 25/50/25, however, 40/40/20 may give a needed boost to your military projects if other races are near by. Once the ratios are set, close this window.

3) Economic Planner. The Economic Planner icon is the fourth icon from the bottom of the icon bar (dollar sign). Note the current percentages of the "Tax Rate: Government Income" and "Spend Rate: Government Expenditures" slider. If you move either of these sliders, the numbers in the economic planner will change. Increasing the tax rate is not a good idea. Depending on the outside income, you may be able to increase the spending rate. Watch the net surplus value. If this is negative, you will end up depleting your treasury. Close this window when you are done.

3) Purchase. Since getting to know your neighborhood is important, the scout is going to be purchased. Return to the Planet View window, and click on the "Purchase Now" button under the military project list box. This will bring up an Outside Contracting window. Click on the "Choose" button associated with the least expensive bid with no lease. Note that the time frame has changed to next year. Do not change the selection in the list box yet. Close the Planet View window and click on the "Turn" button.

EXPANSION AND EXPLORATION

With the passage of a year, the scout will be ready for use. If you were watching the Playing Field window before the Planet View window popped up, a shield with the letter "A" appeared next the the solar system. This denotes ships are orbiting a planet. For your next military project, select the colony wagon. On the scout ship which is under the "Ships in Orbit" portion of the window, click on the right button. This will bring up the ship's bridge window. Click on the Leave Orbit Button. Close the Planet View window when finished.

The scout ship should currently be active. You can use the mouse or cursor keys to move the scout around. You will probably want to search the current quadrant for additional star systems and then explore other quadrants. Sending a ship outside the boundary of the current quadrant will bring up the next quadrant. Blue areas denoted unexplored space.

In a couple of years your colony wagon should be completed. Bring up the bridge window for the wagon and add some more colonists. (Having less people on the planet is one way to increase the approval rating.). Once the colonists are on board, have the wagon leave orbit. If you have found another solar system, set the wagon's autopilot for it. Autopilot is simple to use. Either using the ship's bridge or the ship's controls at the bottom of the screen (make sure the wagon is selected), click on the "Auto" Button. The mouse cursor has changed to an arrow with the word "goto" beneath it. Click on a quadrant in the Starmap window and then a location or use the arrow icons in the Playing Field to change quadrants or click in the Playing Field to set the autopilot location.

SCIENTIFIC BREAKTHROUGHS

The key to doing well at Galactic Civilizations is to expand quickly and use your resources to gain new technology. Keep expanding via colony wagons and scouting around. Within approximately five to twenty years you should have a scientific breakthrough. Note that you can now manufacture small fighters and can now research the Impulse Drive (*wink* *wink* *nudge* *nudge*).

OTHER CIVILIZATIONS

With your scouts running about, it will not be long until you come in contact with other civilizations. You can click on their star or ship with the right mouse button to bring up an informational window on the object.

With the promise/threat of other other civilizations, it is a good idea to be be aware of how well defended you are. When a system is defended, a little shield will show up next to the planet. Although this shield shows up for any orbiting ship, only the small fighter currently has the ability to attack. (From the bridge of a ship, you can see the strength, attack and defense stats.)

When a star system has a shield, you can click on that shield with the right mouse button and have it bring up what ships are within that star system. If you own the ship, you can double click on the ship to bring of the dialog for leaving orbit. This is important to remember because if you surrender a star system to an enemy, you may still have ships in that system and you are not allowed to attack your own ships, having your ships leave orbit first by clicking on the shields would be important in such a case.

WHAT NEXT?

Like any strategy game, the key to winning is expand, be a good diplomat, and pursue technology as fast as you can. If you are able to do those things well, you should be able to begin defeating the game in no time (at least on the lower levels).

Once you get the hang of the game, you will probably want to start a new game since the current one will not be challenging. Or you may want to launch an invasion force of aggressive ships against the other civilization. The invasion force needs to be made up of ships that can attack their orbiting ships and transports to destroy their land armies. After all, you will feel better with a win under your belt.

OTHER SOURCES

Now is the time to install the GALCIV??.INF file that came with GC if you have not already, and read through it. Yeah, you cannot take it to the washroom with you but it is a reference that should not be over looked.

Usenet and The FAQ. The Usenet group comp.os.os2.games is a good source for GC hints. Mark Anderson (wombats@nmrfam.wisc.edu) maintains the GC Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) which should also be posted to this group.

WWW. Check out "http://wcl-rs.bham.ac.uk/GamesDomain". This is the site to start at when looking for information on any game. Just recently found the GC FAQ there and will work on keeping an updated copy of this walk through at the same site.

Updates. Updates can be obtained from the AIMsBBS or AIMs FTP site. Refer to the last page of the GC installation manual more information. The current version is 1.03 with an AI level of 1.05.

SUGGESTIONS

I am open to comments on this document especially if it improves the clarity for the first time user. I can be contacted via the e-mail address below.

-- Shaun Burnett			"Black goes with everything." widow@u2peoria.org		 -AS/400 IBM advertisement sburnett@heartland.bradley.edu		 OS/2 shatters Windows