<*> (04/02/95, r1.2) First HTML version. Added links and comments regarding
links. Latest game version and AI level are 1.05 and 1.06, respectively.
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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.
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.
The walk through is divided into the following sections:
<*> Introduction - This section.
<*> Forward - Describes why I created this document and the intended
audience.
<*> Configuring the Playing Field - Starts walking through the game by
giving suggested settings.
<*> Colonization - Discusses the windows to be navigated in order to settle
a planet.
<*> Military and Soical Projects - Allocation of system resources is
important in order to continue colonization.
<*> Expansion and Exploration - Continue colonization by seeking out other
planets.
<*> Scientific Breakthroughs - Keep a leg up on other races through
research.
<*> Other Races - "I think we're alone now." NOT! How to tell if you're
protected.
<*> What Next? - A couple of ideas of how to proceed with the game.
<*> Other sources - Where to turn to improve your game play.
<*> Suggestions - FAQ writers love a pat on the back or constructive
criticism.
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.
Return to the Introduction .
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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.
Return to the Introduction .
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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.
Return to the Introduction .
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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.
4 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.
Return to the Introduction .
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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.
Return to the Introduction .
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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*).
Return to the Introduction .
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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.
Return to the Introduction .
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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.
Return to the Introduction .
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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. It can also be
obtained from the AIMs FTP site.
WWW. Check out Games Domain . This is the site to start at when looking for
information on any game. Just recently found the GC FAQ there and I 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 1.05 with an AI level of 1.06.
Return to the Introduction .
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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.
Return to the Introduction .
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Shaun Burnett (widow@u2peoria.org, sburnett@heartland.bradley.edu)
