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Welcome to the GalCiv Help Desk! You can ask questions here, and check back later for a response.[]

Please check that your question has not already been answered by another page before asking here! You might also check out the Patch Notes for updates (to see if your issue has already been resloved).

Note: Your question may be answered by other players. For official Stardock support, check out the Galactic Civilizations Knowledgebase, or submit a trouble ticket.

Unanswered question[]

The game seems to store its settings/savegames/etc. in the standard Windows User Files Folder.

This is nasty if this directory (along with browser cache, /temp, and other such stuff) is located on a ramdisk. This makes it necessary to copy/recopy the regarding files afore and after the game, which is solvable by scripts but nasty anyway.

How to change this; how to tell the game to store this at another free definable place?

So I have The Ultimate Edition of Galactic Civilizations 2, for a while I was able to play mods, but now my Game doesn't identify the mods folder, even though the folder is there with all the mods in it. Any Solutions?[]

I too am using Ultimate Addition, it is heavily modded, and I was wondering if it is at all possible to take a ship from one faction, and give it to another as well. I know you can more or less do this with the ship designer, but I ideally would like to share the whole program with another faction. I would imagine you would have to copy, or drag and drop the program for the ships from one file, and place it in another. If this is possible, please be very specific and detailed about how you do it, I am not a tech person. If this is not possible at all, is there at least a way to see the stats and components of ships outside of game play, like in the ship designer or something. Thanks.[]

Is is possible, and how, to make two AI player to break alliance between them?[]

Raceconfig changes not working[]

so i edited Raceconfig.xml, put it where i think it goes in Mods folder and i have mods activated, but the changes i made won't "stick" in game, the changes to the race's stats show up when selecting the race at first, but if i actually play the race, or select another race and go back, the changes no longer appear, what am i doing wrong?

Changes to RaceConfig.XML don't take effect until you've removed your customizations in game. Open the race you've made changes to, press Clear to remove all customizations. Your changes to RaceConfig.XML will now be read and used.

Planetary fleet[]

Is it possible to import new ship designs, hulls etc. to a saved game?


How can I create a fleet with the ships in orbit around a planet to defend against enemy fleets as a fleet and not as each ship individually?

A: You need to build a structure. In Twilight of the Arnor you have to build an Orbital Command Center which is unlocked by Interstellar Construction. This structure works civ wide.

In DL/DA you build an Orbital Fleet Manager a 1pp improvement.

Multiple frieghters on one route?[]

Once a trade route is established, can you add more frieghters to that route?


I'm sure i tried it once, though i cant remember it, and i have a very sure feeling it will not work. On the other hand, its a small work for you to figure it out yourself


Can anyone tell me how to cancell an alliane with a minor race?

Why won't my game run?[]

I played GalCiv II a while back on an older computer but since then have lost both computer and disk. After playing Starcraft 2 I was re-inspired so I downloaded the game via Impulse but I am currently unable to start the game. The launcher/menu screen pops up after I hit run, then I click "Play the Game", my left screen goes black and my right screen appears to be resizing (I'm using two monitors) and then an error message pops up saying that "Galactic Civilizations II: Twilight of the Arnor has stopped working." I've e-mailed the support guys but I figure I may as well ask here too. What can I do to play the game?

- Edit the Prefs.ini file under My Games\"Game name" (eg "My Games\GC2TwilgihtArnor") and set Fullscreen=0, and set to your wanted resolution (2 lines above the fullscreen entry)

How do I patch game that comes in the Ultimate edition, save for the Impulse?[]

I downloaded 1.4X patch for Dread Lords and installer cannot find some locate registry value, so it decides that I don't have game installed and installation are aborted after that.


In DL is there a way to continue a game after Victory?


Under GLC2U, I loaded up a saved game and my ships could no longer create a fleet. They were in a fleet when I saved, so logistics ability was never a problem. To test it out I put them all in the same spot, selected them and the bit next to the Manage and Create Fleet buttons said "15 of 0 logistics". Weird. I'm not good enough to win without the logisitics ability, so I need some help. I think I'm maxed out on starbases, if that's relevant. --cs


How to delete the highscore's?


I had a random event lower all ship speeds to 5. Is there any tech method to get around that limitation, or a way to remove that random event from future games?[]

Should I start with Dread Lords or Dark Avatar?[]

If I am a beginner to GalCiv2, should I begin with the original Dread Lords, or is it recommended to jump right into the new, improved Dark Avatar version?

I would recommend starting with the newest version available. The game isn't much more complex, just has new options. And the interface is a lot more effective and user friendly with the newer versions.
- Some options from DL arnt available in DA (spies work different for example). The biggest difference I found was in the Civ Powers. They launch your civ towards a path. While playing both i didnt find too many diferences in the gameplay or in interface. I consider DL to be simpler in overall game with better espionage. In DA you really will want to keep checks on your asteroids, as they can be a deciding factor sometimes. Oh, and your anomalies will yield less bounty.
- Alternately, the game may have more replay value if you complete DL then add in the extra functionality. It really is a matter of personal preference. If you're doing the Dread Lords campaign, be aware too that combat system changes between DL and DA render the Dread Lords a more fearsome opponent. --Irrevenant 02:13, August 28, 2011 (UTC)

Propaganda Machine[]

My manual tells me of a galactic achievement called Propaganda Machine that increases the effect of Influencer Starbases by 50%. I cannot find it in the game though. Was this planetary improvement removed, or is it still in the game somewhere?

Assuming you are playing ToA, the galactic achievement "propaganda center", which gives the bonus you describe, requires the technology "xeno propaganda" and is only available to the drengin and korath.

This tech also is available to the Yor Collective (the robots).

Random Event[]

I remember having a random event in one of my games where a bunch of previously uninhabitable planets in the torian empire became planets of PQ of 14 and above. There were at least 30 of them after this event, and it occurred in the middle of the game, prompting a mass colony rush to snag them. Any one know what this particular event is called?

Ship Launch Points[]

Can you choose a different ship launch point for a planet besides the default "bottom-right"?

Yes for DA, no for DL. In DA you have a button next to ships-in-orbit frame of the selected planet in galaxy window. Click on it and choose exit direction. Better zoom-in to set the direction easier.

Simple Question on Rally Points[]

I am playin Gal Civ 1 (Gold Edition I think) and for some reason find it impossible to set a Rally Point! Whenever I bring up the menu either by hitting 'X' or from the Planet/Ship screens I get the text, 'Select the Rally Point from the list below etc...' but the list is empty.

I know I'm supposed to create them on the main map and am probably just missing a button somewhere but for some reason am not seeing it!

Such a simple thing its frustrating I can't figure it out, any suggestions?

The "Set rally point" button in GC-1 is a small box with a hollow blue arrow Rally on top of the screen showing planets and ships in space.

my population died from epidmy and didnt recover why?[]

Maybe you tax them too much. You need an approval of 41% or more for the pop to grow.

Maximum Sensor Range?[]

Question. I had a really bright idea. I took a huge hull class, pasted a whole bunch of sensors on it, and then built it. The whole idea was to use this device essentially as a floating sensor platform which would monitor space all across the length of my galactic empire. According to the Shipyard, the sensor ship should have a detection radius of over 50 parsecs. However, when I actually build the ship, the info panel says that it has a range of 15 parsecs, and indeed that appears to be the distance my sensors are detecting. Does the game impose a maximum limit on sensor radius? 10:35, 14 Jan 2008

Max sensor range in game is 15 parsecs. A cap from early beta DL.
Is there any any way to edit this limit?

Is it possible to edit the starting money value?[]

Can you somehow edit the money in a savegame file? I've found no editor tool for that and no tutorial as well.

Run game with cheat mode on. Press CTRL-M for money. Press many times to get more. Give that money to AI(s).

Problem With Installation[]

I decided to reinstall GalCiv2 (it had installed and played perfectly beforehand) and found that the setup function was causing my computer freeze and had to be control-alt-deleted closed. This happened with every way I tried to install the game so eventually I decided it must be a damaged or corrupt disk and so I went to buy a second copy. This copy has precisely the same issue, which makes me now think it's a compatibility problem. Am running an Athlon 64 2.2 GHz, 1GB RAM, Windows XP home edition, Direct X 9, with a GeForce 6100 graphics card. Can anyone help me install this wonderful game again?


Answer:

I had the exact same problem. Bought a new copy of the game (expanded version in this case) and had the same problem. If you set your monitor to 1024X768 it will resolve your issue.

Influencing planets to rebel[]

Is it possible to influence a last planet a major empire has left, or a planet of a minor race? I was unable to do both, even with best techs and many starbases next to target planet, seems strange. Also, what is the chance per turn a planet will revolt - do we have any equations for that?--Piotrus 03:44, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

Influence-flip last planet: yes for major civs, no for minors. As for chances: exact number unknown. AFAIK the higher the approval, the smaller the chances. If you have Mind Control Center, chances become significantly lower.

Minor races?[]

If so, how? It is strange that I can spy on big empires but not on tiny ones... {C Is it possible to take them over by cultural influence?

No.

Do they expand and colonize?

Almost never.

Do they declare wars?

Yes, and they build troop transports.

It should be explained how they differ from major races other--Piotrus 03:44, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

Are 0 class planets completly useless eye candy?[]

Do 0 class planets do anything other than preventing ships from flying directly through them? Seems like a waste, I thought some advanced tech would allow terraforming or at least mining them...?--Piotrus 03:44, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

They sometimes explode providing asteroid fields to mine. They sometimes get improved by volcanic activity and are granted to a mayor civ through UP meeting. Sometimes they spawn another minor race, converting that class 0 planet to class 15. And very rarely the precursor device converts them all in its range to habitable planets.

Do the Cheats work with gold edition?[]

I have tried everything i can think of and nothing has worked


- Yes, but you have to make shortcuts to the specific game launcher and edit those with "cheat". The regular shortcut from the installation directs you to a launcher where you can choose which version to play and there it doesnt work.

Go to the game folder and make shortcut to galciv2, if you have that gold edition that is, edit shortcut. go further to DarkAvatar folder, shortcut to GC2DarkAvatar, edit and done. Now whenever you want to play with cheats enabled use one of these shortcuts instead of the Galactic Civilizations II Gold shortcut.

Are there any map maker/editers for this game?[]

Just a basic top down 2d map editor would be perfect, but i will take alost anything. {C i want to create my own campaign/scenario set. triggers wouldnt be needed, just a simple objectives setter and a Graphical user interface. (kinda like Starforge or final alert2)

Colors[]

Is there a way for users to alter some of the colors? Specifically, the green and yellow used for income status and for usable tiles vs. tiles that need soil enrichment? I'm partially colorblind to green and cannot tell the difference between the two colors the program uses.

Try finding external software for that. I'm sure something like that exists.
-These Textures are stored in the game files as PNG's edit with any image editor

Starbase building[]

After I have built a starbase, is there any simple way to know (i.e., NOT having to click the tech tree etc.) which modules would be available for me to add at my current tech level without having to wait for a constructor to get there and pop up the upgrade menu? Can I do something like click the starbase and see that menu even without a constructor?

Sneaky Peace Treaties[]

Terrans at war with Torians, gigantic, normal. Twice I found that I was suddenly at peace with the Torians w/o (?) accepting a peace proposal. The second time that I continued the war (*I* didn't agree to peace) the Torians got really snarky about it. Is it expected that the AI can sneak a peace treaty past you? Or should I try to figure out what is going on (pebkac or bug)?

Templates DA --> TA[]

Is there any way to get my own Templates from DA to TA?

IS THERE A WAY TO PLAY AGAINST CUSTOM AI? I HAVE SEEN IT DONE BUT DON'T KNOW HOW. I HAVE THEM ALREADY CREATED

Enemy ship with a value of missile attack of 326[]

Hi there! I've just started playing the game today and I got the ultimate edition so I started with the campaign on the ToA and right on the 1st mission everything was going smoothly when on the last planet I'm about to invade the guys throw at me a ship with 326(!) in missile attack (my own ships have no more than 1 missile attack). Is it a bug? Or if I research the missile branch until the end I get the same value for my own ships?

- I'm not yet up to the ToA campaign, but that sounds suspiciously like you found a planet belonging to the Dread Lords. Being the first mission I suspect that you're probably not required to confront them to win. Check your mission objectives in the Civilisation window and if you don't have to fight them, don't! --Irrevenant 02:58, August 28, 2011 (UTC)

Recently answered questions[]

Does the game work with wine?[]

Can the game run under WINE on a linux box? Anything I should be aware of while trying to do that?

Be aware that without msttcorefonts most of the in game text will not display. The demo does not run very stable under wine, but I have no clue if the preformance of the full game is better or worse, or if the default setup could be tweaked for better performance. An official awnser on this would be nice.
See if your version has been discussed in the Wine Database [1].

Twilight of the Arnor works flawlessly here (with DLL overrides as per AppDB).

Starbase radius[]

How much of a planet or ship has to be within the blue starbase radius for it to have an effect. If the blue line will just be touching or just covers a tiny part of a planet and ship is that considered in the radius or does the entire thing have to be fully within it? If there is some portion that has to be in the radius for it to have an effect, is there a way to tell what will be in it and getting the bonus when building it (it the new show radius before placing starbase update?)

The circle that shows when moving the constructor just has to touch the grid square (parsec) containing the planet or ship. Testing even that parsec that is merely touched (only about 2% of the sector is in the circle) felt the effects of the starbase. Notice that after you build the starbase, the circle grows by about another parsec, encompassing parsecs merely touched before. --Thervold 17:01, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Canceling backtrack[]

Is there any way to cancel or backtrack after you have moved or have made a mistake like purchase the wrong thing etc., BEFORE you click the turn button. So say I tell ship A to move to the wrong spot, can I take that back and correct it before I press turn or do I just have to load a save? ===

Nope, otherwise you could scout out, backtrack, scout a different direction, backtrack, etc, giving you a distinct advantage while searching for planets, anomalies, or enemy ships. While you can do this just by saving-reloading, there is no in game mechanism to encourage this. As for purchasing, it's difficult to accidentally buy something, as there are usually confirmation boxes to verify the cost. --Thervold 21:00, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Cycling Through Ships[]

Is there a way to skip a ship when cycling through all ships for movement? Ideally, I'd like to either order a ship not to move (without using guard or sentry) or to wait until other ships have moved. This is standard in most turn-based strategy games. -Spacebar, I believe. Can anyone else confirm?

Spacebar will forfeit any remaining movement. Tab is probably more what you are looking for. --Thervold 20:42, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Civilization Stats[]

The foreign policy screen gives lots of concise data on other races. Is there a way to see that information about my race in one place? How about a way to compare all races' standings in one place?

On the Civilization Manager under "Stats and Graphs" you can see the similar statistics for your race. It will also allow side-by-side comparisons of your race with another. --Thervold 20:48, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Is it possible to disable auto designing of ships in GC2?[]

Hi, I want my game to disable the automatic designing of new ships, ala Sid Meyer's alpha centauri. I want to design all my new ships from scratch myself with the components. Is it possible to do this?

There are three filter boxes: All, Core, and Custom. Choose Custom to hide all prefab core builds. --Thervold 20:41, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Specifying planet bonus tiles[]

You know, like the precursor mine. Has anyone figured out a way to force a particular planet to start with a predetermined bonus tile? Miborovsky 04:10, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

No, That would make the game too easy :-) --Thervold 20:48, 12 September 2006 (UTC)
- is there a way to increase the chance of bonus tiles tho?

Ship Movement[]

I heard in new 1.1 when you click an enemy ship/fleet it will show you its ultimate destination. Is there any way to see a turn by turn distance for enemy ships within your visual range and for ships that you have a low spy level on when out of your view? If not, I think this is a major oversight and very frustrating. Example 1 - It is my turn, and I see an enemy ship in my view. I want to know the furthest distance (actually shown by a line or radius on the map) he can move next turn so that I can position myself outside his range if I don't want to fight. We should be able to do this as when we click the ship it tells us how many spaces it can move per turn anyway and I am sick of guessing where that distance actually falls within the map and having to reload the game if I miscalculate.

No easy method for doing this. The best you can do is click on the enemy ship to see its range, turn on the grid (Ctrl-G) if it's not on, and count out its range. It would be nice if this was easier, but I haven't found a way to do so. --Thervold 20:54, 12 September 2006 (UTC)


Example 2 - It is my turn, and there is an enemy right outside my sensor range (in the game I don't know he is there). I have a spy rating on this enemy so if he was in view I would be able to click him and see where he was going. It shouldn't make a difference if he is in my view or not, I should still be able to have this information as I got it from spying, not from seeing the ship. So can I see a line coming out of the fog indicating the enemy's next move or distance so I can plan my move accordingly?

If it's outside sensor range, I don't think it will show up at all. I've lost transports due to enemies hiding just out of sight then pouncing as my escorts were in a different sector. --Thervold 20:54, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Along the lines of the previous question, when I click one of my ships, can I see a radius on the map of how far I can move that turn?

Again, use the grid and count out. What I sometimes do is use up my movement, then move around the autopilot cursor to see where the 1.0 weeks distances are. But no, there is currently no graphical representation to do this. --Thervold 20:54, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Creativity Bonus[]

How useful is the Creativity racial bonus really? It seems like it would be extremely useful, but how does it really work? Does a 25% bonus to creativity mean that every 1 out of 4 technologies are instantly discovered?

I've not looked at the code, but the vibe I got from the game team was that it is not that good, and that you should look into putting your points elsewhere, like the economy. Remember, you can always trade for that technology - and then trade it to someone else for even more technology (or money to buy more). --GreenReaper(talk) 15:52, 28 July 2006 (UTC)
I have used this and thought it would not be useful but it actually has saved me several weeks of research time. It seems to like to proc part way thru researching a tech but on techs like planetary invasion that have a high cost I have had it proc on my second week of research which saved me like 20+ weeks of research time. It seems to be completely random but it does proc quite a bit through out the game. It does not seem to proc on the final techs for a tech victory though. The random part makes it hit or miss on usefulness but it can get you ahead on techs in the early game. Also it seems to proc more in the early game.
--Varsir

How can i get a full copy {map} of the Technology tree?[]

Civ 4 came with a great Technology tree map,which made it easy to follow:) ....But this game galactic civ did not come with any tech map ....Very strange as it makes it so much harder to play:(

I tried to print out the Teck map in wiki but my printer only prints small pages..11 by 9.

GalCiv II Collector's Edition came with a printed tech tree map. The standard version did not. That was one of the differences between them. However, if you email sales at stardock dot com with your address I think they may be able to send you a spare copy of it.
Some printers allow you to print more than one "page" on one page. You could try looking for that option in your printer settings and see if that will help (or see if there is a printer scaling option to scale it down instead). Or take the PDF to a printing store and they should be able to print it out for you. --GreenReaper(talk) 17:21, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

How do I get a Terror Star?[]

I remember in Galactic Civilizations, the original, we could build a Terror Star. Was this function removed?

I don't think there is any such thing as a Terror Star. Perhaps in the expansion . . . of course, you can build your own! --GreenReaper(talk) 23:44, 30 May 2006 (UTC)
How could you build your own? Is the "destroy planet" capability enabled for any item in the game? I mean, you could mod in a massive battle ship if that's what you mean, but I don't think you could mod in a ship that could destroy planets.
While I haven't seen any, the FlavorText.xml mentions them as do United Planets issues 31 and 32. However, they may have been disabled during development and thus unavailable. --Thervold 21:04, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

one has just been added into the newest expansion pack , yblad 21 January 2008

I am playing Gal Civ 1, a copy I bought a few years ago now (Gold Edition or something) and this has terror stars, I've not got as far as building one yet but I have seen it on the research panel so it is there. I remember because I thought it was very cool that I could build a Death Star! Shouty, 22nd Jan 08

Twilight of the Arnor includes Terror Stars. They are built as StarBases after you receive the "Terror Star Development" technology.

I have the tech i need, but the Terror Star Foundation isn't showing up on the Buildable Module List, can anyone tell me HOW THE HELL THIS IS POSSIBLE!?!?!?!?!??!??!?!?!-Jedi of Reach 10:05, 21 May 2009 (UTC)

- Well i've build one just about now but i was searching for answers cause i spent like 100000 on building that tech and modules and it DOESNT WORK...i mean i cant move it or fire from it ...i am playing this game for a while now and my only hope was for that Death star but it doesnt work so IF SOMEONE knows how to put propultion or weapons on that thing .....write pls ....thx

- It seems to take a couple of turns before you can move it and then it only has a speed of 1 so it takes a long time to get anywhere.  Remeber to protect it because it has no defences or wepons of its own to protect itself.

Game crashes at startup[]

When I start the game, it shows the Stardock logo and then the opening cinematic with minimal problems (some stuttering, my graphics card is not so good). Then, after the opening cinematic is done, it quits straight to desktop. This happens whether or not I click the mouse to skip the cinematic. The first time I started, it did say that my video card and drivers were not as good as they should be, but it shows the cinematic anyway, so it probably isn't my video card. This has happened every time I do it, except one time after I clicked to skip the scene there was a ghost image on my desktop of one empty menu button and one floating "options." Has anyone else had this problem? What is causing it? I just installed the game today and it has not worked correctly once. Please help. I will update my drivers, but I am not sure if this will help.

Yeah update your drivers first, then I suggest (if you still have problems) that you submit a ticket using : stardock support or post on the forums. Don't forget to post/send a debug.err file. --Whismerhill 03:23, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Shader problems[]

The problem is, that I HAVE a graphic card that does support Shader (the card is an nVidia 6600 /manufactured by ASUS/ but the ships have the most ugliest textures possible. No textures, no nothing, only the outline of the ship, like with an older card, but GF6600 DOES SUPPORT SHADER. What's the solution for my problem? udpate: I forgot to mention, that I have the latest drivers...

Most likely this has to do with the decimal separator used when your locale is not english. You can try two different things, inside the Regional Options the Decimal Symbol to "." (without the quotes) if that's not enough change your whole locale to English. According to Greenreaper, Stardock may be working on a better way to fix this for 1.2 --Whismerhill 20:24, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

Requesting permission[]

I am Writing to ask permission to submit some skins and Dock Icons i did using the art work that came with your Galactic Civilizations II game and the Galactic Civilizations II fan kit to www.wincustomize.com, Preview

logons are 1280 x 960 so give a sec to load.

Can you please give a an answer either way, been trying for about 2 weeks vier email with no real response . hope you can help. SD (27/4/07 uk date)

I don't see a problem with submitting such skins to WinCustomize. Put a permissions.txt in the logon's folder saying that GreenReaper said it was OK and it should get through. --GreenReaper(talk) 21:39, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

An approval rating of 100% doubles population growth. Does this work on a planet by planet basis, or does the whole Empire have to be at 100%?[]

As far as I know, this is on a planet-by-planet basis. --GreenReaper(talk) 21:41, 28 April 2006 (UTC)


Confirmed, planet by planet basis. And its much easier to make low pop planets 100% too :)

speed it along, make colony ships, enter orbit and leave again with 1 instead of 500 pop.

Does trade ability bonus help the other side of the trade?[]

Say I have a trade ability of +200% and I get a profit of 30bc/t from a freighter. If the AI I'm trading with has a trade ability of +100%, will it receive just 20bc/t, or would it get 30bc/t? Miborovsky 07:56, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

I would think they just get 20, assuming the base is 10. --GreenReaper(talk) 21:41, 28 April 2006 (UTC)
abilities are seperate, so deduct your ability bonus to find base value and then guess what the other value will be. It is YOUR bonus

What should I do to improve relations with a given race?[]

Hi, I've just started a new game. The places in the small galaxy are being defined, and I feel an alliance is just what I need to secure my place in the universe. However, even though I have the "Alliances" tech, all other races are "neutral" to me. What can I do to improve it to "close" so I can ally with at least one of them?

Check the Foreign Policy's Report tab, you will see why a particular race like/dislike you. --Dabei 00:36, 13 March 2006 (UTC)
In general, trade with them more - both tech trading and with freighters - and they will like you more (especially if they think they got a good deal on the techs). --GreenReaper(talk) 21:46, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

How are music files added?[]

I tried to just add the file into the "music" folder, that didn't seem to work. So then I looked for an XML file and found "gc2_Multimedia.xml", but I have no idea where to get the MD5/date/sizes it wants. Can someone explain exactly how music files are added?

There isn't a way to add music files. The xml file above is just a part of the installer, so it knows what files to download. If you want to have your own music in the games you need to replace some of the existing files. --GreenReaper(talk) 21:18, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

Can you make the game partial screen? I unchecked 'Fullscreen' under options, but it didn't do anything.[]

Sure. That's what you do - it takes a restart. However, if you don't change the resolution to be beneath your desktop resolution as well, it probably won't help (and if your screen is only 1024x786, that won't help either, as that is the minimum resolution). --GreenReaper(talk) 21:46, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

In general, what's the optimal improvement build order for new planets?[]

See planetary improvement strategies, in particular the Initial Build Order section.

Is it true that the game use "online activation" (or through mail)? When is it required to activate the product? THIS IS WHY YOU SHOULD NOT BUY ANYTHING FROM STARDOCK!!! ACTIVATION DOES NOT WORK, MAKING YOUR PURCHASED SOFTWARE WORTHLESS.[]

Yes, Galactic Civilizations 2 uses online activation (or a slightly more convoluted email version if you don't have internet access on the machine you're installing to). See Stardock Activation for official information.
You are required to activate the program once per machine. Activation generates a 256 byte sig.bin file on your machine in the GalCiv2 game directory. Once it's activated, you can upgrade the game without having to reactivate (so far, anyway). It appears that significantly upgrading the OS (as in, from windows 2000 to Windows XP) on your machine will trigger re-activation. To make sure you can still play after you backup your machine, have a hard disk crash, and restore to a new machine; you must backup and restore the OS along with the game. Using a system restore CD that may have come with your machine is likely to require re-activation.
Exactly what information GC2's activation system sends to StarDock is unknown. StarDock claims only email address, game serial number, "Your IP address, non-personally identifiable machine information, and number of activation attempts will be logged."
This is indeed what we send (along with an identifier saying what application you are trying to activate). In some cases the activation program can pop up a "where did you hear about us?" box, or ask you for and transmit your first and last name, but I don't think those are used for GalCiv II. --GreenReaper(talk) 21:36, 28 April 2006 (UTC)
Sorry if I'm doing something wrong by editing anonymously, but do you need to activate it to play? I'm considering buying the game and playing it on a machine that is not connected to the internet (though I suspect it could be). Do I need to hook the computer up to the internet and activate it before I can play the game? I might hook it up anyway once in a while to download the latest patch, but it'll suck if I have to wait for my dad to help me get to the internet before I start up the game. 17:29, 24 May 2006 (EST)
No problem I think :). Most answers are located here : http://stardock.helpserve.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=view&parentcategoryid=147&pcid=146&nav=0,52,146 you can indeed play the game without activation up to 1.0X update, you also can activate by mail, and you should only need to activate once. --Whismerhill 10:42, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

Is there any way to trade maps with different civilizations? Or any other way to reveal map?[]

No—Hykin 11:00, 22 March 2006

Then this game is seriously flawed. It absolute nonsense then i have advanced espionage on race, but cannot see where its planets are located.

Selecting and removing rally points[]

I have found that double clicking a rally point in space when nothing else is around it will bring up a dialog allowing you to disband it. However, when a starbase is over that point (which I usually do on purpose to allow easy constructing) I cannot find a way to ever remove it from the game. How do you select rally points that have other objects over them? --Cymsdale 11:57, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

A workaround for disbanding rally points under starbases is to send a ship into the starbase's square, which will make a list of units in that square now come up when you click on the starbase. The rally point will show up as one of the units and you can disband it that way. -- Jeysie
I believe this was fixed in v1.1. If you have just a starbase and a rally point on a square, you should be able to select/disband the rally point now.
In DA you can review your rally point at the governor screen and delete them too

Is there a way to reset a race to their default settings?[]

After tweaking the starting abilities of a race and playing a game, the settings for that race (names, abilities, party, colors) will all be at those same settings for further games. There does not appear to be a way to put the race back to its defaults. This is important because it will get rid of bonuses that you normally cannot get for a race on the abilities panel (which seems odd in and of itself). For example, I cannot get the Altarian's +30 luck and creativity now. If I choose the creative trait, it will set the value at +25 and destroy the initial +30. --Cymsdale 11:46, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

You can currently reset all customizations for a race, including the abilities, by going to where the game stores its User files in My Documents/My Games/GalCiv2, and deleting the files with a .raceconfig extension. If you only want to reset a certain race, you can open the files in Notepad to see which race each file refers to.
I do think it would be better if you could do it within the game itself, however. -- Jeysie


It can be done in game by clicking the load button when choosing Race. Then delete older saved versions. This will require a shut down/restart of game however. -SP

All the ships and anomalies in the game are black, I cannot see them.[]

Except for the adjustable color frames, they're extremely hard to spot, as if they'd be lying in deep shadow, with no light anywhere around. Planets and stars aren't visible either. Just some circles with names underneath. Have a GeForce 4 Ti 4200 with new drivers and tried the 3dAnalyzer. Any ideas?

Any chance you're using a non-english windows 2000? There's a known isssue with 'hollow' graphics: link. --Manny(talk)
Saw that and tried the workaround - it worked! BUT: I'm running WinXP Pro (no service packs, german version) and not Win2k...
nVidia has problems with testing new drivers against older cards, and also seems to have "fixed" some things in new drivers that break the graphics in odd ways on old cards. I've found it necessary to keep several versions of drivers around, just so I can switch if necessary. The "best" driver for your nVidia card isn't necessarily the most recent, and seems to vary depending on exactly which card you have.

Are these known bugs or personal problems?[]

1) Buildings appearing on sea tiles after game load.

Completely working as designed. You can build on sea tiles.

2) Clicking a ship components thumbnail, then pressing remove does remove the component, but not the thumbnail (only happens with 'functionality' components, not extras).

Known bug. Appears to be fixed in the 1.1 beta.

3) Creating fleets sometimes doesn't work correctly. When trying (with a high enough logistics count) the ships selected stay separated, and an 'empty fleet' is created instead (just an empty thumbnail with no ship in it and logistics count

I have seen this problem too. It looks like a bug. --Dabei 00:39, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

4). The empty fleet disappears after clicking disband.

Well, I guess if it was never there it should disappear when disbanded, as no ships are present in it. :-) --GreenReaper(talk) 05:52, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

How do defenses and offenses interact? When does it make sense to use defenses, given that it usually takes more space than offense?[]

Military starbases
if you want to get those nice defence bonuses from the starbase, you have to have at least one defence
Fleet combat
In fleet combat, if you prefer to have few large starship, instead of many small ones, then it makes sense to put some defence. Consider this. If you have a single large ship attacking a fleet of 3 small ones, then 1 extra attack is just that 1 attack, but 1 extra defence is 3 times defence (all 3 ships will shoot you in one turn, thus the defence will work 3 times per turn). However, I do believe that defence needs to be made cheaper. Currently attack one means you always roll one in attack. But defence one means you roll between 0 and 1. So effectively defence one is two times worse than attack one. See ship combat and fleet combat for details about combat MxM(talk) 08:03, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

I think we could use a page for major differences between GC1 and GC2/Other 4x games and GC2[]

. . . for those that just want to skim and figure out what they might want to research in more depth. For example, many people seem to be stumbling over the concept that population plays no role in how productive a planet is.

GC1 vs GC2 Journal --Steelviper 18:21, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

Is it possible to reuse the ship designs from a previous game?[]

Yes, ship designs are saved between games. There is nothing special you need to do to reuse them. --Cymsdale 03:18, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

How does the combat actually works?[]

In the manual it is said that attack roll starts from 1 and defence roll starts from 1. But then if both ships have attack of 1 and defence of 1, the will be never damage done, because both attack and defence will always roll 1. So, how does it work?

According to Cari Begle (lead developer on GC2), all combat rolls have a minimum of zero, not one. --DarthKryo 02:55, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

What does a NULL point means on the graphic modding explanation?[]

Hi, I'm thinking of trying some 3D models mods, but I don't have access to 3D Studio or Maya (I'm planning on using Blender). I don't quite get what is a NULL point. Can you elaborate on that, please, so I can "port" the concept to Blender or Wings3D?

I believe the equivalent in Blender is called an "Empty". I'm not certain that Blender or Wings3D can export to a .X file.
I am using 3DS MAX and can't find it myself.
In 3ds Max, the hardpoints are Dummy-class Helper objects, found on the Helpers tab of the create palette. --DarthKryo 02:55, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

What does the number in parens besides the influence rating of a planet mean?[]

I've looked in the manual and on various forums and have not been able to figure this one out. The mouse over gives the break down for the larger number, but there is no apparent meaning attached to the other one that I can figure out. --Cymsdale 00:57, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

If you mean the one that's fairly low (1.23, say), then that is the ratio of your influence to other people's influence. Areas that are shown as under your influence have a value 1.0 or higher. Around 5 or 6 is necessary to risk a revolt. --GreenReaper(talk) 01:43, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

What is the highest difficulty the AI doesn't cheat on? I always play on Tough, but the AI still seems pretty idiotic to me :([]

The highest it does not cheat on is Intelligent. Anything above that and it gets bonuses to production/economy. If it's doing silly things, report them as bugs! ;-) --GreenReaper(talk) 01:26, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

If I buy a trade good from another race, it seems that I do retain the trade good but cannnot sell it to anyone else.[]

This could be exploity as it takes no tile on any of your planets. If I build a trade good and then destroy/decommission it, would I still retain the bonus from the trade good? 24.17.141.99 20:43, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

You're not buying a trade good, you are buying the rights to use that trade good. You can't go and sell it to another player, because you don't actually own it. The original player still owns it, and can trade it to others. Also, you can't destroy/decommission a trade good, super project, or galactic achievement for this very reason. Consumed Crustacean 03:41, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

How do you get the medals/awards from the Metaverse to show up when you post in the forums?[]

First, go to the Edit My Characters page on the metaverse, and make sure that you have a default character selected. The 'default' button will be lit next to the default character; click the dimmed 'default' button by another character to change the default character. Your default character will be the one whose medals appear on your forum posts. That should be all you need to do, but keep in mind the metaverse uses caching heavily so it may take a while for medals to update or appear on your posts after you earn them. --DarthKryo 23:16, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

Is there any advantage to custom building your own freghters with more cargo or faster engines?[]

Only slightly. You can only place one trade module on a ship, so there's no way to put more on. More engines will get your freighter to its target faster so you can set up trade routes more quickly, but it will have no other effect after that. --DarthKryo 23:15, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

Are there any other Galciv2.exe command line options, other than w, cheat, and nointro?[]

Yes, although they are not really all that useful. See command line options. --GreenReaper(talk) 19:41, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

How does cross damage-type defense work? Say 30 shields versus 10 mass drivers for example - what kind of damage are we looking at?[]

Defenses are only square-root effective against attack types other than their primary purpose. So 30 shields would be effively strength 5 (sqrt(30) = 5.4, round down). The mass drivers will dish out anywhere from 0 to 10 damage, and the shields will deflect anywhere from 0 to 5 damage points. So you're looking at 5 damage if both systems perform perfectly (although you could potentially land anywhere from 0 to 10 points depending on how things go). --Steelviper 15:09, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

According to the manual all defences are just added (with square roots and all). But is it really true for the combat itself? I have suspicion that it may be just maximum out of those values, not the sum. Can anyone clarify? MxM(talk) 06:39, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Is it a bug that you always have to pay for all social production capacity, even if it isn't currently doing anything?[]

It is not as described in the manual, where it says that you will be given back the money spent on unused production. This was not actually implemented, as it was felt that it might actually unbalance the game. It is possible to optimise it by reducing the social spending slider to zero but setting the planets where you want to continue building to focus on social spending. --GreenReaper(talk) 17:19, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

This was changed in v1.1. See the appropriate economics related pages. Fsk 06:16, 24 May 2006 (UTC)

How exactly does the spending slider work? How does this interact with the three smaller bars for military/social/research?[]

The spending slider reflects your discretionary spending - the amount that is spent on research and social and military projects (and not things like leases and colony maintenance that are automatically deducted). It should be used, along with the tax slider, for balancing the budget. The three smaller bars adjust the relative proportion of spending, allowing you to prioritise one thing over another. --GreenReaper(talk) 17:19, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Regarding the production sliders again, I must confess that I don't get it. For example, regarding research, how do I know what to do (with both the big and little sliders) to allocate exactly 'enough' money to research so that all my labs are 100% utilized? From what I gathered on IRC I could dump my entire GDP into research and waste a lot of money but not get any additional benefit whatsoever. Seems wrong to me.
To get 100% of research ability utilized, you have to set the spending slider to 100%, and the Research slider to 100% (Mil and Soc sliders to 0%). 1.1 Beta has a "unused Social spending goes to Military" system. Spending money on Social has no useful effect on a planet where you aren't building or upgrading one of the squares.

69.91.82.109 16:50, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

I'm not sure what part of IRC you got that from. As far as I know, it's directly proportional - the only effect research centers and the like have is as a kind of multiplier. I could be wrong, but the time taken always seems to go down if I increase the slider. Social and military production is the same, except that you might not be building things, in which case it's wasted. You're always researching something. --GreenReaper(talk) 15:15, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

What about foreign language support in Galactic Civilizations II?[]

Paradox is in the process of translating files now. We will also be putting up our translation kit at http://www.galciv2.com so people can translate it however they want.

Why does Galactic Civilizations II ask me for my activation code every time I launch it?[]

If you've manually created a shortcut to Galactic Civilizations II and the game always asks for activation, right-click on the shortcut and make sure the working directory is set (or the Start In directory in Windows XP). Without the directory listed in the shortcut, the game will either continually ask for activation or will not start at all.

When trying to build buildings it tells me Time To Build: Never. Why is that and how do I fix it?[]

This can be caused by one of two things:

  1. You do not have enough resources dedicated to Social Building. Raise the % allocated to social building.
  2. If your finances are well into the negative (red), the game will halt all social building until you are less seriously indebted.
  3. This sometimes occurs when your planet is diverting its social to its military. After you tell it to build the building it will fix the time. Remember you can always delete the building from the queue if you decide you didn't want to build it.

What are some of the most used hotkeys or keyboard commands for Galactic Civilizations II?[]

The manual has a listing of other hotkeys and tips, but a couple are worth mentioning:

  • Press Ctrl-S to QuickSave a game.
  • Press Enter to end the turn
  • Press space to find the next ship that has movement left that isn't on auto-pilot
  • When a Constructor is selected, press the B key to build a starbase.
  • When a fleet or fleets are selected in the ship stack, press U to ungroup the ships in the fleet(s).
  • When first starting a new game, press Ctrl-N to create a new map with your current game settings.
  • The Set Rally Point button the left side of the main map interface can be used to establish targets for newly constructed vessels. After creating your first rally point, the little circle with a downward arrow next to the planet thumbnail (when you have a planet selected) can be used to set the rally point target for ships constructed on that world.

Do I have to kill every race to win a campaign mission?[]

No. Winning a mission doesn't always mean killing every last potential enemy. Focus on the mission objectives.

How do I play Galactic Civilizations II in a window instead of fullscreen?[]

Create a shortcut to the GalCiv2.exe file, open up its properties and add ' w' after the shortcut target (without the quote marks, and after any existing quote marks).

This can also be changed via an in-game option. You have to restart after changing this option.

- Alternately, there is an option to do this in the video tab of the options - in the Ultimate Edition, at least. Not sure if it's in DL and DA... --Irrevenant 04:07, August 28, 2011 (UTC)

Where are my Galactic Civilizations II saved games and preferences stored?[]

Save games and preferences are stored under Documents and Settings\%username\My Documents\My Games\GalCiv2. You can edit the prefs.ini file in that directory to adjust the game resolution to custom values if the in-game detection doesn't pickup special modes that are supported by your graphics card.

GALACTIC CIVILIZATIONS II ULTIMATE EDITION versus GALACTIC CIVILIZATIONS II GOLD EDITION, what is the difference between the 2 releases?

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