Building trade goods & wonders without wasting production

from Stardock Forums
Hi, all.

I just started playing GalCiv a few weeks ago, and I think I've got the hang of basic strategies. However, something about my play really troubles me, and I'm looking for advice.

Because you have to have planets build in unison (i.e. social spending gets cranked up everywhere simultaneously), how do I produce trade goods and wonders without wasting production at most of my planets? Particularly at the beginning of the game, once every planet has soil, habitat, banking, and entertainment, I'm pretty content. So what do those planets do while I'm working on wonders and trade goods? I can build improvements that I don't really want, or waste a whole lot of money on producing nothing. It seems like a huge flaw in the economy system that producing nothing still costs you cash.

Later in the game, I have a similar dilemma. Say an event grants me a new undeveloped colony or I conquer some piece of junk planet How do I build improvements there without wasting enormous production everywhere else? Is it genuinely profitable to buy them? The purchase prices seem ludicrous, is there any way to knock them down some?

On a related note - if you spend "extra" research points on gaining a tech, are they applied to the next tech? If not, it seems the game engine is rewarding the annoying practice of micromanaging tech investment, trying to minimize spending to gain the tech next round.

Thanks for any tips. I like the game, but these issues are frustrating me.
2,382 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
Unfortunately this is exactly what is going on.

If you don't build anything on a planet all assigned production funds go down the drain. What I usually do is build something I don't want at the moment and the change production 1 round before completion. Yes, more micromanagement.

And as far as I can tell your research doesn't carry over, but I haven't really tested this out.

So instead of eliminating micromanagement by letting the system auto-optimize, the designers seem to have tried to do it by making micromanagement so annoying and troublesome with all the sliders than can be adjusted that most sane people will just have to accept less than optimum efficiency.

~SDC~
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
I find that the best way to go is to have your wonder-producing world(s) lag in other social improvements, rather than have the other worlds build wastefully. The problem isn't TOO bad if you manage to get the main production buildings on that world early and don't put the production buildings on the other worlds until later.

How do I build improvements there without wasting enormous production everywhere else?
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Typically, you don't. Yeah, it sucks.

if you spend "extra" research points on gaining a tech, are they applied to the next tech
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No, they aren't, and yes, it rewards micromanagement. People have requested that this be changed but it's never quite made it into a patch.
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Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
I used to micromanage to that level, tweaking my sliders every turn and worrying about lost production. But it doesn't actually matter in how the game plays out. Or rather, your diplomatic relationship with the AI's, build-order, resourse acquisition are *far* more important.

Tweaking the tax rate to maintain your target morale is *fundamental*
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
But it doesn't actually matter in how the game plays out.
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It may matter in certain circumstances, like Sirian's One Planet Challenge, where every little bit helps.
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
It may matter in certain circumstances, like Sirian's One Planet Challenge, where every little bit helps.
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Quite true. On the other hand, it's fairly easy to see the effects of a slider change when you only have one planet; in a normal game with 10+ planets, it would be very hard to find the "optimal" slider settings.

~SDC~