Also it's better to ask more limited and detailed questions about one particular aspect of the game that is most giving you trouble. Generalized strategy can be easy to give and often impossible to actually follow because of the limitless details that are impossible to convey but essential to the success of any strategy.

Even something as general as "How can I colonize faster" is still a more productive question that you can get some more definitive answers for than something as general as "How do I get better".

In any case the rate at which you can colonize planets and more particularly how fast you can get them profitable is indeed a major indicator of a better player. As with everything the particular game settings make a huge difference in your effective strategy but for many different game sizes and settings he who colonizes faster is a better player. A minimum to shoot for is to be able to produce a colony ship every other turn. Also the development of the 1st colony into a 2nd home planet can usually increase this to close to a colony ship per turn.

This is only one specific example. The more detailed and limited in scope your question the better your answers will be. Also take all advice with a grain of salt. Most advice will be good but still may simply not fit in with your "style". If it doesn't work for you then don't worry about it, try something else. However you can find that things that didn't work for you in the past may work for you in the future once other parts of your game improve, so be sure to revisit old suggestions every now and then.

The most important thing is to keep trying. Keep frequent save games and try different things. If something doesn't work out go back and try it again and see if you can do it better, or go back and try something entirely different. The more you play and experiment the more you learn.

Thanks! Great advice! I think I'll browse through the strategy forums, try out a few things, and then post again with more specific subjects.

Ha! I've been perusing the forums for awhile now (only registered after I bought the game).

I just plain suck at games like this and am relegated to that fact.

...I still like playing, though, even though the game has beat me in under 2 years on "Normal" play. *sighs* lol

Oh, for sure... I usually run Neutral align...sometimes take a Good choice or Evil on rare occasion, depending on what's happening. I play the Terrans because, as I've found, I invariably lose no matter the race I take when I go for Conquest, so I go for Cultural/Influence wins. It's my greatest success.

I play on Small maps and set everything else to Random. That's how I usually learn...by having the game throw different small things at me.

I just played a game on a small map, normal setting, I changed up from Federalist to Universalist and reset bought abilities to include Creativity, Luck, and Influence boosts. I ended up with 8 NPC races. Early on in the game, I acquiesced to every demand made on me by other races and by the time I was 4 hours into the game, the other races were paying me tribute in BC's. heh. I finally won, again with a Cultural victory, my first win on "Normal" difficulty.

The thing is, I'm terrible at micromanagement, min/maxing, etc. It's a big part of why I don't htink there's a strategy game out there that I've ever been able to win since the advent of the home computer on above Easy or Normal setting, depending on the game.

It doesn't stop me from loving the genre. It just stops me from excelling at it or "playing with the big boys"...

i agree completely. when planets are relatively uncommon, i find the micromanagement less of an issue. each planet actually stands out in my mind, and it's not too difficult to keep track of them on a turn-by-turn basis. it also gives a totally different feel to the game, when everything is smaller. i've been playing GC2 since it came out, and messing with the settings (and mods) is what's kept me playing more or less regularly since then.

I normally prefer gigantic/abundant games, but recently tried tiny/rare with max number of civs and minors, and it gave a great "knife fight in a phone booth" feeling, which was an interesting change from what I'm used to.

me too! personally, i despise the question 'what do you write?', so instead i'll ask if you'd care to share anything, but leave open the option to answer the dodged question if you'd prefer.

I mostly write fantasy. I enjoy doing sci-horror on occasion even though I'm not as "fluent", shall we say, in that genre.

At any rate, about the only thing I could share is a short story that I wrote for Warcraft. Though it's incomplete (you join the scene "already in progress" and the end, of course, is wide open), it would give a general idea...

(edited to add: the reason it's the only thing I could share is because it's the only thing I've done in awhile that's of the entertainment variety that I still have copy around for. I do tech support nowadays and only dabble in my "great love"... Due to a pressing need to pay the bills after marrying young and having a child right away, I left the dreams of living the life of a novelist far behind me in favor of not living in a cardboard box while waiting for my "big break". Now, when I write, it's things like fanfic, though I do have the classic "great unfinished novel" somewhere in a box and done the old fashioned way; on a typewriter. At any rate, writing is really what I'm best at. Perhaps when I retire, I might actually finish the novel... It's not that it's taken me forever to write. It's more that my hopeful future was interrupted by the basic needs of life. hehe)

*sigh* lol I tend to get long-winded...