The normal (sandbox) mode is the heart of the game, not the campaign. Starting at a low difficulty level is a very good idea for learning the ropes. Twilight is the most complex version of the game, but if you have the whole bundle you might get more bang for your buck by trying DL and then DA before moving on to TA.

I don't know what you mean by "not fine tuned or something." I think there might still be a bug where some built-in ship designs are impossible to reproduce because they are allowed to violate space limits on a hull (equipment limits are about how large an item like a lasesr is, not how heavy it is).

If you haven't tried the wiki yet, it might help you. If your running Vista or 7 or have .NET installed on XP, you can also download the free Galactopedia, which lets you explore the tech trees by presenting their XML files in a nice GUI.

Sandbox and MetaVerse are mostly the same, just some minor differences (e.g. relations can't be set higher than friendly in MV) and your set of xml-files that bring the variables for the game with are checked if within their limits. That is, you can play anything in a sandbox game, mod or whatever, but in a MV game you'll be flagged if you submit such a game.

The campaigns are a strict set of sandbox-games, the intital ones will limit you in the techtree, or give you an accelerated start. Please note that each version (DL, DA and TA) has it's own campaign, but in the UE you can start them intertwined, and this can shatter the whole concept. For example in DL you can have a tactic to storm to the DL planet which wil be rent apart in DA by the speed-nerf, and TA has a harsh economy... Thus there is real difference between the versions.

In TA the MV-equivalent of the campaings are the 4 tournaments - they are controlled games of a fixed setup, mapwise.

Maiden, I think I see what you mean. Since TA happens last in the story, there would naturally be more tech. (Lord Dragicus bookmarks duh.com) Makes sense. And I didn't realize those facts about the different chapters, and how they interface in UE. Interesting. As for MV, I have no interest in that at this time, but it sounds fun if you're into that. Well, I have lots of reading and browsing and bookmarking to do to hit the ground running, so I guess I'll just do that and jump on in the game for now. Thanks. If anyone else has any more info/suggestions to post here, I'm glad to read them as well.


I'm Off You Know,

Dragicus

Sorry,double post. Please delete.

Use the chapter-specific executables in the game's program directory, e.g. C:\Games\GC2Ultimate\GalCiv2.exe, C:\Games\GC2Ultimate\DarkAvatar\GC2DarkAvatar.exe, and C:\Games\GC2Ultimate\GC2TwilightoftheArnor.exe (in the above example, C:\Games\GC2Ultimate\ is assumed to be your install directory; replace with what it actually is).

At least, it's my understanding that the file structure of UL is identical in that respect.  If not, it should be in that area somewhere.

Not for UL, apparently.  No idea why this is the case, though.