9) Eco-damage formula Classification: exploit Status: (Feb., 15, 2009), ... Description (by Ned in The Column #175): Have you ever wondered why the number of minerals a base could produce seemed to rise as the game went on or was greater the more bases you had? There is a good reason for this, but it is not explained in either the Datalinks or the manuals. Ned, Blake and Fitz have discovered that each time you 'build' (not acquire) a Tree Farm, a Hybrid Forest, a Centauri Preserve or a Temple of the Planet, the number of minerals you can produce before eco-damage begins at all increases by one. The effect is not limited to the base in which you build the facility. It applies for every base in your faction! The effect is permanent. You can sell these facilities, give them away, have them captured or destroyed, but the number of 'clean minerals' each of your bases can produce never goes down. You can even rebuild the facilities you just sold and the number of 'cleans minerals' still increases. The effect only begins after your faction (not others) experiences its first fungal bloom, aka, 'pop.' Note: The detailed eco-damage formula in the datalinks did not cover this. 10) Children's creche and morale Classification: bug, serious Status: (Feb., 15, 2009), ... Description (by Maniac in The Column #225): For units on a base square, the base having a ChildrenÕs Creche: When the unit is defending: 0 SE Morale or higher: +12.5% (+) battle bonus -1 & -2 SE Morale or higher: +25% (++) battle bonus -3 SE Morale: +37.5% (+++) battle bonus -4 SE Morale: +50% (++++) battle bonus The total defence bonus (the sum of the morale level bonus and the (+) boni) is capped off at +50%. When the unit is attacking: +4 SE Morale: -37% battle penalty +3 SE Morale: -25% battle penalty +2 SE Morale: -12.5% battle penalty +1 SE Morale: no difference 0 SE Morale: +12.5% battle bonus -1 SE Morale: +25% battle bonus -2 SE Morale: +25% battle bonus -3 SE Morale: +37.5% battle bonus -4 SE Morale: +50% battle bonus If one would want to find some system in this, the following could work: For positive SE Morale: base morale level + 12.5% (the intended CC effect according to the datalinks) Š a certain # of +12.5% boni equal to the #of SE Morale (Not intended [As Far As I Know (AFAIK)) For negative SE Morale -1 and -2 both give the same bonus. So a formula could be like this: Battle modifier: base morale level + 12.5% + a # of +12.5% boni equal to the morale levels you lose because of negative SE Morale. For attacks there is no limit at all for the battle bonus. DonÕt take the (+)Õs behind your unit morale as an indication of the battle modifier it will receive. It is a good indication for when your unit is defending, but, when you have positive SE Morale, the actual battle effect is totally different. As you can see, [developer] Firaxis [Games] seriously ****ed up this base facility. Because of it, as long as you have Creches it is often better to have a negative SE Morale than a positive or neutral SE Morale. It makes running Wealth not a problem at all. Indeed, even recommendable when youÕre fighting a defensive war. This can lead to weird situations. To give an example, you could build a unit while running +4 SE Morale in a base with a Cr¸che, Command Center and Bioenhancement Center. This unit is elite. When defending in a base, it has a +50% battle bonus (capped off). But when it attacks from the base square, it only has a +12.5% battle bonus, because of the -37.5% battle penalty Firaxis (I presume) as a mistake or lack of playtesting added to the CC effects. Now imagine you switch to -4 SE Morale. The unit is still veteran. After all, the -3 morale levels of -4 SE Morale is largely compensated by the +2 morale levels from the ChildrenÕs Creche. Added to that comes four (+)Õs when being in a CC base square. So when fighting it will have a defence bonus of +50% (same as eight morale levels higher) and an attack bonus of +75%, which is 67.5% higher than the unit fighting under +4 SE Morale. Note: This looks like a sign error in the code.