Rushing the Space Ship

[johnmcd]

I know it's not really possible in principle but I thought of an exploit that might make it possible. No idea if it would work though, I usually play with space victory off.

If you are working towards the big expensive space ship bits would it be possible to use a city with say production 60 to build a succession of very cheap units, workboats or chariots (yes, I've been in a position where I've researched rocketry and still had chariots as my top cavalry unit) so that you build the unit in a turn and carry over thirty odd shields, then build another and carry over sixty shields and so on until the part becomes available and all your carried over shields can be applied?

[The keeper]

Wouldn't it be just as effective to start working on it - so that the hammers aren't 'wasted' on cheap units?

Or am I missing something here.

[I_pity_the_fool]

Wouldn't it be just as effective to start working on it - so that the hammers aren't 'wasted' on cheap units?

Or am I missing something here.

He's saying start building the sequence before you have the tech to build the components. That way your over-carried shields will contribute to the project, and you can get it built within a few turns of discovering the relevant technology.

Is there a limit on how much can be carried over though?

[Dis]

I can't see how you are gaining any shields(hammers) either.

[tai4ji2x]

he means before you have finished researching the technology needed to build the later parts of the SS

[xxFlukexx]

I believe there is a cap on hammer overflow, I think it is the amount you can produce in one turn after bonuses. Like if you have 100 hammers after general bonuses then you can have +100 overflow and have +200 hammers for one turn but nothing over that.

[johnmcd]

Yeah, so it's say five turns till you have the tech to build a cockpit or whatever. Just churn some very cheap units (build in a turn) so you carry more and more shields each time until the part becomes available and then pop them all into it.

It may be it's not possible, just occured to me and I don't have a game at the appropriate point just now.

[Arrian]

Well, I guess you could build some missionaries (pretty cheap - much more so than any unit that will be buildable in the modern age), but I'm unclear on how exactly the carryover works.

-Arrian

[Quillan]

I don't think it would really help. I can see getting a little production boost from hammer carryover, but it would be so small that I don't think it would make much difference. The small amount of carryover on the first turn of component production MIGHT save you a turn, depending on the exact numbers. True, you might build something cheap, then start a component, switch to a cheap build, go back to the component, switch to another cheap build, go back to the component and get a little carryover every time. However, it would effectively take you nearly twice as long to build the component, since you'd only be working on it every other turn. Just build the thing and have done with it.

[ghen]

if the carryover is capped at 1 turn of production, then thats what you can get from pre-building. Definitely worthwhile IMO if you can pull it off with units under your 1 turn production hammer count.

[LDiCesare]

I don't think it would be very effective. That's essentially getting rid of your best production city and saving it for later. If you spent the shields on research, you'd probably gain 1 turn on discovering the tech instead of gaining one turn from overflow, and that would end up being as beneficial.
I think, however, that the impossibility of rushing spaceship parts is dumb and makes the end game boring (you've got one city building the last part, it will be over in 10 turns, so the rest of your empire cannot provide money or great engineers to help and you have to go thru the tedium of pressing 10 times end turn instead of rushing...)

[johnmcd]

I think it’s very unlikely that you’d be able to discover a tech a turn early in the end game by turning any city over to ‘research’. I also don’t see that this approach would involve taking out your best production city for terribly long at all. First of all, you can always use missionaries and the like, secondly depending on exactly how the cap works it might only be one or two turns taken up, which to bring victory a turn closer is surely worth more than a single mechanised infantry or whatever.

Build your battleship or stealth bomber or whatever and manage the shields so you finish the turn one shield off completion, queue up a missionary or a workboat or whatever for the next turn and you’ll be carrying a full turns production forward.

Anyway, it’s not going to change anyone’s world just a way to maybe squeeze victory a turn earlier.

[Diadem]

You can probably shave 1 turn of a component that way, but only if that component isn't available for building yet, otherwise it would be silly to do this

Now, there is something else that might work. Can't you do this:
- Start building on a unit
- Rushbuy it
- After the unit is done, your full production of that turn should carry over
- Switch to your SS component
- Wait one turn, that SS component now gets 2 full turns of production at once
- Return to building a unit, rushbuy again
- Repeat

This allows you to build units while building a SS component at full speed. Useful if you're getting attacked.

[Rocksteady]

I have actually done this. I built lots of explorers (40 hammers I think) and when I started the component I had 300+ production with saved hammers. I dont know if there is a limit to hammers you can save on overflow, if there isnt I think this can be a good way of rushing the spaceship. It all depends on your production/science situation ofcourse.