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The question whether to go for the Neural Amplifier (+50% to psi defence) has been posed a while ago in the Emergency military plan, but not definitely answered. Therefore this thread and poll. The voting time limit is five days.
As you may know from the military emergence plan thread, I'm in favour of building/researching the neural amplifier. I'll try to present my case here again.
The labs production of PUT is currently 230 labs. That of CyCon around 90. But everyone including me seems in favour of maximizing credit production with the Consciousness, so it will become less than 90 in the near future. Compare that to the Hive who has about 220 labs per year around now. From this Drone screenshot buster was so friendly to provide us, we know the Drone credit production is 104. Assuming he's running 50-0-50 econ-psych-labs, this means he'll probably have 100 labs per year, but possibly more if he copies the librarian specialist base tactic of the Hive. And that's without running FM, in which case it would be more. Added together, this means the Hive-Drones produce 50% more labs than us. They also have double our population. And the Hive alone surpasses the combined CPU mineral production IIRC. Assuming Drone mineral production is comparable to the Hive, a reasonable assumption as they have near equal population and he has +4 Industry, this means the Hive-Drones probably have more than double CPU production.
SMAC is a game where due the game mechanics the powerful tend to become more powerful and the weak weaker, so unless something drastic and unexpected happens, it is unlikely that this gap in population/production/research can be decreased. As a consequence the Hive-Drones will most likely be able to research Fusion Power far before us, and thus build a very powerful convential arms military to which we could impossibly resist with conventional means. Especially since they will be able to grab all the good military SPs such as CBA, CDF and cyborg factory. So IMHO, besides of course building a convential naval and air fleet, our chance lies in focusing on psi combat (Isles of the Deep, later perhaps Locusts), as psi combat ignores the reactor type and defensive facilities such as aerospace complexes and perimeter defences. With the Neural Amplifier 50% defence bonus the enemy would face a 2:3 disadvantage on sea and in air, and equal odds on land. These are much better odds than we can achieve with normal weapons, especially when facing fusion reactors.
So what is your opinion on this matter? Please discuss and vote ahead!
Edit: I've had a look at the CyCon MY 2155 presend. I think we could build another secret project fastest at Boolean Bay, as that's the only place where there are already a few crawlers in the neighbourhood. Have a look at this:
MY 2156:
New Auroran crawler: go to (72.78) and harvest minerals
Crawler (70.80)->(70.78)
Crawler (71.81)->(70.80)
Hurry crawler production at Boolean Bay
MY 2157:
Provided we have 330 credits in reserve, upgrade the crawlers on (72.78), (70.78) and in Boolean Bay to Supply Mk9. Move crawler (70.80) to (70.78).
MY 2158: cash in the crawlers at Boolean Bay that starts production on the Neural Amplifier.
MY 2159: We got it!
As you may know from the military emergence plan thread, I'm in favour of building/researching the neural amplifier. I'll try to present my case here again.
The labs production of PUT is currently 230 labs. That of CyCon around 90. But everyone including me seems in favour of maximizing credit production with the Consciousness, so it will become less than 90 in the near future. Compare that to the Hive who has about 220 labs per year around now. From this Drone screenshot buster was so friendly to provide us, we know the Drone credit production is 104. Assuming he's running 50-0-50 econ-psych-labs, this means he'll probably have 100 labs per year, but possibly more if he copies the librarian specialist base tactic of the Hive. And that's without running FM, in which case it would be more. Added together, this means the Hive-Drones produce 50% more labs than us. They also have double our population. And the Hive alone surpasses the combined CPU mineral production IIRC. Assuming Drone mineral production is comparable to the Hive, a reasonable assumption as they have near equal population and he has +4 Industry, this means the Hive-Drones probably have more than double CPU production.
SMAC is a game where due the game mechanics the powerful tend to become more powerful and the weak weaker, so unless something drastic and unexpected happens, it is unlikely that this gap in population/production/research can be decreased. As a consequence the Hive-Drones will most likely be able to research Fusion Power far before us, and thus build a very powerful convential arms military to which we could impossibly resist with conventional means. Especially since they will be able to grab all the good military SPs such as CBA, CDF and cyborg factory. So IMHO, besides of course building a convential naval and air fleet, our chance lies in focusing on psi combat (Isles of the Deep, later perhaps Locusts), as psi combat ignores the reactor type and defensive facilities such as aerospace complexes and perimeter defences. With the Neural Amplifier 50% defence bonus the enemy would face a 2:3 disadvantage on sea and in air, and equal odds on land. These are much better odds than we can achieve with normal weapons, especially when facing fusion reactors.
So what is your opinion on this matter? Please discuss and vote ahead!
Edit: I've had a look at the CyCon MY 2155 presend. I think we could build another secret project fastest at Boolean Bay, as that's the only place where there are already a few crawlers in the neighbourhood. Have a look at this:
MY 2156:
New Auroran crawler: go to (72.78) and harvest minerals
Crawler (70.80)->(70.78)
Crawler (71.81)->(70.80)
Hurry crawler production at Boolean Bay
MY 2157:
Provided we have 330 credits in reserve, upgrade the crawlers on (72.78), (70.78) and in Boolean Bay to Supply Mk9. Move crawler (70.80) to (70.78).
MY 2158: cash in the crawlers at Boolean Bay that starts production on the Neural Amplifier.
MY 2159: We got it!
Btw, does the SE Morale factor have effect on psi unit morale? I was considering if we could stay in Wealth or not while building up a psi army.
This means we'll have to miss the industry and economy bonuses. And Knowledge Value for the future isn't very useful if we'll try to maximize credit production.
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