Tech Beeline

[Drogue]

Just out of interest, how do you usually go wrt terraforming, Googlie? I've never seen that effective a style without condensors. I usually use Archaic's style, of up to 6 boreholes, and crawling up to 6 condensors for nuts.

[Maniac]

Originally posted by Googlie
(and if so, we should build a laser infantryman soon thereafter then upgrade our rovers to 2-1-2's, all the more impressive to threaten Yang with when we finally meet him)

IIRC laser rovers cost as many as laser infantry, so we could build a commando (+) laser rover in SC2, and monolith-upgrade it to elite immediately, for a 3-1.5-3 unit.

Do we need a formal poll, or are we still running this early on with decisions made by an "informed quorum" of the Junta?

Since Zeiter said he favoured SocPsych and you AppPhys, I thought I'd post a poll to get some more opinions.

[Googlie]

Originally posted by Drogue
Just out of interest, how do you usually go wrt terraforming

I pretty much forest everything on land (except nut specials- unless on arid land) and seakelp/tidal harness
the offshore tiles, get Tree Farms and Hybrids by midgame, then throw up satellites whenever I can't think of anything else for a base to produce

I'll try for a couple of boreholes per base, and nearly always manage to get a ten or 12 tiled energy farm crawling to my SCC

Hab domes come too late in the game to make much of a difference, so I generally only have a handful of bases that ever get to beyond size 20, and they are usually coastal bases

I follow that route playing most factions, except maybe the Gaians or Cult, where I might purposely refungus after I get the nuts-from-fungus techs

[Maniac]

We'll get NonlMath MY 2138. Normally our next research choices should be:

• Progenitor Psych
• Biogenetics
• Industrial Base
• Social Psych

If we plan to steal lots of techs from other factions, it hardly matters what we pick, but you never know. So what to pick?

[Googlie]

This is maybe the appropriate thread to reset our beelines:

Right now we are researching Doc Initiative (6 years, in 2149). We can start the MCC that year - will we finish it same turn? (2 AA"s and, maybe, 2 crawlers)

A whole bunch of "ifs" determine our next choices (and prolly we'll be in the "next tech in 15 years" or so range):

If we manage to steal HEC from Lal, then we'll see Synth Fossil Fuels as a choice (missiles, fungiformers, prereq for Doc Air)

If we manage to steal Doc Loyalty from Yang, we'll see Int Int as a choice (+Morale, nonlethal police, CDF).

If we don't trade for them/steal them, we'll see our choices cluttered by Prog Psych, Social Psych, Polysoft, Industrial Economics, Field Modulation, Opticals, etc (you get the picturs)

It'd be neat to beeline to Pre Sentient Algorithms, and snag the HSA - that way we'd be immune to probe actions (axcept maybe the Angels, with their automatic Enhanced Algorithmics) and to others mind-controlling their bases back that we have captured. But that would entail getting Int Int and Cyberethics on the one side and Polysoft, Opticals and AMA on the other.

So far we've been fortunate in executing almost flawlessly the strategy we outlined at the beginning (before the game was even set up!!) Let's hope our "luck" continues!

[KrysiasKrusader]

Wow. I forgaot all about this thread (!).

I read now...

[KrysiasKrusader]

Originally posted by Googlie

I pretty much forest everything on land (except nut specials- unless on arid land) and seakelp/tidal harness
the offshore tiles, get Tree Farms and Hybrids by midgame, then throw up satellites whenever I can't think of anything else for a base to produce

Well. Lookie this!
So why are you (not just you, but you know what I mean) farming in this game?

I'll try for a couple of boreholes per base, and nearly always manage to get a ten or 12 tiled energy farm crawling to my SCC

Boreholes yea, but the solar park has become increasingly untenable with the quality of players over the years. Too vulnerable to suicide chopper strikes. Do you not find?

Hab domes come too late in the game to make much of a difference, so I generally only have a handful of bases that ever get to beyond size 20, and they are usually coastal bases

I find this amazing. But then again, haven't been in as many games as you. The only game I can remember being in with hab-domes was one where no one was allowed to attack another human controled faction.

I follow that route playing most factions, except maybe the Gaians or Cult, where I might purposely refungus after I get the nuts-from-fungus techs

That's tough choice to make. Especially when you've spent nearly all game; roading, leveling, foresting every tile. By this time, my formers are just concentrating on borehole drilling.

[Googlie]

Originally posted by KrysiasKrusader
Well. Lookie this!
So why are you (not just you, but you know what I mean) farming in this game?

Simple - got outvoted (actually, I've learned a lot about squeezing early growth from careful utilization of tiles. I never used to bother differentiating between rolling and rainy and rolling and moist tiles - for me the rule of thumb was "under 500 meters, forest regardless, over 500, farm and solar" (unless arid, of course - then it got a forest too)

Boreholes yea, but the solar park has become increasingly untenable with the quality of players over the years. Too vulnerable to suicide chopper strikes. Do you not find?

Not if you protect it. A sensor, bunkers and AAA best-armor units interspersed around the perimeter can hold off most choppers (or make it not worth their while trying

[KrysiasKrusader]

In that case: I'll start complaining about the farming again...

Originally posted by Googlie
Not if you protect it. A sensor, bunkers and AAA best-armor units interspersed around the perimeter can hold off most choppers (or make it not worth their while trying

That takes a lot of effort to do. I just can't commit all those resources and time to something like that. I'd rather put it towards hurting the opposition. I've built one bunker - once! (and one airbase - once!).


TOP SECRET:

All you have to do is blow a hole through the defensive perimeter. Choppers / airplanes aren't affected by ZOC's. Either suicide a couple of a/c on the unit, or self-destruct a missile/specific a/c. Then just fly in and blow everything away...

[Googlie]

Originally posted by KrysiasKrusader
TOP SECRET:
All you have to do is blow a hole through the defensive perimeter. Choppers / airplanes aren't affected by ZOC's. Either suicide a couple of a/c on the unit, or self-destruct a missile/specific a/c. Then just fly in and blow everything away...

Funny, but no-one seems to think it's worth the while (maybe 'cos it takes around 3 or 4 fusion elite shard choppers [strength 33, derived from 13 (basic weapon) * 1.5 (elite) * 2(fusion powered)] to get past 1 bunkered, sensored, elite, 8-armor AAA fusion defender whose defense is 128 [derived from 8 (basic)*1.5 (Elite)*1.5 (bunker)*2(sensor)*2(AAA tracking)*2 (Fusion)]

Would you take that trade?

Now, I agree, power sats are great too, but there is a limit as to how effective they are (base population dictates how much of a contribution they can make, and usually for me - pre hab domes, that'll be 14, thus giving 7 energy to that base. A single crawler can be yielding 8 energy in a poorly designed energy park and is a lot more expendable then a power satellite

[KrysiasKrusader]

No, I wouldn't take that trade in straight combat. But I would self destruct 2 units to get rid of the blocker. Then I'd fly through the hole and rampage the crawlers inside the compound. But this is all hypothetical.

Shame on the people who let you get such defences up in the first place!

[KrysiasKrusader]

Here's a really good post, for anyone who wants to know what can happen in a multi-player game...

MP Woes Post

[Googlie]

I think our next tech to research should be Inertial Damping. it sounds really cool:

extracted from blurbsx.txt
##Inertial Damping
#TECH24
Until now the battle had been proceeding smoothly: the enemy was outflanked and had been driven from the reactor housing. But against the reactor itself the matter cannon were strangely ineffective. Rounds simply . . . stopped. In mid-air.
^
^ -- Col. Corazon Santiago,
^ "A Tactical History of Sparta"

[KrysiasKrusader]

Problem with thise, is that they tend to have a tendency of always going off line as soon as your sheilds absorb the third hit.

[Maniac]

No problem then: Spartans never get shot even once!
Research it I say!