Game Discussion, Turn 2121 - 2140

[Googlie]

2122 suggested orders

Rolling Thunder

1st mp >>> due east (to 64:16) skirting south of the summit of Mt Olympus. That should reveal a string of 4 more tiles

Then use the 2nd mp to go to 66:16 (which looks like it has our coastline running through it) so as to uncover 66:18 and the handful of ocean tiles to its east before heading north along the eastern shoreline (66:16 doesn't seem like an ocean tile from the topography map)

SCC Invincible

Continue on a southerly direction to see if this body of water opens up into an ocean, or if it's just a large bay. But if we get within hailing distance of any Hive units, have cookies and candy ready to hand out in celebration

R0112 CRV- and Chiron Knights

Change production at GH to a Pressure Dome, (in case we get another instabuild) then use the injured Chiron Knights to pop that pod due west of their position (with R-112 ready to tag-team if a mindworm materializes) If a dome completion, great, if not, then change back to an Invincible class foil

Any better ideas?

G.

[Googlie]

double post

[Googlie]

Originally posted by Zeiter
I'm curious, how much is it speeding up our research right now? How much earlier are we going to get techs?

Due to the rounding upwards, it'll have no effect on our research rate

our labpoints currently are 2 (3 energy x 60%, rounded)

with the NN's upkeep of 1 ec per, our energy will fall to 2, @ 60%, giving 1.2, x 1.50 for the NN, which is still 2, rounded

Obviously, as GH's population grows to 2, and assuming the worker is put on a river tile, the energy will become 4, minus the 1 for the NN, x 60% allocation, x 1.5 for the NN, rounded, or, in other words, [(4 - 1) x .6 x 1.5] = 2.7 rounded to 3

[Kassiopeia]

with the NN's upkeep of 1 ec per, our energy will fall to 2

(Why) does it deduct also from the total raw energy output of the base, and not only from the factional pool of energy credits?

[Zeiter]

Yeah, that doesn't really make sense how the game figures it. In that case, it might be a while before we get any benefit from the net node at all. I'd say that's even more reason to scrap it now. When GH grows to size 2, it would already be making 3 labs a turn without the network node. Even then the node won't be doing any good. It's likely that the node won't become useful until maybe 20 or 30 years down the road, when we've spent 20 or 30 ECs just for upkeep, and then it will only be marginally useful until about 50 years down the road, when it might actually be bringing in 3-5 extra labs/turn. But by then we'd have the industrial capacity to just build it if we wanted.

I just see those 40 credits as being much more useful than paying 1 EC a turn for nothing for a while. We can't count on SCC Invincible or our rovers to collect ECs from pods. If they do, then that's even better, but I think using the ECs from the scrapping of the net node to hurry CPs, thus gathering more resources (including labs) earlier and faster would be much better.

We'll get an extra 1-2 labs for every turn earlier that we plant a CP. Assuming we could use those 40 ECs to rush...oh, maybe 2 CPs 4 turns each, means we get an extra 8 base production turns that we never would have had. This translates into:

approx. 32 extra nutrients
at least 16 extra minerals
at least 16 extra energy, including 10 extra labs!
Plus all of the turn advantage that this entails

And we'll get all of this without paying any maintenance. I at least think we need to give this option a solid look.

All of the unit moves sound great.

[Snoddasmannen]

I'm with Zeiter... I don't know much about MP but I reckon that 40EC's are better now than some extra lab points 20 years from now. The extra cash will come in handy paying veteran's pensions after the Hive war

Of course, a NN is good if we find an alien artifact, or are those more typically used for completing wonders in these games?

[Googlie]

There is one other benefit worth mentioning:

As Random Events are on, the presence of a Network Node immunizes us from the research-destroying NN event (we'd get the contrary event, a tech breakthrough)

Of course, the odds of it being that event and that base being hit are small, but palpable.

Summirizing - pros & cons:

keep the node

pros

• reserach at Gythium Harbour increases by 50%
• we can cash in an AA there for a tech
• we get a tech breakthrough if GH is hit with the NN event (low odds)
• free holotheater if we build the Virtual World (unlikely)

cons

it costs 1 ec per year to upkeep. So from the period 2121 to 2221 (100 turns) it costs 100 ec's to upkeep

sell the Node

pros

we get an immediate 40 ec's

cons

• research rate at GH drops by 1/3rd
• it costs 88 mins to build again
• we lose all our faction's accumulated lab points if GH is hit with the NN event (low odds)
• we've nowhere to cash in an AA for a tech if we want to

I can't speak for the rest of the Junta, but if we'd popped the pod and gotten the nut special plus 40 ec's I'd have said "wow, that's great"

But getting the nut special and the NN built for me was:



(we prolly need a poll on this decision)

G.

[Googlie]

Originally posted by Googlie
with the NN's upkeep of 1 ec per, our energy will fall to 2, @ 60%, giving 1.2, x 1.50 for the NN, which is still 2, rounded

I eran it thru Maniac's simulator, and our research does go to 3 at that base - from the current 2 (and total labpoints to 11, from the current 10)

[Primus Pilus]

i'm ok w/suggested unit moves. on the fence about the NN. i like the Pressure Dome idea. the extra resource benefits would cover the cost of 'rebuilding' the NN later. however, finding an artifact by popping the 2-pods next turn would be sweet so, the middle road might be to leave the NN, pop the pods, then cash the NN if no artifacts found and start either the Dome or SCC Hunter. also need to consider a Transport to look for sea artifacts and quickly deliver a CP to the Hive front door.

[Skanky Burns]

It abhors me to slash and burn infastructure when there is no pressing need for the ECs it would bring about. Not that I'm a good player or anything, but my instinct is to keep the NN.

[Snoddasmannen]

Originally posted by Googlie
I eran it thru Maniac's simulator, and our research does go to 3 at that base - from the current 2 (and total labpoints to 11, from the current 10)

Well that changes things. Though I am still leaning towards cashing it.

I guess we need to ask ourselves what our middle to long-term plans for Gythium Harbour are. It has three sea squares in base range which could potentially bring in a lot of energy, and of course we have several river squares who also generate extra energy. If we are intending to let Gythium become a well terraformed, big ol' base (perhaps bring down Shrek to cool the drones) generating a lot of energy, I might just sign the petition to save the network node...

I wouldn't use Gythium to that end if I were playing myself, I would use it to build ships. But I'm not playing myself so what are our plans?

[Dis]

I'm against cashing in the network node. why are we switching our production to network nodes if we don't intend to keep them? We should swith them to something else. Yes it's another 40 ec's.

If we have a good use for those CC's. and I can be shown that the CC's will be invested in something like terraforming which could make up the research in an equivalent amount of time, then I'm for it.

[Zeiter]

Ah, so Gythium Harbor is getting an extra lab point from the node after all! I thought that's how it worked. We'll, that changes everything around. In that case, that seems to be an acceptable deal for me: 1 ec for 1 lab point, with future benefits being even bigger. I didn't see much of a point in keeping the node if it was just going to cost us money, but now that we find out that it's actually helping us right from the start, I'm for keeping it.

[Googlie]

and as population increases, the advantages increase as well (GH with 2 pops, left hand version with node, right hand without a node):

[Zeiter]

Oooooh, 2 labs bonus per turn! Excellent! I'm definitely convinced that we need to keep it now. Thanks for the screenies to illustrate.