Green and Native Attacks

[Hydro]

I have made the qualitative observation that rogue native units are less likely to attack when you have a positive planet rating, and that the chance of this attack seems proportional to the rating itself. As anecdotal evidence I’ve seen rogue worms or IoDs ignore my bases and even units in those areas and just wander around, and sometimes they are obviously making for some other faction’s territory. Another example are sea pods. My IoDs or transport will pop a pod and get a hostile IoD, and then I move off a hex or two (more if I have the MCC). When I’m FM it seems the IoD always attack. As Green/Cyber then the IoD sometimes leaves me alone. If I am Gaian/Green/Cyber with Manifold Nexus then the IoDs just seem to wander away. The exception are worms from ecodamage – they are always hostile and focused on your destruction. Another exception is when my units end up adjacent – then they always attack.

Has anyone else noticed this, or quantified this effect? It makes sense, and if it is real it is a nice touch to a game with lots of nice touches.

Hydro

[Gufnork]

Even with a 0 planet rating IoD's tend to leave you alone as long as you don't stop right beside them.

[Lazerus]

Whats annoying is when you have lots of movement left and you pop a pod for an IoD to appear and your units turn ends ? Does it take 2 or 3 movement to pop a pod at sea or something ?

[Jac de Molay]

I think it subtracts 2 for popping an IoD and 1 for goodies.

[Mongoose]

Originally posted by Lazerus
Whats annoying is when you have lots of movement left and you pop a pod for an IoD to appear and your units turn ends ? Does it take 2 or 3 movement to pop a pod at sea or something ?

I don't think so. Frequently, however, you don't notice that the pod is in seafungus until you pop it.

[Hydro]

I think JDM is right. You can pop a pod in fungus if you have 1 move left. However, if you want to move out again you need 4 (3 being taken by moving into the pod's hex and 1 to move out again). If you are a poor 1-1-1-3 transport you are hosed since you are non-combat (-50% psi) and in fungus (-50% psi).

This is another reason to build MCC - grab the pod and run like heck!

[joncnunn]

Sea pods that have an Isle of the Deep result in a -2 movement penalty even when they aren't in sea fungus.

(Save game the next time your about to pop a sea pod and move 2+ movement points remaining, and pop-reload-until you get both the IoD and something other than it)

[joncnunn]

I never use transports for pod popping.
I tend to Trance Laser Foils (1-1t-4) and my own Isles of the Deep instead.

Originally posted by Hydro
I think JDM is right. You can pop a pod in fungus if you have 1 move left. However, if you want to move out again you need 4 (3 being taken by moving into the pod's hex and 1 to move out again). If you are a poor 1-1-1-3 transport you are hosed since you are non-combat (-50% psi) and in fungus (-50% psi).

This is another reason to build MCC - grab the pod and run like heck!

[Chaos Theory]

If you don't pop a sea pod with a transport, you can't get units from the pod, and artifacts are a major reason to pop pods. Also, since receiving units becomes impossible, getting mindworms becomes more likely.

[Lazerus]

After I've built the MCC (or even if i miss it) I tend to build quite a few trance cruiser transports and go out hunting for all those AA's , usually try and have a few 1-1-4 gun foils hanging around to try and kill any IoD before it damages the transport aswell, saves time healing.

[Chaos Theory]

I don't even wait that long. I make a few Tranceports (0-3t-3) and go searching the seas with those. I tend to avoid pods in fungus because then it's an even fight, unless I've gotten the Neural Amp. Just the pods not in fungus are worthwhile.

[johndmuller]

I believe that popping a sea unity pod in a non fungus tile uses 1 extra MP for a total of 2MPs (that may be saying the same thing as what was meant in the posts above where they call it a penalty of 2, but I wasn't sure whether or not they were counting the usual 1 MP); that would mean 4MP's in the case of fungus.

I once heard that IoD's head for (the nearest?) land after they are popped and so if I am worried, I try to go the opposite way. I don't know for sure if that rumor was true, but it seems to work well enough, although when I am out popping sea pods, I prefer to be on the offensive w/r the IoD's and Sealurks, rather than be vulnerable. If using an attack capable popper, I would try to have enough mp's left for an attack (unfortunately impossible in fungus without elite foils, cruisers or MCC). If you've got plenty of units doing this, the best approach is to pop the pods with an IoD or transport (so as to be able to get free units - unless you are out there looking for NL to fight or recruit) and to have an attack unit available to fight/recruit any NL that might appear.

While on the subject, does anyone know exactly how the game calculates distances for the sake of deciding which base would get the freebie build completion. I think I know that a base x tiles along the diagonals of the grid is deemed closer than one x tiles along a row or column, but I wonder about distances that are not directly lined up with the 8 natural directions.

[UnityScoutChopper]

My experience is also that IoD's TEND to head for the nearest land, and also go the opposite way.

My strategy is:
- if no other choice, pop with a transport (if money is super-plentiful, I will upgrade all existing transport to the best available tranceports upon popping an IoD; never pop pods in fungus
- if available, use tranceports to pop pods, never popping in fungus
- but if attack units are available, pop pods using teams consisting of a transport (not a tranceport) and an attack unit, obviously empath if possible, thus creating a win/win situation.

USC

[joncnunn]

Isles of the Deep can receive artifacts and are faster, especally in sea fungus.

Originally posted by Chaos Theory
If you don't pop a sea pod with a transport, you can't get units from the pod, and artifacts are a major reason to pop pods. Also, since receiving units becomes impossible, getting mindworms becomes more likely.

[joncnunn]

I don't know excatly regarding construction pods, but it's always appeared to be the closest base at a glance athough I didn't bother counting the tiles.