"Donor" bases: pop boom trick

[The Vagabond]

This may be useful in OCC, or for the super-science city. I am just curious whether any of you have ever used the following trick.

Just build a donor base. The purpose of this base is to continuously produce Colony Pods, and nothing else. No much space is needed, for this base seldom exceeds a size of 2. If such a base is ever captured, it's not a big deal. Add the Pods to a well developed base (e.g. the super-science city). In this way, even without ever building Hab facilities, you can get a base as huge as you wish (as long as you have enough food). It seems to work well. Imagine a Morgan base of pop 25 in the middle of the game.

[Minute Mirage]

Also known as pod-booming, I believe. It's most useful when you have the PTS.

[The Vagabond]

Nothing new can be invented in this world.

BTW, what the hell is PTS?

[Minute Mirage]

Originally posted by The Vagabond
Nothing new can be invented in this world.

BTW, what the hell is PTS?

The Planetary Transit System. It's very useful in pod-booming, because when you disband the "donor" base and re-found it, it immediately gets back to a population of 3. You can build 2 colony pods every 3 turns this way if you have pre-terraformed a few boreholes and a condensor farm and you have a few crawlers to give to the "donor" base. I think it was Ogie who invented the PTS pod-booming.

[The Vagabond]

Thanks. I should have guessed that. Well, it really seems that PTS is helpful in this kind of pop booming. Nice strategy.

[Flubber]

It is a pretty decent strategy but at populations less than the limits, it is usually better to just use a Demo/planned/creche pop boom for any faction for which it is available.

I know that some players did consider it a cheat to exceed hab dome or hab complex limits on the theory that you could avoid a game mechanism but that view never really took hold and the tactic is permitted in all PBEMs AFAIK


Oh and The vagabond-- 2 comments

1. never stop trying to come up with new things-- Even if they are well-known by some, there are probably a whole bunch of people out there that don't know the tactic/trick

2. You can't pod-boom in OCC BY DEFINITION. It would be a great strategy for that type of game but would make the game so much easier as to reduce the challenge

[The diplomat]

Originally posted by Minute Mirage


The Planetary Transit System. It's very useful in pod-booming, because when you disband the "donor" base and re-found it, it immediately gets back to a population of 3. You can build 2 colony pods every 3 turns this way if you have pre-terraformed a few boreholes and a condensor farm and you have a few crawlers to give to the "donor" base. I think it was Ogie who invented the PTS pod-booming.

Isn't that a cheat?

[Lefty Scaevola]

Re: "Donor" bases: pop boom trick

Originally posted by The Vagabond
This may be useful in OCC,:

Not much use for OCC, where you only get one base.

[Minute Mirage]

Originally posted by The diplomat


Isn't that a cheat?

In my opinion, no. If others feel differently, it should be specified before a multiplayer game whether this is to be accepted. But I don't think this is usually banned in MP.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Minute Mirage


In my opinion, no. If others feel differently, it should be specified before a multiplayer game whether this is to be accepted. But I don't think this is usually banned in MP.

Its not in either the CGN or the apolyton tournament rules. There may be games that ban this but it usually don't come up. Realistically each new colony pod added beyond hab limits becomes a specialist and even if we are talking engineers, thats 3 econ and 2 labs-- You can get much the same benefit (5 energy) just building more and more crawlers.

And as I said before, pod booming below hab limits usually does not make sense with any faction that can reach +6 growth. You can usually time your stay in "Planned" with the building of an SP and the rushing of a bunch of units/facilities.

[Minute Mirage]

Originally posted by Flubber

Realistically each new colony pod added beyond hab limits becomes a specialist and even if we are talking engineers, thats 3 econ and 2 labs-- You can get much the same benefit (5 energy) just building more and more crawlers.

I can see a slight benefit here if you're short on space (no room for more crawlers) or the enemy is sniping your crawlers and you can't protect them.

Originally posted by Flubber
And as I said before, pod booming below hab limits usually does not make sense with any faction that can reach +6 growth. You can usually time your stay in "Planned" with the building of an SP and the rushing of a bunch of units/facilities.

I agree, pod booming is nothing compared to pop booming. Then again, I might build some colony pods when I'm pop booming and later add them to my bases in order to bypass base limits, but usually I'd use the pods to found more bases.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Minute Mirage


I can see a slight benefit here if you're short on space (no room for more crawlers) or the enemy is sniping your crawlers and you can't protect them.

Point taken if running out of space but I can usually find a place for a trawler to go . . .

if an enemy is sniping at me, I doubt I would be using much resources to force an extra population point anywhere . My nice 2 borehole size 3 base would do much better to pump out a interceptor/ship/chopper per turn to go deal with whoever is harassing me.

[Minute Mirage]

Originally posted by Flubber


Point taken if running out of space but I can usually find a place for a trawler to go . . .

if an enemy is sniping at me, I doubt I would be using much resources to force an extra population point anywhere . My nice 2 borehole size 3 base would do much better to pump out a interceptor/ship/chopper per turn to go deal with whoever is harassing me.

I don't really disagree with you, I was merely trying to find a (hypothetical) situation where pod booming would be a good idea. Generally speaking, it doesn't seem like a good idea, unless you're playing a faction that can't pop boom easily.

[The Vagabond]

Originally posted by Minute Mirage
I don't really disagree with you, I was merely trying to find a (hypothetical) situation where pod booming would be a good idea. Generally speaking, it doesn't seem like a good idea, unless you're playing a faction that can't pop boom easily.

If you have Merchant Exchange, Supercollider and Theory of Everything in the same base, it's a good idea to pod-boom that base.

[The Vagabond]

Originally posted by Flubber
Oh and The vagabond-- 2 comments

1. never stop trying to come up with new things-- Even if they are well-known by some, there are probably a whole bunch of people out there that don't know the tactic/trick

Thanks, that's inspiring.

2. You can't pod-boom in OCC BY DEFINITION. It would be a great strategy for that type of game but would make the game so much easier as to reduce the challenge

Oops, yes. But then I played a "modified" OCC.

Also, according to the OCC rules, it seems to be legal to hold a captured base for a limited period of time. Then it can be used for pod-booming.