Pods - are they truly random?

[Mr. Harley]

I've never done a statisitical study, but it seems to be not uncommon, to a degree higher than randomness would indicate, that pods have a distinct tendency to "double up," as in getting the same result twice in a row. This especially occurs with resource squares, energy credits, monoliths, and alien lifeforms (though I just got it for the first time with techs, go figure). It may just be that I notice and remember when I get the same result twice in a row, but I'm not so sure. I've gotten to the point that I save and exit a game after any pod which yields alien lifeforms (when I'm popping another pod), and then pop the next pod after restarting the game, and I would swear I get fewer sequential alien lifeform pods. Anybody notice anything similar?

[SynthetGod8]

Well, far as I know, one is more likely to pop alien lifeforms the farther one gets from the city squares and from national borders. One would think this is because of human interferance with the ecosystem, but that is here nor there. As for doubling up, it certainly isn't impossible and I've never experienced any patterns in any of my games, except for when I keep getting mindworms far outside my borders, but I knew that it was more likely anyway.

[quantum_mechani]

I heard that alien artifacts are more likely in fungus squares.

[Mr. Harley]

Both of those are the case, a pod adjacent to a base will never produce an alien lifeform, and a pod within the production radius will never produce more than one square of alien lifeforms (which can be up to three with an IOD). You have a better chance of getting alien artifacts in both fungal squares and at sea since resource squares can no longer be obtained, and they are one of the two most likely results is my memory serves me properly, with alien lifeforms being the other. Eliminating the chance of getting resource squares redistributes the probability among the remaining results.

[Sikander]

You can eliminate the complete production outcome by setting your nearest base to produce an SP.

[Jamski]

How on earth??? Ok, I'm going to maximise my pod-popping in the future... I only ever get the ""complete production" if the base is making crappy stuff though... is there some kind of limit to the number of rows this will fill?

-Jam

[Illuminatus]

I ve never seen pod hurrying a SP.

[EternalSpearman]

I think he meant that if the nearest base is working on a SP, you won't get the hurry production event.

[Vev]

But if you have a ridiculous fission hovertank artillery with string and temporal shielding that costs like 1000+, yeah, the pod material will finish that.

[Mr. Harley]

Exactly - a "complete production" pod will complete any number of rows of minerals for a base facility or a unit. I have built some prototyped units at over 1000 minerals just to see. I love it for Hybrid Forests. If the base is population one, it will NOT complete a colony pod.

Jamski, the trick is in single player to time your pod popping. Try to keep the outlying base making an expensive unit - fission drop-empath missle/pulse three armor rovers come to mind (for the early game). When you get to ten minerals, switch to a base facility it needs, and rush build it if you have the resources. Start again. I have built a conquest force in SP just using agressive pod popping. You can also delay your pod popping for interior secure pods in your territory. There is nothing more valuable than a nutrient/mineral/(also energy if close enough to headquarters) square over a long period of time, and popping the pod adjacent to a base with "stockpile energy" eliminates fungal blooms, native lifeforms, and "project completion pods". It almost doubles you chance!

You can also complete some fancy high-cost supply units, and then use them for SP's. It doesn't get you the whole way, but it helps tons, the cheapest rover supply with armor is I believe 100 minerals.

[Jamski]

I'm not sure if saving pods for later is worth throwing away the turn advantage of popping them earlier. Imagine if I'd had those 3 AAs in 2120 instead of in 2140... Imagine if I'd been working those bonus minerals 20 turns earlier...

Hmm...

The luck factor really make it hard to get a handle on it. Later pod popping gives better pop results, but with just a bit of luck, and some good early pops, you can power your way ahead.

I'm thinking of the use of getting rovers and foils especially in the early game in MP. They can turn the game around by popping every pod in reach and stacking up masses of ec, AAs and planetpearls...

I'm not sure...

-Jam

[Mr. Harley]

Jam, that's a very good point. That's why I mentioned saving your internal pods until last. The only problem is that you are making the trade off between running free market versus foil pod popping, and that's a tough choice. For the Gaians an exellent strategy is to go for Doctrine Flexibility and Centauri Empathy first, and pop pods/capture native units. Once you capture one, use the IOD to pop the pod, the foil to capture or bombard (impact is where that starts getting effective), and then use your IOD to attack if the new one isn't captured. It can make them a very potent force in the mid to late portions of the early game (pre-Air Power/Fusion),

[Jamski]

That's why I mentioned saving your internal pods until last.

But those pods just near your first bases, which is what I suppose you mean by internal pods, could be mineral/nut/energy bonuses. These are so important early game because they bypass restrictions. I'm in favour of popping them as soon as possible because just one nut bonus and one mineral bonus makes an early game colony pod factory that allows for terrifying expansion.

-Jam

[jtsisyoda]

You can pop the pods whenever you want. If your colony pod is at 14 minerals, switch to an expensive prototype crawler. It asks if you want to lose 2 minerals for the switch. What it doesn't tell you is that if you do that, pop the pod, and it doesn't auto-complete, you can switch back to a colony pod and get your 2 minerals back. Make sure you remember what you were building originally, because that's the only way to get your minerals back.

[Skanky Burns]

Nifty.