Energy parks vs. trawling for energy

[Zeiter]

Which do you find more effective? Terraforming massive plateaus and a bunch of echelon mirrors and solar collectors for an energy park, or terraforming endless tidal harnesses and pumping out massive amounts of trawlers to harvest those 3 energy/turn?

Personally, I've found massive trawling to be quite effective. I usually play on huge maps, so I usually have plenty of open sea shelf nearby on which to plant endless amounts of tidal harnesses. In one game, I was even so lucky as to have a massive inland sea all to myself! The tidal harnesses can build in one turn with several formers on the job, and trawlers are relatively cheap to pump out, usually taking just one turn, just like crawlers do. By mid-game, I can have over 50 trawlers contributing to my HQ base (assuming it's on the coast), each contributing 3 or 4 energy apiece, for an extra 150-200 energy per turn (not counting bonuses associated with energy banks, treefarms, etc). All you need to protect the trawlers are: Some cruisers and, if a neighbor is close by, a lot of aircraft. If not, then just some cruisers, and you are set.

What I want to know is, are energy parks worth the trouble when compared to trawling for energy? Meaning, do energy parks usually yield substantially more energy for a similar amount of work? Can I do the job of an energy park just as easily with foil supply ships? I've never built a bona-fide plateau energy park before, and I want to know if it is worth the trouble, or if I can achieve the same things by just using trawlers. How much extra energy per turn does a usual energy park produce?

And I have read previous threads concerning energy parks and such, but I don't remember seeing any info on whether energy parks are significantly better than massive trawlering. So, what are your thoughts on that?

[Skanky Burns]

I prefer energy parks due to the lower cost of land units and the fact that said energy parks are going to be inside your territory - safe from enemies generally. Trawlers on the other hand tend to get plinked quite easily by comparison.

Not sure how effective the energy level per mineral is though.

[Frankychan]

I like energy parks. But I keep forgetting to make defenses for them resulting in a hell of a lot of lost crawlers.

..sometimes I just make the energy park surrounding one of my bases cause I'm so freakin' lazy.

[CEO Aaron]

Territory is the highest price you pay for an energy park, and the land park gives you more energy for less space. It's also much easier to defend than sea trawlers.

[Commy]

Also, all you have to do is get Centauri Ecology to build an energy park. You don't even have to necessarily have supply crawlers, your workers can work the energy. But for trawlers, you have to have 8 technologies before you can build them and sea formers. And, of course, it's a lot harder to defend the sea, and this entire trawler plan is assuming that you have a well fortified coastal base.

[Zeiter]

Well, I don't think the additional tech for trawlering is really an issue because by the time you are massively supply crawling your bases with resources you already have all of that. But it does sound like energy parks have some advantages over tidal harness parks. I think I'll try building one and see how it works. I think I'll also give the "massive amounts of clean formers strategy" a try. In fact, I'm playing a nifty game as Morgan right now that would be perfect for testing these.

BTW, in this game I impact rover rushed Santiago! It was so sweet! I went FM as fast as I could, and beelined to IA. I was amazed at how fast you can research doing FM with Morgan. Wow! I got IA around 2130, before I even had enough forest to harvest! Well, I got my crawlers cranked out, and meanwhile Santiago was threatening me with laser infantry. I paid the "fines" and bided my time. I then researched nonlinear mathematics, switched out of FM and wealth briefly, built a few command centers, and pumped out some impact rovers quite quickly thanks to my 16 mineral bases. I overran Santiago, gaining 3 techs, The Merchant Exchange, and a rather potent submissive. I'm beginning to think that Morgan is actually quite a powerful faction.

[CEO Aaron]

Welcome to the wonders of the early Free Market. As Ogie would say, another convert. I too find that in a typical Morgan game, I wind up with crawlers before I can get enough forest tiles to crawl, especially since you don't see Centauri Ecology for the first 4 techs or so. Still, with your Recycling Tanks in every base, it's quite possible for you to use early formers to build nothing but roads and forests.

To help get caught up in your terraforming, consider the following:

1. Don't build on a forced base pattern. You need to get bases down fast for the base square income, you don't have the time or former strength to mess with clearing fungus or rocky terrain for a base site. Just roads and forests.

2. Don't plant Sensors under your early bases. A wonderful ploy, but again, you need every last former turn to get forests seeded and to road out to new base sites. Once you get IA, you can opt to sensor new bases on your perimeter, but even then I rarely bother even then.

3. Don't be afraid to pay a couple of minerals in support taxes to support an additional former in your bases. These early formers pay long dividends over the game, the extra few minerals you pay to keep them around are well worth it. Besides, the extra resources from Free Market and Tanks help offset the support costs.

[Commy]

I have to agree, having formers early on is very useful. And Free Markets are definitely the best, as is wealth and democracy.

[Zeiter]

Wow, once I got the energy restrictions lifted, my income shot through the roof!!! The drones aren't really too big of a problem with FM. All I did was re-home all of my units that I would be sending abroad to one size 3 base. I crawlered a few nutrients to that base, made the citizens doctors, and sent the units away. And even though I didn't have any workers working squares at that base, I was still making impressive energy from the base square alone!

The only pain with FM and wealth is dealing with the native life. My very-green scouts with their -30% penalty are pretty much screwed when it comes to fighting worms.

[Commy]

True, the -3 planet can really kill you in the end of the game. But I just stockpile maybe 40-50 units (I swear I'm not kidding) in most of my inner bases, then distribute them to smaller ones. All the units have hypnotic trance and clean reactor. While I may loose a lot of units, it doesn't matter, since I have a whole bunch more. As for spore launchers, I use missiles, and to protect my formers, scramble with aircraft. Of course, the effect of +2 economy with a free market doesn't matter in the end of the game, because in the end you can do Eudaimonia and still get +2 economy.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Commy
True, the -3 planet can really kill you in the end of the game. But I just stockpile maybe 40-50 units (I swear I'm not kidding) in most of my inner bases, then distribute them to smaller ones. All the units have hypnotic trance and clean reactor. While I may loose a lot of units, it doesn't matter, since I have a whole bunch more. As for spore launchers, I use missiles, and to protect my formers, scramble with aircraft. Of course, the effect of +2 economy with a free market doesn't matter in the end of the game, because in the end you can do Eudaimonia and still get +2 economy.

hmmm-- I never understood why people go trance to deal with worms when empath and artillery is available.

Artillery decimates worms, period.
empath adds 50% attack so that even after the 30% planet reduction, you are still attcking at odds better than 3 to 2.

To deal with worms, I have never had much more than a couple of drop artillery, maybe a SAM artillery and then a couple of empath rovers. Toss in a high weapon chopper ( to self destruct in an emergency) and I find this is enough to kill off all but atrocity induced worm hordes. BUt then again, I often go green late game as the ability to go 100% Labs penalty free and the increase in efficiency, often can compensate for dropping out of FM

[Frankychan]

Don't listen to CEO Aaron, the Apolyton Advocate for Free Market!

Switch to a safe and secure regulated Planned economy instead.