Least used SE choice:

[Mr. President]

Originally posted by Jamski

I hate Arsenal too

-Jam

Let me guess; you're a Spurs fan?

* * *

I used to use Knowledge all the time but I became a Wealth user because I like having lots of energy credits.

[Lazerus]

Damn Jenas and Bramble, bunch of idiots.

[The diplomat]

I always switch to Power when I go to war, to get the morale bonus. Why would anyone not want the extra morale bonus when they go to war? It's an easy bonus.

[The diplomat]

Fundy is useless to me, cause I never play as Miriam.

[Chaos Theory]

Hmm. Let's look at those last two posts:

Power -> Morale and Power = good
Fundy = bad

...but Fundy -> Morale.

In fact, for most factions, before lots of +morale buildings, Fundy with or without Power gives +1 morale level on both offense and defense. If you look at it that way, the +2 probe is icing.

In a more than 2 player game, though, going Power/Fundy to win a war is a death wish, because you choke yourself and your opponent (if you're fighting both you're doomed or you've already won), while letting any other opponents prosper. If you really must go to war, you can't let it cost you much.

[Jamski]

Let me guess; you're a Spurs fan?

Sadly much worse. I'm an eternal Red. (And yes I actually do come from Manchester)

Sorry, insanely offtopic

-Jam

[Scytale]

SMAC :
You all forgot the alliance factor. If you play Transcend, you should have at least two reliable allies; since Miriam is a like rabid dog and there are games when I don't even bother to respond to commlinks until she begs for mercy, and since Lal and Deirdre could prove useful allies I usually run demo/green in the long run, and then knowledge or wealth. The thing is, although I _never_ pressed the "Fundamentalist" button I seldom did, at wartime, used the "Power" setting (when I was too hooked up on efficiency or growth to change from demo/green).

Plus, everybody complains about -2 Industry with power. In my opinion, 2 Research is a much more important thing to waste.

[jtsisyoda]

Since I avoid playing the Spartans because of their -1 Industry, it should come as no surprise that I avoid Power's -2 like the plague.

At least with Fundy, you can steal tech. You can't really steal minerals.

[Gufnork]

You can't steal minerals, but you can steal units.

[Scytale]

You can boost your mineral output by building crawlers, facilities, or by heaving a healthy economy. Tech is much more important.

[igtenos]

Depends on how far behind or in front of the tech race you are as well as what your enemies have. For instance, I'm *well* ahead of tech race in a recent Morgan game after grabbing a chain of 'Secret of' techs (Creation/Alpha Centauri/Manifolds) and get a tech every 2 rounds with almost no energy in Research (yay for Transends!). The other factions aren't anywhere close to getting Singularity Mechanics and they sure as hell aren't getting it from me (Thanks again, Hunter-Seeker Algorithm!). Early on when the tech race is still tight it would be a different story provided my victim has stuff I need or is likely to go for what I need in the near future. IE: when the University starts its beeline for Pre-Sentient Algorithms or the Hive gets Doctrine: Air. Not to mention if I have the forces to keep the lions at bay once the vendetta goes into effect.

BTW, I'd like to say I agree with an earlier poster who had issues with Free Market. The penalties are way too much to make up for the extra money and the credit boost isn't significant enough compared to the benefits from Green. In most cases, Free Market might net you 200-300 more energy per turn at best (even with Demo/FM/Wealth).

Demo + Green + Wealth + Thought Control =

[Lazerus]

Originally posted by The diplomat
I always switch to Power when I go to war, to get the morale bonus. Why would anyone not want the extra morale bonus when they go to war? It's an easy bonus.

Because I'd rather have an extra +3 industry (power as to wealth) and even disciplined troops at the least.
Build a few morale improvements at the bases that are going to make military units and then you get your morale boost while the rest of your empire still thrives in an industry boom.

[CEO Aaron]

Originally posted by Scytale
You can boost your mineral output by building crawlers, facilities, or by heaving a healthy economy. Tech is much more important.

You can also boost your tech by crawling energy, but while stealing units and bases costs credits, stealing tech is free and easy. In addition, you can crawl an arbitrary amount of energy or nutrients without causing eco-damage, the same cannot be said of minerals.

Sorry, but no matter how you slice it, industry is stronger than tech.

[TimeTraveler]

A +2 Inudstry rating will get the industrial cost lower to 80%, making the industrial speed rise 25%, as opposed to +2 Research's +20% rate.

However, a -2 Industry rate will have the industrial cost rise to 120%, making the industrial speed lower 16.67%, as opposed to -2 Research's -20% rate.

This means that at positive rates, Industry will be more important, and at negative rates, Research will be more important, so while Eudaimonic will look nicer than Cybernetic, Power seems more valuable than Fundamentalist.

Another thing I'd like to note is that the industry rating has no effect on how many units a base can hold before it runs out of minerals.

[Scytale]

whoa it's like Yang, Morgan and Zakharov themselves decided to post the last three notes here. Sooner or later someone with a Miriam pic will say "rot in hell all ye wretched unbelievers, for Fundamentalism is the only way, and you ar tampering with the workings of an angry God bla bla".