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Alien artifacts
Let's face it:
Playing with unity pod scatering on or off gives you two very different gaming experiences.
On:
Favours active, momentum-style play: Get out and get those pods.
Favours certain factions because of their superior pod popping abilities: Gaians (keep capturing worms, and go pod-popping), Spartans (faster units, one tech away from D:flex).
Enables the tech tree to be transversed faster, which favours the human player over the AI, since humans are better at putting new technology to use)
Enables SPs to be produced faster, which also favours the human player.
Off:
Somewhat evens out the early advantage of momentum play vs builder play
Seriously impairs Gaians in the early to mid game, and to a lesser extent Spartans in the early game
Slows the tech advance, which makes the AI play better
Makes it harder to build SPs, which also makes the AI play better
For a long while I preferred playing with scattering off, thereby taking out some of the random elements of the game. Lately, however, I've been playing with scattering on. It is simply more fun.
This has made me wonder:
Having found one of these cherished Alien Artifacts, I have several possibilities:
1. Link it to a network node as soon as possible, trying to gain an early tech advantage. This is what I have been doing most of the time.
2. Save the linking of artifacts till later. The later you use it, the more research points it will net you. Cashing in artifacts in the very early game, might save , say, 40 research points, and make the achievement of regular tech advance much more expensive. If you wait , your regular advance will be much faster, and you get more bang for your buck when you link up the artifact later, saving hundreds or thousands of research points. One time I was researching a really crucial tech (I forget which, could have been Ind Aut). I was about to achieve the tech next turn, but - alas - I had three (no less!!) alien artifacts arriving at three different network nodes at the same turn, and I linked them all: press F2 and '30 turns to next tech adbvancement'. Big Bummer
.
On the other hand having all those artifacts on your hands and not using them, doesn't really get you anywhere, does it? Of course they are denied to the other factions, but still.
This suggests another approach:
3. Use the alien artifact to speed up the building of a Special Project. I have never tried this, how does it work? Will it simply finish the SP next turn or what?
This might make it possible to secure the majority of the important early SPs on your hands. It will free up your production queues for the production of further infrastructure/units, giving you vast turn advantage. Taken together, these two effects might very easily achieve more than gaining an instant tech, particularly early in the game.
In my next few games I think I will experiment with 3, while saving a few AAs for a rainy day (for instance, when somebody comes aknocking with needlejets, and I desperately need D:Airpower. Come to think of it: Preferably some time before they com aknocking
)
Anybody have any thoughts about this?
Playing with unity pod scatering on or off gives you two very different gaming experiences.
On:
Favours active, momentum-style play: Get out and get those pods.
Favours certain factions because of their superior pod popping abilities: Gaians (keep capturing worms, and go pod-popping), Spartans (faster units, one tech away from D:flex).
Enables the tech tree to be transversed faster, which favours the human player over the AI, since humans are better at putting new technology to use)
Enables SPs to be produced faster, which also favours the human player.
Off:
Somewhat evens out the early advantage of momentum play vs builder play
Seriously impairs Gaians in the early to mid game, and to a lesser extent Spartans in the early game
Slows the tech advance, which makes the AI play better
Makes it harder to build SPs, which also makes the AI play better
For a long while I preferred playing with scattering off, thereby taking out some of the random elements of the game. Lately, however, I've been playing with scattering on. It is simply more fun.
This has made me wonder:
Having found one of these cherished Alien Artifacts, I have several possibilities:
1. Link it to a network node as soon as possible, trying to gain an early tech advantage. This is what I have been doing most of the time.
2. Save the linking of artifacts till later. The later you use it, the more research points it will net you. Cashing in artifacts in the very early game, might save , say, 40 research points, and make the achievement of regular tech advance much more expensive. If you wait , your regular advance will be much faster, and you get more bang for your buck when you link up the artifact later, saving hundreds or thousands of research points. One time I was researching a really crucial tech (I forget which, could have been Ind Aut). I was about to achieve the tech next turn, but - alas - I had three (no less!!) alien artifacts arriving at three different network nodes at the same turn, and I linked them all: press F2 and '30 turns to next tech adbvancement'. Big Bummer
.On the other hand having all those artifacts on your hands and not using them, doesn't really get you anywhere, does it? Of course they are denied to the other factions, but still.
This suggests another approach:
3. Use the alien artifact to speed up the building of a Special Project. I have never tried this, how does it work? Will it simply finish the SP next turn or what?
This might make it possible to secure the majority of the important early SPs on your hands. It will free up your production queues for the production of further infrastructure/units, giving you vast turn advantage. Taken together, these two effects might very easily achieve more than gaining an instant tech, particularly early in the game.
In my next few games I think I will experiment with 3, while saving a few AAs for a rainy day (for instance, when somebody comes aknocking with needlejets, and I desperately need D:Airpower. Come to think of it: Preferably some time before they com aknocking
)Anybody have any thoughts about this?
) ME helps to pay for all those Holo theatres, and provides a tidy research boost.
.
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