base planting and mindworms with wealth and free market

[dacole]

Ok starting to mess around with free market again and had some questions. First to anyone who hasn't messed around with free market and wealth before you are missing out! The energy credits you come up with are absolutley amazeing. Eight energy credits a turn from your base square! Especially in the early game this is huge!

Now some general questions about the planet rateing first. Does the negative planet rateing make worms appear more often? Does it have an effect on worm strength when you attack? When I started messing around with free market there seemed to be more worms attacking my colony pods as I started to expand and I actually lost a base to a worm. Something that has never happened before.

To more specific questions how do people deal with the worms attacking your base and your colony pods? Several opions exist as I see it. 1. don't change to free market or wealth (not an option here) 2. accept the fact that some colony pods will die and just keep building more (hmm this would really cut down on the number of cities you could plant in the early game) 3. Build millitary units to go along with your pods. (Here I usualy run into problems with the population growing before I can make another pod ok but annoying). 4. Research secrets of the human brain first then go onto IA (This would allow me to build trance units early which would be nice, but make IA come later which isn't)

What have other people tried are there other possibilities I've missed? Thanks a bunch!

Daniel

[Barinthus]

Yes, negative planet rating will increase the likehood that the native lifeform will rise against you.

I usually just accept that I'll lose occasional colony pods. If I'm at the point in the game where I have choppers, I often base several choppers in my outlying bases because that's where my colony pods tend to go to establish more bases. Those pods are often within the choppers' range so if a pod encounter a native, I dispatch choppers as many as needed to kill the native. If I'm done with moving pods and I have some choppers I haven't used yet, I often use them to scout out ahead within their range in a such way they can return to a nearest base to refuel before they use up all their movement points. Naturally if any native or enemy units are found, it's time to kill.

[Barinthus]

This just came to me. If I'm sending a pod to an isolated spot for some reason such as an island, I always make sure there's at least one military unit per pod in my transport ships. When I'm near the landing spot, I send out the military escort first and if it's ok, pod's next. The escort act as well, an escort and after the establishment of the base, it can become a temporary garrison until something more permanment come along.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Re: base planting and mindworms with wealth and free market

Originally posted by dacole
Ok starting to mess around with free market again and had some questions. First to anyone who hasn't messed around with free market and wealth before you are missing out! The energy credits you come up with are absolutley amazeing. Eight energy credits a turn from your base square! Especially in the early game this is huge!

Another FM convert.

Now some general questions about the planet rateing first. Does the negative planet rateing make worms appear more often?

I'm not so sure it does make the appearance of worms more frequent. I do beleive tho' that there isprolly a game mechanism that makes worms migrate to factions running negative planet rating. So in any event the real questionis do you have to deal with worms more often, yes.

Does it have an effect on worm strength when you attack?

Yes when attacking you get a doubel whammy in FM/welath circumstances. -3 planet means a -30% penalty. Wealth carries a hit to morale. Since conventional unit verses native are resolved as morale vs morale verses morale comabt with attacker given a 3:2 advantage (on land) it becomes probelamatic attacking whilst running FM/wealth. Conversely defending does not caryy a penalty other than that associated with morale.

When I started messing around with free market there seemed to be more worms attacking my colony pods as I started to expand and I actually lost a base to a worm. Something that has never happened before.

To more specific questions how do people deal with the worms attacking your base and your colony pods? Several opions exist as I see it. 1. don't change to free market or wealth (not an option here) 2. accept the fact that some colony pods will die and just keep building more (hmm this would really cut down on the number of cities you could plant in the early game) 3. Build millitary units to go along with your pods. (Here I usualy run into problems with the population growing before I can make another pod ok but annoying). 4. Research secrets of the human brain first then go onto IA (This would allow me to build trance units early which would be nice, but make IA come later which isn't)

In the early game, I simply attempt to steer clear of large patches of fungus. Avoid the breeding grounds and fight if possible.

I don't typically build a military unit. Sometimes I'll preplant a sensor as sensors (at least to me) seem to scare away natives. Buidl the base onit and you can hold off pretty much any stray native.

In a pinch I'll upgrade a former to synth armored (eliinates the noncombat penalty) and move it into a size one base to defend against a worm.
[/QUOTE]

[Flubber]

Its hard to kill worms effectively with the FM/wealth combo unless you have some artillery. Combine a couple of rover arty with a good sensor network. Your arty gets there in time to give a worm a bombardment or two before any old scout takes out the damaged worm. . .. In the earlier game before arty, I find you just have to accept some losses to worms as part of the cost of FM .. . its not that bad usually sicne you sacrifice a green scout sometimes to ensure your rover gets the kill ( and perhaps a morale upgrade)

The other thing that really helps is an empath unit, of course, or really any high morale unit. A commando or elite usually has enough of a morale advantage over most native life that it wins the vast majority of battles even with the 30% PLANET PENALTY

[Lazerus]

I'm not so sure it does make the appearance of worms more frequent. I do beleive tho' that there isprolly a game mechanism that makes worms migrate to factions running negative planet rating. So in any event the real questionis do you have to deal with worms more often, yes.

I've definately seen worms move away from me when ive had a positive planet rating, even when i've had a pop at a base if my planet is high enough the locusts often just fly away ! contrasting to when running FM i often spot them with sensors quite far away from my bases heading straight for me.

[Chaos Theory]

"In a pinch I'll upgrade a former to synth armored (eliinates the noncombat penalty) and move it into a size one base to defend against a worm."

I'm pretty sure that even an unarmored former in a base defends against native life without a penalty, though it does suffer the -50% when out in the open. Furthermore, worms attack bases at a substantial penalty before 2150.

[The Mad Monk]

I armor and trance everything. It really cuts down on the FM worm damage.

[Jac de Molay]

I do the same, and upgrade crawlers to trance/silksteel when I pick up the techs. By then, I have so many crawlers, it creates a huge turgid mess for worms or enemies trying to attack..

The planet penalty for FM is almost laughable compared to the energy boost you get..

[The Mad Monk]

In my current game (my first on transcend!), I've deployed a "sensor net" around my home islands, composed of best armor/trance/radar trawlers, 2 -3 vessels deep in all directions. I have about 200 of the buggers, mostly commando.

The AI still occasionally attacks them directly, but mostly they try to rush past and hope I don't notice.

[Hercules]

Chaos Theory:

I'm pretty sure that even an unarmored former in a base defends against native life without a penalty, though it
does suffer the -50% when out in the open. Furthermore, worms attack bases at a substantial penalty before
2150.

Didn't know that, Thank you

[Frankychan]

Shoot, I tried messing with Free Market and Wealth and even though the credits flow like water, the resulting mindworm attacks, fungal blooms and drone riots aren't worth it.

It's not fun when a fungal bloom happens and the fungal tiles all have 10 or so demon boils on them.

[Starfarer]

I've found that that only happens late game... when it's going ot happen anyway.

My God, Franky, do you have triple-digit eco-damage or something? I mean... ouch. What are you DOING do that poor planet? I've NEVER had any fungal bloom with more than about five worms of middle-to-high lifecycle at best earlier than when I start getting close enough to Transcendance to get the interludes for Kai (Or whoever) downlaoding himself to a computer.

Poor planet... I bet it needs a band-aid.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Frankychan
It's not fun when a fungal bloom happens and the fungal tiles all have 10 or so demon boils on them.

If you have a drop artillery or two , its a simple formula-- bombard them once or twice to knock their health down to about 10% or so and then watch a basic scout easily kill them.

Although I also wonder what you are doing to get SO many worms-- IS it atrocities because absent them I don't see how you would get so many worms ( assuming you are building treefarms and hybrid forests as a normal part of your game

[Illuminatus]

Originally posted by Chaos Theory


I'm pretty sure that even an unarmored former in a base defends against native life without a penalty, though it does suffer the -50% when out in the open. Furthermore, worms attack bases at a substantial penalty before 2150.

Isn`t substantial penalty which allows all mind worms to be easily dispatched only until 2115 (-25percent for mind worms) or is there another penalty after that?

I am playing no transcend all the time and I am pretty sure that -25 percent penalty lasts until 2115.