Energy Parks

[Aredhran]

How could it be cost-effective at all ? Think of all the boats you'll be building... No matter what you do, you're better off producing a bunch more of trawlers, and accepting the loss of a few (which will be easily replaced).

I like the carrier hidden in fungus strategy, but that ability comes much too late to be of any use in most games.

Aredhran

[NorthSwordsman]

quote: Originally posted by Aredhran on 03-01-2001 01:05 PM How could it be cost-effective at all ? Think of all the boats you'll be building... No matter what you do, you're better off producing a bunch more of trawlers, and accepting the loss of a few (which will be easily replaced). I like the carrier hidden in fungus strategy, but that ability comes much too late to be of any use in most games. Aredhran

Wouldn't it be better to have your formers build a fungal border all around the energy park during/after completing the park, (assuming it was built in open sea.. if it was in an enclosed area, toss the idea out the window) stationing a few foils/cruisers *clean, of course* , IOD's, what have you, in the area? The fungus does slow units down, not to mention, (unless they have fungal movement bonuses) they will end their turn in the fungus. This, of course, would not apply to IODs, Sealurks, and those units that can move thru fungus freely... but it would slow others down somewhat. I realize that this idea may not be the best idea, but it does provide /some/ protection. You can always selectively built fungus spots to channel an enemy into an area where you have a nice trap for them. I know there are alot of things in this idea that may or may not work, but I think it might be worthy of pursuing as a tactic.

NS

[Aredhran]

Again, think of the time wasted planting fungus, when you could be building more tidal harnesses...

Not to mention that you wouldn't be able to see enemy units in the fungus you planted there yourself
[This message has been edited by Aredhran (edited March 02, 2001).]

[NorthSwordsman]

quote: Originally posted by Aredhran on 03-02-2001 05:48 AM Again, think of the time wasted planting fungus, when you could be building more tidal harnesses... Not to mention that you wouldn't be able to see enemy units in the fungus you planted there yourself [This message has been edited by Aredhran (edited March 02, 2001).]

I didn't say the idea was perfect. It was something off the top of my head. I prefer inland sea parks, easier to defend. I wish SMACX came with the ability to plant sensors in the sea, instead of using that watertech mod for smac.

NS
[This message has been edited by NorthSwordsman (edited March 02, 2001).]

[Kinjiru]

It could be somewhat cost effective, if you are planning on building a navy anyway, and you are on a huge map, and your sea park is far away from your bases.

If your trawlers have a long way to go to get to the park, then you don't simply have the cost of rebuilding a trawler to think about, but the lost opportunity cost as well. If you don't want to go all out for defense in depth, then you could try a Maginot Line defense. Use a single line of armored foils, staggered back and forth, with maybe a few more held in reserve to plug any holes that appear.

There is no good method for defending at sea in this game. Period. This is just a suggestion for how to go about attempting to protect some sea assets, if you are so inclined.

Besides which, if I were going to attack your sea park, then I would not simply go in a beat up all your trawlers, I would keep a few units in the area so that when you bring over some more trawlers, I can kill them as well. Essentially the tactic would be to deny you the use of the sea park (and perhaps use it myself). If you are not going to attempt any kind of defense for your sea park, then you are leaving yourself open to this kind of tactic.

[NorthSwordsman]

quote: Originally posted by Kinjiru on 03-02-2001 10:11 AM There is no good method for defending at sea in this game. Period. This is just a suggestion for how to go about attempting to protect some sea assets, if you are so inclined.

Then the best way to do this is just create an inland sea with a base, and use that. Hmm.. good points there, Kin. Thanks!

NS

[TigToad]

A couple things... first off my opinion is while building a full blown land energy park is fun, I never do it. It takes too many resources to get it going and its kinda boring to do after you've done it once. I strongly prefer building sea crawlers and harvesting that way. Especially in SMAX when you can build a thermocline.

Second, it is quite possible to win a game without a crawler unit ever being built on transcend. In fact, long ago, before I found this forum I did it regularly. I just didn't transcend often. IMO, the easiest way to beat the AI is to grab Lal, the Empath guild and when you get that late game project, just name yourself supreme ruler. The upside to this is you get to conquer quite a few bases on your way to the top.

As for energy parks, you are going to go gung ho and build on, practice on a level or two lower than transcend first. Second, make sure you grab the merchant exchange (very useful for this), the Weather Paradigm (all that forming) and the Human Genome (unless you're lal, you need this to run free market early, IMO--and I LOVE running free market early and often).

Tig

[Misotu]

Yeah, I pretty much agree with Tig. Land energy parks are very pretty the first few times - but painfully slow to build. Why bother? Take SMAX, thermocline and the Merchant, run FM/Wealth and then just crawler that energy in from the sea ...

In MP, I often build small energy parks, however. But I don't crawler them. I build a base in the middle of the park and harvest it with workers. Given a global trade pact, (crawlered energy doesn't count towards trade income) you will *coin* it in And you don't have crawlers sitting there waiting to be bombed.

By the time you have built a decent remote energy park in MP, your opposition has a satellite and is on the way to wreak havoc ...

[Thantos]

Something that I have found that helps my sea crawler programs is equiping them with deep radar and creating a more spread out park program with the distance of initial solar panel placement being just one square shy of my formers max range. This gives me a rather broad view of the ocean and forces him to spend much longer playing hide and go seek against my trawlers.

[Rastapopoulos]

As for the discussion about defending energy parks (by the way, I never build them on land, too much hassle, and the only thing I ever form on the sea is harnesses and farms, as many as I can):
I must say, I'm usually quite happy when an enemy attacks my crawlers/trawlers/formers. Unless he does it with a chopper, I can kill his foil or needlejet with one of my Interceptors that I have for the purpose and make him loose an expensive military unit for a cheap crawler that I can easily replace. I've seen quite a few players (especially AI, but even humans) waiste away large portions of their airforce or navy this way while I was thinking: keep going, I like it...
So besides giving you energy, these parks can be excellent bait for overzealous killers of any kind.
Only trouble remain the natives of course.


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May the fungus be with you...

[Googlie]

If you have built an energy park a little known or discussed fact is that you can double a bunker on your solar array, then put armor on your crawlers - they get both the armor bonus and the bunker bonus on defense.

(And, of course, if you build your crawlers at a base with a Command Center and a Bio Center, your crawlers will be Commando, with an additional 37.5% defense bonus(

You can make them pretty hard to take out.

Now you can station an AAA or SAM unit there too, and just watch the AI knock their heads agaisnt your defenses.

[Kinjiru]

Geez Googlie, don't give away everything! We might have to face these guys in MP on day!! *grin*