Advice for Morgan

[Ned]

Marione, thanks. What was looking for though was the formula I gave for the pattern of B-drones and a demonstration that you got 1 b-drone per extra base for the 1st b-warning, 2 for each extra base for the second b-warning, and so on. The last to get an extra drone for each b-warning is the homebase, IIRC.

If a base's population is not large enough to accommodate all the b-drones, then the base gets super-drones that are worth two drones.

[Ned]

Originally posted by Hydro
Ned,

Here are the formulas you’re looking for (from the Prima Strat Guide):

B-drones = (bases x 2) / [(8-diff) x (4 + effic) x worldsize

Where

Bases = number of bases (obviously)
Diff = difficultly level (1 = citizen through transcend = 5)
Effic = social engineering efficiency rating
Worldsize = the size of the world (tiny = 0.6, small = 0.8, large = 1.1, huge = 1.6)

For folks that are interested, there are also formulas for regular drones and drones from conquered bases.

Regular drones = (pop + diff – 6)

Drones for conquered bases = (pop + diff – 6) + SMALLER

For SMALLER, chose the smaller of [(Conquest + 9) / 10] and [(pop + diff – 2) / 4]
Where Conquest is years after you conquered the base subtracted from 50 (eg – when you’ve owned a base 50 years you’ve assimilated it and Conquest = 0)

Hydro, I was unaware that drones from conquered bases were difference from bases one founded.

What I think is that the number of drones depends upon the number of bases you have vs. the efficiency warning level, plus one if he base is conquered. But more than this, for each b-warning, you get one more drone. For example, the first b-warning will result in every base having an extra drone as you continue to add bases until just before you reach the second b-warning. This same process recurs, but by the time you reach the third b-warning, each base will have two extra drones. And so on.

Example: b-warning is 10 bases. As you add the 11th base, base #5 gets an extra drone. (So does base 15, which you haven't founded yet.) On founding base 12, base 4 and 14 get extra drones. On 13, 3 and 13. On 14, base 2 and 12, on base 15, base 11 and 1. On base 16, base 10 and 20. On base 17, base 9 and 19. On base 18, base 8 and 18. On base 19, base 7 and 17. On base 20, base 6 and 16.

I was able to work out a general formula for this, but I can't find my post. The post would've been in the 2000 or 2001 timeframe.

[Hydro]

Ned, the Conquest Drones formula is from the Prima Guide, too. This needs to be added into the overall drone formula. Not that it isn't a big number unless the base is large.

[Ned]

I'm sorry, Hydro, but in my experience, b-drones have nothing to do with population or with the years since conquest. The only factors affecting b-drones are 1) world size; 2) efficiency; and 3) number of bases. You also get one extra drone if a base is conquered until its status changes at the +50 year point.

So the purpose for the formula (pop+diff-6) is mysterious. As I said, b-drones have nothing to do with population. If you do not change your efficiency or number of bases, you can add population to the stars and not get one extra b-drone.

[Adalbertus]

There is more than one drone in a conquered base. Initially, you get five (better: the number of non-drones gets reduced by five), when you hold the base for ten years it's four and so on until the last drone goes after 50 years and the base gets the graphics of your faction.
I wouldn't rate this as b-drones, though.

[Ned]

Originally posted by Adalbertus
There is more than one drone in a conquered base. Initially, you get five (better: the number of non-drones gets reduced by five), when you hold the base for ten years it's four and so on until the last drone goes after 50 years and the base gets the graphics of your faction.
I wouldn't rate this as b-drones, though.

I'll conduct an experiment to test this.

[Ned]

Originally posted by Ned


I'll conduct an experiment to test this.

I just ran a couple tests on captured base drones. What I see a somewhat complicated. The number of "captured base" drones depends on base size. For bases of size six or less, there is a single captured-base drone. An additional captured-base grown appears at base size seven. Another one appears at base size 11, and so on until, there are no pacified citizens left. Continuing to increase the base size does not add super drones or subtract from the ability of facilities, police and special product projects to pacify citizens.

I also noticed that some factions, for example Aki, have an extra pacified citizens to begin with, similar to the Drone faction. With such a faction, add one to the above limits. If, for example, Aki starts with four pacified citizens, a captured base will reduce to the number pacified citizens to three if the base size is seven or less. When the base size goes to eight, an additional captured-base drone appears. If the base size goes to 12 , a third captured-base drone appears. A fourth appears at base size 16. At this point all Aki's citizens are drones. There are no pacified citizens.

I suspect that the number of drones does not reduce over time until the base changes to one's own faction at turn +50.

I will post this as a new thread because it appears to include important new information.