Tech goals as the game progresses

[Clear Skies]

Originally posted by Flubber
While I can see the value of centauri emp. - I have never understood people's desire to get SOTHB. yes being first there gets you an additional tech but for me its at the cost of going up a branch of the tree I don't want in the early game

Well, Biogenetics for the HGP, which is a damn good project. I admit Social Psych's a bit of a placeholder, but reccy commons are going to be pretty essential to get any base past size 2. And SotHB gives your sentinels free trance, which is always nice, especially with abundant native life. I admit it's not the best beeline, but I'm not as fixated with IndAuto as most - I tend to lay off crawlering in order to get a more balanced game.

[Asmodean]

It really depends on circumstances. If I play as Zak, I never bother about SotHB, since that free tech is not worth it. If I play as Miriam or any other slow tech faction, I will dart for the SotHB, and usually be denied it, unless I have chosen the other facs wisely.

Asmodean

[Dis]

one thing I will not do is skip centuari:ecology again. You guys alway talk about getting industrial automation without delay. But I quickly reazlized how useless crawlers are when you have no terraformers.

[CEO Aaron]

My early tech goals vary widely by faction, since each faction has its own particular strengths and weaknesses that I wish to exploit. For police-happy factions like Sparta and Yang, I want Doctrine: Loyalty. For builder factions, I want Free Market and Wealth. For the green factions, Centauri Empathy. And all my factions want Centauri Ecology, Biogenics and Industrial Automation fairly early.

After my early tech goals are established, I usually stop thinking about tech for a while to focus on snapping up early SP's, and for a while, my tech goals are driven solely by the desire to build as many of these as I can. Once all the early SP's are accounted for, it's time to start planning for the midgame. At this point, I'll be either teching toward Environmental Economics, for tree farms and a Pop-boom. Usually I can grab Clean Reactors concurrently, and switch all my garrisons and formers to clean power. Once my Pop boom is complete, I'll go toward fusion power and retroviral engineering, for a revolution in energy and mineral production.

At this point, I aim my tech sights on Advanced Spaceflight. With resource satellites, I can send my production through the stratosphere, and seed bases virtually everywhere.

You'll note at no point do I really prioritize weapon techs. This is really because it's far too easy to swipe an encroaching unit and reverse engineer their weapons, or gain parity in weapon technology through judicious use of probe teams, and once I have technological parity, my superior production should overwhelm all proffered resistance.

[Clear Skies]

Originally posted by CEO Aaron
For police-happy factions like Sparta and Yang, I want Doctrine: Loyalty.

...Yang comes with Loyalty.

*runs*

And yes, I'll shoot for Environmental Ec as early as possible - especially if I've managed to grab the Jungle by that point. Jungle + forests + tree farms = heaven'

[CEO Aaron]

Right, forgot that. I don't play Yang that often, his 'set it and forget it' SE choices are kind of boring to me. Here's one question I do have for Yang disciples: Do you often beeline for High Energy Chemistry? It seems to me that Yang can grab Applied Physics, High Energy Chemistry, then bypass impact in complete safety, going for Synthetic Fossil Feuls and Doctrine: Air Power.

[Chaos Theory]

As Yang, I favor rushing for Industrial Automation, primarily for the SE settings. Police + Planned + Wealth yields the following appealing SE category effects:

+3 growth
+2 police
+2 support
+3 industry
-1 econ (almost the same as 0 econ)
-2 morale
0 planet
0 effic
0 probe
0 research

Once here, research proceeds as quickly as for the Gaians, or any other faction that can't reach +2 econ. Furthermore, probes and crawlers are available to close the gap.

[sentry33]

Usual routes:

for PK, Uni, Gaians:
1. Centauri Ecology
2. Industrial Automaton
3. Secrets of the Human brain + free Centauri Empathy if I can snatch Empath Guild due to it
4. Env Economics - throught trade or research
5. Doc Air
6. MMI
7. Fusion Power
8. Orbital Spaceflight

for Hive:
1. Centauri Ecology
2. Planetary Networks
3. Industrial Automaton or Doctrine Flexibility (and infiltrate/steal/trade for IA)
4. Intellectual Integrity
5. Ecological Engineering/Doc Air/MMI - order depends on situation
6. Fusion Power
7. Orbital Spaceflight

not much of experience with rest of bunch

[Sikander]

Originally posted by Chaos Theory
As Yang, I favor rushing for Industrial Automation, primarily for the SE settings. Police + Planned + Wealth yields the following appealing SE category effects:

+3 growth
+2 police
+2 support
+3 industry
-1 econ (almost the same as 0 econ)
-2 morale
0 planet
0 effic
0 probe
0 research

Once here, research proceeds as quickly as for the Gaians, or any other faction that can't reach +2 econ. Furthermore, probes and crawlers are available to close the gap.

Yang also really benefits from the use of specialists, which you can spam like crazy once you have crawlers hauling nutrients. You can try to GA pop boom (can be difficult without Hybrid Forests or the HGP), or pod boom by simply using half of your bases to build colony pods and donating the proceeds to the other half of your bases. Once your donor bases get down to 1-2 population you can build a colony pod about every third turn in them (assuming you have crawled minerals to about 16 or so). Turn all of those specialists into librarians, and you'll have a respectable tech rate in short order.

Once your recipient bases are up to snuff you can begin to build up your donor bases by again using half to build up the other half.

If you use the stockpile energy bug to your advantage, Yang will always have tons of cash available, as he cranks out crawlers like nobodies business.

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by CEO Aaron
Right, forgot that. I don't play Yang that often, his 'set it and forget it' SE choices are kind of boring to me. Here's one question I do have for Yang disciples: Do you often beeline for High Energy Chemistry? It seems to me that Yang can grab Applied Physics, High Energy Chemistry, then bypass impact in complete safety, going for Synthetic Fossil Feuls and Doctrine: Air Power.

The deep deep joy one has on discovering that Yang is based in the Monsoon Jungle with several large mineral deposits and has Doctrine: Air Power before everyone else.


And he's only one scrawny neighbour away, and mad as hell.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

beelines typically

1)Centauri Ecology
2) IA
3) Env Econ
4) MMI

[d=me]

I always try to the the hard to get discover techs like pre sentient alogrithms. and build the hunter seeker thing.

[Dis]

my last game I built the hunter seeker. I have never seen the AI build so many probes. If you ask me the AI builds too many probes.

They had so many, they couldn't do anything. So they would repeatedly infiltrate my datalinks, even though they already had infiltration.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Dissident
my last game I built the hunter seeker. I have never seen the AI build so many probes. If you ask me the AI builds too many probes.

They had so many, they couldn't do anything. So they would repeatedly infiltrate my datalinks, even though they already had infiltration.

I think a given AI faction will just get stuck on somethink it wants to build a lot of-- My last game, I was the Morganites and my Believer enemies were building dozens of (6)-1-1 Missile artillery. Not that anything they built would make a difference but what exactly is the use of dozens and dozens of slow artillery pieces against an enemy that is choppering you to death

I actually got very bored with the game since NONE of the AI even got fusion before I transcended (probably because the Believers were the big power) with Zak taken out and Lal decimated