Free drones and drones riots.

[Flubber]

Absolutely

The Uni/cyborgs, even Morganites teamed with the Drones or Hive can be very potent.

Did you have human opponents-- teaming up against the AI would be overkill

[Commy]

The AI was only one faction...one of the aliens, I don't remember which one...anyway, the aliens started with a lot more bases, techs, and formers than we did, and, the AI was given a boatload of Mk1 Ogres...I think we gave them +2 econ by editing the faction file, but I'm not sure...

[GeoModder]

+2 econ won't do the proggie's much good.

[Chaos Theory]

It'll do them as much good as most other factions. +1 energy/tile.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Chaos Theory
It'll do them as much good as most other factions. +1 energy/tile.

I think he was referring to the lack of commerce

[Chaos Theory]

Well, then they need the +1/tile even more to keep a decent tech rate.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Chaos Theory
Well, then they need the +1/tile even more to keep a decent tech rate.

Not any more than anyone else -- Instead of commerce the aliens get energy based IIRC on the number of facilities they have

[Chaos Theory]

They get .5 energy per facility and 2.5 energy per secret project. For much of the game, this amounts to 0-1 energy per base, plus a small kicker per SP. This is nice before factions have made contact, but is quickly dwarfed by commerce, assuming a reasonably peaceful world.

[Commy]

Although, seeing as the aliens don't usually have many friends, I guess its only fair, since otherwise, they wouldn't recieve commerce anyway...

Energy grids have many advantages...they aren't dependent on war, and they can pay the maintenance for atleast half your facilities (until research hospitals)...

But, I'd still rather have commerce than energy grids...

+2 economy is very important to the aliens, as after the first few turns they tend to lack in technology, and I've rarely seen them do free market...if it weren't for the fact that they start with 3r armor and can easily research particle impactors in 2 techs, neither alien would be that threatening...