Importance of pop-booming

[Nightlifter]

*** Do you frequently use pop-booming as part of your *** strategy? ***

Of all the advanced techniques, I don't remeber seeing a topic about pop booming. In my current game, I am the pirates (for once) trying to banish the Usurpers from the current game via conquest. I am cranking out impact marines left and right, but It is becoming clear that I do not have sufficent resources to roll over him at this point. Crawler army is out of the question, trawler army won't seeing as my navy is too small (unless I abandon army production) and secret projects are pretty negligable at this point. I have tech stagnation on.

perhaps a good solution is popbooming until I can produce a forces in a timely manner.


I assume most of you advanced players will answer yes, and if so, what is the best way to go about it? I know SE + children's chreche, but feel free to rant on about what you think. If you all through in your two cents, maybe I'll be rich!!!

[vyeh]

Consider it from an economics point of view. A crawler costs 3 rows. A children's creche costs 5 rows. If you can pop boom and gain two pop points, the additional two workers are better than two crawlers on those squares (since crawlers can only harvest one factor of production while the workers can harvest all three factors).

[Leon Trotsky]

Originally posted by vyeh
If you can pop boom and gain two pop points, the additional two workers are better than two crawlers on those squares (since crawlers can only harvest one factor of production while the workers can harvest all three factors).

By then, you will probably have some drone issues, so that workers will likely be specialists. Which is not a bad thing at all, since specialists lose no energy to inefficency, and give you more votes than crawlers.

[Chaos Theory]

Pop booming will allow you to fully utilize your terrain. If you won't/can't pop boom, you need to aggressively raise your population by whatever means are available, or you will fall behind those who do. Unfortunately, thanks to psych caps, Golden Ages are rarely a viable option in Transcend games, so Yang, Morgan, Aki, Sven, and Marr all need to pull some sort of trick in the mid game to avoid being steamrolled.

[Kirov]

I love pop-boom, especially if we consider it as an alternative to ICS (it's not that you have to choose either, but if you can't popboom, you must ICS). This strategy, however, has its specific applications and limitations.

You can't really consider it as a way of getting new workers. What you gain is specialists, not workers, unless you want them to build Commons, HoloTheatre and so on. To get more industry, try terraforming some land and send land crawlers there.

The biggest drawback of popboom is that you have to run Planned, i.e. can't run FM. My favourite gameplay, considering nothing special happens (and it always does, so I can't rely on it too much) comprises:

First, Planned to get a drone-quelling SP or two and RecCommons in place.

Second, FM up to EnvEcon, then build tree farms in at least 10 major bases

Third, switch to Planned just for a couple of turns, trying to get maximum during sth like 10 turns

Fourth, switch back to FM and proceed as normal.

Of course, it all falls apart if you see incoming cruiser transports or see other players b-lining directly to MMI, but you get the idea.

[Sikander]

The HGP is critical for the pop boom inhibited factions, as it makes GA pop booms possible under even difficult situations. It effectively allows one to cheat the psych cap by two per base. Run Demo / Planned / Wealth and you'll also be able to get +2 econ.

[Kirov]

Originally posted by Sikander
The HGP is critical for the pop boom inhibited factions, as it makes GA pop booms possible under even difficult situations. It effectively allows one to cheat the psych cap by two per base. Run Demo / Planned / Wealth and you'll also be able to get +2 econ.

Is there really a psych cap? I didn't even know you can't get more than 2 thru PSYCH allocation. But even then, HoloTheatres and other stuff still provide the relevant bonus. So if not HGP, you may want to get VW.

Somehow, I wasn't ever able to mass trigger GA, except when playing PKs, which don't actually need that badly.

[Chaunk]

The Psych cap is 2*pop. That means that if your first citizen is a drone and the base has an odd numbered pop, then GA are impossible without additional talents (Clinical Immortality and Paradise Gardens IIRC also give talents).

I pop boom lots. I'd almost go so far as to say that it's my number one strategy preference. It's so powerful that to not do so is folly IMHO.

[Nightlifter]

Originally posted by Leon Trotsky


By then, you will probably have some drone issues, so that workers will likely be specialists. Which is not a bad thing at all, since specialists lose no energy to inefficency, and give you more votes than crawlers.

!!1!meh!1!!

you read my mind.

now... what is ICS and HGP?

[Alinestra Covelia]

ICS = Infinite City Sprawl: The practice of building numerous low-population cities as close together as possible with relatively little thought for resources and other placement criteria. This is a favorite among Hive players.

HGP = Human Genome Project: Keeps your people happy, because everybody knows that knowing that your faction has the complete knowledge of the human DNA map is of overwhelming concern to armed, ill-educated social malcontents

[Kirov]

Originally posted by Alinestra Covelia
HGP = Human Genome Project: Keeps your people happy, because everybody knows that knowing that your faction has the complete knowledge of the human DNA map is of overwhelming concern to armed, ill-educated social malcontents

LOL

[CEO Aaron]

Sooner or later, every game I run has a Population boom, sooner if I can manage it. I've found, above all else, that getting a population advantage over my rivals will ensure my eventual triumph. One of my favorite strategies is to skip some of the cheaper, earlier Secret Projects and grab the Planetary Transit System. If I time this well I can also pop out pods so that all my bases are at Population 1 or 2 when it completes, effectively negating the population cost of those pods, further magnifying the weight of my pop gain. The PTS is one of the more underrated aspects of Industrial Automation, in my opinion.

Once the PTS has permitted my population (and hence my productivity) to lunge ahead of my rivals, I can turn and reinvest my reaped turn advantage into either an attack force, if my location demands that I conquer a neighbor, or more base sprawl if I have room to grow.

I suppose my strategies tend to favor ICS and a mineral-centric approach for the early game, with my nutrient focus only arising with the discovery of Environmental Economics. This is primarily due to the incredible utility of forestation in the early game. Being a Morganite means that I can rely on a strong energy/tech income with even minimal investment into energy production, and rush bought recycling tanks can keep my small bases in sufficient nutrients to pop pods to keep base with my former forces clearing new base sites.

[#endgame]

Go play Aldebaran 2, there the HGP stands for the Huge Gnome Project. Enormous really small people that make everyone happy!

[Nightlifter]

eegad!?!?

pirates have minus 1 pop growth.

there goes my pop boom.

[CEO Aaron]

No, you can still achive pop booms even with growth impaired factions, you just need to work a bit harder.

First: Get the Human Genome Project.
Second: Build Creches in every base.
Third:Research Gene Splicing.
Fourth: Switch to Planned/Demo.
Fifth: Crank up your Psych allocation to put all your bases in Golden Ages.

Those 5 steps will ensure that you're able to get +7 growth, and the abundance of sea nutrients will make feeding your population ridiculously easy. I expect your biggest problem will be affording the minerals to build the necessary base facilities to get your Pop Booms and maintain them through drone control.