Importance of pop-booming

[Mart]

I have read an oppinion, that minerals fuel early game while energy late game.
In the beginning you want minerals as you cannot afford high prices for hurrying units like colony pods or formers, when they are in the first production stage (right after 10 minerals limit).
In late game usually everything is hurried. You typically can get 10 minerals as carry over to get beyond x2 penalty. Units get upgraded from their basic design, that you get for few rows of minerals

That's how I see it.

[PJayTycy]

Originally posted by CEO Aaron
it's not too hard to find a 2 nut tile I can harvest for the 1 turn it takes me to rush recycling tanks.

I hurry a recr. comm. usually instead of a rec. tanks. This requires the game-mechanics-knowledge the rec comm will be finished before the game checks for drone riots.

Usually the new base has 3 drones as citizens, but you can set them to work nutrient-rich tiles and rush a rec.comm. There won't be any drone riots and you keep your pop-3 base for about 50ecs.

[Chaos Theory]

Re: Econ vs Industry

If Free Market yielded +2 Industry instead of +2 Econ, I'd snap it up in a blink and keep it at least past level 10 techs, except for pop booms. If I had the choice between +2 Econ and +2 Industry, I'd only use +2 Econ as long as I was energy-anemic, for want of boreholes, specialists, or adequate forestation.

[CEO Aaron]

I have read an oppinion, that minerals fuel early game while energy late game.
In the beginning you want minerals as you cannot afford high prices for hurrying units like colony pods or formers, when they are in the first production stage (right after 10 minerals limit).
In late game usually everything is hurried. You typically can get 10 minerals as carry over to get beyond x2 penalty. Units get upgraded from their basic design, that you get for few rows of minerals

That's how I see it.

I definitely agree as to the importance of minerals in the early game, but it's also a mistake to overlook the value of energy early on. Ample energy can be used to rush your production, supplementing your production, and since you haven't likely met any opposing factions, you'll want a good lab influx to foster your tech rate. Later on, you can use probes to swipe techs, not so much early on.

Re: Econ vs Industry

If Free Market yielded +2 Industry instead of +2 Econ, I'd snap it up in a blink and keep it at least past level 10 techs, except for pop booms. If I had the choice between +2 Econ and +2 Industry, I'd only use +2 Econ as long as I was energy-anemic, for want of boreholes, specialists, or adequate forestation.

I utterly agree. Early on, the +2 econ bonus from Free Market is really great, but once your resource caps come off, industry takes the fore. The one thing Economy has going for it is that energy magnifying facilities (energy bank, network node, fusion lab, research hospital) tend to show up earlier and in larger supply than mineral magnifying facilities (genejack factory, robotic assembly plant, nanoreplicator). But what really clinches the superiority of industry is that a good industry rating helps your productivity regardless of whether you're paying minerals or energy to produce your units/upgrades.