irony of the Drone faction

From my playing of the Free Drone faction to a frequent extent, I have noticed the benefits of running the faction as Frontier or Fundamentalist, Free Market, Wealth and then Thought Control. I find it a bit ironic that a faction that's goal is the emancipation of the working class runs best under such a oppressive system in my experience.

[Darrell01]

Forman Domai rocks, as long as he can get a start.

[Royale]

Originally posted by Darrell01
Forman Domai rocks, as long as he can get a start.

I find he does best when he does not have contact with the factions until mid-game, that means finding a nice deserted island/small continent to set up shop and avoid talking to the other factions.

[waab]

Originally posted by Royale


I find he does best when he does not have contact with the factions until mid-game, that means finding a nice deserted island/small continent to set up shop and avoid talking to the other factions.

try make some tech trade that is for sure.

Otherwise I can say that Domai runs pretty nice on demo/planned/wealth if you are a builder.

[Royale]

Originally posted by waab


try make some tech trade that is for sure.

Otherwise I can say that Domai runs pretty nice on demo/planned/wealth if you are a builder.

I never liked using demo due to the negative support it gives, unless I have all my units running clean reactors to free up mineral production to rush facilities and secret projects.

[CEO Aaron]

Bah, take it from a Morganite, the support penalty is a total non-factor. There's always more minerals to be mined. You don't need to dig all the way to clean reactor to offset the support penalty, just get crawlers.

The growth and efficiency bonuses from Demo MORE than make up for any few minerals you might lose on a given turn.

As for the 'best' SE settings for the Drones, or indeed any faction, they depend largely upon your circumstances. However, if you're in builder mode, you're doing yourself a huge disservice by not going Demo/FM/Wealth. Planned is for pop booming and warfare.

[Elthore]

i just recently finished a game as domai with my SE settings at police/freemarket/knowledge

this was after finishing the wonder that gave +1 police, and allowed me to wage war and make money while keeping up with tech!

before the wonder I was running demo/planned/knowledge or wealth


never got around to future societies, i nuked everyone who didnt agree with me becoming supreme leader.

[CEO Aaron]

I'm not a fan of mixing Police and Free Market, though I can understand the desire to stay in a War Footing without sacrificing too much technological progress.

My skepticism of mixing police and free market, however, is based on my contempt for the support value. As I mentioned in my earlier post, support penalties are pretty soft. They're easily subverted by generating compensating income, through crawlers, or energy credits, to make up the loss in minerals given to support. Later in the game, using clean reactors for terraformers and garrisons makes support even less relevant.

So if support penalties aren't that crippling, extra support isn't really that useful. Leaving aside the support bonus, what does Police State give you? Well, police rating. Which is fine, I suppose, except that running free market eats any positive police rating you may have, and while it keeps your cities from rioting while your troops are abroad, you still are running a highly inefficient empire for SE ratings that are barely superior to Frontier/Survival.

Running Fundie/Planned/Wealth is going to produce TONS better results for a war footing, because your industry rating produce far more troops, more than making up for the 2 minerals a turn you save by running Police. Your research will languish somewhat, but your -1 net morale penalty will completely be obviated by building creches in all your troop production centers. The positive probe rating will enable more successful and less expensive probe team activities, which means perimeter defenses will fall, and stolen credits will continue to fund your war effort. As for keeping up with tech, again, the probe rating will ensure that any tech in the hands of your enemy will be yours in short order.