Eco-damage formula.

[GaioAugusto]

Please the correct eco-damage formula applied in the game.

Thank you, sorry for my english.

[vyeh]

http://www.apolyton.net/misc/column/175_ecodamage.shtml

[GaioAugusto]

That formula is not clear. I guess that i need an example. Thank you...

[vyeh]

This comes from Gamespot Guide

http://www.gamespot.com/features/alphac_gg/part2_c9_01b.html

Ecology
Ecological damage is determined by the following complex formula:
1. For each base, total the number of mines, solar collectors, farms, soil enrichers, roads, mag tubes, condensers, and boreholes. Items in squares that are actually being worked count double.
2. Add an extra +8 for each borehole and +4 for each condenser.
3. Subtract 1 for each forest.
4. Halve each base that has a tree farm, and eliminate it if it also has a hybrid forest.
5. Divide this value by 8and reduce by up to 16 plus the number of previous damages.
6. Take the number of minerals produced this turn.
7. If result from step 5 was reduced by less than 16, reduce the result from step 6 by the remaining amount.
8. Divide minerals by 1 plus the number of Centauri preserve, Temple of Planet, and nanoreplicator.
9. Sum the values of steps 5 and 8 and add +5 for each major atrocity.
10. If Alpha Prime is at perihelion, double your value.

Ecology percentage = (ValueFromStep10) * Difficulty * Technologies * (3-Planet) * Life/300

[GaioAugusto]

Maybe i guess understand, but the explanations are not very clear.

Thank you very much Vyeh !

[Petek]

It's really not necessary to know the exact formula for ecodamage. However, you do need to know in general how it works and how to control it to your advantage.

Ecodamage (ED) occurs when a base produces more than a certain amount of minerals. That amount is called the clean mineral limit. At the beginning of the game, a base's clean mineral limit is usually 16-17, but can be lower if you are working/crawling mines or boreholes.

Any base that has ED has a chance, each turn, to produce a fungal pop (or >pop<, for short). The first few >pops< will cause fungus to appear near your base, possibly destroying terraforming enhancements. Later, >pops< will also produce native life forms. The higher the ED, the more likely that a >pop< will occur.

Each >pop< raises the clean mineral limit of all your bases by one. In addition, each Tree Farm, Hybrid Forest, Centauri Preserve and Temple of Planet that is built after the first >pop< increases the clean mineral limit by one.

So, your strategy should be to have one or more bases that produce ED and get a >pop<. Until that happens, do not build any of the base improvements listed in the previous paragraph. After the first >pop<, building those improvements will increase the clean mineral limit by one in each of your bases. That's good, because then your bases can produce more minerals without getting ED.

There are a few other details, but that's the basics.

HTH

Petek

[xalien]

Also, Tree farm and Hybrid forest taken together eliminate all ecodamage from terraforming. When you have those two you can drill as many boreholes as you can without any eco-penalty.

[Authyrean]

What are adventages of building Tree Farm or Hybrid Forest before fungal pop?

[Hydro]

Answer: better growth (obviously) and energy with Hybrid Forests.

But it is better to engineer a >pop< before hand. Simply allocate a bunch of crawlers to take minerals to a single base until you get red ecodamage. Try to arrange to get at least one bloom before your TFs and HFs are complete.

Typically you get Ind Auto for crawlers long before you can build TFs and HFs, and you'll want to maximize industrial production anyway.

Hydro

[vyeh]

Note that each atrocity (e.g. planetbuster) reduces the clean mineral limit by 5!

I believe I read a thread where the use of nerve gas affected the clean mineral limit.

[CEO Aaron]

Though interestingly enough, if you lift the U.N. charter, the clean mineral reduction is NOT applied. Apparently planet is a signatory.

[GaioAugusto]

x

[GaioAugusto]

Sorry but the eco-damage formula is not clear.
The guy that understand it, please apply it to this simply example:

Terraforming: 37 (result of improvements worked and don't) / 8 = 4,625
NO Tree farm , NO Hybrid forest

Minerals: 14
NO Centauri Preserve NO Temples of Planet NO Nanoreplicator
NO Atrocities

Eco-Damage = (??DamageFactor?? * 2 (Perihelion) * 22 (Techs) * 1 (Life) * 3 (Difficulty) * 1 (Planet)) / 300

Must return:
Eco-Damage = 1

Thank you very much...

[CEO Aaron]

Oh, god. The formula listed in Ned's article is entirely clear, it's just INCREDIBLY complicated.

I'm not going to waste your time and mine by answering your example. Instead, let me answer your question with a question: Who cares? Do you think the computer's lying to you when you're generating eco-damage? The question of how best to deal with eco-damage has long been settled: either -

a) force a fungal pop before you start building tree farms to raise your clean mineral limit.

b) Build a pollution base whose only purpose is to crank out minerals and generate pollution, and defend it with a handful of trance/empath units to collect huge amounts of credits in the form of planetpearls.

You can use any combination of a and b that you want, but those really are the superior options.

[vyeh]

Originally posted by GaioAugusto
Terraforming: 37 (result of improvements worked and don't) / 8 = 4,625
NO Tree farm , NO Hybrid forest

Minerals: 14
NO Centauri Preserve NO Temples of Planet NO Nanoreplicator
NO Atrocities

Eco-Damage = (??DamageFactor?? * 2 (Perihelion) * 22 (Techs) * 1 (Life) * 3 (Difficulty) * 1 (Planet)) / 300

Must return:
Eco-Damage = 1

Cleanmins1 = 4,625
Cleanmins2 = 16 - 4,625 = 11,375
Goodfacs = 0

DamageFactor = Int {[4,625 - 4,625] + [(14 - 11,375 + 5 *0)/(1 + 0)]} = Int {[0]+[(2,625)/1]} = Int {0 + 2,625} = 2

Eco-Damage = (2 * 2 * 22 * 1 * 3 * 1)/300 = 264/300, which rounds up to 1.

Note that if your base had been producing only 12 minerals, DamageFactor = 0. If your base is producing 13 minerals, DamageFactor = 1 and Eco-Damage = 132/300. I believe you round it up to get 1.