Tectonic payload and Morganite advice

[rod87]

Here's one. Not sure if it's being updated, though.

That's just the one I was referring to. I couldn't find much info but I hope it gets completed, it would be handier than reading a whole guide or trying to look for key words.

Thanks to all!

[the_rest]

guys I think University is way better then morgan, when it comes to energy credits. Cause you want 3 economy, so each base square gets +5 energy (and each worked square +1 energy, too). But from free market you have plenty of drones in transcend! so you can just build the Virtual World and all those bad drones go away. A huge bonus! Also the Human Genome project helps alot.

But you could play Free Drones or Peacekeepers for less drones from the start ...

when it comes to energy credits, you shouldn't only consider the economy bonus. you should consider everything overall, like growth, which leads you to more people working more squares, (Deirdre with supply crawlers at fungus squares has plenty of food to grow), or industry for cheaper rush cost, or support for bigger armies with no mineral penalty. Example the spartans have more police units, and with Police state they support them well. Or, the Hive has a hidden bonus: no energy loss to inefficiency, so you can go around with Police state and Planned with no bad consequences to research and credits!

Using credits to capture bases or enemy units is simply not rentable. Is just a waste, cause you can build 3-4 rovers with impact lasers and capture that base for the same cost, then assault other bases with those units and it costs you nothing.

[rod87]

The main reason why I chose to start out with the Morganites is that energy can be used for many things, and while the Hive has the industry bonus, the Believers better probes, and the University better research, you can still rush key productions, bribe armies and cities, and put more money into research than the University can. I was just curious to see just how flexible the Morganites were.

I've tried them, then the Peacekeepers, and then the Spartans, and so far Morgan has been the most convincing for me, but I would still like to try out the Gaians.

By the way, in my Spartan game I got to the Monsoon Jungle. I already knew that those tiles give a nutrient bonus, but when I tried to plant a forest on a Monsoon tile which already had nutrient bonus (those green plants), my food production in that tile went from 5 to 4 in that base. Is it worth it to just spread forests and wait for tree farms and hybrid forests? Or should I build farms? What else could I build in the jungle that wouldn't hamper its food production? I tried to consult the Datalinks searching for info on the Monsoon Jungle as a landmark, and its bonuses, but couldn't find it in "All Categories". Is it somewhere in the Datalinks?

[the_rest]

What do you know, I also played SMACX, and the best money I got was with University. On transcend. Boy I sure rocked the place! Only thing that the other factions could build was The Merchant Exchange and now, in my latest game, somehow the Gaians built the Weather Paradigm ... bastards, I think they got forests from their first supply pod.

Having everything automated is noobs. You are a noob. Only difficulty worth is transcend wtf! check my thread about 'best strategy ever'.

I create a thread about terraforming check it out! there I will say what to put in jungles.

[CEO Aaron]

The Rest, there's no call to be abusive when someone comes asking for help. Thanks. Also, the AI in SMAX is so pitiful, even beating it at Transcend is nothing to boast about.

That said, yes, automating your bases and terraformers will deliver mediocre results at best. If you have any desire to master the game at higher difficulty levels, you'll need to personally direct your bases' production and units. It's not that bad, really, just make good use of build queues to keep bases busy, and do a check at the end of each turn to make sure every base is building something useful. As for terraformers, many, many threads have reviewed the various strengths and weaknesses of terraforming strategies. Suffice to say that if you build 2 formers per base and keep them busy improving tiles, you won't go too far wrong.

Morgan is the one faction whose weaknesses can entirely vanish by late-game, leaving only strengths:

Weakness 1: Lower support -
This is the one most new players seem to have trouble with. Paying extra minerals to support your units might seem crippling at first, but in point of fact, the extra energy income Morgan enjoys more than makes up for losing a paltry bit of mineral production, and by mid-game, the extra money far exceeds the mineral production tax of low support.

Weakness 2: Tighter Hab limits -
This is Morgan's real weakness, bases are capped at 3 lower population than other factions, capping their size at 4/11 instead of 7/14. But once you research Super Tensile Solids at Build 10, the limitation completely vanishes.

Weakness 3: Can't run Planned Economy -
This last one means that above a certain number of bases, it is impossible to pop-boom Morgan without building the Human Genome project, due to a game glitch which prevents spending more on psych than double the total number of denizens in a base. However, the construction of the cloning vats will put your empire in a permanent state of population boom, rendering this limitation entirely irrelevant as well.

Properly run, no faction can produce as much money and research as Morgan Industries can.

[Elok]

While we're talking Morgan, is Free Market all that advisable for him? I'm playing him now with Wealth, which gives me the extra trade per square. All FM would get me beyond that is a commerce bonus, which sounds nice but not at the cost of a -2 bajillion police rating. I've got Miriam and Santiago right next door, I'm close to getting clean reactors but that won't do me much good if I can't move the damned troops out of base. Plus the planet rating, which seems to do a bunch of things in addition to what the Datalinks so vaguely mention (is there an *exact* breakdown of what each SE factor does somewhere?). Instead I'm running Green to keep myself from losing that extra trade, and to get better returns on my 60% labs. The growth problem hardly matters until I get all those hab complexes built/bought.

[BlackCat]

Have you checked the Advanced Concepts under datalinks ? Society Effects are also worth a look.

[Elok]

Yeah, I've looked at both of those, but I know I've read mentions, both here and in Vel's guide, of effects not mentioned in either, especially WRT Planet rating. For example, someone implied that a low planet rating gives you a disadvantage in combat with worms, and the game says your Planet rating determines movement rate through fungus--but how much? Also, the Datalinks are not the most reliable source in the first place; they imply that boreholes, etc. will directly cause ecological repercussions, which is apparently not true.

[BlackCat]

Yeah, that was stupid of me - you have of course read that.

Wrt. Planet and movement, I think it's probabilistic - if say a scout fails to enter a fungus tile, it might do it after reload - better planet, higher chance of entering.

Wrt. boreholes - where does the datalinks claim that there are direct ecological repercussions ? They claim that they have a "significant negative ecological impact" - having same effect as nine roads could be called significant

[Petek]

Planet rating affects the attacker, but not the defender, in psi combat. A positive rating gives you an attack bonus and a negative rating an attack penalty. I think the bonus/penalty is 10% for each level of Planet rating. Also, a higher Planet rating makes it more probable that a unit will enter a fungus tile (land only -- units always enter sea fungus tiles) and a lower rating has the opposite effect. I can't recall that anyone has ever calculated the exact odds. Boreholes do cause ecodamage, at least before Hybrid Forests. If you have a base that's producing, say, 15 mins and then work a borehole (sending the mineral production over 16), you should see ecodamage, absent other factors.

[BlackCat]

Sure, working a borehole can do bad things, but the mere existence do also have influence but on line with other terraformings - it does not have a special effect as such.

[rod87]

Planet rating affects the attacker, but not the defender, in psi combat. A positive rating gives you an attack bonus and a negative rating an attack penalty.

If that's true then running Free Market or playing as Miriam is not so bad. I thought it affected both attack and defence...?

[Petek]

If that's true then running Free Market or playing as Miriam is not so bad. I thought it affected both attack and defence...?

Yep, pretty sure that Planet rating only affects attacks (with psi combat). IIRC, this didn't become known until after the game was out for several years. You should be able to verify this by examining the display that appears at the bottom of the screen whenever combat takes place. It shows the various factors that affect combat.

[Elok]

Wrt. boreholes - where does the datalinks claim that there are direct ecological repercussions ? They claim that they have a "significant negative ecological impact" - having same effect as nine roads could be called significant

I didn't know improvements had any effect at all (I hadn't noticed one). I thought it was a matter of having production over 15, or more depending on planet rating, the presence of forests, and facilities like tree farms or preserves. I mean, I had global warming issues during my last game (with Deirdre, ironically), but I figured that had less to do with my extensive terraforming itself than with the way most of my cities were working two or three boreholes apiece...all that production adds up.

Anyway, is there a good reason to run FM with Morgan? Green seems like a better bargain, all in all. The extra efficiency is great for getting the most out of the bonus energy he gets from Wealth alone, and that police penalty is just brutal. Plus I hate fungal blooms.

In general, Morgan kicks ass, though. If only he could pop boom worth a damn...

[BlackCat]

Elok, didn't you claim that you had read the Datalinks - Advanced Concepts ? It's explicitly stated that improvements has an effect.

Honestly, I haven't a clue wether FM is good or not - there are schools here that claims it's the magic wand, but I really haven't figured out why - to me it's disastrous