Thermal boreholes on nutrient bonus squares?

[jez9999]

Am I correct in thinking that, once you build a thermal borehole somewhere, it ALWAYS gives 0nut/6min/6nrg no matter what (assuming restrictions are lifted)? I built a borehole on a nutrient bonus square, and even though once it was built the square info still said "nutrient bonus", the square gave me zero nutrients.

[waab]

Am I correct in thinking that, once you build a thermal borehole somewhere, it ALWAYS gives 0nut/6min/6nrg no matter what (assuming restrictions are lifted)? I built a borehole on a nutrient bonus square, and even though once it was built the square info still said "nutrient bonus", the square gave me zero nutrients.

Yes borehole always gives /0/6/6 but why would you build a borehole on a nutrient bonus square? Was it a rocky square? Because even if you got 2/6/6 from the nutrian square it would still be wasteful use of that square.

[jez9999]

If you say so.

[Elok]

He has a point: boreholes should be built on crap squares, since they produce the same resources whether they're built on a desert or the monsoon jungle. If you build them on energy or mineral-rich squares, they'll produce one extra point of the relevant resource, but that's about it. Now, maybe the nutrient square was the only one that fit the slope requirements for that city, who knows, but generally you shouldn't borehole good farming squares.

[Lord Avalon]

I'm going to disagree slightly with Elok. While I wouldn't build a borehole on a square with a bonus, if you're alternating farms/condensers with boreholes, some borehole squares will probably be farmable.

[waab]

I'm going to disagree slightly with Elok. While I wouldn't build a borehole on a square with a bonus, if you're alternating farms/condensers with boreholes, some borehole squares will probably be farmable.

Agree. A couple of boreholes is always nice so sometimes you have to use farmable land.

If you say so.

Mayby I should have explained better. As you said if Boreholes wasn't always a 0/6/6 square you would have gained 2 nutrian doing what you wanted to do. If that nutrian bonus square was farmable, with farm + condensor whould result in a square with 7 nutrians. Thats enough for two workers which means that you could have two boreholes active.

[the_rest]

You can get 0-8-8 with borehole

Yes if the square has minerals bonus and a river, and you have +2economy.

[magic9mushroom]

To clarify; boreholes give 0-6-6 and are only modified by:

1) Mineral or energy resources, which give +2 as usual and lift restrictions;
2) Rivers, which give +1 energy as usual but are swallowed by the borehole (ie, they don't continue into any more squares);
3) +2 ECON, Merchant Exchange, and other globals (e.g. random event industrial bust which decreases minerals by 1).

Everything else has absolutely no effect on borehole production; both fungus and forest can expand into borehole squares but neither affects production (they still count for other purposes, though, forest mitigates ecodamage for instance).

EDIT: Oh, there was one thing I forgot. If, for whatever reason, you build a base on a borehole, the borehole is ignored. Dunno why you'd do that, though.

EDIT 2: Oh, and landmarks also count if they boost minerals or energy.

[CEO Aaron]

IMO, the reason you don't want to build a borehole on a nut bonus square is because you want to condenser/farm/crawl your nutrient bonus squares far, far earlier, since they bypass resource caps, normally not lifted until you research gene splicing.

[Whoha]

IMO, the reason you don't want to build a borehole on a nut bonus square is because you want to condenser/farm/crawl your nutrient bonus squares far, far earlier, since they bypass resource caps, normally not lifted until you research gene splicing.

Condensers already bust the cap anyway I think.

[CEO Aaron]

Condensers already bust the cap anyway I think.

Yes, you're right, but the point is that at no point do you not simply want to crawl a nut bonus square.

[Guynemer]

This is all a bit complicated for me. I'm more of a forest-and-forget-it type, except for certain special circumstances.

[CEO Aaron]

This is all a bit complicated for me. I'm more of a forest-and-forget-it type, except for certain special circumstances.

Certainly a valid playstyle, and one that will work fine versus the AI, but IMO, the fancy terraforming options are one of the most singular aspects of Alpha Centauri. You won't find anything as cool, flexible and engaging in any other Civ-like title. With slightly more investment into formers, and a bit of planning, you can make a highly concentrated income powerhouse out of every base. Yes, you could theoretically expand and control more space with a sparse forest-and-forget strategy, but the trouble there is that your production capacity becomes diffuse, you lose more resources to inefficiency, and of course the larger territory is harder to defend. This is especially relevant if you're trying to do a builder-strategy, where you don't want to divert from building facilities to produce a large military.

[Elok]

I kinda wish there were a way to exploit the fungus (productively) earlier. The way it becomes better over time until eventually it's about as good as forest with farms and hybrids...that's cool, but all it means, in my experience, is that you can pretty much ignore end-game fungal blooms, especially if you're Deirdre (IIRC it's slightly better in one way and slightly worse in another, if you're her). Also, it eventually becomes a nice alternative to farming & harnessing every damn water tile, since you get some minerals out of it. Yay, less monotonous water bases!

[CEO Aaron]

I think it would get too powerful if someone had better fungus harvesting than Deirdre. Fungus is meant to be an obstacle to terraforming, and as it is, it's already a huge source of free cash or units, if you work it right. Forget direct working of fungus squares, just get a river through a fungus valley, then start patrolling a trance recon rover over it. If your planet rating isn't complete bunk (ie, running free market), you'll be popping worms for planet pearls in bulk. With a single nearby artillery, you can even crush worms without much investment in planet rating.

Late-game, nutrients are the ultimate resource, thanks to specialists and satellites. Even before mining sats, you only need a borehole or two to feed your base's mineral requirements. 2 boreholes plus recycling tanks is 14 minerals, enough to support 4 units beyond your support rating, and still pay down the 10 mineral minimum for rush-building whatever you want. So rock nutrient and credit production, and buy your production. It's more micromanagement-intensive, but is virtually pollution free, and far, far more efficient than mining anyway.