MOO2 General tips and pointers, specific play advice

[Aabraxan]

No apology necessary. I've seen a number of things on these boards that, by now, I should have been aware of, but wasn't.

[Tiemler]

BTW: I'm not an Aqua specialist, but I have the feeling that hydro is a waste of time/money/prod. Hydro produces only 2 food, it's less than an Aqua farmer.

Playing a non-Creative race, I never choose Hydros over Biospheres, and playing a non-Cybernetic race, I never build them.

tack feudal onto lith/creative if you are having trouble building ships, but you do take quite a research hit for that.

Feudal looks even worse when you treat it like a baseline and then compare it to Unification. You'd basically spend 10 picks to get +100% research, +50% food, and +50% production. That's more than worth the cost in picks, and the "penalty" of paying 50% more for your (much more effective) ships.

In short, take Feudal only if all other attempts at losing a game of MOO2 have failed because you're too studly for your own good.

[Aabraxan]

I like capturing certain races to use for, well, breeding purposes, and then transporting those pop units to my other planets to expand pop capacity, especially Sakkra, Silicoids, and Trilarians (for obvious reasons). Does anyone happen to know whether cloning centers placed on a planet prior to complete assimilation will produce assimilated or conquered pop units?

[Aabraxan]

Also, does anyone know when captured races retain their race-specific bonuses? It's apparent that the Trils, Silicoids and Saks keep their respective pop bonuses. But I've never really been able to tell, for example, if the Klacks keep their production bonuses or if I get any boost from capturing the (telephathic) Elerians, such as diplomatic or spy bonuses, or, for that matter, if captured Psilons really make better researchers than anyone else. I've typically just gone ahead and captured all species, because capture is just faster than breeding new pop units. Any insights here?

[vmxa1]

I tend to not use captured pop if I am using a strong race. That is because I choose good traits in the first place.

If I want to up pop allowed, then I will send over a Sak or some max pop race. I do not use Klac for traits, just kill them. Once I go into capture or raze planets, I am in command anyway.

[Garth Vader]

You get the +food, ind, res bonuses, but not anything like spy, tele, or GC bonuses.

I always like capturing sillicoid planets because they are tolerant.

[Aabraxan]

Originally posted by Garth Vader
You get the +food, ind, res bonuses, but not anything like spy, tele, or GC bonuses.

I always like capturing sillicoid planets because they are tolerant.

Any idea on pop bonuses? I like to use the Saks where feasible (non-toxic worlds), but I'm curious as to whether they continue to breed like rabbits after capture & relocation.

[Garth Vader]

Yeah they still do.

[Aabraxan]

Thanks for the info, everyone. One more population growth question, though: Does climate affect rate of growth, or just pop capacity on a planet?

[siron]

"Thanks for the info, everyone. One more population growth question, though: Does climate affect rate of growth, or just pop capacity on a planet?"

Not directly....

Climate affects the pop capacity......
and the pop capacity (POP max) affects the growth rate.

But 2 planets with same pop capacity have the same growth rate.

The "basis" growth rate is:

[2000*POP*(POPmax-POP)/POPmax]^0.5

This value is always rounded down.

[Aabraxan]

Originally posted by siron
"Thanks for the info, everyone. One more population growth question, though: Does climate affect rate of growth, or just pop capacity on a planet?"

Not directly....

Climate affects the pop capacity......
and the pop capacity (POP max) affects the growth rate.

But 2 planets with same pop capacity have the same growth rate.

The "basis" growth rate is:

[2000*POP*(POPmax-POP)/POPmax]^0.5

This value is always rounded down.

So as planets approach max cap, growth slows?

[siron]

Yes. Growth slows down then.
the maximum of the basis growth rate is at a 50% full planet.

But be aware that 1pop-housing planets are pretty efficient.

[vmxa1]

If they have cloners, they can be.

[siron]

Dont think that cloners are an big issue here.

I just wanted to add that 1pop housing is almost for every good race more efficient than growth via growth picks at 50% full planets.
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Uni tol which rarely take cloners has often dozens 1pop planets early on. With autofacts and robos these planets are surely pretty efficient. When I find some nice 3-5 planet systems in my corner I have often 160-200 pop at turn 100.

Uni aqua takes often cloners but has less housing planets. With cloners I have sometimes 140-180 pop at turn 100. But this largely depends on the number of wet planets. So even with cloners it rarely can compete.

And if we talk about non prod races. Cloners eats a lot of prod and time. Often the simple autofacts-robos solution is there preferred too.

[vmxa1]

I am not sure I follow the logic. AF and Robo will add nothing to the pop growth. The will add to the production, but really you will not have them on the early planets right away.

The cloner gives +100K to growth, not going to improve upon that with an AF.

Now I agree that I won't have the cloner as a Uni Tol or probably any race other than a creative. I prefer to 1 pop house unil my HW is up to speed. I will add AF and RL on the housing planets as well.

Non cloners are going to be 43k to about 67k without the 100k cloner. So you will at least double the speed. If you intend to pop other planets from their, it is surely a good investment. Triples the growth of some races on some planets (43k vs 143k).