MOO2 General tips and pointers, specific play advice

[siron]

"I am not sure I follow the logic. AF and Robo will add nothing to the pop growth."

The pop growth generated by housing surely depends on your production on that planet. With autofacts and robos u have 400-500k (or even slightly more) per turn.
The 100k no big deal then.

[vmxa1]

Well I tested it and it did nothing to pop growth? I had a 1 pop newly founded planet. It was 63K. I added an AF, no change. I add a robo, no change.

Wait, I may have forgotten put it on housing. I am not in a position (read to lazy) to go back and check.

[siron]

I talk about 1 pop housing planets.

So putting this planet on housing might be necessary to check my comments. ;D

(Otherwise they dont add anything.....that's clear.)

[vmxa1]

Ok, I got back to test it out.

Unitol +P LHW huge impossilble 8 players

small planet with AF + robo 1 pop housing UR normal G 218K
Huge HG 1 pop housing AF + robo 207K

The small drops to 76K if trade goods.
Huge goes to 115K.

So a cloner is close to that and you would have it long before you get those robominers. Especially in a game where you figure to not having many pop on research. Mostly letting the RL do the work while you expand.

[siron]

Once again, I talk about 1pop housing planets. Just 1 pop unit at this planet at housing! (No farmers, no natives and no scientists.) This is important.
Therefore i mentioned it......that the maximum of the basis growth rate at a 50% full planet is not that important.

U havent mentioned the climate of your planets. But the above mentioned 76k number implies there was more than 1pop unit on your planet.

I know the pop growth formula and i can give u the numbers....

for example. if we talk about uni tol and a small arid ur ng...............9POPmax value there.

42k is the basis growth rate if there is 1 pop unit. (see above mentioned formula)

just housing 277 k
with autofacts 378 k
and robos 596 k <------ this number seems pretty efficient. And so far i havent seen a race that has this number at a 50% full planet. And this is just the comment....i made at start.

cloners would add even furhter 100k sure..... but soil is in almost any game the better choice for uni tol. (uni aqua has no food problem and prefers cloners but uni aqua is even with cloners not that efficient.....because of fewer 1pop housing planets...)

[vmxa1]

Yeah, I think there was natives on one of them. After the first three systems, I do not bother to ship pop off to other worlds.

You just don't need it in an SP game. I already said I agree you would not use cloners with this race or probably any race other than creative, as you would not even have that tech. Maybe some aqua/sub type.

If you have a lot of radiated planets, you may find you cannot afford to even have them grow at full measure. I have run into problems with feeding them before terraforming.


Anyway at the point where I have half a dozen system, I will want to keep putting structures down and not wait for housing.
They will need AF, Robo, RL at least and soon SB as I will need the CP's, if not the defense.

[Tiemler]

Just did a test out of curiosity. Set up two prewarp games with custom races.

Game 1 - Unitol +P LHW

Game 2 - Uni Aqua Artifacts LHW RHW +50% Pop

Negative picks in both cases were the usual Repulsive, -10 GC, -20 SD.

In both games, my approach was as follows, switching all non-farming population between research and industry...

research Electronic Computer and Research Lab
build Research Lab
research Reinforced Hull and Automated Factories
build Automated Factories
build Freighter Fleet
build Colony Base

In game 1, using Unitol, these goals were accomplished by turn 41, and my homeworld was at 12 population.

In game 2, using Uni Aqua, these goals were accomplished by turn 29, and my homeworld was at 12 population. By turn 41, Uni Aqua had built two colony bases, was at 14 population on the HW, and 2 pop on the colonies, and was 5 turns away from completing a Colony Ship.

In a subsequent test, Unitol was sped up considerably on the building of a colony base by skipping the research into Reinforced Hull and Automated Factories. It established a colony on turn 30, but with a lot less research done and just 10 population on the HW. Not having AF to build first thing on a new Rich colony really bites

I'm aware that this is no indication of how rapidly these races will expand throughout a Huge galaxy where homeworld attributes diminish in significance, but this seems like a substantial enough difference to give a Uni Aqua an advantage against Unitol as it expands.

[vmxa1]

The unitol will likely not research, but go straight for the CB. Get some RP out of timing switches and eventually getting RL's.

[siron]

Try uni aqua 2prod instead of art hw and pop growth (or 1prod and growth is also nice). It is even better and has good chances to compete in pre warp.

But vmxa is right. Uni races should build colony bases first.....before they even start to research.

"You just don't need it in an SP game."

You need almost nothing in an SP game. Thats the problem.

[Zoetrope]

Natives have zero growth, and handicap both the (natural and the industrially enhanced) growth of every other species on the planet (except Androids put in the Build Queue).

For fast growth, clear every slower-growing species off the planet.

With Deep Core Mines, Robo-Miners, Autofactories, and most species (except natives and Androids), a half-filled planet on Housing grows at over 1000k per turn.

[Aabraxan]

Originally posted by vmxa1
The unitol will likely not research, but go straight for the CB. Get some RP out of timeing switches and eventually getting RL's.

I've seen a number of comments like this one, and I just want to see if I'm understanding correctly. Do most of you move all (non-farming) colonists to production, then switch all colonists to research until X,Y, or Z is discovered, then back to production? As is probably obvious from the question, this isn't what I've done in the past.

[Garth Vader]

I don't, but then I don't play unitol very often. Unitol doesn't have to worry about the pollution hit by switching to all production.

[vmxa1]

Originally posted by Zoetrope

With Deep Core Mines, Robo-Miners, Autofactories, and most species (except natives and Androids), a half-filled planet on Housing grows at over 1000k per turn.

True, but if I have Deep Core built on a planet, I doubt that I am going to be housing any longer on that planet.

AF, Robo, RL is about all I would build on a housing planet.

[vmxa1]

Originally posted by GameGeek

I've seen a number of comments like this one, and I just want to see if I'm understanding correctly. Do most of you move all (non-farming) colonists to production, then switch all colonists to research until X,Y, or Z is discovered, then back to production? As is probably obvious from the question, this isn't what I've done in the past.

I would always leave 1 pop on industry. I may monitor close enough to switch individual pop between industry and sciences to correspond to completion of the build.

IOW if I am making a colony base and it wil be done the next turn, I maybe able to move one or more workers to science and still finish the build next turn.

Conversely, I maybe be able to shift some pop from research to industry and still get the break through next turn.

I tend to slack off this later. This is for all races.

[siron]

"With Deep Core Mines, Robo-Miners, Autofactories, and most species (except natives and Androids), a half-filled planet on Housing grows at over 1000k per turn."

When u reply to my comment that i just saw lower growht rates at 50% full planets i actually meant that there were no housing on such a 50% full planet. Housing at a 50% full planets is inefficient (see my numbers at bottom). Further, you have simply no time
to research deep core mines in MP-Games. (You are twice dead then....there are no attractive wartechs after robos.) I actually NEVER researched them
in 1.31 or 1.4 multiplayer. Just in some modded games where faster teching is possible.

So let us look again at my above-mentioned example.

ur ng small arid 9popmax.

With deep core mines:
1pop housing gives 932k
4 pop housing 858k
5 pop housing 821k

Completely inefficient.

To generate more pop at the 50%-level we need a medium planet then (13popmax):
1pop housing still gives 932k
6pop housing 960k
7pop housing 939k
There is a SLIGHTLY increase.....but i guess that you will agree....that it is still inefficient. So you better use such planets for prod (mentioned already by vmxa) if u cant transfer pop to other systems....so that 1pop housing is still possible.