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Author Topic:   Boreholes, Condensors, Echelon mirrors, Help ME!!
mindwormh8er posted 07-14-99 06:31 PM ET   Click Here to See the Profile for mindwormh8er  
What do all these things do?
Krushala posted 07-14-99 06:36 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for Krushala  Click Here to Email Krushala     
Boreholes 6 minerals 6 energy 0 nutrients not including any bonus' the square has

condensor +1 nutrient for that square

echelon mirror +1 energy to solar collectors adjacent to the mirror.

I think this is correct. I only build boreholes.

Resource Consumer posted 07-14-99 06:39 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for Resource Consumer  Click Here to Email Resource Consumer     
The obvious thing to say is read the manual.

However, given the manual is less than explanatory on a number of points then I won't make myself look bad by saying so,

They help you in various ways, but during the game the datalinks function is pretty useful. So give the old F1 a try and it might clue you in.

Then, come back with a few suggestions and we could have a discussion about the merits of various strategies, supply crawlers, big bases v small bases. The day to day bread and butter of forum life in fact.

Resource Consumer posted 07-14-99 06:42 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for Resource Consumer  Click Here to Email Resource Consumer     
Krushala,

Without the manual (Ha ha, and I'm at work anyway - slave labour), I seem to recall that condensors have some beneficial impact on adjoining squares not just the square that they're built in.

Maybe it's a matter of raising the moisture score by one?

itdoesntfit posted 07-14-99 07:54 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for itdoesntfit    
Resource Consumer is right. And plus using condensors will greatly give you a great farming bonuses. I hardly place echelon mirrors, only boreholes and condensors.
VictorK posted 07-14-99 09:17 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for VictorK    
Don't trust the manual or datalinks. Condensors (and soil enrichers) give +50% nutrient bonus to a square (rounded down), not +1.

Examples:

A rainy square with farm, enricher, and condensor gives you 6 nutrients (not 5): rainy/farm gives 3, enricher +50% (rounded down) gives 4, then condensor +50% gives 6.

A rainy square with nutrient bonus and farm, enricher and condensor gives 10 nutrients (not 7): rainy/farm/nutrient bonus gives 5, enricher +50% gives 7, then condensor +50% gives 10.

BTW, echelon mirrors are quite useful if you're more concerned with energy than minerals. You can generally get more energy from E-mirrors than from forests (even with hybrid forests).

NoMercy posted 07-14-99 09:21 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for NoMercy  Click Here to Email NoMercy     
Time for me to make a rare post.

Boreholes,Echelon mirrors, crawlers and forests should be the staple of most builder strategies.

Boreholes for the minerals!

Echelon Mirrors to create mirror parks (see plenty of other threads). But suffice to say your science city with a 30 crawler mirror park will generate more research than the rest of your cities combined. (especially with Supercollider and Theory of Everything SPs ).

Forests: +3+3+2 (or might be +3+3+3) for each forest with Tree Farm and Hybrid. Plus they grow on their own and hold their own against fungus.

My two cents.

JayPegg posted 07-14-99 09:49 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for JayPegg  Click Here to Email JayPegg     
Amen to that!

E-mirrors and energy farms are the backbone of tech cities. There are some nice theards about tech cities with borehole energy(with supply crawllers)and energy farms, the best combination. try it, and laugh at your opponates when your getting 5000 tech per turn (bhwa-ha-ha).

Screw forests! When Im getting 4 nuts and 4 energy per square, I don't care about that loss of minerals.

I thought that condensers and enrichers gave +1, not 50%. Im I drunk??

~kelso

laurens posted 07-14-99 09:56 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for laurens  Click Here to Email laurens     
They caused too much eco-damage...

Usually put them in squares out of the city's radius and ask crawlers to get the supply for me

VictorK posted 07-15-99 04:18 AM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for VictorK    
Actually it may not be a good idea to have a "science city with 30 crawler mirror park"... When a tech is discovered any surplus labs from a single base is not carried over. Say if your current tech needs 2000 labs remaining, it makes no difference whether your "science city" is producing 2000 or 5000 labs a turn: you get the one tech, and the labs required for the next tech has to be accumulated from other bases. So if you aim to get multiple techs per turn, it is better to try to spread your labs production around your bases.

Another point worth mentioning is that energy collected by crawlers doesn't contribute to commerce (only energy collected by workers does). So for bases that receive commerce (the number of such bases depends on the number of bases your pacted/treatied factions have), it is better to try to make more energy (boreholes/e-mirrors/rivers) from within the base radius using workers.

Dman37 posted 07-15-99 09:22 AM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for Dman37  Click Here to Email Dman37     
Hmm...never used supply crawlers before. I've always tried to make each of my bases self supporting. Is it actually a good idea to have science bases, food bases and the like?

laurens posted 07-15-99 10:03 AM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for laurens  Click Here to Email laurens     
Thanks for adding that, VictorK

I knew something was amiss ..

But then, I like to preserve the environment till the Transcendence part

Dman37: Like the secret projects, crawlers come in especially useful in the early game to give a fast headstart, whether they are convoying nutrients,mineral alike...

LoD posted 07-15-99 11:02 AM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for LoD  Click Here to Email LoD     
VictorK: AFAIR condensors just increase the rainfall on the square there built on and all adjacent to it. They also count as a farm on the square they are on.

LoD

absimiliard posted 07-15-99 11:15 AM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for absimiliard  Click Here to Email absimiliard     
Hail all.

VictorK: I thought research DID carry over. Are you sure about that?

All others. Something interesting I noticed once. I was closely watching my building of a condensor and lo and behold it did not behave the way I thought. It raised the moisture level of several squares but the squares were not the ones immediately around the condensor. Some of them were immediate neighbors, but some of them were further downwind. So the condensor seemed to spread the moisture in accordance to the W->E wind patterns.

Anyone else seen this? Did I just get a weirdness? (It was weird seeing an arid spot immediately to the W of my condensor)

Absimiliard Nova Cat

Earwicker posted 07-15-99 01:44 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for Earwicker  Click Here to Email Earwicker     
Boreholes can also change rainy-ness on adjacent squares. Not sure of the parameters (there was another thread on this last week, don't remember quite where).
Earwicker posted 07-15-99 01:57 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for Earwicker  Click Here to Email Earwicker     
Boreholes can also change rainy-ness on adjacent squares. Not sure of the parameters (there was another thread on this last week, don't remember quite where).
Earwicker posted 07-15-99 01:57 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for Earwicker  Click Here to Email Earwicker     
Got the hiccups. Apologies.
VictorK posted 07-15-99 06:50 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for VictorK    
LOD: Condensers give +50% nutrient bonus (rounded down) to that square, AND increase moisture level on that square and nearby squares (not necessarily only adjacent squares). Condensers do NOT count as farms; they can be built on top of farms, and farms give +1 nutrient, not +50%. See my examples above. You can easily verify it yourself.

absimiliard: Yes, I am pretty sure about that. Research doesn't carry over for a single base. So if your next tech requires just 10 labs remaining to discover, your 5000 labs science city will be a total waste (for that turn anyway). It does carry over for multiple bases though, that's why you cansometimes get multiple techs per turn. But you'll get that more often if you spread the labs production around.

You're right, condensers tend to spread the moisture according to the W->E wind patterns.

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