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Author Topic:   How to place Boreholes?
itdoesntfit posted 07-14-99 07:02 PM ET   Click Here to See the Profile for itdoesntfit  

I keep getting people like Gaia who like to keep ecological bonuses. Is it okay to put 4-5 boreholes per city?
NoMercy posted 07-14-99 09:27 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for NoMercy  Click Here to Email NoMercy     
My advice is one or two per city and make sure they are outside the city radius (use supply crawlers to harvest minerals).

i) 6 Boreholes with all of the city enhancements = HUGE eco damage = HUGE stacks of mindworms (I've seen stacks with over 25!) (But sometimes that's good too because of all the energy you get when killing them )

ii) You waste a city square that could otherwise be producing nutrients. More nutrients = bigger pop.

My two cents

itdoesntfit posted 07-14-99 09:36 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for itdoesntfit    
If you place soldiers around your city radius can you still get hit by the ecological disastrous mind worms?
SMAniaC posted 07-18-99 01:21 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for SMAniaC  Click Here to Email SMAniaC     
I'll explain my whole terraforming paradigm, so you'll keep your ****ing mouth about it.
On all rainy places and moist places above 1000m do Ctrl+Shift+S.
On all the other tiles I plant forest.
On the rocky squares I place Boreholes(if altitude allows it). If not possible I plant fungus on it.
If there aren't enough rainy tiles, I build a Condenser.
Dimension posted 07-18-99 05:15 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for Dimension    
If the altitute doesn't permit boreholes, it only takes about 15-30 credits and a couple turns to lower the terrain, then you can make a hole.

Since you can get the Weather Paradigm very early, and crawlers don't show up until you get the level 3 Industrial Automation, it's not that big a deal to make boreholes inside your city's radius. Besides, you eventually get 6 Energy, 6 Minerals, and Nutrients if it's inside the radius, and if it's outside, you have to just pick one for the crawler to transport.

One time I was playing as Yang and had a city with every improvement and a population of 40 and 9 crawlers going to it, 6 of which were on Boreholes. I wasn't too worried because I had removed ALL fungus on the continent and planted kelp on every square around the continent. I didn't notice the fungus expanding in the water next to my city, then one turn it expanded over the kelp, and my city was completely razed by three waves of 30 Demon Boils. I guess I got what was coming, though, because I think my eco damage was over 140 for decades.

You can get away with 1 or 2 boreholes per city. Setting up several more boreholes around one or two cities is actually a hell of a strategy if you're playing the Gaians, though. I regularly get 470 credits from mindworms at those cities. You probably want to have the 75% mindworm capture from Green or Cybernetic before you try.

Of course, when you've got the +9 Efficiency that the Gaians can get, you don't exactly have to worry about cash.

Aredhran posted 07-19-99 04:11 AM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for Aredhran  Click Here to Email Aredhran     
"Besides, you eventually get 6 Energy, 6 Minerals, and Nutrients if it's inside the radius"

Since when do Boreholes produce nutrients ?

Aredhran
-just curious-

Resource Consumer posted 07-19-99 04:56 AM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for Resource Consumer  Click Here to Email Resource Consumer     
I think they do over here.
SMAniaC posted 07-19-99 08:59 AM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for SMAniaC  Click Here to Email SMAniaC     
I also change altitude to place Boreholes but I'm not gonna type 5 pages dedicated to all the exceptoins I make on my 'terraform paradigm'.
Other question. Have you ever seen the AI making Boreholes?
Nell_Smith posted 07-19-99 12:32 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for Nell_Smith  Click Here to Email Nell_Smith     
SMAniaC:
Yes, when I play on a Huge map and don't meet the AI factions until late in the game, I often find that Yang, in particular, has covered his terrain with boreholes, not to mention roads, condensers, magtubes etc. As I've mentioned before, he seems to manage all this with about two formers, so they must be on some serious overtime!!

In my own games, I rarely find that I need to build boreholes, as plenty of forests and the odd mine here and there seem to provide enough minerals to keep a decent flow of troops going. I don't like the time boreholes take to build (if I do use them, I stack three or four formers to get the thing done) and I also don't like the eco-damage.

Nell

SMAniaC posted 07-19-99 01:13 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for SMAniaC  Click Here to Email SMAniaC     
In my latest game on a huge map Yang began indeed to build a Borehole, but he declared vendetta so I destroyed his former.
For long time I thought also that Boreholes were to expensive to build, but since I built the Weather Paradigm I make perhaps 20 Boreholes per game. They are really worth it. Try building WeaPar!
Nell_Smith posted 07-19-99 03:10 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for Nell_Smith  Click Here to Email Nell_Smith     
SMAniaC:
Good point... in solo play I always get the W.Paradigm (it's one of my must-have SPs, along with the Virtual World, seeing as I play UoP, and the Hunter-Seeker Algorithm, and, if the game goes that far, the Cloning Vats). However, in PBEM, which is the only way I play nowadays, you're up against people who play as well as (or better than) you do, unlike the AI, and so you can't always get all the SPs you'd like. Shame!

Nell

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