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Author Topic:   Morgan Terraforming

Smeagol posted 04-08-99 08:48 PM ET
What is the best terraforming stategy for Morgan? Obviously energy is a major concern, but there are numerous ways to get it, as well as the other resources. I'm looking for strategies for early, mid, and late games. Thanks.
Smeagol posted 04-08-99 08:50 PM ET
Of course I am in fact looking for a "strategy."
Ronbo posted 04-09-99 03:34 AM ET
Early game: find one square in each city radius with a food production of two. Put a farm and a solar collector in this square. Put forests in all other squares. If you locate along a coast (always a good idea), make sure to put kelp and tidal harnesses in all ocean squares. Build as many cities as you can on/near river squares.
Midgame: Build Tree Farms in all cities with forests. Tap aquafers as much as you can-the extra energy produced in each square with a river is a good thing. Consider constucting at least one thermal borehole in each city radius, especially seabases (terraform to create a small island, perhaps), as they are chronically short of mineral resources.
Endgame: Hybrid Forests. 'Nuff said.
dbrodale posted 04-09-99 03:38 AM ET
Depends on the lay of the land, so to speak. Your two main options for terraforming leading to boosted energy production are to (a) drill to a new river from an aquifer; or (b) raise terrain levels to that you get the altitude boost to energy production.
For river drilling, you really want to select the "right" location such that the new river will run a lengthy course to the sea. Done correctly, this can net you an incredible energy gain for each +1 energy along the river's run - and drilling is "free" unlike raise/lower terrain. Note that you can also go back and raise/lower to re-path old rivers as well.
Of course, if you don't have formers free to carry out these tasks, the cheap approach is to build many sea bases, each with as many tidal harnesses as possible. The flat energy gain for each harness is quite a bit given the construction time, and if you underlay each tile with kelp farms, growth rates are pretty phenomenal, as well. The downsiide to this approach is that if you try to maximize energy production on the ocean, it will mean shortchanging mineral production [not sea-based mineral mines] ... leaving you with bases that cannot "throw up" an infrastructure quickly enough to manage burgeoning populations or to get defensive units produced quickly enough to be safe. This leaves one with either "hurrying" production costs whenever possible - which will work for Morgan, given his immense stores of energy - or leaving these bases relatively undefended so that you can concentrate production on infrastructure [to produce talents] rather than defense forces.
I've also found that, in the late game, if your efficiency rating is high enough, throwing sea bases down all over the map, preferably atop "resource bonus" tiles, can quickly generate a lot of energy - even with low pop for each base, they will represent new markets for Morgan, each garnering his economy boosts to energy production. In this way, a lot of bases is better than a few large bases, as you will not have to worry (immediately) about getting the talent-producing structures [hologram theatre, etc.] in place as rapidly.
Note, also, that more bases = more benefit from orbital power transmitters, as the benefit is carried out for each base - this is especially the case if you have the transport SP and space elevator: each new base will start out pop 3 and so, will get +3 energy from your OPTs from teh get go. In the late game, its all about orbital facilities and building a lot of bases - terraforming drops out of the picture because most of it has already been done and/or the time involved is not really worth it, IMHO.
Does any of this fir the bill?
d.brodale
ps Note also that in the early game, since Morgan can only have pop 4 until Hab Complex, it is usu. worth it to spring bases like crazy and place them atop energy bonus tiles, regardless of production radius overlap ... that way, you get the bonus without having to also develop the tile to gain min/nutrients from it [as flat, arid energy bonus tile is not worth time in the early game to terraform into a productive tile].
pps In mid/late, if you haven't a lot of formers roving around to raise land, the best mix for large/developed bases are forests with rivers running through them plus tree farm and hybrid facilites ... you'll get more NRG from high terrain with mirrors, but the forest approach minimizes eco damage and provides a nice balance of resources for your producer bases [the one throwing up OPTs] to work with for the rest of the game.
Smeagol posted 04-09-99 04:44 PM ET
Thanks for the ideas.
I'm playing Morgan with a Green economy, so I get the +2 Planet rating... does this allow me a great deal more ecological destruction such that I can use solar collectors w/ echelon mirrors or is it still advisable to use the forest method? Also, how do forests enhance energy production without the hybrid forest facility?
Ronbo posted 04-09-99 10:13 PM ET
Actually, you will get more energy by using echelon mirrors/solar collectors. However, you will get more TOTAL resources (1 food/2 mineral/1 energy) in a plain-jane square, +2 of the appropriate resource in a special square, with no attendant eco-damage. The extra production will allow more rapid production of facilities that enhance your total output even further (energy bank, the various research facilities). Tree farms and Hybrid forests make forest squares truly outstanding, as they reduce eco-damage further, even as their productivity increases.
Smeagol posted 04-09-99 11:17 PM ET
Having just tried the strategy in a game for about 70 turns, I have to agree with you. I haven't even switched to "wealth" yet (and I don't like free market), and my energy is still amazing! First wealth and hab complexes, then I go crush the hive after some weapons research. And then put the university into eternal servitude... this game is way too easy on librarian level.
Plato90s posted 04-10-99 01:36 AM ET
Actually, putting in Echelon Mirrors is always a good thing. It gets better once you realize that forests does not interfere with the Echelon Mirror or the Moisture Condenser. You can't build a forest on top of one of those or vice versa, but if the square you build the special facilities on isn't rocky, forest can spread into that square. So instead of the Mirror square being dead space, it is part of your forest but still benefits your energy production.
Plato90s posted 04-10-99 01:37 AM ET
To clarify, this is an example
S S S S
F M M City
S S S S
The Solar collectors can benefit from the Mirrors, while the Forest will eventually spread through the two Mirror squares as long as the terrain isn't rocky.
googlie posted 07-09-99 02:37 PM ET

asenaw posted 07-09-99 03:30 PM ET
the strategy i use with morgan is to go with a just a small amount of energy packed basses......like 10-15....... the first thing u wana try and research is industrial automation(?) the one that gives you hab complex.....when u have a couple bases and your infrastructure take your two best bases and get human genome and weather pardagim SPs at all cost....... this way you have to worry about drone riots and also makes it more plausible to free market.....the weather pardigm alows your to build boreholes even if u dotn have ecological enginering(e4).....then u make swiss chesse out of the land around your bases with boreholes and fill it in with forests..... your definatly not going to be a friend of deidre with your 20+ ecological damage per base but who cares:-)
Wanessa Forever
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Author	Topic: Morgan Terraforming
Smeagol	posted 04-08-99 08:48 PM ET What is the best terraforming stategy for Morgan? Obviously energy is a major concern, but there are numerous ways to get it, as well as the other resources. I'm looking for strategies for early, mid, and late games. Thanks.
Smeagol	posted 04-08-99 08:50 PM ET Of course I am in fact looking for a "strategy."
Ronbo	posted 04-09-99 03:34 AM ET Early game: find one square in each city radius with a food production of two. Put a farm and a solar collector in this square. Put forests in all other squares. If you locate along a coast (always a good idea), make sure to put kelp and tidal harnesses in all ocean squares. Build as many cities as you can on/near river squares. Midgame: Build Tree Farms in all cities with forests. Tap aquafers as much as you can-the extra energy produced in each square with a river is a good thing. Consider constucting at least one thermal borehole in each city radius, especially seabases (terraform to create a small island, perhaps), as they are chronically short of mineral resources. Endgame: Hybrid Forests. 'Nuff said.
dbrodale	posted 04-09-99 03:38 AM ET Depends on the lay of the land, so to speak. Your two main options for terraforming leading to boosted energy production are to (a) drill to a new river from an aquifer; or (b) raise terrain levels to that you get the altitude boost to energy production. For river drilling, you really want to select the "right" location such that the new river will run a lengthy course to the sea. Done correctly, this can net you an incredible energy gain for each +1 energy along the river's run - and drilling is "free" unlike raise/lower terrain. Note that you can also go back and raise/lower to re-path old rivers as well. Of course, if you don't have formers free to carry out these tasks, the cheap approach is to build many sea bases, each with as many tidal harnesses as possible. The flat energy gain for each harness is quite a bit given the construction time, and if you underlay each tile with kelp farms, growth rates are pretty phenomenal, as well. The downsiide to this approach is that if you try to maximize energy production on the ocean, it will mean shortchanging mineral production [not sea-based mineral mines] ... leaving you with bases that cannot "throw up" an infrastructure quickly enough to manage burgeoning populations or to get defensive units produced quickly enough to be safe. This leaves one with either "hurrying" production costs whenever possible - which will work for Morgan, given his immense stores of energy - or leaving these bases relatively undefended so that you can concentrate production on infrastructure [to produce talents] rather than defense forces. I've also found that, in the late game, if your efficiency rating is high enough, throwing sea bases down all over the map, preferably atop "resource bonus" tiles, can quickly generate a lot of energy - even with low pop for each base, they will represent new markets for Morgan, each garnering his economy boosts to energy production. In this way, a lot of bases is better than a few large bases, as you will not have to worry (immediately) about getting the talent-producing structures [hologram theatre, etc.] in place as rapidly. Note, also, that more bases = more benefit from orbital power transmitters, as the benefit is carried out for each base - this is especially the case if you have the transport SP and space elevator: each new base will start out pop 3 and so, will get +3 energy from your OPTs from teh get go. In the late game, its all about orbital facilities and building a lot of bases - terraforming drops out of the picture because most of it has already been done and/or the time involved is not really worth it, IMHO. Does any of this fir the bill? d.brodale ps Note also that in the early game, since Morgan can only have pop 4 until Hab Complex, it is usu. worth it to spring bases like crazy and place them atop energy bonus tiles, regardless of production radius overlap ... that way, you get the bonus without having to also develop the tile to gain min/nutrients from it [as flat, arid energy bonus tile is not worth time in the early game to terraform into a productive tile]. pps In mid/late, if you haven't a lot of formers roving around to raise land, the best mix for large/developed bases are forests with rivers running through them plus tree farm and hybrid facilites ... you'll get more NRG from high terrain with mirrors, but the forest approach minimizes eco damage and provides a nice balance of resources for your producer bases [the one throwing up OPTs] to work with for the rest of the game.
Smeagol	posted 04-09-99 04:44 PM ET Thanks for the ideas. I'm playing Morgan with a Green economy, so I get the +2 Planet rating... does this allow me a great deal more ecological destruction such that I can use solar collectors w/ echelon mirrors or is it still advisable to use the forest method? Also, how do forests enhance energy production without the hybrid forest facility?
Ronbo	posted 04-09-99 10:13 PM ET Actually, you will get more energy by using echelon mirrors/solar collectors. However, you will get more TOTAL resources (1 food/2 mineral/1 energy) in a plain-jane square, +2 of the appropriate resource in a special square, with no attendant eco-damage. The extra production will allow more rapid production of facilities that enhance your total output even further (energy bank, the various research facilities). Tree farms and Hybrid forests make forest squares truly outstanding, as they reduce eco-damage further, even as their productivity increases.
Smeagol	posted 04-09-99 11:17 PM ET Having just tried the strategy in a game for about 70 turns, I have to agree with you. I haven't even switched to "wealth" yet (and I don't like free market), and my energy is still amazing! First wealth and hab complexes, then I go crush the hive after some weapons research. And then put the university into eternal servitude... this game is way too easy on librarian level.
Plato90s	posted 04-10-99 01:36 AM ET Actually, putting in Echelon Mirrors is always a good thing. It gets better once you realize that forests does not interfere with the Echelon Mirror or the Moisture Condenser. You can't build a forest on top of one of those or vice versa, but if the square you build the special facilities on isn't rocky, forest can spread into that square. So instead of the Mirror square being dead space, it is part of your forest but still benefits your energy production.
Plato90s	posted 04-10-99 01:37 AM ET To clarify, this is an example S S S S F M M City S S S S The Solar collectors can benefit from the Mirrors, while the Forest will eventually spread through the two Mirror squares as long as the terrain isn't rocky.
googlie	posted 07-09-99 02:37 PM ET
asenaw	posted 07-09-99 03:30 PM ET the strategy i use with morgan is to go with a just a small amount of energy packed basses......like 10-15....... the first thing u wana try and research is industrial automation(?) the one that gives you hab complex.....when u have a couple bases and your infrastructure take your two best bases and get human genome and weather pardagim SPs at all cost....... this way you have to worry about drone riots and also makes it more plausible to free market.....the weather pardigm alows your to build boreholes even if u dotn have ecological enginering(e4).....then u make swiss chesse out of the land around your bases with boreholes and fill it in with forests..... your definatly not going to be a friend of deidre with your 20+ ecological damage per base but who cares:-) Wanessa Forever