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  The unseen beauty of FME, or, WHY FREE MARKET ECONOMY IS VERY BENEFICIAL

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Author Topic:   The unseen beauty of FME, or, WHY FREE MARKET ECONOMY IS VERY BENEFICIAL
EEder posted 04-10-99 01:12 PM ET   Click Here to See the Profile for EEder   Click Here to Email EEder  
I'M NOT CRAZY!!!

Now that thats out, i'd also like to say that i'm NOT a newbie. I've had the game basically since it came out, and I play MOSTLY as Gaians.

I recently played a game as Zhakhov...
- Large map of the Planet
- Accellerated start up
- As university

This is turning out to be my best game yet, as I have conquered the Believers and the Hive. The Spartans are all alone on a giant middle continent and are very dangerous, while the Gaians, Morgans, and PeaceKeepers share the far left continent.

I have many many cities (probably around thirty or so, i havent counted) all with an average pop of 8 (3 being the smallest, 19 being the biggest).

Why am i telling you this? So my situation is more believable.

I'm at 50% econ 50% labs. On Police state/Planned/Knowledge I get around (I think, its a rough estimate) 300 or 400/turn. Breakthroughs every 6 turns.

When I switch the Planned Econ to Free Market economy, making me Police State/FreeMarket Econ/Knowledge, I get to 900 A TURN and breakthroughs everY TWO TURNS!!!!!

A very smart person said a while back in a response to a comment I made about Morgan being an iddiot for using FME, "Morgan does suck but its not because of him using FME. He just doesn't know how to use it."

Its so true!

Try it, go load your biggest game where you have your max cities, and switch to police state/FME. Your money will skyrocket, research double, and with police state that will counteract some of the negetives of FME.

I once managed to get myself -7 support, which translated into 2 extra drones for every unit away from its home city. I was in the middle of a war so this nearly cost me the lead spot

Anyway, Free Market Econ gives you +1 ENERGY PER SQUARE (or is it per base? , which is INCREDIBLE. Thats so much money, who cares if your citizens can go mad, you can buy them rec commons, holo theaters, punish domes, anything they want.

In less than 7 turns I had over 5000, I was SHOPPING for Secret Projects It was great.

I don't plan on using FME all the time, but only when I need a burst of cash.

-EEder

Travathian posted 04-10-99 01:18 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for Travathian    
This is all true, but doesnt work as well with Morgan, or with the fact that if you decide to do any terraforming you're hurting early if you try this.

This is more of a middle late game strategy.

Glak posted 04-10-99 01:44 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for Glak  Click Here to Email Glak     
Well you are comparing it to planned, which gives you a -2 efficiency I think. I prefer green myself which gives +2 efficiency. In general -5 police kills you but I might try it in my current single player game.
EEder posted 04-10-99 02:18 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for EEder  Click Here to Email EEder     
In that specific situation i did compare it to Planned, but its the same jump from Green too. Even if your on Green/Wealth, nothing gets you as much money as a Free Market Econ, along with the research bonus.

IDEAL TIMES FOR A FREE MARKET ECONOMY
A) Island games
If your on an island, you probably won't have many units running around, so go police/fme for the extra money.

B) Late games
When you have tons of cities, you get tons of money. simple as that

EEder

Schoop posted 04-10-99 04:21 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for Schoop  Click Here to Email Schoop     
I absolutely LOVE Free Market. It is incredibly beneficial for anyone except the Hive, since they have an Econ penalty to begin with. Econ at +2 is 1 extra energy every square! This is tremendous, folks, especially with base facilities to multiply it!

My trick to keep FM from hurting you is to remain steadfastly neutral in everything. Police State can help with the Police penalty but I find that PS's efficiency penalty doesn't really jive with Free Market. If you're playing pacifically, you should be able to build up massive defensive forces that no one can break through. These don't need to go anywhere, so they won't cause Drones. Second, crank your Psych up. You can afford it. Finally, if people are trying to extort money from you, buckle like a belt. You can afford cash payments.

DreamWave posted 04-10-99 06:35 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for DreamWave    
I played with the University, and I had Democracy/Green/Knowledge/Cybernetic...
Somehow, all my choises were the best for the moment as they gave me the best Energy/Research ratio.
At 50%, 0%, 50% I got about 2000 energy credits per turn (late in the game) with no stockpile energy bases and breakthroughs every 2 turns.
At 100%, 0%, 0% I got about 4500 energy credits per turn and breakthrougs every 3 turns...
I tried other Social combinations, but none of them provided me better Energy/Research ratio.
Travathian posted 04-10-99 07:27 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for Travathian    
Yes, but that also takes into account the UoP already has a bonus to research, and knowledge just makes them sick.

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