posted 04-26-99 11:49 AM ET        

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Hello all!

Here are some more questions regarding odd buildings I never seem to use.
Genejack Factory. Maybe if your police is high you can use it, but +1 drone is pretty annoying... I'm probably wrong on that :-)
Tachyon Field - rarely use it, only on my headquarters and on good border cities. Pretty expansive, and a good unit will cost less on the long run.
Nanohospital - by the time I've it I'm either losing or winning...
Psi Gate. By the time I've it, I already won (or lost!)
The Merchant Exchange. At the beginning of the game it's a low bonus (yey! A wonder to gain +1energy per turn) and on the late-game, it maxes out in ~+14, and then it's absolute.
The Planetry Transit System - on high levels or after building lotsa cities, the last thing I want is to build cities with 2 drones.
The Planetry Datalinks - other then the belivers, most factions can't allow themselves being so away in technologies.
The Hunter-Seeker Algorithm - just checking out if you read so far :-)
Universal Translator - two techs for that much production? And by the time I've it, I've no more artifacts to cash in.
Clinical Immortality - other then winning on diplomatic victory or preventing your opponent from doing so, I see no use for it (_one_ talent???)
The Bulk Matter Transmiater - by the time I've it, even small cities (which I rarely build) doesn't realy use the +2 minerals.
Ascent to Transandance - other then letting you win the game, it's pretty pathetic...

posted 04-26-99 12:57 PM ET         

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The Genejack factory is the cheapest mineral multiplier. The +1 drone isn't that much of a big deal.

Tachyon Field is quite vital if you want yout units to survive a conventional missle attack.

Planetary Transit System also reduces drone activity in cities of under size 3. That makes those size 3, no garrison cities manageable.

And by the time you get to Universal Translator, you should have production to spare, so it's a fast way of picking up extra techs.

posted 04-26-99 05:01 PM ET            

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A Combination of Planetary Transit, Cloning Vats and Space Elevator can be a killer.

Insert 10 Drop Formers around planet, make sure that you have plenty of orbital resources and wait for your population to explode.

posted 05-02-99 12:58 AM ET            

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I build pretty much everything.

1)Greenjack-I build it in the later going in higher populated cities where that one Drone means nothing.
2)Tachyon-A must build for Defense.
3)Nanohospitol-Why not build it? It couldn't hurt.
4)Psi Gate-I build then last. its nice to have just in case.

5)Merchant Exchange-Its good enough in the early going to build in an fast-growing city.
6)Transit-I'd build it to keep it out of the hands of a fast-growing AI.
7)Datalinks-Being a builder, useless to me.
8)Hunter rules (Yes i am reading)
9)Universial-I always build for the 2 free techs. Often, I'll find a few Artifacts on distant Pods to give to it.
10)Clinic-Indifferent
11)Bulk-Indifferent
12)Ascent-Yes

posted 05-02-99 01:17 AM ET         

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Well, the Psi Gate is pretty useless by the time it arrives. By then, I'm generating so much cash I don't bother building real units any more. I just build Trained Drop Scout Infantry or Hovertank [1-1-1 Drop].

With orbital drop, I insert them anywhere I want and then upgrade them on the spot. So a newly conquered city will have a new scout dropped in, and then upgraded to a AAA-police unit. You don't even have to build Psi-Gates everywhere.

posted 05-03-99 10:16 AM ET         

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The drones can be an irritant with Cloning Vats, but I've noticed that if I have a sufficient number of Sky Hydroponics Labs (i.e. lots of them) then each time drones riot I'll just turn a few citizens to specialists and that'll take care of the problem for a little while, as long as there's sufficient amount of food available. Once the base runs out of workable squares the problem vanishes altogether because the specialists will make the workers happy. So if you keep your people happier than necessary during the growth stage, it'll pass by smoothly. I can't say how this would work if I didn't have more Hydroponics Labs than necessary before the growth begins since I always have way more than can be used before Cloning Vats, just to ensure rapid growth to decent sized cities. Then you'd probably want to keep a more careful eye on exactly how many specialists you need to keep workers happy.

I think the game should automatically make a new citizen to a specialist if it would become a drone, thus removing this little annoyance altogether. You could be given a short message telling this. I once tried using the governor, but it seemed to me that they'd make specialists whenever there was a riot and then the next turn they'd make the specialists workers, causing riots in the next turn. The overall effect was that they'd just ask me to increase psych to 20%, but once I did that, I no longer needed the governor. Sheesh.

The Ascent to Transcendence is cheap (but useful ). I once won by economic wictory, which cost me over 85000 (first estimate was 115000+, I guess your own power affects this, I was left with 30000 and 20 turns to spend it wisely, though unnecessarily, on the defenses), later I checked what buying the Ascent would have cost. In a base that had 20+ production and had been stockpiling energy (so no benefits from changing production) with Demo/Free/Knowledge/Cybernetic and all late-game wonders (+1 or +2 industry, I don't remember) it cost a measly 31000+, whereas on a city with production 1 (sea base and asteroid struck Nessus) it was over 60000 energy. And if you use a bunch of supply crawlers then it'll quickly be only 15000+. Dirt cheap. Building the spaceship in Civ2 was way more fun.

Universal Translator is a kind of trophy SP. Has anyone ever gotten more artifacts than bases with unlinked Network Nodes? At that stage of the game? I don't say no to free techs, though.

Bulk matter transmitter is my pet hate SP, even though the worms bring in nice energy when "cashed".

Nanohospital does come a bit late, but I've built it anyway (otherwise I'll have to stockpile and become obscenely rich and then others start asking for pocket money). I always build Tachyon Field because I don't want any chances that someone would take over my well-built base (even though if I'd get it back right away, it's annoying to have most of the facilities gone, it'll take too long to get it up again).

posted 05-03-99 07:15 PM ET         

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Why don't you build the Telepathic Matrix?

The TM will obviate drone riots. So you can have as many drones as you want, and nothing bad will happen.

posted 05-05-99 05:07 AM ET         

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The number of alien artifacts seems to be random.

Once I found an obscene number of them. I linked a few to the Universal Translator after I built the thing.

posted 05-05-99 05:14 AM ET         

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I have just noticed that nobody has mentioned that the Cloning Vat *eliminates* the penalties for Thought Control and Power (or is it Police State?) so you can use them with impunity.

That makes the Cloning Vat pretty obscene.