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Author Topic:   Satellites...
Certes posted 08-02-99 01:47 PM ET   Click Here to See the Profile for Certes   Click Here to Email Certes  
How much do you value the different satellites? Are they worth building vs. say, spending the time on crawlers?
Series II posted 08-02-99 02:10 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for Series II    
It all depends on the number of cities you have.
Zakharov_54 posted 08-02-99 02:23 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for Zakharov_54  Click Here to Email Zakharov_54     
I don't think it really matters how many cities you have because if you do what I do (have every base build at least one colony pod). By the time you get the satellites, you can alternate between those and supply units (SU)
HMFIC posted 08-02-99 02:54 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for HMFIC  Click Here to Email HMFIC     
I place untold value on Orbital Defense Pods.
TheScientist posted 08-02-99 07:17 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for TheScientist  Click Here to Email TheScientist     
I use satellites very often.
In late game, I usually place a condensor on every square, so that I get large cities (size 100-120), producing most minerals in space. No eco-damage. I don't use crawlers very much (only for SPs).
Plato90s posted 08-02-99 09:30 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for Plato90s    
I believe the city size limit is 99. City size of 100-120 seems implausible.
sandworm posted 08-03-99 11:44 AM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for sandworm  Click Here to Email sandworm     
I tend to build lots of energy satellites and as many defense pods as I think will be necessary (based on probe/governor intel on AI garrisons you can determine exactly who has PBs and how many there are).

Is it true that nessus stations don't add to ecodamage?

I avoid them for fear of ecodamage and concentrate on energy satellites. I just buy what I need with the extra satellite energy and it has no effect on ecodamage.

Oleg Leschoff posted 08-05-99 10:32 AM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for Oleg Leschoff  Click Here to Email Oleg Leschoff     
I didn't figured out the actual city size limit, but I can say that I've once reached more than 120 size city. Problem is that that sign near the city icon only consists of two digits, but city is surely grows. It's clearly visible that the number is truncated, only two first digits are visible.
By the way, I've reached this size using lots of supply gravships from this city, and lots of gravship superformers rising terrain for solar collectors and abundant rainfalls near it.
Anouther feature that only first 6 (iirc.. I maybe wrong) supply vehicles are displayed in the base screen's supported troops list window.
That was two-city empire researching two (I wanted to reach more) transcendent thoughts per turn...

About satellites. Because every city only can consume satellite bonus no more than it's size (half of it if it has not aerospace complex, or bonus is just halved in this case? I don't remember this), it's only meaningful to build number of satellites of each productive type equals to your maximum city size. Perhaps in most cases it's between 60 and 70, counting that every square produces 3 nutrients (forests everywhere) and some of them has mineral bonuses.
By the way, about city size. Because every new citizen eats two nutrients, maximum city size without satellites equals to Mn/2 where Mn is maximum nutrients this city receives (that is, from all its available squares and nutrient supply). Now, if we have unlimited nutrient satellites (OHL iirc), every new citizen will eat two nutrient AND receive additional nutrient from space, thus we may think that it just consumes one nutrient off our farms, so maximum base size is Mn (with nutrient satellites).

sandworm:
NMS does not add ecodamage, at least they are not supposed to.
I think they do not, at least at some extent. I recall that some times ago I experimented with this. Water base, only two minerals in the base square, all others are tidals. It grown to the size of 60 or so, and then I built 60 NMS. The base, having all factories, created some ecodamage. This might be somewhat inaccurate programming of this feature, however, because in all other cases orbital minerals don't adds to ecodamage.

Sorry for my english...

Plato90s posted 08-05-99 02:04 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for Plato90s    
I have to admit I've never had the patience to build up bases past size 70 or so. The 99 number was referred to as the limit.

Regarding Nessus stations, the actual minerals cause no eco-damage while minerals you mine from forests/mines etc.. would. However, the mineral bonuses granted by your various factories do cause ecodamage.

In general, the nutrient you can squeeze out of a rainy square + soil enricher + condenser is 5 food. Since your base doesn't have a condenser, the max food production is 5*19 squares + 3 [city square] = 98.

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