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Author Topic:   Why be PK?

Double Overdrive posted 03-31-99 07:24 PM ET
I have played this game alot and never really felt like the Peacekeepers were worth playing. I did once and lost on transcend. Pk's only really advantage is their extra talent and extra votes which really isn't much. I would probably consider playing PK if they had free Pre-installed RECYCLING TANKS wouldn't that be cool....
(Biogenetics is their starting tech.)
Will you people post what you think should be added to make PK better (i wish FRAXIS would take up an idea to make PK better......)
Koshko posted 03-31-99 11:06 PM ET
I think they are fine. Their +2 max population before Habs is descent. Use the extra votes to be permanent Governor.
Laksamana posted 03-31-99 11:33 PM ET
If I'm playing PKs, the most obviously step is to get elected Supreme Leader. This is their most obvious advantage. Try to get Empath Guild, Clinical Immortality, Cloning Vats + anything that increases your population/voting power. Lal can sometimes outvote everyone on the table all by himself. The extra Talents also means you don't have to worry about drones quite as much and can focus on expansion/building more easily.
If I'm playing against PKs, and want to be elected Governer or Supreme Leader, I always :
- Pound the PKs into insignificance so they can't contribute much to the voting pool.
- Bribe him sufficiently beforehand to make sure he votes for me.
On the flip side, it's pretty useless IMHO to play PKs in multiplayer (with no computer players). Their primary advantage (getting elected governer/supreme leader), is negated here. No human player will have any incentive to vote for you. If you get elected Supreme Leader, game over. Why the heck would anyone cast their vote for you, even if they're your "pact brother". :-)
Catalyst001 posted 03-31-99 11:57 PM ET
Peacekeepers are also quite skilled at getting and keeping Intellectual Golden Ages to bolster your energy and research at each base. With a 10% Psych rate and facilities to add to your psych can be very good for both the talents and resistence against probe teams (Psych is good against mind control isn't it?). They can be up there with UoP in research if you play your cards right. Too bad there's no Police State for them though... Yes, Empath Guild and Clinical Immortality are very good for them, not to mention Human Genome Project, but that's a given...
Catalyst001
ICQ#: 15445226
Sic Transit Gloria Mundi, Need I say more?
Sic Transit Gloria Mundi, Need I say more?
ChumpnBump posted 04-01-99 12:53 AM ET
I have only found PK's extra votes useful in early game when no one really dominates. Later on the difference is negligible. I agree talents are nice however big populations tend to get out of control on higher levels with more drones and such.
Fiannaidh posted 04-01-99 09:29 AM ET
I like to eliminate PK's because I don't like the color purple.
Tommyboy posted 04-01-99 11:50 AM ET
I Play the PK all the time. Gradually, I have learned to take advantage of what the PK have to offer. Your first goal is to be elected Governer and stay elected. As governer, you get more energy from treaties and free datalink infiltration of every faction (v3.0). Too many enemies? no problem, just raise sea levels and watch them all drown. Need extra cash? OK, just ram a trade pact through or salvage the UNITY core. More energy means more everything (see Morgan posts). The datalink infiltration is very helpful to keep tabs on everyone and in a war, allows you to focus attacks on key cities to cripple your enemy. If you want to win as a supreme leader, than it's naturally easier as PK have more votes. If you lock up the 2 wonders which increase your votes than your position as Governer (or Supreme leader) is pretty much assured (except in a Multiplayer situation). Also, their -1 efficiency is very easy to overcome. Combine all this with their abilty to build massive cities allow them to keep up, if not excel, in just about any endeavor (build, research, or fight) with any other faction. Playing the PK generally means more flexibility regardless of the situation.
Marslow posted 04-01-99 12:52 PM ET
Below Transend level the PK's are only a middle of the pack faction. But at Transend level they transform into one of the best factions in the game. At Transend level your bases riot with only two population, which really slows down production and is really annoying. The PK's extra talent, however, prevents this in their bases, meaning that that they can produce much quicker than other factions in the all important early game.
While other factions have one guy working and one guy being a doctor, the PK's have two guys working all the time, increasing their production by almost 50%. This is a major advantage. And with the Virtual World or Human Genome, the PK's can support huge riot free cities with only a recreation commons.
The inefficiency penalty does hurt in the mid-game, but is managable.
Fjorxc the Maniac posted 04-05-99 06:47 PM ET
Why play PKers?
Why not?
googlie posted 07-09-99 02:40 PM ET
Possibly now my favorite faction - yeah...
Krushala posted 07-09-99 06:13 PM ET
They are the second best research faction. If you don't like research don't play them. Yes they are better than morgan becasue they can pop boom to a size 9 city while morgan is stuck at 4. That is more than double energy and mineral production. They can't beat UOP in the early game though.
HolyWarrior posted 07-10-99 01:39 AM ET
Geez, googlie--talk about bringing back a topic from the dead...
Beta1 posted 07-10-99 04:09 PM ET
To put it simply population=power.
Because you can pop boom to a population 2 larger than anyone else at any given point you can harvest more energy/minerals and therefore research more rapidly. With the right SPs the PKs should never have drone riots and should be in almost perpetual golden ages.
korn469 posted 07-10-99 09:20 PM ET
i lover conquering the Pk's with the spartans and then using all of their votes to get me elect planetary governor
korn469
warmachine posted 07-11-99 05:32 AM ET
Why I play the PKs? Population. Despite the +1 Growth of factions like the Hive, Democracy gives you +2. Your bases can be bigger before building Hab Complexes and the Talents keep down the Drones. Combined with the Human Genome Project, your 3/4 size bases go into a golden age.
What does this higher population mean? Productivity. In peace time, the advantages are obvious but it also has uses in wartime.
I use best weapon/no armour speeders and aircraft to attrite and disrupt enemy front lines. You can replace your troops faster than them. The tide of battle will turn.
Higher population also combines with the votes for Planetary Governer. Make sure you have at least one faction on your side and veto any attempt to mess with the sea or salvage energy for your cash strapped enemies. The +1 commerce is useful but the best part is the automatic infiltrators. Why waste time building and guiding spies? When the time is right, identify the least garrisoned enemy base and take it. The enemy will usually ask for a truce.
The PK inefficiency doesn't really amount to that much when combined with Democracy. The PKs disadvantage is that none of these advantages kick in until factions reach a useful size. In the early game, being close to nutheads like the Spartans, Hive or Believers is a problem.
Matthew Greet
itdoesntfit posted 07-13-99 04:22 PM ET
Peacekeepers are very good to use, but is there anyway to decrease beuocracy? Please reply
Krushala posted 07-13-99 05:45 PM ET
build less bases. People have got record transcendence 2200's with the peacekeepers and 8 to 10 cities. I find 15 to 20 cities is very capable for the best research and a good war machine.
itdoesntfit posted 07-13-99 09:31 PM ET
But it's easier to make tons of money and easier to build lots of colony pods, and is harder to keep large bases from having ecological disaster! Is that the only way?
Krushala posted 07-13-99 10:31 PM ET
use supply crawlers to support your army. I'm usually stuck at size 16 for a while, so I don't have much ecodamage. I don't build genejack factories or other factories. Just make sure you have interceptors to protect them.
Krushala posted 07-13-99 10:35 PM ET
one thing I like about this game is production isn't that important. In fact I rarely have over 20 until the end game. Energy production is king. My last game I could buy entire SP's in one turn. What did I need production for? An Army? With this game you can gradually build up and army and upgrade them with energy credits. So you only need enough minerals to support your army and build city improvements. Not like civ2 where you could only upgrade to cavalry. I had to have high production cities to crank out tanks and howitzers.
itdoesntfit posted 07-14-99 12:22 AM ET
Krushala, what happens if you have a bunch of boreholes?
Krushala posted 07-14-99 12:25 AM ET
I usually don't use more than 1 per base. But some people use 2. A good way is to build them outside the base radius and use supply crawlers. But you can only get the minerals or the energy not both.
Alkis posted 07-15-99 01:15 PM ET
About Ecodamage
You are allowed more minerals without pollution for every Centauri technology you discover. In the beginning you will have some problems with Ecodamage, but later on you can be allowed to get about 30minerals/base without pollution
Also, build treefarms, hybrid forests. If there is no other way build Centauri preserve too.
About number of bases it depends on what your goal is. For a fast Transcendence about 20 is the optimum. But, for a higher score the more population you have the better.
In any case too many bases will give you more problems to solve. You will lose more energy to inefficiency, especially if you are the PKs and you will have more problems with drones. You get an aditional drone somewhere for every base you build beyond the limit.
JayPegg posted 07-15-99 05:47 PM ET
krushala,
don't you just love buying the vop and ascent to tran in consacutive turns? I think I once spent 10000 energy buying 5 sp's in one turn. Of course I was making 5000 economy a turn.
~kelso
JayPegg posted 07-15-99 05:50 PM ET
Alkis,
I think Rackam was able to extort 186 minerals from planet with no eco-damage.
~kelso
Krushala posted 07-15-99 06:00 PM ET
186? how did you do that.
I get over 15 and I start having problems
My last game I bought the ascent to transcendence in one turn. Who needs production.
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Author	Topic: Why be PK?
Double Overdrive	posted 03-31-99 07:24 PM ET I have played this game alot and never really felt like the Peacekeepers were worth playing. I did once and lost on transcend. Pk's only really advantage is their extra talent and extra votes which really isn't much. I would probably consider playing PK if they had free Pre-installed RECYCLING TANKS wouldn't that be cool.... (Biogenetics is their starting tech.) Will you people post what you think should be added to make PK better (i wish FRAXIS would take up an idea to make PK better......)
Koshko	posted 03-31-99 11:06 PM ET I think they are fine. Their +2 max population before Habs is descent. Use the extra votes to be permanent Governor.
Laksamana	posted 03-31-99 11:33 PM ET If I'm playing PKs, the most obviously step is to get elected Supreme Leader. This is their most obvious advantage. Try to get Empath Guild, Clinical Immortality, Cloning Vats + anything that increases your population/voting power. Lal can sometimes outvote everyone on the table all by himself. The extra Talents also means you don't have to worry about drones quite as much and can focus on expansion/building more easily. If I'm playing against PKs, and want to be elected Governer or Supreme Leader, I always : - Pound the PKs into insignificance so they can't contribute much to the voting pool. - Bribe him sufficiently beforehand to make sure he votes for me. On the flip side, it's pretty useless IMHO to play PKs in multiplayer (with no computer players). Their primary advantage (getting elected governer/supreme leader), is negated here. No human player will have any incentive to vote for you. If you get elected Supreme Leader, game over. Why the heck would anyone cast their vote for you, even if they're your "pact brother". :-)
Catalyst001	posted 03-31-99 11:57 PM ET Peacekeepers are also quite skilled at getting and keeping Intellectual Golden Ages to bolster your energy and research at each base. With a 10% Psych rate and facilities to add to your psych can be very good for both the talents and resistence against probe teams (Psych is good against mind control isn't it?). They can be up there with UoP in research if you play your cards right. Too bad there's no Police State for them though... Yes, Empath Guild and Clinical Immortality are very good for them, not to mention Human Genome Project, but that's a given... Catalyst001 ICQ#: 15445226 Sic Transit Gloria Mundi, Need I say more? Sic Transit Gloria Mundi, Need I say more?
ChumpnBump	posted 04-01-99 12:53 AM ET I have only found PK's extra votes useful in early game when no one really dominates. Later on the difference is negligible. I agree talents are nice however big populations tend to get out of control on higher levels with more drones and such.
Fiannaidh	posted 04-01-99 09:29 AM ET I like to eliminate PK's because I don't like the color purple.
Tommyboy	posted 04-01-99 11:50 AM ET I Play the PK all the time. Gradually, I have learned to take advantage of what the PK have to offer. Your first goal is to be elected Governer and stay elected. As governer, you get more energy from treaties and free datalink infiltration of every faction (v3.0). Too many enemies? no problem, just raise sea levels and watch them all drown. Need extra cash? OK, just ram a trade pact through or salvage the UNITY core. More energy means more everything (see Morgan posts). The datalink infiltration is very helpful to keep tabs on everyone and in a war, allows you to focus attacks on key cities to cripple your enemy. If you want to win as a supreme leader, than it's naturally easier as PK have more votes. If you lock up the 2 wonders which increase your votes than your position as Governer (or Supreme leader) is pretty much assured (except in a Multiplayer situation). Also, their -1 efficiency is very easy to overcome. Combine all this with their abilty to build massive cities allow them to keep up, if not excel, in just about any endeavor (build, research, or fight) with any other faction. Playing the PK generally means more flexibility regardless of the situation.
Marslow	posted 04-01-99 12:52 PM ET Below Transend level the PK's are only a middle of the pack faction. But at Transend level they transform into one of the best factions in the game. At Transend level your bases riot with only two population, which really slows down production and is really annoying. The PK's extra talent, however, prevents this in their bases, meaning that that they can produce much quicker than other factions in the all important early game. While other factions have one guy working and one guy being a doctor, the PK's have two guys working all the time, increasing their production by almost 50%. This is a major advantage. And with the Virtual World or Human Genome, the PK's can support huge riot free cities with only a recreation commons. The inefficiency penalty does hurt in the mid-game, but is managable.
Fjorxc the Maniac	posted 04-05-99 06:47 PM ET Why play PKers? Why not?
googlie	posted 07-09-99 02:40 PM ET Possibly now my favorite faction - yeah...
Krushala	posted 07-09-99 06:13 PM ET They are the second best research faction. If you don't like research don't play them. Yes they are better than morgan becasue they can pop boom to a size 9 city while morgan is stuck at 4. That is more than double energy and mineral production. They can't beat UOP in the early game though.
HolyWarrior	posted 07-10-99 01:39 AM ET Geez, googlie--talk about bringing back a topic from the dead...
Beta1	posted 07-10-99 04:09 PM ET To put it simply population=power. Because you can pop boom to a population 2 larger than anyone else at any given point you can harvest more energy/minerals and therefore research more rapidly. With the right SPs the PKs should never have drone riots and should be in almost perpetual golden ages.
korn469	posted 07-10-99 09:20 PM ET i lover conquering the Pk's with the spartans and then using all of their votes to get me elect planetary governor korn469
warmachine	posted 07-11-99 05:32 AM ET Why I play the PKs? Population. Despite the +1 Growth of factions like the Hive, Democracy gives you +2. Your bases can be bigger before building Hab Complexes and the Talents keep down the Drones. Combined with the Human Genome Project, your 3/4 size bases go into a golden age. What does this higher population mean? Productivity. In peace time, the advantages are obvious but it also has uses in wartime. I use best weapon/no armour speeders and aircraft to attrite and disrupt enemy front lines. You can replace your troops faster than them. The tide of battle will turn. Higher population also combines with the votes for Planetary Governer. Make sure you have at least one faction on your side and veto any attempt to mess with the sea or salvage energy for your cash strapped enemies. The +1 commerce is useful but the best part is the automatic infiltrators. Why waste time building and guiding spies? When the time is right, identify the least garrisoned enemy base and take it. The enemy will usually ask for a truce. The PK inefficiency doesn't really amount to that much when combined with Democracy. The PKs disadvantage is that none of these advantages kick in until factions reach a useful size. In the early game, being close to nutheads like the Spartans, Hive or Believers is a problem. Matthew Greet
itdoesntfit	posted 07-13-99 04:22 PM ET Peacekeepers are very good to use, but is there anyway to decrease beuocracy? Please reply
Krushala	posted 07-13-99 05:45 PM ET build less bases. People have got record transcendence 2200's with the peacekeepers and 8 to 10 cities. I find 15 to 20 cities is very capable for the best research and a good war machine.
itdoesntfit	posted 07-13-99 09:31 PM ET But it's easier to make tons of money and easier to build lots of colony pods, and is harder to keep large bases from having ecological disaster! Is that the only way?
Krushala	posted 07-13-99 10:31 PM ET use supply crawlers to support your army. I'm usually stuck at size 16 for a while, so I don't have much ecodamage. I don't build genejack factories or other factories. Just make sure you have interceptors to protect them.
Krushala	posted 07-13-99 10:35 PM ET one thing I like about this game is production isn't that important. In fact I rarely have over 20 until the end game. Energy production is king. My last game I could buy entire SP's in one turn. What did I need production for? An Army? With this game you can gradually build up and army and upgrade them with energy credits. So you only need enough minerals to support your army and build city improvements. Not like civ2 where you could only upgrade to cavalry. I had to have high production cities to crank out tanks and howitzers.
itdoesntfit	posted 07-14-99 12:22 AM ET Krushala, what happens if you have a bunch of boreholes?
Krushala	posted 07-14-99 12:25 AM ET I usually don't use more than 1 per base. But some people use 2. A good way is to build them outside the base radius and use supply crawlers. But you can only get the minerals or the energy not both.
Alkis	posted 07-15-99 01:15 PM ET About Ecodamage You are allowed more minerals without pollution for every Centauri technology you discover. In the beginning you will have some problems with Ecodamage, but later on you can be allowed to get about 30minerals/base without pollution Also, build treefarms, hybrid forests. If there is no other way build Centauri preserve too. About number of bases it depends on what your goal is. For a fast Transcendence about 20 is the optimum. But, for a higher score the more population you have the better. In any case too many bases will give you more problems to solve. You will lose more energy to inefficiency, especially if you are the PKs and you will have more problems with drones. You get an aditional drone somewhere for every base you build beyond the limit.
JayPegg	posted 07-15-99 05:47 PM ET krushala, don't you just love buying the vop and ascent to tran in consacutive turns? I think I once spent 10000 energy buying 5 sp's in one turn. Of course I was making 5000 economy a turn. ~kelso
JayPegg	posted 07-15-99 05:50 PM ET Alkis, I think Rackam was able to extort 186 minerals from planet with no eco-damage. ~kelso
Krushala	posted 07-15-99 06:00 PM ET 186? how did you do that. I get over 15 and I start having problems My last game I bought the ascent to transcendence in one turn. Who needs production.