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Author Topic:   I need help

Mind posted 05-23-99 02:36 AM ET
Here is my problem.
I am university. I have the wonder that makes my networks act like holograms. Yet I still get drone riots on my 7th population. So then I decided to go to POLICE so I could use my military units to quell the riots, but I still can't grow past 8 or 9 without riots. Further, my research is taking about 14 turns. Most of my 18 bases have every single early city improvement built. My friend who is Gaian has less population, less networks and his research takes 9 turns. I thought university had a research advantage. What am I doing wrong? And how do I stop the drone riots without a police of +4?
jimmytrick posted 05-23-99 02:52 AM ET
what about your social engineering choices?
have you tried to increase your psych?
increase energy by building solar collectors?
SEND ME A SAVE GAME AND I WILL MAKE SPECIFIC SUGGESTIONS!
Empath posted 05-23-99 06:31 AM ET
Every building? Since you are getting drone riots, I will assume that you have not built punishment spheres. Don't build these everywhere, they kill your tech.
To increase total police power, consider increasing police units instead of police rating. By switching to police state, you are gain the ability to use 2 more police units per base, and you can also support 2 more units for free. The cost is in efficiency though, so the bigger you grow, the more money you lose. Intellectual Integrity (explore 3) will allow you to make units that get rid of 2 drones instead of 1. This will only let you grow 1 larger though. If you build large cities, you are going to have to put out some money for psych sooner or later. Doctors & Empaths work if you only have a few, but if all your cities have them, you need to raise overall psych.
For psych, you can put a small amount in through social engineering, and you will gain more talents, which will offset the drones and prevent drone riots. You will probably lose less money here than you would by switching to police state.
With a mid range psych add, and switching to Wealth, you can gain +2 economy (from golden age) on some cities & gain more energy. This can cause your income to go up enough to pay for the extra psych and more.
Or... if you want lots of money, switch to Free Market & Wealth. Your people will hate you if you attempt to field a military force, but this can be solved by a punishment sphere in 1 or 2 cities. Just base your entire military force in 1 or 2 cities, & make sure they are all clean units. If any other city makes an offensive unit, that unit needs to go <Ctrl>H at a punishment sphere city before it leaves your territory.
With all of these pysch adds, you also need to back it up with terraforming. Unless the ground is too dry (or rocky) for food or too low for solar collectors, you should put a solar collector on it. You may need to forest a few so you can put down some sensors, but altitude and solar colectors will give you the energy, which translates directly to psych and research. Read around... I have seen a few messages describing good terraforming procedures. (I usually put more roads in than other people seem to like, but it works for my defense style, and does not affect energy).
For even more money after that... spend money... make some money & then bootlick your way into everyone's good grace (6 treaties or 2-3 pacts). Spend your way into office. Support your double planetary trade pacts. Now you can be getting a few extra energy per turn at every base, which can add up to hundreds of labs.
Your SPs can also help... build all of your "+# energy at this base" and "+###% research at this base" at the same base. Make all these in a base with some altitude. Then, make supply convoys. Send a bunch of supply convoys out to send energy back & get you more than the 21 base squares to work with. Just be very careful not to annoy anyone with PBs, and make lots of orbital defense pods as soon as you can, or you are going to be looking at a Texas sized swimming pool where your 1000 labs per turn used to be.
Mind posted 05-23-99 02:21 PM ET
Thanks for the helpful hints.
jimmytrick posted 05-23-99 04:19 PM ET
I have received and am reviewing the game.sav. A couple of quick notes:
1. You are not doing all that badly considering the point in the game.
2. Think psych! There is no shame in having a few specialists as long as you have positive food and minerals.
3. Review datalinks regarding forests, tree forests, and hybrid forests. It is easy to overlook forests because they have only one nutrient up front. But they rock later on. The great thing is that they grow. You can get 1-2-1 right away and then the forest will grow into nearby squares. Compare that against the time your formers have to spend building farms and mines or farms and solar collectors. I do (a)forests, (b)farms and solar collectors on rainy squares, (c)kelp farms w/solar collectors (kelp grows also!)on sea shelf squares, (4) mines only on rocky (add road and supply crawler!!)
4. You are trying to control drones with police. You have backed yourself into a corner with your SE choice. I think DEM/PLAN/KNOWLEDGE with about 10% pysch would be a nice place for you to go. UoP and police is not a good mix IMHO.
5. You have an energy problem. I supplement my economy with lots of mind worm hunting. Makes all the diff in the world. Very good if you can access large fungus growths in undeveloped areas. This might be hard to do in your posistion. Are you playing rare worms? I love lots of worms for the energy husks. Solar collectors are going to help.
6. Again, you have to increase your economy and efficency by changing your SE choices. This will yield energy and speed research.
If is not essential that every citizen be working a resource tile. It is okay to have doctors, empaths, etc.
Did you know that drilling for rivers will give extra energy!
I am going to send you a SP sav. of mine for your review. Can't hurt. (i hope)
GaryD posted 05-24-99 11:58 AM ET
Maybe a bit late but my solution is always the same.
Teach the red thugs a bit of meditation, turn them into empaths.
On rare occassions this may give food shortage problems, but my reaction is "Sod 'em". They weant to riot, they suffer the consequences. They usually calm down eventually.
Urban Ranger posted 05-25-99 02:29 AM ET
You don't want bases too big early in the game at any rate. You may consider putting a farm/solar collector on rainy(or moist)-rolling squares that are at least 1000m high. Otherwise simply grow forests everywhere.
Don't overlook facilities like biology labs and research hospitals. These can make a big difference even with a modest (10%) psych spending.
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Author	Topic: I need help
Mind	posted 05-23-99 02:36 AM ET Here is my problem. I am university. I have the wonder that makes my networks act like holograms. Yet I still get drone riots on my 7th population. So then I decided to go to POLICE so I could use my military units to quell the riots, but I still can't grow past 8 or 9 without riots. Further, my research is taking about 14 turns. Most of my 18 bases have every single early city improvement built. My friend who is Gaian has less population, less networks and his research takes 9 turns. I thought university had a research advantage. What am I doing wrong? And how do I stop the drone riots without a police of +4?
jimmytrick	posted 05-23-99 02:52 AM ET what about your social engineering choices? have you tried to increase your psych? increase energy by building solar collectors? SEND ME A SAVE GAME AND I WILL MAKE SPECIFIC SUGGESTIONS!
Empath	posted 05-23-99 06:31 AM ET Every building? Since you are getting drone riots, I will assume that you have not built punishment spheres. Don't build these everywhere, they kill your tech. To increase total police power, consider increasing police units instead of police rating. By switching to police state, you are gain the ability to use 2 more police units per base, and you can also support 2 more units for free. The cost is in efficiency though, so the bigger you grow, the more money you lose. Intellectual Integrity (explore 3) will allow you to make units that get rid of 2 drones instead of 1. This will only let you grow 1 larger though. If you build large cities, you are going to have to put out some money for psych sooner or later. Doctors & Empaths work if you only have a few, but if all your cities have them, you need to raise overall psych. For psych, you can put a small amount in through social engineering, and you will gain more talents, which will offset the drones and prevent drone riots. You will probably lose less money here than you would by switching to police state. With a mid range psych add, and switching to Wealth, you can gain +2 economy (from golden age) on some cities & gain more energy. This can cause your income to go up enough to pay for the extra psych and more. Or... if you want lots of money, switch to Free Market & Wealth. Your people will hate you if you attempt to field a military force, but this can be solved by a punishment sphere in 1 or 2 cities. Just base your entire military force in 1 or 2 cities, & make sure they are all clean units. If any other city makes an offensive unit, that unit needs to go <Ctrl>H at a punishment sphere city before it leaves your territory. With all of these pysch adds, you also need to back it up with terraforming. Unless the ground is too dry (or rocky) for food or too low for solar collectors, you should put a solar collector on it. You may need to forest a few so you can put down some sensors, but altitude and solar colectors will give you the energy, which translates directly to psych and research. Read around... I have seen a few messages describing good terraforming procedures. (I usually put more roads in than other people seem to like, but it works for my defense style, and does not affect energy). For even more money after that... spend money... make some money & then bootlick your way into everyone's good grace (6 treaties or 2-3 pacts). Spend your way into office. Support your double planetary trade pacts. Now you can be getting a few extra energy per turn at every base, which can add up to hundreds of labs. Your SPs can also help... build all of your "+# energy at this base" and "+###% research at this base" at the same base. Make all these in a base with some altitude. Then, make supply convoys. Send a bunch of supply convoys out to send energy back & get you more than the 21 base squares to work with. Just be very careful not to annoy anyone with PBs, and make lots of orbital defense pods as soon as you can, or you are going to be looking at a Texas sized swimming pool where your 1000 labs per turn used to be.
Mind	posted 05-23-99 02:21 PM ET Thanks for the helpful hints.
jimmytrick	posted 05-23-99 04:19 PM ET I have received and am reviewing the game.sav. A couple of quick notes: 1. You are not doing all that badly considering the point in the game. 2. Think psych! There is no shame in having a few specialists as long as you have positive food and minerals. 3. Review datalinks regarding forests, tree forests, and hybrid forests. It is easy to overlook forests because they have only one nutrient up front. But they rock later on. The great thing is that they grow. You can get 1-2-1 right away and then the forest will grow into nearby squares. Compare that against the time your formers have to spend building farms and mines or farms and solar collectors. I do (a)forests, (b)farms and solar collectors on rainy squares, (c)kelp farms w/solar collectors (kelp grows also!)on sea shelf squares, (4) mines only on rocky (add road and supply crawler!!) 4. You are trying to control drones with police. You have backed yourself into a corner with your SE choice. I think DEM/PLAN/KNOWLEDGE with about 10% pysch would be a nice place for you to go. UoP and police is not a good mix IMHO. 5. You have an energy problem. I supplement my economy with lots of mind worm hunting. Makes all the diff in the world. Very good if you can access large fungus growths in undeveloped areas. This might be hard to do in your posistion. Are you playing rare worms? I love lots of worms for the energy husks. Solar collectors are going to help. 6. Again, you have to increase your economy and efficency by changing your SE choices. This will yield energy and speed research. If is not essential that every citizen be working a resource tile. It is okay to have doctors, empaths, etc. Did you know that drilling for rivers will give extra energy! I am going to send you a SP sav. of mine for your review. Can't hurt. (i hope)
GaryD	posted 05-24-99 11:58 AM ET Maybe a bit late but my solution is always the same. Teach the red thugs a bit of meditation, turn them into empaths. On rare occassions this may give food shortage problems, but my reaction is "Sod 'em". They weant to riot, they suffer the consequences. They usually calm down eventually.
Urban Ranger	posted 05-25-99 02:29 AM ET You don't want bases too big early in the game at any rate. You may consider putting a farm/solar collector on rainy(or moist)-rolling squares that are at least 1000m high. Otherwise simply grow forests everywhere. Don't overlook facilities like biology labs and research hospitals. These can make a big difference even with a modest (10%) psych spending.