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Author Topic:   Happy Believers

Ghost posted 04-15-99 10:53 PM ET
I suppose this should be subtitled "Things I do for Perverse Reasons." (not perverted, mind you... perverse, as in "unintended by the programmers")
Anyway, I was thinking about how much Believers suck (it's this weird personal thing I have against the -20% research, and how to really play them as they are meant to be played you need to go Fundamentalist), and how that makes me play with them a lot because I like to play in different paradigms than I am used to (not to mention I love the shapes of the cities and the religious rhetoric), and it came to me that there was something better to do with my energy than use it for research (when I am in Fundamentalist / War mode, as opposed to Demo-FME-Wealth mode) or stash it (although that is pretty useful when you are probing away, and should not be neglected). The 3 option, obviously, is PSYCH. So I spent about 30% on psych, 30% on research, and 40% on storage for a quick trip into golden age land. The Believers lose a lot less by allocating less to research, because of the 40% penalty they are working under... so you might as well get all the fun of a Golden Age out of it. A normal person would lose 20 out of 100 points of research, assuming 50-50 storage/research allocation... but due to your 40% penalty, you're only losing 12 out of 100 by switching from a 50-50% to a 40-30-30 model. Find that silver lining on the underside of Believer technophobia.
It isn't an all time great idea, but it was interesting, and it just kinda came to me as something which makes the most of a bad thing. Obviously (but I'll say it anyway) best to do when you already have a subverted nation or two whom you are relying on to do most of your research for you, and/or you are ahead in tech via conquer and probe tactics, but can be done anytime that you feel confident that abandoning your research for a while won't be a lethal mistake. (besides, nobody would be using the Believer/fun combo if they really cared about abandoning research).
--The Happy Phantom
Atombomb posted 04-15-99 11:36 PM ET
I think I mentioned doing this in one of my posts...hmm....well anyway it is great to do this with any faction because if you kick into a golden age you gain more energy AND growth. Usually 40% research with a golden age in most of your cities is much better than 50%, and income at 30% generally causes no problems at all.
Ghost posted 04-16-99 06:56 PM ET
You do stress golden ages a lot, but I was specifically talking here about the advantages that Believers have in acquiring them... in that you can cut % research without losing a whole lot.
--Ghost
Ghost posted 04-17-99 11:43 PM ET
Well, no. You mention that golden ages are good quite a bit, certainly. Here I am referring to the fact that Believers lose less research points from diverting energy out of research and into psych than a different faction would.
(btw, free market + golden age + wealth = +2 econ for the Hive... heh heh heh... on the other hand, the Hive can't use Planned Democracy Golden Age as a Pop Boom, so I think Golden Ages remain balanced for them.)
--Ghost
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Author	Topic: Happy Believers
Ghost	posted 04-15-99 10:53 PM ET I suppose this should be subtitled "Things I do for Perverse Reasons." (not perverted, mind you... perverse, as in "unintended by the programmers") Anyway, I was thinking about how much Believers suck (it's this weird personal thing I have against the -20% research, and how to really play them as they are meant to be played you need to go Fundamentalist), and how that makes me play with them a lot because I like to play in different paradigms than I am used to (not to mention I love the shapes of the cities and the religious rhetoric), and it came to me that there was something better to do with my energy than use it for research (when I am in Fundamentalist / War mode, as opposed to Demo-FME-Wealth mode) or stash it (although that is pretty useful when you are probing away, and should not be neglected). The 3 option, obviously, is PSYCH. So I spent about 30% on psych, 30% on research, and 40% on storage for a quick trip into golden age land. The Believers lose a lot less by allocating less to research, because of the 40% penalty they are working under... so you might as well get all the fun of a Golden Age out of it. A normal person would lose 20 out of 100 points of research, assuming 50-50 storage/research allocation... but due to your 40% penalty, you're only losing 12 out of 100 by switching from a 50-50% to a 40-30-30 model. Find that silver lining on the underside of Believer technophobia. It isn't an all time great idea, but it was interesting, and it just kinda came to me as something which makes the most of a bad thing. Obviously (but I'll say it anyway) best to do when you already have a subverted nation or two whom you are relying on to do most of your research for you, and/or you are ahead in tech via conquer and probe tactics, but can be done anytime that you feel confident that abandoning your research for a while won't be a lethal mistake. (besides, nobody would be using the Believer/fun combo if they really cared about abandoning research). --The Happy Phantom
Atombomb	posted 04-15-99 11:36 PM ET I think I mentioned doing this in one of my posts...hmm....well anyway it is great to do this with any faction because if you kick into a golden age you gain more energy AND growth. Usually 40% research with a golden age in most of your cities is much better than 50%, and income at 30% generally causes no problems at all.
Ghost	posted 04-16-99 06:56 PM ET You do stress golden ages a lot, but I was specifically talking here about the advantages that Believers have in acquiring them... in that you can cut % research without losing a whole lot. --Ghost
Ghost	posted 04-17-99 11:43 PM ET Well, no. You mention that golden ages are good quite a bit, certainly. Here I am referring to the fact that Believers lose less research points from diverting energy out of research and into psych than a different faction would. (btw, free market + golden age + wealth = +2 econ for the Hive... heh heh heh... on the other hand, the Hive can't use Planned Democracy Golden Age as a Pop Boom, so I think Golden Ages remain balanced for them.) --Ghost