Alpha Centauri 2

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri & Alien Crossfire => Modding => Topic started by: Alpha Centauri Bear on November 15, 2018, 05:23:28 PM

Title: Change feature appearance time
Post by: Alpha Centauri Bear on November 15, 2018, 05:23:28 PM

Hi Everybody.

Recently I was rearranging technology tree to make weapon and armor appearance more smooth/regular throughout the game. While doing that I realized there are other game features I would like to timely adjust. Often you discover   item not yet needed or useful. Whereas sometimes when you need something badly you may need to dig through dozens of unneeded technologies to get what you want. Do you agree that getting features at the right time will make game less frustrating and will make you appreciate rightly timed features more? That is why I plan to rebuild tech tree to make it so. Before finalizing it, though, I want to run my ideas through you to make sure I am on the right track and these changes will be accepted and liked by most. Feel free to comment or suggest. I always appreciate it.

Below I list different game features by groups (weapon, armor, unit types, unit abilities terraforming, facilities of different kinds, secret projects). Only those for which timing is important are listed. Each feature is given a desired time of appearance expressed in discovered number of technologies percentage. For example, 5% is the earliest possible appearance when only first no prerequisites technologies are available, 50% - feature appears when about half of technologies are discovered, 100% - when all technologies are discovered.
Keep in mind that these numbers are very approximate. Due to the variation in discovering path and research speed there is no point in specifying them too exact. So a number of 70 means actually something in 60-80 range.
Another thing to note is that these numbers do not correspond to actual game time. It is just relative arrangement or the order of appearance. For example, when feature A is timed at 40% and feature B is timed at 60% that means feature B most likely appears after feature A but it doesn't link such appearance to any specific game turn range.

GENERAL APPROACH

1. Make item available as early as it may be needed/useful under most pressing circumstances. Otherwise, it makes you lose momentum and, subsequently, the game or the fun or both.
2. Do not make item available much earlier that it possible may generally be needed/useful. Otherwise, it clutters your options and delays other, more useful, technologies.
3. Generally do not afraid to give features early as long as its cost can be adjusted to outweigh benefit. In other words, do not allow acquiring potentially lucrative feature by simple discovering it. It should be a combination of discovery and investment to make option balanced. This way you have more options and neither is an absolute overkill so player needs to wisely choose between many according to current situation.
4. Distribute feature withing the group more or less evenly along technology progress to give each one enough time to be appreciated. Unless there are certain needs to have it at certain time.

WEAPON AND ARMOR

No specific placement here. I will distribute them more or less evenly across technology progress so each item can be appreciate for some time. It will also maintain weapon-armor parity encouraging players to focus on military technologies for the duration of the whole game.

The only disputable thing is special weapon and armor types added in SMAX. Honestly, I don't see any fun or interest in using them. They directly contradict the unique "build it yourself" game paradigm making them strange outliers. Indeed, what's the point in having certain half strength ability embedded only into item of certain strength? For psi attack/defense strength doesn't matter at all. Besides, if you even need to combine weapon/armor with an ability you can much easily do it via attaching ability as cleverly designed. Rigid combination becomes obsolete quickly with technology progress. Worse thing is that it confers half strength ability at a costs of 25% which is about same or more expensive than attaching a normal full strength ability to it. Err, I'm out of arguments for it. So I propose to remove all special items. Please argue if you think they are useful.

UNIT TYPES

05 Foil chassis                   Sometimes is needed immediately to expand.
10 Speeder chassis            Not critical but usually nice to have earlier for exploration and probe chassis.
15 Heavy artillery              Not critical but nice to have earlier for combat variety.
15 Probe teams                 Approximate time of contacting many neighbors.
20 Mind worms                  Not early than that to let +PLANET factions appreciate their innate bonus.
                                        Not too much later too to give room for other native types.
25 Spore Launcher             No strong opinion. Just placed them somewhere between Mind worms and Isle of the Deep.
30 Isle of the Deep            Time to support naval forces with psi. Plus more protected transport.
30 Cruiser chassis              No strong opinion. Cruiser chassis does not change situation critically.
                                        Just stuck it somewhere between Speeder and Needlejet.
40 Sealurk                        Cheaper than IoD and has ability to attack shore units. Nice addition to naval combat.
50 Needlejet chassis          Preferably not earlier than that as air combat shadows many ground and sea units/abilities.
                                       Let us appreciate them a little until we switch to air mode.
60 Locust of Chiron            Same idea. Psi units come later than corresponding realm normal ones.
60 Hovertank chassis         No strong preference.
70 Copter chassis              No strong preference. Copter may appear earlier if its speed is reduced.
                                        Then it may serve as an active defense unit mostly.
80 Missile chassis              Missile = PB. As an ultimate weapon this one should come quite late in a game.
90 Gravship chassis           An ultimate chassis obsoleting all others. Should give all others enough time to be appreciated.

ABILITIES

20 Hypnotic trance           Give it relatively early but price it high enough to discourage player from slapping it to every garrison unit.
20 empath song               Same consideration as above.
30 Comm jammer            About the time fast units become more or less abundant. No need much earlier than that.
30 amphibious pods         No exact preference but coastal attacks need to be appreciated as an option before air combat is available.
40 AAA Tracking               Should come a little bit earlier than air units to give weaker faction counter air ability.
60 non-lethal methods      Very powerful ability doubling police power. No need to get it too early. Player should exhaust other drone quelling means first.
70 Dissociative wave         Another relatively powerful ability. No need to get it earlier as it would obsolete other interesting combat abilities.
90 Blink displacer             Renders all base defenses useless. No need it early.

TERRAFORMING

05 basic terraforming         
30 advanced terraforming   Make it available relatively early to start appreciating advanced terraforming.
                                        Not too early, though, to let The Weather Paradigm advantage last a little.
60 Soil enricher                 Should come earlier than Hydroponic Satellite to appreciate last terraforming option.
                                        Not much earlier than that as it boosts base growth even more.
70 Mag tube                      Switching to free movement about the 2/3 into the game.
70 raise and lower terrain   Don't let this earlier as lets changing map shape and add more land. Let players work ocean squares first.
                                        I am thinking to move it even later as quite powerful ability to sneak upon enemy from interesting direction.

FACILITY - MILITARY

10 Command center                       The earliest time player may start producing designated assault armies.
20 Perimeter defense                     No strong preference but I like to have defensive abilities earlier.
30 Naval Yard                                Same story here. About the time sea exploration collisions start happening.
50 Aerospace complex                    Together with needlejet
60 Tachyon field                             Since it is a generic upgrade it should come after all specific ones.
                                                    I think it is better to have it around to protect against pretty nagging neighbor.
70 Flechette defense system           Should come a little bit earlier than PB to give weaker factions a defensive chance.
80 Bioenhancement center              Total and very powerful morale upgrade. Together with other facilities it makes Commando units.
40 Geosynchronous survey pod       No strong preference. Indestructible sensor. Put it early in light of "defense early" paradigm.
                                                    I guess it could be moved a little later but not much later than 60 or something.

FACILITY - DRONES

05 Recreation commons       Available for research at start.
20 Hologram theater            Roughly about the time the second drone facility may be needed. Could vary.
80 Paradise garden              No strong preference. There are plenty drone quelling method toward to the end of the game and the Psych is cheap.
                                          This one is just a cosmetic facility. Moved it later to make room for other quelling methods.

FACILITY - MISC

10 Recycling tanks          No preference. It is not critical for survival. Especially for early bases when bonuses are abundant.
                                     Merely production improvement facility. Could be moved to much later.
15 Children's creche        About the time you may get a base with good nutrient income so multiplying it makes sense.

FACILITY - SEA

Generic approach: make sea bases effective earlier to give expansion alternative to war for land.

10 Aquafarm                     
20 Thermocline transducer 
30 Subsea Trunkline           
40 Mining Platform + 1       

FACILITY - ENERGY (economy, labs, psych)

20 Biology lab             Cheap facility, small fixed bonus - better have it earlier while it is useful.
30 Energy bank           See explanation below.
30 Network node         See explanation below.
40 Research hospital    Labs+Psych+Drones. Better facility should come later than Network node.
50 Fusion lab               Labs+Economy. Better facility should come later than Research hospital.
60 Nanohospital           Next generation of Research hospital.
70 Quantum lab           Next generation of Fusion lab.

Rationale for Energy bank and Network node timing.

Any multiplier facility with fixed cost (build+maintenance) grows in value together with corresponding base production. Let's see how Energy bank and Network node grow in value comparing to Recycling tank, for example. To understand facility value I calculate two parameters: how soon it pays for its mineral cost and how much it provides since then. I express all resources in minerals translating 1 nutrient = 1 mineral and 1 energy/labs = 1/2 minerals. For break even time I arbitrarily consider 50 turn as more or less average value lower being good and higher being bad.

Recycling tank
Provides: 1n,1m,1e = 2.5 minerals. Maintenance: 0; Break even time: 40 / 2.5 = 16 turns.

Energy bank (assuming 20 base energy yield)
Provides: 20 (base energy yield) * 0.5 (economy allocation) * 0.5 (facility bonus) = 5e = 2.5m. Maintenance: 1e = 0.5m. Break even time = 80 / (2.5 - 0.5) = 40 turns.

Genejack factory (assuming 10 base minerals yield) - for comparison
Provides: 10 (base minerals yield) * 0.5 (facility bonus) = 5m. Maintenance: 2e = 1m. Break even time = 80 / (5 - 1) = 20 turns.

As you can see, even with 20/10 ratio of energy to minerals Energy bank is worse than Recycling tank and Genejack factory. It seems that 20 energy yield is a level at which it becomes relatively useful on average. Again this is VERY rough approximation but naturally nobody would build it very early in the game in base size 1-3. There are other priorities at that time. About 1/3 into the game is when you probably start building them en mass. Anyway, as with any other technology beeline one can reach it somewhat earlier if needed.

FACILITY - ECODAMAGE

30 Tree farm               Make this available early to fight early ecodamage.
                                 This is a first facility of type. Without it sometimes ecodamage is uncontrollable.
30 Centauri preserve   Same as above.
70 Hybrid forest          No need this early. Building Tree farm and Centauri preserve is enough to fight ecodamage for a while.
                                 Besides, cost and maintenance wise your probably won't build these en mass for long time anyway.
70 Temple of Planet     Same as above.

FACILITY - MINERALS

40 Genejack factory            Why not having it early if it is already beneficial? May need to adjust cost to make sure it is not abused.
55 Robotic assembly plant   Others below just distributed along the timeline according to their cost.
60 Quantum converter
80 Nanoreplicator

FACILITY - SPACE STATION

General consideration is to keep them close to the end as these are ultimate base yield boosting methods shadowing all others. Player need to appreciate other base management elements first including mineral multiplying facilities.

80 Sky hydroponics lab
90 Orbital power transmitter
100 Nessus mining station
80 orbital defense pods         Protection against PB. Should be available at about same time.

FACILITY - PROTOTYPES

30 Skunkworks             No strong preference. Just wanted it relatively early to cover bigger half of all prototypes.
                                   Cost can be adjusted to account for only one such facility needed.

FACILITY - MOVEMENT

90 Psi gate                   Instant transportation between continents. Let mag tubes to work for a while.

FACILITY - SIZE LIMIT

25 Hab complex            Sometimes is needed early. Eliminates pain of idle waiting.
50 Habitation dome       Assuming you have 25 size bases at the end of the game, 13 is about half way to it.
                                   Often struggle to get this facility and bases stagnate.

Title: Re: Change feature appearance time
Post by: bvanevery on November 15, 2018, 07:18:17 PM

Quote from: tnevolin on November 15, 2018, 05:23:28 PM

05 Foil chassis                   Sometimes is needed immediately to expand.

IMNSHO it absolutely has to be a Tier 1 tech, to keep AIs from stagnating on small or tiny island starts.  I also did changes to world generation settings to get rid of the tiny islands.  Small islands are still a problem at times though.  Given that, it would be reasonable to give the Foil chassis away for free at the beginning of the game, as some modders have done.  I didn't go that route, you have to actually research C1 Doctrine: Flexibility.

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10 Speeder chassis            Not critical but usually nice to have earlier for exploration and probe chassis.

If you do any substantial exploring, you will acquire some Unity Rovers for free anyways.  Experimenting with not having Speeder available is a reasonable possibility for modding.  I have no opinion on whether it will be interesting or boring.

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15 Heavy artillery              Not critical but nice to have earlier for combat variety.

I currently have it as a Tier 1 tech, on the justification that Doctrine: Flexibility is a C1 tech and one may wish a land based defense against ship artillery.  As I don't give anyone a real weapon that early, they can't do much to units, except to destroy other artillery units.  However, they can obliterate your terrain improvements, and that is an important aspect of warfare.  The AI loves to do that sort of thing, it's pretty compulsive about it.  I'm actually wondering if having the land based artillery too early, is too tedious and spammy, because of what the AI does with it.  Previously I removed all the excessive artillery costs, but now I'm considering putting them back, to curb the AI.  I don't have a conclusion about any of this yet.

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15 Probe teams                 Approximate time of contacting many neighbors.

Whether you contact many neighbors is map size dependent.  Far more important is whether you contact a hostile neighbor, or whether you want to be hostile to someone.  Also, the Data Angels need to be able to get this ability in a reasonable period of time, or you are crippling them.  In my mod, SE choices to improve probe team strength are nerfed.  Fundamentalist doesn't do a darned thing for probe teams.  Only Thought Control does, and that comes late midgame. 

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20 Mind worms                  Not early than that to let +PLANET factions appreciate their innate bonus.
                                        Not too much later too to give room for other native types.

Pretty much how I did it.

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25 Spore Launcher             No strong opinion. Just placed them somewhere between Mind worms and Isle of the Deep.

I give them with mindworms.  I've never found them to be particularly special as artillery units.  I don't see any inherent mystique or advantage.

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30 Isle of the Deep            Time to support naval forces with psi. Plus more protected transport.

I've got 'em in Tier 4, same as Doctrine: Initiative, but on different paths.  D:I was on Tier 5 for quite awhile.  A long time ago I thought about making the tech for Isles a prereq for D:I, on the principle that you'd need to know something about getting through sea fungus to have big shipping having any chance of working.  But I didn't do that.  I thought parallel paths were more interesting than required paths.  I notice that my version of the Pirates likes to make a lot of Isles.

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30 Cruiser chassis              No strong opinion. Cruiser chassis does not change situation critically.

Cruiser Probe Team is damn better than a Foil Probe Team.  Cruisers and the Maritime Control Center are also what you need to win the game with a blitz of Marines, particularly on larger map sizes where it's too tedious to push units over water any other way.

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40 Sealurk                        Cheaper than IoD and has ability to attack shore units. Nice addition to naval combat.

I never, ever use them.   I never, ever see the AI use them.

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60 Hovertank chassis         No strong preference.

I put it fairly early, Tier 4, same as D:I.  The AI will build a few of these, but not many.  I haven't used them much for continental assault because I generally prefer to build mag tube lines straight to someone's doorstep.  My jury is out on whether it's a game destroying way to wipe out a continent or not.  I've had some games, I can't remember what my weapons were like at the time, where making a pile of Hovertanks just seemed to bounce off a distant enemy.  I needed a lot to get jobs done, and I don't recall them being particularly satisfying to use.  Hovertanks combined with Fusion Power would probably be a lot more deadly.

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70 Copter chassis              No strong preference. Copter may appear earlier if its speed is reduced.

It should never, ever appear before Needlejets and air units in general should never, ever be given to anyone early in the game.

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80 Missile chassis              Missile = PB. As an ultimate weapon this one should come quite late in a game.

Mine can hit anywhere on Planet.  It is the ultimate tedious weapon, trying to use Conventional Missiles en masse against someone distant.  Yes, you can do it.  You will get tired of it.  The problem is all those Missiles have to be steered to their targets, and they get hung up on anything along the way, pestering you with questions about whether you want to keep moving.

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90 Gravship chassis           An ultimate chassis obsoleting all others. Should give all others enough time to be appreciated.

I never, ever use them.  I've never seen the AI use them, possibly because I've usually beaten AIs into a pulp before they'd ever get the chance.  I think of them as a toy for sandboxers.

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20 Hypnotic trance           Give it relatively early but price it high enough to discourage player from slapping it to every garrison unit.

I disagree with pricing it high.  I did make it cost.  In fact, pretty much everything I set cost=1.  If some ability is "powerful", I handle that by putting it later in the tech tree.  I encourage / discourage through research, not its cost.  If you've made it that far in the game to get it, heck, crank it up and win the game already.  Like for a Dissociative Wave or whatnot.

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30 amphibious pods         No exact preference but coastal attacks need to be appreciated as an option before air combat is available.

I think the mystique of being unable to attack a coastal city directly is kind of dumb, a holdover from Civ II has no place in a sci-fi future.  So in my mod this is a Tier 2 tech.  You may not get any weapons that make any use of it in that tier, but if you want to try some Marine tactic early, you can.  Up to players to figure out what they like to do with such things.  In general, I put "interesting" abilities early, "boring" abilities, weapons, and armors late.

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40 AAA Tracking               Should come a little bit earlier than air units to give weaker faction counter air ability.

People debate this, but I believe that people who don't do their Doctrine: Air Power research, deserve to die.  Or, they have better found some advantage in their chosen path through the tech tree, that makes D:AP not so critical.  If you are rather distant from an enemy, you may not care about Needlejets so much, for instance.  Mag Tubes are the One True Method for invading at long distances, as they're the only way you can push lots of units without an undue number of mouseclicks.

The AI is not effective with air units, generally limiting itself to going after your Formers.  I might feel differently if the AI were a genuine air threat, but they aren't.

The AI is effective and annoying with popping you with Conventional Missiles.  That's part of why I made them more expensive, so that the AI can't spam you as fast with them.

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05 basic terraforming         
30 advanced terraforming   Make it available relatively early to start appreciating advanced terraforming.

I have never seriously considered a game where basic terraforming isn't a Tier 1 tech.  That said, recently I've played the Caretakers without bothering with terraforming for a bit.  I think I can get away with it with them, because they can do directed research, and they start with 3 cities.  I just spread to "the best" city spots for a little bit, grabbing resource bonuses, making people happy as needed.  I'm not sure this is viable with blind research.  Terraforming is a way to improve your power without being dependent on tech.  What are the Believers going to do, for instance?

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70 Mag tube                      Switching to free movement about the 2/3 into the game.

Nah, I make it early midgame.  It is way too valuable as a means of conquest.  This is not the 19th century, there is no realism in "inventing a steam engine".  In my mod, mag tubing is a completely viable way to wipe everyone else out, compared to a Marine blitz, or an air campaign.  You will in fact be mag tube capable before either of those options, although you need a lot of Formers to make good use of that approach.

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70 raise and lower terrain   Don't let this earlier as lets changing map shape and add more land. Let players work ocean squares first.

I made it come late.  Not until you get Advanced Ecological Engineering, which is Tier 5 in my mod.  Comes late midgame, depending on how you focused your research.

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20 Perimeter defense                     No strong preference but I like to have defensive abilities earlier.

This also seems to be good for the AI's survivability.

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60 Tachyon field                             Since it is a generic upgrade it should come after all specific ones.
                                                    I think it is better to have it around to protect against pretty nagging neighbor.

I think it is unimportant / worthless against AIs.  Frankly I don't need Perimeter Defenses in general against the AI.  Might need to defend 1 specific strong point on a front.  Mostly, the AI is not good enough at projecting force at a long distance, to worry about defense much.  I think over-garrisoning and perimeterizing is a bit of a player disease, a sort of Completionist compusion.  You Ain't Gonna Need It.

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70 Flechette defense system           Should come a little bit earlier than PB to give weaker factions a defensive chance.

No, players who don't get PBs should have to deal with the threat of annihilation.  This game isn't slack off on your research, I don't have to do anything.  If you're a research-challenged faction, you should be intervening militarily on the ground before anyone can hurl PBs at you.  And you have to consider whether to commit atrocities carefully, because if you let such factions survive, they will hurl PBs at you.  PBs are an important diplomatic aspect of the game.  No free and easy defenses to them.  Pointedly, my PBs can hit anywhere on Planet.

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40 Geosynchronous survey pod       No strong preference. Indestructible sensor. Put it early in light of "defense early" paradigm.

I never use them.  I even made them available with Orbital Spaceflight, I have such contempt for them.  It's just a gewgaw that I don't think anyone's going to remember to build.  By the time I've gone Orbital, I'm not worrying about defending individual bases anymore.

Phew this is getting long, where's lunch?

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20 Hologram theater            Roughly about the time the second drone facility may be needed. Could vary.

I made this cheaper to buy and maintain, and available at Tier 2.

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10 Recycling tanks          No preference. It is not critical for survival.

As a free facility it overpowers the Aliens and I took it away from them as a factional ability.  They have to build these things same as anyone else.  RTs are helpful, but they can also hinder growth if you obsess about building them too early.  I find that in practice, I often have to build a Rec Commons sooner than a RT.

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Generic approach: make sea bases effective earlier to give expansion alternative to war for land.

Beware that the Pirates are already that.  If you make it easy for everyone else to expand on water, Pirate advantage on water is going to become massive.

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30 Tree farm               Make this available early to fight early ecodamage.

I think you'd be giving away too many effective minerals too early, because of the food that is made available along with those minerals.  Putting this early is in danger of creating a One True Strategy for the player to pursue.  I use the more traditional pace of the game, putting this at Tier 4.

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40 Genejack factory            Why not having it early if it is already beneficial?

Eco-damage, too much military advantage.

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FACILITY - SPACE STATION

These are game breakers.  I only offer them late.

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90 Psi gate                   Instant transportation between continents. Let mag tubes to work for a while.

In practice, a sandboxing toy.

Title: Re: Change feature appearance time
Post by: Alpha Centauri Bear on November 15, 2018, 08:04:38 PM

Quote from: bvanevery on November 15, 2018, 07:18:17 PM

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15 Probe teams                 Approximate time of contacting many neighbors.

Whether you contact many neighbors is map size dependent.  Far more important is whether you contact a hostile neighbor, or whether you want to be hostile to someone.  Also, the Data Angels need to be able to get this ability in a reasonable period of time, or you are crippling them.  In my mod, SE choices to improve probe team strength are nerfed.  Fundamentalist doesn't do a darned thing for probe teams.  Only Thought Control does, and that comes late midgame. 

Agree. I don't think this is a very critical feature. Although it is better to have it ready and not get stuck without it when needed. My rationale that you need probes when a player amasses army capable of harming neighbor. Then it is an imperative to establish embassy and know opponent army size. That usually doesn't happen until turn 50 something. Before that it is just occasional opportunity sneak attacks you cannot predict anyway.

Title: Re: Change feature appearance time
Post by: Alpha Centauri Bear on November 15, 2018, 08:08:45 PM

Quote from: bvanevery on November 15, 2018, 07:18:17 PM

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30 Cruiser chassis              No strong opinion. Cruiser chassis does not change situation critically.

Cruiser Probe Team is damn better than a Foil Probe Team.  Cruisers and the Maritime Control Center are also what you need to win the game with a blitz of Marines, particularly on larger map sizes where it's too tedious to push units over water any other way.

Interesting observation. Thank's note. However, it doesn't support the decision where to start having them. I believe 1/3 of the game plus-minus is about right. Earlier you don't have a production power to stamp many naval units anyway.

Title: Re: Change feature appearance time
Post by: Alpha Centauri Bear on November 15, 2018, 08:11:10 PM

Quote from: bvanevery on November 15, 2018, 07:18:17 PM

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40 Sealurk                        Cheaper than IoD and has ability to attack shore units. Nice addition to naval combat.

Ditto. Maybe make them much cheaper comparing to IoD or make IoD more expensive like 2-3 times probably? Then it may make sense to have cheap attacker-defender capable attacking shore units.

Title: Re: Change feature appearance time
Post by: Alpha Centauri Bear on November 15, 2018, 08:30:14 PM

Quote from: bvanevery on November 15, 2018, 07:18:17 PM

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40 Genejack factory            Why not having it early if it is already beneficial?

Eco-damage, too much military advantage.

Eco-damage is mostly the owner problem. You don't want it - don't build it.

We have different positions on advantage. You want to keep powerful toys from children until they grow older, not necessarily wiser, though. I don't really care when they get it as long as the price is right and you need certain conditions to align to make it worth something. With right price building factories in all bases as soon as they become available may turn out to be a suicidal decision.

That is my understand of strategy: multiple choices  those you need to analyse all the time along with changing situation to excel.

Title: Re: Change feature appearance time
Post by: bvanevery on November 18, 2018, 01:06:30 PM

I don't think "yeah you can build it now, but it sucks" is actually strategy.  I think it's just a cheap ability.  Player ends up going through workarounds and unpleasant learning curves because something is too much of a PITA in practice.

I have Punishment Spheres available on Tier 2, and they cost as much to build and maintain as a Recreation Commons.  They have a -50% Research penalty at the base.  I figure if you want to do that at the beginning of the game, knock yourself out!  Maybe I should do an After Action Report with such a play style.  Otherwise I'd never use them, without that artificial stimulation.  They'd be very practical for taking over distant bases late game, which aren't going to provide substantial Research benefits anyways, but I never remember or care about doing that by then.