Is this a bug: Virtual World prevents Holo Theater, even w/o Network Node

[Yitzi]

If you have built the Virtual World, you cannot build the Hologram Theater in any base, even without a Network Node.

The idea, presumably, is that the Network Node is cheaper, and you have its tech anyway (since that's a prerequisite for the tech that gives Virtual World and Hologram Theater).  However, the game can be modded so that this is not the case, and furthermore Planetary Networks can be gained via trading.

So is it a bug, and if so should the Virtual World always be buildable if you don't have a Network Node, or only when you can't build a Node or the Node would have higher cost and/or maintenance?

[Lord Avalon]

Sorry, I'm not getting what "it" is in the poll.

Seems to me a Network Node should be a prereq for the Virtual World. Also, if you have built the Virtual World and allow building of the Hologram Theater, then you'd have two in effect? Is that OP?

[Buster's Uncle]

Isn't there a secondary benefit of the HT being lost if it can't be built?  I already forgot precisely what I saw mentioned recently.

[Yitzi]

Sorry, I'm not getting what "it" is in the poll.

Seems to me a Network Node should be a prereq for the Virtual World. Also, if you have built the Virtual World and allow building of the Hologram Theater, then you'd have two in effect? Is that OP?

You would not have two effects, just like you don't have two effects if you build the Hologram Theater before the Virtual World.

As for "it", I mean the fact that a base without a network node cannot build a hologram theater if you own the virtual world.

Isn't there a secondary benefit of the HT being lost if it can't be built?

No secondary benefits, but you lose the ability to gain the benefits of the HT without building a network node...which isn't a big deal usually, but if you don't know Information Networks (having traded for Planetary Networks), or have modded network nodes to be more expensive than HT, then that's a serious downside to the project.

I already forgot precisely what I saw mentioned recently.

You're probably thinking of the skunkworks for FREEPROTO factions.

[Lord Avalon]

Option 4? If you have Virtual World, it shouldn't prevent you from building a Hologram Theater in a base without a Network Node, if you have the tech and really want to build it instead of the Node; but if you have a Node, it's already acting like the Theater, so I don't see why you should be able to build it.

[Yitzi]

Option 4? If you have Virtual World, it shouldn't prevent you from building a Hologram Theater in a base without a Network Node, if you have the tech and really want to build it instead of the Node; but if you have a Node, it's already acting like the Theater, so I don't see why you should be able to build it.

Sorry, that's what I meant by option 2, and I've fixed the poll to reflect that.  Option 1 says you can never build HT if you have VW, option 2 says you can still build it if you don't have a Node, and option 3 says that you can only build it if there's a reason to build it instead of the Node.

[Geo]

I don't think of it as a bug.
It would be rare to have traded Planetary Networks before Information Networks is at least in the pipeline, probed for, or traded with another faction. The tech is too useful for that.