Automated fungus planting

[Xen]

Does anyone know of a way to insert the planting of fungus into automation preferences? Perhaps as a substitute for one of the other options, like auto building condensers & boreholes for instance.

[bvanevery]

There's a Preference setting for allowing the automated removal of fungus.  It's allowed by default.  So if you want to "go Gaian" and disallow it, you can.

I don't see anything about allowing the planting of fungus, or encouraging it.  Generally speaking there's no such thing as an "encouragement" setting for terraforming, anywhere in the game for anything.  Your desire for that, touches on the issue of more generalized terraforming "programmability".  Much more could be done.

I think the open source 4X TBS game C-Evo may have done those sorts of terrain priority things.  I know they did city improvement priority things.

Myself, I terraform every single square by hand.  It's the only way to be sure the AI doesn't cock it up.

[Neil]

Pollute more and the fungus grows for free.  Seriously though, that's my main source of fungus in the late game.

[Buster's Uncle]

Y'know, that reads like a wise-butt answer --- but I like to run out the clock and transcend at the last second, and that's a main source of fungus for me, late game, too.

[bvanevery]

If I'm in a Truce with someone, I've been known to use my typical giant fleets of terraformers, to passive aggressively plant fungus all over their land.  The game doesn't disallow it, even for a Treaty, although in that case I think they should consider it a hostile act.  I figure if it's a Truce, I'm perfectly allowed to blockade their agricultural production, so I should be allowed to plant fungus too.  That's how I justify my exploit.

 

It doesn't work against all factions.  Some will have acquired the ability to eat the fungus, in which case this really doesn't work as a starvation tactic.  It can work as a minerals deprivation tactic though.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Automated formers are automated. If planting fungus is allowed and AI computes it as most valuable option - it will.
Research all fungus techs, crank PLANET up, build Manifold Harmonics, release formers and let us know results of this experiment.

[Buster's Uncle]

If I'm in a Truce with someone, I've been known to use my typical giant fleets of terraformers, to passive aggressively plant fungus all over their land.  The game doesn't disallow it, even for a Treaty, although in that case I think they should consider it a hostile act.  I figure if it's a Truce, I'm perfectly allowed to blockade their agricultural production, so I should be allowed to plant fungus too.  That's how I justify my exploit.

 

It doesn't work against all factions.  Some will have acquired the ability to eat the fungus, in which case this really doesn't work as a starvation tactic.  It can work as a minerals deprivation tactic though.

If you really want to be a jerk to someone you're at peace with, move a mindworm up beside their base and release it into the wild.  Do it 40 more times if needed and you can...  They don't even get mad.

-That's there's one of them exploits you were asking about, Tim.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Eh. I know there are plenty.
 

[bvanevery]

If you really want to be a jerk to someone you're at peace with, move a mindworm up beside their base and release it into the wild.  Do it 40 more times if needed and you can...  They don't even get mad.

You told me about this a few years ago.  TBH I don't think I've yet put it into practice in any broad sense.  Usually if I've made a lot of mindworms, it's because I intend to be at war and conquer an enemy by rail.

However I do also have this "passive aggressive" tendency of only going to war long enough to knock off a city or two, to get a faction to understand "who's boss" and quit trying to fight me.  Mindworms during peacetime might be a way to remove undesirable cities from near my borders.  Or maybe to clear up a border dispute, hmm.  That could be useful.

In my modding, I've nerfed mindworms in various ways.  For instance nowadays, you can only manufacture them in the lab, in late game, after having climbed up a lot of the Explore tech tree.  Before then, you will have had to capture your mindworms.  That makes them a bit precious and not good for every single operation you might think of.

Anyways in late game, 40 mindworms is still an awful lot of production, just to liquidate 1 city without diplomatic consequences.  I wonder how often I've been afraid of diplomatic consequences at that point?  I can often get chemical weapons legalized by then.  Worst case, big bribes to make the measure pass.  Sometimes, you just get lucky earlier and various factions are down with it.  X weapons are definitely my preferred way of getting rid of an enemy base.  The drawback is it commits you to wiping out that faction entirely, as you can't let them linger long enough to nuke you.

[Xen]

Well that looks like a big "no". What a shame.

Thanks for the response guys.