Ever-noob plays Thinker mod w/ Lal, AAR
- Thread starter MrBungler
- Start date
Thinking about my situation - it's a strong start, but I'm wondering about improvements:
- 28 turns to IA feels too long. Currently running planned, but switching to free market reduces to 14 turns. I can't build Rec Commons yet, but Lal's free talent + HGP means I could offset some drones. What do people think?
- How useful are Boreholes / Condensers before resource caps come off? Situational? Where and when?
- Hive is weak, and I'd love to keep it that way. Anything proactive to be done? Or better use resources elsewhere?
Regarding the tech times. That's an issue with Thinker. The costs are much higher than in vanilla. Unfortunately, the only way around it is hard ICS. At least I haven't found a way to keep an acceptable tech pace in Thinker except blanket the map in bases. (You can try going Free Market but for Lal ICS works fine while in Free Market.)
Your micro is a bit off unless all those forests are autogrown. If not it would have been better to make more colony pods (see point above) and use your former to improve those. Your bases are a bit too far apart even for Lal.
The optimal way to play this position is to **** out another 30+ bases. It's not necessarily a good idea on a meta level because playing like that may suck the fun out of the game for you. But it is what it is.
As for the WP put boreholes on energy and mineral resources (raise/lower land if necessary). In theory, you can pop boom with condensers as they remove the nutrient limit on that tile. In practice you are probably lacking the tech for it. If you don't want to use ICS that would be my suggestion. Build a few more bases for more energy income and utilise boreholes on energy resources to aquire Ethical Calculus. Industrial Automation is also helpful but not strictly necessary. Then get Creches and Recreation Commons everywhere and boom to size 5+ so you can hire specialists. With crawlers you can boom to a higher pop number, maybe even size 9. Have the crawlers provide food and the specialists take care of drone control.
Your micro is a bit off unless all those forests are autogrown. If not it would have been better to make more colony pods (see point above) and use your former to improve those. Your bases are a bit too far apart even for Lal.
The optimal way to play this position is to **** out another 30+ bases. It's not necessarily a good idea on a meta level because playing like that may suck the fun out of the game for you. But it is what it is.
As for the WP put boreholes on energy and mineral resources (raise/lower land if necessary). In theory, you can pop boom with condensers as they remove the nutrient limit on that tile. In practice you are probably lacking the tech for it. If you don't want to use ICS that would be my suggestion. Build a few more bases for more energy income and utilise boreholes on energy resources to aquire Ethical Calculus. Industrial Automation is also helpful but not strictly necessary. Then get Creches and Recreation Commons everywhere and boom to size 5+ so you can hire specialists. With crawlers you can boom to a higher pop number, maybe even size 9. Have the crawlers provide food and the specialists take care of drone control.
Buster's Uncle
AC2 Owner
I always plant a forest first, to get the free spreading action...
I actually always played vanilla with tech stag; the rate doesn't feel slow in general, just slow in this game to me, as in, I'm lacking energy. But I hear you that it's a design choice in Thinker mod.
You're being kind
My micro is wild because I'm nooby af - maybe I would have found better choices had I planned more faster bases, as you suggest. And if that's the optimal strategy, so be it - as you say, the micro scales quick, and I have a habit of not finishing games, feeling overwhelmed.Thanks for this advice especially. I'm gonna try to keep the number of bases reasonable (at least until much of this becomes intuition), and this sounds like a good strat to lean on.
Choices look good. They properly incorporate that you are playing Lal and these base will be big at some point. With other factions I'd settle closer.
Outside the early game it doesn't really matter much where bases go. I do prioritise boreholes spots over base spots as boreholes have more stringent requirements.
Outside the early game it doesn't really matter much where bases go. I do prioritise boreholes spots over base spots as boreholes have more stringent requirements.
Yeah, that is the problem play like that/playing optimally. It doesn't help that Smac UI is a crime against humanity.Otherwise not much to report or maybe comment on. 3 turns took me over an hourneed to develop my intuition to speed up
I'm missing some condensers in your screenshots if you are preparing to boom. By and large condensers are more efficient than tree farms which you can't build anyway atm. The reasons seems to be that you don't have enough formers. I guess I have been spoiled by playing Yang recently. Doubling the former number (at least) would be what is required but it would put a strain on your mineral production.
Thanks civav, you anticipated my question - where to get the food for booming. I have very little experience planning a boom, but I have to think it's awhile away; no creches anywhere, no commons; no condensers, your point; and not enough formers.
But I'll keep moving steady towards.
But I'll keep moving steady towards.
Deciding what kind of setup to use is always tricky. In general I don't like farms without condensers but I can see why they can be useful at times. In your case I would refrain from making them because growing too big not only requires these inefficient farms but also you will have an issue with drone control. Working the condensers is better early on if you have enough happiness. It reduces the upfront payments for the boom. Eventually, you want a crawler there.
In your case only 4 drones can be pacified easily via recreation common, police and HGP so booming only to size 5 initially may be best, working three forests, the condensor farm and employing one specialist. Adjust accordingly for nutrient bonuses or boreholes. Then you can make crawlers, treefarms and drone control for booming.to size 9. Maybe you can get Intellectual Integrity. Usually, you can run FM and use psych for drone control. But with Miriam nearby and on the the warpath that seems to be not an option.
In your case only 4 drones can be pacified easily via recreation common, police and HGP so booming only to size 5 initially may be best, working three forests, the condensor farm and employing one specialist. Adjust accordingly for nutrient bonuses or boreholes. Then you can make crawlers, treefarms and drone control for booming.to size 9. Maybe you can get Intellectual Integrity. Usually, you can run FM and use psych for drone control. But with Miriam nearby and on the the warpath that seems to be not an option.
@civac thanks, I've been misunderstanding the goal, thinking condenser was to support farms. But sounds like your saying one per city? I'm guessing ideally on a nutrient bonus? Since we're on the topic, do you think one or more boreholes per city, terrain allowing? Finally, later when booming to size 9, what would you ideally have the crawlers working?
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