Expanded Seeding Options

[OranHarken]

Expanded Seeding Options


Objective

I have found many of the seeding options to be so inferior to others that they are effectively non-options. While this mod's content is currently very limited it is my intention to expand on it as my abilities get better and I have more opportunity to test the comparative strength of various options.

Current Options

Spacecraft
Thorium Reactor: Begin with a Thorium Reactor in your first city. Intended to replace the non-option that is Fusion Reactor.

Cargo
Old Earth Relic: Begin with an Old Earth Relic in your first city. Intended to make more sense than bringing a Clinic but manufacturing a "Relic" after you arrive.

Future Plans

Adding colonist types that do things other than provide yields. I am presently unable to do this but intend on trying to make it work.

Adding a unique technology that allow the creation of a defensive tile improvement accessible before Domes.

Why not use the Steam Workshop?

I am unfamiliar with the UI and would like some help figuring out what it is I am doing wrong. My mod was stable and working before I installed Modbuddy and trying to import it somehow managed to break it. It also keeps telling me to tell it my install path and I have several times but it keeps saying I have not. The fact I am resentful it being an arbitrary gatekeeper is not helping the process but I would like to get my mods to a wider audience.

 

[Lanth]

I was thinking about the fusion reactor, too. 100 energy seems pretty meh, but buying a worker only takes like 200 energy? So if fusion reactor gave much more energy than it already does, then it would be clearly a superior choice to many of the other options, because you could land on the planet and *then* decide if you wanted a worker or a clinic etc.

So giving a thorium reactor is probably better; but on the other hand that could quickly become unbalanced too. By default they give +3 energy and with the building quest can get another +2. So if you're at 5 energy per turn, in 20 turns you've got 100 energy on top of all of the other energy sources you have - and you can easily get 50-100 from resource pods as well. Suddenly this choice becomes better than some of the others because of its flexibility.

OER cargo - this is always the first thing I build and it usually takes like 6-7 turns or something like that. If instead you're now getting 2 culture (or 3 with BQ) during those initial turns, this is also quickly becoming a more powerful option than some of the others.

 

[OranHarken]

I was thinking about the fusion reactor, too. 100 energy seems pretty meh, but buying a worker only takes like 200 energy? So if fusion reactor gave much more energy than it already does, then it would be clearly a superior choice to many of the other options, because you could land on the planet and *then* decide if you wanted a worker or a clinic etc.

So giving a thorium reactor is probably better; but on the other hand that could quickly become unbalanced too. By default they give +3 energy and with the building quest can get another +2. So if you're at 5 energy per turn, in 20 turns you've got 100 energy on top of all of the other energy sources you have - and you can easily get 50-100 from resource pods as well. Suddenly this choice becomes better than some of the others because of its flexibility.

OER cargo - this is always the first thing I build and it usually takes like 6-7 turns or something like that. If instead you're now getting 2 culture (or 3 with BQ) during those initial turns, this is also quickly becoming a more powerful option than some of the others.

I agree the thorium reactor can stack up to be really power, I was just actually playing a game where I chose it & Aristocrats to see how far I could push it. However The intangible benefit of the options it is compared to, specifically the Tectonic Scanner and Continental Surveyor are hard to compare it too.

A previous game I played as Polystralia using the Continental Surveyor + Laboratory in my starting build. I rushed out Trade Vessels. Having unobstructed vision to half of the capitals on the map gave me a much more powerful lead. Say what you will about Polystralia and Trade in general being broken but if it is the high point I am comparing other options too there is a lot of room.

OER might need to be re-evaluated, I have not sat down and tired to optimize a build order around starting with it yet.

 

[OranHarken]

The rough setup on that Polystralia game:

Artists/Surveyor/Laboratory

Opening Build Order: Trade Depot, Trade Vessel, Worker, Trade Vessel, Ultrasonic Fense, Trade Vessel, OER, Colonist

Research Order: Ecology, Chemistry, Engineering

Virtue Order: Prosperity to Coloney Initiative then straight to Mind over Matter.

I used the trade money to buy clinics in all my cities and military units.

 

[Lanth]

Ah, I was thinking the +100 energy was competing with the starting clinic / worker / marine option.

Actually what would be more fitting than a thorium / fusion reactor, would be solar collector satellite. That would of course require SF's UA to be changed as well.