Exploration Tips and Strategies

[vorlon_mi]

OK, breaking out our discussion from @War-mongering_Child 's thread for a strategy guide for ARC.

First, let me assume that we're talking about BE with the Rising Tide expansion. I'm going to further assume that we're not using cool mods like Hover Explorer or Hovering Explorer or one of the others that increases the movement of explorers.

Several experienced players recommend building lots of units in the early game, especially boats and explorers, to reap the rewards before the AI factions.
I noted that we can pursue different types of items during exploration, with different requirements to reap/gather them.

- Biome Quest items: useful, but not urgent. The AI are pursuing the same things, but they can be "used" (excavated, biopsy, whatever) multiple times
- Resource Pods: Need to be rolled over. Boats can move quickly and get to all the ones in the water. Subs can get the ones hidden in ice at the poles, but they Move. So. Slowly. In the early game, just two hexes per turn. Explorers can get these, too, and are amphibious. But they are also sooooooooo slow. Al are competing for these, so they are urgent.
- Progenitor sites, alien skeletons, sunken satellites or spaceships: Require an explorer to visit, *with* enough expedition modules. AI are competing for these, so they are also urgent, but less urgent than the resource pods.

I also discovered this cool guide listing the rewards for each expedition type

As a first level advice, one should grab all the resource pods possible. In the early game, the fastest moving units are melee boats. All the early land units have movement 2, with explorers having the advantage of ignoring some terrain slowdowns.

Since the payoff for biome quests are slow in coming, I don't recommend going out of your way to get them. Yes, when you come across one, great; remember that it uses up all your remaining movement points, just like an attack.

If you come upon an explorer site, you may want to prioritize whether or not to use one of your (initially scarce) expedition modules on it.

• Crashed satellite, sunken spacecraft or sunken vehicles can give production bonus. Consider what you're building in your capital at the moment. You may want to swap your build order before starting the expedition
• Progenitor devices or ruins can give an affinity boost. I tend to grab these first, for the affinity buffs, but see below
• Alien skeletons or kraken nests can give a free alien unit. Most of the time I delay these, especially if they are on a small island. I really don't need a land-based alien that can never embark to swim away.
• Derelict settlement or wrecked colony lander can give you population in your capital, which is nearly always good

Military and Affinity: My preference is to buff my military units as quickly as possible, so that the early units can survive longer. I tend to build a larger military later, say after turn 150. @Tiberiu and others have noted that the production costs for units increases as they are upgraded. These military-focused players recommend building lots of level 1 units early -- when they're cheaper -- and then rapidly increasing affinity to upgrade them into an unstoppable force. In other Civ games, upgrading units costs something -- gold, usually. In BERT, the upgrade comes for free, once you gain the affinity points.

Overall, I like getting the Prosperity virtue to increase explorer modules, accompanied with the Supremacy 5 affinity to get an extra module.
In the mid-game, I usually build a submarine and send it around the nearest polar ice, looking for resource pods locked in the ice. If I happen to get an alien drone from one of the alien skeleton expedition, I send that on the polar expedition instead. The sub or drone eventually makes its way to the other polar ice, to do a sweep.

We face some interesting decisions in the early game. What to build, and in what order? How many explorers? Before turn 75-100, production is usually in short supply in each city; I rarely have more than 4 cities by turn 100, with each city having low production.

Lately, I have preferred to take Aristocrats (+4 energy in every city) as my colonists, since I like to be able to purchase trade convoys and clinics to keep my health from going too negative. Do you prefer Engineers (+2 production in every city) instead? In my first few games, I think that I chose Scientists but found myself running short of energy. Both Artists (to boost culture in every city) and Refugees (to boost food in every city) don't seem as strong to me. Several other civ games (especially Civ4) really value food and population growth, but I've not found that to be the case in BERT.

 

[Tiberiu]

Good tips!

I would add the list of quests and rewards for the Marvels (Biome quests) here so that if there are people who don't know the rewards, they can read about it: https://civilization.fandom.com/wiki/Marvels_(CivBE)

copy pasted info here for convenience:

Spoiler :

Biome: Arid
Quest Item: Abandoned Alien City
Quest: Hearts and Sand: Survey Abandoned Alien Cities
Reward for Exploring Single Marvel: None
Reward for Completing Entire Quest: 5-20% bonus combat Strength Strength for all military units, dependent on positive global Health Health (1-20)


Biome: Frigid
Quest Item: Floating Alien Structure
Quest: Ice and Conquest: Investigate Alien Structures
Reward for Exploring Single Marvel: None
Reward for Completing Entire Quest: Each ancient alien structure within the player's territory provides 3 Geothermal Geothermal.

Biome: Fungal
Quest Item: Alien Fungus
Quest: Spores and Harvest: Clean Giant Fungi
Reward for Exploring Single Marvel: +3 Food Food added to adjacent tiles
Reward for Completing Entire Quest: 15% Food Food carried over after city growth.


Biome: Lush
Quest Item: Alien Remains
Quest: Strength and Decay: Biopsy Alien Remains
Reward for Exploring Single Marvel: None
Reward for Completing Entire Quest: All military units can leash alien units.


Biome: Primordial
Quest Item: Meteorite Crater
Quest: Deus Ex Chemia: Mine Meteorite Craters
Reward for Exploring Single Marvel: None
Reward for Completing Entire Quest: Increased in Production Production in all cities for 50 turns. The number of turns the production bonuses come from increases by +2 turns for every future crater mined.


Biome: Any
Quest Item: Giant Hydracoral Brain (May only be on Water)
Quest: Visions in the Storm: Take samples of Giant Hydrocoral Brains
Reward for Exploring Single Marvel: None
Reward for Completing Entire Quest: Tiles surrounding Hydracoral are now visible. Citizens can work tiles containing Hydracoral.

I think I never completed a Biome quests, the rewards seem a bit underwhelming...I like the Fungal one, which creates some mushrooms around the map and they have +3 food around all tiles. They are quite good places to settle...

I would also like to add a tip for people who might not know this but - right before you excavate a Derelict Settlement or a Wrecked Colony Lander, it's worth switching to Culture production because if you excavate culture, you can gain much more in this way (it gives you the amount you produce, multiplied by 4 to a maximum of 500).

Lately, I have preferred to take Aristocrats (+4 energy in every city) as my colonists

Interesting, maybe a strategy where you also focus on Industry and try to profit from those Investment perks ( gain 1 energy for each 100 energy you have), coupled with the Trait that helps you trade efficiently with Stations?
One nice thing about energy is that it's not penalised by unhealth, while food, science, culture and production, are. This suggests that a wide approach based on energy focus might work well even while in serious unhealth.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Interesting, maybe a strategy where you also focus on Industry and try to profit from those Investment perks ( gain 1 energy for each 100 energy you have), coupled with the Trait that helps you trade efficiently with Stations?
One nice thing about energy is that it's not penalised by unhealth, while food, science, culture and production, are. This suggests that a wide approach based on energy focus might work well even while in serious unhealth.

I need to try that approach. My last several games have focused on the Might and Prosperity virtues; I need to include some Industry as well. I've grown to depend on the Might virtue that gives a free affinity level, so that I can start building the victory wonder when I want to.

My station trading has been hit-or-miss, due to the AI. In some games, the AI seem to go on a rampage, destroying stations. Or neglecting to trade with them, so they withdraw and vanish. I'm left with my one station, that I "sponsored" early on, that I consider my pet. Other games, I have 4 or 5 stations as potential trade partners as late as turn 200.

I appreciate the insight about unhealth penalties. I assumed that all the yields were penalized, so it's good to know that energy is not.

 

[Tiberiu]

I have play tested Aristocrats Colonists in a serious game to see if I will be able to use the bonus well. The result is maybe inconclusive since it is only a single game but for what it is worth here is what I think about it.

short version: I think it is only better than Food, and I would take Culture / Science / Production (in this order) instead of Energy.

Spoiler :

settings: Apollo / PAC - Aristocrats / Cryotome / Tectonic Scanner. Standard Size Terran map (random rolled Primordial Biome).

It took me 135 turns to get to a point where I have decisive advantage (leader in affinity and actual army power, etc) and I can say Domination Victory is imminent in about 30 turns, while normally on average it takes me 10-20 turns less...

[ later edit: the game ended exactly as predicted ( 15 turns more were dragged with intention to test a few things), and I had ~ 1500 energy per turn with 20 cities and without producing wealth. ]


However, the game was not an easy roll, and I did not have any particular luck with Artifacts, quests, etc. I did get early Computing (turn 55 or so) and Communications (~ turn 75), but overall, my luck was below average.
Moreover, I do not have titanium in any of my cities ( the titanium to the S of my capital was too dangerous to settle early game because Hutama was being aggressive).

Right now 50% of my culture and gold come from trading with 3 stations, boosted by Profiteering Trait, and Alternative markets Industry Virtue, and Station Sentinels.
While Aristocrats bonus was noticeable, I believe that it added to the difficulty of this game, and for this reason I believe that my expectations were right, i.e 2 Culture is better than 4 Energy.

The problem with Energy is that it takes a while until it becomes really usable. Early game it is more or less irrelevant if I am making 4 energy or 8 energy . While if I am making 3 culture instead of just 1, this means I can afford to take some important Virtues quickly.

My yield based colonist preferences and reasons are these:

1. + 2 Culture. It allows fast border growth if land city or higher yield if on water. It can be converted into anything else depending on what you want, AND it can allow you to obtain the valuable Synergy Bonuses faster.
2. + 2Science or + 2 Production. Science allows faster discovery of important early game techs, while Production helps with producing the important explorers or boats, or Trade Depot, Recycler, etc, faster.
3. +4 Energy. Energy is useful but the amount does not feel good enough to me. +5 energy per city would have felt closer to +2 culture in value.
4. +2 Food. It is not that food is not important but the other yields are more important, thus I believe +3 food/ city would have been closer to +2 culture in value.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Which yield (culture/science/production) do you find to be more scarce in the early game? Or putting it a different way, which yield is most important for your early game?

 

[Tiberiu]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Which yield (culture/science/production) do you find to be more scarce in the early game? Or putting it a different way, which yield is most important for your early game?

Thank you too. I think I would say that production is the most valuable early game... getting out an explorer in 5 turns instead of 7-8 can be the difference between getting 2-3 more pods with that explorer on his way, which snowball into more artifacts, more small increases in yields, and most importantly, more Science pods, more everything actually if we think about it... Similarly if on water, getting those patrol boats quickly also helps... That is also why we like so much to see Titanium in our capital when we get lucky with it...

However, I must say that unlike Civ 5, where it is often a great idea to settle on a hill if possible (even if you have to lose 1 turn, maybe 2, ), is not as good in Civ BERT because a Hill city gives 2 food and 2 production while for example a grassland gives 4 food 1 production, so 5 yields instead of 4. Flat Plains settling I think is the best, if I am not mistaken it gives 3 food 2 production. Having 1 or 2 extra population faster seems to help a lot with production because Supply penalty for production occurs almost always in my games and lasts for quite a while ... just not possible to have enough supply for all the units even with going for Prosperity Colonist for a quick extra city...

Weirdly enough, since I rely so little on my own Science rate to discover the early techs techs, I consider Science not very important. [ edit : except for that early part when even the cheap techs take quite a number of turns, hence, Scientist colonists would help with that even if they become weak later] If Science Pods didn't exist, it would be a very different case.

I think Science as a percentage for techs Resource Pods are one of the most unbalanced things in the entire game. If I think about it, I only need Computing and Communications, and the rest tehcs itself or is simply not needed at all.... Unit and Resource techs are cheap and affinity comes from other sources... so you can get those crazy good hybrid ranged boats or the Rover without needing too many techs... Honestly in Civ BE with spies stealing the tech tree I never understood why people even talk of academies or Cognition tech... I only discover Cognition for an extra Virtue from Holosuite, that's all ....

I am curious to know what is your tech path, I believe I am in a minority with my fixation on quick Computing... Do you like to discover Chemistry, Ecology, or Bionics (for Biowells), or stuff like that?
What do people who don't rush Computing do? Biowell spam or Terrascape spam (with Prosperity virtue, ) ?

 

[vorlon_mi]

I don't rush to Computing, as a goal or strategy. Part of that is game pacing (see below) and part is my tendencies and preferences. I love going for affinity victories, where one must build something and build up an empire to accelerate building the end-game wonder. I hate losing items in the early game -- especially trade convoys -- because production is so scarce in the early game.

My early tech priorities are: Ecology (to build an initial ultrasonic fence), Physics (to build ranged units for defense and taking out siege worms), and techs to allow my workers to improve resources. These include Chemistry, Geophysics, Engineering, and Alien Sciences. The order depends on which resources I can see nearby.
Computing is in the mix, usually after Planetary Survey (to allow my aquatic cities to move anywhere, plus it's cheap). If I'm expanding rapidly, with more open land, I may go for Genetics to allow Cytonurseries and Pharmalabs.
If I have an aggressive neighbor while I'm trying to peacefully expand, I may beeline Robotics after my first few techs so that I can build planes.

My early game (first 50-75 turns) includes lots of exploration, quest fulfillment, and city founding. Health is often taking a beating during this period. I try to have enough cash/energy to buy a clinic in each city as it is founded. I try to send my first trade route to each outpost as it grows. Each baby city builds a trade depot as one of the first two builds.

The mid-game (turns 75-150) usually features a lot of espionage to steal energy; alternating builds of units and buildings (Recycler, Thorium Reactor); finishing the techs I need to improve resources. Terraforming (to get Floatstone) is usually last, as it is the most expensive. Each city builds a worker to improve tiles around it.

Why don't I rush Computing? The benefits are significant, but the ramp-up feels slow to me. Consider:
I will need to spend ~10 or 15 turns to build the Spy Agency, followed by 5 turns for the agents to travel to the AI cities. Another 5 turns to Gain Sources. The very first "Siphon Energy" mission takes 13 turns or more. On the one hand, the benefits from siphoning science or stealing techs are good, so one should start the process as soon as possible. On the other hand, I may have something else to build that's a higher priority for my empire instead of the Spy Agency... like troops or planes.
Yes, I always get there, but I don't rush to it.

In my Supremacy games, yes, I do make some Academies. When I'm pursuing Harmony or Purity as my primary affinity, I don't usually detour to research Cognition. If I've had some success in mid-game wars, so that I have more puppet cities, I will research Biology and Bionics so that I can build Biowells, to dig myself out of a negative Health hole. Getting to a 5-5 hybrid affinity... or more than one... also helps improve overall health. I don't spam Biowells, since I usually have a breakthrough somewhere around turn 200 where I move into positive health and stay there.

I wait to annex captured cities until I have net positive health *and* those cities are not threatened by the next potential war. Cities in disorder are harder to defend.