Nodes are pretty fantastic

[Arkangelus]

I haven't really seen anyone mention this, besides some off hand comments about how people never build them... well, you should! They're pretty much must have for me now in certain places.

First off, the 20HP heal is PASSIVE, meaning you can move, shoot or do whatever you like, and it'll heal your nearby units. Seeing as they'll always been in your territory too, you can move something badly wounded back next to one, then fortify up and it'll heal 60HP over the two turns, meaning you can get things back out to the front lightning fast.

The best use for them though is that they don't just affect military units... they affect civilians, and, most importantly... air units too. Considering that quite a few of the air units have perks that give bonuses at full health, this essentially gives them an upgraded Air Repair heal every turn, so that you can take up to 20HP damage on a sortie and by the next turn be back to full again. Plus since they're inside a city - that's a huge 70HP healed if you do nothing next turn!

I now always build them adjacent to my frontline cities for the fantastic military benefits, and their yield isn't even that shabby either. 2E and later, 1S will only be a tiny bit less than a regular generator, so it doesn't even rule out the use of the tile for the city. The tech that unlocks them also gives the Master Control, which AIs don't tend to beeline for, so a slightly unusual early path can give a lot of support to both city defence and infrastructure that pays off the entire rest of the game.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Yeah. I build them on the edges of my territory outside the workable range close to potential conflict zones. I hadn't considered using them to heal air units. It will bear further consideration.

 

[s0nny80y]

Passive?

Whoa.

Thanks for the enlightening info OP!

 

[GeoModder]

The funny thing is I had a worker constructing a node succumbing to Miasma in my current game.

 

[Strategist83]

Passive?

Whoa.

Thanks for the enlightening info OP!

Ditto.

Good thread, Arkangelus!

Obviously, reason why people aren't building them is lack of threat from AI military. We need better AI!

 

[GAGA Extrem]

Is the Node heal stackable - e.g. if a unit is adjacent to 2 nodes does it gets twice the heal?

 

[Jacozilla]

Great tip. I've seen the tech unlocking the node but must not have read because didn't know about this ability.

And I was just thinking too bad there isn't worker building forts anymore. I guess nodes are the new forts for BE.

Will have to test building trench defenses with nodes in my next Apollo game.

 

[bhavv]

I've not tried building nodes yet, but they seem brilliant to have around your border defence cities.

Maybe even try adding Domes too, especially for defending in multiplayer.

 

[Alkaid]

Has anyone noticed if they do or don't also heal enemy units nearby? The description just says "heals nearby units." I've wanted to use them more on my borders but always thought they might just heal the attackers as well as my troops.

 

[implodinggoat]

Hmmm, haven't tried building them next to my cities.

I'd been building them along my borders.

Putting one on a coast line is also handy for rapidly healing your ships.

 

[Question]

They arent that fantastic, you only really need one per area, although i dont think you can use artillery fire to destroy them from afar so getting rod of 20 hp healing units could be a problem if you are attacking...

 

[Bandersnatching]

The next game I go Supremacy, I will try out Nodes. They look cool and their benefit is really good if you get involved in a defensive war. Plus, you can just slap them down on tiles you wouldn't have worked anyways; it doesn't look like they have a maintenance cost.

Question about Domes: has anybody seen them used to help defend a city effectively? I could imagine it happening if the aggressor was on the same tech/affinity level as the defender and the defender had at least one defensive building in the city, but that happens so rarely vs. the AI that I've never seen them be relevant for that purpose.

 

[bhavv]

Domes would be useless in single player, just having the defensive buildings up and a couple of ranged units makes you invincible.

I think Domes could be very useful in multiplayer though.

 

[Arkangelus]

I dont know if this is a bug, but when they're pillaged, they still seem to give the 20HP heal bonus - the pillaging only removes the tile yield.

 

[Ryika]

Didn't really find them that useful actually. Either my unit dies during the AIs turn because it has 6 or 9 Air Units in range, or it survives and I can swap it with another unit. If it actually helped migrating some damage, that thing would be awesome (like the Tacnet), but as it stands it doesn't help against burst and thus my unit is either dead or save anyway.

So sure, some nodes will help your wounded troops to recover faster and if you get the tech there's not really a reason not to build some of them along your borders (as long as your cities don't need the tiles), but they just sound so much more useful than they are.

...and on top of that, when does the AI ever attack...? ^^

 

[Soffacet]

Nodes are probably handy in certain MP situations. Especially putting one next to your city to heal Tacjets every turn. Defender's advantage in this game can get pretty ridiculous if you prepare properly (especially as harmony).

 

[roidesfoux]

I discovered yesterday that the +5 heal from Tacnet Hub also behaves the same way.

 

[Umbral Reaver]

Does anyone know if the Nodes are cumulative, or if they stack with Tacnet?

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Actually, if you don't take the techs that improve generators, replace them with nodes. And if you go for the Emancipation Victory, hyper computing gives them science.