Resource Satellites?

[kingofsealand]

Was just wondering what everyone else thinks of the weather controller and orbital fabricator. I tried using both in my latest game, it seems like no matter how many free tiles they had available each satellite never spit out more than 2 new resources in its life cycle. They also add either +1 food or +1 production so not a bad way to improve an otherwise barren city. I'd like to see maybe a more expensive version of each for the end game that would generate resources faster or something? Also, does miasma count as an improvement for the purposes of resource generation? What about roads or magrails?

 

[MechMedic130]

I'm not a big fan of either of those ones really. The only sats I seem to bother with are the Solar Collector, Miasma Repulsor and TacNet.

 

[Forbiddentwo]

They come too late to be really helpful, but you can at least use them to finish off quests that would otherwise be uncompletable.

 

[Xenotitan]

I haven't tested it, but I'd be very surprised if miasma counted as an improvement.

Weather Controller can come reasonably quickly.

But both of them are really only useful for spawning stuff on coastal tiles, since the tiles have to be unimproved. Add in the strategic resource cost and it really isn't worth researching it quickly. If you have problems with uncompletable quests I suggest Ryoga's affinity quest fix mod.

 

[Manannan]

I wouldn't recommend letting them sit around their entire lifespan if you're going for resources; best to just delete 'em when they pop something and throw another one up right after. The concept behind them is nice (especially for coastal cities) but they're in such a terrible location on the tech web there isn't any real reason to ever bother snagging them. Also doesn't help they cost resources, while solar collectors do not (nevermind that energy is more useful than food or production). Same issues the holomatrix has actually.

Firaxis, plz fix.

 

[sprang]

They come too late to be really helpful, but you can at least use them to finish off quests that would otherwise be uncompletable.

This.

I keep thinking, "yeah, this city will be awesome, especially when I spawn an extra oil or algae off shore later..." But then it's later, I've got the tech, but the game is so close to over that it's just not worth it. Once I even thought, "I'll build more satellites this game! But I need more oil... so... first I'll spawn some offshore oil, then...." uh... that wasn't going to take long at all. The only time I actually build WC/OF are for bugged quests. I only launch solar collectors when they're free from pods. I only get Lasercom for the two Affinity victories.

The only one I build *for the yield* is Holomatrix, because Culture is the scarcest yield in the game, Virtues are always worth it, AND it gives 2/tile.

I think (and I hate to go there in yet another thread) trade routes are the problem. If I need more Food or Production in a specific city, I can redirect trade routes. The returns are larger, AND they are more flexible because they will expire sooner. I can't move the Weather Controller, and I can't replace it for 60 turns, but I can redirect the trade route in 25 turns. For Energy, ditto, and there I don't even care what city they come in to. If there were more expensive % buildings, then using sats to make Super Production Cities and such would be worth it. Lasercom on an Academy Spam comes close.

And, obviously, Holomatrix culture is the one yield you can't get from trade routes. (a few stations excepted)

 

[Gort]

Yeah, there's a lot of material in this game that is really cool, but the game's basically decided long before that point so it doesn't really matter. The resource-generating satellites come under this heading - the possibility of turning rubbish water tiles into awesome algae or coral tiles is good, but I can't think of a time when it would really have an impact on my likelihood of winning the game.

 

[Minor Annoyance]

Was just wondering what everyone else thinks of the weather controller and orbital fabricator. I tried using both in my latest game, it seems like no matter how many free tiles they had available each satellite never spit out more than 2 new resources in its life cycle. They also add either +1 food or +1 production so not a bad way to improve an otherwise barren city. I'd like to see maybe a more expensive version of each for the end game that would generate resources faster or something? Also, does miasma count as an improvement for the purposes of resource generation? What about roads or magrails?

It is limited to creating 1-2 in its lifespan. Since it will always drop one but only possibly a second, if you're using them just for resources then it's a good idea to delete the satellite after the first one if you can afford it. Then you get a new counter. If the first one is for sure, then make sure you're always waiting for the first one and not the maybe second.
I'm sure after the game gets patched it will be longer which will make getting your primary affinity technologies and not getting side tracked more important. In which case these will be supremacy's important yield boosters. Oh the wonders of the yet to be patch...

 

[feralminded]

Yeah, there's a lot of material in this game that is really cool, but the game's basically decided long before that point so it doesn't really matter. The resource-generating satellites come under this heading - the possibility of turning rubbish water tiles into awesome algae or coral tiles is good, but I can't think of a time when it would really have an impact on my likelihood of winning the game.

This quote more or less summarizes all of Civilization BE for me. There is in fact a lot of neat stuff, that is utterly inconsequential in this game because the lack of balance is so extreme. I still recall when I finally got the Angel unit for my Supremacy playthrough and I thought "wow, I can walk through water ... that would be great if my tanks didn't just fly over it, oh well another neat thing to ignore in favor of strictly superior options".

While I would love to terraform the crap out of my tiles, the fact remains the game is 100% about going wide and the city tile itself (and the 3 trade routes it spawns) are so disproportionately powerful that spending 120-150 turns beelining a dead-end technology that then takes 30-60 more turns to produce results that are of extremely little value in a game that will end by ~250 turns is really just trite at best, and a bit insulting to be perfectly honest. Who on their design and eventually QA team thought this was a good user experience? Seriously, it's kind of staring you in the face. I appreciate the sentiment but the execution is an abysmal failure.

If that game was 1000 turns or if the satellites ran their course in 15 turns AND if the game allowed a viable strategy involving multipliers and large cities AND if I could get to the technology without going to a complete dead end ... sure I'd like these things. Unfortunately none of the above assertions are true.

 

[Pietato]

This quote more or less summarizes all of Civilization BE for me. There is in fact a lot of neat stuff, that is utterly inconsequential in this game because the lack of balance is so extreme. I still recall when I finally got the Angel unit for my Supremacy playthrough and I thought "wow, I can walk through water ... that would be great if my tanks didn't just fly over it, oh well another neat thing to ignore in favor of strictly superior options".

While I would love to terraform the crap out of my tiles, the fact remains the game is 100% about going wide and the city tile itself (and the 3 trade routes it spawns) are so disproportionately powerful that spending 120-150 turns beelining a dead-end technology that then takes 30-60 more turns to produce results that are of extremely little value in a game that will end by ~250 turns is really just trite at best, and a bit insulting to be perfectly honest. Who on their design and eventually QA team thought this was a good user experience? Seriously, it's kind of staring you in the face. I appreciate the sentiment but the execution is an abysmal failure.

If that game was 1000 turns or if the satellites ran their course in 15 turns AND if the game allowed a viable strategy involving multipliers and large cities AND if I could get to the technology without going to a complete dead end ... sure I'd like these things. Unfortunately none of the above assertions are true.

The game is in its early beta, and we are the testers.

 

[Gar]

Resource satellites are really cool on epic/marathon. I'm currently playing game game where (with brutal efficiency +50%) I have over 100 firaxite and 80 xenomass. Spawning a firaxite, xenomass or geothermal adds some nice buildings to the city it's near. At marathon speed with resource sattilites staying up for over 150 turns..they still have the possibility of spawninga resource 3 turns in... had it happen a few times.

(and yes OP trade routes make all buildings ultimately inconsequential, but just because they're broken doesn't mean I have to completely ignore the rest of the game)

 

[ehroifcf]

when i play supremacy, i usually use both of the satellites fairly often since oil is useless unless you use it and i like having the random chance of getting new resources on land or sea to the point where i will not improve a hex if i know im going supremacy just to give those satellites something to do later. that being said, i just wish that the game lasted longer... all 15ish games that ive played to completion all ended before turn 300 which is 200 turns shy of the turn limit. i feel like if it wasnt possible to win so quickly the OF and WC would be way way better

 

[ehroifcf]

also in response to op's question, the satellites will never give you more than 2 resources in their entire lifetime by design