Stations are the Most Annoying Thing in This Game

[Snipes]

Oh was your colonist about to expand there? Too bad lol we're landing right next to it and we have this mysterious field that prevents you from doing it now haha!

Oh that's some good land around your HQ that you've just scouted out, would be a shame if somebody were to...land there first.

Seriously though, compared to city states these things are just an annoyance. There's absolutely no reason for them to block cities within a 3-tile radius when all they do is just sit there not even directly claiming the land around them. They always seem to take the spots in the middle of all the resources/the best expansion locations too. Also unlike City States, they don't spawn at the start of the game so you don't know that you can't expand into an area until they land, which typically tends to be right before you start building an outpost. I'm about to start a new game where I tech Physics first just to be able to take them out so I can place my cities in the spots I actually want to. Will create some expeditions too. With how easy the Apollo difficulty is (this is another topic), I bet this will still be viable.

I really liked City States in Civ 5 and never disabled them, it's a shame that now in Beyond Earth we have these little one-tile annoyances that cannot be disabled at the start of the game and must be removed by force. If anybody has any console command/mod available to prevent them from appearing please share.

 

[Sprenk]

I agree--it can be annoying. So why not trundle a ranged and melee unit over there and take it out? Or, if you're a pacifist, you could simply ignore it, unless another faction starts trading with it).

I think stations are there to give you an early trade option. They aren't meant to be permanent, unless you want them to be. The problem is, most players prefer internal and international routes.

 

[Cymsdale]

Stations are there to trick noobs into wasting precious trade routes.

 

[dat1337vet]

They should just remove the limit and let you plunk down an outpost right next to a station. Also why is the 3 tile between cities limit still in place? I thought it was just a temporary fix (used to be 2 tiles) until they corrected the AI to stop city spamming. Are the devs that incompetent?

 

[Flaviusx]

Stations are there to trick noobs into wasting precious trade routes.

I actually like the ones that yield culture or the one station (Stet?) that yields pure resources. Extra culture is always welcome and Stet can be a real boost to production once fully upgraded.

 

[mnf]

Given that we have to defend stations and each station likely wastes anywhere from 5 to 20 tiles, they should really be much stronger.

I thought it was just a temporary fix (used to be 2 tiles) until they corrected the AI to stop city spamming. Are the devs that incompetent?

They probably realized that this time the players are gonna do Infinite City Sprawl the way Health is set up, but didn't have the time/manpower/money to balance the game properly, so they just left it in.

Just joking.

 

[Infiltrator]

Stations are indeed incredibly useless and annoying. I end up destroying them to make room for my own cities.

 

[Magean]

I agree so much.

The "choose a station" quest is my nightmare, because it usually triggers while my first colonist is on his way.

I hate stations so much.

Fortunately, AIs don't seem to be sending trade routes to them. Because stations never last.

 

[Cymsdale]

Fortunately, AIs don't seem to be sending trade routes to them. Because stations never last.

Pro: At least the AI does one thing right.

Con: It's probably because they aren't making trade routes at all.

 

[mnf]

IIRC there was one game where the AI established a trade route to a station. Maybe they're just extremely picky and won't trade with stations unless the station gives something they are prioritizing on.

 

[kingsbury]

What happens if a station gets swallowed up by someone's borders?

 

[manu-fan]

They should just remove the limit and let you plunk down an outpost right next to a station. Also why is the 3 tile between cities limit still in place? I thought it was just a temporary fix (used to be 2 tiles) until they corrected the AI to stop city spamming. Are the devs that incompetent?

I totally agree. Maybe we're not allowed to found an outpost next to a station, but 2 hexes from it sound reasonable.

 

[Traejun]

I actually like the ones that yield culture or the one station (Stet?) that yields pure resources. Extra culture is always welcome and Stet can be a real boost to production once fully upgraded.

This. So much this.

The Culture one (forget the name) ends up being 10 culture/turn. You can get it to that level after a single trade cycle. My last campaign, I had a perma-trade route on it until someone else took it out. Even nearing T100, that culture accounted for a big percentage of my total culture/turn. Really early on, it was near 50% of it. That was a MASSIVE boost.

The production one is a little less valuable. I see it as situational. I trade with it when I'm building a wonder and the extra production helps. Not that I build a lot of early game wonders.

 

[mnf]

Stations would be great if can also pop up within our borders but on a tile that is not within any city radius.

 

[Natura]

What happens if a station gets swallowed up by someone's borders?

Nothing, it just stays there.

 

[Callonia]

I had five stations near me in my last trade, it probably was the reason why I won so easily. Although it was hellish getting my cities up and ready to start trading with that many stations while simualtenously clearing out miasma and killing bugs so that trade would commence unmolested, while dealing with one siege worm murdering one of my trade units every few turns.

Of course the AI didn't like it so they tried to destroy the stations, they ended up being destroyed instead.

The stations is nice to have as long as they don't give food. XD

 

[milk steak]

I love kicking over stations. Free Derelict Settlement ruin!

 

[Traejun]

I love kicking over stations. Free Derelict Settlement ruin!

That.

Also, get the might virtue that let auto-founds a colony whenever you blow up a station. If you happen to have 2 or 3 near you on good land, just virtue that way and save the time of building colonists.

 

[s0nny80y]

Stations help in keeping the AI from forward settling. Also allows for cold war conflict in order to go tall.

 

[superliminal]

I was trying out the production virtue tree, and the alternative market virtue is pretty easy to reach, and can make station trade routes viable. 18 energy per trade route on top of the station yields is nothing to sneeze at, especially early on.