The only place to currently get my AC forum fix

[Munch]

Good info. I appreciate that this kind of basic knowledge can be gained by trawling things like the vintage game club, but perhaps it would be worth having a sticky in this forum where individual basic concepts and rules of thumb can be linked to quickly and easily.

You're welcome. If I ever start playing Civ IV, I'll look you up.

I'm no expert but I feel I have a pretty good grasp of the innards of the game. Of course, there is always more to be learnt.

I guess you're not aware that a mine subtracts one nutrient from a square (but will not reduce one nutrient to zero). A farm mine costs 12 turns to make and will give you 1-2-0 (I'm not sure about a rainy rolling square). A forest costs 4 turns to make and will give you 1-2-1.

No I had no idea that a nutrient was subtracted. I'm sure I read the datalinks on mine construction and didn't see this. That changes a lot, making mines similar to workshops in Civ4, trading a food for a hammer which generally is a poor trade. Also the increased former-time spent doing this makes it doubly unattractive. Good knowledge. Does a solar collector also subtract a nutrient?

On a related note, I wonder what the best thing to do with resource tiles is. Do you always farm a nutrient resource, mine a mineral resource and solar collect an energy resource? That is to ask, is there synergy between a special resource and its associated improvement that goes beyond the base yield boost of the tile?

If your base is only producing two labs, a network node would increase your labs by one but cost one energy credit per turn. You might achieve the same results by adjusting the energy slider.
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So you would need a base producing 23 labs per turn for a network node to be more cost effective.

Again, very interesting analysis. Clearly supply crawlers are a more powerful unit than I have seen.

As for the sliders, I am often hesitant to adjust them because of the red message that comes up telling me that energy is lost.

 

[vyeh]

Does a solar collector also subtract a nutrient?

No. You are aware that there are limits to terraforming. From the manual:

In general, a square may contain a road or mag-tube, a farm/soil enricher and one additional enhancement.

On a related note, I wonder what the best thing to do with resource tiles is. Do you always farm a nutrient resource, mine a mineral resource and solar collect an energy resource? That is to ask, is there synergy between a special resource and its associated improvement that goes beyond the base yield boost of the tile?

No. A mine adds +2 to rocky terrain, only +1 for rolling or flat. A road adds +1 mineral to rocky squares that have mines. So it makes a lot of sense to put a mine and a road on any rocky square (unless you can put a borehole on it). If the rocky square has a bonus nutrient, you will get 1-4-0. If it has a bonus energy, you will get a 0-4-2. Note that if it has a bonus mineral, you will get 0-7-0.

If it isn't rocky, consider a forest. For a bonus nutrient, you get 3-2-1. For a bonus mineral, you get 1-4-1. For a bonus energy, you get 1-2-3.

Clearly supply crawlers are a more powerful unit than I have seen.

There are other important tactics with crawlers, e.g. SP instabuilds, crawler upgrades, etc.

As for the sliders, I am often hesitant to adjust them because of the red message that comes up telling me that energy is lost.

Sometimes, you don't actually lose anything especially in the early turns. Say you have only one base and you are earning 1 credit and 1 lab. If you adjust the slider to 70/30, you may see 0 credit and 2 labs. In other cases, you are getting energy in other ways (MW farming) and you don't mind losing 2 credits to gain 1 lab.