The Truth about Social Engineering

[TROOPERBLUE]

Police State = Inefficient?? Who cares....... my Military keeping cheap order in the city more than makes up the difference.

Democratic = ?

Fundamentalist = I may not be smart, but, I can take whats mine!
(Attitude)

Free Market = I know of a better way of taking care of the environment...... I dont care about the minus to Planet, because my Strategy for the environment is to plant lots and lots of FORESTS with my Formers! SIMPLE.

Planned = Inefficent?? Who cares...... my extra Growth and Industry more than make up the difference.

Green = I know of a faster way of Growing my Population, I dont care about the mnus to Growth, because my Strategy is to Farm the land, for Growth by Nutrients..... and if the Land is Rocky, then BOREHOLE with my Formers! My Green Economy will take care of the environment for me!

Power = I know how to get more infastructure. I dont care about my minus to industry, because I can build units and always CONQUER them from my opponents, which dont like me anyways.

Knowledge = I am smart. I dont care if my opponents can potientially steal from me because i, beyond a reasonable doubt, that i will build the Immunity to Probe Teams Wonder, which ever one that is!

Wealth = I know and trust my neighbors. I dont worry about their military build up. And I can always build something, like a Perimeter Defense to take care of our little Problem.....

 

[Mik1984]

The penalties for moving the econ,psych,tech sliders are diminishing with growing efficiency and the biggest advantage of +4 eff is to be able to move them without any penalties. And in large empires green might deliver almost the same amount of energy as the free market with the possibility of directing it towards what you want on top of it and planet bonus instead of penalty.

 

[sir_schwick]

Frontier - This default state is good unless a more advanced form comes up that you would want to use.

Police State - This is really an option only used by Yang. Your energy collection is so pitiful anyway that you might as well be able to have a lot of dense colonies of a swarm of troops. However once Planned comes around I usually switch for the Growth++ and Industry+. It may be possible this would be a good option for early expansion for some other factions, but never tested that idea.

Democracy - I almost always run this near or after my first half dozen bases. The Efficiency++ and Growth++ are too good of bonuses to pass up at this point. About the only time I will switch back to Frontier is if I get in a serious war early and can take the other person out.

Fundamentalist - Only good for Miriam. The bonuses are not that great for other factions to trade off any kind of competitive research capabilities. However for Miriam, who already cannot ever compete in research, this makes her probes Sam Fishers and adds even more punch to the already elite fanatic core.


Simple Economics - Do not discount the value of Simple until Green comes around.

Free Market - Probably one of the most maligned SE choices by veteran players. The Support----- is just too crippling of a penalty for a good 1/2 of the game. This is especially true for Morgan who has to expand due to his population caps. FM also loses its value for Morgan whenever Wealth comes around and allows him to get +1Energy/Square. Personally I would prefer the flexibility and anti-worm pluses of Green over FM any day.

Planned - Extremely useful and sometimes under looked SE choice. Demo-Planned gives you a net effect of Growth++++ and Industry+. This is a must for Pop Booming and the Industry helps you get the infrastructure up a lot cheaper.

Green - A very popular SE choice later in the game. The Planet rating keeps the very aggressive(by this point) worms from causing too much havoc. Also Demo-Green gives you a paradigm economy with no growth penalties and a slight support penalty. Green can also be useful in war times with Police-Green with extra Police(no drones), Support(can churn them out) and Planet(better psi troops).

Survival - I pretty much upgrade ASAP.

Power - The Industry-- really sucks, even when you are mass producing cheap troops. Would save this for once a majority of your expeditionary force is built and you are engaging in battle.

Knowledge - The choice between this and Wealth depends on if you are in a war and if research or money/infrastructure building are critical to your strategy.

I always finish before the future SE become relevant, so not much to say there.

 

[Lockesdonkey]

I usually finish well after Future Society becomes available, so I can speak to it:

Mind control: Not a militarist, really (I keep going to the end!), so I can't really say. Doesn't look worth it for someone who isn't going on a murderous rampage already. Not my style, but it might be yours.

Eudaimonic: Sounds pleasant, and it's hard to speak against it if you're in a position of power, but it can be annoying if you're attacked and have to fight late-game wars. Also, its benefits pale in comparison to...

Cybernetic: The synergies with Democracy/Green/Knowledge (my favorite, and fairly popular from what I've read) are just phenomenal. With Cybernetic, you have a Paradigm Economy if you adopt just two of these choices, and then you get the HUGE Research and Planet benefits. And with D/G/K, you should be sufficiently far ahead of the pack technologically that the Network Backbone should be no sweat.

 

[Empiremaker]

I would disagree on a few. My thoughts:

Police State: I like this early before the inefficiency becomes a problem. A mineral or 2 makes a big difference early.

Democratic: I generally switch once I'm ready to pop boom. Losing 10 mins when founding a base annoys me.

Fundy: -2 research is bad for all except Miriam, who won't do much research anyway.

Free Market: Never used it. -5 police is terrible when trying to wage war.

Planned: My favorite. Pop booming is very powerful, with +1 industry. Democracy helps to balance out the inefficiency.

Green: Late game when growth isn't as important/when I get the Cloning Vats. +2 planet and +2 Efficiency are great for large empires with Mind worm problems.

Cybernetic: I use this until I get Eudaimonic. The benefits are good, but the -3 police can be problematic.

Eudaimonic: My favorite. +2 Econ, +2 Industry and +2 growth are so powerful. With the industry, you can produce enough units to make up for the morale penalty. Or run power when fighting.

Thought Control: Don't use unless I have Cloning Vats(IIRC, removes penalty from Power and Thought Control). The benefits aren't that great for the -3 support and not being able to use the other choices.