Tip: Harmony is with Planet, not necessarily the Aliens...

[Belboz99]

I didn't figure this out my first game with Harmony, but Harmony only means you live in Harmony with the planet, not the alien creatures on it...

I know that sounds obtuse and counter-intuitive, but basically if you're on the Harmony Affinity, you can still make War with the aliens living on the planet while you make Peace with the Planet itself.

And even more counter-intuitively, because Harmony Affinity means the Aliens are quicker to forget transgressions, you can kill a *LOT* of aliens without them ever becoming hostile.

The More You Know!

Dan O.

 

[Bill Whitmore]

Hmm, that gives me an idea.

From what I was reading elsewhere, when a faction attacks the aliens, the aliens become more aggressive towards everyone.

If that is the case, and if aliens revert to Neutral twice as fast with regards to Harmony, is it possible for a Harmony faction to attack the aliens to the point where they are hostile to everyone else except the Harmony factions?

 

[Tinker]

You probably need to kill a lot more too, because that Xenomass tends to be right under Alien nests. It's weird.

 

[s8g]

I've found that very weird, too. The moment, I used the mindflower, all the aliens turn hostile. Luckily, I had enough units - but with Harmony one expects a more peaceful way...

 

[a space oddity]

You probably need to kill a lot more too, because that Xenomass tends to be right under Alien nests. It's weird.

Not really, when you have an alien nest in your territory it will work like a xenowell, so there's no need to remove the nest. It's also the way to the aliens in their 'blue' state, all you need to do is be very patient with them... hard but doable.

 

[Tinker]

Not really, when you have an alien nest in your territory it will work like a xenowell, so there's no need to remove the nest. It's also the way to the aliens in their 'blue' state, all you need to do is be very patient with them... hard but doable.

Oh! I didn't actually know it did that, that's useful to know.

 

[Ryoga]

Actually you just need 1 level in Harmony and you can kill all the aliens that you want.

I played a game as a Purity faction with 1 level of harmony, I completely wiped them off the planet, destroying nests and placing units over them for good measure, then creating a fleet to kill any sea monstrosity that would pop,

They never went orange.

 

[Belboz99]

That almost sounds like a flaw in the design Ryoga, but I suppose it would be quite effective...

I've been wondering how mixing up affinities might be used to better advantage. Currently it's incredibly important to get 1 affinity as high as possible as soon as possible, but that doesn't mean it isn't also helpful to raise others.

Dan O.

 

[Alsn]

Not really, when you have an alien nest in your territory it will work like a xenowell, so there's no need to remove the nest. It's also the way to the aliens in their 'blue' state, all you need to do is be very patient with them... hard but doable.

Are you sure that this is true? I could have sworn that I didn't actually get the 10 xenomass that my alien nest supposedly provided even though all the aliens had turned teal(friendly).

 

[pwoz]

Are you sure that this is true? I could have sworn that I didn't actually get the 10 xenomass that my alien nest supposedly provided even though all the aliens had turned teal(friendly).

I can confirm this worked for me with 2 wells in my last game.

 

[strstrep]

Are you sure that this is true? I could have sworn that I didn't actually get the 10 xenomass that my alien nest supposedly provided even though all the aliens had turned teal(friendly).

I believe this only works if you get the nest in your territory AFTER you research the xenomass well tech. It might be a bug.

 

[Lanth]

Hmm, that gives me an idea.

From what I was reading elsewhere, when a faction attacks the aliens, the aliens become more aggressive towards everyone.

If that is the case, and if aliens revert to Neutral twice as fast with regards to Harmony, is it possible for a Harmony faction to attack the aliens to the point where they are hostile to everyone else except the Harmony factions?

In general I'd say the AI are such push-overs that you don't need to bother with this sort of meta-tactic.

One you have units that can easily steam-roll the aliens without fear of reprisal to the level you're talking about (excepting siege worms), then you'll likely be able to face-stomp the AI anyway.

 

[Traejun]

Harmony affinity = Avatar the movie.

Nothing more.

 

[Halbbruder]

Harmony affinity = Avatar the movie.

Nothing more.

Harmony and purity are referred to in that movie. Purity references are found by (you guessed it!) floatstone and the fact that the human expedition is clearing land for resource consumption. Harmony of course are those large blue humanoids who use native wildlife to help fight the human invaders. At the time when faction info was being released (like 2-3 months ago), some people thought Brazilia leader looked like that scar-faced general in Avatar.

But anyone verify the statement that the mind flower turns the aliens hostile instantly?

 

[TLHeart]

Harmony and purity are referred to in that movie. Purity references are found by (you guessed it!) floatstone and the fact that the human expedition is clearing land for resource consumption. Harmony of course are those large blue humanoids who use native wildlife to help fight the human invaders. At the time when faction info was being released (like 2-3 months ago), some people thought Brazilia leader looked like that scar-faced general in Avatar.

But anyone verify the statement that the mind flower turns the aliens hostile instantly?

yes it does, for the turns right after the mind flower activates.

 

[Traejun]

yes it does, for the turns right after the mind flower activates.

I've only done one Harmony/Transcendence campaign (win) thus far, so forgive me if my experience is incorrect... but I didn't notice that at all. Mind you, that could be because in that (and every other campaign I've played thus far) the aliens are essentially gone by that that point. By about t200, I never see one again unless I go to isolated islands or large patches of snow where they can't bother anyone.

 

[MithrilSoul]

Last game I played I went for, and won, a transcendence victory. A few comments:

I got the aliens to turn blue by having a nest within my city limits. It took around 75 turns for it to happen (and that was on the "quick" game setting). During that time I did not kill any aliens, but I did accidentally take out one alien nest with an Explorer. (Not the nest within my city boundary, of course.)

When you get the aliens to turn blue, all of them on the map do.

During the entire time I had the alien nest in my city boundary, it never spawned any additional aliens, neither before they flipped blue nor after.

Aliens being blue (friendly) doesn't mean they are allied with you. I tested this out late in the game, I declared war on an opponent and despite some blue aliens being near him, they did not attack.

Upon completing the mind flower, all of the aliens immediately turned red. They stayed that way for maybe 5 turns or so, then turned orange and remained Orange the rest of the game. My harmony affinity was probably about 14 or 15 at the time so this turning red must be automatic.

Sidelight: if you are the only harmony civ, once you can create the miasmic condenser satellites you can basically turn the entire landscape all around you into a killing field for your enemies, while constantly healing your own troops. This is even more true if the land around your borders has lots of rough terrain that eats up movement points for their soldiers. They will be half dead (or worse) before you even have to fire a shot.

Overall harmony strikes me as the weakest of the three affinities initially, but if you can make it through the early game struggles it really blossoms (pun intended!) by endgame.

 

[ggmoyang]

Upon completing the mind flower, all of the aliens immediately turned red. They stayed that way for maybe 5 turns or so, then turned orange and remained Orange the rest of the game. My harmony affinity was probably about 14 or 15 at the time so this turning red must be automatic.

Strange, when I built it with green status aliens stayed green. Either one must be a glitch.

 

[Roland00]

• Harmony is respecting the existing planet ecosystem but wanting to be the top predator of the ecosystem.
• Purity is not respecting the existing planet ecosystem but instead trying to recreate earth on a new planet in a more perfect fashion. Keeping yourself the same but make better technology so you can stay the same and subjugate the planet.
• Supremacy can care less about the planet in any way. Instead you need to modify your own form to become something more advance, technological, and thus perfect.

 

[Tomice]

The game would make way more sense if Xenomass was the unique ressource for Purity!

• Purity has to kill all the aliens to get their desired "biofuel" (=Xenomass), which powers their conventional, conservative steampunk war machine.
• Harmony needs Firaxite, a misterious bio-crystal that helps domesticating aliens through mind-control.
• Only Supremacy bothers to use the hard-to-implement floatstone, considered fascinating, but too dangerous and complicated for practical use by other factions.

This way, purity would be the ones hunting aliens, destroying nests, invading dense forests, chopping them, and removing miasma forcefully. Sadly, right now, this is the way to play "Harmony"