Miscellaneous Balibar Questions

[sloanjh]

Are the Terraforming installations moveable?  They are much cheaper in resource costs that a simple Terraformer ship.  

Yes.  They're 5x a construction factory (25 holds total) in size.

Thanks to both Father Tim and John for their thoughtful replies.

You're welcome.

My early mistake was to try to do everything at once.  I have to go back to basics and look at my initial mining output to see what activity (and at what level) is sustainable in the short run.  Then I have to look at the goal of finding mineral sources and the most efficient way to exploit them.  I think the mine cost vs automine cost is the key.

Yep, that's how we all learned, and what Steve was going for with creating a game with a ton of trade-offs.

John

[Balibar (OP)]

How does one save the game for future reload?  Let's say I want to experiment with something, but I want to be able to come back to the branch point if it doesn't work out as I intended.  Also, how would one, say, save a file to distribute as a contest game?  Give everyone the same start conditions and see what they do with it.

LOL - I just put in an FAQ about this last night....

John

Thanks!  The FAQ answered my question nicely.

[Father Tim]

Are the Terraforming installations moveable?  They are much cheaper in resource costs that a simple Terraformer ship.

No.  Er, yes.  I think so.  I believe they are now (they weren't before) but in multiple trips, like research labs, being larger than 25,000 tons cargo.

Terraforming Modules used to be FAR superior to TIs, when the latter were immobile and TMs cost less than they do now.  I still think TMs are the better way to go since they don't require population - and a world you're terraforming is probably very light on population, and requires infrastructure to support that population.  It's a lot easier to put 20 Terraforming Modules in orbit of a world than to land enough population & infrastructure to get 1 million workers manning 20 TIs.

[Balibar (OP)]

Are the Terraforming installations moveable?  They are much cheaper in resource costs that a simple Terraformer ship.

No.  Er, yes.  I think so.  I believe they are now (they weren't before) but in multiple trips, like research labs, being larger than 25,000 tons cargo.

Terraforming Modules used to be FAR superior to TIs, when the latter were immobile and TMs cost less than they do now.  I still think TMs are the better way to go since they don't require population - and a world you're terraforming is probably very light on population, and requires infrastructure to support that population.  It's a lot easier to put 20 Terraforming Modules in orbit of a world than to land enough population & infrastructure to get 1 million workers manning 20 TIs.

Thanks!  One of the difficulties I am having is getting rid of strategy biases from other games.

[Balibar (OP)]

I have a question about the Research queue.  Let's say I am researching a Construction tech with Connie Construction as the leader.  I want to research a Power tech next with Peter Power as the leader.  What is the best way to avoid losing the research from time of completion to time of the next interrupt?  As I understand the queue, I can only queue projects with the same leader as the current one.

[Canaris]

I have a question about the Research queue.  Let's say I am researching a Construction tech with Connie Construction as the leader.  I want to research a Power tech next with Peter Power as the leader.  What is the best way to avoid losing the research from time of completion to time of the next interrupt?  As I understand the queue, I can only queue projects with the same leader as the current one.

As you understand it, it is correct. My suggestion? Just check periodically (once a month, for example) which research projects will be finished and when. Then use smaller increments to get to them. I don't know of any other way - perhaps there is a way to make the game pause when a research project is completed.

Also, you don't lose accumulated research points if you cancel the project, in case you're wondering.

[Hawkeye]

I have a question about the Research queue.  Let's say I am researching a Construction tech with Connie Construction as the leader.  I want to research a Power tech next with Peter Power as the leader.  What is the best way to avoid losing the research from time of completion to time of the next interrupt?  As I understand the queue, I can only queue projects with the same leader as the current one.

As you understand it, it is correct. My suggestion? Just check periodically (once a month, for example) which research projects will be finished and when. Then use smaller increments to get to them. I don't know of any other way - perhaps there is a way to make the game pause when a research project is completed.

Also, you don't lose accumulated research points if you cancel the project, in case you're wondering.

I don´t think this would work, as research (as construction) is only checked every 5 days. What you _can_ do is reducing the number of allocated research labs to the point it takes just those 5 days ´til the next update. This, however, is a lot of micromanagement, I am personaly not willing to spend. I´d very likely just queue the new project, cancel after the next update and create it anew with the desired leader.
Yes, there will be some researchpoints lost, but a few points are not worth the hassle IMO.

[Balibar (OP)]

I´d very likely just queue the new project, cancel after the next update and create it anew with the desired leader.
Yes, there will be some researchpoints lost, but a few points are not worth the hassle IMO.

I went with this option.  I was satisfied that I get the RP for the entire 5 days.  If losing the leader bonus is a problem, one could always queue up the next tech planned in that research group, then cancel and start the tech one wanted next with the right leader.  My biggest concern was losing points while researching those racial techs for my FAC design.  

Thanks for the advice.

[sloanjh]

I would try to have both Connie and Peter active, because only active leaders improve their skills.  So at the start, give Connie 1 lab and Peter the rest.  Also, queue the next project in Peter's specialty for him, so that any excess RP won't be wasted at project completion.  When Peter's project finishes and the next one starts, subtract labs from Peter until he's at 1 lab, and add them to Connie (who might have increased in % or capacity in the mean time).

The way I run my research is to try to have at least my top researcher in each field active with a single lab.  Actually, I try to have my top 3 researchers active (so that if/when the best one dies, there's two behind him that are trained up).  If a research has a good (~25% or more) bonus, I'll give him 3 labs.  These three researchers for each field are working on the top 3 projects in that field, and any who are going to finish soon always have another project queued up.  Again, the reason for doing this is not the research per say, it's an investment in my research efficiency by training scientists.

For actual project prioritization, I rank-order among the various fields - am I growing missiles, or productivity.  Then starting at the highest priority field, I max out the best researcher in terms of labs, then max out the best researcher in the second field, etc.  The reason for playing the "I'm either maxed out or minned out" game is that this gives you the quickest return on your research investment - on average any project you're focusing on will be "half done", and a half-done project doesn't do you any good, so you want to minimize the number of them (which maxing out on a few projects does).

John

[Balibar (OP)]

I would try to have both Connie and Peter active, because only active leaders improve their skills.  So at the start, give Connie 1 lab and Peter the rest.  Also, queue the next project in Peter's specialty for him, so that any excess RP won't be wasted at project completion.  When Peter's project finishes and the next one starts, subtract labs from Peter until he's at 1 lab, and add them to Connie (who might have increased in % or capacity in the mean time). ...

John

Thank you very much for these wonderful pointers.  You might want to put this in Erik's tips thread.

[Balibar (OP)]

I would try to have both Connie and Peter active, because only active leaders improve their skills.  

I was wondering whether this applies to governors as well.  Should one make a colony to have a governor govern even if one does not make immediate use of the colony?  Or are there overhead issues to an empty colony?

[sloanjh]

I would try to have both Connie and Peter active, because only active leaders improve their skills.  

I was wondering whether this applies to governors as well.  Should one make a colony to have a governor govern even if one does not make immediate use of the colony?  Or are there overhead issues to an empty colony?

No overhead issues (other than if you make a ton of them, you might slow the game down :-)

John

[Balibar (OP)]

No overhead issues (other than if you make a ton of them, you might slow the game down :-)

John

Thanks!  That answered the question I asked in the Mechanics forum on the GeoSurvey Teams as well.

[sloanjh]

No overhead issues (other than if you make a ton of them, you might slow the game down :-)

John

Thanks!  That answered the question I asked in the Mechanics forum on the GeoSurvey Teams as well.

Not quite - I don't know what the current GeoSurvey rules are; I'm just training them off-world in case Steve's still got things set up so that low-skill teams are more likely to exhaust the resources (which I understand from a game-play sense, but not from a techno-babble sense)

John

[Balibar (OP)]

Not quite - I don't know what the current GeoSurvey rules are; I'm just training them off-world in case Steve's still got things set up so that low-skill teams are more likely to exhaust the resources (which I understand from a game-play sense, but not from a techno-babble sense)

The moon seems a good place to start training the geologists as it is the first place to be surveyed.  I like that idea.  There is historical precedent based on Apollo and moon rocks.