For I Have Tasted the Fruit: The private logs of Academician Zakharov

[Selrahc]

And the woman said unto the serpent: 'Of the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said: Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

And the serpent said unto the woman: 'Ye shall not surely die; for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God, with knowledge both good and evil.'
-Conclave Bible. Datalinks.

I'm the urban spaceman, baby; I've got speed.
I've got everything I need.
I'm the urban spaceman, baby; I can fly.
I'm a supersonic guy.
I don't need pleasure. I don't feel pain.
If you were to knock me down I'd just get up again.
I'm the urban spaceman.
-Dronechant heard in protests outside University Base following the announcement of the Nerve Stapling procedure.

[Selrahc]

Zakharov is one of my favorite leaders in Alpha Centauri. And I think he would be even if he was terrible, just because he seems like he's having the most fun. But I really liked Zakharov to play as well.


Planetfall does not play much like Alpha Centauri, from the little experience I've had. But it has some weird changes from Civilization 4 too. Here are some that I've caught.
Each base gets to work a free specialist.
Drones(unhappy citizens) add production.
Bases can't starve! Population management is at an absolute premium, because if you accidentally grow to an unsustainable size, the city will enter into food riots. This makes it cost more maintenance and gives it a chance of flipping to the barbs.
The tech tree is kind of like the FFH one, in that there are multiple paths without much connection which you can go up in any order, to cherrypick things you want. You'll always have dozens of different techs available to research.
The early game goes slow. No slavery. No god king/agrarianism. Precious few tile improvements. Low happy caps. I can't at the moment see a good way to really turbocharge the early game.
Units have promotions and special abilities. There is a relatively shallow curve in unit strength, akin to FFH. The weakest units are S2. The strongest units are S8. It's seems to be the add ons that start to really differentiate units.
Multiple units can be constructed in a single turn, with enough production. Could be handy for a mass upgrade strategy.
Wonders and specialists seem a bit of a mess to me. Some seem really good, some seem pretty awful.
There are some interesting civics and religions, but I'm not sure how balanced they are. I'll probably be doing a post about them later.
Spies seem to be a big part of the game...


Academician Zakharov shops at the same sunglasses store as Spider Jerusalem




So what's the goods, what's the bads for the University faction?

Positive!
SCIENCE!!!! *Ahem* +15% science.
Start with Information Networks technology. This gives a free network node in the capital, allowing a specialist to be worked from T1. With the free specialist in each base, I can do this without interuppting builds. I *should* have the first Great Person. Barring Lal pushing for one. The network node also gives an early +2 boost to science, like FFH Elder Councils.


Negative!
-25% defence against Spies.
The specialist I can work is a "Librarian", which looks to be the equivalent of a spy. It gives a Datajack Great Person. I would much rather have a scientist.
No happiness boosting civ features! Every other faction gives some way to boost happiness (semi)early, so will be having less drone problems. I'll have to rely on buildings and resources more.


So with that being said.
I think I've got a tech path already worked out...

[Commodore]

Cloning Vats for a pop boom, nerve staple them all, rush to fusion, profit?

[Selrahc]

Hahahaha.
I don't really know what a good start looks like in planetfall. But I do at least now know what a bad one looks like. Starting on an iceball with no food is not a good start.



I'm having PBEM VI flashbacks. Except this time I'm starting on the frozen coastline, and have to move inland.

For those of you unsure (everybody?). I can't work water tiles until researching a tech. The white circles resource is Algae. I can't improve that without a tech, and it doesn't become *good* until a much later tech. Citizens in Planetfall eat the same two food as everybody else, and farms aren't unlocked for a while. And need irrigation which this iceball start doesn't have. I've got no rivers, and rivers seem to be as important in Planetfall as in Alpha Centauri and Civ. I've got no tiles with any food(green apples) yield. If I settle there, I'll stagnate at size two.

So... we're moving inland.
What am I looking for? Well a nice start would be tiles with a base yield of 2 food. The main early food resource for this game is "Rare DNA", which can be enhanced by field labs, or Nutrient Resources which just add a flat gain to food yield. Also good would be some form of commerce resource like an Alien Artifact or Planetpearls or something. But I will settle for any manner of 2 food tile.

Incidentally, farms in this game work like cottages. They start off poor, but end up getting really powerful. Eventually farms mature into Edens, giving +4 food on their tile.

What do we see?


Radiotropic fungus is the little resource bubble over on the left. It's a commerce resource that can be hooked up early, but needs XenoEmpathy to work. The gaians start with XenoEmpathy, and it's a cheap essential early game technology.

It's sitting next to the first 2 food tile I've seen, so I'll be heading in that direction for now.



The scout meanwhile is heading for our first pod. Hopefully something good comes out. He has a long trek to it.
You may be wondering about the circuitous path. Well Planetfall comes with height terrain interaction, with units being either on Flat(can move to hills but not ridges), Hills(can move to either) or Ridges (can move to hills but not flat). My unit is on a ridge, so has to run down a hill to get back to flatland.

[Selrahc]

So anyways. Let me explain the plan.

With my early Datajack Great Person, I can bulb a fairly expensive technology called Holographics. That tech isn't all that exciting, unlocking Virtual Theatres for a bit of a happiness boost. What is more exciting is the tech that it is a prerequisite to. Memetics.

Memetics is really expensive for the early game, so ordinarily it probably wouldn't be in play for a long time. Except... There is a wonder called Unity Library.

Unity Library gives a free technology. It's on the tech tree in a place where I will have the best odds of getting it, bar serious effort by opponents to deny me it. I start with the Prereq tech for the technology that enables it, and I'll have a fairly hefty short term scientific advantage due to my capitals network node and leader trait. I should be able to get the Unity Library tech long before anybody else, and if I build it then Memetics is mine.

What does Memetics do? Lots and lots and lots.

#
What has science wrought!

Numbered list for the goodies!
1. Knowledge Civic. +15% global science wasn't good enough? Have another +20%. Science! I'm going to be a research monster. Of course knowledge comes with another hefty hit to espionage defence, but luckily it doesn't look like spies come into play massively early. I'm hoping I can get Hunter Killer Algorithm.

2. Homo Superior religion. Because humans just aren't good enough, so it's our job to improve on them. Who hasn't wanted a cybernetic ear or a tentacle at some time? And if a few experiments get lose and rampage around downtown, well that's just the price of progress. Homo Superior will be a nice easy source of happy, and it also gives a boost to GP generation in every city. A better tomorrow, TODAY!

3. It enables the Cybercore. I can turbocharge my capital for a real monster city.

4. Research hospitals, for even more research. And the first source of my trait boosted scientists in the game. With knowledge, the cybercore and research hospitals I'm planning on a heavy tech explosion.

5. And last but not least. Clones! Mwahahahahahaha.
Alright, technically not real clones. Genites, a genetically enhanced slab of flesh with a basic downloaded brain. These things are S4 and come with March for free. They should be the toughest thing around for a *long* time. Once I start grinding out Genites from my Cybercore capital, I'll be a hellish prospect to invade.

I think this strategy really combines a lot of the core early strengths of the University Faction and translates it into quick results. I'm planning on using the Genites to defend and harass, while I start building up a proper tech base.

The main thing that can go wrong? Those other guys stealing my Library. With the Unity Pods being able to auto complete wonders I'm very paranoid that I'll get my plan yanked out from under me by some lucky chump. Although there are some tempting other early game wonders to distract them.

The godawful starting land isn't going to help, but at this stage I'm very sanguine about proving the power of SCIENCE!

[Selrahc]

Oh, and Memetics is the technology to take thought patterns and constructs and download them directly into peoples brains. I'm going to be taking over the world... with Memes!

[Mardoc]

Oh, and Memetics is the technology to take thought patterns and constructs and download them directly into peoples brains. I'm going to be taking over the world... with Memes!

So, then, your capital will be named Lying Cake?

[Selrahc]

My cities? No no... I am a serious academic(ian) and my cities will have serious academic names.

It is my army of genetically enhanced supermen that will be the product of Advanced Memegeneering.

[Selrahc]

[SIZE="3"]Religion in the world of Tomorrow[/SIZE]

The religions of Planetfall aren't really religions. (Which sits fairly poorly with Miriam being so dependent on them.) The religions of Planetfall are much more in the vein of the themes of Alpha Centauri, to wit they're ideas about the objectives and goals that a future society might have to contend with. The religions in and of themselves have a fairly minimal impact with no units or wonders tied to them, but they're related to several other key choices to be made during the game. They're also related to the expansion factions.

Religions in Planetfall don't play nice. Any religion that is not your state religion causes unhappiness.

Thematically there are two opposed ideological pairs.

The Ascetic Virtues.

Sacrifice of Self for the betterment of society

The Ascetic Virtues were a wonder in Alpha Centauri, which boosted Police and Base Size cap. Both concepts don't exist in Planetfall. Ascetic Virtues is a rather interesting religion, giving +1 food/city. Ascetic Virtues is unlocked relatively early, at Biodomes technology and is probably a good pick for a "general purpose" religion. It doesn't have any impact on civics or planet rating.

Homo Superior

Exaltation of the Self
I would consider Homo Superior to be the thematic inverse of Ascetic Virtues. It doesn't really have any interplay in game though. It gives +2 GP points/base, which can definitely be a good boon in generating specialists. It's probably going to be available slightly later than Ascetic Virtues.

The tech that founds Homo Superior also unlocks the Cybernetic Consciousness, who are really an embodiment of its ideals of transhumanism.

Edenism

Returning to the Garden

Edenism is heavily thematically linked with the Terraforming Civic. Its ideological basis is to turn Planet into a paradise world for humanity. As far as benefits go, it gives +1 Psych(culture) to bases. Which is better than it sounds, as Psych is hard to come by otherwise unless you have a high planet rating. And if you're using Terraforming civic you are probably not going to have a high planet rating... It locks you out of using the Hybrid civic, which is the one that will be needed if you don't want to fight worms in the late game. Edenism is basically like declaring war on Planet.



Voice of Planet

Heed the Wisdom of Planet

And on the inverse we have Voice of Planet. Voice of Planet locks you out of the Terraforming civic, which improves the speed of farm growth and automatically removes fungus in territory. It's associated with Hybrid, which turns forests in your territory into Hybrid Forests. Voice of Planet gives +1 planet rating/city, and I'll have to talk about Planet rating later because it's going to be important. It also unlocks the Concordiat. A special "UN Council" that only Voice of Planet civilizations can vote in. Voice of Planet is the special club for civilizations that want to hug worms and live in the fungus.

Voice of Planet research will not unlock an expansion civ... but a few techs later some of the Voice of Planet stuff unlocks Cha Dawn of the Cult, who joins you in a permanent alliance and auto declares war on the person with the lowest Planet Rating. The Basium of Planetfall.



Due to the nature of my beeline, I'm going for Homo Superior. But I think I'd be going for it anyway. GP increases synergize with both University and Knowledge civics bonuses to specialists.

[Selrahc]

Slight snag in the meme rush plan: It looks like a Cybercore is only an option for Cybernetic Consciousness players. Darn.