(June 11th, 2020, 19:32)Bionic Commando Wrote: (June 11th, 2020, 17:07)SpaceOWL Wrote: Good luck on the rematch!
Of course it's quite easy to say it now, I know... but if I am not mistaken, with Battle Suits from an Artifacts world, you should be instantly able to build LR colony ships! Am I doing the math correctly?
Not quite. Battle Suits puts you at Construction level 9 and you'd be 15 over on space with LR and a colony. One more tech in any of Construction, Propulsion, or Planetology does the trick.
Thanks for the clarification Bionic. Now I see where I did the wrong math: you have Duralloy / Battle suits but not the tier 1/2 techs that precede it... so you don't get tech level = top tech as you normally do when grinding up the tech ladder.
Getting a tech early from an artifact planet changes a game completely, and create a lot of unusual strategic possibilities. Most of the times in the player's favour - notably IRC3 is almost a curse but definitely requires a change. I recently played a game as the Humans where I got IRC3 from a backyard planet in the 2350's, and it stalled my economy completely. I couldn't find an answer to that.
In this particular game, the side effects are not so small:
1. having L9 in construction (and if I didn't mess up with the math again), any Planetology tech will get you access to LR Col.
2. you get to know your Construction tree up to tier 4 right at the opening. This enables you to plan deeper in the future.
3. the extra space can benefit not only the colonization, but also early military effort to make use of early invasion bonus
4. considering Meklars are poor in Planetology, if you get two rabbits in a single swing of the bat (to use our local version of the saying
), this can be very important. You could go for:
- IT10 which is cheaper and faster than R4, the savings can go for Col ship #1 or more factories;
- Barren costs slightly more, but gives additional production / ColShip discount / access to more planets
- Enhanced Eco although much more expensive is crucial for Meklars (practically a must-have if RW80 is not in the tree), besides even bigger production bonus / col ship discounts.
5. having a good tech at hand enables tech trading with the AI way earlier than usual. So you can get another 2-3 important techs from the AIs for zero RP cost (maybe that's what I should have done in my IRC3 game). I wouldn't trade it for R5 with the Alkari having researched R4 myself as you actually played your game, but I definitely would if I had gone for Planetology instead.
6. the only downside of forfeiting R4 now is delaying Nuclear engines (if available). I think warp 2 is critical in maps bigger than medium. But tech trading can solve this issue, and if not R4 can come very quick with a more mature economy.
Anyway I'm sorry to arrive so late in this discussion and create diversion from the current game report, but this kind of strategic discussion is so rich, and the part I enjoy the most about MoO.
That's precisely what keeps me playing this classic game for about 25 years.
