What the heck is this? Planetfall Lurker thread

[Maniac]

Am I seeing this right that the University and Gaians can finish the Unity Library on the same turn?

[Mardoc]

I *think* that University is two turns ahead; Selrahc said 5 turns with screenies of T27, while Bob's research is 5 turns away on T28, and can't rush it until the turn after he finishes the tech.

Plus University is first in turn order.

[Tredje]

Since we have the Planetfall creator among us, I figured I would use the opporunity to ask a question. Maniac:

Is there any way of taking control of the sea in Planetfall when your planet rating is low? Let's say I'm playing Miriam and that I am in the Terraforming Civic. All land-Fungus within my borders will be cleared, and I can send my Formers to chop Fungus outside them. Should an infestation occur I can handle it with Bunkers or Flamethrower units. This is quite manageable if I take the right precautions.

Now, the seas are a completely different story. There is so much open space where planetary units can spawn, so I can't really control the environment. And once my planetary rating gets bad enough, they will start arriving in droves. Moreover there seems to be no units that are tailored to killing planetary units. With the correct upgrades the Gun Foil and Submarines do ok on the offensive (about 66% chance to win), but on the defensive the best scenario seems to be an even trade. And since I can't count on my naval units winning on the defensive, I have to keep them in cities while waiting for the enemy to appear. That usually means that they get to pillage my coastal improvements before I can kill them. Later naval units like Destroyers are worse than the earlier units.

If there is an infestation on Fungus, the situation gets exponentially worse. Recently I captured a coastal city, and immediately had two Fungal Towers spawn before my culture had expanded. To take down two of these towers (which were accompanied by one Isle of the Deep each) I had to build 15 submarines (+25% against native and Combat I), which meant two of my cities could do nothing else for a very long time.

It seems to me that as a leader with a negative planet rating, the best course of action is simply to ignore the seas. The investment is simply too big for the amount of security that I get. Am I missing something, or are the seas supposed to be an area where control is difficult, if not impossible, to establish when you have a low planet rating? Perhaps I haven't discovered the naval unit that is supposed to handle planetary units?

[Maniac]

It is intended that the open sea is a difficult area to control for terraformers.

If you're faced with sea spawning spots, but your coastline consists entirely of ridges and highlands, it is an entirely valid option to ignore those spawning spots. As long as the Flowering Counter doesn't reach 60, you don't need to fear danger from the seas.

If you do need to destroy a Fungal Tower, it's probably better to first soften it up with ranged attacks, from bunkers or for instance submarines with ranged 1. In the lategame, Thermobaric Missiles become available and are intended as Fungal Tower busters.

To colonize virgin areas, just be methodical and remove all surrounding fungus before going deep in the red Planet-wise. That way you avoid fungal blooms. Of course randomly spawned native life can still wander in. To minimize their annoyance, if possible begin your sea colonization adventures in a bay area mostly surrounded by land. That way there are less directions native life can randomly come from. In areas likely to receive IoD visits it's better to only stick to Kelp. Kelp is a feature, so it can't be pillaged. Last tip, Perimeter Defenses are an important building in sea bases.

To cross the open ocean as a terraformer, Magnetic Propulsion is a crucial tech, as it enables the Stealth special ability. With it submarines and transports can move around without fear of IoD attack.

[Maniac]

Have players ever tried to fool the lurkers in their threads? I was thinking... either Nic is a poor loser, or either he's genius and he's declaring a phony war on the Hive in order to build up a force of siege tanks, which will then be used against the unsuspecting Believers to get the Hydroponics Bay Nic's after.

[Gaspar]

Have players ever tried to fool the lurkers in their threads? I was thinking... either Nic is a poor loser, or either he's genius and he's declaring a phony war on the Hive in order to build up a force of siege tanks, which will then be used against the unsuspecting Believers to get the Hydroponics Bay Nic's after.

They do occasionally. But knowing Nic, he's really ragequitting.

[spellman]

They do occasionally. But knowing Nic, he's really ragequitting.

Well. It appears shit is about to go down...

Chalk up yet another game where Sareln is rushed. He should have a counter on his sig.

[superjm]

I didn't care much for Human Genome Project in my SP games, but apparently Mist is setting out to prove me wrong.

Seems kind of silly that Doctors can bulb that far up the tree without getting tripped up elsewhere.

[spellman]

I didn't care much for Human Genome Project in my SP games, but apparently Mist is setting out to prove me wrong.

Seems kind of silly that Doctors can bulb that far up the tree without getting tripped up elsewhere.

I was discussing the mod with Sareln and he noted that because of how the bulbing series works (and the exponential beaker costs) going GP to bulb the high level tech while slow researching the low/middle ones is totally valid. And now proven in MP.

[Sareln]

Wait, Are Selrahc and Mist basically going to swing into Nic at the same time?