Aquiring the Cloning Vats

Impaler[WrG] · March 1, 2004, 14:55

I am a firm supporter of Drouge's plan to aim for aquisition of the Cloning Vats ASAP. This project will provide explosive growth especialy when combined with Tree Farms. Our Cybornetic ways result in a considerable -1 Growth penalty, ware as our oponents have bonuses or runn Planned Econ and have effectivly utilized this bonus to create at substantialy larger population, if not for our assimilation of Peace we would have a significantly inferior population. With the Cloning Vats we could easily Equal or Exceed the population of the Hive and Drones and begin to compete in Planetary Govenorships Elections.

We should begin to craft a comprehensive Reseach plan that involves both Faction and ultimate gets Cycon BioMachinery. For the imediate future Uni will be the soul researcher but after Net Nodes are built in several Key Cycon Bases it should be possible to direct both Factions to intense reserch.

If I remember corectly the pre-requisites for BioMachinery are MMI and Retroviral Enginering. Tecnologies needed to reach that point are Advanced Military Algorithms, Polymorphic Software, Adaptive Doctorine, Bio-Enginering and Optical Computers.

As you can see this is a considerable amount of research, if we can steal tecs from any other faction it will help imensly. Each of our 2 Factions will have to complete several advances to reach the goal. We can use the Minute Mirage Mod 3 Tec picker to determine the adsact course of Tecnologies that will be best. Uni Tec costs are currently around 800 and will likly rise to 900 then 1000 as costs rise. Cycon is already at 1000 due to its higher tec status and the next tecs will likly be 1100 and 1200. Asuming Uni can complete a tec in 3-4 turns and Cycon Can complete one in 4-5 turns after we have a few Nodes and switch to 80% research.

Overall I estimate 12-15 turns for us to research the nessary Tecnologies but this figure could be moved up considerably if conditions improve. I would like to envite all functions to Contribute their input to laying out this research plan. One obvious thing I can think of off the bat is that Uni should be the one to research Advanced Military Algorithms so that is can get access to AAA which will our Plasma Garrisons very hard to kill from the Air. We should also try to avoid sharing tecs between Uni and Cycon as much as possible, the Hive and Drones have used this tecnique to great effect to lower their tec costs and so should we.

laurentius · March 2, 2004, 05:24

Thats a fine plan. I suggest we take this into account int the future as it comes acute. Shouldnt this be in the research thread btw?

MrWhereItsAt · March 2, 2004, 07:31

This is certainly important enough on its own, I think. The CV could change the whole game.

Any other game-changing milestones to watch out for, to all ye SMAX strategy veterans?

Maniac · March 2, 2004, 08:08

When would you suggest switching CyCon to 80% Labs?

GeoModder · March 2, 2004, 11:31

I suggest after the RC's are quick builded.

Impaler[WrG] · March 8, 2004, 03:40

Only after TreeFarms and Net Nodes are built in Key Bases, the Benifits of Both are worth delaying. If we are forced into a war we will need massive Credits and Tree Farms will Provide a good bost to Credit Production in our Larger bases and keep thouse bases growing. If we are still in a relativly Peacefull stance we can then buy the Net Nodes and switch to 80% research and still reach our final reserch goal in about the same time we could if we switched to Research imediatly.

GeoModder · March 8, 2004, 10:45

We're talking about a lot of turns now: building Net Nodes, Tree Farms, Recreation Commons... All this doesn't feel like it will be done in 5 turns.

That was the original schedule IIRC, 8 turns energy output, then lab output. Already 3 turns have passed since then...

Maniac · March 8, 2004, 20:35

I wonder about the use of building and hurrying network nodes in CyCon bases. Considering an investment of some 140 credits to hurry a network node in a for CyCon norms wealthy base producing 20 energy per year, it would still take some 14 years to win back the investment.

So before we decide to hurry network nodes in the Consciousness, we'd need to have a good idea of when and how long we intend to run 80% labs or 80% economy. As long as we're gonna use full economy more than half the time in CyCon, it seems on first sight it would still be better to only build credit-boosting facilities (eg tree farms) in CyCon, and mostly labs-boosting facilities (eg research hospitals) in PUT. We'd need a turn simulator though to test this for sure, and test what combination gives us Biomachinery fastest.