Free Market - What is it good for?

[Skanderbeg]

As asked above, under what circumstances is it useful to run Free Market? I have never done it, except one
Morgan game recently (I lost).

As I leaned in another thread, Morgan don't needs to
run Free Market. And playing other factions, I have better choices. I normally run Green economy, for catching mindworms and getting less ecodamage.

So, what the f*** is Free Market good for?

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Skand,

FM is a considerable boon to a builder type player but it takes some getting used to.

Your question legitamately is why in God's green earth would anyone want to put up withthe hassles of FM with its police issues and to a limitted extent it's planet issues?

The answer plain and simple is the energy output is worth it.

So when would you want to run Fm and how do you handle the issues associated with FM.

Case 1 - early as possible vs. using planned

Good case studies Lal and Domai

Inherent drone quelling or talent bonusses allow these factions to use FM immediately and operate the same as a'normal' faction i.e. w/o rec commons base sizes of size 2 are drone riot free. The extra energy allows both of these faction a better tech discovery rate by normally 2-3 turns per tech. What this means is that you can normally trim at least 10 years off your ability to get to IA. Teh extra cash generated by the FM approach can then be plowed back into rush former build or better yet Recycle tanks. Tanks are a god send because it allows you to retain size 3 cities muchmore easily even if you have to make one a doctor. A side bonus is that by not running simply Planned you can build more cities before your first buearacracy warning.

So when you look at the two factions above

a)Lal running Fm vs planned only, you have Lal increasing energy and retaining most of it vs. planned with growth and industry bonusses but absolutely horrible energy retention (-3 efficiency) sure he can go to a size 3 base before a drone issue but he loses most of his energy and hits bueracracy warning mush sooner.

b) Domai needs techs more than anything else. His industry bonus assures him that he will be building and at many times faster than he can research. Use Fm to keep tech rolling in so that he has worthwhile things to build. Couple that with the fact he can build more colony pods before he hits that first beauracracy warning.

Most other factions capable of FM can likewise shorten there research times by about 10 turns until IA if they go the FM route but require close monitoring of the bases at a minimum each base site pre recycle tanks absolutely needs to have a 2 nutrient square as when the second citizencomes on line one of the 2 citizens has to be set to a doctor. In fact you'll want to do it the turn before you achieve population 2 to prevent a one turn drone riot. Continue ICsing like mad and as soon as the run to IA is complete look to Social Psych for rec commons or if your lucky trade with a willing AI.

Case 2 - After rec commons

Best approach here is to make sure you run both wealth and FM. Now you are asking why. THe extra energy fromthe base square is key and perhaps you also have made a freind or tow and have trade energy. Even without trade energy the base square energy is well worth the hassle. Around this time frame you'll be looking to be in the SP building stage. Energy is key during this time as you can rush build the last part of crawlers continue expansion and rush build recycle tanks and rec commons. In fact duringthis time you'll most likely be looking to have as fast a research rate as possible to burn through restricutionlifting all the time using energy for infrastructure builds to set up the pop boom phase (i.e. Children creches, Research hospitals, net nodes, e-banks, and ultimately tree farms.) True, worm harvesting will provide you cash but doesn't do well for you as far as research rate goes. Plus I find worm harvesting too much of a hit or miss proposition. Sometime the worms are present but more often than not they aren't.

Once you've built your infrastructure and now are ready for your pop boom. Boom away via Demo/planned/creches and after this point I normally make the final switch to Demo/Green/? and make lab allocations very high and specialize workers to make sure cash is coming in appropriately.

I used to be a died inthe wool FM hater but have now come to understand its considerable power.

There are however some downsides other than the obvious ones of drone control and inability to fight natives well and no capture of natives.

A trap easily fallen into is the builder trap. Your focus becomes all about building to the extent that you don't explore the world and make friends. This is not all bad because during specific beeline runs you don't want tech trades of anything that might slow your progress to your goals. But inthe meantime you can set yourself up for nasty surpises. One key tech to getting out and seeing the world is Doctrine Flex. One can argue that a short detour to Doctrine Flex is very worthwhile as it allows you to send some trance transports and some foil probes out into the world to pop pods and meet and greet (infiltrate & steal from) the AI.

All in all, FM is an aquired tast but once mastered really improves your game.

Og

[cbn]

The way the SE attributes are set up, reaching an ECON rating of +2 results in the key benefit of an extra energy in each worked square of every base. This is the key point to reach since running even higher ECON ratings bring more marginal increased benefits. I don't think that anyone questions the immense boost all this energy can bring in faster tech rates and more credits to spend.


While Morgan can run Wealth and get to +2 ECON, most of the other factions get there through Free Market. Like you, I originally found the police and Planet negatives very harsh and didn't use FM. But after reading on here I saw how, in periods when you do not have armies "out of base", FM can provide an energy boom without too much unrest.

I have often used a period of FM to build up energy reserves and a tech lead. I will rush build infrastructure and upgrade units to prepare for possible war. Either when I start building needlejets or when its time to enter a serious battle I will switch out again. I generally look at FM as a peacetime SE choice although sometimes that extra energy becomes addictive and you try to continue it into times of war. I have tinkered with using psych allocations (which I usually have at 0%) and there still seems to be a net benefit to running FM even when using psych allocations and some specialists to prevent drones. Generally though the day I leave FM is the day that a large task force of units head to a major battlefield.


FM could be viewed as a builder SE choice since builders would tend to stay in it longer than warmongers. But even playing conquest style, using FM for a while can help provide a tech lead to the next weapon tech and provide loads of cash to upgrade the standing army and then have ready cash to probe away opponents units and bases as well as crash-build new units.


ALL in all its not a SE choice for all situations but it sure can be powerful.

Edit-- I did not see OO's post until after submitting this. The advantages are stated better in that post
[This message has been edited by cbn (edited January 11, 2001).]

[Skanderbeg]

Thanks for Your answers. I see that Free Market can be valuable for certain factions (especially the ones with lesser drone problems like Lal or Domai) in certain phases of the game.

But, You were talking about directed research, and that brings me to my next question.
I generally play blind research (as my German manual says clearly that it's the normale settings that ONLY the Aliens can do directed research), and under this circumstances the times Free Market would be valuable seems very restricted to me.
In blind research, I can't beeline to the techs I need to benefit from FM (ind. Auto, lifting of energy restrictions) and the techs I need to avoid ecodamage (treefarms, centauri reservate) I think I would need if running FM. Even running green, I have a phase with ecodamage when I begin to use crawler, but still haven't got tech to build treefarms. I also can't beeling to the tech I need to build a punishment sphere
for the airforce base. So, in a blind research game, I normally wouldn't be able to build an airforce, which normally is an important fearture of my defense strategy. And I would be in need of a good defense, because running FM, I certainly piss off someone who's running Green or Planned.

Because of this, for blind research game I still see value of FM only before discovery of DAP, and even in this time, this will not help me very much, because of the energy restriction and my inability to build crawlers. In this position, I still would think it was better to run green and hunt worms. It will bring me the energy I miss while not running FM or military units I now don't need to build, and then, instead of a garrison, I can build a childrens creche or an energy bank, which will decrease my income in another way.

So, I would be glad to learn from You about the value of Free Market in a blind research game.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Skand

Good points on Directed vs blind research. Blind research is probably the biggest single choice in game set up that changes your game approach.

Now then to the question at hand "When would you want to run FM in a blind game?" The reasons for running FM are the same higher energy output and better research rate. But... one can reasonably argue that unlike directed research any tech discovery/trade is worth while because of the random nature in which techs are discovered in a blind situation. So one reasonably needs to consider which is going to get you techs faster use of FM or use of green and/or planned that allows you to get out into the world and meet/greet other factions.

My way of thinking is this, normally planned and/or FM come along much sooner than Green as the SE choice is despendant on only obtaining two techs for Planned or FM that being Net Nodes and Planetary Networks or Industrial base Industrial Economics respectively for Planned or FM. That means either of these two are going to be you first SE switch. If you happen to run across either of these two you'll likely want to switch to either one ASAP. IN the meantime under blind situation you'll likely get a smattering of techs that still give you ability to build faciliteis of use that are not necessarily in your favored beeline to IA or restricition lifting. Since energy is key to rush build facilites moreso than units FM has adavantages here.

One last thing needs to be factored into the equations. Of the pods you pop how many independent units do you have? If you have a few unity speeders and some free transports these units are perfect to find the other factions whilst still running FM. The key in the first say 70 years is to meet and greet as many factions as possible before you have any real power. The factions are much more likely to amenable innthese early years.

So in summary in a blind game I would recommend depending on how the relative ease you think it will take to meet other factions to run FM at least until the point that green becomes available. This will aid your early tech discovery rate. In the meanwhile take every independent unit you can and scour the seas and countryside for the other factions. Realistically you probably won't be in FM all the way up through the tech run of restrictionlifting but it probably will cut 20-30 years off your discovery time to IA (depending of course on whether the game allows you the appropriat techs).

One last thing never underestimate the power of the base square energy. I know that the prevailing thought is that until energy restriction are lifted why attempt any econ rating over +2. Well Base square energy is not subject to energy restrictions. +3 econ or +4 econ delivers big energy windfalls at the base square. In fact the base square energy is often times much more potent than the surrounding squares often times allowing you to double or triple your gross energy production in the early game while the ratio of base squares to square worked is high. In the later game when the base square/worked sqaure ratio is low the energy from trade makes the difference. So I realistically say that econs over +2 always have a huge effect.

[shimmin]

I almost always play blind, and FM is a vital part of my opening strategy with most factions, particularly when playing builder. Ogie alluded to the general method I employ, but let me spell it out in detail.

The limiting factor to early growth is population expansion (unless you're in the jungle), so what I generally do is keep things growing as fast as possible. Running FM, the turn before a base reaches size 2, I set the citizen to be a doctor, and then immediately rushbuild a colony pod. Spit out colony pods as fast as the population regenerates. Fit in rushbuilt rec tanks, formers, defenders as time and cash permit. Free market is vital for providing the energy to do all this rushbuilding. In addition the energy boost in most of my games about doubles the time of early quick tech advances. Build rec commons a let a base grow past size one once it becomes isolated from the frontier.

This technique can be used to start an ICS game, though I usually don't. I just use it to get as many bases as I feel like playing with founded as fast as possible.

Major weakness is it leaves you completely unprepared for attack during the earliest stage of the game. But for the rapid deployment benefits, I'm willing to take that risk.