Racial Traits, Discussion on Pro\'s/Con\'s.
 

Just wondering on everyones opinion of the Racial Traits included in the game. (Non-modded). Which is your favorite?? Which do you hate?? Wich in your opinion is too powerful? Too underpowered??/Overcosted for effect?

Examples:

My favorite: Crystalline tech, even though I think it is WAY to underpowered, the Crystalline Torp needs more power, as do the Shard Cannons (at least they finally reduced the rate of fire!).

And Advanced Storage, nice bonus to pop/research/buildings all for a nice small cost!

One I hate:

Organic, too overused/overpowerful, has the best seeker (parasite), the best armor (organic) and the best long range weapon next to the hard to get to Wave Motion Gun (Acid Glob) as well as way too cheap ships (easy to produce in less turns).

Way too overcosted:

Emotionless, quite a useful trait but the cost is way too much, should be about 2000 or 1500 cost IMO. I've been in many games when I wish I had it when all my planets are rioting in a system due to a large fleet appearing out of nowhere.

Most useless:

The 25% reduction in supplies one for ships, don't find that one very useful at all. (That and Temporal Tech/Religious tech. don't find very useful until later in the game, ie just use Religious Talisman and the Temporal Spaceyard, only really good things about them.)

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Re: Racial Traits, Discussion on Pro\'s/Con\'s.
 

Personally, I almost always take nautral merchants, just out of habit.

Emotionless (and probably nautral mechie) is too much for the cost, which is why I lowered it in techmod.

Phoenix-D

Re: Racial Traits, Discussion on Pro\'s/Con\'s.
 

I used to agree with you, but now I realize that they are all usefull in their own way.

The talisman is awesome, with a battleship you can get the firepower to take down another ship in a single volley. Even though you get it late in game that is more then enough reason to take religious. Don't forget those facilities though, they are very usefull. Especially in early game which is when you have them. Especially if you get many different kinds in one system.


The seeking paraistes aren't as uber powerfull as they once were, they are still the best seeker in the game but still. Organic armor is quite usefull but incredibly weak against anyhting that skips armor since you sacrifice shields for it. Most of their weapons aren't that crazy superior to regular ones. (well maybe not, it all depends on how you look at, and when mounts come into play they do become a bit too powerfull)

I agree that the crsytalline weapons should be beaged up a little. I think the shard cannons and Torp are fine. The problem is in an unmodded game armor is about useless and hence so are shard cannons. The energy dampner is nice though. The crystilline ray needs to be beafed up a little in my opinion.

Temporal has some excellent weapons. If you play temporal and don't use the weapons you are seriously putting yourself at a dissadvantage.

I totally agree about emotionless needing to be decreased in price.

Re: Racial Traits, Discussion on Pro\'s/Con\'s.
 

I don't agree that emotionless is that costly - you can turn happiness totally down, so it only costs 2.200. Not to bad, I think.

Re: Racial Traits, Discussion on Pro\'s/Con\'s.
 

Well, my Favorites for Tech Traits would be as follows, in order:
Organic
Temporal
Religious
Crystalline
Psychic

Organic is first mainly because there are so many advantages. The cost is spread between minerals and organics, reducing build times, and making it cheaper if your production is handled by Monoliths. The weapons are a bit powerful, with the Enveloping Acid Globule statistically outpreforming Wave Motion Guns (2 turn reload v. 3 turn), Lightning Ray is best close-combat weapon IMHO, and the Parasites give you a whole lot of seekers, fast. The Gestation Vats and Replicant Centers play a big part in my strategy of integrating enemy populations, especially those that breathe different atmospheres. And the armor rules http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/ima...ons/icon12.gif

Temporal has the Events Predictor, with 30% (!!!) combat bonus, making defense fleets pretty **** tough (30% + 20% ship + 20% fleet). There's also the Temporal Space Yard, 50% faster than normal yards. As for weapons, they're excellent for shield-happy opponents, with the Shield Accellerator and Time Distortion Burst. Tachyon Cannon is a fairly good long range, high power weapon.

Religious has the Shrines, which can be obtained relatively early, and give huge bonuses for a growing empire. Nature Shrine will slowly improve homeworld values (and thus production), War and Death Shrines provide good defense (+15% to combat and weapon damage), Time Shrine gives nice production bonuses that would otherwise have to wait for Computers lvl 4. And Fate Shrine... you don't really see benefits for that, and difficult to test http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif And, of course, the Talisman.

Crystalline's advantages are from the armor-piercing weapons, and the facilities (which I don't remember the names of). One reduces maintainance, nice to beef up defensive/building fleets. Other provides extra shielding to all things in the system, Last I checked that included fighters http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif Shard cannon and crystal torp are nice, but need to be beefed up a bit to make them a match for other weapons.

Psychic... I just don't really like it too much http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif The Psychic training facilities are nice to make quick-training centers (Planet, two moons, all three with normal training facilities, and the psychic ones somewhere in-system). TK projector and Mental Singularity are mediocre weapons, IMHO, and the only really powerful weapon would be the Allegience Subverter, which can easily backfire (I remember taking a Psychic AI fleet of 30 with one insurrectioned ship, Allegience Subverter chain reaction).

Non-Tech traits that I like are Tiny Race (+20% planet space), Propulsion Experts (just one more move...), and Natural Merchants (habit from SE3, actually).

Oh, side note... I think Temporal and Crystalline were made for each other. That combo ties Organic.

Re: Racial Traits, Discussion on Pro\'s/Con\'s.
 

Does the maintenance reduction from chrystaline allow you to get 0% maint after ratial points?

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Assume you have a 1kg squirrel
E=mc^2
E=1kg(3x10^8m/s)^2=9x10^16J
which, if I'm not mistaken, is equivilent to roughly a 50 megaton nuclear bomb.
Fear the squirrel.

Re: Racial Traits, Discussion on Pro\'s/Con\'s.
 

It shouldn't, cause MM said that all ships will have a minimum maintenance of 5% a while back.

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It's not whether you win or lose that counts: it's how much pain you inflict along the way.

Re: Racial Traits, Discussion on Pro\'s/Con\'s.
 

Whatever price you're paying before, you pay 85% afterwards.

Re: Racial Traits, Discussion on Pro\'s/Con\'s.
 

Remember, you will 25% maintanance and if you reduce this in the setup by 5%, you only pay 20% maintance on a ship, i.e. you don't pay 1/4 but 1/5 of the whole ship!

Re: Racial Traits, Discussion on Pro\'s/Con\'s.
 

Rusty Nail: Any ship even remotely near a Psychic race should always have a Master Computer to block AS.

Then, you just have to stay outta range of the computer virus, which is potentially easier.