Temporal Strategy

[Cyrien]

I also enjoy the Temporal trait in my games. And while APB12 are the best weapon in a max tech game Temporal is still a great trait, even weapon wise. The Distortion Burst and the Accelerator are both great weapons even in an APB ship design. They can take the place of the shield depleters and offer either more regular damage plus good shield depletion for the Distortion Burst or even more shield depletion at better range for a little extra cost.

Production wise extra cost is nothing for temporal because of the temporal spaceyards. Cost wise... most of the cost in temporal weapons is in radioactive. I don't know about anyone else but I can count the number of times I have run out of radioactives on one hand (or anything other than minerals for that matter).

The advantages for the Temporal are much improved production, good weapons that can Last clear to the end game and a scanner built right in with everything. And of course nice happiness controls built in as well. The weakness of temporal is higher costs and mostly it only improves on things that can be gained normally anyways.

Like all the extras I would argue that it is worthwhile but not so dominating that if you have it you win and if you don't you lose(I think that title could only possibly goto advanced storage techniques).

But that is just my opinion.

PS: I never play tactical combat even in single player. It makes it too easy. I actually find it quite satisfying to develop strategy orders for the AI that make it fight effectively without direct intervention. It's also good practice for PBW.

[PvK]

Temporal has some good things in it. Like all racial tech areas, if they didn't, they wouldn't be worth paying for. The minimaxer munchkin's question then becomes whether they are worth the 1500 points or not. Fortunately, the game is varied enough that non minimaxer munchkins can enjoy the game and win with a variety of techs and techniques, especially against the unmodded AI.

I find it interesting that almost every "praise Temporal" message I've seen ignores the things that look best about it to me. I tried to use it once in a tough PBW competetive game, and lost, mainly because I was playing against a top-ace player, and because I was basing my strategy on a Temporal ability that doesn't work as well as I thought it would (which is a good thing, because even though misleading, it'd be a bit overpowered in some situations).

PvK

[bearclaw]

I enjoy Temporal too. In fact, if I ever play a racial tech empire, I always choose Temporal. I just can't justify any other race over Temporal Shipyards.

[Karibu]

You are forgetting one major point of using organic trait. It makes your ships cheaper. You can build at least 30% faster and upkeep a fleet far greater than other players. Organic weapons are less powerful, yes, but If I can make Light cruiser in 2 turns instead of 4 (at the beginning of the game) I am going to kick anybody's *** who has temporal, crystalline or actually any other trait because I can have twice as many ships in my fleet in a short time. At least in the beginning.

Organic armor is not that good, I agree, but I add few pieces of it because relying only to shields is utter stupidity. Best protection you can have with at least 11 crystal armor and 2 shields (I am too tired to tell the math inside it, but when using enough crystal armor and shields, no weapon which makes under 150 damage, can harm you).

[Bone]

excellent thread! i almost always use temporal, mostlty because i am addicted to temporal space yards which can pump out serious numbers of drones (muhahwahaha). i also love temporal shield depleters!!

u guys rock.

[spoon]

Originally posted by PvK:

because I was basing my strategy on a Temporal ability that doesn't work as well as I thought it would

What was that?

[PvK]

I was counting on the Event Predictor "combat" bonus to increase my defense as well as my offense (like experience and cultural "combat" bonuses). I learned the hard way that it only increases offense. Otherwise, my other bonuses would have made my ships nearly unhittable. It's a misleading description, though - it should say it gives a bonus to hit, not a "combat" bonus.

PvK

[Fyron]

Hmm... that certainly sucks. Just tested it out and it is true.

[Atrocities]

Interesting.

[Paul1980au]

The alternative is to begin with organic - get boarding parties then capture the temporal ships as you go - they can prove useful - also get psychic ships with ship capture they also prove useful.