Originally posted by Imperator Fyron: Geo, I think you are wrong about the ineffectiveness of Monoliths in PBW games. Regardless of their high build costs, I have made very effective use of them in a number of games. They are most effective when you have a long period of peace, and so do not need to build a lot of ships in a short amount of time.
I haven't seen long periods of peace in very many of my PBW games.
I can almost see it if as Tesco suggests you wait until you have SY3, but even then unless it is a heavily populated correct atmosphere world, it takes too long to build them.
I did some detailed mathematical analysis once and posted it in the forum and the break even point for Monolith over a single resource facility is something like 2 years. 20 turns is a long time in a game that only Lasts 150 turns. And it's hard to dedicate your planetary facilities to building monolith facilities when they are needed for ships much worse.
I am sorry guys. The math just doesn't add up. Aginst the AI sure, but against humans you are making a mistake spending the time needed to build these things.
In all the PBW games I have been in I have maybe built five. Of course I cannot count the number of monoliths I have captured from other players because they have spent the time and resources to build them, and I came along and took them before they started seeing a return on their investment.
Geoschmo
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