Racial Tech Trait Poll

[Wardad]

Please vote for your Favorites or the most powerfull racial tech traits.

Two votes per person.

[Mudshark]

I think we think alike Wardad

[Suicide Junkie]

Bah! For ultimate power, choose ALL the racial techs, not just two!

[DirectorTsaarx]

I think this poll proves the point being made in the game balance thread - Crystalline is woefully underpowered in comparison to the other racial techs, and Temporal (my personal favorite, BTW) is marginal.

[tesco samoa]

I beg to differ there.

Ha Ha

Actually the crystaline have that lovely 30% maintence reduction. Which is quite important.

And you cannot underestimate the temporal space yards.

the question did ask for fav. or powerful

Temporal is slowly becoming my fav. Racial Tech.
I like to play long games...so it comes into play.
There are too many factors in determining what is the most Powerful Racial Tech. And lenght of game is a factor

[TerranC]

Organic tech is my least favorite in that... so I am surprised that it is one of the more Favorites.

Crystaline tech is more powerful than it seems.

Reduced costs for ships
Strong Armor
faster firing sub for Wave motion guns

Although I really don't see what 60 points of shields can do for you or why you would fill up a planet with solar generators when a huge breathable planet with rich minerals and Monolith facilities can create MUCH more.

Temporal tech is too bit powerful in my view.

Fast construction with minimal population
Faster sub for the Null space Cannon (!)
Quad damage for shields
30% attack bonus
System Happiness

The Tachyon cannon saves space but lacks that oomph in Temporal.

The other ones are wee bit outclassed.

Religion:
Never Miss
Shrines

Psychic:
System wide training
not much powerful weapons till MSP

Organic
Population Increase
Medical lab (A medical ship is much cheaper and mobile)
Not much powerful weapons till EAG
Souped up Ablative armor

[Wardad]

I like the Temporal Ship yards too. but....

1. Standard ship yards do not upgrade to a temporal ship yard.

2. A temporal ship yard can not be built by a standard ship yard. So an important planet would have to destroy the old shipyard before starting on the temporal.

I do like the temporal high end weapons also.
I use this trait when playing a full tech game.

[jimbob]

Well, I've played only a few of them to be quite honest. My favorite remains organic, because it's very helpful at the beginning of the game due to the way the tech tree is set up (you get weapons pretty well right off the start). But the most important advantage, IMHO, is the fact that you can build ships faster because the resources needed to build are more evenly distributed between mineral, radioactives, and organics

[Baron Munchausen]

Some of the factors that make the various racial techs more powerful are not being considered here.

Not only is Organic weaponry more powerful 'pound for pound' than almost any other weapons, it can target MORE things than other weapons. The Acid Globule, for example, is a torpedo, but it can target satellites and fighters. It is a very powerful weapon when you consider this additional fact. Similarly, the Seeking Parasite may do less damage than the standard CSM but it fires 1/3 faster, meaning it does more total damage in a combat engagement. Add organic armor and the population enhancing and protecting facilities to the mix and you've got a very nice package.

Similarly, Crystalline tech is more powerful than many realize because the armor is much harder to destroy than its damage ratio would indicate. Also, there is the 'Energy Dampener' which can slow down the fire rate of enemy weapons if they get close enough to be within its relatively short range. So even though I agree that the shard cannon is under-powered, this is still another of the best racial techs.

Temporal is a bit of a disappointment but not too bad off. The weapons are incredibly powerful, stripping or skipping shields at a ratio that's very difficult to compensate for with either higher tech levels or altering designs. I have requested a special 'defensive' tech for it several times but apparently MM is happy with the current package. If we could have a 'time displacement device' that would give a flat percentage chance for any weapon (even a missile) to miss then Temporal would seem much more balanced.

Psychic technology is primarily dependent on the Mental Flailer and the Allegiance Subverter. These are fairly effective weapons, too. The 'TKP' and the 'MSG' are also good weapons but don't have any special powers. The Psychic Training facilities are really nice, though. This is about the only way the AI can have fully trained ships and fleets.

The default abilities for Religious tech are a bit low compared to the others. I've modded them to have slightly higher bonuses, and to have a few additional sorts of bonuses for things like the Time Shrine. This tech is apparently designed for the 'long term planning' approach because almost everything it offers accrues bonuses over time. If you live long enough to get decent returns from all the facilities, and research the Talisman, it is fairly powerful. But you don't get the cool combat toys early in the game like you do with the others.

[ June 27, 2002, 00:17: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]

[Wardad]

Crystalline,

If the weapons used less minerals and more radioactives it would help play balance.

For the amount of research points and racial points the weapons are a bad deal. Sure they might give an temporary edge against organic armor, but a human player can easily counter it.

The armor is OK, but are you going to carry enough armor and shields to make the benifit worth while?

The facilities I have not tried. Is that a 30% maintainance reduction or a -30 reduction (like racial trait setup).
Since shields are easily countered, boosting shields is not that helpful.

Now that I'm doing PBW I may have to fight in my backyard. Against the AI the Fight facilities are useless to me.

I'm a replacement player for a PBW game. The race is crystalline. It is a high research cost game. I'm doing well but I'm muttering a lot of 4 letter words.