New Game : Adamant Mod 15.02 10 Planet Small G.

brianeyci · #1 December 21st, 2004, 11:50 PM

Yes. Plus, I don't want to play a nomadic race anymore. Seesh, how the hell do they expand. Without being able to colonize planets, they're hopelessly outclassed in expansion -- what do you do if an enemy colonizer just walks into your system and plants a planet right below your remote mining sats? Simple, nothing.

Maybe there is a correct way to play a nomadic race -- they seem suited to the "turtling" style to me, but they turtle really crappily. If you turtle, the point is supposed to be focusing your resources on research and gathering a lot of ships. The gathering a lot of ships could work, except as tech gets uped those dozens of old ships with ultra-recycler node become useless. And research, oh boy, building a research outpost takes two turns and you can't even mount an ultra-recycler node on one meaning that building a viable research program means tons of maintainence. IMO, research outPosts should take 1% maintainence by default. Ragnarok suggested to me that I use mining satellites, well that's a good idea but not nearly enough as everybody's mining facilities are better than mining sats and far easier to setup. Nomadic race should have their own ultra-effective remote mining components to make up for this.

Nomadic race is definitely for expert players, and I'm not sure even an expert player could keep up. IMO it should be tweaked so that research outPosts have 1% maintainence, and the ultra-recycler node component should be smaller. If it was smaller, you could put it on research outPosts. I took massive bonuses on construction, and on emergency build on a homeworld it still takes two turns to make a research outpost.

Brian

Fyron · #2 December 21st, 2004, 11:58 PM

Nomads have to use diplomacy... They are not meant to expand as normal races do. They are definitely not meant for a purely competitive game. They make excellent merchant empires. Imagine the value of buying a fleet of practically maintenance-free ships... SuicideJunkie, the creator of Nomads, is fond of taking all of the racial tech traits and making ships for sale using lots of fancy gadgets...

And research, oh boy, building a research outpost takes two turns and you can't even mount an ultra-recycler node on one meaning that building a viable research program means tons of maintainence.

They aren't supposed to use research outPosts, actually... Instead, use Research Teams on ships (I forget whether they are mountable on bases or not). In future Versions, the research outpost is not available to Nomads.

Ragnarok suggested to me that I use mining satellites, well that's a good idea but not nearly enough as everybody's mining facilities are better than mining sats and far easier to setup. Nomadic race should have their own ultra-effective remote mining components to make up for this.

They do. Make mining ships or bases with an ultra recyler node... practically all profit.

Suicide Junkie · #3 December 22nd, 2004, 01:31 AM

In the P&N on PBW game, I was in first place for a while, and spent most of the game in second place.

I only really went into combat once, and that was to capture a planet that was pissing off people by causing a whole pile of stalemate combats every turn (since nobody had weapons in the area).

Most of my losses were to damaging warppoints, I think.

-----

Key things to do:
1) Forge an alliance right away. The trade income will be all you need to prosper, and in return, you can give them access to your ship and base technologies.
2) Von Neumann bases in orbit of allied homeworlds, and in level 4+ nebulae systems.
3) Use the bases to build insane numbers of ships and units in parallel at any location in the galaxy. If you've done the bases right, you should have about 2^5 = 32 bases 10-15 turns after you first visit.
4) Sell your advantages. Somebody needs a quick fleet of 60 cruiser to fend off an enemy? Those Von Neumann bases will let you deliver from almost anywhere with top of the line tech in a few short turns.

One mistake I made in that game was building too many cargo ships.
When you're making that many ships simultaneously, it is very very easy to make more than you need.
I had about 50 large freighters sitting in stock when I had yet to sell the Last of my medium ones. Warships would have been much better, since they have a naturally limited lifetime.

And taking all six P&N racial techs came in very handy

"Maintenance-free, biocrystal-armored, talisman targetting, grav-driven, living warship with Psycho-temporal weaponry. You know you want it!"

douglas · #4 December 22nd, 2004, 02:17 AM

Quote:

Suicide Junkie said:
"Maintenance-free, biocrystal-armored, talisman targetting, grav-driven, living warship with Psycho-temporal weaponry. You know you want it!"

Don't forget the free Neural Combat Net from the special religious/temporal combo crew quarters IIRC.

Ragnarok-X · #5 December 22nd, 2004, 01:15 PM

In additon brianeyci, your species in the galactic invasion has a quite high trading ability, so i suspect you are gaining at least 130% trading income. I guess you have at least trade and research alliance with each player, this should give you a quite HUGE amount of ressources and research points without remote mining or research teams at all. I dont really get your point. I offered you to construct colonyships for you several times, you didnt replied. Cant tell if you simply missed the turns though.

Ragnarok-X · #6 December 22nd, 2004, 01:17 PM

Oh about your thingy it still takes you 2 turns to construct bases at homeworlds. I have optimized my empire for this game as well, and i was able to construct colonyships in 1 turn when emergency building. I suggest you to maximize and test your empire in sologame until using it Online

Fyron · #7 December 22nd, 2004, 04:26 PM

Quote:

Ragnarok-X said:
Oh about your thingy it still takes you 2 turns to construct bases at homeworlds. I have optimized my empire for this game as well, and i was able to construct colonyships in 1 turn when emergency building. I suggest you to maximize and test your empire in sologame until using it Online

Tell me you took an absurd level of construction aptitude...

Quote:

brianeyci said:
Suicide Junkie -- what is a Von Neumann base? 2^5 bases, holy cow, I have a few things to figure out then lol.

Build a base space yard. That BSY builds another BSY, all while the HW is building a BSY. Each BSY builds another BSY, for as long as you need to get the desired amount.

Of course, you must keep in mind that SJ was playing with the P&N Mod, not Adamant, so the numbers will be different...

Quote:

Obviously Nomads can kick butt from how you played them, looks like I've been looking at them from the wrong angle.

They didn't kick anybody's butts, but they did do a hell of a lot of trading. The enigmatic Vorlons were their largest customer.

brianeyci · #8 December 22nd, 2004, 01:21 PM

Well I did miss a couple of turns. And I am getting a huge income even without remote mining, too much for me to store.

Yes, I will trade for colony ships. Drone 869 will trade... I sent you a message Last turn, dunno if you got it. Must have gone missing, fook.

Suicide Junkie -- what is a Von Neumann base? 2^5 bases, holy cow, I have a few things to figure out then lol. Obviously Nomads can kick butt from how you played them, looks like I've been looking at them from the wrong angle.

Brian

brianeyci · #9 December 22nd, 2004, 01:29 PM

Colony ship in one turn in one thing, research outpost in one turn is another. And, from what Fyron said, Nomads aren't supposed to use research outPosts anyway.

Building a 0 maintainence research ship still takes 2 turns, even with 20% construction and 25% space yard feat er trait too much D&D lol. But then again, the Nomad's high trading ability should make up for that.

Brian