Newbie questions at turn ~50 of a PBW game

[dogscoff]

QUOTE:
3. Building expensive stuff:
/QUOTE

This is generally considered an exploit, and in a vs human game it might well be considered cheating, but there's always the retrofit chain.

Basically you build a cheap ship, and then retrofit it bit by bit until you get to your desired design. Each design has to cost less than 150% of the previous design (cost=org+min+rad) .Since retrofitted compnnts are always added to the ship in just one turn, no matter how long they should take to build, you can knock years off your construction time.

Like I say, human opponents might not appreciate you doing this, so use it at your own risk.

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SE4 Code:
L GdY $ Fr- C- Sd T!+ Sf-- Tcp-- A% M>M+ MpD! RV Pw Fq+ Nd- Rp+ G-
/SE4 Code
Go to my meagre SEIV pages to generate your own code.

[MegaTrain]

Hmm... Let's figure this out.

Approx. cost of a current attack vessel: 6400
(buildable in 2 turns at a big shipyard)
Cost of my warp closer ship: 85000

So I'd need to come up with intermediate designs of the same ship size that cost no more than:

(2 turns to build the original ship)
Turn Cost
---- ------
1: (building)
2: 6400
3: 9600 - added 3200
4: 14400 - added 4800
5: 21600 - added 7200
6: 32400 - added 10800
7: 48600 - added 16200
8: 72900 - added 24300
9: 109350 - added 36450

DAMN!!! .9 years instead of 2.9 !!??!! Less if you start with an existing ship of the same size.

I like it. mooohahahahaha... An exponential curve, you could make outrageously expensive ships in a fraction of the time.

So can you upgrade a ship a second time before the just-upgraded components have been repaired? If not that would make it 1.6 years instead of .9. Still not too bad.

Another question: Does it actually COST me that amount (the difference in the design cost) per turn to upgrade it? I assume it would, and that would start eating away at your resource stockpile pretty quickly.

I like it. Is this a verified strategy? Does it work? Is it an "approved" strategy, or are they going to "fix" it?

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-MegaTrain-
Athlon 1.3 GHz running at 1.6 GHz on an iWill KK266

[Puke]

it cant be 'fixed' without either lowering the retrofit percentage from 50 to something else, which would probably break retrofitting. I think its fine in a simultanious game where each step takes a full turn, and you still have to pay the higher cost to get it done faster. i hardly ever have the resources to retrofit with anyhow. if you have leftover resources, then your fleet is too small.

the real exploit is in a sequential game where you can do all those steps in one turn, but those are mostly single player and as such you are only cheating yourself.

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"...the green, sticky spawn of the stars"
(with apologies to H.P.L.)

[MegaTrain]

Also: can I retrofit a 6000 to a 9000?
Or would the limit be 8999?

(throws my curve off just slightly)

[CW]

quote:

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Does it actually COST me that amount (the difference in the design cost) per turn to upgrade it?

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Yes it would, probably even more since you will be replacing existing components to fit your price curve exactly.

quote:

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So can you upgrade a ship a second time before the just-upgraded components have been repaired?

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Yes you can.


[This message has been edited by CW (edited 04 October 2001).]

[DirectorTsaarx]

quote:

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Originally posted by MegaTrain:
<snip>
Another question: Does it actually COST me that amount (the difference in the design cost) per turn to upgrade it? I assume it would, and that would start eating away at your resource stockpile pretty quickly.

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It's more complicated than that; looking at settings.txt, you pay 30% of each component REMOVED, plus 120% of each component ADDED.

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L++ GdY $ Fr>Fr++ C++ SdS T-- Sf Tcp? A%% M- Mp! RTH!P Pw Fq-->Fq+ Nd>Nd+++++ Rp++ G+

[Suicide Junkie]

As of v1.35, and in P&N games, it is 10% the cost of removed components, plus 70% of the price for adding components.