what do you think of the racial techs?

Taera · #1 January 16th, 2002, 01:00 PM

I have something to add - though many people call the current racial technologies quite unbalanced i say it all should be left as it is (i mean in the normal game) because i see that most of the races have one-two useful things, putting it into almost a balance.

Say, the Lighting Ray in Organic Tech Tree is quite the best direct-fire weapon, while the High-Energy Magnifier (recalled the name) is even more powerful than the WMG, which is considered to pack the most punch.
While WMG does 140 damage at range of 8 with rate of 3, the HEM does 110 damage at range of 7 with the rate of 2!!
The Lighting Ray is small and cheap and also the best small weapon i've ever seen for both fighters and troops (same punch, less space, better range).
Also HEM is significantly cheaper than the WMG and puts the another high-damage weapon, the Torpedoes into uselessness.

So here we get almost an balance, i think.
Temporary races get different bonuses aswell, when the Time Burst and Temporal Shifter are nice couple, and tachyon cannon is just nice.
Psychic race get the very best small cannon - Small telekinetic Projector, plus the Mental Flailer and Alliegance Subverter are nice things and Mental Singulatiry Generator packs the best damage at one shot.

Talisman is overpowered indeed, but it adds the religious race what is requied to balance it.

Psychic scanner is cool. so are the enchanced trainings.
Religious are pretty good in defensive style with their shrines, and the temporal space yard & predictor are cool

After all it seems balanced and doesnt need tweaking in the original game. Maybe some new techs, but nothing more.

Egregius · #2 January 16th, 2002, 03:16 PM

I'd have to second that temporal tech is meant for late-game. It's quite expensive to research too.

But consider the shield-depletion power of their weapons, it doesn't beat shield-depleters in power, but at least it has a use afterwards.
And their other weapons are as dangerous as warp weapons if not a tad more powerfull (if I recall correctly).

It's just a pity it has little use early game where speed matters, but that fits with the idea of the tech.

Suicide Junkie · #3 January 16th, 2002, 04:07 PM

quote:
Side note - In My Opinion every person that uses two racial technologies is just lame (no offense) and doesnt know what is "play for fun".

How would you describe an empire that uses ALL 5 racial techs at once?

Fun != Optimal Race Choice.

CW · #4 January 16th, 2002, 04:20 PM

quote:
Originally posted by TLogic:
...and see your enemies burn in the parasites and crystal shards. where's the fun?

You just said it. THAT'S the fun!

Quikngruvn · #5 January 16th, 2002, 07:05 PM

quote:
Originally posted by suicide_junkie:
How would you describe an empire that uses ALL 5 racial techs at once?

Scary.

I dunno... till very recently I was high on Psychic tech. Lately, though, I've been questioning the value of ANY racial tech, particularly in small games. Sure, you eventually get some neat toys, but at what cost? Besides the upfront racial point cost, there's the high research cost to reckon with. And that's just to be able to research the neat toys.... It just seems to me that while I've throwing all these research points to develop my racial techs, the 'normal' races are developing gobs and gobs of standard techs that happen to be better than what I've got. Just my observations, really, and actually doesn't answer the original question, so I'll just hush up now....

Quikngruvn

[ 16 January 2002: Message edited by: Quikngruvn ]

tesco samoa · #6 January 16th, 2002, 07:20 PM

I like the Racial techs.

They really come into play in the long running games.

That is where I think Organic has the advantage due to the Replicant centres.

Temporal has the advantage once you get there ship yards.

It should be the first thing you build on every planet with more than one slot. I will speed up the construction of everything.

Crystal for porkers.

Religion and Psychic are equal

But combining the different traits is what really brings out the strenghts in the techs.

Religion and Crystal for defence.

Temporal and Organic for offence.

Psy and Religion for just scaring people.

And all the other combinations.

I really enjoy figuring out how to counter other pbem players combinations in the 3000 or 5000 point games.

So when you ask what do I think of the racial techs???

I like them.

Fyron · #7 January 17th, 2002, 01:36 AM

quote:
If you have a shield depleter as first weapon and the shard cannon as secondary weapon you might change your mind.

No, I won't change my mind. What difference does that make If I am an organic race using shields on my ships than if I am a standard race using shields? And if you use up space for shield depleters, then you'll be able to do even less physical damage. Meanwhile, with my organic weapons, I can build 20-30% more ships than you, thereby overwhelming the under-powered crystalline weapons.