What does Creativity Do?

With Creativity, when you research a tech, you have a chance of getting a second tech at the same time.

For instance, last game I remember it occuring, I was researching Chaff. When I discovered Chaff, I also discovered Smart Chaff (the next in the Chaff line).

As for the Corvette class ship, it has Medium class hull, Harpoon missiles, ECM, Sensors, and Basic Support. It looks like you need at least one level of miniaturization, as well (all the components add up to 41.36, if my math is correct, but the Medium hull can only hold 38). If there's more to it than that, you got me. (I always have trouble getting to the core ship classes. I have no clue what techs I need to get the core ships.)

With Creativity, when you research a tech, you have a chance of getting a second tech at the same time. For instance, last game I remember it occuring, I was researching Chaff. When I discovered Chaff, I also discovered Smart Chaff (the next in the Chaff line).

When you discover two techs in a row like that, it just means you had enough research generated that turn to complete Chaff and Smart Chaff...

Sometimes I forget to go down certain branches of the tree until late in the game. Usually Armor techs because the A.I. doesn't seem to use Mass Drivers as much...

Current personal best for techs researched in one turn. Titanium Armor 1 ~~> Superior Tri-Strontinum

Although it gets harder and harder to do that once you research more and more techs because techs get pricier as you research other techs. (i.e. Terraforming could take you 2 turns to complete, you go complete a few other techs, then suddendly Terraforming might take 3 turns even though you still have the same research capacity)

The ability, creativity, what does it do? What is it that triggers digging up the "Corvette" Class ship, or other such fun little random events like that? Is it luck? Is it creativity? or is it just random?

Creativity really seems to do nothing, unfortunately, at least at this point in the game, maybe it will become useful later. Although, creativity might have an effect on the base cost of techs, or maybe slow the rate inflation of the research cost for each tech as you research more and more.

Any random events are just that... random... Luck, I assume, gives you better odds in getting them, and in them having positive outcomes. (At least that makes sense logically)

As for the "Corvette" class ships, read the dialogue carefully next time for that event. For some reason, I don't think the human player can find them, only the A.I.'s. Fortunately, we find Lucky Rangers, which can wipe the floor against the Corvettes.

Also, I tend to NOT pay attention, or really care, when or where the core ship designs are. They were designed with no miniaturization bonuses so that you could get them when the needed techs were researched for all of their components. You are much better off making your own... That and the core designs only have like one weapon and one or two defenses, and they seem to never come with engines attached...

As for the "Corvette" class ships, read the dialogue carefully next time for that event. For some reason, I don't think the human player can find them, only the A.I.'s. Fortunately, we find Lucky Rangers, which can wipe the floor against the Corvettes.

Not quite true; human players can get the Corvette events too. Or at least, I have in the past. You get one hell of a lot of them, even if they're not great individually.

In GC1 the creativity increased the chance of getting the 25% boost in research on your current tech when you got the "unexplained" type of anomoly, vs the "what a waste of time" message. I assume it still does, even tho there are more kinds of anomolies in GC2 (I've only hit it once in GC2).

A race that is more creative will be more likely to make discoveries that aren't normally possible (i.e. get a tech immediately)

This is exactly what creativity does, full stop. This is official. End of discussion.

To check what anything does u can go to the Wiki site which is kept upto date from patch to patch. U can access it by clicking on databanks from this site.

This is a probability equation so if you have 50% creativity you will have a 1 in 2 chance every dice roll that you will get a free tech advance upon researching a new technology and that free tech is randomly chosen among all availible techs..

Then it does not work, or it is not implimented.
I have experimented with that setting, and the game is no different with it set to 0, 25, 50, 100, or 500.

Of course, there was supposed to be a Precursor Library in the game too. That never shows up either because it was disabled by the dev's. So I really wonder about Creativity also. Never have I gotten, say, a random beam weapon when researching another tech line. I often get several techs in a single turn, and this is always directly proportional to the number and type of research facilities I have built.

So saying 'Wiki says this', or 'this is the official story' really means little.

It does nothing, and if you spend your ability points on it you are wasting them.

I've played dozens of games to completion with creative as a race attribute, and none of the things mentioned have ever happened. I would say that it is a waste of racial points as it currently stands.

could be a bug in the game that could be fixed.. in 1.3 patch if you are really concerned about the Creativity working right..

Why does everybody say that the precursor library doesnt exsist! It's rarer than precursor mines at least. Found 10 of those now.

Why does everybody say that the precursor library doesnt exsist! It's rarer than precursor mines at least. Found 10 of those now.

Simply because the code for them was removed during the final days of development and the string to create them now points to a different bonus!

That and the total lack of a screenshot to prove the countless people who have said they had them

I often get several techs in a single turn

Creativity in action.

Simply because the code for them was removed during the final days of development and the string to create them now points to a different bonus! That and the total lack of a screenshot to prove the countless people who have said they had them

Ah! The mythical precursor library, no I do not believe they exist either.

Ah! The mythical precursor library, no I do not believe they exist either.

CariElf and BoogieBak went searching through the code for us whilst we were on the chat site the other week. They found the remnants of the code to allow the library to display but the code had been altered to show one of the other 100 bonus tiles instead. No where in the code does it now generate the Precusor Library, therefore they simply cannot be 'naturally' produced and can be only modded into the game...

DG
GCII Moderator

Creativity in action.

Noooooo, that's called "Reasearch." Once, playing Neutral with tech speed on max AND NO CREATIVITY FROM ANY SOURCE, I went from "Titanium Armor" to "Zero Point Armor" in 3 weeks. There's more than 3 techs in that line.

However, I noticed something today--I don't seem to have access to that trade good that boosts research. I'm pretty sure I've made it in this version of the game (1.11), but not recently. Now, my original Custom race had Creativity. Is it possible that Creativity gives extra improvements in a couple of the techs?

Are you talking about Hypercomputers? I'm pretty sure you can get those w/o creativity.

Really? What tech are they in? I can't find them.

Really? What tech are they in? I can't find them.

Aereon Missile Defense..

There is a progress indicator window in the lower left corner showing how far along you are in getting the currently being researched tech.

Notice how many weeks are left for a particular research, then buy several more research buildings. During the next turn that indicator should be reduced by more than one week.

If the indicator is very close to showing 100% at the end of a turn, and the next tech is an easy one, like the early defense techs, it is likely that more than one tech will be completed in the next turn.

It is all a function of how much research you are throwing at it, and not a function at all of the Creativity ability.

You can also see the effect by playing with the spending sliders.



Darth Griffin, it was my understanding that the Precursor Library could not be modded back in without actually changing the .exe file. Do you know of a way to get around it so they show up in the game?

official response please

I officially, unofficially, declare Creativity as not functioning in any way at all, except for eating up an attribute point.

I second that motion.

Darth Griffin, it was my understanding that the Precursor Library could not be modded back in without actually changing the .exe file. Do you know of a way to get around it so they show up in the game?

As far as i am aware the only way to have them appear in the game is to alter a saved game file. No other mod will work as the code to produce the Library is not there.

DG
GCII Moderator

And altering a saved game file is not as easy as editing a .xml file.

Creativity makes the Altarians design cooler ships

For instance, last game I remember it occuring, I was researching Chaff. When I discovered Chaff, I also discovered Smart Chaff (the next in the Chaff line).

This is NOT CREATIVITY in action. What you describe there is RESEARCH OVERRUN, and you get this all the time with no CREATIVITY selected.