Are Spore Ships worth it?

Hi!

I'd say yes. I even argued once the Super Anihilator is too stong:
- they need only one tech to conquer all planets,
- then need to research only one extreme environment to have most planets at 100%,
- they need significantly less pop - no losses at invasions,
- sporing the planet can give tech,
- spore ship is cheaper than troop ship with two advanced troop modules,
- sporing doesn't cost money like invasions,
- they are the only race that can kill their neighbour(s) really early in the game.

BR, Iztok

The High Chaplain of Altaria stepped of the ship and began to sing. Once more, the galactic Love and Peace machine had worked its wonder. Drengin, who had thrown away their two-handed Pik-Lochs and their Laser Guns, were lying on the ground - gazing motionless at the pretty colours they saw. Some were holding each other by the hand and dancing around a Mallrow-rock.
Fumes of alcohol and marihuana were thick with the southern wind and and a gentle melody calmed the nerves...
The mines stood empty. The High Chaplain sighed: He was glad to see the Drengin's happyness, but there was work to be done...




I agree. It's a shame though that you don't get the free tech!

What free tech?



Aah... I see.

Instead of researching a new extreme colonization tech on finding an aquatic/volcanic/high-G/barren world, instead you research Spore Weapons, research toxic world techs, park a Spore Ship next to said planet, wait for the hapless AI to come along, and kill their colonists once they've made the planet livable for you.

Still, you eventually need to research Planetary Invasion for to get the important Troops Module so you can carry loads of people to your new planets, if you want the planet to be an economic planet. PI costs only 900 RP, so I guess it's not TOO big a problem.

Before this, the only advantage I saw is that Spore Ships save you the hassle of planning & tactics that you need for invasion, like farm-spies, wave invasion, invasion tactics, soldiering ability, blah blah blah...

Thanks for the info.

Everytime you get a new planet by normal conquest
you get a free tech

And with Spore, you don't?

Fairly sure you do.

And no, it's not a free tech for each planet taken. It's stealing a tech that the invaded race has and you do not.

And to me, the reason for researching Planetary Invasion as an Annihilator isn't ferrying people (boo, micromanaging!) but to boost my Soldiering ability so I'm not a complete pushover when the enemy races begin making their own transports.

Volcanic?



"Spore: When you absolutely positively got to kill every muther frakker in the galaxy, accept no substitutes" - The wise player

Shiny cylinder
Blazing through the atmosphere;
Death rides a new horse.

Spore ships are SO worth it, it just takes a little more management to keep your economy going during your first couple of wars.

I've played several games as the Korath - here's my basic spore strat.

If I'm crammed into a corner and must take out a neighbor early, I race to ion engines, missile or mass driver theory, and spore tech. Before I build any serious warships, I build spore ships with one cheap weapon that will take out colony, scout, and other unarmed vessels the AI parks in orbit. Go for the home planet first in a sneak attack, then grab as many more as I want/need/can.

Follow spore with colony vessels; you can put multiple colony modules on one hull, and use those ships as shuttles afterward. Sometimes I make several round trips to siphon population to newly-spored planets this early in the game.



No, all you need is miniaturization so you can fit more and more colony modules onto a hull. They hold fewer colonists than troop modules, but if you want to avoid antagonizing neighbors by having transports zooming around their planets, colony modules are the way to go.

With spore, the only colonization tech you will ever need is advanced toxic. As someone said above, let the AI take the other planet types and build some improvements for you, then spore them at your leisure. You will never lose an invasion or risk destroying improvements on the ground or lowering a planet's PQ when you take it. If a spore ship is destroyed in space, you don't lose any valuable population.

Another cornerstone of my spore strategy is the fertility clinic. As soon as you are able to build these, make it the first thing you build on a spored planet. Better yet, buy it if you can; they're cheap. Even if you can't migrate population right away, the clinic will provide a nice boost to your pop growth.

I normally follow spore invasions with colony or transport ships until I control about half of the galaxy. By that point, my economy can handle empty planets, so I just keep building fertility clinics and forget the migration.

I've also played a Good civilization with spore before. My rationalization was that they were saving the lives of billions of their own soldiers...

I would get the planetary invasion techs too. I usually set my slider to like 80% for research and i getthe whole tree in like 3 turns. Like the previous post said, you want to be able to protect yourself.

Btw you can ferry people with colony ships too. You dont HAVE to have transporsts doing it. Chances are you already have a variety of sizes and speed for your colony ships.

Bastard!

Yeah, but... a Colony Module carries 500 people in 25 space. A Troop Module carries 500,000,000 people in 20 space. And they don't care about comfort, so it's fine even if you cram 1 billion people into a 12 space Advanced Troop Module.

I've devised a Super Annihilator custom race setup for Good Alignment with these stats:



Some sort of seriously mis-programmed Yor who began preaching goodness and rebelled, and want to bring peace to the galaxy by sporing those who do not come to the 'path of light' or else stay out of the way. I'll play it after I finish my first game with the Terrans(which will be starting on the 18th).

Spore ships are very worth it. They make it very easy to keep your ships moving, ie taking planets as fast as your battle fleets clear them. This is for a few reasons :

1) They're faster since they don't need the troop modules.
2) They're cheaper.
3) They can be built everywhere. (low pop planets)

If you want to populate the planets, then just build ferries with either troop modules or colony modules. Just 1/2 billion colonists make a big difference in getting a conquered planet going. (so 1 ferry can easily seed 2-3 planets)

The other huge advantage is early to mid game, your economy won't suffer from the population drag of war. This is probably the best aspect of using spore ships.

IMO, the Korath are very strong because of this ability. To me, the only better abilities allow fast colonization, ie the thalians and torians.