Most useless tech - nominations please

And my nomination for most wanted forum feature:

Edit post.


~SDC~

I nominate Galactic Domination Philosophy. Let's see how you can beat a high cost no benefit tech with strict alingment requirements like that LOL

There's a few worthless ones.

Stellar Cartography
The one that gives you Starhawk (or any obsolete ships)

Corvettes can be useful on smaller maps where early combat is more likely to happen... thus Photons might be worth researching. I agree it's up there though. On medium+ maps I've often ignored that branch. Silly thing is though the AI still values that tech pretty high since it's a military unit prereq and will demand all sorts of things for Corvette Technology, even late game. I've got 2 picks:

- Starhawk Technology... is a dead-end tech that only gives you access to expensive (to build) survey ships of dubious military capability. I've passed on this every game.

- Interstellar Refining... another dead-end tech of little use. Resource Refineries are nice if you have access to resources, but Fusion Power Plants are a waste IMO. Cheap to build, but expensive to maintain. Anti-matter Power Plants, while they take longer to build are a better alternative and don't appear to much later in the game.

Oh... why not add in picks for best technology? One immediately popped into my head...

- Space Militarization... a prereq for the whole Battleship/Dreadnaught/etc. unit structure, plus it gives you access to Battle Stations I-III... a total of +6 in attack from one tech! It doesn't even appear very far down the tech tree and isn't horribly expensive to research.

Starhawks don't have a maintenance cost, right? Can be a good way to amass tons of ships to at least scare the AI when looking at the military graph...


Yes, Stellar Cartography comes to mind. To be honest, toward the end game, I stop paying attention to what the particular tech does and look for trading opportunities (yes, this is my impatience).

Stellar Cartography, HANDS DOWN.

-- on small maps, obsolete before you get to it.
-- on large maps, pointless because of scouts and the fact that there are plenty of inhabitable worlds in non-yellow systems.

Also, the AI starts with this tech, but yet will still trade you stuff for it.

Finally, I really so no freaking reason why the human doesn't start with the ability to see Yellow stars ESPECIALLY since that is a pre-space travel technology!

Sheesh!

Fusion power plants are one of the best structures in the game. Compare the three +production buildings:

Manufacturing Center: +25% prod, 100 cost, 1 maint
Fusion Plant: +20% prod +10% econ, 50 cost, 3 maint
A-matter Plant: +30% prod +5% econ, 300 cost, 1 maint

Very early on your worlds will have a base economy of 20 BCs, which means that a fusion power plant really only costs you 1 BC in maint and an A-matter plant is free. In the mid-to-late game you'll easily make a -profit- with both the fusion and a-matter plant (usually +1 net BC per turn with fusion and a-matter by then). To figure out the true maintenance/profit value of a building, figure on about 20 BCs for a planet's income in the earlier part of the game, and about 40 BCs for the later part.

Because it builds so cheap (twice as fast as a manu cntr), my build order is fusion plant, manu cntr, then a-matter plant. You'll pay a bit more in maintenance (but only for a while), but most importantly you'll ramp up your production capability much faster.

Corvettes are the best ship you can have for a turtling game until you get to a-matter missiles. Because the AI only calculates attack strength when it determines your military strength the corvette has the best attack-to-build-to-maintenance cost of any ship except the a-matter missile. The computer currently thinks that 2 corvettes (100 build cost total) are 20% more powerful than a battlehammer (200 build cost), and the two cost 33% less maintenance total as well. Just don't let an actual war happen though or reality will creep in (P.S. I've posted this as a problem in other threads and asked that the military power algo be fixed).

Stellar Cartography is most useless for me, because I play on abundant planets and I use scout ships, which makes that tech totally worthless.

I'm with Za H. If you know of a use for Galactic Domination Philosophy, please let me know. Even Galactic Peace isn't that hot for its cost, but at least it does something.

Corvettes aren't so bad. They're great for taking it to your enemies while you work on BattleCruisers or Frigates. Just don't sit around trying to *defend* with them. Use them like Cavalry in Civ3.

Best thing is they're cheap. Like the man says, two 'vettes give you 20% more attack power than a BC for the same build cost and less maintenance.



~SDC~

I still think stellar cartography would be much more useful is it was a prerequisite for another sort of cartography.. one that identified those purple starts with great planets (or those lighter purple systems with great influence). Then it would actually be useful (since the AI does not know where those purple systems are either).

fleabitfox

Stellar Cartography. I've experimented with moving it earlier and it STILL didn't really help me.

M

Slitherin, they accumulate. So if you build all three you end up with a whopping +75% production, which you can then use to pump out constructors to make a starbase with +production modules to really send your production to the moon, as these also accumulate.

With the new starbase maintenance cost and the increased cost in constructors I've found myself emphasizing the three planetary +production buildings much more than I used to do.

you people are crazy... Stellar Cart is the first tech i get and then i send 10 or 20 colony ships straight towards every bright spot i see...

are purple stars special somehow?

They are supposed to be, from rumors here I've read. They seem like just another Yellow Star from what I've seen in my games though.

Yup.. the dark purple systems (which are rare), harbor high quality worlds. I found one once (quite a bit into the game, all other yellow systems were colonized!) that had 2 class 26 stars, a class 17, and a class 15. Not shabby for one system! I went to war over that system.

There is another type of purple system that apparently has a much higher influence rating. Some of that ancient technology you know.

So either or both of those systems showing up after you research another tech would be cool and useful, imo.

fleabitfox

Do the purple stars show up on the big map (top right corner) as stars - are they visible?

I haven't seen one yet but sometimes I've seen ships move around seemingly blank spots for no reason. I usually play in a fairly well lit room; should I be looking closer?

they show up on the mini-map just like yellow stars, as slightly brighter spots... on the main map, of course, they are purple instead of yellow...

i guess there are dark and light varities?

and who else thinks that the AI should be taught to colonize class 13 and 14 planets and use SE and HI to bring them up to 15 and 16?

UCLA Vince - hey, if the AI does that, how will I expand into their areas?

(BTW, per the subject, I have to agree with Stellar Cartography - except that you can give it to alien races to make nice. I do like the concept of techs that give you different abilities, but this just isn't effective because of the reasons given above.)

In none of my games have I ever went for Stellar Cartography. The Fog of War in the game just isn't enough to need any help.

How to make the tech more useful...?
My solution: The population and Manufacturing options on the main map don't function unless you have it. Or at least don't function for planets hidden by fog of war unless you have it.

Then it would become a must have tech.