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TitanG posted:Man I sometimes wonder why I never played Anno as it seems kinda down my alley, then I see stuff like this and remember that I could honestly just play Factorio or some poo poo if I wanted to take care of all new needs that keep on popping up. Personally, I find it never feels quite as complex as it actually is in this game (2205 is another story, one downside to readily putting more immediately accessible information at your fingertips). It's a hell of a house of cards I've built, and I've got a whole new faction that's going to be introduced in the next update, but it's a house I'm building one card at a time and usually tinkering with one card at a time. One need at a time, one production chain at a time, one trade route at a time. I could make things vastly more complicated for myself if I wanted to try to maximize efficiency, but I'm not going to that length. Call me crazy, but I actually find this game quite relaxing a lot of the time. 
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Sep 1, 2021 20:42
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loving hell that exp thing seems like a goddamn mess
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Sep 3, 2021 06:31
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Seraphic Neoman posted:loving hell that exp thing seems like a goddamn mess It legit is. I mean I understand why the devs did it. Ubisoft decreed "ALWAYS ON GAMEPLAY MUST BE A FEATURE!" because that was the hot new stupidity amongst major video game publishers at the time. Devs were stuck with some way to justify it. I love Anno 2070 but it really didn't need the career stuff.
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Sep 3, 2021 07:07
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Global Distrust  First things first, some upgrades I bought and was rewarded while building the monument. This slots immediately into Carcosa, replacing the Program's activity area of influence to save us some money. For the Leviathan's empty upgrade slot. We won't be building any laboratory outfitters for quite some time yet, but this will be handy when we do. I put it in storage on the Leviathan for the moment. I wound up with not one but two of these upgrades for underwater power generation, both of which I install at Devil Reef for the moment. I have an eye on expanding this station in the future. Improved carbon fiber production. Not important right now, but it will be useful later when I start regularly using more of this stuff. Now then. Some quests I did off-camera taught me that just the Vasa and Arturo Pratt are no longer sufficient for military quests in the Tierra del Fuego. To this end, I have expanded a quay on Carcosa to house a SAAT shipyard and a repair facility. The repair crane will automatically repair any nearby ship. From the SAAT shipyard I order a trio of Deep Sea Hunters. The Kraken class is the premiere fast attack submarine in the world, armed with a battery of torpedoes and deck guns to engage surface and submerged targets in addition to their own ability to submerge. Normally constructing these would require building a new production chain for high tech weapons, but you might recall that I received a shipment of high-tech weapons for completing a quest earlier. Convenient! The Tempest, Vanguard, and Recalcitrant will earn their keep this very update. For the next order of business, I have a mind to develop the blueprints for hydroelectric power at the Academy. However, there's a catch. The maintenance units this formula requires themselves require kerosene to manufacture. We're not making kerosene yet. Kerosene production became possible with Dexter. You see, the primary use for kerosene is in building aircraft. Since aircraft have no non-military use, I saw no reason to build a fuel refinery. Now I have a reason. Actually, I wind up building two. Kerosene refineries consume an oil chain, just like carbon fiber. Given that for the moment I need kerosene and not carbon fiber, I simply put Eureka's two carbon factories to sleep and build two fuel refineries and let them work until I have what I need, at which point I put them to sleep and reactivate the carbon factories.   SAAT takes a very dim view of smugglers trying to steal proprietary technology, and our new submarine squadron wins its first victory.  A group of privateers secretly sponsored by Global Trust thought the Tierra del Fuego would be easy pickings. They were wrong. Also, tip to Trust executives: when offering a bribe to governors to look the other way, consider paying more than their original job was offering.(Sometimes when you get a quest, someone else will offer you a reward to bring the thingy to them instead! In this case, I would have worked for Yana the original quest giver anyway, but Thorne's contrary bribe was completely inferior to Yana's original offer.)  The privateer flagship was a Colossus class heavy cruiser, which is defenseless against submarines, but it had a couple of Viper class destroyers in escort and the Tempest took severe damage during the battle. While the Recalcitrant delivers the privateers' black boxes to Yana, the Tempest limps back to Eureka for repairs. We have a schematic for a hydroelectric dam! This will be very useful for the next phase of development in this region. You see, while I started in partnership with the Eden Initiative, once a settlement reaches the Executive level of development, whichever group you didn't start with will come with their hat in hand looking for a slice of the pie. I'll spare you the rest of the passive-aggressive bragging and aggressive sales tactics. Accepting Global Trust's offer goes against my better judgment, but my orders from the Chilean government are what they are. Southeast of Eureka is a large island with a lake suitable for damming, a river, and a fertility for rice. This island will suffice. Site Six is established, and the blueprints for the dam brought to the warehouse. With a depot bringing the lake into range, construction is as simple as clicking the blueprint. Electrical power on Site Six will not be an issue for some time. Now it's time to bring in the Tycoons. Just like the Ecos and Techs, we start with a city center. Cheddar here represents the rank and file of the Tycoon Laborers: underpaid, overworked, and nevertheless happy because he thinks he'll make it big someday despite his steadily growing bills, stagnant wages, and steadily receding hairline. Just like Scruffy, all Cheddar wants to eat is fish. Yes, I'm paving the streets of the sector's Tycoon settlement with Green boulevards. Why? Because I can, and because no one can stop me. When it comes to making granules for smelting into building modules, the Tycoons have their own way of doing things. A single basalt crusher costs an extra point of power over the Eco's basalt extractor and inflicts 4 ecodamage to the extractor's zero, but takes up much less room. And here we have the single most efficient and cost-effective source of power there is: coal power. Rather than wasting a mine slot on a proper coal mine for so simple a purpose, the Tycoons can build a rotary excavator anywhere. Rotary excavators don't consume power and have half the output of a proper coal mine, and of course produce much more pollution. However, their output is perfectly adequate to supply one coal power plant. The coal power plant itself inflicts 15 ecodamage - more than any Eco building in their entire tech plan! Plus the 5 ecodamage of the excavator. And yet, except for the hydroelectric dams which require extensive research and can only be built in very particular places, and their undersea counterpart of sorts, there is no better power output for your money in the world. To which I say gently caress that. I have broad discretionary powers as the governor of this resettlement project, and there's vastly more important things than money. As more Cheddars are reassigned to the bottom of the world, his drink need becomes unlocked. This is a distillery, and its fields. Cheaper to run than a tea plantation and takes up less room, but inflicts ecodamage. Don't ask me what Cheddar drinks, all I know is that it's called liquor and requires a fertility for rice. ...What, you were expecting Cheddar's Activity need to not be a predatory and exploitative industry? This is Global Trust we're talking about. The casino is actually straight up inferior to the concert hall for a change, the exact same price tag and power consumption but more ecodamage. And easy as that, Site Six is ready for ascension. Carcosa, population 4,808 Eureka, population 1,100 Site Six, population 162Taking suggestions for the name of Site Six
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Sep 3, 2021 12:01
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Just Business for site six.
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Sep 3, 2021 12:20
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I vote we name the island Octan. They make good stuff!
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Sep 3, 2021 12:32
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Since they apparently drink rice wine/sake and hate everything around them and act like jerks, call this Bakemono-Shima
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Sep 3, 2021 13:43
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Taking Care of Business Oh, come on. You knew I'd be using this title now that the Tycoons are here.  On a suggestion from other channels, the Tycoon home base for this sector has been dubbed New New York by nostalgic Tycoon employees. Mike here is, as you'd expect, very comparable to Billy Bob in the Ecos: a new food need, a lifestyle need, an information need, and a new construction material.(This name also got me a hidden achievement! I checked the wiki, and there's quite a lot of hidden achievements for naming ships, aircraft, and islands particular things, all of them presumably references.)  For the Tycoons, their new construction material is concrete. Where the Ecos simply harvest wood as-is, the Tycoons have to actively manufacture concrete. We start with a sand filtration plant on the river. This is the same sand filtration plant we built before on Paraiso, it's actually considered both an Eco and a Tycoon building. In practice, though, the Ecos get a lot more out of them for glass and their consumer electronics. Concrete is the only use the Tycoons have for sand. Speaking of glass, this limestone quarry may look familiar. In fact, the entire production scheme and distribution for concrete is identical to that for glass. One sand filter works with up to three limestone quarries to supply up to three concrete factories, one quarry per factory. For the moment I build two quarries and factories for the upcoming expansion, but I'll turn one of the quarry/factory duos off before long and put New New York's excess of sand up for sale. The northern tip of New New York, I'm tentatively designating as an industrial sector. Global Trust settlements are just depressing to look at. But, we have enough Mikes that it's time to start catering to his food needs. For Mike, that means convenience food, and that means meat and super flavor. What in the world does that mean, I hear you ask? We return to Le Fumier, as I've noted before. The main reason I originally settled this island was the fruit fertility here, but Le Fumier also has a fertility for vegetables. 'Flavor labs' are in fact vegetable farms streamlined to process freshly grown vegetables into 'super flavor.' And 'meat factories' are in fact pig farms. You can see here the requisite production for one chain: two meat factories and one flavor lab. Like the cattle used to produce milk for Eco bio drinks, pigs require no fertility and are completely unaffected by ecobalance. By farm standards, meat factories are positively disgusting and I had to build another weather control station on Le Fumier to counterbalance this chain. One flavor lab and two meat factories supply one food supply factory, which churns out the hamburgers and other convenience food the Tycoons crave. This is one reason I'm partial to the Ecos, easier to keep kosher on the primarily vegetarian diet common to the Ecos. I set up a shipping route to haul the convenience food to New New York, using the newly built ocean glider Marlin for the job. This is a long enough haul that I wanted something faster than a standard freight ship for the trade route, so on a whim I chose to build a new ocean glider from Eureka's shipyard rather than a cargo liner from Carcosa. A squadron of privateers blunders straight into not only my submarine squadron, but also the Vasa and Arturo Pratt. They do not last long. After I sink the cargo ship the privateers were escorting, however, Seamus Green asks me to simply not deliver the ship's black box to Thorne, on the basis that this ship was owned by a businessman who did business with the Eden Initiative and told Global Trust to go gently caress themselves when they tried to buy him out. Seamus, maybe you could have brought this up before I sank the fleet?  I elect to build a Global Trust shipyard at New New York. Right now it can't build anything we don't already have access to from Carcosa. The Viper, advertised here, is a generic and versatile warship available to both the Ecos and Tycoons. The Tycoons' unique ships will only become available later. While I further expand New New York, I add another convenience food chain to Le Fumier. New New York has expanded enough for Mike to demand his lifestyle need: disposable plastic goods. The root material for plastics is oil, and I've alluded before to the Tycoons having their own way to produce it. Where the Ecos have no use for oil at all, and starting with the Ecos simply means building oil rigs once the Techs arrive, the Tycoons need to drill for the stuff at the Employee stage, and they can do so on land. I don't feel like settling a new undersea plateau just yet, so I'll do it the Tycoon way. Conveniently, Le Fumier has substantial oil deposits. In the center of the display are three oil drillers, which equal the production of a single oil rig. To the right, the oil refinery. To the left, the plastics factory. This is a single fully efficient plastics production chain to supply New New York. Drilling for oil on land like this has its pros and cons versus drilling at sea with oil rigs. On the pro side, three drillers are cheaper to operate than a single rig and have no risk of catastrophic accidents. On the down side, real estate on land can often be in demand where oil rigs have specific slots to build them in, and drillers inflict a substantial amount of ecodamage where rigs inflict none. There's also the ambiguous factor that you can site entire chains like this on land where oil rigs require a trade route. The Marlin's manifest is updated accordingly. If I'm going over all of this more briskly than I used to, I figure you all get how this works in principle by now. Carcosa, population 4,808 Eureka, population 1,100 New New York, population 680 An updated look at Le Fumier, no permanent residents
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Sep 6, 2021 12:10
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Cythereal posted:
The pigs contend that they are permenant residents. The animation of the pig farms is, off memory, kind of horrific. See that pen at a right angle to the other 3 pens where the pigs live? It slides across and scoops up the pigs from a pen. Then forces them to the side where they get put into a box. Or was the slaughterhouse on site, I forget, it's been a while.
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Sep 6, 2021 12:26
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Whatever one might think of the game's portrayal of the Ecos as mildly hypocritical hipsters, it pales in comparison to the harshest term condemnations of the 'old style' capitalists lol. Their first tier of needs is: a casino, hamburgers requiring horrific factory farms, coal power, and oil for disposable plastic. Absolute devastation lmao
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Sep 6, 2021 12:48
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Eeeh, it's still very much a soft hand versus what they deserve. Plus ecobalance not making a lot of sense in general...
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Sep 6, 2021 13:22
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I think they do not say it very explicitly, but context tells us the Tycoons are reiterating the sort of practices that got the world to the point where it is in Anno 2070: largely uninhabitable after catastrophic pollution and many natural disasters + climate change's worth of impact.
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Sep 6, 2021 13:50
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As the story goes leading to Anno 2205, Global Trust goes bankrupt within a few decades after this game. Their primary industry is the energy business, and when Peak Oil, Peak Coal, and Peak Natural Gas hit, Global Trust is caught flat-footed by the Chinese corporation Lei Shen in particular. Lei Shen worked extensively with the Eden Initiative and was the world's leader in clean, renewable energy like wind and tidal power. Petrochemicals in 2205 are an exotic luxury, and natural gas is only used in very small quantities in geographically limited areas. 2205 would very much like you to forget that nuclear fission power exists.  Veloxyll posted:The pigs contend that they are permenant residents. The dairy cattle are permanent residents. The pigs at the meat factories are very much impermanent residents. Cythereal fucked around with this message at 15:00 on Sep 6, 2021 |
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Sep 6, 2021 14:03
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I notice that the meat factories don't have hog manure pools, err, forgive me, the industry term is "lagoon", and don't suffer a risk of hog manure foam explosion, cause by excessive antibiotic force feeding changing the decay process of manure in the enclosed areas under the farms. Voted 1. (Yes, those are real. Very Real. Factory herding is loving horrible, to the animals, workers and environment, probably not as much to the spreadsheets though.)
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Sep 6, 2021 16:31
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SIGSEGV posted:I notice that the meat factories don't have hog manure pools, err, forgive me, the industry term is "lagoon", and don't suffer a risk of hog manure foam explosion, cause by excessive antibiotic force feeding changing the decay process of manure in the enclosed areas under the farms. City builders in general have a problem with realistic portrayals of land use (cough parking lots in sim city cough) and even worse for stuff like waste disposal (tbh this just feels like a missed opportunity, wast management is a critical part of city infrastructure and the challenge of "how do we get bad stuff out of here" is bound to be as interesting as "how do we get good stuff into here"), but even considering those, having pig factories without their lagoons seems really off-message for this game's intentions.
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Sep 6, 2021 18:22
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Tulip posted:City builders in general have a problem with realistic portrayals of land use (cough parking lots in sim city cough) and even worse for stuff like waste disposal (tbh this just feels like a missed opportunity, wast management is a critical part of city infrastructure and the challenge of "how do we get bad stuff out of here" is bound to be as interesting as "how do we get good stuff into here"), but even considering those, having pig factories without their lagoons seems really off-message for this game's intentions. I can kind of let Blue Byte get away with a lot of mechanics like this being half-baked in 2070, it was their first non-historical Anno game. The series before this point was exclusively old historical titles, and it's obvious in some places where Blue Byte was kind of kludging things together into the near-future setting. Pollution has returned in Anno 1800, as I understand it, but Alkydere or someone else would have to explain how well that game does or does not handle it. I really wish that 2205 had gotten the support it needed. I still plan to LP 2205 at some point after 2070 if no one beats me to it, but 2205 is an extremely incomplete game and dataminers found a lot of stuff indicating that that game was planned to be far more ambitious than it wound up being. Ubisoft also cut support for the game immediately and 2205 never got the kind of expansion that made 2070 the well regarded game that it is. I prefer 2205 in many respects, but felt that 2070 was the better starting point for showing the series off to people who have never played an Anno game before. Here's hoping the next game in the series returns to a sci-fi direction and does a better job with it.
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Sep 6, 2021 19:30
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Cythereal posted:I can kind of let Blue Byte get away with a lot of mechanics like this being half-baked in 2070, it was their first non-historical Anno game. The series before this point was exclusively old historical titles, and it's obvious in some places where Blue Byte was kind of kludging things together into the near-future setting. Pollution has returned in Anno 1800, as I understand it, but Alkydere or someone else would have to explain how well that game does or does not handle it. Tl;dr: Islands in 1800 have an "attractiveness" score. Polluting heavy industry and "vulgar" buildings (pig farms, slaughterhouses, soap factories) penalise it while untouched nature, various ornaments, cultural buildings (zoos, museums, botanical gardens), monuments and a few other things increase it. Low attractiveness gives a happiness penalty to your population -not that important, it mostly governs how likely people are to riot and hold festivals; plus they tend to be happy enough anyway if their luxury needs are fulfilled - and the overall score is the bedrock of the tourism/visitors system. Overall, it doesn't really matter much outside of your big main island and it's pretty easy later on to put your polluting heavy industry and pig farming onto its own designated hellpit island.
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Sep 7, 2021 14:17
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Not that it's going to help much at this point, but iirc you can put fisheries out in the water if you run out of beachfront space.
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Sep 7, 2021 15:26
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Cythereal posted:I can kind of let Blue Byte get away with a lot of mechanics like this being half-baked in 2070, it was their first non-historical Anno game. The series before this point was exclusively old historical titles, and it's obvious in some places where Blue Byte was kind of kludging things together into the near-future setting. Pollution has returned in Anno 1800, as I understand it, but Alkydere or someone else would have to explain how well that game does or does not handle it. I mean, I am coming from a pretty critical place because some of the stuff they're doing seems pretty obviously political in ways that touch on my (and your!) actual life. That said, it is kind of a miracle that any game ever gets completed and its very rare that a piece of art ever really gets to fulfill its vision. Compromises on your vision often have to happen. I do still hope that we can get a city builder that takes waste management seriously. Possibly this is informed by living in NYC, a city that depending on your perspective is either extremely good at waste management (trash gets picked up every day, I've never had a problem with sewage which is the only American city I've lived in that I can say that about), or more likely extremely bad at waste management (even with daily pickup there's still usually mountains of garbage everywhere, even just from the same day, litter is frequent especially of dog poo poo). Presumably one day we'll get some itch scale games that focus on it first and then some more simple mechanics get integrated into something like Skylines before somebody makes "factorio but for garbage." It just feels particularly missing in a game that has such explicit story themes about ecology and pollution to not get into the main way we interact with those problems in real life.
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Sep 7, 2021 19:06
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As it is, there's only a couple of concessions to that sort of thing that I can think of. There's a River Sewage Treatment Plant, which has an eye-watering price tag but is the single most potent ecobalance building in the game, and the Waste Compactor, a Tycoon building that reduces ecodamage based on how many houses and population are nearby. I probably will build a compactor or two once I unlock them (they unlock with Tycoon Employees, but more of them than I have right this second), but I probably won't build a river sewage treatment plant. As the name suggests, they require a river slot, and the only island where I'd really consider one despite the cost is Carcosa - which lacks river slots. When I got the achievement for 999 positive ecobalance they were a key part of it, but I don't think they're worth the cost unless you have a lot of Eco residents on an island.
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Sep 7, 2021 19:52
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I'm gonna point at another annoyance then, the sewage treatment plant only being available on river spots is a case of game developer brain (as in lawyer brain) because you also want to check what you're doing with sewage release at sea, an algal bloom being only one of the possibilities in case of fuckups, also it gives the possibility of a, err, fertilizer export and usage chain, but the lure of going "Ahah, the players have to make a choice." was too strong. (Additional grumble, water acquisition and usage.) Additional grumble about recycling, are you able to recycle your islands' own trash to recover some resources?
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Sep 8, 2021 00:19
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SIGSEGV posted:Additional grumble about recycling, are you able to recycle your islands' own trash to recover some resources? Nope. The only acknowledgement the game makes of residents producing trash is the Waste Compactor ecobalance building.
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Sep 8, 2021 00:25
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Dang it Cythereal! You've got me playing this game again, do you know how annoying Ubisoft makes it to play their bloody games?! Slowly psyching myself up to playing a mission where combat is a thing, I so very much suck at those.
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Sep 9, 2021 06:54
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Media Blitz An updated look at Le Fumier. Between the establishment of the plastics chain and some expansion of New New York, it's time to satisfy Mike's information need. The euphemistically named 'Ministry of Truth' is Global Trust's very own private media network. The ministry of truth is in most respects similar to the Ecos' education network, it just inflicts more ecodamage because gently caress you. Complete with an identical equivalent to the education network's child and career programming, which I sponsor immediately. Seriously, could the Tycoons at least pretend to not be absurdly dystopian? Mike is ready to ascend now, of course, but I noticed something while working on research: I unlocked the Tech researchers' lifestyle need some time ago and never realized!  For this, we return to Devil Reef. Neuroimplants have become commonplace among SAAT's ranking members, and my wife tells me that within another century or so the technology should be safe and affordable enough for most working professionals to enjoy the benefits of neural cybernetic enhancement. Step one, microchips. Just like Adamant, Devil Reef is home to the sunken ruins of a pre-Drowning settlement (actually, two) that can be scavenged for electronics and recycled.  Step two, sponge farms. Sponges are a fertility on underwater plateaus, one I took into account when settling Devil Reef originally.  And finally, the cybernetics labs. One electronics recycler can support up to three cybernetics labs, and each lab needs one sponge farm. For now, two will suffice for Eureka's population. As the Sargasso is currently tasked to capacity on the existing trade route between Devil Reef and Eureka, and we do not yet have access to container ships, I send the newly built freight ship Tradewind to ship neuroimplants to Eureka.(It only occurred to me while writing this update that I do in fact have a ship available with six cargo slots! I'll correct this in the next update!)  Kim is satisfied, and rather than push New New York on to engineers, I decide to finish out researchers on Eureka. Just like the other factions, SAAT has its own media empire. The information network costs more to run than the other two because that's how SAAT rolls. They have their own population increasing and tax revenue increasing programming, of course.  Eureka is ready to ascend, but I'm not going to attend to this soon beyond maybe one house to unlock a few things. The final tier of Techs are some needy bastards, and literally don't provide the means to fulfill one of their needs. Omega-3 acid production must be unlocked independently from the Tycoons' development plans. New New York, on the other hand, will be the focus of my next major endeavor. Carcosa, population 4,808 Eureka, population 1,570 New New York, population 1,194 An updated look at Devil Reef, no permanent residents
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Sep 9, 2021 11:54
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The next update may be delayed further. I've been having connection issues to the Ubisoft servers for this game since before I started this LP, and for the last few days I've been completely unable to connect. While my saves are stored client-side, all my career bonuses are not, and I've built this house of cards on the expectation of having them - like half of my Ark's upgrade slots. Updates will resume if and when the servers stop having connection problems.
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Sep 12, 2021 13:00
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The infamous udon'tplay strikes again. Ministry of Truth is a bit... unsettling.
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Sep 12, 2021 16:50
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The Success of Excess We open today with the Montana, a Sisyphus class submarine from the SAAT yard. Sisyphus submarines have an enormous six cargo holds and can hold almost as much total cargo as a Global Trust container ship. They're expensive, but sometimes you need what they offer.(Naming this ship also unlocked an achievement, referencing one of my favorite movies of all time.)  The Montana replaces both the Sargasso and the Tradewind for hauling cargo from Devil Reef to Eureka. Don't fret, the Sargasso will find new duties before I'm done today and I'll keep the Tradewind on hand for future needs. Turning to New New York, the rest of our business today concerns Derek, representative of Tycoon Engineers. Just like Manuel in the Ecos, Derek heralds a new building material, a new drink need, a new food need, and in time a participation need. Somehow, I'm not surprised that Global Trust mined the waters of the Tierra del Fuego, God only knows why. 20 units of rare earth elements is actually a fairly tempting bribe, but I decide I want the licenses from the Eden Initiative more. In addition to my general stance of 'gently caress the Global Trust.' Producing glass for the Eden Initiative's advanced construction was easy. Steel for Global Trust is less so. The chain starts with what we've already seen before, iron mines and coal mines supplying iron smelters to produce quality iron. However, rather than then adding a munitions plant or tool factory, here the large building in the foreground is a steelworks to turn iron into quality steel. Global Trust relies heavily on mining sites because of this, steel produces slowly and Tycoon-focused settlement projects often find themselves settling new islands primarily to acquire new mining sites. New New York is expanding nicely, and I've gone ahead and marked out a site for the Tycoon monument. As for Derek's new needs, first up is luxury meals. Lobsters and truffles combine to make luxury meals. The eagle-eyed among you may have noticed these half-submerged rock formations with a symbol above them. These are locations for lobster farms! The nearby port authority will collect the lobsters with its flying cargo drone. Back in Le Fumier, I build a steel production chain to help supply New New York and update the Marlin to haul steel in addition to convenience food and plastics. Like the glass glut mess I had with Carcosa this is overkill outside of times of specific need, but it will be useful when I do need it and I add a couple of tools workshops to use the iron chain to keep New New York supplied natively with tools when I can afford to put that island's steelworks to sleep. With New New York providing lobsters, now it's time to see to truffles. None of my presently settled islands have a fertility for truffles, so it's time to break ground on another island - this one also has a fertility for grapes, which will be relevant shortly. Even better, there's an experimental Eden Initiative facility on this island! This will give the island a huge ecobalance boon, free of charge! I do make a quick call to Yana, and she confirms that we're clear to operate here, she's interested to see how this system works with some stress.(These are randomly generated and are always very nice when you can get one! There's usually one or two islands with one of these or another similar facility per map.)  Site Seven is settled and truffle farming operations can commence. Truffle farms aren't much to look at, but they're appealingly compact. One lobster farm goes with four truffle farms. The Sargasso is recalled and assigned to haul truffles from Site Seven to New New York. One lobster farm and four truffle farms supply two gourmet workshops, which will cover New New York's food demands nicely. Derek's new drink need is champagne. Sparkling grape juice by any other name. Boy was the French government pissed when the courts overturned the whole 'Champagne must come from the Champagne region of France' thing on the basis that the Champagne region's climate now resembled an African savannah and was no longer suitable for growing quality grapes. That was hilarious to watch on television. Besides grapes, however, champagne needs sugar. I purchase some sugar beet seeds and have them seeded on Site Seven in the island's vacant fertility slot. Two vineyards and one sugar beet plantation supply one 'champagne cellar' and the Sargasso is updated to haul sparkling grape juice. Layout optimization is fun when it's not being a bastard because you were one tile off! New New York is now rolling in luxury meals and champagne. Carcosa, population 4,808 Eureka, population 1,570 New New York, population 1,640 Site Seven, no permanent residentsTaking suggestions for the name of Site Seven!
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Sep 15, 2021 02:02
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Site Seven shall be renamed: Sparkles of Joy
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Sep 15, 2021 02:24
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Name the island Champaignt
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Sep 15, 2021 02:33
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berryjon posted:Site Seven shall be renamed: This is good! So Tycoons/Eden Initiative folks will pretty much always outnumber Tech researchers?? Or can you do a "mainly Techs" game? I figure that would be hard, considering you don't get the tools to meet the Tech's needs from just upgrading them.
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Sep 15, 2021 06:49
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Torrannor posted:So Tycoons/Eden Initiative folks will pretty much always outnumber Tech researchers?? Or can you do a "mainly Techs" game? I figure that would be hard, considering you don't get the tools to meet the Tech's needs from just upgrading them. A Tech focused game would be firmly in the category of self-imposed challenges. We haven't seen the final tier of Tech citizens yet, but one of the problems with a main Tech game is that there's a production chain for the final Tech citizens that requires both corn and omega-3 acids. The schematics for corn farms are only unlocked by Eco Executives to the point of reaching their need for service bots. The schematics for fat farms are only unlocked by Tycoon Executives to the point of reaching their need for pharmaceuticals. On top of this, Techs have a triple whammy of paying you less in taxes per head than their counterparts, each residence housing less people than their counterparts, and Tech buildings generally having higher maintenance costs than their counterparts. A Tech city would need to be substantially larger in floor plan to equal the population and income levels of a comparable Eco or Tycoon city.
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Sep 15, 2021 12:11
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I honestly don't know if Blue Byte doesn't know about the whole "Champagne only comes from one region, otherwise it's just sparkling wine" thing, or if they don't care, or are actively mocking the French. Whatever the reason... they're still doing it and there's even less reason for them to get away with it during the 1800s I feel.Torrannor posted:So Tycoons/Eden Initiative folks will pretty much always outnumber Tech researchers?? Or can you do a "mainly Techs" game? I figure that would be hard, considering you don't get the tools to meet the Tech's needs from just upgrading them. Yup! Anno games (or at least the "Modern" ones: 1404, 2070, 2205, 1800) are set up so there's basically a main dominant faction that you get the majority of your cash/tech from and then a smaller faction you need for tech advances/exotic resources. In 1404 your main faction was the Occident (i.e. European) and you created trade settlements to get goods from the Orient. In 2070 as you have seen you set up with one of two major global players (if not both at once) and then liaise with SAAT for technical work dealing with submarine industries and improving various technologies. In 2205 you set up your corporate HQ and most of your corporation's money making population in temperate climates while setting up industrial outputs in the healing arctic and on the moon (the latter of which really rustles Cobra Commander's jimmies). On and in the DLC you can also get a tundra zone which produces some rather game breaking materials. In 1800 you're an Imperial (read: not-Britain) subject who's creating/supporting massive cities from importing goods from the New World made by population sheltering under your flag for a Cythereal posted:A Tech focused game would be firmly in the category of self-imposed challenges. We haven't seen the final tier of Tech citizens yet, but one of the problems with a main Tech game is that there's a production chain for the final Tech citizens that requires both corn and omega-3 acids. The schematics for corn farms are only unlocked by Eco Executives to the point of reaching their need for service bots. The schematics for fat farms are only unlocked by Tycoon Executives to the point of reaching their need for pharmaceuticals. I remember the final tier of Techs absolutely vomiting out cash, but those production chains are absolutely painful. Both in logistics and, as you said, in upkeep. Then again maybe I just was shocked with being able to actually make money with Techs after the DLC dropped. Before the DLC dropped, Techs were impossible to come out cash-positive via basic taxes from what I remember (I may be wrong but it would take a better manager than I to do it). After the DLC the second tier of Tech got a hefty tax boost and they added the third tier which actually gives a fat chunk of cash when satisfied. Anyways, Cyth, glad to see you finally escaped the U-Don't-Play issues
Alkydere fucked around with this message at 12:17 on Sep 15, 2021 |
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Sep 15, 2021 12:11
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Alkydere posted:I remember the final tier of Techs absolutely vomiting out cash, but those production chains are absolutely painful. Both in logistics and, as you said, in upkeep. Then again maybe I just was shocked with being able to actually make money with Techs after the DLC dropped. Before the DLC dropped, Techs were impossible to come out cash-positive via basic taxes from what I remember (I may be wrong but it would take a better manager than I to do it). After the DLC the second tier of Tech got a hefty tax boost and they added the third tier which actually gives a fat chunk of cash when satisfied. In my test game I did before this, the final tier of Techs do yield a good chunk of cash, but it's undercut by how expensive their needs are to satisfy. They still make a considerable profit, but on par with other factions' engineers rather than executives. Also further underlined by the Tech monument being significantly more expensive to build and run than the others.
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Sep 15, 2021 13:40
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Slaan posted:Name the island Champaignt If we're voting, I'm voting for this.
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Sep 15, 2021 17:58
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Fool's Gold This update brought to you by LEAVE ME ALONE TO WORK FOR TEN GODDAMN MINUTES! This update took quite a while to record courtesy of things exploding, catching on fire, epidemics starting, or sidequests piping up about every five minutes.  New New York. I do not like Tycoons to begin with, and by the end of this session I liked them less. After some expansion of the city's population, I unlocked the Tycoon Engineers' participation needs: the financial center. The Tierra del Fuego is now a notable spot in global finance, I'm told because Global Trust has an eye on the region as a jumping-off point for  Meet Lex, Tycoon Executive. The rest of this session will be focused on this fuckwit and his ilk. Lex's mansions are painted gold. Subtle. Back to work, Lex's new needs will require a substantial undersea infrastructure producing algae, diamonds, and rare earth elements. Fortunately, not only is there an undersea plateau with these resources available, it's quite nearby. The first of Lex's new needs is jewelry. The Eden Initiative called for diamonds for their physical properties in high-end electronics. The Global Trust wants them for trashy displays of material wealth. It's like those nutters who cover food in 24 carat gold leaf. What the gently caress? Two jewelry chains are the order of the day, so two diamond mines get Site Eight up and running. Conveniently, the freight ship Tradewind is still available and unoccupied, so I put the ship on the Site Eight - New New York run. I also establish a new port authority on the south side of New New York. Not only will this save the Tradewind from sailing all the way around the island, we can now make use of New New York's last mine slot, which I shortly afterwards build a coal mine - like some of the other Tycoon chains, one coal mine can supply two jewelry chains. You could, if you don't mind the ecobalance hit, use one rotary excavator each, but I don't build those out of principle. As for acquiring the gold, we aren't mining gold like silly people did in centuries past. We're filtering nuggets out of rivers! One gold filtration plant and one half of a coal mine (or a rotary excavator) supply one gold smelter each to produce gold bars. One gold smelter and one diamond mine each supply one jewelry manufactory. This will suffice for the time being. Oh dear. We need more burgers. Like Paraiso, Le Fumier is acquiring the haphazard look of an industrial island producing many different needs where production facilities are plopped down wherever there's room as the needs arise. With another city center, New New York has reached the point of Lex's other need, pharmaceuticals. God Almighty I hate this chain. In fact, after a trip to Site Eight, I conclude that I'm going to need SAAT's help with this nonsense. Meet Chip, Tycoon Genius. Right now, I could not care less that Eureka's needs are not being met in total adequacy. I just need a single genius residence to unlock something for Site Eight. You see, to produce enough algae for New New York's need for pharmaceuticals, I need three algae farms. I was able to cram two in, but I can't fit a third with as much room as a traditional underwater warehouse takes up. Chip's arrival, however, means I can build an underwater receiving dock. These are not something you want to build without a good reason. They take up much less room than underwater warehouses, but are far more expensive to build and maintain. The dock and another algae farm complete that leg of this chain, but now it's time to hop this volcanic chasm to the north side of Site Eight. Yes, that big green icon means I can build a somewhat unconventional source of power here, with sufficient research from the Academy. I am probably not going to. Without extensive safeguard upgrades, Dr. Ebashi's pet project can have... consequences I do not wish to deal with. You've seen rare earth element production before. I need six borers, which means three excavators. The Tradewind is now tasked to capacity. Fat factories are proof that we can't have nice things. I'm going to need nine of the things. On the one hand, they're appealingly small and compact. On the other hand, they cost a lot of steel, and steel is notoriously slower to produce than glass. Now, I could get around this by replacing all of New New York's coal mines with twice as many rotary excavators, freeing up mine slots for iron mines so the steelworks can commence. In fact, if you're a mainly Tycoon player, that's a very good idea. Alas, gently caress that. I have chosen to not ask what they're doing in there. As long as the fat factories meet their production targets for omega-3 acids, I have declined to look more closely. Our first chemical plant, here in front of the warehouse. One chemical plant takes the output of one algae farm and three fat factories to make 'secret ingredients.' One chemical plant and the output of 1.5 rare earth borers supplies one healthcare office. And I have six more fat factories and two more chemical plants and two more healthcare offices, which all require gross amounts of steel, to satisfy these idiots... To be blunt, at this point I just wanted this session to be over. Carcosa, population 4,808 Eureka, population 1,590 New New York, population 3,410 Site Eight, no permanent residentsTaking suggestions for the name of Site Eight!
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Sep 19, 2021 18:17
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Let the record show that I tried building a nuclear plant for the LP last night, to help power the Tycoon monument. Not sixty seconds after building the reactor, it went mushroom cloud and leveled half of New New York and dropped the ecobalance to around -300. I quit the game in disgust at that point.
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Sep 21, 2021 14:25
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I wonder if there's a message about nuclear power in this game
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Sep 21, 2021 14:41
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...jesus, I literally never had a nuke plant go boom on me in like 200+ hours of playtime. Talk about losing the lottery.
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Sep 21, 2021 16:04
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nuclear power generation is when you repeatedly detonate nuclear bombs
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Sep 21, 2021 16:42
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| # ? May 5, 2024 08:43 |
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Broken Box posted:nuclear power generation is when you repeatedly detonate nuclear bombs I'm now imagining some crazy 1950s scheme where you dig a giant shaft, put a project Orion style piston plate in it, and then detonate nukes at the bottom of the hole to move the piston and turn a crank shaft.
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Sep 21, 2021 16:48
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