|
Also, one thing to note: the implication is that the PC's megacorp is the only one with any substantial operations on the moon. The next update will be almost nothing but sector project work, and we'll see that Cassian Industries only has a small project on the moon - and they're supposed to be the megacorp with the largest space program. Most sidequests offered by megacorps suggest that your rivals only have small research outposts. There's a reason why I started this LP by fluffing up the protagonist megacorp as being leaders in aerospace technology, even if my interest in writing fluff has started to fall off in favor of just describing what's happening. In retrospect, the framing device with Chihiro hasn't balanced those needs as well as Aurora did as my voice in Anno 2070.
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2022 16:22
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 5, 2024 07:11 |
|
|
It's a very weird disconnect when you play as companies that are nominally "good" or "ethical" but you're still a company or corporation. Anno has some very weird cognitive dissonance at times, like when you click on a happy worker residence in Anno 1800 and the worker says "But I like being oppressed!".
|
|
#
?
Jan 25, 2022 00:37
|
|
|
Power Projection We start today in Wildwater Bay, one of the sectors I bought previously. Wildwater Bay has a problem: it has the trait King Tides, increasing tidal power production at the expense of other coastal site production. I don't like King Tides. However, for a price of credits, iridium, and graphene, I can re-roll the sector trait. And I do.  +10% production in all coastal sites. I'll take it! As for what I'm doing here...   Those who played Anno 2070, or read my LP, may remember the smuggler Trenchcoat and his ship, the converted aircraft carrier The Lucky Lady. By 2205, Trenchcoat is long dead and the Lucky Lady is a beached hulk. However, he left behind a program to guide anyone who finds his wreck to his secret resource cache. It's a very helpful sector project, along with the sector just being generically great. Not a bad free nostalgia DLC!  Step one is finding, of course, a buried treasure chest. However, Trenchcoat's instruction that it's hidden on the coast is misleading - it's actually at the innermost tip of an inlet.  Step two is another hot-and-cold minigame. All the pieces are around this submerged structure that may look familiar to Anno 2070 fans.  Next is maintaining workforce balance. Which means it's time to start developing Wildwater Bay! I bring the sector up to Erica levels immediately - biopolymers, rice, water infodromes, constructobots, vitamin drinks, rejuvenators, and security departments all sourced locally, and I set up a new trade route to bring in neuro-implants from the arctic. You've all seen me do this before. I elect to not bring things up to executive tier yet, however.  Next is just ferrying work boats back to that submerged structure.   A production surplus of 10 cobalt is as simple as adding a second production module to the mine churning out cobalt for bots.  50 super alloys will take time to import. But what's cooking back in Ikkuma, and that sector project?  After adding and upgrading a few more houses, we can now extract methane clathrates from coastal sites.  The main use for methane is as fuel for natural gas plants. These are the alternative to geothermal power in the arctic, and project enormous heat areas.  Honestly, I'm shocked the Custodians allow this. Modern filtration systems make natural gas plants a hell of a lot less dangerous to the environment, but 'a lot less' isn't 'not at all.' I'm not saying Lei Sheng and/or Usoyev bribed the Custodians, but I'm not not saying it, either... Back in Wildwater Bay, I have my reward for completing phase one of the sector project: one of Trenchcoat's secret undersea warehouses where he stored his goods. Pertinent to Esperanza's operations, however, is what can be salvaged for iridium. Just like how the oil rigs in Ikkuma steadily generate petrochemicals, these warehouses generate iridium.  And in Ikkuma, the sector spaceport has now been upgraded to be capable of trade routes with the moon. I have no need for this functionality right now, but it will be useful in the future. More importantly, I think it looks cool.  Next step of the sector project wants a population of 500 scientists in Ikkuma. Producing methane required 1,100 scientists. If Ikkuma isn't your starting arctic sector, though, this will necessitate some development if you haven't already.  More towing, wheeee.  Alert. Esperanza has restored a second oil rig in Ikkuma Glacier. Hmmm. I don't like this. You think Esperanza and Usoyev have reactivated the rigs? The region is coated in seismic sensors. We'd be aware if they were drilling for oil. If they are harvesting whatever seeps remain... Do you want us to launch an investigation. No. At least, not yet. These were Global Trust oil rigs. If any viable amount of petrochemicals can be salvaged, Global Trust was even more incompetent than I thought. My understanding was that most rigs of the period were of SAAT design. Global Trust was never one to care about patent laws, Liaison. Keep an eye on this sector.  Meanwhile, on the moon, it's time for Iwamoto's sector project. The rare resource on the moon is magnetite, and here we're partnering with Cassian Industries to harvest some meteors that impacted on the moon.  Starting with a find the clicky quest.  I do wonder if 2205 was planned to have lunar combat at one point. On Earth, there are occasional sidequests to destroy Orbital Watch ships in your sector. On the moon, Orbital Watch tanks turn up. They do not move or shoot back.  Next we need more workforce in Iwamoto. Time to expand!  Wheeeeeee.  Unsurprisingly, Drake turns up with sidequests regularly on the moon. The text on the side of his custom ride says cargo shuttle, but I call it a space limo.   I misplaced the screenshot I took of this step of the quest, have a glam shot instead.   It's cheaper to import titanium from the world market than to produce it myself for this step.  Convenient.   And we now have a meteor mine that will steadily generate free magnetite!  On to stage two, Cassian Industries has lost contact with their research team! Where could they possibly have ended up?!  ...Aidan, 90% of your dialogue is bitching about your boss and the corporate backstabbing at Cassian Industries HQ. I'm starting to think you're not exactly part of the solution.  Step two, well... we can't build health centers yet. I'm sure your research team will be fine until such time as I get them up and running. That being said, I suppose it is time.   Jeremy is the second and unfortunately final tier of lunar resident.  I'm already producing an excess of intelliwear, so I start shipping some up to the moon.  That alone brings in enough Jeremies to unlock the reason we're nominally here: fusion power. Fusion power requires two things: deuterium from the arctic, and helium-3 from the moon. Put this thought aside for now, I won't be getting to this for another update or two.  In the meantime, I can satisfy a second of Jeremy's needs: lunar lunch. Moon crops are grown in aeroponic farms, which themselves require moon ice to run, presumably for the water. Moon crops are then refined in galleys, visible behind the farm, into lunar lunch. And no, I have no idea what the moon crops or lunar lunch are. The icon suggests carrots and potatoes, but surely that's not the makings of a complete meal.  Oh dear. Esperanza is facing its first Calamity, major sector-wide disasters added in a patch. Polar night descends. And with it, reminding me that this game has a day/night cycle that I'd forgotten about. It will be active for the rest of the LP. ...Except Polar Night is actually completely trivial to deal with and I didn't even bother to take screenshots of the countermeasure. The mechanical effect of Polar Night is that it stops you from building anything in the affected sector as your staff hunker down to wait out the cold dark. Unless you provide a load of super alloys to reinforce the buildings, and a load of luxury meals to keep morale up. Then no one really cares.        
Cythereal fucked around with this message at 02:49 on Jan 25, 2022 |
|
#
?
Jan 25, 2022 01:13
|
|
|
this is clearly a Nod observation vehicle, please be on the lookout for Kane's moonbase
|
|
#
?
Jan 25, 2022 01:48
|
|
|
Cythereal posted:And no, I have no idea what the moon crops or lunar lunch are. The icon suggests carrots and potatoes, but surely that's not the makings of a complete meal. Hey, Mark Watney would have killed in order to have some carrots to go along with his potatoes...
|
|
#
?
Jan 25, 2022 03:31
|
|
|
The Anno games are consistently very pretty no matter what year they were made in. But that's besides the point, I am aghast that the game decides to make you mine magnetite out of the moon. Magnetite is one of the main natural forms of iron on Earth and is an iron oxide. Oxygen and Iron are respective the first and fourth most common elements in Earth's crust, mass wise, at roughly 46% and 5%. This is so jarring I'm not even going to make a joke about the methane power plants and nukes.
|
|
#
?
Jan 25, 2022 03:59
|
|
|
Yay! Anyways, we get to see Jeremy. The officer's house is definitely a step up: the housing part is all one section even if the garage is separate half the time. It's an actual housing unit. It still suffers from the same "You're surrounded by deadly vacuum and need to put on your space suit to go anywhere" issue. Like, they solved this in 2070 by having Engineers and Executive houses spawn a connecting segment between them, and in 1800 by having Engineers and Investors be townhouses that push up against each other. Having the housing actually connect would make them look like an actual space colony. Also as to the whole carrots and potatoes of the space food: It makes sense, they're basically just running a hydroponics facility! Also if you're not lactose intolerant potatoes + milk (i.e. mashed potatoes) is basically a complete, nutritious meal that gives the human body nearly all of the nutrients it needs. It's why the infamous Lumper was so popular in Ireland: it grew like a weed, was hard for your landlord to see exactly how many you had growing (which made taxing you harder) and was excellent at feeding the family. Shame about nature hating monocultures. Oh and yay! We get to see methane power plant! To be fair, methane is one of the worst greenhouse gasses to the point that burning it is actually better than releasing it as is. Of course it was probably better off sitting inert on the bottom of the ocean, but now that you've mined it up might as well light a match.
|
|
#
?
Jan 25, 2022 13:13
|
|
|
As we'll see, you do need the methane for an industrial production chain, too. The gas power plant is more like a way to use up excess methane and gain some power and a big heat bubble in return. It's not really meant to seriously cover your energy need for the artic - that's about to be no longer a problem anyway thanks to the moon.
|
|
#
?
Jan 25, 2022 17:10
|
|
|
Fair warning, I have now completed the Esperanza space station and the next update will be dedicated to the Orbit section. I have three more production chain replacement techs in place, besides the standing Animal Rights Policy, so what you're going to see from here on out will not exactly be the vanilla experience. And once I get fusion power up and running, plan is to head to the Tundra because I clearly haven't been breaking this game over my knee hard enough yet.
|
|
#
?
Jan 25, 2022 17:54
|
|
|
Huh. Just finished the orbital cheevos and put my station into her final state myself. I'm curious what mix you've decided on. Level 2 in four categories is something I didn't get to, the final agriculture level was just too tempting for me to try the 4-2-4-2-0 build I had aimed for.
|
|
#
?
Jan 25, 2022 23:31
|
|
|
Sufficiently Understood Magic So, Orbit. To start on how this works more properly, research and space station stuff begins with astronauts. I built a shuttle pad early in the game, and you can see it in Walbruk now:  The number of astronauts a given shuttle pad launches is based on the population in the circle of influence, seen here up to 100%. Each region trains a different type of astronauts. Temperate zones, like Walbruk Basin and the shuttle pad I built in Wildwater, launch biologists.  Shuttles in the arctic and tundra launch physicists.  Shuttles on the moon launch engineers.  Astronauts are not a static resource, they are consumed over time - the implication being that the astronauts complete their contracts and return to Earth. They're not a one and done deal. Now, each type of astronaut can crew different labs. Biologists man Agriculture labs. Physicists man Biotech and Electronics labs. Engineers man Energy and Heavy Industry labs. The number of labs of a given type you have determines your maximum tech level in that tree, up to a maximum of five. Each lab also generates expertise, the lightbulb symbol. The amount of expertise each lab generates is based on a variety of factors you can see here: the number of astronauts of the appropriate type available, certain goods you can ship in (different for each lab type), and uninterrupted connections to various station modules.  The math that goes into expertise generation is ridiculously complex and I don't pretend to understand it. There's not only interconnections, but different modules raise and lower temperatures in connected labs and that adjustment changes based on distance and each different lab has a different optimal temperature and Jesus Christ I don't have time for this, I just copied a layout I found on the Ubisoft forums and shipped in some moon crops to make my biologists happy.  Expertise is used to 'buy' technologies, as determined by the number and type of labs you have available. Between tech trees are symbols marked here as green circles. These are station expansions, adding more station modules, more labs, and more area around the station that you can build. Buy a tech adjacent to a station expansion and the expansion will start to build - up to two hours for the highest tier expansions! This is what I've meant when talking about running down the clock on research stuff in previous posts. And as you can see, you keep station expansions even if you later refund the technology used to unlock them. Word of warning: many techs increase the output of various goods. If you're temporarily building labs and buying techs you don't intend to keep, just to unlock station expansions, don't forget to account for the increased production you'll lose when you refund the techs! And now, for what's available: Agriculture Tech Tier 1 Mutation Optimizer: +10% production from agriculture facilities Agriculture buildings I have right now are the Sunflower Farm, Rice Farm, Desalinization Plant, Fruit Orchard, Vitamin Enricher, Algae Farm, Vineyard, Soybean Farm [not that I'm using any], Cattle Ranch [ditto], Food Design Workshop, Flax Plantation, Fishery, Cannery, Coral Farm, Aeroponic Farm, and Space Galley. That's a lot of buildings to get +10% from! Very nice and well worth it. Tier 2 Animal Rights Policy: Food Design Workshops use Rice instead of Beef I've extolled the virtues of this tech before. It's one of the best product replacement techs and is available early. Get it, love it, don't mourn the cows. Saayman Joint Venture: Sidequests from Saayman International award +50% rewards Purely luck based, but it could help. Rescue System: Support Fleet now calls John Rafferty So, remember in that first Crisis Sector how I had a ship following the fleet around repairing my ships? This summons him anew, temporarily. However, there's a couple of important things to realize about this: first, because of a bug or bad coding that was never fixed, using this won't actually count as using Support Fleet, which means that if you get a sidequest asking you to use it you can't complete it. Second, Rafferty does not attack and cannot be targeted by enemies. Support Fleet is mainly used for extra damage and to give your fleet some meat shields, and socketing this tech means that goes away. In my opinion, the added staying power of this tech is worth the trade, but it is something to weigh, and Rafferty's pathfinding can struggle on some maps.  Tier 3 Individual Crop Tracking: +10% production from agriculture facilities Stacks additively with Mutation Optimizer, for a total of +20% production from agriculture facilities. Yes, this is good. Sensor Overlocking: +100% rare resource salvage from Crisis Sectors Crisis Sectors are already the best source of rare resources, and this makes them that much more lucrative. If you're going to do Crisis Sectors, consider this tech. Agriculture Wholesale Deal: +50% sales price for agriculture goods This applies to both selling to traders and selling to the world market. This can be useful if you're actually doing either of those things, but I tend to forget that it's an option. Tier 4 Dual Filtration Process: Desalinization Plants also produce Algae All of the 'X also produce Y' techs don't produce a lot of the second good. You'll always have a lot of desalinization plants, but you're likely to need plenty of algae. This helps, but it's not essential. However, it can combo very nicely with a tech down in Biotech. Saayman Security Infiltration: +25% faster security reduction, +5% effectiveness for Saayman Insiders Stock market DLC stuff I've never touched. Rewards Program: +15% workforce in all sectors, +5% consumption of all goods in arctic, tundra, and lunar regions A double-edged sword you should consider carefully before socketing. +5% goods consumption adds up, and there are other ways to address workforce shortages. Possibly worth it in the right situation. Tier 5 Dietary Supplement: -15% consumption of all agriculture goods This applies to goods that are consumed directly by your citizens, not intermediary goods like algae and moon crops. Even so, this is a potent upgrade, adding up to an effective 35% increase in efficiency for the agriculture buildings in question if you grabbed both previous production enhancers. If you're going to the capstone of a tech tree, this should be at the top of your list to consider. Biotech... Tech Tier 1 Personalized Medicine: +10% production from biotech facilities Right now this means the Biopolymer Factory, Synthcell Incubator, Biomedical Laboratory, Neuro-Module Factory, Pharmaceutical Lab, Oxygen Separator, and Cybernetics Lab. A smaller list than agriculture, but almost all of these are important goods, many of them consume relatively rare resources and a production boost is welcome. Tier 2 Resin Breakdown: Biomedical Laboratories use Bioresin instead of Synthcells In case you've forgotten, bioresin is made from sunflower farms directly, and synthcells are produced in synthcell incubators from algae, which is produced by algae farms. This tech doesn't have cost savings quite like Animal Rights Policy, but it eliminates a two-step production process and reduces demand on coastal sites. If you're investing in this tech tree, this is worth picking up. If you got Dual Filtration Process from the agriculture tree, this can potentially let you completely ignore algae farms. Usoyev Joint Venture: Sidequests from Usoyev Inc award +50% rewards See its counterpart previously. Meteor Grade Shields: Kinetic Barrier radius increased by 50% and fuel cost reduced by 2 The shield is the best defensive power in Crisis Sectors, and this makes it cheaper to use and easier to cover your whole fleet. I like it. Tier 3 DNA Recombineering: +10% production from biotech facilities Again, stacks with the tier 1 tech and just as useful. Petrochemicals Reprocessing: Gain 10 petrochemicals per minute This is completely automatic, no player input required like the sector project generators. Helpful if you need petrochemicals. Biotech Wholesale Deal: +50% sales price for biotech goods See its counterpart previously. Tier 4 Spare Parts Doctrine: Android Factories also produce Neuro-Implants We haven't seen android factories yet, but they're for the final tier of temperate citizens. This helps a bit, but doesn't produce implants in anything like enough quantities to be particularly noteworthy. Usoyev Security Infiltration: +25% faster security reduction, +5% effectiveness for Usoyev Insiders See its counterpart previously. Consumption Dampener: +15% revenue in all sectors, +5% goods consumption in arctic, tundra, and lunar sectors Yes. This trade is very much in your favor, and this tech is a credible reason to go this deep in biotech. Tier 5 Robotic Workforce: Androids in storage produce Workforce This one takes a little explanation. Androids are a consumer good produced from the final tier of temperate citizen. This makes it so that surplus androids in storage produce workforce for the sector. The trick to how this can be useful is that you'll want to ship androids en masse to sectors that you otherwise wouldn't develop much, like the arctic and moon. It's entirely possible to set up a sector with no houses whatsoever, just production facilities manned by androids. Especially on the moon, this can be a huge bonus. You really need to think and plan around this tech if you're going to get it, but it can be a very powerful asset. Electronics Tech Tier 1 Self-Testing Hardware: +10% production from electronics facilities Robot Assembly Halls, Microfabrication Halls, Nano-Textile Mills. This is a tiny list, though it's going to grow in the next few updates. However, all of the buildings in this category are costly, high-end goods for your more elite citizens (well, except the robots). It's a more selective upgrade than the other trees, but it's a welcome boost to your more advanced facilities. Tier 2 Hardware Optimization: Hardware Fabrication Plants use Microchips instead of Qubit Processors We won't see the building this affects until the next update, but this is a very powerful upgrade comparable to Animal Rights Policy. Qubit processors are expensive and irritating to make, while microchips just take silicon and come from the region with the least demand for mine sites. This by itself is a sound reason to go for electronics tech. Ibarra Joint Venture: Sidequests from Ibarra-Foxcom award +50% rewards See its counterpart previously. Damage Detection: Repair Drone radius increased by 50% and fuel cost reduced by 2 This is the Crisis Sector repair ability. Less necessary if you got Rescue System. Tier 3 Rapid Prototyping: +10% production from electronics facilities As before, this is good. Graphene Reprocessing: Gain 11 graphene per minute This is completely automatic, no player input required like the sector project generators. Helpful if you need graphene - and you very well might, this is how you get new islands in the temperate zone. Electronics Wholesale Deal: +50% sales price for electronics goods See its counterpart previously. Tier 4 Anti-G Accessory: Anti-G Workshops also produce Intelliwear By far the best of the techs of its like. Anti-g workshops are on the moon, and if you're producing the amount you're likely to need - they produce a good for the final tier of temperate citizens - this will typically completely cover the moon's need for intelliwear, saving you not only the intelliwear but also the trade route. Ibarra Security Infiltration: +25% faster security reduction, +5% effectiveness for Ibarra Insiders See its counterpart previously. Consumer Electronics: +10% revenue, -10% workforce in the temperate region Read: free money. The temperate region never has workforce issues even with this in place. Tier 5 Control System Overclocking: +5% production in all buildings, +25% energy maintenance in all buildings Effectively 'just' +20% energy maintenance since the production output benefits power plants, too. This can be a powerful asset if you're willing to compensate for the drawback, and it works very well if paired with heavy energy tech research. Is it actually worth it, though? I'm skeptical it's worth going 5 labs deep in electronics. Energy Techs Tier 1 Accumulator Overload: +10% production from energy facilities 10% more energy generation is a welcome thing, and this also increases the production of some buildings that don't generate energy directly, like methane extractors in the arctic. Good stuff. Tier 2 Hydrogen Enrichment: Fusion Preparation Plants use Moon Ice instead of Deuterium We'll see the building in question in the next update, but this is another welcome upgrade. Deuterium is produced in the arctic and needs to be shipped up to the moon. Ice is produced directly on the moon, and in vastly larger quantities than you're likely to use for anything else. This puts that surplus ice to use and saves you a pricy shipping route. Lei Sheng Joint Venture: Sidequests from Lei Sheng award +50% rewards See its counterpart previously. Orbital Laser: Missile Barrages now fire orbital bombardments Let me demonstrate this one for you.   Carriers appear in the higher difficulties of Crisis Sectors and invasions. A nuclear strike will usually knock off a third, maybe half their health. The orbital laser kills them dead. As underwhelming as nuclear missiles are, the orbital laser is very much not. Anything in that red circle smaller than an Eradicator just dies. Why yes I love this tech, whatever gave you that idea? Tier 3 Power Saving Mode: +10% production from energy facilities Still good. Iridium Reprocessing: Gain 15 iridium per minute This is completely automatic, no player input required like the sector project generators. Helpful if you need iridium. Energy Wholesale Deal: +50% sales price for energy goods See its counterpart previously. Tier 4 Liquid Extraction: Methane Extractors also produce Deuterium Only worth it if you picked up Hydrogen Enrichment before, in which case this can minimize or even entirely negate the need for dedicated deuterium production. Deuterium isn't needed in huge amounts anyway. Lei Sheng Security Infiltration: +25% faster security reduction, +5% effectiveness for Lei Sheng Insiders See its counterpart previously. Paid Overtime: +10% workforce in all sectors, -10% revenue in arctic, tundra, and lunar regions The cash hit doesn't affect where you actually make your money, but still. There are better ways to deal with workforce shortages. Tier 5 Kinetic Micro-Generator: All residents produce Energy This used to be hilariously busted, but got nerfed into the ground in the game's one big balance patch. In a fully developed temperate sector, in my tests, this gains around 500-600 energy. Not worth going this deep in the energy tree for, in my opinion. Heavy Industry Techs Tier 1 Mineral Cultivation: +10% production from heavy industry facilities Feldspar Quarry, Cobalt Mine, Silicon Mine, Aluminum Mine, Molybdenum Mine, Compression Chamber, Plasma Smelter, Titanium Mine, Ion Welder, Ice Driller, KREEP Gatherer. This looks like an impressive list, but there's a catch: most of this makes construction materials, not consumer goods. In my opinion, this is the least useful tech of its ilk. Tier 2 Cobalt Alloys: Plasma Smelters use Cobalt instead of Molybdenum This does free up molybdenum for other uses, but are you really using that much super alloys? Also note that this means you need to ship cobalt into the arctic. Again, the weakest tech of its kind in my book. Cassian Joint Venture: Sidequests from Cassian Industries award +50% rewards See its counterpart previously. Staggered Detonation Pattern: Damage and knockback effect of Wave Mine increased by 100% and fuel cost reduced by 1 Still not enough damage to matter, though the enhanced knockback can be funny. No increase in radius means no enhanced fun with mines and friendly fire on the Orbital Watch. I'm sure someone out there likes this, but I once again deem this the least useful tech in its category. Tier 3 Semi-Autonomous Machinery: +10% production from heavy industry facilities Just like the first, certainly no bad thing but inferior to its counterparts. Magnetite Reprocessing: Gain 6 magnetite per minute Heavy Industry just can't catch a break. The moon has by far the fewest expansions to buy, and you can get plenty of magnetite just from a Crisis Sector or two, or starting in Iwamoto like we did. It doesn't hurt, but it also doesn't particularly help. Heavy Industry Wholesale Deal: +50% sales price for heavy industry goods See its counterpart previously. Tier 4 Aluminum Separation: Molybdenum Mines also produce Aluminum This does genuinely help, and eases the strain on your arctic mining sites. Not a radical improvement like its counterparts can be, but it helps. Cassian Security Infiltration: +25% faster security reduction, +5% effectiveness for Cassian Insiders See its counterpart previously. Austerity Policy: -10% goods consumption, -10% workforce in the temperate region This is a very good trade! Once again, the temperate region does not have workforce problems. Tier 5 Orbital Warehouses: A new, global storage for all construction materials is opened This is certainly a huge convenience feature, letting you share construction materials across all sectors. But is convenience worth going 5 labs deep? Not to my taste.  I have elected for a 3/3/3/3 distribution of labs between Agriculture, Biotech, Electronics, and Energy. Rather than going for any of the big adjustments at tier 4 or above, I've chosen a go-wide strategy for a widespread increase to production of goods in every area except heavy industry, along with all the attendant production chain replacements. There's a lot of good combinations you can do if you want to go deep on one or more tech trees, but I prefer this strategy, and I've ended up with a fair number of miscellaneous techs just from having the lightbulbs on hand. Socketed techs: Agriculture: Mutation Optimizer, Animal Rights Policy, Saayman Joint Venture, Rescue System, Individual Crop Tracking, Sensor Overclocking Biotech: Personalized Medicine, Resin Breakdown, Usoyev Joint Venture, Meteor Grade Shields, DNA Recombineering, Petrochemical Reprocessing Electronics: Self-Testing Hardware, Hardware Optimization, Ibarra Joint Venture, Damage Detection, Rapid Prototyping, Graphene Reprocessing Energy: Accumulator Overload, Hydrogen Enrichment, Lei Sheng Joint Venture, Orbital Laser, Power Saving Mode, Iridium Reprocessing Cythereal fucked around with this message at 04:12 on Jan 28, 2022 |
|
#
?
Jan 28, 2022 01:35
|
|
|
Okay, orbital building. Short version is the effect from modules travels along empty nodes and stops either after the sixth node or when it hits another module or a workshop. However, the effect weakens, and various workshops need different effects at different minimum strengths. Also, each module transmits temperature (increases of various kinds except for the radiator module, which exists solely to provide negative temperatures, IE cool down your workshops) along those same three steps, with the temperature effect going two degrees towards zero for each step. Here's a cheat sheet summing it all up, for reference:  Now add in that your connector arms and support modules are also limited, and actually getting all twelve workshops up with perfect support and temperature becomes a neat little puzzle. Here's my personal station, with a 5-1-4-2 agriculture-biotech-electronics-energy mix. It uses all support modules and all but like 4 or 5 connectors. (I used up the rest ot beautify things a little on the agri/biotech half of the station, make it look slightly less skeletal.) Agri+biotech section:  This was basically a 5 agri design I came up with via a bit of experimenting, with the biotech workshop being added on as the last thing to the station, taking advantage of some of the existing greenhouses and artificial-g labs. Electronics+energy section:  The four-workshops in a grid works well for almost any type you want four of, I've found. It's easily modifiable for each type and efficient in terms of support moduels and connectors used up. The energy workshops are completely sectioned off as their specific needs (3 solar cells in direct contact required basically dictates the whole layout for energy workshops) precluded adding them on to make double use of the electronics sections' modules. I decided on those tech levels because agri 5 is just too good to pass up, electronics 4 means no intelliwear shipping to the moon, and it overall unlocks the three best product substitutes there are if you are putting at least 4 levels in to agri. Biotech 2's using bioresin instead of synthcells for rejuvenators is great on its own, but the agri level 4 means that actual algae farms are almost redundant anyway by the point I am at (I have all of two of them running at ~500k population, with water distillation plants providing all else; the pics here are from earlier in that session) and the synthcell production itself is mostly workforce-heavy in terms of upkeep - and workforce is just abundant in the temperate zone by the time you hit the last regular population tier. The last point was basically an afterthought. Electronics 5 is a bit risky without going deep into energy, so it was a choice between +10% for biotech, energy or heavy industry and I decided on biotech because it has some really expensive endgame chains that I want at least some bonus for. I'm providing all the various goods demanded except for coral (because holy gently caress would that cost me a lot of coastal slots) and that's enough lightbulbs to activate every single tech I can reach with my workshops. Overall, the tech wheel is pretty well-designed in that there's a hell of a lot of good choices here and no truly perfect build that stands out above all else. The only exemption to that is the heavy industry branch being just kinda dissapointing and underperforming in general. It impacts relatively few buildings, most of which are relatively low-maintenance anyway and the specific bonuses affect construction material chains that you're not going to be building a lot of anyway. And the capstone is just totally meh, basically just saving you a little time and expense in setting up shipping routes. Edit: One small correction, Cythereal: Aluminium separation in the heavy industry branch causes molybdenum mines to produce aluminium on the side, not the other way around. Which basically means that later on you don't need aluminium mines anymore, saving you like 2 mine slots total because it's only used for construction materials anyway. 
Magni fucked around with this message at 17:34 on Jan 28, 2022 |
|
#
?
Jan 28, 2022 03:19
|
|
|
Magni posted:I decided on those tech levels because agri 5 is just too good to pass up, electronics 4 means no intelliwear shipping to the moon, and it overall unlocks the three best product substitutes there are if you are putting at least 4 levels in to agri. Biotech 2's using bioresin instead of synthcells for rejuvenators is great on its own, but the agri level 4 means that actual algae farms are almost redundant anyway by the point I am at (I have all of two of them running at ~500k population, with water distillation plants providing all else; the pics here are from earlier in that session) and the synthcell production itself is mostly workforce-heavy in terms of upkeep - and workforce is just abundant in the temperate zone by the time you hit the last regular population tier. The last point was basically an afterthought. Electronics 5 is a bit risky without going deep into energy, so it was a choice between +10% for biotech, energy or heavy industry and I decided on biotech because it has some really expensive endgame chains that I want at least some bonus for. Personally, I don't think agriculture 5 is worth it. I'd rather have +20% to another category's production than a further +15% efficiency to a subset of agriculture buildings (since it doesn't affect intermediary agriculture goods, only the finished products that are consumed), and the tier 4 agriculture techs are all underwhelming. But, as you noted, the tech tree is pretty well designed in general and there's very few trap choices that you can make. I don't intend to change anything about my layout, but if I do it will probably be something like dropping energy down to 2 and boosting electronics up to 4, effectively trading 10% energy production and 10% temperate workforce for 10% greater revenue in all sectors.
|
|
#
?
Jan 28, 2022 04:11
|
|
|
The next update has been recorded, and Esperanza is now the proud owner of four new sectors. We're actually near the end of the story campaign, but I might expand the LP's goals to completing every sector project except Madrigal Islands and possibly Greentide Archipelago. Funny how "Oh I have an idea, this will just take a minute of tinkering" turns into hour-long sessions of expanding, tweaking, and grabbing new territory...
|
|
#
?
Jan 29, 2022 17:25
|
|
|
Cythereal posted:Funny how "Oh I have an idea, this will just take a minute of tinkering" turns into hour-long sessions of expanding, tweaking, and grabbing new territory... That's just classic Anno.
|
|
#
?
Jan 29, 2022 17:37
|
|
|
Magni posted:That's just classic Anno. It's one reason I love this game. It's one of the few games that still regularly makes me go "Oh God how much time has passed?!" Alas, I only remembered to get screenshots of two of the four new sectors.   Virgil Drake invaded Madrigal Islands about two minutes after I acquired the sector. I guess the Orbital Watch really needed that bioresin. Edit: If the goon on discord who saw those two screenshots and thought I was making an anime sex joke reads this thread, please get professional help. Cythereal fucked around with this message at 20:44 on Jan 29, 2022 |
|
#
?
Jan 29, 2022 17:53
|
|
|
Apogee We start today with phase two of Wildwater Bay's sector project, which is to reach a population of 1,000 Steves in this sector. Wildwater Bay is turning into a notable secondary center of population and profits.  Second, a shipment of constructobots.  Some of the lights on the Lucky Lady have turned on and you can see bots working on the ship.    Third, maintain a power surplus of 2,000. Nothing a fully expanded tidal power station or two can't handle.  Fourth, a shipment of microchips. I'm already producing a surplus in Walbruk, so this is just a matter of setting up a trade route and waiting.  Fifth, hot-and-cold around the second warehouse site.  Sunset in Wildwater makes it easier to see the lights coming back on on the Lucky Lady. Am I the only one concerned that Esperanza is putting this much effort into carrying out a AsI directed will from some random criminal who's been dead for more than a century? You didn't grow up in a place that got started as a Drowning resettlement community, did you? No, ma'am. I'm from SubSapporo. Trenchcoat is something of a folk hero from the Drowning. Artificial semi-Intelligence or not, a lot of us in the Union are happy to see some kind of happy ending to Trenchcoat's story. If you say so, ma'am. 200 surplus logistics. I spam truck depots and delete them when this is done.  God, I love how good this game looks. Towing two ships to the site reveals and unlocks a second formerly underwater warehouse that generates iridium.  Random aside, I add a little park to a spare corner of Wildwater.  I've been working on achievements behind the scenes, and as part of this I do Prycomber Barricade on Advanced difficulty. While an orbital strike detonates a carrier and its escorts, the objective here shows one way Crisis Sectors get harder on higher difficulties: now there's not one convoy to rescue in Prycomber Barricade, but two. All Crisis Sectors follow this pattern: one objective on normal, two on advanced, three on expert. Also, starting on advanced the Orbital Watch will field carriers and destroyers as regular units, and Eradicators can turn up in any mission. All enemy ships in general get more HP and do more damage, and there are more of them, as you advance the difficulty. My full-sized fleet can handle this, and all the research upgrades make this a joke.  The practical upshot for the player is that higher difficulties are far more lucrative in terms of goodies, and much more fuel and powerups drop during the missions, intended as a balancing factor. Of course, this combined with the research upgrades makes this decidedly unbalanced.  Well, back to the main campaign. Research upgrades mean that I don't actually need deuterium for fusion power, but the campaign doesn't recognize that and insists I need to produce it anyway. So, more scientists.  Deuterium is produced from coastal slots in the arctic.  So what am I using deuterium for if not fusion power fuel? Well, Joel had a new need unlocked. And because of the Hardware Optimization tech, this needs microchips to be shipped in from Walbruk. Trust me, this is preferable to the alternative.  A cryogenics lab is the next step, combining methane and deuterium to make super coolant.  Then a hardware fabrication plant combines super coolant and, thanks to Hardware Optimization, microchips to make... quantum computers. Yup, quantum computers are just a regular consumer good in Anno 2205's world.  For completion's sake, this is the alternative to Hardware Optimization: a subzero cleanroom that combines diamonds and molybdenum to make qubit processors. We can't even produce diamonds yet! They're unlocked with the next tier of temperate citizens, and are very expensive to produce. In fact, we're rather skipping ahead of where the campaign expects us to be thanks to Hardware Optimization.  Also at this time I check on the tundra out of curiosity, realize it has my favorite tundra sector trait, and immediately buy it. Then I think better of it and put the tundra aside for now, we'll dig into that in the next update.  The next step to fusion is on the moon. This is not a tiberium harvester, but a regolith harvester that produces helium-3.  Our Hydrogen Enrichment tech means that this Fusion Preparation Plant combines he-3 with moon ice (rather than with deuterium) to produce fusion power cells to fuel the reactor.  Chihiro, Esperanza is reporting that the fusion reactor is online. Confirm? Confirmed. All output is within acceptable parameters. Excellent. We'd best keep this quiet for now, though. An operational plant is one thing. We still need to get it down to Earth before we can pronounce an end to the Inflection Point. Yes, ma'am. Patching you through to the executive wing now. Having finally built a fusion power plant, I immediately idle it, the fusion preparation plant, and the regolith harvester. Why? These are all very expensive buildings to run, even if Lei Sheng finance calculators significantly ease the sting. Moreover, as Sam implied, we still can't get it anywhere outside this sector. There's one final spaceport upgrade, and for that we need the final tier of temperate citizens.  About five minutes after buying the sector, the tundra is hit by our second calamity, Climate Warfare. This halts production in all mountain slots in the affected sector, and is cured by going into Qannitaq Conflict Zone on any difficulty and kicking Cobra Commander off the weather control network.  As it happens, Keith only had one need left: Transportation. Walbruk Basin now enjoys a fully developed mass transit system. These things are also huge, and the reason why I moved Walbruk's population development to the 'mainland' instead of the starting island.    Meet Vivienne, our Investor. She's demanding, but she pays to match, and we're already producing one of her needs in the arctic - the game doesn't expect you to have Hardware Optimization and so you'll get Vivienne before you can make quantum computers. I can already hear the screaming. No, these people don't use quantum computers for home use. The quantification of quantum computing services as a demographic need for certain strata reflects the demand for qcpu-powered infrastructure and corporate/laboratory mainframes. It's that or AI - which is highly illegal - if you want this kind of dataflow handled in a timely manner. And 'replicators' are an absurd nickname for an evolutionary - not revolutionary - advance of the old 3D printers, now suitable for large-scale industrial and commercial use. This is where we unlock diamond mines, now mined in the temperate zone on land. I'm not sure flooding the mines is really the best idea. Maybe it's to cool the drills?  Nano-cutting units combine diamonds and rare earth elements from the moon to make multi-spectrum prisms. If this sounds familiar, well... Cythereal posted:
 And a neutronium lab combines multi-spectrum prisms with microchips to make replicators. 'Neutronium lab'?! I swear to God, the next time I see a Usoyev marketing executive I am going to hit him or her in the face with an Ibarra-Foxcom multi-sensory manual data input module. Joel in the arctic also wants replicators, so I produce extra replicators and ship some up north.  Meanwhile, I've brought Wildwater Bay up to executives, and settled an island off the mainland purely to be a production center.  Oh and I bought Kinngait Protectorate in the arctic, Madrigal Islands in the temperate zone, and Novikov Crater on the moon (that last one not shown in this screenshot because I am dumb and didn't think to get a new screenshot until a long while after this).  Walbruk Basin  Wildwater Bay Next time, I could work on finishing the campaign. But what if I made things even easier and more broken instead?
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2022 16:31
|
|
The first new need for Douglas is provided for mainly by underwater resources. I dispatch the Nereid to Site Five, an undersea plateau north of Carcosa. The two relevant 'fertilities' here are manganese nodules and diamonds.
|
Oh yeah, metros and stadiums can be a pain. I personally found that a variation of the 10x10 method from 1800 works very well for building cities in 2205s temperate zone: Design your city in 19x19 size blocks. Each block can hold 9 housing complexes, 8 HCs plus 1 infodrome, 3 HC plus a security department or metro (and some small houses) or a stadium. There's even generally some leftover space to place ornaments and the like to break it up a bit. Plus it makes for a somewhat messier and busier-looking streetplan than just build 2 by x rows of housing complexes everywhere.
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2022 17:06
|
|
|
quote:I can already hear the screaming. No, these people don't use quantum computers for home use. The quantification of quantum computing services as a demographic need for certain strata reflects the demand for qcpu-powered infrastructure and corporate/laboratory mainframes. It's that or AI - which is highly illegal - if you want this kind of dataflow handled in a timely manner. And 'replicators' are an absurd nickname for an evolutionary - not revolutionary - advance of the old 3D printers, now suitable for large-scale industrial and commercial use. That's a mere few decades ago. In two centuries maybe qubit processors are the thing to finally run CryEngine at a decent FPS.
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2022 17:30
|
|
|
kw0134 posted:If you told me as a kid, watching Star Trek TOS reruns, we'd be wielding the ship's computer in a palm sized device that looks even sleeker than anything Kirk would have pulled out, I'd have called you crazy. If you further told me that we usually use it to watch cat videos and get into arguments with strangers all over the world, I'd shake my head at the waste. You'll still have to download 3rd party drivers to make it actually work right.
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2022 22:53
|
|
|
Alkydere posted:You'll still have to download 3rd party drivers to make it actually work right. And the reason why replicators can't just make lunar resources on Earth with no need for going to the moon and mining is that 23rd century DRM is a motherfucker and patent trolls are protected by international law.
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2022 23:16
|
|
|
Cythereal posted:And the reason why replicators can't just make lunar resources on Earth with no need for going to the moon and mining is that 23rd century DRM is a motherfucker and patent trolls are protected by
|
|
#
?
Jan 31, 2022 03:13
|
|
|
Magni posted:Oh yeah, metros and stadiums can be a pain. Screenshots are easier to parse then text descriptions, can we see?
|
|
#
?
Jan 31, 2022 15:44
|
|
|
There's an interesting thing with the Anno 2205 Intro cinematic that clearly shows North America more or less as we see it today - whilst Anno 2070 had those loading screens with half of Louisiana missing and Florida gone, remembering off the top of my head, which makes me wonder just what wondertech they've stuffed into the Arctic to make that happen, let alone anything else.
|
|
#
?
Jan 31, 2022 19:35
|
|
|
stryth posted:Screenshots are easier to parse then text descriptions, can we see? Turns out someone actually made a wiki post with examples. https://anno2205.fandom.com/wiki/Temperate_Layouts
|
|
#
?
Jan 31, 2022 23:31
|
|
|
The Quickening The Tundra is a DLC sector and the only new conventional region (Orbit is its own thing), and its main purpose is to let you break the game over your knee. You know, just like Orbit, actually.   Chihiro, what's this I'm seeing about Esperanza opening operations in the Vanha Plains? The Arctic Custodians are in trouble. They're trying to recover an old Eden Initiative seed vault, but it sounds like they've run into a problem. An extremely dangerous viral infection. We're not sure where it came from, but we're not equipped for a problem like this. Doctor Nylund has been authorized to request assistance from the Global Union, and Esperanza's conduct in Ikkuma has been acceptable. And their activities with Usoyev around the oil rigs? We are aware of Usoyev's malfeasance. They have not warranted immediate action, yet, and this seed vault takes precedence. I see. Keep us informed, Chihiro. Goons, welcome to what I think is the prettiest area in the entire game.  However, if all this looks familiar to you, the sad truth is that many buildings in the tundra are palette swaps of buildings from other sectors, and others are imported wholesale. This is a bog standard sunflower farm and biopolymer factory from the temperate zone, and these houses are almost the same as in the arctic, just with different ground textures.  Not-Karen's needs should mostly be familiar, too. But for vitamin drinks, there's a twist. You can import these from the temperate zone, but you can also produce them locally with a different production chain than the temperate zone. Phase one of the project is simply attracting a bunch of Not-Karens and supplying them with drinks.   Rather than simply farming fruit and turning that into vitamin drinks, we can use a desalinization plant and a moss farm - the big new field on the left - to make vitamin drinks. I think this is a very neat touch, though later on I may start importing drinks. Producing drinks locally is more expensive, and moss farms take up far more space. Plus, we'll later be using moss for something very special.  Phase two, upgrading the spaceport to support trade routes.  Phase three is where things start getting a little tricky. We need constructobots to build further buildings here, and can make them here... but we also don't have access to any mining slots yet. See that green/brown marsh? We can't build there. Not-Karen also demands canned fish, but you can't produce canned fish locally.   I'm expecting to see variations of this second screen a lot. The people here eat a lot of fish, and this is one of the reasons I always recommend new players not start the tundra until you have a well-developed arctic sector. I also start importing super alloys.  Not-Karen's third need is new, but we can't import drones. The reason why I imported super alloys is to build a pump to drain the marsh in an above screenshot. If going into an unspoiled tundra and working with ecologists to drain a marshland so you can expand industrial operations sounds more than a little hypocritical to you, well, Blue Byte ladies and gentlemen.   This game is really pretty y'all. It's also by far the darkest at night - to the point that it can be genuinely difficult to see where things are.  Once you've built the drainage pump you need to supply it with power and let it run for a while.   I feel unclean. Power in the tundra, unfortunately, means wind power at first. At least these are backed by Orbit research.  Here's another example of tundra adding a bit of a puzzle. With the marsh drained, we have access to one mining slot. Drone hives, however, require both cobalt and a new resource, tungsten. You can mine both in the tundra. But tungsten can only be mined in the tundra, and we have just the one mining slot.   So ship in cobalt from the temperate and mine tungsten here. And yes, the tungsten mine is just a recolored silicon mine.  Tungsten is then turned into nanochips in a recolored subzero cleanroom, and nanochips are combined with cobalt in a recolored neutronium lab to make smartdrones.  Rounding out Not-Karen's needs, community centers aren't even recolored from the arctic.  Enter Not-Joel. Stimulants, I immediately begin importing from the arctic. Like canned fish, people here go through this poo poo like water.  Boreal tailors are what make Not-Joel's parkas. They need flax, which we've seen before, and wool, which we haven't.  ...What, were you expecting sheep? Musk ox ranches may be a reskin of cattle ranches, but they're a high-effort reskin. Note that they require moss and water as inputs. Are you online in Vanha, Liaison? I am, Doctor. I can smell the musk oxen from here. What in the world... You get used to it. What about Doctor Nylund's discovery? Confirmed. Some kind of genetically abnormal moss. They're experimenting with it for industrial use now.   And now for the reason we're here: the Bioreactor. Or rather, the biocatalysts that are produced here from moss and bioresin. Biocatalysts are used to fuel very special modules, and I'll show you in Ikkuma.    Every production building in 2205 can build a single catalyst module. What this module does is consume catalysts - the amount depends on the building, with higher tier buildings and those turning out finished products rather than basic resources costing more - and double the maintenance costs of the building. In return, the module doubles the building's output. Anno vets, I'll give you a moment to stop pick your jaws off the floor. This is huge. The catalyst effect takes place after all other effects that boost the production of the building like production modules, sector traits, and Orbit research. It also only doubles the maintenance costs, not the power, workforce, or logistics.  And not resource inputs. So why am I not, then, spamming these everywhere I can? First, producing biocatalysts in the first place takes some doing. Bioreactors are not cheap to run, and more problematically consume huge amounts of workforce in a sector that's often starved for it (Robotic Workforce fans, you can commence smugging). They also take plenty of room and resources to make, moss farms are huge and water comes from limited slots also used to make vitamin drinks. These are, obviously, manageable problems. Second, it may only take three units of biocatalysts per tick to fuel a module attached to a coral farm, but it takes vastly more than that for higher-tier buildings, to the tune of taking multiple bioreactors fully expanded with production modules. Third, right now I actually just don't need them. At the moment, all I've unlocked is the ability to make catalyst modules for agriculture buildings, and agriculture buildings are mostly cheap and easy to run and produce more of. Making more fish and whatnot would be nice, but I'd rather save my production capacity for something more advanced. Luxury food is a good choice to use them on if you don't have Animal Rights Policy, but, well. In general, there are two big uses for these. First, if you're actually running out of mine and coastal slots, a catalyst module lets a mine or coastal slot do the work of two. Second, and what I have in mind, is using these on buildings that turn out high-end goods, like quantum computers (more urgent if you don't have Hardware Optimization) and replicators. These only double the maintenance of the attached building, not other buildings in the chain, so you double the output of a given chain without doubling the cost of the whole chain. Any good that involves an Earth-Moon trade route in its production should be strongly considered for one of these. These things are ludicrously powerful, but you do not want to just put them anywhere. Until next time.
|
|
#
?
Feb 3, 2022 00:43
|
|
|
Transport Route Inefficient. Cause: Missing Goods So, about that fusion power. You need to be producing excess fusion power cells to supply the final spaceport upgrade, which needs to be done in both any source and any destination sector.  He... he does realize that the fusion reactor is a terrestrial design, right? We've never seen any indications of fusion power in the Orbital Watch colonies. They seem reliant on solar power. Is he angry about the regolith harvesting? That Esperanza is, um, stealing dirt? Even if it is valuable dirt? All Global Union operations are staying well clear of the Orbital Watch colonies. By our estimates, we don't think the combined population of Tranquility, Aitken, Copernicus, and Chang'e is over ten thousand. Who knows with that guy. This beam indicates that the spaceport has been upgraded for energy transmission.  Shipping fusion cells down to Walbruk...  Starting the upgrade of your first terrestrial energy spaceport triggers the final story Crisis Sector, invading the Orbital Watch's main headquarters on Earth. I had intended to do this, but I was in the middle of a round of population ascension and didn't realize I was almost at a new corporation level.  Woman, first name Mysterious, hacks into the Orbital Watch servers to do... something. That is in fact the objective of the Crisis Sector, securing hard uplinks for Mysterious Woman to hack the Orbital Watch. Victory at this Crisis Sector does not impair the Orbital Watch in any way.  Esperanza reports they're ready for the test, ma'am. Tell Esperanza that they may commence when ready.  I'm, uh, not sure about the physics of beaming energy from the moon to Earth like this.     May Tian is going to poo poo a brick. Ma'am? You disagree? No, ma'am. What is Esperanza planning to do now? Turn the Big Five into the Big Six. The final step of the story campaign is at hand: finish developing the final tier of temperate citizens and collect 150,000 of them. This will take some effort, but I'm going to do it without an energy transfer route or tundra modules, just because I can.    I begin with some expansion in Iwamoto Crater. Vivienne may want Anti-G Compensators, but it's Jeremy who unlocks them and gets first dibs. Anti-G Workshops consume fusion power cells and rare earth elements, though the good news is that they're remarkably productive for the inputs they have. You'll never need as many of these as you might think.   I also make a stop in Ikkuma. We're going to need a lot more neuro implants and quantum computers before I hit 150k investors, which necessitates improving the infrastructure. This is the natural gas power plant.  This expansion also unlocks Joel's public need, secrecy. High-security laboratories like this take care of that.   Back on the moon, Jeremy finally has his final need taken care of, healthcare. Medical centers on the moon are utter bastards to make, for the record: 80 titanium plates and they cost 5k maintenance. Each. Androids, however, cannot be produced on the moon. It is time for Walbruk to grow enormously.  Have I mentioned this game is pretty?  Look, I'm going to spare you the 4 hours or so of building more houses, hearing "Transport route inefficient. Cause: missing goods", and building more whatever to increase the supply that was the majority of this update and skip right to the interesting part. Androids unlock at 50k investors, and require two inputs: synthcells, which you may recall from the rejuvenator chain way back when; and synaptic circuits, which are new.  Front and center between the wind turbine and the rice farm is an AI Composition Plant, which uses bioresin and silicon to make synaptic circuits.  And then the android factory.  I buy the final temperate sector at this time.  While expanding the main city zone, I decide to proceed with the final phase of the sector project. The Orbital Watch is now trying to bomb the dams.   There's three at each of the dams.   Step two is maintaining six security departments. At this time, I expand to the northern island of Walbruk to start putting down more houses and production. Like the starting island, I am going to keep this area a suburb that caps out at operators, saving executives (and their much larger needs buildings) for the main island.  Yoink.  Step three, blow up a few ships.  Step four, tow job.   This is what the vast majority of this update actually looked like. Slapping down more houses, ascending houses up to the limit, looking for what's shouting alarms at me, and building more of whatever goods were asked for (mainly vitamin drinks, rice, and neuro modules).  Step five, laugh.  Mine now.  Step six, another tow job.  Step seven, what I was doing anyway.  We now own every sector in the game! Savik Province was from the Frontiers DLC along with Madrigal Islands and Greentide Archipelago. It's an arctic sector, unlike those, and does not have a sector project, just a special gimmick.  Final step, a simple delivery.  Hmmm. All three of Lei Sheng's old dams up and running properly. With half the energy going straight to Esperanza. And Esperanza's new base of operations being in former Lei Sheng territory at the same time as Esperanza's fusion reactor and transmission technology coming online... They aren't going to hold a monopoly on lunar resources forever, ma'am. No, but even before Esperanza took up this challenge they were world leaders in aerospace technology. Two thirds of all the spacecraft in use around the world are Esperanza designs, either manufactured directly or on license, to say nothing of their military industry wing. I'm wondering if the Big Five might just stay five after all. Huh. They're piping a new sports program in to Ikkuma. The Esperanza Vigil? Esperanza used to be based in the Philippines before all this started. You're surprised they have a football club?The Stadium is Vivienne's public needs building, providing entertainment.  Drake tried to intervene. 104 ships to defeat the invasion is the largest I've seen yet. Esperanza's orbital laser got quite the workout.  It's also time to start on our first bridge - had we started in Cape Ambar or Viridian Coves, we would have seen one long before now. After the balance change, they just need biopolymers and constructobots, and a lengthy time queue.  They also cost a chunk of graphene to finish. Not a problem for us, but something to be aware of if you're new.  Completing the bridge happens around the time I finally hit 150k investors. Sam... pipes up once to say good job, and that is the end of the story campaign. No cutscene, nothing new to reflect that you're now one of the Big Six, just one new building becomes available.  I build the Corporate Headquarters on the island in the middle of the map that I otherwise haven't touched. This is, frankly, a waste: the HQ's big use is that it provides a considerable amount of all the public needs around it, and the building itself is modular and can be expanded as you see fit. A waste, perhaps, but I think it looks good. In the end, isn't that what this is all about? I am also not done with this LP! I think I'll keep going with at least some sector projects if there's interest.
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2022 22:33
|
|
|
I'd be up for a small effort post about the stock market, if you're not going to show that off.
|
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2022 05:59
|
|
|
Did we see all the sector traits? I think you haven't written up the tundra sector traits yet, it would be cool to see them.
|
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2022 09:15
|
|
|
Torrannor posted:Did we see all the sector traits? I think you haven't written up the tundra sector traits yet, it would be cool to see them. Haven't done the moon or tundra yet, no. Magni posted:I'd be up for a small effort post about the stock market, if you're not going to show that off. Sure, if anyone's played with that and knows about it, feel free!
|
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2022 14:56
|
|
|
Cythereal posted:Sure, if anyone's played with that and knows about it, feel free! Welp, here we go. The Stock Market The stock market becomes avaiable once your corporation hits level 10 - though it might be wise to delay your entry for a while at that point. Once you join the market, there's no going back. Doing so also unlocks the trading floor, a temperate sector building the same size as the security department, which generates additional advancement rights - allowing you to upgrade more of your population to higher tiers - depending on the amount of people living within its influence radius. Quite like the space institutes, but the maximum limit for how much people it needs is higher - high enough that you can't reach it without settling investors around the building. On the market, your corporation and the Big Five are present. Everyone starts with seven out of ten of their own stock, with the remainder being "unowned." (Which basically signifies it's controlled by small investors etc.) Joining also unlocks a new resource: Influence. Influence is capped to 99 points and gained over time at a speed determined by your population/corporation level. It can also be earned as reward from various random sidequests from this point on. The Big Five are all on the stock market and from this point on have their own influence and credit pools (the latter limited by their corporation level) as well as a pretty much constantly fluctuating profit/loss rate. Buying and selling Both by the player and by any of the Big Five can start an auction for a piece of stock at any time. Doing so costs influence and the starter needs to make the first minimum bid. The influence cost and starting bid can vary in this depending on who holds the stock and how profitable the firm is currently - wanting to buy a piece of their own stock off from a company costs more, as does buying from one that's currently experiencing rising profits. After that, it's a simple timed auction where everyone can enter bids. Making a bid at less than 10 seconds on the clock resets it to 10 seconds again. Once the auction is called, the money goes to the former owner of the stock (or vanishes if the owner himself made the highest bid) and the stock to its new owner. Notably, money from auctioned stock will always be paid out in full and can allow the receiver to exceede their normal credit limit. The player can also sell stock he owns, which turns it into unowned stock and rewards the player with a lump sum. If a corporation holds none of their own stock anymore, they fall out of the market. All other stock they might own becomes unowned and they can no longer participate in auctions. The player is given a pity mechanic here in that he cannot lose his last piece of stock in his own company. It's un-sellable and the Big Five will never start an auction for it. Influence - it's basically cheating Influence can be used for two more mechanics: Insider actions and manipulating auctions. Insiders in each of the Big Five can be hired using an escalating influence cost. Having at least one allows you to perform insider actions in that firm and passively allows you to see their current credit and influence pools. Having more increases the chance for insider actions to succeed. Insider actions allow you to manipulate the credit and influence pools as well as the profitability of the target in various ways. They do cost influence to start, however, and have a chance to fail. Failure results in one of your insiders getting fired and the target being more alert for a time, lowering the success chance of any further insider actions. (Usoyev and Lei-Sheng, being a bit shadier, are naturally more alert than the other three.) Manipulating auctions can be done during the auction and is limited to three actions: The first will siphon off 15% of the final bid into your own coffers. The second downrates the stock, making the AI less likely to make high bids. The third provokes an anti-trust investigation, effectively aborting the entire auction. That's nice, but what's the payout? So, owning stock has a number of effects. First of all, every piece you own gives you 10% of the firms current profit/loss rate. (So you do have a reason to use insider actions that help them if you own a lot of stock in them.) Which means that yes, entering the stock market immediately costs you 30% of your own current profit/loss rate. Additionally, there's effects for owning them. Owning your own stock increases your influence growth rate by 3% per piece of stock, with an additional 10% bonus for owning all ten pieces. Owning stock in one of the Big Five gives a 3% productivity bonus in all buildings of the business type they specialize in*, with also another 10% bonus if you wholly own the stock of one of them. So buying them all out ends up giving you +40% on everything. Note that this multiplier also applies to the extra productivity from production modules. The last piece of the puzzle is market domination. Each of the five business types (Energy, Biotech, Heavy Industry, Electronics, Agriculture) has a graph with how much of a stake on that market each of the Big Five has. Logically, each of them tends to be biggest in their special niche. The players' rating IIRC depends entirely on how many production buildings of the specific type he has. Owning stock in a company transfers part of their stake to the stock owner. If the player reaches 75% in a market, a 30 minute timer ticks down for them to gain dominance in that market. What does market dominance do? Well, remember the special "branded" maintenance modules you get from elections? Dominating a market type will just flat-out award you infinite branded maintenance modules for all buildings of that type. Additionaly, doing so the first time opens the option to start the game with dominance in that market already unlocked when creating a new company. Oh, and if you didn't start with market dominance via those starting options, you cna lose it agian if you sink below 75% stake in the market. In other words, just buy up Lei-Sheng and whoever's second behind them in energy tech if you want all your power plants to cost next to no money to run. Edit: One last thing: Once you unlock the stock market, unlocking new sectors requires you to own a specific amoutn of stock of the sector owner. Owning more than the requirement decreases the cost of unlocking it. Up to the point where, if you own all shares of the sector owner, unlocking it becomes free of charge. Summary It's basically a way to spend a lot of money to get more tier upgrades for your temperate citizens, extra productivity in everything, extra profits and unlimited branded modules in the long run. Magni fucked around with this message at 17:22 on Feb 6, 2022 |
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2022 16:54
|
|
|
Moon Traits Deep Moon Ice Deposits: Moon Ice Driller production +20% Useful if you're using Hydrogen Enrichment from Orbit's energy tree. Otherwise, skip - you only need ice for aeroponic farms and oxygen separators, and both consume very little. Abundant KREEP Deposits: KREEP Gatherer production +20% This is what I got for Iwamoto Crater, and it's probably the best moon trait. You need a lot of rare earth elements, and this gets you more bang for your buck. High Insolation: Solar Array production +30%, all production facilities workforce requirements +15% Not a good trade. Workforce tends to be an issue on the moon, and in most games you'll likely switch over purely to fusion power on the moon instead of solar power. Pure Ores: Ion Welders require 20% less titanium It helps your titanium mines go further, I guess? But if you're like me, you typically run titanium mines and ion welders only on an as-needed basis due to their maintenance costs. Not worth it in my book. Cultivated Ores: All mines +10% production You knew this would be here - but it also applies to regolith harvesters, which is interesting. Not bad at all, especially if you're using Hydrogen Enrichment to make ice more useful. Sheltered Crater: Energy shields -20% energy consumption These are the shield towers you use to create safe areas on the moon. This is helpful, though given that you'll typically try to minimize the number of shields you build it's not amazing. Exposed Crater: Regolith Harvester production +30%, Shield Generator energy consumption +15% How useful this is depends on how much you're actually using fusion power for your empire - as I've shown, at least on easy it's not actually all that necessary. If you are going deep on fusion power and energy transmission, though, this is a good deal. Magnetized Grounds: Fusion Reactor production +30%, Cybernetics Factory energy consumption +50% This is painful if it's your first moon sector. If it's not, this is a great trait. Park your fusion reactors here and make your bioenhancers elsewhere. Peak Libration: Anti-G Workshop production +30%, all production facilities +50% workforce requirement Sproing. The work force requirement on this one hurts, but +30% production on one of your top tier goods is nothing to sniff at. Worth considering if you have a way to compensate, probably via Orbit techs (hello, Robotic Workforce). Pyrite Veins: Titanium Mine production +30%, Core Ice Driller production -15% No. Moonquake Territory: KREEP Gatherer production +30%, Maintenance Station maintenance cost +50% Is +10% more KREEP over Abundant KREEP deposits worth an extra 1.5k maintenance for every station? I do not think so, but your mileage may vary - probably worth it for the Robotic Workforce fans who weren't planning on having anyone live in the sector anyway.
|
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2022 16:58
|
|
|
May as well round things out. Despite being a region consisting of exactly one sector, the tundra has a full roster of sector traits. Marshy Soil: Moss Plantation production +30%, logistics cost of all buildings +1 Yes, please. Moss is used for a ton of stuff in the tundra, and a trivial logistics increase is irrelevant. Unclean Waters: Vitamin Condenser energy consumption +15%, Moss Plantation energy consumption -30% It's a trade in your favor, I guess? Trade Winds: Windpark Energy production +20% Weaker than its temperate zone counterpart but I'll never say no to more energy. Cultivated Minerals: Mine production +10% Alright. We've seen tungsten, but the tundra also has a greater than normal call for cobalt, and this can be useful. Terra Preta: Agriculture buildings production +10% Okay, sure. Not amazing but it helps. High Humidity: Agriculture buildings Energy consumption -30%, Electronics buildings Maintenance cost +15% Just like its temperate zone version, this is an active detriment to your efforts. Sun Exposure: Sunflower Farm credit Maintenance -20% This was irrelevant in the temperate zone and it's irrelevant here. Why, you might save a hundred credits or so by the end! Deep Feldspar Deposits: Feldspar Quarry production +20% Meaningless. Deep Cobalt Deposits: Cobalt Mine production +20% Actually pretty good! Cobalt is used in the production of the industrial version of biocatalysts, which we'll see in the next update, so this is quite nice if you're planning to use them. Föhn: Boreal Tailor costs -50% inputs, Drilling Rig production -15% My personal favorite for the tundra, and what I got for the LP by default. Halving the amount of musk oxen you need is great, and the flax is helpful. We'll see drilling rigs in the next update, but I try to minimize the amount of them I build anyway so for me this is a very good trade. Volatile Gas Pockets: Drilling Rig production +30%, all mine site production -15% No, thank you.
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2022 23:43
|
|
|
What the hell is a Föhn? Well, I learned one thing today, It's a dry, warm wind that blows downslope of a mountain or ridgeline as a result of the terrain trapping the humidity carried by the incoming wind (if there is any) against itself and the now cloudless air being heated against the downward slope by the now unobscured sun.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2022 00:33
|
|
|
SIGSEGV posted:What the hell is a Föhn? Well, I learned one thing today, It's a dry, warm wind that blows downslope of a mountain or ridgeline as a result of the terrain trapping the humidity carried by the incoming wind (if there is any) against itself and the now cloudless air being heated against the downward slope by the now unobscured sun. I'm getting it a lot, and it tends to create noticeable warmer days than what's normal for the respective time of the year. It also tends to create some stunning visuals by clearing up the air.  That's Munich. The Alps in the background? Closest part of them is ~80 kilometres away. (Also, fun fact, it's also the german word for handheld hair dryers. One of the earliest producers of them in Germany gave the name to their first model, and it became so popular that the brand name became interchangeable with and eventually widely replaced the actual term, kinda like how Zippo became a synonym for any lighter in places.) Magni fucked around with this message at 06:14 on Feb 8, 2022 |
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2022 00:43
|
|
|
Another interesting detail about the tundra DLC: according to an interview, the developers based the visual design of the tundra primarily on the Canadian prairie and I think it shows beautifully. They then mixed in a bit of Iceland for the volcanic mountains folks may have seen in the background.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2022 01:08
|
|
|
That is, in fact, spectacular. Cythereal posted:Another interesting detail about the tundra DLC: according to an interview, the developers based the visual design of the tundra primarily on the Canadian prairie and I think it shows beautifully. They then mixed in a bit of Iceland for the volcanic mountains folks may have seen in the background. Bit of a shame that actual tundra is receding and that permafrost is more or less an aspirational term these days. I guess it's a reconstituted ecosystem in Anno-Universe though.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2022 04:32
|
|
|
Cleaning House The main city of Walbruk Basin is not likely to see further development. Something to be aware of is that the story requirement for 150k investors does not demand them all be in one sector. There's enough room for it in Walbruk, and more than enough in Viridian Coves and Wildwater Bay, but if you start in Cape Ambar, Madrigal Islands, or Greentide Archipelago, you'll probably need to spread out to multiple sectors. I've still got the whole northwest island untouched, though it's a small, narrow island not well suited to putting down large structures.    I've done my best to fill up the starting island as much as possible. Besides a bunch of Steves and Ericas still living here, whose population I've carefully curtailed to only as much as needs a single security department, the starting island churns out biopolymers, constructobots, rice, luxury food, water, replicators, synaptic circuits, and more. This island is my primary agricultural and industrial hub for the temperate zone.     This sprawling city dominates Walbruk's primary island. It may be dull to look at, but this is the money engine of Esperanza's empire. Around the edges are a growing number of industrial facilities, including a number of silicon mines and the only diamond mine to date.   Walbruk East is a steadily growing suburb with homes and production facilities I couldn't fit on the starting island.   Wildwater Bay remains capped out at the executive level for the time being, but it's a strong secondary base.    Ikkuma Glacier's largest island is largely full, but there's a fair amount of room yet to grow into. Ikkuma is my only developed arctic sector at present and hub of all arctic resources and production.    Iwamoto Crater is what I need it to be, though the awkward shape of the biggest crater means there's empty space in odd corners that I'm not excited about. I was actually expecting to need to expand into other craters by now, there's more room here than I thought.  We've lost contact with the Khar-Selim! Cythereal, you are terrible at those games, and if they do give Karen S'jet more characterization in the new game, they aren't making her a lesbian. Get over it.I'm sorry, but seeing that lighting immediately made me think Homeworld. This is actually another Calamity, the sector's getting hit by a solar flare that halves the efficiency of power transfer routes. All you have to do is come up with 50 molybdenum in the sector to build a magnetic field generator to shelter the energy transfer beam. Now for the final phase of Ikkuma's sector project. Does removing these safety valves sound like a bad idea to anyone else?  Then slamming 3k units of power into them?  Fun fact: energy transfer routes don't cost money to maintain, and you can set up energy transfer routes between any sectors! I'm currently supplying fusion power to the tundra, but rather than curtailing that and setting up a new energy route from Iwamoto to Ikkuma, I can just bounce power straight from Vanha to Ikkuma.   Oh no! An oil spill! Who could possibly have foreseen this?!  Why, we'd have to staff a maintenance and monitoring crew on the rigs at all times!  Pretty screenshots assuage my feelings of guilt. As much as I like Anno 2070 and 2205, their storytelling about environmentalism however well intentioned leaves something to be desired. Maybe it's time for a new game of SMAC as Deirdre...   ...Doctor? We're aware of the situation, Liaison. Do you wish to bring charges against Usoyev or Esperanza? They contained the situation before any significant harm could be done, and we have documented evidence of all of this. The next time the Custodians require concessions from Usoyev or Esperanza, we now have a lever to secure their compliance. Devious of you, Doctor. I've been Chief of Operations for twenty three years, Miss Beaumont. I know how the game is played. Back to the tundra, it's time to get our second catalyst. This one starts with a shipment of constructobots.  The Seed Vault we're after is built into the mountains on the north end of the zone. Doctor Nylund has her own command airship, painted green.  To actually start getting access to the Seed Vault, we're starting by repairing the vault's environmental controls. Surprisingly, after a century and a half this place isn't in the best shape. I've already met the workforce requirement and then some.   Eden Initiative, I love y'all, but why the gently caress did you build a seed vault into an active volcano?!?!   In a cute touch, the clicky for this quest spawns in the middle of the helipad at the inlet's terminus.  If you thought we were getting out of this without FOSSIL FUELS!, welp. Note that despite being in an area with an active volcano, geothermal power is never suggested.  To add insult to injury, the Drilling Rig is one of the few genuinely new models in the tundra. Oh and there's an achievement called Eden's End for building ten of the fuckers here.  Drilling Rigs produce natural gas, which you can use for a gas power plant. I delete this one immediately after building it.  Completing this latest crime against nature turns the lights on at the Seed Vault.  The practical benefit of this latest hypocritical bullshit is the Ionization Chamber, which consumes natural gas and cobalt to produce aerogel. What does aerogel do?  It fuels our newest type of tundra module, which works on heavy industry buildings. As such, it's very underwhelming. Not a single heavy industry building produces consumable goods, just base resources and construction materials. Oh well. Next time, an actually useful tundra module and more unfinished sector projects.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2022 01:46
|
|
|
I think you may underestimate just how many people you can stuff into a sector. While I may be using trading floors to some degree, I found it quite doable to get over a million investors into Wildwater Bay. Here's what that looks like:  Also, while ticking off the sector projects, I managed to fit a nice settlement into the smallest crater on Iwamoto:  Everything in there to sustain 70/30 officer/miner houses and produce some sizeable surpluses of bioenhancers, anti-g, intelliwear and fusion power cells. The only thing I have in the other craters are a set of solar cells and KREEP gatherers. Iwamoto has the moonquake trait and I'm mining all my rare earth elements here. Moonquake Territory is absolutely worth it btw. It's 1500 credits extra running cost per maintenance station, but in effect you get 1800 credits worth of rare earth production from each fully upgraded KREEP gatherer. That's absolutely worth it even before you start doing things with androids or drone modules to minimize sector population, considering they're probably the most widely-required rare material on the moon between all the bioenhancers you need to crank out for your executives, investors and everyone on the moon, on top of the extra required for the anti-g workshops and your replicator chains down on Earth. Magni fucked around with this message at 03:30 on Feb 9, 2022 |
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2022 02:41
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 5, 2024 07:11 |
|
|
I have finished recording the next update, which will finish the sector projects in Iwamoto Crater and Wildwater Bay, plus the next phase of the tundra. As such, to start this early, I'm opening an interest check to see what sector projects, if any in particular, folks would like to see completed next. The choices: Cape Ambar (Temperate): Ibarra-Foxcom has located a lost Ark from the 2070 era that they believe might advanced technology never publicly released. This salvage operation is going to take considerable resources, more than the electronics giant is willing to throw at this wild goose chase. A strategic partnership may be in order. Viridian Coves (Temperate): The Global Union is planning a monumental celebration of the Second Wave and humanity's triumphant return to space. The envisioned project is going to be no small undertaking, but who better to support the project than the megacorp that realized fusion power and brought it to Earth? Kinngait Protectorate (Arctic): This sector is home to a crucial hub of the Climate Stabilizer network. Unfortunately, with the Orbital Watch crisis demanding immediate resources, this section of the network has fallen into disrepair. The Custodians have authorized the involvement of a megacorp to restore this marvel of technology. Akia Floes (Arctic): The steady expansion of the polar ice caps back to their former glory has disrupted shipping routes all over the world, but Saayman International has its eyes on this strategic region as a major shipping hub for the future. As the owners of the sector, Esperanza only stands to benefit from this potential development. Novikov Crater (Moon): The Orbital Watch's control over the First Wave colonies is tenuous at best, and many would-be refugees have made it as far as this part of the moon looking to escape. Something will have to be done before the Orbital Watch retaliates in force against the defenseless refugees. Mare Relictum (Moon): On the rim of this crater stands the derelict remnant of an ambitious plan to turn the moon into a tourist attraction, abandoned when the Orbital Watch revolted. Minus the risks of being shot down by Orbital Watch surface-to-orbit weapons, intercepted by Orbital Watch patrols, or kidnapped by Orbital Watch infiltrators, surely nothing could go wrong with resurrecting this dream. More pretties from this evening's session.  
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2022 02:46
|
|