Fusion Power

[Snowflake]

What do you do after you get fusion power?

[Mr. President]

I usually upgrade all the units that I can afford to. Also, I often refrain from building planet busters until after Fusion Power because the cost comes way down.

I think Fusion Power leads to Advanced Spaceflight (?), which is a major boon in my opinion. Plasma Shards and Living Refinery are some of my favorite things.

[Flubber]

THat depends . . .


The above is the answer to most questions but it really does depend.

1. I usually go for advanced spaceflight for the combination of shard weapons and orbitals-- THis option is even more attractive if I have the CBA or a lot of aerocomplexes

2. but I may go for the bioeng to biomachinery route for clean units and the cloning vats-- less crucial with a faction that is booming easily ie Deidre---I can find the cloning vats to be a key for boom impaired factions

3. Or perhaps I will head for Unified Field theory and try to get the TOE and the Supercollider in a super-base.-- Again it depends-- if I have a really good and well protected science base, I may go this route.



I have taken each of these routes in different games depending on what my opponents are doing. Plans 2 and 3 are less useful if someone else can beat you to the SPs involved . . . in fact the plans are really plans designed to get the SPs. I will generally go for plan1 if I am in a tough war since it gets you the 13 power weapons so quickly.

Through this answer, I assumed you had MMI-- if not, go for that next

[Flubber]

Ohh and on the non-science part of the game--

I upgrade units as soon as is possible starting with key defenders-- ( the 1-1-1 police scout deep in my interior NEVER gets upgraded)-- I ensure that my best bases get fusion labs rushed and then I look to see what my plan will be

[CEO Aaron]

When Morgan gets fusion:

1) Uses vast cash power to upgrade nearly every unit. Typically formers and crawlers will remain on fission power, howerver.

2) Immediately build Fusion Labs in every base of sufficient size to warrant it (Typically 12-16 core bases)

3) Shift beelines to Hybrid Forests and Economic Victory.

4) Commence military and planetbuster construction, in anticipation of conquering smaller bases and nuking bigger ones, to lower the Energy Market Cornering cost.

It is worth noting that with Morgan, Bio-Engineering and Retroviral Engineering will almost always preempt research on the Fusion tree, so I rely on having those techs before I have fusion. If, however, I've come by Fusion by other means than research, I'll make sure I have those two techs before proceeding to Planetary Economics (or whatever the Hybrid Forest Tech is called).

[The Mad Monk]

Why do you consider it important to hit those two before Hybrid Forest? Just preference, or is there some specific benefit I'm not seeing?

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Good Point Mad Monk. I would think you would want Hybrids early in order to GA pop boom.

[Jamski]

Make up for Morgan's support problems with Genejacks and clean reactors? Umm... Would be the route for a Morgan at war. Personally I love my Hybrid Forests too much. +1 nut, +1 ec +50% pysch. +50% econ... +1 clean mineral... they are lovely things to behold

-Jam

[Blake]

After fusion I usually focus on getting clean super formers and magtubes, while upgrading my formers and building fusion labs. Ofcourse I also upgrade my small standing military forces to fusion because it's very cheap.

If I'm not terraforming extensively (ie clean green forests) then I usually go Spaceflight/Adv.Spaceflight to get orbitals.

Btw planetbusters cost the same with any reactor, they just get a bigger bang (surely your not going to use it though ). But I do build my PB at fusion, because the time between getting fission PB and fusion PB is very short.

[Snowflake]

Originally posted by Crimson Sunrise
I usually upgrade all the units that I can afford to. Also, I often refrain from building planet busters until after Fusion Power because the cost comes way down.

I think Fusion Power leads to Advanced Spaceflight (?), which is a major boon in my opinion. Plasma Shards and Living Refinery are some of my favorite things.

Oops asked this question too late. I already built my bp. Why would units with fusion actually cost less?

[Snowflake]

Originally posted by Flubber
Ohh and on the non-science part of the game--

I upgrade units as soon as is possible starting with key defenders-- ( the 1-1-1 police scout deep in my interior NEVER gets upgraded)-- I ensure that my best bases get fusion labs rushed and then I look to see what my plan will be

So prototype good defenders and then upgrade the existing ones? What about attackers?

[Snowflake]

Originally posted by Jamski
Make up for Morgan's support problems with Genejacks and clean reactors? Umm... Would be the route for a Morgan at war. Personally I love my Hybrid Forests too much. +1 nut, +1 ec +50% pysch. +50% econ... +1 clean mineral... they are lovely things to behold

-Jam

Hive! People. Hive!

[Mr. President]

Originally posted by HongHu


Oops asked this question too late. I already built my bp. Why would units with fusion actually cost less?

I don't know the exact mechanics of it, but advanced reactors generally make complex units less expensive. One of the (few) things the manual will tell you.

[Barinthus]

I don't know the exact mechanics of it, but advanced reactors generally make complex units less expensive. One of the (few) things the manual will tell you.

Yeah - more cost-effective or whatever.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by HongHu


So prototype good defenders and then upgrade the existing ones? What about attackers?

yes-- Why delude yourself as to the effectiveness of your defense by leaving fission defenders in key places. Note that I don't upgrade all my defenders, just the ones in the more exposed bases. My base placement tries to create a more secure core and upgrading defenders in the inner core usually is delayed until orbital insetions are possible

Upgrading attackers-- yes I do that as well. Priority goes to any unit attacking a tough defensive point. Then I focus on my higher morale units first or units that have a better chance at surviving the counterattack after their attack.

Basically, I don't upgrade across the board-- you pick which units benefit most. Across the board upgrades seem more suited to adding police to your defenders or doing former upgrades.

[Flubber]

Back to the original question

I was suprised at the number of people that mentioned planetary economics as a tech to get-- I usually find that I pick up that tech pre-fusion.

I don't place much emphasis on techs like poly soft, optical computers and superconductor. Its usually crawlers then restrictions lifting then up to doc flex. It often then seems worthwhile to go for the PEG and on to hybrids before taking the longer route to fusion

BUT

as I said before it all depends on the game situation. My answers would change depending on my faction, what my opponents are researching and where I stand in the game. If a dangerous opponent is headed to fusion and I can't steal from them, I will head there out of military necessity. You simply can't afford to be without it for long if others have it. BUT since it is a long route through the less useful techs I named, often I find I will take the short sidetracks for certain benefits along the way before getting to fusion. IF any AI are in the game I usually try to let them research the prereqs for fusion so that I trade for them or steal them.

There are a LOT of good tech options in the mid game and I have never found one approach that I prefer EVERY time. Heck I even sometimes deviate from the choice to go to ind auto first ( sacriliege I know!!).
Even though there are certain options that are usually good, I guess I oppose the idea that SMAX can be reduced to a simple list of things to do. The game has too much variability for that