What in the world is "DEA"?????????

Demosthenes1234 · January 25, 2003, 01:50

Hi, does anyone know wot DEA means? Its like all throughout the official Moo3 Strategy guide. THere's like "military DEA", "Food DEA" "Government DEA" etc etc blady bla bla. I can't find anywhere in the book an explanation of what "DEA" is so can someone please enlighten me? Its sorta frustratinng when every few pages there is this whole clump of DEA's hanging around and Im like wtf is this?

fatjoe79 · January 25, 2003, 02:10

Dominant Economic Activity

It's essentially "zoning" a region of a planet to perform a certain function (bioharvesting, manufacturing, research, etc...)

13Matt13 · January 25, 2003, 02:27

Thats why you never buy strat guides w/o the manual (even though it sometimes acts as one). You need a framework to put some stuff in perspective and explain others.

kalbear · January 25, 2003, 03:35

Well, DEA is actually in the planetary development part of the guide...so I'm not sure what the problem is, exactly.

It's very much analogous to zoning in Sim City, save that you control what all you build there.

vmxa1 · January 25, 2003, 04:23

As I recall it only gave the definition once in the guide and that was quite late into it. But really, you already had a good idea what it was about.

Noone · January 25, 2003, 08:37

As already stated a DEA, is what kind of job most of the people in this DEA do, Ie a military DEA, will provide ship, a Farming DEA, farms etc.

Each sector can have 2 DEA,
most planets with have about 5-8 sectors *i think* therefore you can have lots of DEA.

What im wondering about is how effective each DEA will be. I mean if their are going to be >10 DEA on many planets, they probly wont do all that much individauly.

rzawrekta · January 25, 2003, 12:39

i dunno.. the impression i got was that each dea adds to the overall effectiveness of the planet - more mining and industrial deas = more production... more gov deas = .. uh.. i dunno.. something?

like planetary output levels are probably a combination of developed deas..
so each one, in that respect, probably does make a difference...

and when you have like 12 deas (largest planets i think) you can make a super industrial planet or a more balanced one.. so it probably makes a difference then..

i think..

gunnergoz · January 25, 2003, 13:35

From what I read, large (size 12) planets could have 24 or more DEA's, at two per region. What is not clear is whether a multiplicity of moons around a given planet can add a "bonus" number of DEA's...We'll find out soon enough (and I can't hardly wait

)

Craig P. · January 25, 2003, 16:02

From dev posts on IGMOO, I'd conclude that moons give bonuses, but not additional regions. Probably production bonuses of some kind.

Saber Cherry · January 25, 2003, 19:06

Quote:

Originally posted by kalbear much analogous to zoning in Sim City, save that you control what all you build there.

...which is why they should call them "zones", instead of making up YARA (Yet Another Retarded Acronym).

RolandtheMad · January 25, 2003, 19:43

Quote:

Originally posted by Saber Cherry
...which is why they should call them "zones", instead of making up YARA (Yet Another Retarded Acronym).

Never really thought of that but I agree. Hmmm..

campfreddie · January 27, 2003, 06:22

I've never understood the need for DEAs and FLUs (Forced Labour Unit) when zones and slaves are much more consise and intuitive.

It's not that important, but I'm sure that anyone who isn't a forum veteran like us will get the game and go 'DEA? FLU? WTF!'

Craig P. · January 27, 2003, 13:09

They call them FLUs because they include robots/androids. They're not just slaves.

gunnergoz · January 27, 2003, 14:17

Regarding DEA's being called "zones" instead, recall that they are located within sectors of a planet, and that the DEA's represent the activities within those sectors. If we substitute "zone" for DEA, I would find it more inexact and more confusing, since "sector" and "zone" are virtually synonymous (i.e. which is bigger, sector or zone?).

Now, if one wishes to quibble, perhaps "sector's" could be called "zones." Or even "regions."

But it makes sense that each planetary sub-division (whatever it is called) would have a couple of dominant economic activities within it.

Alexfrog · January 27, 2003, 18:31

wow, a dozen replies and no one has yet explained what
it stands for...

DEA = Dominant Economic Activity.

As stated before, they produce stuff like food, mining, research, etc. depending on what type they are. max #available depends on the size of the planet.

kalbear · January 27, 2003, 18:33

First reply stated this.

Alexfrog · January 27, 2003, 18:38

Doh! I see that....somehow i missed that one.
Sigh....

Well, then, um....I forgot it by the time I got through 12 more replies! yeah thats it!

gunnergoz · January 27, 2003, 23:31

We're all suffering pre-release jitters! Hang in there, Alexfrog!

Saber Cherry · January 28, 2003, 03:48

Quote:

Originally posted by gunnergoz
Regarding DEA's being called "zones" instead, recall that they are located within sectors of a planet, and that the DEA's represent the activities within those sectors. If we substitute "zone" for DEA, I would find it more inexact and more confusing

...not really. Theoretically, DEA means dominant economic activity. But in reality, a DEA is an area that serves a function, or produces a product.

Lets Guatamala has a dominant economic activity of growing bananas. And lets say Cuba has 2 dominant economic activities, of growing sugar cane and growing tobacco. Which has greater agricultural output?

In the MOO3 system, it would be Cuba, since Cuba has more DEAs - when in reality, that makes no sense, since agricultural output has to do with land area, not a number of activities. In fact, in the MOO3 system, you could have 10 DEAs of banana-growing, while in reality, that also makes no sense. It's like saying, "My main interests are reading, reading, reading, gardening, reading, reading, and blowing bubble". It makes you sound like a obsessive compulsive or a retard.

I'm just hoping they fixed the ship speeds before going gold... though I strongly doubt it, with all their other priorites that they like to flaunt. Not to sound like a pessimist

Incidentally, I agree that putting zones inside sectors is confusing. They should not subdivide sectors; I think that is the crux of the problem. It makes absolutely no sense.

darcy · January 28, 2003, 04:39

Sounds like one of these cases where developers substituted abstraction with confusion.

I happen to like simple economic models (e.g. 1 little man produces 1 little pick axe), and I sure hope these DEAs turn out more intuitive than they sound.

Why not call them "factories"? If they produce something, and the more you have the more they produce... that's what factories do. Or "production squares" like in Civ, that worked well too.

MariOne · January 28, 2003, 05:42

to add a new perspective, "dea" means "goddess" in italian

And I know I will not be able to avoid instinctively thinking Drug Enforcement Agency everytime I see the DEA acronym in an english context...
___
Saber Cherry, it makes sense again IF you assume that each DEA is the same unit of land dedicate to production.
Thus 2 farming DEAs means you have two "zones" of the same default token extension dedicated to farms, and together they are double wide and double productive than a single one.

Going with your example, it would not just be merely elencating your interests, but state how many hours you dedicate to each.
You'd have 5 reading DEAs, one Gardening and one bubble-blowing.
This means that you dedicate 5 times your raw resources (hours?) to reading than you do to each of the other two.

Just my thoughts, I know nothing about it after all....

gunnergoz · January 28, 2003, 14:05

Well, one thing is clear to me from this particular forum...few folks agree on anything. Posters here seem ready to take different sides on almost any argument, seemingly some just for the sake of argument itself. I've even seen posts where people claim not to care when the game comes out...a bit strange for these types to be hanging out in this forum, then but still they do, for reasons that are beyond me.

Not to mention that, other than beta testers, no one has seen the game yet, but still there are all these grand and "well-developed" opinions about all sorts of details that no one has actually played out yet.

I guess MOO people are a different breed of cat. As for me, I just want the freakin' game!

Craig P. · January 28, 2003, 19:47

Quote:

Originally posted by Saber Cherry
Lets Guatamala has a dominant economic activity of growing bananas. And lets say Cuba has 2 dominant economic activities, of growing sugar cane and growing tobacco. Which has greater agricultural output?

In the MOO3 system, it would be Cuba, since Cuba has more DEAs - when in reality, that makes no sense, since agricultural output has to do with land area, not a number of activities. In fact, in the MOO3 system, you could have 10 DEAs of banana-growing, while in reality, that also makes no sense. It's like saying, "My main interests are reading, reading, reading, gardening, reading, reading, and blowing bubble". It makes you sound like a obsessive compulsive or a retard.

Well, to extend the analogy, in real life it could also be Cuba with the greatest agricultural output, because they have devoted more land area (two DEAs instead of one) to agriculture. Especially if you consider crops that don't grow in the same conditions.

Similarly, in the U.S. we have a number of states where there's a lot of logging. Since it generally feeds industry, that would be similar to a mining DEA in MoO3 in each state (which is a smaller scale analog of regions in MoO3).

So your analogy to saying what your favorite interests are does not hold, IMO.

Saber Cherry · January 28, 2003, 19:55

Quote:

Originally posted by Craig P.

Well, to extend the analogy, in real life it could also be Cuba with the greatest agricultural output, because they have devoted more land area (two DEAs instead of one) to agriculture.

That's exactly what I'm claiming to be spurious logic. You are using DEA to mean, "An area that produces something". But the acronym stands for "Dominant Economic Activity". An activity is not an area; the two are not comparable.

Craig P. · January 28, 2003, 20:07

That's true, but the way the game is set up, both are bound together. The DEA is the activity, but it takes place within a region. If you have a problem with multiple DEAs within a region, abstract it as each is only able to make use of about half the land in the region.

patrickjb53 · February 2, 2003, 21:24

Dominant Economic Activities (DEAs)

Each Region can house up to two Dominant Economic Activities (DEAs). There are seven DEA types: bioharvesting, mining, manufacturing, research, government/social, military, and recreation/cultural. When built, a DEA "zones" half a region for that type of economic activity and allows those types of improvements to be constructed within that DEA.

Important: the total number of DEAs on a planet cannot exceed the number of population points there (the DEAs and population Points don’t have to be in the same region, just somewhere on that planet).

gunnergoz · February 3, 2003, 13:19

Quote:

Originally posted by patrickjb53
Dominant Economic Activities (DEAs)

Each Region can house up to two Dominant Economic Activities (DEAs). There are seven DEA types: bioharvesting, mining, manufacturing, research, government/social, military, and recreation/cultural. When built, a DEA "zones" half a region for that type of economic activity and allows those types of improvements to be constructed within that DEA.

Important: the total number of DEAs on a planet cannot exceed the number of population points there (the DEAs and population Points don’t have to be in the same region, just somewhere on that planet).

Funny, after reading that, I feel like I just had an inaccessible, maddening itch scratched into submission...Thanks!

Grumbold · February 4, 2003, 07:17

Perhaps some people would prefer to think of it as a Regional Economic Activity? Others would no doubt denounce this as the road to hell.

gunnergoz · February 4, 2003, 15:12

Quote:

Originally posted by Grumbold
Perhaps some people would prefer to think of it as a Regional Economic Activity? Others would no doubt denounce this as the road to hell.

"Road to hell?"

Blasphemer!

More like the path to Saddam's bedroom!

Don't you know that all MOO3 is to be revered and beatified?

Heathen...may an unclean antaran xsglndril back into your linen closet!

Grumbold · February 5, 2003, 07:49

Perhaps my subtle pun passed you by?