So I started a Yor game and like everyone else hit the population wall. I thought to myself "I'll focus on population techs then multiply like rabbits!" Well, not so much. As far as I can tell, the first two Spark of Life techs did absolutely nothing. No reduction in build time or increase in pop built. Also, one of the techs allowed me to construct a building described as allowing the construction of new sparks. But... I already had that option, so why build the improvement?
What am I missing? Do the higher Spark techs actually do anything?
What version are you playing? If it is the release build, those techs are all messed up.
Yep, playing release. Guess I'll hold off on playing synthetic then. Thanks!
These are fixed in 2.2 I believe.
It is. There are now no Sparks of Life techs. On the other hand, you have max population cap and max morale/approval from the get go. Filling in a 100 cap can still take a bit of work though.
I believe the Spark of Life Techs (gives you Fast Assembly, High Capacity Assembly, and Ultimate Assembly products to give more Population (robots) per manufacturing cost than the standard ManufacturingLife Project (renamed Assembly project) ) and PowerMatrix Buildings and upgrades were deleted in 2.13 patch. Now they did give Synthetics a 100 PopulationCap for each planet and +100 Morale (GoodsandServices) in the 2.14 patch. But Crusade has the ManufacturingLife project only giving you one population per 101 manufacturing cost. instead of 2 population as the Assembly project provided in 2.0. As far as I can tell Stardock has done nothing in the last two patches to address problems created by the Crusade changes to Synthetic technologies. I am sure the change to population cap was to address deleting PowerMatrix techs and buildings but it eliminated the maxmanufacturing, research, and gross income bonuses that building gave to Synthetics to address their lack of "natural growth" increases to manufacturing, research, and economy that "normal" races get from their ability to growth population every turn.
Synthetic buildings (aka factories and research buildings) are twice as strong as the organic variants. 5% vs 2.5% for basic on up (almost, top buildings are 20% vs 12.5%). Back this up with no need for approval/morale buildings, farms (even if it is global), or cities and you can fill a planet with nothing but factories/research, plus synthetics still get a centerpiece building for adjacency bonus builds. The only weakness I see with them is economics for credits though a well built factory planet can build out strip mine projects at a rate of one per turn for 25 credits.
Yeah, I don't think the changes for synthetics are "unbalanced", just very different approach that requires totally different strategy.
I would like to see an official response to this topic from Stardock but my analysis of the XML data files (and the various changes from 2.0 to 2.1 and subsequent patches) makes me wonder if your assumption about the differences between manufacturing and research buildings between Synthetic and "standard" race buildings being truly intentional. But I would be happy to find out that there was actual thought behind where we are now !!!!
While you don't need Power Matrix buildings for Population growth any more with the change to Synthetic Races getting a global change to PopulationCapYor to 100 and Morale (GoodsAndServices) to +100 in the Ability.XML file changed in the 2.14 Opt-in Patch, these buildings did provide for adjacently bonuses when used with the other Manufacturing, Research, and Economy buildings just like Ancients (Altarian) get with the Social Matrix buildings, Paranoid Races (Iconians) getting with Molecular Fabricators, Slavers (Drengin) getting with Slave Pits, and Thalians (whether you consider this a Knowledgeable or TimeTraveler Ability) getting with Hives (if they ever return - Draginol had mentioned they might in the "next" patch).
The Spark of Life Techs and Assembly projects allowed Synthetics to gain "growth" benefits that other races get with their Population Growth buildings. Especially since population now is the main effect to the Raw Production for a planet.
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