ARC (Advanced Race Customization) Discussion

This isn't specifically a thread for or against it, but I'm against it personally and no doubt my views will be reflected in my thoughts.  This isn't reporting it as a bug, either; it's just a place to talk about it.

And this only applies to DA+TA, so DL users will unfortunately be largely unable to participate in this discussion.  Actually, reading over what I've written, my thoughts are primarily on DA, but TA users are welcome to jump in as well, though some things are a bit different there, to say the least.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, you can edit the .customracexml file to change a number of values; most of which you can change in the game, but some that you can't.  For instance, you can change the home system, the way the alien civilizations speak to you (i.e. as though you were the Drengin), your starting ethical alignment (as a note, you can change ethical alignments of opponents ingame, but not your own), your super ability, and some other things.  I've probably missed one or two of the above, and if I have, someone will correct me, but those are the Metaverse legal changes (apart from cosmetic changes such as ship colors, short empire name, etc-which admittedly how alien civs talk to you can be seen as one as well, but I wanted to mention that one specifically just because I think it's cool).

Then we've got things that aren't Metaverse legal to change (i.e. will make an MV game be cheat flagged), but can still be altered: Inherent race abilities, customization point abilities (IIRC, you can spend more in the file than you can ingame, but it's been a while since I've tried and I could be wrong), starting techs, to name the most obvious ones.

So now that we've gotten that out of the way, maybe we can commence with the discussion.

-

I've found, in my last several games, that typically using the Korx home system (Oxor) will give me, by far, the best starting rush.  Having two class 8 worlds to build on, to build ships from, and actually capable of sustaining population is far more valuable, to me, than New Iconia or Thala could ever be.  If the two habitable planets wind up close enough to each other, you can actually manage to ferry enough pop over on the second or third turn so that you have a decent growth rate.  This effectively doubles your civ-wide population growth, as new colonies aren't going to be growing very fast, unless you're Super Breeder.

That said, pairing the above with Super Breeder is...ridiculous.  That's the only word for it.  It's just absolutely ridiculous.  Two planets each producing a minimum of 600m pop a turn (before any growth bonuses!) before the first month is up, when a colony module can only hold 250...you won't have to have taxes low for long; you're going to cap fast.

Combine this with the fact that taxes are a function of sqrt(population), which means you'll make about 41% more money by splitting your initial 8.1B pop into two planets, assuming you do it equally.  This doesn't take into account the maintenance of a colony, but you should make more than enough to cover it...unless of course you're doing the 100% approval thing first, in which case, you'll simply be losing less money than otherwise.  Even splitting it up so you have 2.5B on your secondary (enough to hit base growth of 75M, where it is capped), you make about 38% more money.  For reference, if you simply plunk 250 colonists down on your secondary class 3/4 world, you're making about 16% more than you would if you had just left them on your home planet (minus maintenance, of course). This is, then, basically a free 20% bonus to economics.

With those two out of the way, we come to the selection of the actual race.  For the colony rush, it would seem to be a no-brainer...the Yor do after all get that rather tempting miniaturization bonus (less in TA, but still there).  The Thalans aren't a bad choice, either, as they get a heftier industrial bonus than the Yor do, with a moderate miniaturization bonus, as well as an impressive inherent economics bonus (both of those two only in DA).  And, IIRC, these two races have the best starting techs in the game (actually Thalans might be third, I forget), as well-at least from an RP/cost perspective-and they're fairly useful in addition to that.  The Yor technically have a leg up due to already having Ion drive, though.

The kicker is that the Yor get 10 points to spend, whereas the Thalans only get 8.  Now, personally, I've gotten to the point where I always take Speed +2.  I haven't played DL in ages, but I remember engines from way back then, and I do whatever I can to bring that feeling back.  With the Thalans, that's all of my points.  That's okay, really.  But with the Yor, I can get my +10% morale (it's only one point-how can you NOT?), as well as my 25% luck (50% with universalists as well).

Admittedly, the Krynn with their +50 morale are strong contenders for this little contest (especially as Super Hive or Super Breeder is much more attractive than their admittedly subpar super ability), but I'm personally just not seeing it.  The miniaturization is worth more-with only basic miniaturization researched, the Yor can fit a colony module into a tiny hull (albeit without anything else).  With Speed +2 racial and Impulse Drive, that's a 4 speed 75 cost colony ship (in DA).

-

So, what's your favorite ARC'd setup?  Can you find something better than (or really, even close to) Yor/Super Breeder/Oxor (without bringing customization points into the mix here, since they're not being debated)?  If so, why do you feel it's better?

And, just to throw a different spin on it-if you were up against a Yor AI hailing from Oxor with Super Breeder, how would you play that game?  Feel free to steal the question and make it apply to any setups you come up with as well.