Wormholes

you can use a wormhloe once and you can't send a fleet but any thing that has a Survey module you can go thought it. and its randome one time i whent in to a worm hloe and it sent me bace two pcs.

More importantly, the random place it sends you is determined when you survey it, not when it is generated. If you go through the wormhole to see where it leads, then load a saved game and go through the same wormhole, it will send you to another random location.

I hate getting sent to opposite sides of the galaxy early game, it's a bummer and a waste of Survey Ship.

I personally decommission all my Survey ships, I wonder if anyone actually upgrades them, which is their intended purpouse in a way. To be upgraded into a slightly more powerful ship. Key word here is "slightly".

If anyone does actually upgrade those pieces of crap, please amuse me.

Eitherway I consider it idiotic to upgrade them.

After all the anomalies are gone I usually upgrade them to a constructor ship

Anomalies regenerate in TA, so keeping a survey fleet active is very worthwhile. The cash dumps can be vexing if you're trying to stay under but near to 20k treasury, but the regular ability boosts add up noticably over time, and, unlike resource mines, the computer civs can't take them away.

Re the flagship, I usually don't upgrade it until I'm several generations into medium hull warships and I have several dedicated surveryors in the field. By that point, the Flagship has encountered enough HP-boosting anomalies to be quite the little badass when I refit it for war. IIRC, I once had one start its life in the combat fleets with over 60 HP.

Why would 20k be a bad thing?  Sure, you take a hit to your economy, but only until you get back down to 20k.  If the hit makes you lose money, just blow the excess instantly on something.

Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa........

Anomalies regenerate? Holy crap, I never knew that.

How long do they take to do so? Do you keep more then one survey ship around and spread out to catch em where ever they pop up.

Since DA 1.7 or somewhat later, yes.  Not long-anywhere from 3 to 8 turns after they're all gone, in my experience, but they tend to regenerate before they're all gone, so you're not likely to get them all unless you have multiple survey ships out running around.

It is for this reason that I believe current DA and TA to be economically easier than DL-you may not make as much of a profit, but when you have more opportunities for "gifts" to your treasury, even though they're smaller, it certainly makes a difference.

I generally have four or five survey ships, including my flagship.  On some maps I've gone as high as ten.

If you've fallen prey to any of the efficiency/scoremonstering arguments, every BC counts, so any time you get that >20k penalty is vexing. In larger economies, the hit can be tremendous. I usually don't get to more than 20-30k per turn (outside of economic boom events), but there are players who typically run *much* larger economies. The larger your income per turn, the more you lose by spending down to 19,103 and getting a 1,000 BC anomaly from an autosurvey ship. I think the last time I got bitten like that it was for about 15-20k.

On Gigantic and Immense maps, I tend to have 3-5 surveyors plus my Flagship (until I convert it for war). I don't bother managing them after my basic mapping phase is complete, usually after the first 50-100 turns. From then on, they go auto and I don't even bother to see where they when they hit a wormhole.

When u have a surveyship set for 'auto-survey' and the anomalies run-out it gives you a message that says....blah, blah, blah, and your ship sits there. If you dont turn the auto survey off will it automatically go into action when new ones appear?

I alway wondered why you would put a survey module on a ship and waste space.......now I know

From the game version where the anomalies start to regenerate, your survey ships will go into "standby" mode when all anomalies are found, and will automatically start surveying again as soon as a new one spawns.

Given that anomalies regenerate, I upgrade the heck out of them - I just use construction vessels for the speed, and send them flying across the map sucking up 1%-5% bonuses every turn.

Maybe that's stupid, but it sure seems to help me by the end game - I've had more bonuses from the Survey corp than from mining bases.

Jonnan

Okay now that my amusement is over (thanks LeddZerggelin).............

I still play DA 1.0, so my anomalies don't regenerate.

I'm finally downloading TA (at 200+ kB/s, yeah my computer's that good), after all these months of getting my ears tortured off by the "up-to-date" forum techies.

I'm also getting concerned about how it's economy works. Because I've been hearing that if you exceed 20K BC treasury at any given moment, your economy gets hacked to shreds. Please elaborate on this.

Eitherway I am looking forward to playing TA!!!

Now that I know that anomalies regenerate in TA, I guess there is a point to upgrading your survey ships.

What do ya know. You learn something new everyday!!!

Till next time........

ROCK THE CASBAH!!!!!

(by: THE CLASH)

And when you do rock it.

Be sure to bring an.....

ELECTRIC CAMEL DRUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so gonna try this.



No problem, I'm a funny guy.

I also believe that your name is a play on "LEDD ZEPPLIN".

Is it not?

Cause if so.

Then you officially have style.

Or as much style as a Nuclear Penguin can when blowing up.

@Extant

The 20k treasury income penalty is present in all versions of the game, at least after DL 1.1 or so, if memory serves.  If you haven't noticed it yet, you're unlikely to notice it in TA.

That said, TA's economy is tougher than DA's (which in turn was tougher than DL's), largely due to the fact that more ships have maintenance, and most planetary improvements have increased maintenance.  I believe there was also a slight taxation income reduction as well, but I'm not positive.

That is exactly what it is....

My favorite band ever = Led Zeppelin

My favorite race in a video game ever = The Zerg

Hence, Led Zerggelin!

George Simpson. I was agreeing with your post until i read GW Swicord's answer. I just want to add something to what he said because it took me two reads to understand. When you get the 1000 bc anomoly it is between turns. So, if you werea at anything above 19,000 at the end of your turn, that boost will put you over the top for the whole turn, costing you tens of thousands of BC or more. you will not have the ability to spend it off until your next turn begins, which by the its too late. I know, I know, then just keep your treasury below 19,000bc.

I have like 3 surveyors on my large maps and they all stay on auto-survey.

A nice little fact: The AI races will not build additional survey ships and will not replace their flag ship if it is destroyed. So, late game, yours may be they onl;y ones in the galaxy.

The respawing of anomolies gave some credance to building the Galactic Guide Book, which allows all ships to survey. That is, the survey module will have a size and/or cost (?? not sure) of zero bc. You will still need to have ships designed with the module. Personally i still have never build that thing.

 

As for wormholes... on other bit of information. It is likely, especially on larger maps, that after going through one your ship will not have the life support it needs to be where it is and you will have to head back toward you own space. This makes your survey ship useless for a few turns, untill it gets close enough to your space.

I got StarCraft a few days ago.

Beat the Campaigns already.

Both original and Brood Wars.

I personnaly like the Protoss.

I'd love to actually master Zerg.

Eitherway, thanks for the heads-up on the 20K BC limit.

I've probablly never noticed it due to the fact that I've spent 20+K per turn, and already had a 50K per turn tax income by the time I get a steady 20K+  treasury.

No wonder eh?

My early surveyors usually have an effective speed of 5-6. On early Gigantic and Immense maps, a wormhole can dump a ship out several tens of turns away from refueling range.

The respawning anomolies brings into the use of the galactic achivement that removes a cost on the survey module as well as makes the UP vote to restrict survey vessels from entering someone else's space to get the anomoly.

The only thing wrong with the AI though is that they never make more survey ships.  You pop that one, or get mass wars as soon as militaries get started for someone else to pop it, and you'll have the galaxy of anomolies to yourself.

That same patch that it happened, the galactic achivement changed from 'all ships can survey' to 'removes the cost from the survey module'.

I tpyically don't ever have more than 1 survey ship moving about since I attempt to get all my opponent's survey ships dead ASAP.  At that point I jack the ship up on engines and removing any life support that isn't needed for the map.

Man, good thread. I never knew this about surveying.

I love this community.

So helpfull and insightful.

I'll be doing an AAR post soon, keep your eyes peeled.

Ok, I see why it would be an issue.  I wasn't really envisioning an economy so large that the graft penalty would negate the 1000 bc in one turn.  That said, if you're running so much of a surplus that you have over 10,000 bc lying around I think you need to start finding nefarious uses for it.  Go bribe a few wars into existance or something.