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A Hologram Theatre adds +50% to Psych, and quells 2 Drones.
A Hologram Theatre adds +50% to Psych, and quells 2 Drones.


To be brutally honest, if you didn't get the Virtual World, you're going to need deep pockets here. Unless you're playing on one of the easier levels, you will need to suppress your Drones somehow. You may think the VW is expensive for a secret project you can build very early, but those 300 Minerals = only 5 Hologram Theaters, and you don't have to pay the upkeep (although you wil have to build some Network Nodes, which you were planning on doing anyway, right?
If you didn't get the [[Civ:SMAC Secret Projects#Virtual World|Virtual World]], you're going to need deep pockets here. Unless you're playing on one of the easier levels, you will need to suppress your Drones somehow. You may think the Virtual World is expensive for a Secret Project you can build very early, but those 300 Minerals = only 5 Hologram Theatres, and you don't have to pay the upkeep (although you wil have to build some Network Nodes, which you were planning on doing anyway, right?


Hologram Theaters are expensive, and before you blindly build them, its always worth considering if there's another way of dealing with your Drones. First alternative are Recreation Commons - they cost less to build, they only cost 1 ec/turn but they don't give extra Psych. Second alternative is to use more Police, either more units, or a different SE setting. Third alternative is to increase Psych spending on the SE screen, and the fourth easy option for those early game Drones is to use specialists.
Hologram Theatres are expensive, and before you blindly build them, its always worth considering if there's another way of dealing with your Drones. First alternative are Recreation Commons - they cost less to build, they only cost 1 energy/turn but they don't give extra Psych. Second alternative is to use more Police, either more units, or a different Social Engineering setting. Third alternative is to increase Psych spending on the Social Engineering screen, and the fourth easy option for those early game Drones is to use specialists.


There's a fifth option, which is to play as Lal and pinch the Human Genome Project, in which case Drones will be a non-issue even on Transcend level. In this case Holo Theaters are a pure waste of time and money. No question.
There's a fifth option, which is to play as Lal and pinch the [[Civ:SMAC Secet Projects#Human Genome Project|Human Genome Project]], in which case Drones will be a non-issue even on Transcend level. In this case Hologram Theatres are a waste of time and money.


I'm really trying hard here, but I can't think of a single situation in which you wouldn't be better advised to crawl 2 extra nutrients and make someone a doctor than to spend 6 rows of minerals upfront ( roughly = 120 ec) and then another 3 ec/turn. There's only a short window in which Holo Theaters are worth it, but when [[#Tree Farm|Tree Farms]] (also +50% Psych) and Research Hospitals (+25% Psych and -1 Drone) come along then I'd build them instead. You'll end up having to shove some energy into Psych at some point in most games anyway, there's no need to be ashamed of it.
In most situations you might be better advised to crawl 2 extra nutrients and make someone a doctor than to spend 6 rows of minerals up front (roughly = 120 ec) and then another 3 energy/turn. There's only a short window in which Holo Theaters are worth it, but when [[#Tree Farm|Tree Farms]] (also +50% Psych) and Research Hospitals (+25% Psych and -1 Drone) come along then I'd build them instead. You'll end up having to shove some energy into Psych at some point in most games anyway, there's no need to be ashamed of it.


Anyway this is about facilities, not Drone control, and of all the facilities in this category, Hologram Theaters are the worst value. They do a good job, but not at those prices, and not in my early game build queues. There's plenty of reasons to get them free with the VW though.
Anyway this is about facilities, not Drone control, and of all the facilities in this category, Hologram Theatres are the worst value. They do a good job, but not at those prices, and not in my early game build queues. There's plenty of reasons to get them free with the Virtual World, though.


==Hybrid Forest==
==Hybrid Forest==

Revision as of 01:06, 9 June 2004


The cost of each facility is given in "rows". The number of minerals for a human player with 0 industry is 10, so an Aquafarm, with its 8-row cost, is usually 80 minerals.

Aerospace Complex

Aquafarm

  • Prerequisite: Progenitor Psych
  • Mineral rows: 8
  • Maintenance cost: 1
  • Alien Crossfire only

The Aquafarm increases the nutrient output of every kelp farm at that base by one.

This facility is most useful when a tightly packed sea-base spacing is used, and if you really need to maximize production from worked tiles it can help keep a small base eating well, even when mostly specialists. The main negatives are that despite coming early in the tech tree, you won't be able to reap the benefits until after Gene Splicing lifts the nutrient restrictions, and the large mineral cost, combined with a per-turn upkeep, mean that this facility may be a waste of precious minerals to build, and even more precious cash to maintain until at least after Tree Farms — by which point you probably will not be short of nutrients anyway. The case for building them in sea bases is even worse, as sea bases normally are so rich in nutrients, that any more is purely a waste.

Having said that, if building an Aquafarm allows you to increase the base size, then it may pay for itself in the long term, although if it allows one specialist (producing +2 of something) it will require 160 turns to cover its costs, or with 2 extra specialists 53 turns. If the Aquafarm allow you to use two extra second-tier specialists (that is, if you are working four tiles with kelp), the construction costs can be regained in only 18-25 turns, and then anything after that is profit.

This is bad practice in terms of turn advantage, though; sea bases are notoriously short of minerals, and an 8-row facility is going to block up your build queues for a few years. A single trawler on a kelp tile will offer just about the same benefits, for half the mineral cost and no upkeep.

Bioenhancement Center

Biology Lab

Brood Pit

  • Prerequisite: Centauri Genetics
  • Mineral rows: 8
  • Maintenance cost: 2
  • Alien Crossfire only

Centauri Preserve

Children's Creche

This facility provides +2 Growth and +1 Efficiency. Any units defending the base ignore negative Morale penalties and take +1 Morale instead. Units that already have +1 Morale or better do not benefit.

Everyone knows the importance of looking after the children. For a mere 50 minerals (Roughly = 100 ec) plus 1 ec/turn (Which the +1 Effic often gives back to you from reduced inefficiency losses) you have given yourself (with most factions) the ability to pop-boom. Even without the other bonuses, the +2 Growth is easily worth twice the current cost of the facility. Say, for example, that we build the Creche in one of our little size 4-5 bases in turn 30, expecting to end the game around turn 130 (conservative estimates indeed) so we have to pay the equivelent of 200ec all together over those 100 turns, which is about 2 ec/turn. Here comes the good news. Even without pop-booming, the extra +2 Growth will (assuming there's always enough food) make the base grow so much faster, that often in the long run the extra income from a getting a larger base x turns earlier than otherwise more than pays for the production and maintainance with the profit gained over a base growing without a Creche.

Assume the Creche makes the base grow to each size 1 turn faster. Assume also that each extra poppoint is worth a 2-2-2 tile (nothing special) which has an estimated ec-value of 6. Now with a 50/50 Labs/Economy split, that's 3 extra ecs each time the base grows one turn earlier (ignoring the other benefits). So, the first growth comes 1 turn earlier, the second comes 2 turns earlier... till the tenth comes 10 turns earlier. That's a total of (1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10) x 3 = 165 extra ecs gained in the growth of the base compared to one without a creche. Ok, then we have to pay for the creche, and that costs an estimated 200ecs over our 100 turns or so, so we only make a loss of 35 ecs. However... what if the base grows more than only one turn faster? Depending on the base set-up, its possible to rake huge profits here by growing 2 turns faster each time (130 ec/base = 1.3 per turn) or 3 turns faster to the next size (295 ec/base = 2.95 ec/turn)

And that's without figuring in the other advantages of more population, namely council votes and score.

Not to mention how much you can gain by going from size 5 to size 14 in only 9-10 turns, in which case you are Popbooming, and the maths becomes irrelevant. If you're going to pop-boom, time your construction so that all your bases are finishing the Creches about the same time, then flick over to Democratic/Planned and enjoy the glory of +6 Growth.


Command Center

This facility provides +2 Morale to land units produced. Land units end their turn here are automatically restored to full strength the next turn.

For a small cost you can make your units 25% better in combat. You can see how that might be useful in a prolonged war. There's a big "but..." implied here though, and that is whether or not the time and minerals needed to build Command Centers in every base are well spent.

Consider you intend to start an early war using Laser or Impact Rovers. The aim of an early war is to rush a nearby opponent before he or she can get their defenses ready. If you delay your war long enough to build Command Centers (say 4 turns in a size 3 base with Recycling Tanks working 3 forest tiles) your intended target has time to prepare. There's nothing more embarrassing than a failed rover rush.

So, what else could you do with 4 rows of minerals instead of building a Command Center?

You could build four 1-1-1 infantry units or two 1-1-2 rover units to upgrade into real attack troops. In this case, you'd better be playing a high-support faction. For a high-cash faction, it's much better to have smaller numbers of better troops.

Don't automatically build the Command Centers before building the troops. If you're planning on attacking Morgan or Zakharov, it's usually unnecessary to pump up your Morale. It's far better to attack these Builders early before they can get ahead in tech, and your 4-1-2 rovers find themselves attacking 1-3-1 ECM units behind Perimeter Defenses. If you want to take on Cha'Dawn or Deirdre, then that extra Morale may just save you while you fight the inevitable Mind Worms.

The catch: Command Centers will cost you 1 energy per turn each. If you're playing as Yang, with his -2 Economy, then this may be a bridge too far. Of course, Yang can run Wealth to counter his -1 energy per base, but this is not an option because it reverses the effect of the Command Centers. You gain 1 Energy, pay it to the Command Center, which gives you +2 Morale, which in turn is taken away by the Wealth. Sure, you get +1 Industry, but that will save 4 minerals from the cost of your rather expensive and pretty useless Command Centers.

But, and here's the rub, against the AI you can be pretty sure of snagging The Command Nexus, and getting one free in every base. Of course, this is only a good deal if you have 5 or more bases.

[1] The upkeep of your Command Centers starts at 1 and increases according to the best Reactor strength you have. For example, upon discovery of Fusion Power, Command Centers will cost 2 energy per turn to maintain.

Covert Ops Center

Energy Bank

The Energy Bank adds +50% Economy at the base.

As long as you're making good money anyway, it can't hurt to make a bit more. Energy Banks are always worth having, especially if you can get one in every base for free with The Planetary Energy Grid (Alien Crossfire only). However, there are two questions to ask yourself before building an Energy Bank: "Will it give me a profit?" and "What else could I be building?"

Firstly the profit question. An Energy Bank gives you +50% Economy, at a cost of 1ec/turn. So if you're producing 2 Economy (not total energy, just Economy) at that base, you will gain 1 energy/turn at a cost of 1 energy/turn — not such a great deal. With 4 Economy at that base you gain 2 energy/turn which means it will only take 160 turns to cover the value of the minerals involved in building the Energy Bank. Of course, the base will grow, and the returns will improve over time, so the sooner you build one, the quicker you'll make the money back. Energy Banks are like a stock exchange: you put some cash in now, and hope the company goes up, and stays up long enough for you to profit from it. So, as with all facilities that improve the base's mineral or Economy production, the sooner you build an Energy Bank, the more you will gain from it.

However, building too many facilities early on is going to kill your horizontal growth in favor of vertical growth. Which is better, 5 bases with Energy Banks now, or 15 bases with Energy Banks later? Instead of increasing the Economy of your bases by 50%, why not increase the number of your bases by 50%?

What else could we have built in the same time with those 8 rows? A Colony Pod, 2 Formers to develop the new base, and a 1-1(t)-1 unit to protect it? Recycling Tanks and a Crawler? Two Colony Pods and 1-1(t)-1 units to protect them? If every base did that instead of building an Energy Bank, you'd increase the number of bases by 200%.

So, we must decide between building early to get more cash for rush buying to speed a later but faster expansion, or building later, to expand faster in the first instance, but to get less efficient use from our Energy Banks. There really are a lot of factors to consider here, such as which faction, Social Engineering settings and map you are using, but with the exception of Morgan, it may be wiser to use those 8 rows in the early game to get more stuff on the map instead of more credits in your pockets. Morgan on the other hand has poor Support and high energy in the base square (easily gets 8+) so he can build Energy Banks as soon as he is running Free Market/Wealth and really rake in the cash. Morgan can easily get 16 energy at a size 3 base, which with the default 50/50 Economy/Labs split allows an Energy Bank to make a net profit of 3 energy/turn - only 53 turns at that rate to earn the value of the Bank back, and most probably less, and help to fuel a rush-buying frenzy that only Morgan can get away with.

Flechette Defense System

Fusion Lab

  • Prerequisite: Fusion Power
  • Mineral rows: 12
  • Maintenance cost: 3

Genejack Factory

Geosynchronous Survey Pod

Hab Complex

The Hab Complex increases the population limit of the base by seven.

What is there to say? Every base needs one to grow above size 7 except those of Lal (size 9) and Morgan (size 4). If you're at all interested in vertical growth, then you'll have to build some eventually. Having said that, Jamski has won a game on Transcend using the Gaians without building any, and won Diplomatic Victory in 2180. Lots of smaller bases with crawlers and specialists can perform very well in the early and middle game, and aggressive play in this period can ensure that your "swarm techniques" end up saving you the trouble of building the 8 rows and paying the 2 energy/turn needed for the Hab Complex.

The most important consideration when building Hab Complexes is timing. You don't want one sitting around in a size 5 base for turns and turns costing you money for no reason. In an ideal world you'd look to see how many turns until you grow to size 8, and time the Hab Complex to be either finished then, or at least in a position for you to rush it then.

Also, it's hardly worth the cost for bases that will only grow to size 8 and then stop. If you're really packing them close together and concentrating on boreholes and mines, this happens pretty often. You'll be paying 2 energy/turn for an extra worker, who as number 8 will be born a Drone, even on Citizen level. Consider it, and don't stick them everywhere, even in size 4 bases that were not growing because "I might get enough satellites up there eventually".

Habitation Dome

Headquarters

  • Mineral rows: 5
  • Maintenance cost: 0

Hologram Theatre

A Hologram Theatre adds +50% to Psych, and quells 2 Drones.

If you didn't get the Virtual World, you're going to need deep pockets here. Unless you're playing on one of the easier levels, you will need to suppress your Drones somehow. You may think the Virtual World is expensive for a Secret Project you can build very early, but those 300 Minerals = only 5 Hologram Theatres, and you don't have to pay the upkeep (although you wil have to build some Network Nodes, which you were planning on doing anyway, right?

Hologram Theatres are expensive, and before you blindly build them, its always worth considering if there's another way of dealing with your Drones. First alternative are Recreation Commons - they cost less to build, they only cost 1 energy/turn but they don't give extra Psych. Second alternative is to use more Police, either more units, or a different Social Engineering setting. Third alternative is to increase Psych spending on the Social Engineering screen, and the fourth easy option for those early game Drones is to use specialists.

There's a fifth option, which is to play as Lal and pinch the Human Genome Project, in which case Drones will be a non-issue even on Transcend level. In this case Hologram Theatres are a waste of time and money.

In most situations you might be better advised to crawl 2 extra nutrients and make someone a doctor than to spend 6 rows of minerals up front (roughly = 120 ec) and then another 3 energy/turn. There's only a short window in which Holo Theaters are worth it, but when Tree Farms (also +50% Psych) and Research Hospitals (+25% Psych and -1 Drone) come along then I'd build them instead. You'll end up having to shove some energy into Psych at some point in most games anyway, there's no need to be ashamed of it.

Anyway this is about facilities, not Drone control, and of all the facilities in this category, Hologram Theatres are the worst value. They do a good job, but not at those prices, and not in my early game build queues. There's plenty of reasons to get them free with the Virtual World, though.

Hybrid Forest

Nanohospital

Nanoreplicator

Naval Yard

This facility provides +2 Morale to naval units produced. Naval units that end their turn here are automatically restored to full strength the next turn.

Owch. Big owch. I'm not convinced of the economics of Command Centers, unless you can get them free with the Command Nexus, and Naval Yards not only have a more limited application (Everyone except the Pirates will build many less naval units than land and air units) but they also require twice the upkeep costs. Unless you get The Maritime Control Center and get them for free, or you feel you really must take on the Pirates before Doctrine: Airpower, you are simply foolish to build these. Actually, if you want to make a big enough navy to take on the Pirates at surface level, you're pretty foolish too. They get these Naval Yards for free, and can capture the ships you so expensively trained up. If the Pirates are not in the game, then who exactly did you want to use all these +2 Morale foils and cruisers against anyway? By the time there's enough sea bases in the game that its worth training your navy to attack them, its also late enough that you have noodles and choppers, which do a much better job.

Use those 8 rows to build a couple of Foil Probes if you really have to muck about in the water, and then spend the cash you saved on causing a few problems for some other fool.

Nessus Mining Station

Network Node

They're not cheap, and despite what the Datalinks say, they cost 1 energy/turn, not zero, which is a shame. If you play as the University, you get one in every base for free. They are also the prequisite for some of the later and greater tech boosting facilities, and they link up with two different Secret Projects (The Virtual World and The Network Backbone) to become even more useful.

If you're playing as the University you can skip this, but the other factions are almost forced to build them in order to try and match the Uni's tech speed. They get a basic +2 Research on the Social Engineering table, making their tech costs 20% lower, and the free Nodes make them reach that lower target 50% quicker. They get you coming and going, so the other factions are obliged to try to do something about it.

Like their sister facility, the Energy Bank, they need to be built at the right moment. They'll cost you 1 energy/turn so unless they'll give you at least 2 extra labs/turn you're not making a profit. That means bases that are producing a basic 4 labs/turn or more will start to feel the benefit, or even at 2 labs/turn its worth considering for factions with low Efficiency ratings if they have lots of cash, but slow tech. Build your Nodes too early, and you are throwing away expansion for little or no return. Build them too late, and someone else will out-tech you. Either build them in core bases just after getting Industrial Automation and getting the basic Crawler infrastructure out and building whatever early game Secret Projects you might want, or to try and get them built quickly before Industrial Automation so they don't stop you from filling your build queues with crawlers.

Network Nodes have some other nice effects. They prevent the bad random event from happening when you lose all accumalated labs, and instead give you a chance of getting the random event where "A Network Node reports a technological breakthrough" and you get the tech currently being researched.

Orbital Defense Pod

Orbital Power Transmitter

Paradise Garden

Perimeter Defense

  • Prerequisite: Doctrine: Loyalty
  • Mineral rows: 5
  • Maintenance cost: 0
  • Adds +100% to base defense.

The Hive get free Perimeter Defenses, which is a strong argument for playing them. In the early game they have immense value. Before Synthetic Fossil Fuels, the common early wars will be Impact (4) weapons against Synthmetal Armor (2) or Plasma (3) armour. Plasma armour behind a Perimeter Defense is not going to be pushed out by Impact Rovers so easily. In fact, with just the first Impact Rover destroyed attacking your Perimeters, the minerals/ecs lost by your opponent are already nearly equal to what the Perimeter cost you, not to mention the fact that you just saved your base. This tends to dissuade human opponents from even attacking. You're threatening them with losing before they even attack you.

Of course its not that simple, because the threat of one Impact Rover probably will cause the defender to build more than just one Perimeter Defense, since if the attacker sees one base is protected and another is not, which is he likely to go for? And if you have to build 5 or 6 Perimeters to scare off a couple of rovers, the attacker has won a material victory. He's made you spend 250-300 minerals and the build queues of half a dozen bases for his cost of 50-60 minerals and two build queues. So turn this on its head, and you have another use for Perimeter Defenses - making your opponents build them. The game is so balanced that the attacker will almost always have the advantage without Perimeters, and the defender the advantage with Perimeters.

If you have the minerals to spare, The Citizens' Defense Force is one of the more expensive Secret Projects. Most "put a facility in every base" SPs cost the same as (5 x facility), but the CDF at 350 minerals costs (7 x facility) It does have the advantage of putting a free Perimeter Defense in every base though, helping when expanding ino dangerous areas and may save you cash compared to the usual cat & mouse game between the attacker and the defender. Compared to the other SPs up for grabs at this level. I'd rather take the Empath Guild, PTS or Virtual World though.

Generally, Perimeter Defenses are nice things to have. They're cheap, cost no upkeep and can save your bases. The one warning I would give is that they should only be built in the bases that will need them, as they do still take up the 5 rows that could otherwise be used to build facilities or units that will then return nutrients, population, energy and minerals back to you and make you more powerful in the long run. Remember, the sooner you build these facilites and units, the better, while a Perimeter Defense is just as good if it was built the turn before the attack or 100 turns before.

Pressure Dome

Psi Gate

Punishment Sphere

Quantum Converter

Quantum Lab

Recreation Commons

Recycling Tanks

  • Prerequisite: Biogenetics
  • Mineral rows: 4
  • Maintenance cost: 0

The Recycling Tanks provides +1 nutrient, mineral, and energy per turn in the base square of the base it is built. The Pressure Dome can serve the same function as a Recycling Tanks but also protects the base in case it gets submerged in the sea...but it costs twice as much to build. Sea bases are automatically equipped with a Pressure Dome (so Svensgaard will rarely have to worry about Recycling Tanks).

The Tanks seem modest at first glance, but they are essential facilities; every base should have one as soon as it can get it. Some consider the Tanks so essential that they will rush-build it the very turn a base is built if they can, even if the base is undefended. It pays for its mineral cost in 40 turns, assuming no Industry bonuses or penalties, while providing free nutrients and minerals all the while, and everything after those 40 turns is profit. The extra resources can also be multiplied by facilities, so the small amount the Tanks contributes each turn will still be significant later in the game.

Imagine we have a size 1 base on land which is producing a total of 4-4-4. Adding a Recycling Tank to the base is a 25% increase for all the base's production and income. Not bad, for a facility that's so cheap, and requires no upkeep. Look at it another way — your first 4 bases with Recycling Tanks will be as productive as 5 bases without Recycling Tanks.

Of course, you don't want to tie up your build queues early in the game with expensive facilities when you should be scouting, Mind Worm hunting, Colony Pod rushing and former flooding. Therefore, the best way to build Recycling Tanks is probably to rush them using the free minerals1 on the very turn you found a new base. The cost is somewhere around (40-10) = 30 minerals, assuming the base can produce 4 minerals per turn, so that's only 26 minerals that you need to buy, which will cost about 52 energy to rush with normal Industry. The Recycling Tanks will only take 15 turns to pay off the rough equivalent of that cost, while increasing the growth, research rate, and speed of production immediately. More growth and more production mean the next base will be planted perhaps a turn sooner. That adds up in the long term to big savings and more turn advantage, and after only 15 or so turns, you're making pure tax-free profit from your rush building.

A nice side effect of Recycling Tanks is that a size 3 base with Recycling Tanks can work 3 forest tiles for 6 nutrients, ensuring no waste. Before restriction lifting, this is one of the more efficient base builds, especially if you can manage 3 forests on a river. Without the Tanks, the base would have to use a farm or crawl one nutrient, costing you either a mineral or an energy credit, or an extra turn for the next citizen and wasted nutrient production.

[1] Won't work so well with Democratic; otherwise, the ten free minerals are pretty nice.


Research Hospital

Robotic Assembly Plant

Skunkworks

Sky Hydroponics Lab

Stockpile Energy

  • Mineral rows: 0
  • Maintenance cost: 0

Subsea Trunkline

Subspace Generator

Tachyon Field

Temple of Planet

Thermocline Transducer

Tree Farm

Some of this content was originally written by Jamski on Apolyton and has been modified from its original version, which can be found here. Used with permission.

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