Alpha Centauri 2

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri & Alien Crossfire => The Theory of Everything => Topic started by: Rymdolov on November 07, 2012, 11:34:50 AM

Title: The Weather Paradigm - is it any good?
Post by: Rymdolov on November 07, 2012, 11:34:50 AM

What do you think of this Secret Project? Is it worth seriously going for? The Human Genome or the Virtual World would be my first choices for most factions, but if you don't have a good chance at getting either of those? What do you think?

Title: Re: The Weather Paradigm - is it any good?
Post by: Buster's Uncle on November 07, 2012, 01:57:18 PM

Love the WP and always go for it first.  When you're a builder and always go wild for expansion early in the game, those  doubletime terraforming  bonuses are hard to beat.

Title: Re: The Weather Paradigm - is it any good?
Post by: Yitzi on November 07, 2012, 03:13:29 PM

Early boreholes, faster terraforming for essentially the entire game...it's quite good.  Not one of the best, but nowhere near the bottom either.

Title: Re: The Weather Paradigm - is it any good?
Post by: Lord Avalon on November 07, 2012, 11:01:22 PM

Hell, yes!  I usually go for it second, after HGP.  I will add condensers to the aforementioned faster terraforming and boreholes.  Flat terrain (often) + farm + condensor + crawl food means you can put a worker on a borehole, e.g.  Also a condenser adds moisture to immediately surrounding terrain - useful in a very dry area.

Title: Re: The Weather Paradigm - is it any good?
Post by: Buster's Uncle on November 07, 2012, 11:05:40 PM

It's just a very, very useful SP.

Avalon, I didn't welcome you before.  I now do.  We're very glad to have you at AC2.

Title: Re: The Weather Paradigm - is it any good?
Post by: Petek on November 08, 2012, 12:28:44 AM

The WP creates turn advantage for the entire game. You get your improvements up-and-running quicker than the other guy.

Title: Re: Re: The Weather Paradigm - is it any good?
Post by: Flygon on November 08, 2012, 07:49:06 AM

It's an amazing wonder. Ties in perfectly with ICS!

Title: Re: The Weather Paradigm - is it any good?
Post by: JarlWolf on November 09, 2012, 03:13:58 AM

Not only that, for the more devious commander, the WP is not only a great economic tool that can speed up terraforming considerably and give access to great technology, it can severely sabotage your enemy too. 

How? Take your little former, and start lowering terrain until it's water. You can cut off enemy cities this way, and then you can just continually bombard them (if you don't want to/can't capture them) and other such things. It's very effective, and it can debilitate your enemy. There is also other ways to sabotage your enemy as well with that friendly little former.

Title: Re: The Weather Paradigm - is it any good?
Post by: Buster's Uncle on November 09, 2012, 03:47:38 AM

...And the advantage of faster road building as a military asset is hard to overstate.  The WP pays off big pretty quickly, and throughout the game...

Title: Re: The Weather Paradigm - is it any good?
Post by: Yitzi on November 09, 2012, 04:07:47 AM

Quote from: BUncle on November 09, 2012, 03:47:38 AM

...And the advantage of faster road building as a military asset is hard to overstate.  The WP pays off big pretty quickly, and throughout the game...

Roads, or (once you research AMA) bunkers.

Title: Re: The Weather Paradigm - is it any good?
Post by: Buster's Uncle on November 09, 2012, 04:11:17 AM

Bunkers are great; roads are very much better.

Title: Re: The Weather Paradigm - is it any good?
Post by: Yitzi on November 09, 2012, 04:35:26 AM

True, but the two together are better yet, since bunkers mean you don't have to make a hasty attack to avoid standing there and risking mega collateral damage.

Title: Re: The Weather Paradigm - is it any good?
Post by: Buster's Uncle on November 09, 2012, 04:53:22 AM

In general, I'd trade all the bunkers in the world for a decent internal road system, is all.

Title: Re: The Weather Paradigm - is it any good?
Post by: Yitzi on November 09, 2012, 05:07:01 AM

Yeah, internal roads are essential...but they're not as time-sensitive, so doing it fast isn't as valuable (though saving former time is always good).

Title: Re: The Weather Paradigm - is it any good?
Post by: Buster's Uncle on November 09, 2012, 05:26:37 AM

Time sensitive?  The road is there when you need it or it isn't.  You spend twice as much time building roads or half that time improving squares the bases work(also at twice the speed with WP).  The road gets the former there three times faster to build the bunker when you need it, IF the road is there when you need it.  Everything is time sensitive. 

Title: Re: The Weather Paradigm - is it any good?
Post by: Yitzi on November 09, 2012, 05:49:02 AM

Maybe I should clarify:
Everything is time sensitive due to wanting to get more production faster, and that includes terraforming, and that makes the WP very good.  But internal roads do not have additional time sensitivity due to having a small window of opportunity the way that terraforming in enemy territory does (you have to finish before they kill your former).