do chemical weapons cause eco-damage?

[bvanevery]

Details serious flooding

serious flooding

Soon, at least 1 of my land bases is going to need a Pressure Dome.  I can't really afford to lose them as they have Secret Projects in them.  I've got some serious mindworm spam bearing down on my cities, with those damn fungal paths they've created straight to my door.  I think they could win by strangling me with fungal pops alone, if this never abates.  How am I supposed to produce defensive units and counterattack units and remove fungus quick enough to make progress?  Well maybe the game's idea is I don't / I won't.  We'll see.  I've got 7 mindworms inbound on 1 city and I can't do anything about it.  Fortunately it doesn't have a Secret Project in it.

[bvanevery]

Details chem 44 oblit 4

chem 44 oblit 4

On the positive side, I'm making lots of money killing mindworms.  On the negative side, they're attacking so hard I have no time to spend it.  Almost every city is producing military units now, and I've switched to Power.  I've also switched to Explore only focus as even if I got The Ascetic Virtues, right now I'd be unable to build it.  I can't even build the Hunter-Seeker Algorithm as it is.  Better to concentrate on getting Green, to the extent it helps.

1 land and 1 sea city are badly beaten up and poorly garrisoned, with a big onslaught coming for the land base in 2 turns.  None of my city improvements have been destroyed yet though.  I have a large Sea Former fleet, and for survival I'm putting them on top of fungal sea squares, or putting them inside cities as extra defenders.  Problem is I can't even see who's attacking me if they're coming through fungus.

[bvanevery]

Details that is a lot of water

that is a lot of water

You know, this isn't very logical, unless it's all due to some Butterfly Effect.  That poor Hive soldier who falls over and dies, coughing a lung full of mustard gas on a tiny plant, which shrivels causing an entire embankment to erode....

[bvanevery]

Details it is getting quite wet

it is getting quite wet

My 2 cities have survived, mainly due to Trance Scout Infantry units.  The sea base did lose its pressure dome due to drones rioting.  I'm not sure if that puts it at risk or not.  I seem to remember other games where that didn't cause problems.  If the pressure lets up I will rebuild it with all the mindworm money I've got.

Pea shooter units are not having that nice "destroy the Isles" effect that I remember getting out of fusion Chaos artillery in a different game.  I'm making a round of Trance 3-Res Impact Skimships to see if the bigger guns do a better job shelling Isles.  I'm also realizing that if the pea shooter Hoverboat units have no offensive advantage, then I've been cheating myself on defense.  I've got Command Centers everywhere, not Naval Yards yet, so I would have been better off building defensive land units.

Details oblit 5

oblit 5

[bvanevery]

Details hope others are dying

hope others are dying

Details chem 46

chem 46

That's the last of my X units.  I won't be building any more until I feel safe from the mindworms, and right now that's like, not.  Santiago has researched Doctrine:Air Power, so I will try to sneak Skimship Probe Teams all the way to her.  Long journey.

[bvanevery]

Details please destroy a bigger base

please destroy a bigger base

Details how much will they die

how much will they die

Details doomed

doomed

I can't hold the land base.  It has been receiving all the fungal pops of 2 coastal sea bases, because the mindworms popped on land.  It's time to sell.  I hope the other 3 bases do better, as all of them have Secret Projects in them.  I think if those get destroyed, I will quit.

[bvanevery]

I've had enough.  1 of my Secret Project bases only has 1 defender left, and a lot more mindworms than that coming for it next turn.  This turn I got hit by lots of air attacks, leaving 2 sea bases empty and with damage to city improvements.  I just don't have the productivity to keep up with this level of spam.  In a later era of the game, I could possibly survive all of this, but I'm not seeing it now.  I could have spent more money to get more troops done faster, that's the main thing I could have done differently.  This isn't basically fun or profitable though.  Santiago, for instance, has managed to become as powerful as myself.

I think the worst thing about this, is I usually couldn't tell how many units I'd be attacked by, or which cities would get attacked.  Not enough sensors to see anything.

[bvanevery]

I'm thinking these onslaughts are survivable in the Fusion Power era.  I've encountered them a fair number of times in various games I've played, although they were from industrial damage, not chemical attacks or nukes.  I was missing some basic tools and productivity in that last attempt - no Empath units, not enough productivity, not enough HP for units I built, artillery not big enough, no R-lasers, no Neural Amplifier, no Neural Grafting.  For instance, can't make a Trance 3-Res AAA unit.  No Green, can't capture any of those stacks of mindworms to use against them.  Can't make my own mindworms.

So I will try again, and not drop my reputation to Infamous until I've got the needed tools.  I think I will start a new thread about that, if there's anything to say.  If the verdict is "it still sucked" then I'll give up as too awful to do.

[bvanevery]

With the Pirates on an an Enormous map, it was taking me forever even to get to the Fusion Power era.  It's almost 4 AM as I write this.  I got bored and quit.  So that is partial suckage.  Yes I might be able to survive the onslaught if I can get to the appropriate era... why is that taking so long?  Maybe I didn't spread out enough at the beginning.  Also I kicked Lal's butt at the very beginning because we started right next to each other, despite the map size.  Later on, he had the temerity to have an empire with better research than I did!

I played that game with no supply pods.  I suppose that's a mistake if I don't want to waste lots of real world time and want to get on with the mindworm apocalypse.

[Vishniac]

I have always been convinced that reactor size doesn't matter in psi combat, I probably even watched it in the combat odds window.
If you resume this game, you can check once and for all  whether your fusion units have double power against worms or not.

[Buster's Uncle]

Fusion doubles hit points, but that all the advantage they have in psi combat - advanced weapons don't help.

[bvanevery]

I never got to Fusion Power that last game.  Something about my troops in the Fusion Power era has enabled me to survive better.  It could be that I've typically built the Neural Amplifier but I couldn't swear to it.  I think having more hit points helps but I'm not certain.  No question that I'm better prepared with more productivty and more troops.  Artillery is better against mindworms and Isles when using bigger guns.  Pretty sure R-Lasers are meant to kill mindworms, I'll need to look that up again.

[Buster's Uncle]

I'm sure more HP helps. -Not as much as you'd expect going in, but psi-magic zap and all...

[bvanevery]

Details artifact driven

artifact driven

I played on an Enormous map, this time with pods enabled, and consequently had a much easier time staying ahead of other factions.  However it still takes forever to get to Fusion Power.  I only got it fairly recently and it's MY 2317.  I've spent all day on this game pretty much.  It's midnight as I write this up, and I'm quitting.  Problem is, I've developed all this nice beautiful land, all sorts of hand tilled earth.  I do not want to flood it.  Also there's a serious problem playing on an Enormous map, my enemies are out of range.  I suppose I could put X Marines on ships if I got Neural Grafting, a remaining prereq for the onslaught that I still haven't obtained.  That's even more waiting.  This basically isn't a good decision path through the game.

Ugh what to do... you know, if someone devised a thoroughly useless portion of the map, like tiles that automatically kill you or something, I wouldn't beat myself up about avoiding that part of the game.  Yet here are these sloughs, of chemical weapons and nukes, that are basically not profitable portions of the game.  Why do I torture myself about this?  Lack of anything else to do in the game?

[Buster's Uncle]

Could be.  As an old hand, I do much -or have in the past- to explore the limits of what can and cannot be done...