Genejack Factories...when to use them?

[Nightgaunt]

Genejack Factories are the facility I understand the least in this game. I know the general attributes (more minerals, more drones) but I really don't know how to use these things. Do you always build them, do you only build them under certain conditions, do you avoid them entirely with particular factions?

[t_ras]

I avoid them. I like workers, so drones are a problem.

[Yitzi]

If you're doing a serious mineral focus, and ecodamage is not a concern, they're probably worth it (with a tree farm, research hospital, fusion lab, energy bank, and hologram theater, the extra drone plus the maintenance comes out to only 2/2.25+2/2.5=1+31/45 energy cost, quite worth it.  If you're not producing a lot of minerals anyway, or the limiting factor is ecodamage, it's probably not worth it.

[Lord Avalon]

I tend not to build them, as I think I have "enough" minerals from boreholes and crawling mines and forests in and outside of base radii, and don't want the extra drones.  On the other hand I haven't played a lot of games with strong erosive forces (which I'm starting to add).  I'm thinking if there are fewer places for mines (for me that means rocky), then maybe I look into building genejack factories.  Maybe there are more opportunities to borehole, but I don't build those outside of base radii (except maybe the off chance that I am preparing a base site).

[Flygon]

I tend to build them, if I am confident I can handle the drones.

[Kirov]

I noticed that it's not the additional drone which is a problem, but the ecodamage issue. Well, at least under FM.

I don't build GJ factory in my best mineral bases, because they're already on the verge of serious ecodamage, and I don't build GJ in my energy bases, because what for, this additional drone will force you to replace one engineer with thinker.

As a result, only the average, support bases (for military etc.) get to build them.

But maybe I'm doing something wrong, I was never a fan of GJ.

[Kirov]

Also, GJ factory decreases the price of mind controlling your base, which is something you may want to take into account in your outpost bases.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

Genejack Factories are the facility I understand the least in this game. I know the general attributes (more minerals, more drones) but I really don't know how to use these things. Do you always build them, do you only build them under certain conditions, do you avoid them entirely with particular factions?

Pair them with Punishment Spheres. Otherwise, not worth the bother.

[Kirov]

Pair them with Punishment Spheres. Otherwise, not worth the bother.

Well, they are not that bad for drone management. At this level of the game one drone more is not that of a pain in your 14pop bases.

Come to think of it, GJ Factory simply comes to late for my taste. At this stage of the game you have always something better to build, like yet another chopper. Or yet another nuke.

[Yitzi]

Pair them with Punishment Spheres. Otherwise, not worth the bother.

Punishment spheres will do far more damage to your research than just cutting it by 10% and putting that 10% into psych (which will far more than compensate for the extra drone.)

Come to think of it, GJ Factory simply comes to late for my taste. At this stage of the game you have always something better to build, like yet another chopper. Or yet another nuke.

Of course, with mineral focus and without ecodamage being the limiting factor, spending on a GJ factory now means you can get 50% more choppers and nukes from that base in the future.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

Pair them with Punishment Spheres. Otherwise, not worth the bother.

Punishment spheres will do far more damage to your research than just cutting it by 10% and putting that 10% into psych (which will far more than compensate for the extra drone.)

Come to think of it, GJ Factory simply comes to late for my taste. At this stage of the game you have always something better to build, like yet another chopper. Or yet another nuke.

Of course, with mineral focus and without ecodamage being the limiting factor, spending on a GJ factory now means you can get 50% more choppers and nukes from that base in the future.

If you're building Punishment Sphere, you're probably pursuing a specific strategy, most likely Free Market with a massive Army... which is my favorite. The strategy was really a game changer for me once I discovered it.

But anything where you want to eliminate drone at the expense of nearly everything else.

Buy our cereal, or we'll kill you.

[Yitzi]

If you're building Punishment Sphere, you're probably pursuing a specific strategy, most likely Free Market with a massive Army... which is my favorite.

Of course, your research will suffer horribly, pretty much all it gives you is a lot of cash for your war machine (and that's assuming energy focus or mixed focus and high Economy slider, which is the only case where it's worth it).  Which is useful when the ecodamage mechanic makes a serious mineral focus unfeasible...but if it's possible to go full-on in minerals (even if you have to drop FM to do it), that will give you a substantially larger army with no need for punishment spheres.

But anything where you want to eliminate drone at the expense of nearly everything else.

Which means you're planning to win before the research lag hurts you too much.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

If you're building Punishment Sphere, you're probably pursuing a specific strategy, most likely Free Market with a massive Army... which is my favorite.

Of course, your research will suffer horribly, pretty much all it gives you is a lot of cash for your war machine (and that's assuming energy focus or mixed focus and high Economy slider, which is the only case where it's worth it).  Which is useful when the ecodamage mechanic makes a serious mineral focus unfeasible...but if it's possible to go full-on in minerals (even if you have to drop FM to do it), that will give you a substantially larger army with no need for punishment spheres.

But anything where you want to eliminate drone at the expense of nearly everything else.

Which means you're planning to win before the research lag hurts you too much.

One important thing to remember with Free Market, you can generally build all the Projects much faster than the other factions.

Punishment spheres only hurt the lab output for a single base only, too.

If you're going to war with free market, you'll have a nasty, technologically advanced army (you'll have plenty of cash to do field upgrades on units with high morale) and you can steal all the tech you need.

With relatively few drones.

As far as ecodamage, just build all the "eco" things they have when a base starts to show eco damage. For example the Centauri Preserves are a must build with FM.

Incidentally, you don't build a Punishment Sphere at every base in Free market. What you do is build it at a single base,  build units and then transfer them over to that base using "set home base".

So one single base facility allows you to field a massive, powerful offensive military with few repercussions.

THe genejack factory is even better for increasing support output for that base.

The only drawback is eco damage, which is manageable.

[Yitzi]

One important thing to remember with Free Market, you can generally build all the Projects much faster than the other factions.

That's true if your energy advantage over them is far more than their mineral advantage over you (or you use exploits like crawler upgrading to finish projects with cash at a close to 1:1 basis).  But without using stuff like crawler hurrying/upgrading, you need 4 energy per mineral, so if Green has substantially lighter ecodamage limitations on minerals than Free Market (and that's a big if) a mineral focus with Green will be much faster at building projects (though not at getting the requisite techs) than Free Market can be.

Punishment spheres only hurt the lab output for a single base only, too.

Of course that only works if you support your whole army from a single base, which of course creates a classic single point of vulnerability in your war machine.

and you can steal all the tech you need.

Speeders+sensors=dead probe teams (and that's not considering artillery and defensive probe teams) unless you already have the advantage at your attack point.

As far as ecodamage, just build all the "eco" things they have when a base starts to show eco damage. For example the Centauri Preserves are a must build with FM.

That still won't let you run 60 minerals in a base under FM; with a mod I'm working on, that will be possible with Green.  Though just for support it will work, unless the enemy identifies that base (not hard, I think enemy units show their home base) and spends what is needed to take it.

[Kirov]

If you're building Punishment Sphere, you're probably pursuing a specific strategy, most likely Free Market with a massive Army... which is my favorite. The strategy was really a game changer for me once I discovered it.

Same here, although what I also do pre-AMA is found a base and not let it grow and dump some crawlers there. Then the drone price of your entire army is precisely one doctor.

There is only so many units you can put in such a base, but fortunately you're running Wealth so your units are kinda expendable and you're actually fine with losing some of them every now and then.