Optimal Land Use: Cities, and Crawlers, and Formers, oh my!

[Yitzi]

Early game, I do find some opportunities to use farm/solar for 3/1/3+, which is 7 FOPS, compared to 4 FOPS for Forest, or 5 FOPS for Forest with tree farm.  Only when I have built a Hybrid forest structure, which is quite expensive, do I get to 7 FOPS for Forest.

Keep in mind...Hybrid Forest is expensive, but you'd probably want it anyway for the economy and psych boost.

But at a similar tech level, I also learn soil enrichers and condensers.

No, enrichers aren't until AEE.  Maybe you meant boreholes and condensers.

So I can convert many rolling squares into 4/1/5, which is 10 FOPS, much more than a Hybrid forest, and I don't have to build an expensive structure first.

Even 3/1/5 (since you can't get enrichers yet) require you to raise the land to over 3000, and then build echelon mirrors, for something like a total of nearly 60 former-turns per square, as opposed to 4 for a forest.

Also, Boreholes can be built at a fairly early technology (only E4), and give 0/6/6, which is 12 FOPS.

Boreholes take a while to build, can't be built everywhere, and add ecodamage.

[Earthmichael]

Early game, I do find some opportunities to use farm/solar for 3/1/3+, which is 7 FOPS, compared to 4 FOPS for Forest, or 5 FOPS for Forest with tree farm.  Only when I have built a Hybrid forest structure, which is quite expensive, do I get to 7 FOPS for Forest.

Keep in mind...Hybrid Forest is expensive, but you'd probably want it anyway for the economy and psych boost.

But at a similar tech level, I also learn soil enrichers and condensers.

No, enrichers aren't until AEE.  Maybe you meant boreholes and condensers.

No, I meant what I said.  Hybrid forest is at B6.  Soil Enricher is at B7, only one level higher.  Plus you really want to hurry to AEE, to get the Superformer!

So I can convert many rolling squares into 4/1/5, which is 10 FOPS, much more than a Hybrid forest, and I don't have to build an expensive structure first.

Even 3/1/5 (since you can't get enrichers yet) require you to raise the land to over 3000, and then build echelon mirrors, for something like a total of nearly 60 former-turns per square, as opposed to 4 for a forest.

Plus all of the minerals to build a Tree Farm and Hybrid Forest.  How many clean formers could I build for that cost???

But your 60 former-turns per square is way off, and so is your assertion about Enrichers, since they are only one tech level higher than Hybrid forests.  However, I should have stated this as 4/1/4.  Because what I typically do is raise one square to over 3000 feet.  This automatically pulls the 8 surrounding squares to over 2000 feet.  I build a single Echelon mirror in the center square, and solar collectors in the surrounding squares.  Now each square, including the center, produces 4 energy (the center square is also 4 because it gains one for higher altitude, and loses 1 because the mirror does not add to the square that it is in.  If this is not just an energy farm, then add the food boosting improvements.  Far less than 60 former turns per square on average for the 9 affected squares.

Also, Boreholes can be built at a fairly early technology (only E4), and give 0/6/6, which is 12 FOPS.

Boreholes take a while to build, can't be built everywhere, and add ecodamage.

The point is, where they can be built, they are a very powerful enhancement, and require no structure to take advantage of them.  Forests can be built anywhere; they can't be built on a rocky square.  Boreholes can be built on rocky squares.  Their only restriction is slope, and by raising and/or lowering land, you can eliminate slopes that prevent boreholes from being built (just as you can terraform level to build a forest on a formerly rocky square).

[Yitzi]

No, I meant what I said.  Hybrid forest is at B6.  Soil Enricher is at B7, only one level higher.  Plus you really want to hurry to AEE, to get the Superformer!

And that's why I included this chart, because the "tier" doesn't express everything.  Hybrid forest requires 13 (15 in SMAX, because you also need Prog Psych and Adaptive Economics).  AEE requires 24 (25 in SMAX).  The reason is that Planetary Economics, while technically tier 6 (in SMAC; it's the only tech to decrease tier in SMAX), has one of its prerequisites as only tier 3.  Conversely, the secondary prerequisite of AEE is tier 5.  So they're not at all close; hybrid forests are actually closer to tree farms than to AEE.

Plus all of the minerals to build a Tree Farm and Hybrid Forest.  How many clean formers could I build for that cost???

It doesn't matter, as you'd want a tree farm and hybrid forest anyway because they're multiplying facilities.

Because what I typically do is raise one square to over 3000 feet.  This automatically pulls the 8 surrounding squares to over 2000 feet.  I build a single Echelon mirror in the center square, and solar collectors in the surrounding squares.  Now each square, including the center, produces 4 energy (the center square is also 4 because it gains one for higher altitude, and loses 1 because the mirror does not add to the square that it is in.  If this is not just an energy farm, then add the food boosting improvements.  Far less than 60 former turns per square on average for the 9 affected squares.

Ah...using the fact that raising one raises the surrounding ones without any extra former time.  Yes, that would change things a lot...maybe you'd better go over to the other thread and post an approximate formula, and we'll see what does and does not fit there.

The point is, where they can be built, they are a very powerful enhancement, and require no structure to take advantage of them.  Forests can be built anywhere; they can't be built on a rocky square.  Boreholes can be built on rocky squares.  Their only restriction is slope, and by raising and/or lowering land, you can eliminate slopes that prevent boreholes from being built (just as you can terraform level to build a forest on a formerly rocky square).

There's also the "can't have two boreholes next to each other" limitation...even so, early boreholes probably would be overpowered without ecodamage effects.