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[E. Albright]

I've always done my second base as an "all plantation" low-key moneymaking base, but one of the plantations gets replaced with a large prison as soon as I know how to (and sometimes later a second one, too). Not only does it let me store and/or "process" prisoners, I've shot down ratmen invaders with it more than once (I assume ratmen, because that base kept getting hit by them). Don't forget that all slaves are moneymakers (although even witches - which are the best ones - only bring in 60% of what a courtesan does), so if you find yourself needing to ransom prisoners instead of enslaving them you'll lose money on all of them if the game goes on long enough.

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Anyone have thoughts on J17? I'm tempted to skip this for now (which probably means skipping it entirely, given how slowly my desktop and laptop playthroughs have been crawling along) as it looks like it's managed to both add a huge amount of new stuff (as in, updating mid-playthrough seems questionable) and very, very little new stuff (as in, not a lot of flashy stuff).

[Rince Wind]

I always put a large prison in my 2nd base. Only a regular one in the main base, I need the space for other stuff.
Stasis prison (forgot the proper name) is better, but very ressource intensive.

[Iduno]

     Well, next question, how the hell do plantations work?

The base ones have a negative maintenance cost, so you're getting back 120k each month. The sectoweed ones require you to build a new plantation over the old one, which takes 18-ish days, then deconstruct it, then deconstruct it a second time a week or so later. It is my understanding that it only checks for the plantation at the end of the month, so if you plant the sectoweed on the first of the month, the final construction is done on the 28th, and you still qualify for the -120k "cost". They look like a bad deal if you compare them directly with plantations, but when you combine the money from selling a pile of sectoweed (minus the 12 to replant next month) to the 120k, it is a bit of extra money. I assume all of the special farms work that way.


Prisoner processing base should also be the one with the Mint. And 1-2 people just spinning the wheel forever (or until you get all of the decent stuff you want). What would the minimum be for that base? Entrance, at least one barracks (or the good barracks), a beast den, large prison, Mint, Large Spa, and probably one storage from before you got a pile of slaves.

Anyone have thoughts on J17? I'm tempted to skip this for now (which probably means skipping it entirely, given how slowly my desktop and laptop playthroughs have been crawling along) as it looks like it's managed to both add a huge amount of new stuff (as in, updating mid-playthrough seems questionable) and very, very little new stuff (as in, not a lot of flashy stuff).

It doesn't sound like it would require you to do anything different like reducing the number of brainers in the old earth lab did. I don't see any pressing need to get it, but I doubt it would hurt to do so.

[Aoi]

I don't do pimpcraft at all and run with two prisons until I can afford cryo; money isn't a problem for me since I pushed the casino/mint early on and now have two bases devoted to non-specialized crafting and counterfeiting... I have something like 400m in plastic chips.

I can't actually tell if my slaves are working though; my storage never seems to increase.

[E. Albright]

I can't actually tell if my slaves are working though; my storage never seems to increase.

Slaves have negative size (and upkeep, for that matter); they increase storage by reducing the bulk of stored items, not by increasing available space.

It doesn't sound like it would require you to do anything different like reducing the number of brainers in the old earth lab did.

It's the "voodoo trappings are now restricted to new Weird Gals which you have to explicitly transform existing gals into" that worries me.

[Soadreqm]

I can't specialize my bases. I want to, and I understand the basic idea behind it, but somehow they all just end up with multiple hangars taking all the space.

[Iduno]

I can't specialize my bases. I want to, and I understand the basic idea behind it, but somehow they all just end up with multiple hangars taking all the space.

Yeah, I understand that. I built a base for plantations, but needed defenders. The barracks gives more space than they need, so I got some runts. I'd need some healing anyway, so I went the extractor>still>mess route, and put in a sick bay. That meant 2 brainers, and then more got added when I finished researching surgeries. I also put in some prisons to handle overflow from my primary base, so my mint got built there. I barely have space for 4 plantations with 0 hangars at that base. To be fair, I don't really have interceptors other than hunter-killers yet, so I don't need more hangars. My third and fourth bases has room for 3 more hangars, but are otherwise filled out. I guess I have millions just sitting around, so I should pick up more shadowbats to stalk ships with until they land.

[Rince Wind]

I have one production base with a factory, 310 runts and 10 defenders, one hangar, the rest is dedicated to production, living and defence. I might sell the vaults at some point if I have enough slave, my 2nd base (the one with the large prison...) has negative storage at the moment. The one that was supposed to be my production base was razed by the church, so I redesigned another one (base 6)

2nd base is a production base as well, but not as focused. 100 runts. Also has the mentioned prison and a larger garrison because I used to have a convoi of mostly slave soldiers there. Some brainers here as well.

3rd base is an interceptor base and they house my underwater team. No production capabilities at all.

4th is my training base, and because those guys bring stuff back it also has around 60-70 runts who do something with it. Space for 13 brainers as well, but I fired them when I hit a bottleneck. Probably wont rehire them, main base and 2nd base is enough.


5th still has a few plantations for the times I need sectoweed, but they get upgraded with more interceptors at the moment.

7th is an interceptor base, and as I recently unlocked mansions (late in 2603 ... one might come to the conclusion that I don't like the mission) I decided to build up an infiltration squad here. They can try terminal terror as well then, the first one was a desaster.

8th ... well ... I haven't rebuilt so far, but if I do it'll either be a second factory to churn out more tanks or another interceptor base (it will be in antarctica).

Some hangars are used for ships I am reluctant to sell, like the Prospector that will serve as the infiltration teams ship (probably) and a convoy that I sometimes use to keep something on the map until a more convenient time.


Building my 1st Sabre at the moment and thinking about the Leviathan, but I barely get the Thunderhorse full, and the Leviathan is slow.

[Dostoevsky]

As to moving to J17, it was seamless enough for me but I didn't have any gals wearing voodoo trappings (aside from the novice robe). Only hiccup I had was losing knowledge of my smart magnum rounds (looks like the super magnum and its signature ammo were split into two separate topics).

There were enough bugs in J16 for it to be good to upgrade, but J17 has some issues of its own - mainly to do with moving to the latest OXCE version without fully integrating. The text showing armor restrictions for missions is borked, for one.

The new stabbing damage category doesn't feel significantly different, though it doesn't have to be. It does lead to a bit less head-scratching about cutting rapiers or the like, which Dioxine has said was the reason. I think a few of the melee weapons have gotten a tiny nerf by the change, though nothing major. At least one of my problem enemies (hovertanks!) is a place where stabbing is more useful, at least.

On plantations, I took the approach of stuffing a bunch of plantations everywhere early on (making bases that were a barracks, radar, vault, maybe a hangar, then plantations up the wazoo) then gradually cutting back the plantations for other buildings as I teched up and need increased. The pay off the initial investment pretty quickly, and the extra cash is quite useful early on. Plus having a good source of giant piles of sectoweed has some niche applications... the bomb fruit one seems less useful, since it's so easy to make blackpowder bombs.

[Rince Wind]

Yeah, I didn't plan my bases after the 2nd they all mostly graduated from a greenhouse with a radar.

[Iduno]

Is it just me or is the difficulty curve of Piratez real weird?

Early game, your technology is trash, and most of the research won't pay off for a year or more. But the enemies are worse than you are if you're careful.

Late game, you've got powerful enemies, but you're walking around with a small army in power armor and super weapons.

Mid-game you've got low-end star gods with waspites and cyclopses (maybe mercenaries, maybe a base or two that need to get taken out), almost enough gals who are trained to or near maximum, and weapons that sometimes can harm enemies very slightly. There is just a point where enemy armor and resists are too high for anything you might have. It just feels like a slog. Mid-game is also when you need to join the mutant alliance so you can get through that technology hurdle and be able to handle the mutant pogroms you suddenly *have* to do to keep your score from bottoming out. The bases sitting around and the disruptive transmissions aren't helping at this point.

[E. Albright]

I kinda think Dioxine has a very specific tech tree traversal in mind where difficulty scales smoothly, and none of us here are doing it.

[Darkening Kaos]

     Thanx for the info, guys, looks like I will be building that large prison and scrapping the plantations when I do.


     ... and staying with J16 until Dioxine stamps on a few more bugs.

[Rolan7]

Building the large prison *over* the plantations will save significant construction time!  And I think the same amount of money.  One reason I spam plantations is to "prepare" space for 2x2 buildings later.

[Darkening Kaos]

     

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