My own humble thoughts;

GENERALIZED RESEARCH:
Seems to me lots of people like TT, and not many like GR. Huh?

The advantages of GR, obvious. Get a few extra race points, and more importantly, get a 125% return on research allocations. The obvious disadvantage is that you can't accelerate towards any one certain tech as fast, but more troubling to me personally is that around BIO tech 12, research in Bio becomes pointless. Now 15% of that 125% return is being wasted in biotech. WASTED IN BIOTECH - unless you also have the TT LRT.

Seems to me the selection of GR along with TT not only mitigates the cost of TT (very slightly, granted) but more importantly, you can keep improving your BIO tech without actually putting anything into it, thus the extra research points are still serving a purpose. You're still getting use out of ALL the extra 25% gained thru this LRT, and it's helping something you don't really WANT to dedicate research to anyway. FIVE somethings you don't want to dedicate research to at any given moment, in fact. That offsets the "not researching something you want really fast" fast enough angle, because no matter how badly you want nubians, omegas, warp 10 capability, etc, you CAN'T ignore the other things long anyways. While you're doing your reluctant research in propulsion to get warp 10 for the new BB hull you're designing, you're still getting a free 15% into both construction and weapons for those omega nubes you want so badly. The other guy without GR, well, he doesn't get anything extra, and when he stops researching one thing, it's a REAL halt.

I don't always take GR, but I think it's a good LRT, and a natural partner for Total Terraforming. It's a tossup as to whether it's an advantage or a disadvantage, and the few extra points you get for taking it doesn't hurt.

NO RAM SCOOP ENGINES:
The warp 10 engine you get at tech 11 is nice for level 11, and not so nice at level 16, if memory serves me correctly. I remember it being a huge and expensive component, and when you're putting 4 on a BB it adds up pretty quick. Better to use the galaxy mizer scoop (if you have it, and with this LRT you don't). Still, not so bad an LRT. Lots of race points gained, and IFE eases the pain quite a bit. I always consider NRSE.

IFE, TT, ARM, IS: Who doesn't want them? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Of course, want in one hand, **** in the other and see which hand is full first. We all want more than we can have, and in the end we select one or two at the most so that we don't go into yr 2450 with only a collective 250,000 population to our species.

ULTIMATE RECYCLING:
Another one I like but don't always take. If you think you're going to go thru lots of various ship designs, it's a good thing. Makes the scrapping of ships a LOT less painful, and I disagree that you should NEVER scrap ships. Whose going to buy that hoard of old tech 6ish destroyers that are nothing but expensive fodder that slow your fleet down or gobble up the fuel? Scrap them with UR, and it's almost as good as having never built them in the first place, not only regaining 90% of the minerals, but most of the resources used as well (is it 75%?). Knowing that, it hurts less to build early fleets in the first place. I think UR is VERY nice, but like the IFE, TT, ARM, and IS, you simply can't have everything.

CE, LSP, BET:
Never never never, especially...well, especially all of them. I like my ships to go where I tell them WHEN I tell them at the fastest speed possible. LSP is like chopping off one of your legs before a footrace, and BET? Well, I can't wait for those certain critical techs so I can use them; the last thing I want to do is wait longer or pay more to incorporate them into my fleet.

ONLY BASIC REMOTE MINING:
I tend to design races with low habitat requirements so I can colonize as many of the planets as possible, so this one is practically standard fare for The Zoid. I'd rather colonize a planet, mine AND research on it, rather than diplomatic squabbling and cajoling with someone else over whether it's better served as a remote mining planet for me or a settlement for them. Nice points for this one, but then, I don't DO Alternate Reality.

NO ADVANCED SCANNERS:
Sometimes. Gotta say I feel more secure in the presence of an SS race when I've selected this one. But it's always a hard choice for me no matter what PRT I take, and if I have some reason to doubt anyone will play an SS, I probably won't take this one. But then, I only play PP as a diversion, and with PP it seems a somewhat painless way to get sorely needed extra points.

REGENERATING SHIELDS:
I like the sound of regenerating 140% shields, but the 50% armor efficiency scares me away. I took it once and found I NEVER wanted to pay the full cost and movement penalty for armor to gain half the benefit, so my ships went armorless. Not good. After that I never tried it again. Last, all too soon shield sappers mitigate or eliminate the limited advantage, leaving me with shieldless and armorless or poorly armored ships at best. But then, I only play IS as a diversion.

MINERAL ALCHEMY:
Enough said, I think. But if I remember right, as lame as it is it's not as lame as it used to be. Some of you faithful "Stars!" oldtimers correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't it used to be x2 normal alchemy back in the v2.6b days? Now it's x4, whoopee. Increase it to x10 and MAYBE we won't laugh at you for taking it. But then, I only play HE, SS, WM, CA, SD, IT and JOAT as a diversion.

[Updated on: Thu, 05 June 2003 21:23] by Moderator

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