Home » Stars! 2.6/7 » The Academy » -F races: The nature of the beast
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| Re: -F races: The nature of the beast |
Sat, 01 February 2003 10:56   |
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Off the top of my head:
PROS
Planets set up quickly, you don't need to build factories
Research done quickly, you're not building any factories
Minerals all your won, you're not sucking up Germanium
CONS
Maximum capacity is lower on planets
Maximum capacity is, in fact, a lot lower
This race is probably the closest thing to a small yet advanced race Stars! could offer, excepting of course, that it has tons of population. 
I find them pretty easy to play, as you don't need to worry about managing anything other than population, and distributing minerals once you're building ships. They don't always meet the 25K benchmark, but thats quite fine since no resources are used on factories(mines are dirt cheap, or at least that's how people set them up so)
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| Re: -F races: The nature of the beast |
Sat, 01 February 2003 12:51 |
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Pros....
Rapid growth = more invasion troops (esp. if playing IS)
Generally wider hab range = more planets.
Greater disposable resources = while other races strive to make factories you just breed - in other words you build ships not factories.
Cons...
As mentioned... lower production per planet (balanced out by more planets?)
Death comes quickly to those with little space - a small high producer can whoop a large -F if the -F has no-where left to go.
Harder to defend - less production + larger empire means better defenses required before a fight begins.
All the cons that anyone can ever list for a -F can be offset by playing an IT-F. These guys should never let the pop on any planet go above 25%. This way the resources for the whole empire will grow exponentially until they run out of room to put people.
But the fact remains... a -F will be strong until the end game, at which point they better have a strong foothold and alot of momentum.
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| Re: -F races: The nature of the beast |
Sat, 01 February 2003 16:19 |
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Ah - the -F CA.
Bar the tri-immune HE it's possibly the biggest and best no-brainer race.
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| Re: -F races: The nature of the beast |
Sat, 01 February 2003 21:29 |
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Well the stars! strategy guide typ thing includes Cawleys example, which was an IS race, that I believe was either -F or HG.
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 Re: -F races: The nature of the beast |
Tue, 04 February 2003 12:20 |
|
 Verker |
 | Master Chief Petty Officer
VML mod guy |
Messages: 99
Registered: January 2003
Location: Vienna, AUT | |
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Ok, I'll bite. I love playing them. 
Obviously, all the so called economic PRTs like CA, IS, IT, Joat are well suited for -f play. But there's others that may be interesting, too, like WM especially, or SD.
All of the eco PRTs gain there advantages from pop, at least to a certain extent. Sure, in case of Joat its more like sheer numbers of things, but their popgrowth will give them a large boost, esp with OBRM.
Two examples for -fs are by no means weak concerning mid game resources, if you play aggressively enough and make good LRT (speed) decisions:
Meet my "N'Pirates II", a testbed optimized race, (though mines are 10/3/14, and the hab, which seems bad at the first glance, changes to 1in5 only by shifting the bars a bit), doing Barry Kearns' famous "std BB test":
Explanation: Std BB testbed: small, packed, maxmins, accbbs, nre,
Std BB design: BB-TGD-organic-bears-3bsc-3jam20-OT-20arm missiles,
tech required: 10-24-12-13-11-7
the race:
IT
IFE TT ISB OBRM NAS
1in7 (grav 1.4/8, temp -200/-40, rad imm)
19% 1/1000
5/25/5/4g
10/3/14 mines
weap cheap, rest std
doesn't start at 3
5 left (conc)
Results:
<3k 2420
<9k 2430
22k 2440
33k 2450 started BB building
103 benchmark BBs buildt in 2455, race had 36k resources from 43 planets (while only greens were used).
Now beat that with any std HG, that is not too easy. Even if you do, you won't be ahead by a large margin, while the -f race will be able to build ships flat out, right from the start, if needed (and will gate them anywhere in a second being IT). Since tech is 3.5 cheap for these guys, with non-testbed tech distribution they should look nice in a big place.
Dunno if anybody wrote that already, but -f are hurt by slow tech. While it doesn't make them unplayable, it hurts them more than other races, esp when BBs don't rule things any more.
Whether or not -fs succeed in the late game is more a question of early aggression (to get more space) and diplomacy afterwards, not a Q of design in the 1st place. Keep the FM, get ISB and OBRM, popgrowth 19% with an average hab, 3.5 cheap and you will be fine.
My other example is kind of a "stupid" design, which I currently play in one of my pbems. Its designed to maximize fun, not resources (though I suspect it won't win anything):
SD
GR (yes!), NAS, RS
1in4 19%GR
1/1000, 10/9/10, 10/3/10
3 cheap 2 std 1 exp
8 left (mines)
It has some problems to get going mostly due to the FM lack and being non-OBRM, but will be a nice trader and swim in minerals if it makes it through midgame. It will only build factories with spare resources and Ger, but it has the ability to double resources in the endgame vs a std -f, if needed. The GR really helps with 4 cheap, as does RS in most cases of -fs.
The 10/9/10 will also allow to make better use of invaded planets, and a few breeders kept at 50% fitted with factories will serve as production centers (note: no ISB here).
I'm yet to see if such an approach will result in a decent midgame position, but I'll keep you informed.
Verker ||¬]
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Ummm, sure! 
I do FREESTYLE math.
And IS or IT have a big defensive advantage anyway.
