by flying_neko
modsr wrote:
let's say the power sources (6 and 9) and engines (2 and 3 move) are available as techs (I'm finding they often are as many players don't go for them). Which power source/engine techs would, in your opinion, be best bang-for-buck, when looking at the ship as a whole (ie including all the stuff besides power/engine)?
There isn't a hard-and-fast answer, but I suggest that you look at engines from a Eurogamer's perspective: how much do you expect to move your ships?
Fusion Drive:
:thumbsup: it saves you 50% on all future moves,
:thumbsup: it saves you science on future purchases (but that goes also for any other Tech you'd buy, so let's discount this),
:thumbsup: it may grant you an extra VPs if you are turtling (however, if you are turtling, chances are you won't be moving your ships much, so you probably won't need better drives, so let's discount this also),
:thumbsup: it increases your initiative by 1,
:p it can scare your opponents a bit (they may have to play sub-optimal moves to protect themselves from your ships, for example, they might sacrifice an Interceptor to pin one of your Dreads, which can be good or bad)
:thumbsdown: However it also costs 1 energy, which you could use to increase your damage per round by perhaps 25%-50% by mounting better weapons or computers... which might cause you to lose that same initiative point you gained thanks to your drives.
So say your marginal action costs you 3 Money. You are investing 6 Money (2 actions, Research and Upgrade) + 3 Science to save 3 Money each time you have to move at least 4 hexes (we're assuming typical alien race here, for humans it'd be at least 6 hexes). Assuming you have as much Money as you do Science, you break even if you move at least 12 hexes (18 for humans), but you are left with ships that are not as powerful as they could otherwise be. This means that Fusion Drive makes sense only if you are planning to move more than 12 hexes in the future.
Let's repeat the computation with Tachyon Drives. They'll cost you 6-8 Money (2 actions) + 6-12 Science, but they save you 67% on all future moves actions. If you need to move that much you are probably playing an aggressive strategy, for which the Grid Technologies the Tachyon Drive belongs to are well suited. Only, chances are, if you are able to get Tachyon Drives for a big discount it's probably during a late turn, which means you won't be able to move much in the future. Let's say you can get it for 15 Money+Science total. That's 4 or 5 actions you need to save to break even, meaning it makes sense if you're planning to move at least 18 hexes (=9 actions with standard Drives, 3 actions with Tachyon Drives, 6 actions saved) in the future (18 for humans).
There are exceptions to this of course.
For example, if your Money Population Track is empty, chances are you will be using all your influence disks on some of your turns. Then better drives can allow you to make actions you wouldn't otherwise be able to make at all.
The same thing goes if you think you will need to make a lot of moves on a single turn. Then, since the price of actions is not constant, and each additional action costs more and more, once again, better Drives allow you to do things you wouldn't normally be able to do.
However, having those numbers in mind helps you make a fast calculation: how far do you think you'll want to attack (or threaten to attack)? How many ships will you want to send there? If the answer isn't at least 12 ship-hexes, chances are you may be better off spending your money elsewhere. For example, on Advanced Robotics, Advanced Economy and Quantum Grid, which grant you extra actions, which means extra movement if you so wish, or extra anything else if conditions change. And your ships won't have less firepower because of that.