Neutral Alignment render all terraform tech useless?

from GalCiv2 Forums
Soil Enhancement, Habitat Improvement, Terraform
Aphrodisiac, Orbital Terraformer

those are the planetary improvements gained from the terraforming branch. A civilization with neutral alignment would not have any use for them.
Since population bonus cap is still there, Aphrodisiac is also useless.

Instead of going after that branch, it might be better to just pursue xeno ethics earlier.


I'm happy I guess.. since I play neutral quite a lot. Still wondering what the heck Neutrality Learning Center will do and if it's better than Invention Matrix and the later research buildings..
17,104 views 10 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
As far as I can tell, looking through the XML files, the Neutrality Learning Center does not exist. The tech is useless.

Maybe they'll upgrade that in the next patch.

crickel
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
With the risk of sounding stupid...

Doesn't Soil Enhancement, Habitat Improvement, Terraform give you the ability to 'upgrade' the yellow, orange an red 'marked' tiles to green-marked tiles of a planet's surface? Tiles that you can then use to build structures, etc. on?

In my games, you don't have to be good, neutral or evil for this effect....
Offworld Trading Company
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
With the risk of sounding stupid...

Doesn't Soil Enhancement, Habitat Improvement, Terraform give you the ability to 'upgrade' the yellow, orange an red 'marked' tiles to green-marked tiles of a planet's surface? Tiles that you can then use to build structures, etc. on?


That is 100% correct! Nothing to do with the alignment.
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
No, but what he is saying is that by researching Xeno Ethics and choosing Neutral as an alignment you also gain those yellow, orange and red squares (and more I believe). Thus rendering it useless to research the Terraforming techs.

I noticed the same and thus have been going neutral all the time. Plus in my games the Arceans seem to consistantly become the second most powerfull civ. besides me, thus being neutral makes it easier to form an alliance.
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
I think you are right, since you get all of those tiles without researching the techs... why research the techs. Although I already had the soil Enhancement Tech before I researched Xeno-Ethics.
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
One of the bonuses of the Neutral Alignment is for all bonus squares on all planets to become available.

i.e. all squares that would have become available if Terraforming was researched become green marked tiles when Neutral Alignment is selected.

I think that is what jklgon was getting at.
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
People aren't quite saying it right, so I'll say it.

If you choose Neutral as an alignment, you get access to all terraforming squares. This means that not only are they visible on the screen, but they are already upgraded (as if you did soil enhancement or habitat improvement, etc) and immediately available to build on.

So, basically, there's no need to research the Soil Enhancement tree with Neutral.
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
You already beat me to it Klapperman.

The Terraforming techs are still useful if the player chooses to become one of the other alignments.
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
yes, that's the point i'm trying to get at. You get to focus your research on other things.

Considering that you can't build the basic version (basic factory for example) after you get the more advanced one, it really helps getting the tiles ready early on so you can make full use of it.

Planning out the colony with the basic version first then upgrading them is a lot better than building the advanced version..
Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top
Yup, between an instant gain of 3, 6, or more tiles per planet and the morale boost, Neutral is my favorite alignment.