Creativity: Does It Help?

I always seem to end up picking that 1 point Creativity bonus when setting up my race. I was wondering, has anyone seen if it actually helps out. Does it ever make you pop out a free tech or make unexpected advances or does it just increase the chance of tech advances when exploring anomalies?
12,964 views 11 replies
Reply #1 Top
I used to always pick this one too....but I stopped. I haven't noticed any kind of difference except that now I have an extra ability point to spend on something that yields more tangible results.

Spend your points on research and economics; if you can excel in these 2 areas all the other bonuses become rather negligible. You gain techs faster and you increase your income which in turn increases everything from research to production.

Some good combos for me have been:

Federalist for economic bonus, with abilities in research +50, and remaing AP towards economics.

Populist for diplomacy and morale bonus, with research +50, and remaining AP towards economics.

These are of course subjective but they work for me. I never waste AP on things like range, creativity, bravery, espionage, etc.....because all the bonuses I pile on research make up for it rather quickly.

Hope this helps!
Reply #2 Top
I have heard that the free techs you get from creativity aren't announced in any way, so it might be helping you without you knowing it. I can't confirm or deny this rumor, but I thought I'd mention it.

-Dewar
Reply #3 Top
We found no obvious benefit when we discussed it here:
Link
Reply #4 Top
My understanding was that it led to a breakthru on the current research project (as in getting it faster ) not new techs not listed in the tree.
Reply #5 Top
It'd be nice to know when such a breakthrough occurred, seeing that I never actually noticed it.
Reply #6 Top
I haven't seen anything, and I almost always take it. I'd love to know specifically what it does for me.

Reply #7 Top
I have seen several examples of special events related to increased research. They indicate that you have experienced something like a 25% increase in the area you are currently researching. They seem to pop up randomly, and I've had about three of them happen in my current game so far. Could this be the result of being creative? Will have to wait for a comment from the game designers.....
Reply #8 Top
have you had your survey ships exploring during that? because anomalies tend to do that sometimes, give you a 25% bonus like that
Reply #9 Top
nope,. these events are due to anomalies and not creativity. Creativity increase the odd of a major breakthru like the new hyperdrive engine that boost speed by 50% or the think tank that boost research by 100% but those breakthru are galaxy wide and thus, you get the benefit but everybody else too.
Reply #10 Top
If you wait you will have a random event where you get a tech or research increased that only through creativity can give.AKA no other way to get this.Creativity is really powerful thats why it is hard to increase.
Reply #11 Top
I've gotten the "Ultradrive" event without the Creativity ability.