New Building: Automated History Analyser

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Sloth
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New Building: Automated History Analyser

#1 Post by Sloth »

Here is an idea for a building that i want to try past v0.4.6:

"The Automated History Analyser can only be build on a planet with [[buildingtype BLD_CULTURE_ARCHIVES]]. Increases target [[encyclopedia RESEARCH_TITLE]] by 5.

An automated research center with enormous computing power that scours the digitalised cultural archieves to come up with patterns, interdisciplinary parallels and lost or unfinished insights."

Unlocked by the tech "The Physical Brain" (the very cheap one, available at the start).

Code: Select all

BuildingType
    name = "BLD_AUTO_HISTORY_ANALYSER"
    description = "BLD_AUTO_HISTORY_ANALYSER_DESC"
    buildcost = 100
    buildtime = 5
    location = And [
        Planet
        Contains Building name = "BLD_CULTURE_ARCHIVES"
        Not Contains Building name = "BLD_AUTO_HISTORY_ANALYSER"
        OwnedBy empire = Source.Owner
        TargetPopulation low = 1
    ]
    EnqueueLocation = [[ENQUEUE_BUILD_ONE_PER_PLANET]]
    effectsgroups = [
        EffectsGroup
            scope = And [
                Object id = Source.PlanetID
                Planet
                OwnedBy empire = Source.Owner
            ]
            priority = [[VERY_LATE_PRIORITY]]
            effects = [
                SetTargetResearch value = Value + 5
            ]
    ]
    icon = "icons/building/archive.png"
Reasons to implement this building:
1. It's a building that can be build in the very early game, in the (admittedly rare) cases that the player doesn't want to build ships and thus doesn't know what to do with the production provided by the homeworld (because there aren't any useful buidings in the very early game).
2. It's safe from producing micro-management, because it needs the cultural archieves. Unless another homeworld is conquered it's limited to one per empire.
3. Unless mostly every other production boosting building in the game, it doesn't favor large empires - quite the contrary - it's a good option for an empire that's stuck (can't expand) in the early game and needs to research key techs.
4. Lots of the production boosting buildings are so cheap compared to their benefits that it's nearly always the right choice to build them asap and therefore do not provide any real strategic choices. The timing for this buidling is not always so easy to get right (A new colony or invasion of natives should normaly have priority).
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Sloth
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Re: New Building: Automated History Analyser

#2 Post by Sloth »

Reason 5: The tech "The Physical Brain" and its successor "Translinguistics" are currently Theories and would profit from some content.

There's a building icon that's currently unused (correct me if i'm wrong) and would fit the Automated History Analyser:
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science1.png
science1.png (4.94 KiB) Viewed 2158 times
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The Silent One
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Re: New Building: Automated History Analyser

#3 Post by The Silent One »

So many reasons... :wink: . Sure, let's try it out!
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dbenage-cx
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Re: New Building: Automated History Analyser

#4 Post by dbenage-cx »

This looks like a decent boost for production heavy species, though not as beneficial for those with a malus.
A nice option for human players to decide on, guessing the AI could simply decide to build it if certain conditions are not met by turn X.

If an offset is needed, maybe a similar industry building with a higher research/lower construction cost? Nanorobotic production/cost of 60/+10 industry?

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Sloth
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Re: New Building: Automated History Analyser

#5 Post by Sloth »

dbenage-cx wrote:This looks like a decent boost for production heavy species, though not as beneficial for those with a malus.
Yea, Egassm will love it. ...and they still need a little love from us devs.
dbenage-cx wrote:A nice option for human players to decide on, guessing the AI could simply decide to build it if certain conditions are not met by turn X.
A simple approach would be to build it, when industry surpassed a certain threshold (like 100).
dbenage-cx wrote:If an offset is needed, maybe a similar industry building with a higher research/lower construction cost? Nanorobotic production/cost of 60/+10 industry?
Unlike for Research, there are already quite a few things to build that boost Industry like the Gas Giant Generator, Outposts on Asteroids and Industrial Centers. For Research there was nothing to build until the late game.
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MatGB
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Re: New Building: Automated History Analyser

#6 Post by MatGB »

Sloth wrote:
dbenage-cx wrote:This looks like a decent boost for production heavy species, though not as beneficial for those with a malus.
Yea, Egassm will love it. ...and they still need a little love from us devs.
I spent a chunk of time recently nerfing them a bit because I'd overpowered them y'know ;-)

I like the idea and the reasons, perhaps have it also be buildable with a cultural library? Regardless, I do like the idea and would want to include it in the discussed tech/research boost rewrite: we'll need to increase the RP cost of late game techs in several ways when the project overall is done, but this can be implemented before Influence as long as the AI team are happy—this will give the human player too big an early advantage if the AI doesn't know to use it.

For reference: my nascent ideas so far are to move the Enclave of the Void far earlier, nerf it's main bonus but have it improved with various of the "of the Void" techs. I'd also move Stellar Tomography earlier, probably simply unlcok by Gravitonics instead of T of Everything, making it possible to improve research output slowly over time instead of the current balance where most of the big boosters unlock very soon after each other.
Mat Bowles

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Sloth
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Re: New Building: Automated History Analyser

#7 Post by Sloth »

MatGB wrote:
Sloth wrote:Yea, Egassm will love it. ...and they still need a little love from us devs.
I spent a chunk of time recently nerfing them a bit because I'd overpowered them y'know ;-)
Egassm can be quite good when useful Natives are nearby. But lots of AI Egassm empires i encountered got stuck in the early game and couldn't get their chunk of the galaxy.
MatGB wrote:I like the idea and the reasons, perhaps have it also be buildable with a cultural library?
Sounds good. Maybe with a smaller bonus?
MatGB wrote:this will give the human player too big an early advantage if the AI doesn't know to use it.
I don't think that's a problem. When a player has a good start with planets to colonize and natives to conquer this building doesn't help in the early game and is only marginal in the mid game. I hope it does help when a player has a bad start though (but that should be ok).
MatGB wrote:For reference: my nascent ideas so far are to move the Enclave of the Void far earlier, nerf it's main bonus but have it improved with various of the "of the Void" techs. I'd also move Stellar Tomography earlier, probably simply unlcok by Gravitonics instead of T of Everything, making it possible to improve research output slowly over time instead of the current balance where most of the big boosters unlock very soon after each other.
That's a good plan. You have my support.
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Sloth
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Re: New Building: Automated History Analyser

#8 Post by Sloth »

The corresponding PR shows no conflicts (https://github.com/freeorion/freeorion/pull/798). Any objections against trying it out?
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Vezzra
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Re: New Building: Automated History Analyser

#9 Post by Vezzra »

Same as I said here. ;)

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