Opinion on emotionless

[Ed Kolis]

Originally posted by Arkcon:

Ed: Wait a minute... no cool new icon? That spaceman pic just screams for a cool background.

Well, I never got up the gumption to bug David to make one Besides, it's only a stock Shrapnel forum avatar, believe it or not - Nebraskan uses the same one... I'm thinking maybe I should switch to a picture of Rimmer with Mr. Flibble from Red Dwarf before I ask for avatar enhancement...

(Completely off topic... Isn't the name "Rimmer" kind of naughty??? Or do I just have a dirty mind? )

[Phoenix-D]

"Completely off topic... Isn't the name "Rimmer" kind of naughty??? Or do I just have a dirty mind?"

Both.

Phoenix-D

[Shoujo]

Originally posted by PvK:
Emotionless is extremely valuable if and when disaster strikes. If you lose many ships and/or planets at once, all of your planets can go to rioting, which paralyzes your production. If you just lost your main fleet, this will greatly impede you from rebuilding it, unless you have masses of space-based construction capacity and lots of resource reserves and/or trade. I've seen this be a major factor in several PBW games.

PvK

Could just be me, but I'd think that if you just had your main fleet crushed you've got a lot more to worry about than a few riots...

[Arkcon]

Originally posted by Shoujo:
Could just be me, but I'd think that if you just had your main fleet crushed you've got a lot more to worry about than a few riots...

That's true, if the emotionless trait comes in handy early on -- you're already in trouble. That said, I'm finding this automatic 10% to make a game easier than my usual games. I don't normally get all planets jubilant, I tend to get a few with Indifferent and a couple with Angry.

I must try some test games to see what intel does, take over an AI and park a monster fleet, etc.

I started a quick game against the default AI. I'm pulling no punches, so I'm really just walking over them. I was just playing around so I could see how my shipset looks.

I should restart vs TDM Modpack, medium bonus, yadda yadda. I should add the Rage by hand to make sure we meet and are in conflict.

[ December 11, 2002, 14:37: Message edited by: Arkcon ]

[Wanderer]

Originally posted by Arkcon:
That said, I'm finding this automatic 10% to make a game easier than my usual games. I don't normally get all planets jubilant, I tend to get a few with Indifferent and a couple with Angry.

I research Urban Pacification Centers very early on. In fact there are times I wish the stock happiness modifiers were multiples of 20% not 10% (i.e. jubilant gives you 40% - as it was in SE3) And yes, I know the figures can be modded.

The only problem I have with happiness is taking over multiple enemy planets (one is easy as your troops and fleet quell any riots within a turn). I read about how emotionless cancels out riot-control, so I've never picked it.

Then again, I've not played PBW so I've never lost a large fleet except for the odd mine-related disaster early on in a game...

...although in the current game my combined fleet of 50 (one third of which are unarmed support craft) came across 103 alien vessels and didn't have enough movement to warp out of the system again. Luckily for me, the AI decided to run away (lack of supplies? It was orbitting a third empire's planet though).

[capnq]

Can't it be fixed though by removing the population and re-populating (though, that's silly, and impractical in Proportions mod).

Not by just removing the population, because the Last 1M who won't leave the planet will continue to riot.

I think you can Abandon Planet at that point, then repopulate, but I've never tried that. The situation doesn't come up often enough to easily test.

I don't how Anarchy Groups affects Emotionless.

[ December 11, 2002, 21:40: Message edited by: capnq ]

[PvK]

Originally posted by Shoujo:
Could just be me, but I'd think that if you just had your main fleet crushed you've got a lot more to worry about than a few riots...

Not if you have a very large empire, with scores of planetary shipyards, and/or you're playing the unmodded game where it's not usually worthwhile to have long-term resource reserves. A few planets and fleets can cause practically every planet to riot, and thus cripple the entire production base of a very large empire, and make it much harder for the empire to get back on its feet. As I said, I have seen this happen quite clearly in several PBW games. The afflicted empires would have been able to rebuild fairly quickly from a local defeat, but instead their economy was paralyzed and their construction ability mostly removed (essentially, they went from very wealthy to having to rely entirely on trade and space-based construction).

PvK