Thalan tech tree strength

Thalan tech tree strength

from GalCiv3 Forums

Not complaining or anything..I enjoy the game very much so far.  I am just looking for other opinions on the relative balance of tech trees.  I like to customize my faction and always enjoyed how galciv used different tech trees as part of the customization experience.  My question is what do you guys think about the Thalan tech tree?

 

For my part I'm a little surprised at its incredible strength.  The hive building alone gives them a ridiculous strength that I don't see matched in the other trees.  If you stack bonuses on it they apply to the world's whole raw production stockpile...which then gets multiplied by regular manufacturing etc. bonusses.  If placed right next to the capitol on your home world it grants plus 4 and 5% which ends up being 5(capitol)+5(capital)+10 (pop)+4 (hive) all times 1.05=25.2. That's an instant 25% increased raw production ie. everything.

 

Once you are able to stack bonusses on it, say with a mfg. capital or simply ringing it with factories, you end up with raw production (before other bonusses) values easily reaching 50 or 60 rather quickly.  Is this intended?  Are there downsides I'm not seeing or powerful elements in other trees that I am missing?  I'm just interested in seeing other people's opinions because I love trying out new faction designs but don't see any reason to deviate from thalan tech right now.

25,641 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I'd love an answer to this as well, because I haven't seen it. The closest I've seen were some Altarian buildings that give both production and science (I think), but due to the way the game works, I'm not sure these would even be worth using.

Granted, I haven't spent too much time with GalCiv3 as of yet. I just remember 2 having far more diversity. 

Reply #2 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Thalans are supposed to have lower growth rate and population than other factions to compensate for the power of the hive etc. Obviously that is not working properly at the moment ;)

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Reply #3 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

It is a shame though. I remember, in GalCiv2, heavily favoring the Torian tech' tree, switching to Yor on occasion. In fact, the Yor faction in that game was one of the best, because it was the only one, due to the inherit miniaturization bonus, that couldn't be replicated or straight improved through custom factions. Despite that, I found reasons to play with the Iconian tech' tree at times, and played with almost all of them at one point or another. There were interesting choices for each faction that made you want to try things.

I don't mind there being better faction trees, but all of the options should at least have interesting options that make you want to use them.

You can't even find a concise list of faction tech' tree differences. Every time someone asks, the response is, "Just use Thalan."

Reply #4 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting sjaminei, reply 2

Obviously that is not working properly at the moment
End of sjaminei's quote

Oh its working, the  T Tree is  the most powerful  imo, they have already nerfed it once, you should have seen it before  WAY OP, now its just a bit OP ;)  

Reply #5 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

This isn't an exact fit for your question, but I find the Yor tree combined with the synthetic trait to be the most powerful thing in the game. The ability to fully load a transport and have max population back on your planet in a turn or two makes invasion a breeze, while you can start to spread your pop too thin with an organic race. Hives are definitely #2 though. 

Reply #6 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Each tech tree ( with the appropriate ideological choices, trait and abilities) does support/accentuate certain playstyles usually based around a particular game mechanic. I have just finished (almost) playing each of the standard factions on suicidal and each time I found it hard to win unless I figured out and embraced the relevant playstyle. Some playstyles are more effective than others and some are simpler to execute. Thalan is a solid choice but when I really want to be OP I use Iconian. The highlights being, a multiplicative social manufacturing bonus early in the tree, food bonuses and a unique logistical bonus with intelligent ships (more ships per fleet means more firepower which means less losses) 

Yor is also very strong. Although that is more to do with synthetic population mechanics than anything to with tree itself.

Altairan was surprisingly good mainly because they get neurolinking in the yellow age, whereas everyone else research 100 techs first. Its a nice advantage.

Any tech tree that relies to heavily on influence mechanics is pretty gimped. Influence is very easy to defend against just by building resistance and most of the races you will really be worried about will be malevolent who quickly become immune to influence flipping. That hurts Iridium, Altairan and Krynn primarily. Although Irdium is actually not bad if you go trade focus.  

 

Drengin incentivises you to rush. Not really sure bout Drengin tbh I played them wrong but still managed to win somehow but was pretty ugly game, was far too passive for too long, 

 

You really have to play a few games with each to get a real feel for them and find what suits you. Map size and game setting have a huge influence on what playstyle is optimum. Is there likely to be a lot of room to peacefully expand or are you going to need to start invading, can you effectively play from a small number of planets or do you HAVE to have an expansion advantage, things like that. 

 

Would be interesting to hear if there are many people not on the Thalan hypetrain.

Reply #7 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting peregrine23, reply 5

This isn't an exact fit for your question, but I find the Yor tree combined with the synthetic trait to be the most powerful thing in the game. The ability to fully load a transport and have max population back on your planet in a turn or two makes invasion a breeze, while you can start to spread your pop too thin with an organic race. Hives are definitely #2 though. 
End of peregrine23's quote

yup i lov the yor too.  But for me hives+mas reduction+Hmatrix+war tech still makes thalan #!

Reply #8 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting peregrine23, reply 5

This isn't an exact fit for your question, but I find the Yor tree combined with the synthetic trait to be the most powerful thing in the game. The ability to fully load a transport and have max population back on your planet in a turn or two makes invasion a breeze, while you can start to spread your pop too thin with an organic race. Hives are definitely #2 though. 
End of peregrine23's quote

 

Yea, thalan is "wow this is great" early on & still pretty nice as it goes on... While yor is average for a while,  with a penalty that can actually hurt, until it simply becomes monstrous in ways nobody can match.  I've taken out entire factions with thansports loaded with 6 mil pop each without draining any planets.  after that, It's just a matter of not cratering yourself while you bulldoze all the meat buildings & build your own synthetic type buildings on the 5-20 worlds you capture before finishing up the first one.  after the initial rough start, yor pretty much turn into a sleeping dragon where your biggest concern it taking too big of a bite