Don't Sleep on Vasari Exodus Culture + Mining

[Wuorg]

Learned just how powerful the Exodus can be with a culture focus. +36% to both Metal and Crystal income on all your planets is great, not to mention the -48% to all kinds of income for your enemies. I think it might be the highest Metal/Crystal income of all the factions.

Definitely seems worth it to keep the high value planets around (Ferrous, Crystalline, and even Oceanic + Terran with the planet items) just for that income. Unless you want to go planetless of course.

[RaozSpaz]

Ive never been able to really pull off a true planetless run. There just isnt enough sources of income to support it. If some of it were lower tier that would help tremendously.

[ontimehelix]

This is only for the xenophobes though. Also love the -18% discount for planet development and extra orbit build speed because of the Labor Camp

The xeno loving Vasari Alliance doesn't have either the labor camp or the mining income orbit bonus :-(

[Mander]

Originally posted by ontimehelix:

This is only for the xenophobes though. Also love the -18% discount for planet development and extra orbit build speed because of the Labor Camp

The xeno loving Vasari Alliance doesn't have either the labor camp or the mining income orbit bonus :-(

What they have, is the best fleet around, thanks to dedicated research which augment Vasari regeneration with TEC armor and Advent Shield. They struggle a little more in mining resources, but once they snowball and switch to ships production, Vasari Alliance are a force of nature.

[Mander]

Originally posted by Wuorg:

Learned just how powerful the Exodus can be with a culture focus. +36% to both Metal and Crystal income on all your planets is great, not to mention the -48% to all kinds of income for your enemies. I think it might be the highest Metal/Crystal income of all the factions.

Definitely seems worth it to keep the high value planets around (Ferrous, Crystalline, and even Oceanic + Terran with the planet items) just for that income. Unless you want to go planetless of course.

Def one of the main strengths of Vasari Exodus and imo, reason enough to develop culture asap as them (especially because it helps snowballing everything else).
Moreover, but this is kinda metagaming, you can remain competitive in your economy even with a smaller number of planets (if you decide to turtle early game), and if you proceed to crack untenable positions, creating a no man’s land around your dominion, enemy culture will fall off without reaching you… allowing for all matter of shenanigans mid/late game.
My favorite? Vorastra “surprise backdoor invasion” (lvl6 ability) with full fleet and starbase, to annex new defensible territories to your dominion: thanks to the phase gate network, you don’t need to develop your empire by adjacency.

[Mander]

Originally posted by RaozSpaz:

Ive never been able to really pull off a true planetless run. There just isnt enough sources of income to support it. If some of it were lower tier that would help tremendously.

Don't feel ashamed: I never managed either. For many reasons.
7 Planets are all you may need for research (thanks to the labs installed onboard starbases). Plus some you fortify and dig in…
But the true “problem” I fear, is how long cracking planets take. By the time the upgrade kicks in, an avenging enemy fleet has already come, and when you need momentum to maintain active all resonances bonus, more often than not, it’s easier to fortify than destroy.

[RCMidas]

You can shave a fair bit of time of the planet stripping if you order the abandoning of the world when the Core Stripper is at 91% or higher (not 90%, not 89%, ONLY 91% or higher). That way the building is finished right before the world is abandoned, adding to the time as per normal but with some of it already used up whilst the building was being finished.

[Mander]

Originally posted by RCMidas:

You can shave a fair bit of time of the planet stripping if you order the abandoning of the world when the Core Stripper is at 91% or higher (not 90%, not 89%, ONLY 91% or higher). That way the building is finished right before the world is abandoned, adding to the time as per normal but with some of it already used up whilst the building was being finished.

Yeah, I noticed. Still too slow for my tastes... and having to reinforce or develop a planet, only to crack it seems a waste of resources. I'll keep it at this point, cracking only the untenable positions, rogue planets and as a position denial tool.

[Wuorg]

I went for planetless once, but I didn't start the "planetless" part of the journey until I had already maxed out my supply and had some starbases with all the Mobile items and a jump drive flying around. It was only partly planetless until then (mostly stripping asteroids).

When I captured a new planet, I parked a SB with shield array (and any Mobile items I wanted on it, Edit: I jumped it in with the jump drive item, I didn't build it there) at it, did all the surveying, got the Core Stripper building, and built a Debris Reclamation Center. Once the DRC was almost completed, I moved on to the next well to leech more resources. It stacks with those fabricator cruisers. And the Shield Array SB was able to delay any enemy forces long enough for me to go back and finish the job (even if I played keep away with the AI with it in the meantime).

And once I got this whole process started at the next well, that's when I began the Core Stripper.

This was before they made the change to Mobile Rulership where only the titan can equip it though.

[Mander]

Originally posted by Wuorg:

I went for planetless once, but I didn't start the "planetless" part of the journey until I had already maxed out my supply and had some starbases with all the Mobile items and a jump drive flying around.

When I captured a new planet, I parked a SB with shield array (and any Mobile items I wanted on it) at it, did all the surveying, got the Core Stripper building, and built a Debris Reclamation Center. Once the DRC was almost completed, I moved on to the next well to leech more resources. It stacks with those fabricator cruisers. And the Shield Array SB was able to delay any enemy forces long enough for me to go back and finish the job (even if I played keep away with the AI with it in the meantime).

This was before they made the change to Mobile Rulership where only the titan can equip it though.

...I headcanon that any Vasari Exodus match where I win, I can always crack all the planets once there no more enemies to fight.

[Wuorg]

Originally posted by Mander:

Originally posted by Wuorg:

I went for planetless once, but I didn't start the "planetless" part of the journey until I had already maxed out my supply and had some starbases with all the Mobile items and a jump drive flying around.

When I captured a new planet, I parked a SB with shield array (and any Mobile items I wanted on it) at it, did all the surveying, got the Core Stripper building, and built a Debris Reclamation Center. Once the DRC was almost completed, I moved on to the next well to leech more resources. It stacks with those fabricator cruisers. And the Shield Array SB was able to delay any enemy forces long enough for me to go back and finish the job (even if I played keep away with the AI with it in the meantime).

This was before they made the change to Mobile Rulership where only the titan can equip it though.

...I headcanon that any Vasari Exodus match where I win, I can always crack all the planets once there no more enemies to fight.

Haha, one time on one of the 100+ planet maps I kept playing after winning (without having eaten any planets yet), grabbed the last of the planets from any Minors left and then Core Stripped all of them at the same time. I don't remember how many resources I got, but it was beautiful.

[Elunamar]

I'm not sure if it's faction specific, but as an Alliance player, there is a planet item that increases surface mining by 98%, but it's exclusive to Oceanic, Primordial and Terran planets. Haven't played Exodus that much yet, but I find the TEC (from a Primacy player's point of view) to be the best resource generating mechanic. Not only that, but being able to allocate the flow of resource to either credits, crystals, or metals.

[Mander]

Originally posted by Elunamar:

I'm not sure if it's faction specific, but as an Alliance player, there is a planet item that increases surface mining by 98%, but it's exclusive to Oceanic, Primordial and Terran planets. Haven't played Exodus that much yet, but I find the TEC (from a Primacy player's point of view) to be the best resource generating mechanic. Not only that, but being able to allocate the flow of resource to either credits, crystals, or metals.

"Organic Nanites Reclamation" (I think it's the tech option you're talking about) it's a tech for both Alliance and Exodus.
And while TecP shares trade mechanics with TECE, mining for raw resource is where Vasari Exodus has the advantage. Sure, you can move around your main resource as TEC, but Vasari Exodus (also thanks to their culture) are the masters of mining minerals and crystals.
Credits, not at all (and it is here, and here only, that TEC overcomes them), but it's a resource they have no use for.

[RCMidas]

And there is also the Matter Hypercompiler available on every world for an extra +48%, at a fairly paltry investment cost (barring the one Andvar unit per construction which can add up just in time to manufacture).

[Mander]

Originally posted by RCMidas:

And there is also the Matter Hypercompiler available on every world for an extra +48%, at a fairly paltry investment cost (barring the one Andvar unit per construction which can add up just in time to manufacture).

And I prefer it in general to any other option for the Vasari: +48% on both orbital and planetside mining is a godsend (considering how relatively cheap is). Nanite Reclamation takes a space I not always am ready to give up, considering how other structures can benefit your empire more (embassy).

[ontimehelix]

After all your comments I tried the Vasari Alliance again, and it is pretty sweet.

I especially love the torrent of influence that keeps flooding in, can't even spend it all - space raids, pirate raids, exotic vaults out the wazoo.