The Creek could be better?

[BigAlzBub]

The Creek feature from Terraforming is quite powerful when combined with plants, but it is kind of sad that it doesn't give any benefit for other types Biotica. I mean animals would benefit from having access to better sources of water, and water does sometimes bring down minerals from upriver (panning for gold for example), now I don't mind if the Creek is better for certain types of Biotica, but it would be nice if it did something for non-plants.

[Stormfox]

In general I find the mountain to be vastly superior to the other two choices in most situations. The extra micro slots allow for a bit more concentration of buffs on your good stuff, but the extra three tiles usually are stronger. The creek is very overspecialized. The only argument against the mountain is that it also needs 15 eon to fully work, but again, the effect is just so much bigger.

[kaibioinfo]

Originally posted by Stormfox:

In general I find the mountain to be vastly superior to the other two choices in most situations.

I thought so, too. But microbiota can be extremely powerful. If you have for example a level 3 biotica that already gives 1000 gold and then place two microbiota that give 50% increase each you end up with 1000 surplus gold.

The mountain makes it a bit easier to satisfy some of the constraints. Beyond that, it's main advantage is that you can upgrade three slots on the same time. However, as many high level biotica need biodiversity, you often cannot make use of these three upgrades in an optimal way anyways.

So I would say sanctuary and mountains both are similarly good (although first one feels a bit more random). The creek is nice but a bit boring (placing it is usually a no-brainer if you can effort it).

[BigAlzBub]

Agreed. The mountain does have a slight disadvantage that all it gives you is slots, if you have run out of era points, then raising a mountain does nothing, you have to spend some era points to actually fill the slots, but this is quite of small thing. It would be nice for the microbiome doubler actually gave you a microbiome emblem to put in (preferably two so you have something to slot), I know that microbiome charges are pretty cheap, but it feels bad that you have brought something and then might not necessarily be able to use it.

It is a shame Terraforming doesn't do more with Oceans, you can't use mountains with oceans (obviously), although it would be cool if it made a rift which offers deep water slots. It would be cool if the Creek made some sort of "nutrient current" for Oceans which could benefit ocean slots for plants and fish, I can't see how you could make it benefit ocean minerals.

[Narane]

I'd guess the restrictions exist because it's the only terraform to not require further costs, but it's so awkward that it relies on you getting a power scaling 3* plant to make a good use of it.
Meanwhile the Sanctuary is ALMOST costless because you tend to get Micros from Era completion, and the ceiling of its effect is game-breakingly high (get a single 100%+ yield micro, plop down a sanctuary on a power scaling 3* like Diamond or Pomegranate, laugh as it single-handedly gives you 100 Prosperity in 2 clicks and 0 eon cost)

[SatanBless]

Originally posted by Stormfox:

In general I find the mountain to be vastly superior to the other two choices in most situations. The extra micro slots allow for a bit more concentration of buffs on your good stuff, but the extra three tiles usually are stronger. The creek is very overspecialized. The only argument against the mountain is that it also needs 15 eon to fully work, but again, the effect is just so much bigger.

3 extra tiles require 15 extra eon to fill, and usually you are already starved on Eon to even try to fill every slot on the map. The creek and the sanctuary are extremely powerful when utilized properly.

For example, you can have a tile that produces hundreds of resources, on a tier 3, and a straight +50% boost on that is incredibly powerful.

Then there are really strong Micro's you can get, and on units that have extra micro slots, you can get 4 micro slots, which can be hundreds of resources either through percentage bonuses, or flat bonuses (+20 food for each distinct animal up to 6, which adds 120 flat). You can get 4 times +50% yield, or even higher, like +20% yield for each animal, up to 80%, that is 160% yield. If placed on a 3 star that has base production of 400 or more, that adds 1040 resources without any eon cost!

Micro's are extremely strong. The creek too can be very strong, but overall the micro's are stronger when you get good rare options.

[DanUrsus]

I agree that the creek in particular should be buffed, but the creek and sanctuary have the advantage that they do not cost you Eon points, which is more valuable for some challenges than you might think.

[Cheffe]

I also do think mountain only looks good when you are not familiar with micros. Using micros is usually more rewarding when min maxing some high yield plot. After i started playing I almost exclusively used mountains, but now i shift more and more towards micros and sanctuaries for min maxing.

[Kir]

The creek probably needs to be bigger. Right the mountain gives you the chance at having 3 upgraded slots plus some hilarious effects on the biotica with strong adjacency effects like Platinum or Sequoia.

Sanctuary is almost costless and 5 of the 6 signature micros have % effects that are very strong when doubled. Micros are cheap, you get a fair number, and make sanctuaries frequently outperform mountains.

Meanwhile the Creek, while it is free, solidly loses to the Fairy Ring in a Sanctuary by 30%. In order to really use it I think you need to create one before you start upgrading slots at all so the boosted legacy yields stick around.

Maybe 50% to 2 slots and 25% to 2 more?

[wredniak2003]

At this point I see little point in going for the creek even if it would be optimal for it. Sanctuary +75% micro gives triple the bonus (and it is very easy to get with even higher numbers possible). I guess it could be useful in very specific circumstances when you can't get the right buff as it works on its own without any other pieces.
Mountain is even worse but it is very friendly for new users.

I am surprised at the lack of apparent balance so I would love for the devs to share how they envisioned each feature to be used as tbh, If suddenly creek and mountain got removed I wouldn't even notice.