Terraforming without colonists.

[-=Maure=-]

What's a reasonable timeframe to get 100% terraforming on all without colonists? And what sponsor/commander combo is best?

I'm trying with the Terraforming initiative and Geo Engineer, since they're the terraforming focused ones, but I feell this commander is better suited to going wide and probably not the best idea since funding will be limited and one might prefer to stay small instead?

The TI 50% bonus on terraforming tech is formidable, but I'm at Sol 250 and doing repetable tech for funding and it's been a long time since I got all the terraforming techs, while limited resources are what held me back for most of the game, so maybe a sponsor with more access to funding is better.

Not counting the IMM since it's like cheating really.

[SDSkinner2011]

Brazil- they get rare earths through their unique building. This will pay for outsourcing and imports you need to terraform.

Edit- even easier is to set one of the other colonies as Blue Sun- they give lots of funding for concrete and metal. In that case, you might want to go Japan for automated metal mines.

[Blake Walsh]

Hmmmm interesting question. Is this with or without game rule cheesing? Cheesing Rivals?

I agree that terraforming is resource-limited rather than tech-limited, of course in a normal game more tech = more resources because you unlock stuff like the Space Elevator more quickly and can open up the spigot of resources.

One candidate sponsor would be Japan (especially with low meteors) because you can mine metals without colonists meaning infinite solar power and their scanning bonus is really handy for this kind of challenge. Brazil and Russia are other obvious candidate due to having rare metals income. SpaceY for cheap advanced resources and starting with a mob of rockets that can later be thrown away for projects are other obvious choices (SpaceY starts with a ridiculous amount of effective wealth).

In terms of the Commander the best seems like Politician or in some circumstances City Mayor because funds ultimately rule. Geo Engineer itself is all kinds of useless, it's almost entirely without merit except for flavor and it seems like it's totally trounced by Politician in this kind of game, like how much do you spend on seeds anyway.

I'm thinking the best combo might be Brazil + Politician, and the strategy would be ripping up the map using bulldozers to get waste rock to turn into rare metals to export, and then buying additional rockets as required to keep up with rare metals production, and using spare funds on outsourcing. I think Brazil could outsource more than any other sponsor including Russia.

For actually getting 100% I think in any game the limiting factor is the Vegetation and it takes about 250 sols anyway much of which is just thumbs-twiddling waiting for the seeding missions to appear. The really interesting one to do quickly would be "making the planet habitable", which is 95% atmosphere and 50% temperature I believe and is mainly limited by how quickly you can research and mass produce the Carbonate Processors.

[Enorats]

Don't remember which gets it since I play with all unique buildings unlocked, but the sponsor that has the rare minerals refinery. You can start on low ground and just dig into the cliffs with the flatten tool to generate waste rock to make near unlimited rare minerals.

[Enorats]

Oh, to answer the other part of the question.. I wasn't particularly rushing but I hit 100% atmo/water/temp and 50% veg by sol 200. First colonists landed then.. and that was the end of that game more or less. Colonists suck.

I suffered through to 100% veg by Sol 300 or so, and that was that. You can only raise vegetation by using planetary missions and the rocket after 40%, so it's sorta timegated.

[-=Maure=-]

Funnily enough I never had any issue getting metals just by using a transport gathering surface metals continuously and using the meteor shower expeditions, though I used limited solar for this same reason.

I thought about Brazil, but aren't the rare metals from waste rock too slow to be extracted? I feel going with a higher research sponsor and relying on patents/copyrights and SETI satellite expeditions may be better no?

About the Blue Sun, I did get them, but I found them to be too inconsistent in their trades to rely on them for funding, I think I got maybe 4B out of them the entire time, which is the same as two Martian Copyrights and I was completing those every few days later on. One thing to consider is that the magnetic field building gives research the more atmosphere there is, so set up two carbonators and build the magnetics as needed to keep atmosphere loss at a minimum and research goes by rather fast even without scientists. You're gonna be skipping most of the techs anyway.

And yes, I noticed the vegetation expeditions are what will keep one from getting 100% terraforming the latest, so it's probably better to rush for that tech ASAP since they only cost seeds and fuel which should be plentiful without issue in the late game.

Another thing is, once you get an open farm you can trade food for all the polymers you could ever need with rival colonies, so using open stirling generators from then on is very viable. And the only building you need that uses electronics is the drone hub, you only need to import electronics as needed for expeditions.

[SkiRich]

I've done it within 200 sols with zero colonists.
Was kinda bummed when I did it since the dome covers come off and the colony doesnt look like mars proper and none of the nasty disasters affect you anymore.
My kind of gameplay requires me to rush colonists to mars. If I dont then half the gameplay stuff is done before a settlement is established.

[-=Maure=-]

Originally posted by SkiRich:

I've done it within 200 sols with zero colonists.
Was kinda bummed when I did it since the dome covers come off and the colony doesnt look like mars proper and none of the nasty disasters affect you anymore.
My kind of gameplay requires me to rush colonists to mars. If I dont then half the gameplay stuff is done before a settlement is established.

Well it's kind of a challenge thing, not to be done if you want to experience the whole game

Another thing to consider is sponsor goals and which ones you can complete without colonists, as Europe you can get a tribo scrubber early on, and I think it could make all the difference.

[Blake Walsh]

Originally posted by Tuchanka:

I thought about Brazil, but aren't the rare metals from waste rock too slow to be extracted? I feel going with a higher research sponsor and relying on patents/copyrights and SETI satellite expeditions may be better no?

It's faster than you'd expect (like if you expect it to be like the waste rock processor).

I actually wonder if SpaceY might be quite fast just due to the extreme amounts of advanced resources they can buy to fund planetary projects.

[Neuro9]

I'm sitting on Sol 273 with 100% atmosphere, 100% temperature, 100% water and 45% vegetation. I used Russian City Major (Russian for the RC drillers, which allow you to drill rare metals and LOTS of them -- enough to get your tech tree all the way up to Mohole Mine). Not a single colonist.

The problem with Vegetation is the only way to get from 40%-100% is the seed vegetation special project, which introduces a lot of delays as they don't spawn fast enough. Any terraforming challenge should be done with this in mind; vegetation early & as fast as you can (but it's tough to do unless you have trees growing as they require lots of seeds)

[Blake Walsh]

Originally posted by Shawn:

I'm sitting on Sol 273 with 100% atmosphere, 100% temperature, 100% water and 45% vegetation. I used Russian City Major (Russian for the RC drillers, which allow you to drill rare metals and LOTS of them -- enough to get your tech tree all the way up to Mohole Mine). Not a single colonist.

That's pretty slow. I got 100% vegetation by sol 205 for the 100% Challenge (and "perfect" time is 250 sols), there are some who claim that cloud seeding missions cause vegetation seeding missions to spawn. But definitely, even with a colonist-less run being only 45% at Sol 273 seems really slow.

[Twelvefield]

Is it safe to assume that using Terraforming Initiative isn't the best choice for terraforming? Personally, I had nothing but trouble with them. I guess they don't suit my playstyle.

[Blake Walsh]

Originally posted by Twelvefield:

Is it safe to assume that using Terraforming Initiative isn't the best choice for terraforming? Personally, I had nothing but trouble with them. I guess they don't suit my playstyle.

Well that depends, they start with a decent amount of cash and a decent applicant pool so can get a cheap and nasty research and mining setup going (that is, import all applicants and put them all to work extracting rare metals and producing research), and they can research Terraforming techs a good deal faster than any other sponsor.

I think there is an argument for economically strong sponsors like Blue Sun, SpaceY and maybe even population-centric sponsors like China and Church of the New Ark (in Space Race) being stronger for terraforming. In this kind of case, you beeline the Space Elevator and/or Mohole and use it to fuel the terraforming and research efforts.

TI are probably more hampered by maps without a lot of rare metals because economically they have so little going for them. Also they are worser in Space Race because they don't get a unique building or unique vehicle, considering how good some uniques are that's a major weakness for them.

[-=Maure=-]

TI should have Seed-spreading rovers, that allow for vegetation to grow beyond 40%, that would make them ideal for terraforming since vegetation is the big hurdle.