Science vs Magic

[Guy]

Which do you prefer?


For me, I prefer the science side. The escort ship is easier to manage, I don't have a whole lot of fire gems but I have hundreds of titanium. Don't know of any magic gear that's better then the automated suit.

[Brukov]

Definitely prefer the Escort Ship to the Dragon Ship. Automated Suit is further down the path than we have with magic so far, so probably not fair to compare it.

Generally tech side seems more efficient for general use, but magic has some great utility, with books, spirit chest (OK, that got rather dramatically weakened), and spirit scythe is a great weapon. Also dragon blood beats food.

[FiatLux]

Originally posted by Baker:

Which do you prefer?


For me, I prefer the science side. The escort ship is easier to manage, I don't have a whole lot of fire gems but I have hundreds of titanium. Don't know of any magic gear that's better then the automated suit.

Originally posted by Brukov:

Definitely prefer the Escort Ship to the Dragon Ship. Automated Suit is further down the path than we have with magic so far, so probably not fair to compare it.

Generally tech side seems more efficient for general use, but magic has some great utility, with books, spirit chest (OK, that got rather dramatically weakened), and spirit scythe is a great weapon. Also dragon blood beats food.

[Gega]

Originally posted by Brukov:

Definitely prefer the Escort Ship to the Dragon Ship. Automated Suit is further down the path than we have with magic so far, so probably not fair to compare it.

True, the recent update with thesolar system has mainly focused on the science path so it wouldn't be fair to compare.If you wanted to compare magic and science right now, compare everything up tospace stations and the alien bombardment.

[Arkhne]

I prefer the Escort ship, however, excluding the "new additions", I actually prefer the Magic equipment for armour/helm, though Cyborg Pack wins best-in-slot for me due to sheer utility and qol value. Laser Drill is also easier to manage than Magic "drills", so no contest there. For weapons, I'm more flexible, if I push attack, and things not-me dies, then I am happy, I don't worry too much about the details. So, I use a mix of both, but when it comes to QoL, Science generally wins out, sadly.

[zhurovium]

It depends on the sage of development, for me:
In my first big run, I primarily did the magic path and spent a lot of the time exploring the islands (on the free version), and was very fond of the dragon sword + ice shield combination.
I stayed mostly melee, and going science, I did not particularly care for the shotgun/gun options - too slow, and too much hassle creating missiles, plus they took up weight.
I skipped out on the cyborg gear out of principle, I guess; but then got to the laser drill+space suit and this is where I switched mostly to the science equipment and went up to getting the Escort Ship powercored. Getting Tier II spells allowed me to finally switch to the Queen Drill (otherwise, it is too hungry).
With the Bombardment I used the Dragon Ship (first time in panic mode, second time stocked up on coal + fire gems) and initially ignored the Escort Ship when the option to got to space came up.
Until the Earth update came up, I mostly stayed hybrid - all slots, bar drill on science, plus Queen Drill; familiar split between Black Cat and Carry Robot and had several spell books hotkeyed.
For travel I ultimately switched out to the Escort Ship and trained up on taking down Their ships because the Dragon Ship fuel supply is too unyieldly for me - takes too much resources to craft and keep it going (I even tried the efficiency upgrade on the Elder Dragon familiar before evolving it, but not sure that carried over).
One point on economy - it's easily split 50:50 between wyrm cages and coral pens, and that took a lot of investment but allows for excellent economics in the late game. Admittedly, without the bots it would be very difficult to keep up (I did that for a while, trying manual collection...bah!) and we do not have, at the moment, a magic path equivalent (not sure if we need to, either, unless someone does purely Tech or purely magic - has anyone tried that?).

[Guy]

Originally posted by zhurovium:

It depends on the sage of development, for me:
In my first big run, I primarily did the magic path and spent a lot of the time exploring the islands (on the free version), and was very fond of the dragon sword + ice shield combination.
I stayed mostly melee, and going science, I did not particularly care for the shotgun/gun options - too slow, and too much hassle creating missiles, plus they took up weight.
I skipped out on the cyborg gear out of principle, I guess; but then got to the laser drill+space suit and this is where I switched mostly to the science equipment and went up to getting the Escort Ship powercored. Getting Tier II spells allowed me to finally switch to the Queen Drill (otherwise, it is too hungry).
With the Bombardment I used the Dragon Ship (first time in panic mode, second time stocked up on coal + fire gems) and initially ignored the Escort Ship when the option to got to space came up.
Until the Earth update came up, I mostly stayed hybrid - all slots, bar drill on science, plus Queen Drill; familiar split between Black Cat and Carry Robot and had several spell books hotkeyed.
For travel I ultimately switched out to the Escort Ship and trained up on taking down Their ships because the Dragon Ship fuel supply is too unyieldly for me - takes too much resources to craft and keep it going (I even tried the efficiency upgrade on the Elder Dragon familiar before evolving it, but not sure that carried over).
One point on economy - it's easily split 50:50 between wyrm cages and coral pens, and that took a lot of investment but allows for excellent economics in the late game. Admittedly, without the bots it would be very difficult to keep up (I did that for a while, trying manual collection...bah!) and we do not have, at the moment, a magic path equivalent (not sure if we need to, either, unless someone does purely Tech or purely magic - has anyone tried that?).

I did pretty much pure science until a bit later. Science path let me go to to space without any hassle and I was happy with science gear by the time I started doing magic.

Currently I like using the drone drills to get my resources. Let the drones do the work and just chill next to my storeroom. Dosn't seem like magic path has much automation.

[squirleybob]

I almost exclusively use the Fighter Escort for space travel and now I also use the Mobile Lab sometimes. I find it a lot easier both to run and repair. Flying requires power cores, but it doesn't consume fuel like crazy as with the Dragonship. The weapons recharge, so they don't drain fuel either. With the boarding update, though, I find that either would work for boarding, but I still prefer the fighter escort.
On the equipment side, I typically land on the science side as well. Late-game, I run around with a full space suit (anti-grav pack, space armor, space helmet) although for underwater travel, I frequently switch the space helm out for the water helm (more oxygen and no power use). When I use the console on a save, I go with the magic side by getting the magic pack and magic pick, with the armor and helmet as above.

[gienekman]

Magic has some nice things, but their maintenance is horrible and science equipment is just WAY too comfortable to use.

Since it's a dragon ship and magical equipment is grown or transmuted from living things i think making it run on food would be fun and hilarious way to improve magic side of things.
Gimme steak powered space ships and guns dangit! Not one that require awkward 'reload' methods with crystals and stuff.

[squirleybob]

Originally posted by gienekman:

Magic has some nice things, but their maintenance is horrible and science equipment is just WAY too comfortable to use.

Since it's a dragon ship and magical equipment is grown or transmuted from living things i think making it run on food would be fun and hilarious way to improve magic side of things.
Gimme steak powered space ships and guns dangit! Not one that require awkward 'reload' methods with crystals and stuff.

The dragon ship can be powered with steak, you just need a lot of it. It has a mini synthesizer inside to produce steak on the go, but it does require gems to use. The weapons need gems to make, but just run on the ship fuel.

[Flyin' High]

Originally posted by Baker:

Which do you prefer?


For me, I prefer the science side. The escort ship is easier to manage, I don't have a whole lot of fire gems but I have hundreds of titanium. Don't know of any magic gear that's better then the automated suit.

I find space armour better than the automated suit.

[gienekman]

Science is just plain better, the combination of quality of life and power make science an easy choice.

Magic is interesting and colorful, but sadly that is the only thing.
The annoyance of maintaining your magic equipment combined with nothing nothing really standing out (Magic drills drilling 2 tiles wide instead of one tunnels are a big annoyance, at least to me) makes magic path something i had to force myself to finish.

Don't get me wrong, the concept of magic path is awesome, the idea of tossing spells at spacefaring enemy is amazing, but it needs a lot of spit&polish.

[HRN]

Feeding the dragon ship's WAY too much of a grind and needs some fine tuning imo. On the other hand, the fighter escort is WAY too easy to maintain.

[FiatLux]

Originally posted by HRN:

Feeding the dragon ship's WAY too much of a grind and needs some fine tuning imo. On the other hand, the fighter escort is WAY too easy to maintain.

Not IMO
But then on the other hand I like the 'exploring' side of the game (I had played the demo twenty something hours before buying the game)