Evolutionary Bonuses Deconstructed

[Zazazu]

We all know Pescado prefers most of the red-path bonuses. I just did a cell-civ run aiming for a combination I thought would be best (Knight). What are your opinions? What of the stage bonuses do you find most useful, and what do you think should be avoided in all situations?

Cell Stage
Carnivore:    Power Management - Increased Energy Capacity (approx. 50%, thanks Gus)
Herbivore:    Social Suave - Cheaper Social Tools
Omnivore:    Generalist - Cheaper Passive Tools

Creature Stage
Predator:    Prime Specimen - Increased Health  (approx. 50%, thanks Gus)
Social:    Performance - Less Unhappiness from Disasters
Adaptable:    Speed Demon - Faster Galactic Travel

Tribal Stage
Aggressive:    Arms Dealer - Cheaper Combat Tools
Friendly:    Gracious Greeting - Better initial relationships
Industrious:    Colony Craze - Cheaper colonization tools

Civilization Stage
Military:    Pirates-B-Gone - Less Frequent Pirate Raids
Religious:    Green Keeper - Less Frequent Biodisasters
Economic:    Spice Savant - Increased Spice Production


And last but not least, I'm not finding any explanation of what combinations give each final space-faring trait. What have you found?
Traits of Spacefaring Civilizations:
Bard:    Soothing Song - Calming effect on other races

• 2 Blue, 2 mix
• 2 Blue, 1 Green or Red (creature start)
• 2 Blue (tribal start)
• 1 Blue (civ start)

Ecologist:    Safari Vacuum - Abduct multiple animals from planet

• 2 Green, 2 mix
• 2 Green, 1 Blue or Red (creature start)
• 2 Green (tribal start)
• 1 Green (civ start)

Zealot:    Fanatical Frenzy - Take over a Planet Religiously

• 2 Red, 2 Green
• 2 Red, 1 Green (creature start
• 1 Red, 2 Green (creature start)
• 1 Red, 1 Green (tribal start)

Diplomat:    Static Cling - Stun all ships and turrets on a planet

• 2 Green, 2 Blue
• 2 Green, 1 Blue (creature start)
• 1 Green, 2 Blue (creature start)
• 1 Green, 1 Blue (tribal start)

Scientist:    Graviton Wave - Destroy all structures on a planet

• 2 Red, 2 Blue
• 2 Red, 1 Blue (creature start)
• 1 Red, 2 Blue (creature start)
• 1 Red, 1 Blue (tribal start)

Trader:    Cash Infusion - Buy any planet you're trading with

• At least 3 Blue

Shaman:    Return Ticket - Instantly return to your home system

• At least 3 Green

Warrior:    Raider Rally - Flood an enemy planet with pirates

• At least 3 Red

Knight:    Summon Mini-U - Warp in a friendly spaceship to help

• 2 Red, 2 mix
• 2 Red, 1 Blue or Green (creature start)
• 2 Red (tribal start)
• 1 Red (civ start)

Wanderer:    None - Default trait if you start in the Space game


EDIT: Updating as new info is provided.

[Soggy Fox]

You can also get Shaman with this - (Omnivore - Social - Friendly - Religious)

[Solowren]

Soggy took the words out of my mouth.

I mean fingers.

[J. M. Pescado]

I believe the bonii aren't dependent on WHEN you get the red/blue/green scores, but simply on how many you get.

The BEST bonii, therefore, are so far:
Cell Stage: Nothing especially noteworthy, but you need to be red or blue to get bite-5, as herbivores can only reach bite-3 max.
Creature Stage: PRIME SPECIMEN. No contest. +25% HP to your ship is way better than the other attributes, which are basically useless, although Speed at least does SOMETHING. "Less Colony Revolts" does NOTHING because I have NEVER, EVER, seen a colony revolt! Plus, all the other creature-stage creatures invariably hate me and either annoy me by doing things I can't do, or just reject the things I can do. They must die. You don't get any points or parts just for leaving them be.
Tribal: Gracious Greeting edges out the others because "cheaper anything" is meaningless as everything you buy domestic is massively overpriced and you can get it for half cost elsewhere, so you basically never buy domestically. The Gracious Greeting power will improve your ability to buy Made in China.
Civilization: Pirates-B-Gone edges out Spice Savant by a small margin. "Less Disasters" is useless because it reduces your ability to work up your Eco Hero level, and you can already eliminate disasters just by plopping the anti-eco-disaster tools on your planet. I have never seen an eco disaster on a planet with one installed. While pirates are merely a nuisance that can be ignored, the fact that your colonies frequently refuse to identify them means that those false alarms are extremely annoying in wartime when you're trying to defend against REAL attacks.

So far, I have unlocked the following:
Scientist: Red, Red, Blue, Blue
Zealot: Green, Red, Green, Red
Trader: Bllue, Red, Blue, Blue

So it looks like Scientist is Red/Blue, Zealot is Green/Red, Trader is 75% blue, Diplomat is Green/Blue, Shaman is 75% Green, Knight is 50% Red, 25% other each.
If the powers function as advertised, the best power appears to be Zealot, which is basically "Eat Colony For Free". Note that while racial superpowers have an alleged cooldown time, saving and reloading your game instantly refreshes them!

[Zazazu]

Won't pirates be basically eliminated as a threat once you get the super turrets? That was my thought...eventually I'm not going to have to worry about pirates anyways. Whereas early extra money from spice is yummy. I've been keeping close to home this run, just trying to up my badges and unlock the good tools. I'm up to Interstellar 3 with 6 colony packs in the hopper (keep finding them at $75k), basic weapons, medium cargo hold, 2nd level battery, and almost a million sporebucks to spare.

To my mind, all the prevention bonii are counter-productive. They aren't 100% effective, but the unlockables are, and by the time you go after the Grox what do you want? A 25% reduction or 100%? There is the time factor, though.

[J. M. Pescado]

You never worry about pirates anyway. The threat of pirates is not what DAMAGE they cause, but the fact that your colony will scream and whine about it as if it was an actual attack. If you are at *WAR* with someone, like, say, the Grox, you need to defend against SERIOUS attacks, but pirate trash is a total waste of time and alertboard space!

Unfortunately, they won't always tell you which is which, as "aliens are raiding are cities" could be an actual attack, or it could be a bunch of worthless pirates that you will show up for and see only their mangled bits raining from the sky. Unhelpful.

As for the "spice savant" perk, well, it's definitely USEFUL, but since the bottleneck to production is typically nearly always your colony running out of SPACE to store it, it's not the best-thing-evar. Whereas less-false-alarms is always nice!

And yes, all the lesser prevention bonii tend to be useless, except this one. And, yes, the fact that races-that-aren't-yours sell the colony packs way cheaper than you can get at your own colonies even with full bonii makes the cost-reduction bonii worthless.

[Paperbladder]

For the space card it doesn't matter what order you get the crap in, the only thing that matters is the overall color.

Bard: +1 Blue
Knight: +1 Red
Ecologist: +1 Green
Zealot: +1 Red and +1 Green, +1 Red and +2 Green, +2 Red and +1 Green, +2 Red and +2 Green
Scientist: +1 Red and +1 Blue, +1 Red and +2 Blue, +2 Red and +1 Blue, +2 Red and +2 Blue
Diplomat: +1 Green and +1 Blue, +1 Green and +2 Blue, +2 Green and +1 Blue, +2 Green and +2 Blue
Warrior: +3 Red, +4 Red
Shaman: +3 Green, +4 Green
Trader: +3 Blue, +4 Blue
Wanderer: No Alignment.

[J. M. Pescado]

I am going to revise my above position slightly: Pirates-B-Gone does not quite make them as gone as expected. In fact, it appears to have no effect at all. Conversely, the lack of Spice Savant did not really make its presence apparent, either. I conclude that none of the Civilization-level powers really has a meaningful effect on the Space-stage and that its lack of importance means you should just pick whatever it is you need to do in order to achieve the desired "philosophy" superpower.

[Gus Smedstad]

The problem with the Zealot and Scientist abilities is that they incurr a global hit on your relationship scores with other empires.  If you're in a position to simply kill everyone, that's fine, but I think they're of limited use when you really need them.

Gracious Greeting from Tribal is quite visible at the Space Stage, though it only seems to take effect once you go in and talk to them at least once.  Spode types went from Unfriendly to Neutral, which is a big help at the start of the game.

I've gotten a colony revolt.  In my first game I had repeated heavy raids on my homeworld from a hostile race.  Lost several cities and a lot of buildings.  If your cities get unhappy enough because they lost all their entertainment buildings and kept their factories, this can show up.  So in practice "reduced colony revolt" is for stupid people who build their cities wrong, like +3 red faces or something.

The in-game help says that the Carnivore bonus is "increased weapon damage," not "increased power capacity," as the manual states.  I'm assuming the in-game help is correct.  Usually there is a significant lead time in writing and printing the manual.

 - Gus

[J. M. Pescado]

The problem with the Zealot and Scientist abilities is that they incurr a global hit on your relationship scores with other empires.  If you're in a position to simply kill everyone, that's fine, but I think they're of limited use when you really need them.

They do, yes. I used it in my Zealot game. Let's just say on first use, I was immediately awarded Warmonger 3 within 5 seconds. Undaunted, I proceeded to smash devastate the local population, creating a strung out empire of underdeveloped colonies and about 7 captured homeworlds before the dust finally settled. For Aiur! The fact is, *HAVING* those abilities puts you in a prime position to simply kill everyone. Remember, the abilities refresh every time you save and reload your game, and each press of the button costs the enemy a colony. And makes it yours, for Zealot. Depending on the galactic topology, it's possible to actually eradicate everyone who has ever heard of you, and start afresh with considerably more lebensraum at your disposal. The Zealot power is actually productive in this regard, in that using it on everyone in sight will actually make you progress (Whereas the scientist power will just leave you a burned out dustheap and not improve your situation at all, if you are using it on offense).

Incidentally, I also discovered dogfighting in Splotch is actually a skill, after shooting down like 8 ships while down to only 30 hitpoints. Turns out that dogfighting is actually a skill, and it is actually possible to dodge enemy shots and not get hit.

Gracious Greeting from Tribal is quite visible at the Space Stage, though it only seems to take effect once you go in and talk to them at least once.  Spode types went from Unfriendly to Neutral, which is a big help at the start of the game.

It really is, yes. Why do you think I gave it the "taster's choice"? It's +10 to rel on greet. It really does clearly edge out the others.

I've gotten a colony revolt.  In my first game I had repeated heavy raids on my homeworld from a hostile race.  Lost several cities and a lot of buildings.  If your cities get unhappy enough because they lost all their entertainment buildings and kept their factories, this can show up.  So in practice "reduced colony revolt" is for stupid people who build their cities wrong, like +3 red faces or something.

The in-game help says that the Carnivore bonus is "increased weapon damage," not "increased power capacity," as the manual states.  I'm assuming the in-game help is correct.  Usually there is a significant lead time in writing and printing the manual.

I do not recall seeing any change in weapon damage. But for reference purposes, the basic missile fired by a non-Carnivore-bonus race caused 30 points of damage. How much did you get with Carnivore Bonus? If still 30, either it doesn't work, or the perk is actually energy.

[EsotericPolarBear]

Incidentally, I also discovered dogfighting in Splotch is actually a skill, after shooting down like 8 ships while down to only 30 hitpoints. Turns out that dogfighting is actually a skill, and it is actually possible to dodge enemy shots and not get hit.

While it is indeed a skill, it is also a very, very, very poorly designed mechanic. 

[J. M. Pescado]

The dogfighting mechanic is made worse by the camera control mechanic, yes. I cannot make a Spathi Eluder that fights facing in the right direction!

[EsotericPolarBear]

I've found that flying in circles by holding forward and turn is the best way to both avoid shots and be able to easily target enemies.  If only I could ever manage to aim my circles during ground attacks.

[Gus Smedstad]

Remember, the abilities refresh every time you save and reload your game

I consider that an exploit.  That's not something I'm going to do, personally.

Turns out that dogfighting is actually a skill, and it is actually possible to dodge enemy shots and not get hit.

I'd noticed that you can dodge missiles, though I'm not good at it.  Sometimes they do close to beam weapon range.  Well, the Grox can manage that, anyway.

How much did you get with Carnivore Bonus? If still 30, either it doesn't work, or the perk is actually energy.

That's a good, good question.  My second Carnivore race is up to Space and unplayed, so I can go back and see how much the basic missile does.

 - Gus

[Zazazu]

Gracious Greeting from Tribal is quite visible at the Space Stage, though it only seems to take effect once you go in and talk to them at least once.  Spode types went from Unfriendly to Neutral, which is a big help at the start of the game.

It really is, yes. Why do you think I gave it the "taster's choice"? It's +10 to rel on greet. It really does clearly edge out the others.

Gracious Greeter + a quick hop to say hello whenever the military or Spodists yell at you for invading their space puts you at neutral. Trading one thing puts them at a slightly positive neutral, meaning they aren't going to ask for tribute. This makes a huge difference, as when they start asking for tribute, it's harder to get them to a friendly state and therefore to make them stop until you get to max annoyance. Less babysitting of the Spodists is a good thing. For me, a Red-Red-Green start seems hands-down to be the best choice.

I do think Spice Savant is great if you are picky about where you have colonies. With T2 planets (which I'll be changing to T3 once I unlock the mission for $1k atmosphere generators) giving blue and yellow at this point, I have more than one colony on each with two factories a piece. They produce quickly. I can't recall the exact figures. That and the true nature of the Carnivore bonus I can check when I get home.

For end-traits, it really depends on what kind of race you are playing. I don't like shooting planets up, preferring to focus on economics and alliances. For me, Knight is decent for helping with pirate raids early on. I'm not sure that it's worth it for the end trait alone once you have allied ships. Trader...I have a trader, but I haven't played with the trait. Potentially helpful if you run into occupied T3 planets with pink spice. If it makes buy-outs free, as I suspect, it would completely negate the need to make more than one or two colonies of your own in the early game. Shaman I can't decide about. It's a nice bonus, definitely useful, but I'm not sure that it outweighs other final traits.

For the space card it doesn't matter what order you get the crap in, the only thing that matters is the overall color.

Bard: +1 Blue
Knight: +1 Red
Ecologist: +1 Green
Zealot: +1 Red and +1 Green, +1 Red and +2 Green, +2 Red and +1 Green, +2 Red and +2 Green
Scientist: +1 Red and +1 Blue, +1 Red and +2 Blue, +2 Red and +1 Blue, +2 Red and +2 Blue
Diplomat: +1 Green and +1 Blue, +1 Green and +2 Blue, +2 Green and +1 Blue, +2 Green and +2 Blue
Warrior: +3 Red, +4 Red
Shaman: +3 Green, +4 Green
Trader: +3 Blue, +4 Blue
Wanderer: No Alignment.

What's the line, though? You have Bard as +1 Blue. You can only be one final trait, though. I guess I'm not reading that right. It seems like so many combinations would cross-qualify.

[J. M. Pescado]

I do think Spice Savant is great if you are picky about where you have colonies. With T2 planets (which I'll be changing to T3 once I unlock the mission for $1k atmosphere generators) giving blue and yellow at this point, I have more than one colony on each with two factories a piece. They produce quickly. I can't recall the exact figures. That and the true nature of the Carnivore bonus I can check when I get home.

The 1K atmosphere generators are one of the first missions. You know when they give you a free atmosphere generator at first, and tell you to go terraform the first planet you were told to colonize (regardless of if you colonized THAT one)? If you take the atmosphere generators and waste them terraforming other unrelated planets and not the one you were told, you can go back to Home and hail them and say you need moar tools. They will charge you $1K and give you another one. Keep wasting them until you achieve Terra-Wrangler 3, and then you can buy all 4 directional tools when you can afford them, and those cost only energy to use (which is free at home).

Potentially helpful if you run into occupied T3 planets with pink spice. If it makes buy-outs free, as I suspect, it would completely negate the need to make more than one or two colonies of your own in the early game.

It does not. You must still pay for the buyout, it just instantly "completes" the traderoute. It is not considered to be "against the galactic code", whatever the hell that is (I don't recall being a signatory to any such code), and does not anger anyone when you do it. However, later in the game when you have a strong economy, you can use it to very quickly devour entire empires by buying them out (as racial superpowers reload when you save/reload your game, like sims respawning by the mailbox).

What's the line, though? You have Bard as +1 Blue. You can only be one final trait, though. I guess I'm not reading that right. It seems like so many combinations would cross-qualify.

The "line" for 1 blue is that you get that trait if you are a failure and do not score progress values in previous stages because you skipped them.

[Gus Smedstad]

It's not just if you're a failure.

The way I saw the traits laid out on another forum was like this:

3+ Red: Warrior.
3+ Green: Shaman.
3+ Blue: Trader.

2 Red / 2 Green: Zealot.
2 Red / 2 Blue: Scientist.
2 Green / 2 Blue: Diplomat.

2 Red / 1 Green + 1 Blue: Knight.
2 Green / 1 Red + 1 Blue: Ecologist.
2 Blue / 1 Red + 1 Green: Bard.

Nothing (start at Space): Wanderer.

 - Gus

[J. M. Pescado]

All those are 4-point traits. Paperbladder was talking about what happens if you are suck and do not start from the beginning, and thus do not acquire all 4 points.

[Zazazu]

I do think Spice Savant is great if you are picky about where you have colonies. With T2 planets (which I'll be changing to T3 once I unlock the mission for $1k atmosphere generators) giving blue and yellow at this point, I have more than one colony on each with two factories a piece. They produce quickly. I can't recall the exact figures. That and the true nature of the Carnivore bonus I can check when I get home.

The 1K atmosphere generators are one of the first missions. You know when they give you a free atmosphere generator at first, and tell you to go terraform the first planet you were told to colonize (regardless of if you colonized THAT one)? If you take the atmosphere generators and waste them terraforming other unrelated planets and not the one you were told, you can go back to Home and hail them and say you need moar tools. They will charge you $1K and give you another one. Keep wasting them until you achieve Terra-Wrangler 3, and then you can buy all 4 directional tools when you can afford them, and those cost only energy to use (which is free at home).

I think something's up in my current game. I've taken the mission, but I don't get the atmosphere generator or the starter creatures/plants.  I've retried a couple of times. I know this is an exploit...I've done it in other games.

[J. M. Pescado]

You may have to empty your cargo bay of crap, they might not give you the mission if your cargo bay is full of crap. Or if you already terraformed the planet.

[Zazazu]

Plenty 'o' room in the cargo bay. As for the terraforming...I don't think I touched the planet in any way. I'll have to double check when I'm home. The mission isn't registering as done. Yeah, I have three or four other colonies already, but I didn't use atmosphere generators on any of them.

[Paperbladder]

Other than starting in Civilization stage, you can also get it by starting in Cell stage and having the first three cards of some combination of Red, Green, and Blue.  They cancel each other out, making the result of the Civilization stage the "+1".

[Gus Smedstad]

You were right, J.M.  I took the primitive carnivore spaceship out for a spin, blasted some pirates who were destroying my cities (not merely stealing, the bastards), and the basic mini-proton missile did 30 points a pop.  No damage bonus for being a Carnivore.

Too bad there's no way to get a concrete number on energy storage.  That'd cinch whether there was an energy bonus, and if so, how much.

 - Gus

[J. M. Pescado]

Fire your lazor until the energy tank is empty, then see how much it takes to recharge at a domestic colony.

[Gus Smedstad]

It appears the energy bonus for Carnivore is substantial, +50%.  On completely empty tanks and Hard, a Carnivore cost $1500 to refill, and a Herbivore cost $1000.  Firing a minimal blast of the mini-laser is $5, so it's probably 300 energy vs. 200.

The health bonus is +50% as well, not +25%.  The Herbivore's ship has 300 HP vs. the Carnivore's 451 HP.  I'm not sure where the 1 came from.

That said, if you're conducting a battle correctly, energy isn't critical.  Oh, sure, in my first game I was constantly running out of energy when trying to fight, but I sucked.  I didn't hire mercs to occupy the enemy ships, and trying to take on a T2 or T3's defense fleet by yourself will run your tanks dry pretty quickly.

Once Energy Mega Packs become available, this bonus loses most of its importance, but it's still not shabby.

 - Gus