The Cyborg Collective - Guide

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Contents

[edit] Overview

[edit] Strengths

  • Warp and Base Chunnel ships. Make the Borg the fastest moving race.
  • Can assimilate other colonists and natives.
  • The Cyborg King provides special benefits, such as income increase, population growth, increased assimilation rate, free technology increases, and free building structure creation.
  • Chupanoids will not join a Cyborg base.
  • Ground assault losses versus most races will be lessened.
  • Good terraforming capabilities.
  • Cyborg prisoners do not work in Labor Camps or Mines.
  • Do not lose happiness from excessive Mineral Mines.
  • Can not be spied upon (except by Birdmen Praetorian Master Spies).
  • Gravitonic and Barbitic Minefield Droppers.
  • Cyborg are resistant to changes in happiness.
  • Increased Resource Points allocation due to low racial stat of growth rate. Even if they are a Very Fast growing race.
  • Immune to the effects of the Assault Gondala.
  • Cyborg don't care if their personnel are held prisoner. There will be no happiness drop.

[edit] Weaknesses

  • Cyborg can have only one high guard unit (the Cyborg King). This means that their wings will never get bonuses for high guard being a part of the wing. They cannot be spied against, so this weakness doesn't apply to not having ample high guard on ships or at bases to defend against spy attacks.
  • Low growth rate on all planet without their King.
  • Can not train troops, crew, or high guard using Training Centers. They use special rules for getting troops and crew. They only have 1 high guard: The Cyborg King.
  • Can not buy or sell contraband.
  • Can not spy on enemies.
  • If Humanoids or Ghipsoldals see any ship of Cyborg design, belonging to any player, there is a 50% chance they will send a distress call to all empires (except Cyborg) requesting help.
  • Amorphous Worms and Siliconoids will not join a Cyborg Base (except via PSP).

[edit] Ships

  • Warp and Base Chunnel ships.
  • The Crystal X Field has a reduced effect against Cyborg Warp Chunneler ships.
  • Using the powers of their Cyborg King, they have a chance to advance in Hull and Engine technology quickly.
  • Cyborg ships convert duranium on board into armor when needed. 1 kt of duranium changes into 100 units of ship armor. This is a race ability, not a hull-specific ability, thus all captured ships can be repaired using this method.
  • Cyborg colonists will become troops when boarding enemy ships.
  • Hyperjumping scout ship with Bioscanner.
  • Good spread of ship devices.
  • No Laser Minefield Droppers.
  • Expensive ships.
  • No Super Weapons.
  • 100 to 550 scan range on ships.
  • Cannot build a Pod Launch Pad. This means that they will have to recycle their ship at a base and build a new one to perform upgrades
    Until they capture a Pod Launch Pad from another race. I've noticed many non-Borg players seem to use Pods for shipping and so have Pod Lauch Pods everywhere so it's not exactly hard to find an underdefended one to relocate back to your empire. John Nunn
  • Immune to hull plan restrictions, which allows them to use alien hull plan even when the HConfig say no. Look in Here for more details.
  • Hacker Droid will allow you to mass produce any alien hull you get your hand on (can be On / OFF in HConfig, default is On)

[edit] Special

[edit] The Cyborg King

The Cyborg only have 1 high guard ranger and that is the Cyborg King. He has a number of special abilities that modify the game mechanics.

  • When he dies or is captured, another Cyborg King is created on a random base.
  • The King at a base will give the base a 5% interest on the cash present in the base.
  • The King at a base will give the base a 800% increase in population growth.
  • The King increases local taxes by 300%.
  • The King can assimilate an entire native Humanoid population in a single turn. If there are more than 100,000 Humanoids on the planet the Cyborg get a free hull tech upgrade.
  • If their King assimilates a population of 100,000 Ghipsoldals or more, the Cyborg will get a free engine tech upgrade.
  • If the King is on a base that has 5,000 or more megacredits and no King's Palace he will build a King's Palace regardless of what your current planet tech level is. It will still cost 5,000 megacredits, but no supply units.
  • The King can take over ONE enemy Cyborg ship that is within 10LY of the base he is at or 25LY of the ship he is in, if the enemy's King is more than 300 LY away.
  • A Cyborg base with the King is immune to Privateer money tap. The immunity is lost if the base has alien hull ship plans stored at the base.

[edit] Assimilation

The Cyborg don't grow as rapidly due to their ability to assimilate other races and some natives. When they assimilate someone, it converts them into a Cyborg colonist. These rules show the results of assimilation through co-existing with an enemy base on the same planet. Ships that have the Assimilation Beam device on it can assimilate colonists (not natives) using the rules found on that device's page. The Cyborg Assimilator is a ground vehicle that has its own set of assimiltation rules. When referring to "population" or "person" below, it is considered colonists, crew, troops, and high guard rangers.

  • Cyborg personnel (colonists, crew and troops) can assimilate 1 enemy person each up to a limit of 500. If the Cyborg have over 10,000 colonists on a planet, they can assimilate enemy population at the rate of 5% (of the Cyborg colonists) and grab more than 500 per turn that way. The enemy base will have an log message entry: "Help! We are being assimilated! xxxxx colonists taken!" When there are multiple enemy bases, all bases are assimilated at the given rate separately. The order is in reverse base ID order. The increase in Cyborg colonists is applied to the assimilation rate for the next base during the same turn. Example: If you have 1,000,000 personnel at a base then you will assimilate 50,000 for the first base and then assimilate 52,500 in the next base due to the increase in your colonist count.
  • No megacredits are gained by assimilating enemy population using Cyborg personnel alone. If you have at least 1 Cyborg Assimilator in the base then it will combine its assimilation efforts with your Cyborg personnel and provide .1 megacredit per assimilated enemy. Example: If you have 1,000,000 Cyborg personnel and a Cyborg Assimilator in a base, then it is capable of assimilating 50,000 + 1,000 and gaining 5,100 megacredits. Exception: Assimilating The Birdman Republic and enemy prisoners will not generate any megacredits.
  • Cyborgs can not assimilate Crystals, Robots or other Cyborgs.
  • Cyborgs can assimilate Solorians, but they die instantly.
  • Any compatible prisoners will be assimilated instantly. This situation will normally only occur when you capture an enemy base via ground attack. Enemy Cyborg prisoners can be assimilated. I confirmed with Tim that this is acceptable.
  • If a base has more highguard than the Cyborg can assimilate in a turn the highguard will NOT be assimilated and the base will NOT be taken.
  • Any player that has their Races | Ally Commands | Attack! setting turned off will still be subject to assimilation unless the Cyborg player also has the setting turned off. This allows the Cyborg to have allied bases on the same planet.
  • When an enemy base is has all of its personnel completely assimilated, the ownership of the base is changed to that of the assimilator.
  • 1 to 20,000 Cyborg personnel can assimilate one native each. The number that they can assimilate each decreases at a constant rate from 1 to 0.2 as the Cyborg personnel increases from 20,000 to 100,000. Cyborg cannot assimilate Amorphous, Siliconoid, or Chupanoid natives.
  • Cyborg get .05 megacredits per native that they assimilate.
  • You must assimilate 6 Insectoids to make one whole Cyborg.
  • Natives inside a Cyborg base will be assimilated instantly. An incorrect base log message will appear stating the wrong amount of natives and money, but you actually have assimilated all natives and gained all of the expected megacredits. This situation will normally only occur when a Native Dust Off device is captured or an ally gives the Cyborg natives or when you capture an enemy base with natives in it.
    • I've never gotten money from natives in captured bases (playing Borg since Host ~188) Rumata 00:59, 13 February 2008 (CET)
  • The Cyborg King has special assimilation abilities.
  • Assimilation occurs after ships transport to/from planets and bases.
  • Assimilation starts on the same turn that a ship to planet transport or pod landing occurs. It does not have to wait a turn like Ground Combat.
  • Natives on the planet surface are assimilated first and that increase in Cyborg colonists is then applied to assimilating enemy population. In other words, if you have 4 Cyborgs on a planet with natives and an enemy base then you will assimilate 4 natives then 8 enemy colonists.

[edit] Crew and Troops

The Cyborg cannot build or use Training Centers and thus cannot train crews, troops or HG. Their crew and troop mechanics work a bit differently than other races. The combat rating of colonists, crew, and troops are the same, but they work differently in combat formulas depending on their status.

  • In a ground war between the Cyborg and any other race besides the Lizards, Crystals or another Cyborg; 30% of the defeated Cyborg colonists will be reclaimed as colonists. The Birdmen can reclaim 50%. Cyborg killed by assault units or fighters will NOT be recovered.
  • 20% of Borg colonists drones are converted into troops by either side having global attack on for each other and sharing a planet. Regardless of the number of enemy personnel present, and even if both bases are locally set to peaceful. This occurs before ground combat would and in fact is before assmilation.
  • Cyborg troop in a base change back into colonists at the rate of 5% per turn.
  • Cyborg colonists are transformed into troops when sent over to an enemy ship for a boarding action. Any excess colonists that were transferred will come back to the transferring ship as troops.
  • When colonists are transferred onto a Cyborg ship they will be automatically converted to crew, if the ship is not already fully crewed. Cyborg maintain a 10% crew population on every ground base. Cyborg auto convert colonists to crew for new ships. Keeps the crew ratio limits from blocking large numbers of new quick builds. This change occurs after movement.
  • Cyborg crew in a base will not change status unless there is at least 1 colonist in the base. They will remain crew for the rest of the game.
  • Cyborg troop in a ship will remain troop for as long they stay in the ship.

[edit] Contraband

  • The Cyborg cannot buy or sell contraband. If they try to buy or sell contraband via the base contraband screen, they will get the base log message: 
"Contraband traders will not make contact with us. Order cancelled. We are Cyborg."
  • Amorphous Worms inside a Cyborg base will produce Lerchin Spices as normal.
  • If the Cyborg have contraband in their base, they are subject to crime level adjustments when the value of the contraband decreases. As the Cyborg cannot sell the contraband nor do they have Pod Launch Pads, this can be a problem for them. They may acquire a Pod Launch Pad from capturing a base, so they can get rid of it that way or merge two bases together that have a pod pad using Base Chunneler.

[edit] Earning Megacredits

In addition to the standard mechanisms for acquiring megacredits, the Cyborg have a number of race specific means to earn them.

  • Base structure King's Palace will generate 1000 MC for the Galactic Bank and 100mc for the base..
  • The Cyborg King will increase the tax rate of the planet it is located on by 300%. This means you should get 1658 mc taxes from 1M drones. 1160 mc will stay in the Hive and 498mc should go to the GB.
  • The King at a base will cause megacredits at the base to earn 5% interest a turn. For example, ignoring other income 1000mc will become 1050mc. After all the base jobs are done the King multiplies the remaining money by 1.05
  • Cyborg get .05 mc per native that they assimilate.
  • Cyborg Assimilator, a ground assault unit, gathers megacredits from all assimilated enemy colonists at a rate of 0.1 MC per enemy colonist taken by the Assimilator or Cyborg personnel.
  • Also crew, troops and PoWs are taken and turned into drones which will then produce more tax and city income. But they do not produce the 0.1MC income like hostile colonists.

[edit] Strategy

[edit] Map Size

The Borg strengh grow even stronger, when the map is big, when there is many planets (more than 500), when they are many player (more than 10).

  • The size of the map, increase the travel time of non-Borg player, the borg have instantenious unlimited travel with their chunnel.
  • More planets, mean more space to hide and assimilate, until your reach your cube status.
  • More players, mean more people to assimilate, new players & drop out are plentiful and extremly easy target.

[edit] Natives

  • You can do very in low-average natives setup, but will grow in power, in their is more.
  • The early assimilated natives, help to increase your tech faster, and increase your population on your HW for more taxes.
  • Raise hull tech to 2, to be able to build probes.
  • Build many B200 Class Probes to scan the map and locate natives. Use the free part, low speed engine and HYP engine in storage.
  • You need to get planet tech 3, to be able to build King's Palace (without moving your king around).
  • You need to build as many King's Palaces as possible. Aim to create one per turn, until you have a total near 9.
  • You priority is to reach hull tech 10. (Aim for turn 10-14 the sooner the better)
  • Your first Annihilation is extremly important to defend your HW, turn on the gravity well generator, and lay both types of mines, but gravity first.
  • You need to get planet tech 4, to be able to build Military space port an Engine plant, so you can build a firecloud in your far away base and expand your firecloud network.
  • After you have your firecloud network established and your first cube, raise other military tech, build new king palace to be able to turn on Exotic Tech TOT A and keep it on for the rest of the game.
  • Borg master the art of concentration from Shun Tzu The Art of War (book). Warp and Base Chunnel are their greatest weapon. Boarding & Assimilation are their 2nd, and regular weaponery fall in 3rd.

[edit] Population to Aim for

  • Starting with 2 000 000 Colonist, Low-Average natives, an almost no enemy colonists assimilated. ET Tot A active as soon as possible. The maxium active cities on the Borg HW has been 50, and have been turned off early.

Turn 1: 2 Mil Total Colonists population
Turn 30: 26-30 Mil Total Colonists population
Turn 40: 100 Mil Total Colonists population
Turn 43: 117 Mil Total Colonists population
Turn 46: 140 Mil Total Colonists population
Turn 50: 150-175 Mil Total Colonists population
Turn 52: 195 Mil Total Colonists population

[edit] Assimilation & Growth Analysis

There is the order

  1. Troop conversion
  2. Ground assault
  3. Crew maintaining
  4. Breeding
  5. Re-Breeding
  6. Crew maintaining
  7. Drone re-conversion
  8. Ground assimilation

The re-breeding and the second crew maintaining is the reason why Borg should grow above calculated growth rates. So it seems that it is not the worst idea to chunnel in the HW after setting a blockade over an enemy world which has to be assimilated. Don't worry about the troop conversion. The first crew maintaining turns some crew into drones and the re-breeding makes new drones from crew and new crew from troops. Then the second crew maintaining turns a lot of the re-breeded crew back into drones. So one should be able to make from the natural growth of 9% a turn based growth of 13% and from 21% with TOTA a turn based growth of 25%. If you start with 0 troops then over 25 turns you can yield a overall mean growth of 9% per turn even if every turn troop conversion takes place. In the case of TOTA an full growth the 21% overall mean should be reached after 18 turns again even under troop conversion every turn.

Also in the case of food shortage the troop conversion, re-breeding and crew maintaining can help as re-breeding seems to be independent of the food stock pile.

GFM GToeroe

[edit] Contested

This analysis is only correct in a limited sense. One can indeed boost one's growth rate (expressed as numberOfNewColonists/numberOfColonistsLastTurn) by transforming some of the population to troops. However, this is irrelevant:

Because of the Crew Maintaining (and troops re-breeding Crew) a Borg's growth-rate is applied to the whole population (cols+crew+troops). This means moving people from cols to troops keeps the numberOfNewColonists constant; it just looks like an increase in growth-rate, because numberOfColonistsLastTurn is lower (by the number of colonists transformed to troops).

Consider two worlds with 2M population but a different distribution (Growth-rate assumed 10% for simplicity):

  • I: 1800,000 cols 200,000 crew
  • II: 900,000 cols, 100,000 crew, 1000,000 troops

Growth:

  • I: cols breeding: 1800,000 * 0.1 = 180,000 new cols; crew re-breeding cols: 200,000 * 0.1 = 20,000; total: 200,000 new cols.

Result: 180,000 new cols and 20,000 new crew after second Crew Maintaining phase.

  • II: cols breeding: 900,000 * 0.1 = 90,000 new cols; crew re-breeding cols: 100,000 * 0.1 = 10,000; troops re-breeding crew: 1000,000 * 0.1 = 100,000; total: 100,000 new cols, 100,000 new crew.

Result: 180,000 new cols and 20,000 new crew after second Crew Maintaining phase.

So, case II has double the growth-rate (expressed as numberOfNewColonists/numberOfColonistsLastTurn). But absolute growth (and growth-rate relative to total population) are the same.

All we have achieved in case II is transforming 900k tax-paying, city dwelling, farm and factory working drones into freeloaders. Don't do this ;-)

Addendum: I overlooked the troop re-conversion in my take here. This means that in case II an additional 50,000 colonists are created (at the expense of 50,000 (5%) troops). However, this is not growth, since these troops started out as colos at one time, and it does not change the overall population.

Exceptions: There's two corner cases where it might make sense to have a lot of troops:

  • Food shortage: since the food-stockpile necessary for full growth is calculated from the number of colonists, case II needs only half the food to achieve the same growth-rate as case I. The trade-offs here are murky and complicated.
  • Hive topped out: away from the King the Borg have no growth to speak of. So once the Hive is near the 50M colo limit the absolute growth of the Borg empire will fall further and further behind the other Empires. By creating many millions of troops, this limit can be pushed up to maybe 80M (cols+troops). Again, the best course is unclear, and the situation is complicated. Better win before you hit those limits.

Rumata 04:10, 3 February 2008 (CET)

[edit] Afterthoughts

In the analyses above I completely ignored income (besides stating that troops are freeloaders). However, the assimilation-income is substantial: 500Mc/100k personnel. This is in addition to the normal income of 100Mc + 55Mc + 111Mc (city + tax + King-tax-bonus) per 100k colonists. So basically one trades triple-income now for 80% income in the future.

In a recent game I tried to use an intermediate strategy:

  • chunnel HW to enemy HW for one turn; 10M colo -> 8M colo + 2M troops + 50k Mc. Since I had a (minor) food shortage this didn't influence my growth much.
  • put the 2M troops on a world with captured Government Center and chunnel to major (100k+ population) enemy worlds. Assimilates 100k per turn, and creates 10k Mc to be put into the Galactic Bank.

No plan survives contact with the enemy, so I failed to take 100% advantage of it. However, I did manage to get the 50k Mc one-time-boost (covers money for almost 2 top of the line cubes), and every now and then a boost to Galactic income. A more hidden cost is that it takes longer to take over the enemy world, hence it also takes longer till one can take advantage of booty (foods/metalls/supplies/extra population). It also gives the enemy ample opportunity to hurt the hive, so buyer beware.

I think I came out ahead, but as stated above, complicated stuff like this is never clear cut.

Rumata 03:36, 19 March 2008 (CET)


[edit] Enemies

  • The Birdman Republic: Their Darkwing G can fire through Cyborg shields and their Nanovirus Bomb ship device will convert Cyborg into natives. But even worst is their WCM.
  • The Robotic Imperium You can't assimilate them, but they can take away your colonist with their nest, you can't send cubes in their space, when they have reached gunzero status. Your fighter cost to much to be a valid option vs them, you need to take them out, before they reach gunzero.
  • The Solorian Unity Their SML will blow up your firecouds, and could even blow up cubes if many shot are fired a point blank range.
  • False Cyborg Collective (other Cyborg player in the same game). You can't assimilate them
  • The Feds, you can't board them, they can swarm you and they control the minefields.
  • Any Races using WCM on your bases.
  • Any Races using boarding on your Fireclouds. (especially from full cloaker)

[edit] Easy target

[edit] Overview

Easy target is trapped by gravity well genarator and by gravity mines and are boarded by fast (warp 190) Annihilation with many Sand Casters and Turbo Lasers PD to defend vs their fighters.

[edit] See also

Retrieved from "http://planets4.hood-net.org/wiki/index.php/The_Cyborg_Collective_-_Guide"
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