A Guide to Social Projects

from Stardock Forums
A question appear on the main forum about social projects so here's a breakdown. Social projects can be divided into several categories.

PQ enhancements:
are essential - these are the most beneficial enhancements out there
Soil Enhancements: well worth it
Habitat Improvement: same cost/effect as SE
Terraforming: construction costs viable only at the most industrustrious planets

Economic enhancements
give you more money - if you want more money, build these; need I say more
Banking Center: extreme value
Economic Exchange: great if you have the social spending to build it
Stock Market: extreme value and great moral boost too

Moral enhancements
are for everyone - for population growth to go to war or to increase tax income these are the social projects to build
Entertainment Net: first major moral booster and a great value
Multimedia Cen: not bad, build if you need the moral
Harmony Gen: expensive to build, again build if you need the moral
Virtual Reality C: operating costs make this pure trash
Stadium: extreme value and low cost
Teleporters: extreme value and moderate cost
Orbital Hospital: either you really need the moral or you have a really good research planet - not a value

Research enhancements:
are for techers - better to acquire research resources instead, but buildings are worth it
Research Lab: best value
Research Cen: with enough research spending build it
Info Net: worst deal out there
Neural Net: with enough research spending and economic activity consider building it
Galactic Research: with enough research spending build it

Industrial enhancements
are for builders - build these at your high production colonies
Manufacturing: first industrial booster and great value
Fusion Power: low construction cost and economy boost offset by a large operating cost - build for your richer colonies
Anti-matter: expensive to build but best over the long run

Influence enhancements
are for cultural victories - build these at your cultural centers
Embassy: moral and economy bonus makes this a moderate value
Cultural Exchange: expensive to upkeep - destroy when no longer needed

Cultural resist
are for preventing flipping - never build these unless you need them to combat enemy culture
News Net: excellent value and some moral thrown in
Secret Police: best value for cultural resist
Propaganda Cen: absolute trash
Re-education: very expensive but effective
Spin Control: trash, but sometimes you must

Multi-purpose enhancements
are not exceptional - build these if you want a mixture of benefits or if there are no good values to construct
Medical Center: economics, moral, and starship - not bad but not good
Trade Center: excellent except for the high construction cost

Starship enhancements
are for the military - shipyards can be built everywhere , but try to concentrate everything else a few highly productive colonies
Shipyard: cheap and good
Advanced QC: why did you build this - but if captured, it isn't worth destroying
SS Foundry: good but expensive
Hyperion Shipyard: good but really expensive

Planetary Defensives
are for dire conditions (or for the paper tiger) - build sparingly since these upkeep costs are prohibitive for mass construction
Planetary Defense
SS Defense
Omega Defense
[Message Edited]
4,597 views 18 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
I have to say that you left out a significant advantage to research buildings: they also each have a 10% influence bonus. If you're going the culture-bomb route, then the research lab and maybe even the research center are worth it because both effects you get are very useful - tech. bonus helps to get to all the (many, many) influence wonders/TG's first.

-EtherMage





~SDC~
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
I agree. Some of these buildings are worthless. In some games I build them because there is nothing else to build. Perhaps if they allowed a capitalization wonder like civ?? I just hate wasting all that money.
Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
Virtual Reality Center

I build these in one circumstance. I have a high-PQ planet and a low-PQ planet orbitting the same star (say 30 and 15). The game won't allow me to use transports to land population solely on the good planet; it's distributed evenly. Rather than facing a morale problem on the poor planet, or underpopulating the good planet, I build a virtual reality center on the poor planet.
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
Better way is to build a colony ship at one of the two planets and shift around your population that way. They are really cheap to build are doesn't cost all that upkeep. When you launch a colony ship, you take tax payers equally from both planets. When you land them, they all go to one planet.

I don't know the exact numbers, but the colony ship costs 300-500 to out right buy/lease, and the Virtual Reality Center costs 400 to build. Why go with VR centers then?
[Message Edited]
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
Ok, some clarification, here.

When I say 'trash', I mean it is not a good idea to even build it. VR Centers at 5 operating cost is not worth it. If I found it on a conquered planet, I would destroy it immediately.
The ones that are questionable for building are commented as 'not values'. I for example would not build Orbital Hospitals except on the most research intensive planets.
The ones that are questionable for value - construction cost vs. benefit - are marked 'expensive' or unviable for most planets.
Everything else is pretty much self-explanatory.
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
Gengsta

great list and great comments - I could not figure out why some higher projects had a horrendous maintenance cost and gave lower bonus then the lower projects.

Looks like the project list could use some tweaking to me. ;)
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
Maybe it's to reward people who pay attention? :p

I used to build everything until I went up in difficulty and started paying attention, heh...

~SDC~
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
When I say 'trash', I mean it is not a good idea to even build it. VR Centers at 5 operating cost is not worth it. If I found it on a conquered planet, I would destroy it immediately.

How do you destroy it?

Spikeman258
Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top
On the colony screen, click "details." There should be a list of improvements on the left, and a "cancel improvement" button below it.
Reply #11 from Stardock Forums Top
Gengsta --
VR centers can be of great value in certain circumstances. If you have say 30 planets and 28 of them are at 100% morale and 2 of them are at 54% morale, build VR centers on the lowest two planets. This will allow you to increase your tax income beyond the 10BC maintenance costs, and doesn't hit your production or tax base like "spacing" does. It's a question of total return, not just local return.
Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top
Congrats on third place, Maxtipherous! I don't think anybody has congratulated you on that. :CONGRAT:

The offer to join the Fellowship remains open!
Reply #13 from Stardock Forums Top
Darn. I saw this post and got excited because I thought Gengsta was playing again. No such luck. :(

Maxti congrats on 3rd place. You are an excellent and very dedicated player but on gigantic, it might take anyone a while to reach fleet admiral. ;)
Reply #14 from Stardock Forums Top
We're heading into winter break at college... maybe he'll find the time for a few games.

And yes, Maxti deserves congratulations. Congratulations!
Reply #17 from Stardock Forums Top
well, this thread explains why my economy was completely bombing by later in the game.
i've played 2 games so far (just got the game), one on tiny/as easy as possible and one on small with the second easiest level for all IAs.

both times, by the end of the game i was depending on extorting money (for tech mostly) from the AIs to keep my spending over 50% of taxes.

i now understand that it was cause i should not have been building EVERY improvement on every planet.
live and learn.
also explains the reason for having more then one governor.