by Petri
Konrad von Richtmark wrote:
I had to go back and recheck the rules. I somehow thought that a half wormhole was sufficient for diplomatic relations if either party had wormhole generators. Apparently I was mistaken. Granted, that would decrease the potency of the proposed Lyran strategy of taking cover behind a one-way traversible barrier and choosing when to break out of your bubble.
Even if you isolated yourself (which is quite hard to do, actually) you could most likely get 1-2 (poor) systems outside of your own isolated area and form the diplomatic relationships then. But by then, you're already on turn 4, so others might not want your ambassadors anymore and even if they do, you lose 2-3 turns of production. I'm not saying you should never do that, but it doesn't seem like a strategy that would be (too) strong.
But I'm really not sure there's such a significant opportunity cost in getting wormhole shrines after turn 3. It only costs 6 resources, about the price of one cheap-to-midrange tech, or a cruiser. And, mind you, no actual action is needed to build the shrines, and early-game actions in themselves cost about 1-2 money.
2 less materials can delay your attack against ancients by 1 turn, or make you vulnerable for early attacks. Last time I played the game (as Terrans), Lyra built the material shrine on turn 1 and they had only 5 materials on turn 2. Starbases were not available. I purchased improved hull and neutron bombs and took Lyran home sector with a dreadnought on turn 2. So you need to be extra careful when spending your early materials on shrines.
Also, 2 less science might mean that you get some juicy tech 1 turn later or not at all. Both of these effects can be big.