Going from desert to arctic is a better choice, because you keep the same pop level, reduce the dust and boost the science. At least until you're able to bump it up to tundra. Plus, then when you are ready to go to tundra you don't have to bring it back up to arctic/desert level first because it's already there. Of course I'm still in the mindset of raising the tier of the planets to make them better, because that was the best way in vanilla, plus the approval issues with all the other races.



A thought just occurred to me. There is a +pop improvement that only works on gas giants and asteroids. Plus there's the science booster (telescope looking one) that is also good with gas giants. So with these two improvements in mind, perhaps terraforming down to Methane and Helium everywhere might not be such a bad idea, especially with Cloning 1 and the Harmony unique building both adding +1 food per pop each to the gas giants and asteroids. If need be we could always keep a single ocean, jungle or tundra in each system for the extra food.



IIRC the terraforming to lava and the gas giant terraforming techs are a lot cheaper than bee-lining to the purification tech. Since both Helium and Methane only have 1 dust per pop, the only real dust problem would be from the terrans and asteroids, so the purification wouldn't have to be rushed.



I think I'm gonna go try the galaxy of gas idea now.

I transform Barren and Desert to lava all day. Then eventually I will transform it back to Tundra. There is usually a big break between them and the extra lava worlds give me huge production boost even if I lose the pop. Desert planets just plain suck.

transforming arid right to methane or helium is so useful.

ssg wrote:
Has any patch solved Strategic Resource and weapons modules problem on Disharmony? Can I install older modules to my ships if we don't have required resource but I have researched tech that requires strategic resoruces?

If you mean go back/downgrade to previous module that don`t req the strategic resource your missing? Yes you can!

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The actual Dust production amount doesn't seem to affect them, it is just does a planet produce Dust or not. All planets produce Dust unless they have been purified which requires the tech and building the upgrade on the planet. I haven't tested, but I believe a planet that produces 0 Dust that is not purified still is counted as producing Dust.

Containment Fields are vital to getting your planets productive. Xenology doesn't help you much, except for the food bonuses. However, you can get the Metal Mineral Technology which makes having abundances very, very useful.

Dust doesn't exist for you, the Dust you gain in trading are lost with no effect. You can research a technology that changes Dust in trading into Food.

Correct. You don't pay upkeep, for anything.

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Very helpful answers, thanks!



So you get a fixed amount of Dust on all planets disregarding size or type? Do you think the Dust penalty on this is so severe that it`s crucial for Harmony to focus on science and Galactic Warfare to get the Contamination Barrier early on?

As the Harmony, the lack of Dust means you can't buyout improvements, do retrofitting, or perform trades that rely on currency. Your worlds also take a -50% growth penalty when building warships. Don't go 100% science, instead dial it to the right until your planets start to lose population, then dial it back a notch. When any kind of scientific effort would take too long to research, focus on food instead: the additional population growth will speed up your economy. Once the growth of your planets slows, swing back to science.

Stargem wrote:
As the Harmony, the lack of Dust means you can't buyout improvements, do retrofitting, or perform trades that rely on currency. Your worlds also take a -50% growth penalty when building warships. Don't go 100% science, instead dial it to the right until your planets start to lose population, then dial it back a notch. When any kind of scientific effort would take too long to research, focus on food instead: the additional population growth will speed up your economy. Once the growth of your planets slows, swing back to science.

Right. Im always tempted to focus food because of the Harmonize Planets which gives you 50% more FIDS on full pop planets, but i guess the challenge is to find the right food/sci balance.

You don't get Dust. You do get penalties for having planets that can produce Dust beyond your first 3 systems (I think). You'll also get massive penalties (that reduce over time) when you capture another world via conquest.

• I've played one game with Harmony on Impossible.
• I found the early game very tough going, but it was fairly easy at the end.
• I was at war with the top 2 races (Automaton, Horatio) throughout the early game and I was at the bottom of the score charts. That was tough. I was eventually able to ally with the Amoebas, that helped.
• I was able to maintain parity by relying on glass cannon ship design.
• Eventually get tectonics and never build anything larger. Always give them 2 battle bombers or battle fighters.
• In my understanding what you'll want to do is use Growth & Science cycles. When you are in a growth cycle, max out the food slider & try not to build ships (-50% to -100% population growth modifiers when you are building ships).
• When you are in a Science Cycle, build lots of ships and set your science as high as possible while not starving planets.
• Some players have suggested that maxing growth and using production to science builds to produce your science.
• Research priorities are the basic facilities for production, food, & science, wormhole travel, level 1 defenses, dust penalty reduction technologies, and higher level missile tech.
• When you are getting close to expanding past 3 systems, consider picking up disharmony reduction technologies.
• Choose good systems at the start and don't wait to long to do so, you have a very rough early game.
• Metal Memory is your late game hero equalizer.
• Lots of cheap ships that you don't pay upkeep for is your early game neutralizer.
• I like to imagine my fleets as a bunch of missiles, kinetic launchers, and lasers with a single chair attached. Pilots in our fleets, upon graduation from basic training, are awarded their pre-posthumous thank you for serving dinner/memorial dinners.
  
  

thuvian wrote:

I like to imagine my fleets as a bunch of missiles, kinetic launchers, and lasers with a single chair attached. Pilots in our fleets, upon graduation from basic training, are awarded their pre-posthumous thank you for serving dinner/memorial dinners.

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So i`ll go for glass cannons then Still Dreadnoughts got a bit stronger after last patch tho i think



Thx for all tips!

Early game set Food +100% and change industry to Science, As long as you're populating primarily Tundra and Jungle planets you'll be gaining research at a normal rate. In general improvements on systems are less useful than getting another pip of population, because getting more industry is better than trying to balance the tax slider.



I gotta try the Harmony on higher difficulties though XD

I wrote this summary in another thread and will paste it in here as a note to self (and others who struggle with the Harmony) :P



After playing a couple of games with The Harmony i`v found three things i believe is key to success in early/mid game. The tech you need you`ll find in the Galactic Warfare, Diplomacy & Trading and Exploration and Expansion trees. Keep research in the Applied Sciences tree to a minimum.



1. Harmonize Planets: With The Harmony, start out with focus on food production, fill up planets pop cap and go for the Harmonize Planets in the Diplomacy and Trading tech tree. It is extremely important to manually adjust your planet population in all systems so you always keep so many planets as possible pop capped and get the +50% FIDS bonus.



2. Applied Casimir/Atmospherics: Get only a few systems with as many planets as possible in the start (max 3 systems). This should not be exceeded before researching Applied Casimir Effect (Colonization program). You can then further expand with a couple of systems after getting the Applied Atmospherics (Orbital Counseling). This two will combined give you a 2 x -22% expansion disapproval.



3. Contamination Barriers: Get this tech in the Galactic Warfare tree as soon as possible. This will remove all Dust penalties in all system where its built and suddenly you can compete with the other factions!



Have hard focus on industry through out the whole game so you benefit as much as possible when converting it to Science (or Food in some cases).

yeah once you get the contamination barriers its almost a cakewalk, your FIDS goes through the roof, well the FIS

Has any patch solved Strategic Resource and weapons modules problem on Disharmony? Can I install older modules to my ships if we don't have required resource but I have researched tech that requires strategic resoruces?

Hi. Didn`t find another general question thread for The Harmony so i made one here, hopefully in the right forum. I do wish there where faction sub forums here, i think all factions deserve a sub forum each!







Anyways, i tried the manual first but im afraid its not very helpful on this subject.. so have some questions regarding Gold aka Dust and Luxury resources:





1 Because of the negative effect caused by Dust, is it in normal circumstances worth taking over Arid and Desert planets? or worse, Arid and Desert planets containing luxury resources with Dust bonuses?



2 Should i avoid the Containment Fields tech as it has mostly Dust focused output? and maby Xenology as long as possible as well?



3 How does the Dust income from trading effect the empire and can i trade Dust away?



4 And because of their non Dust policy, can you never loose anything by having an ineffective Star improvement?







Thx in advance

That would be the beta patch that is, check the news section

From here it seems people are suggesting that you go all food on the tax slider and use industry to science to produce science. But what about very early game when you will be building improvements on your planets? How do you make up for the science lost for those turns? I was playing a game just today and doing pretty much that. While I was fairly average for population and FIS, my science was dead last. As a result, other races started out pacing me because they simply had more things researched that gave them economic advantages over me. This was on normal difficulty too.

In the very early game there are only two improvements worth making for the harmony,



Exploit Industry

Heavy Isotope Refineries



No other improvements are required until later.

I'm having an issue with The Harmony not correctly producing science points.



Here's what I had at the start (well turn 8 actually);



Medium Tundra (+2/pop)

Geo-industrial plan (n/a)

Seismic Activity (+1/pop)

Titanium (n/a)



3 pop on planet, should be "9 from planets" mouseover science reads "8 from planets"

also;



Small terran (+2/pop)

No exploitation (n/a)

Coral reefs (n/a)

Hyrperium (+1/pop)



3 pop should be "9 from planets" mouseover science only reads "6 from planets"



Play goes on and 7 turns later I have;



Medium Tundra (+2/pop)

Geo-industrial plan (n/a)

Seismic Activity (+1/pop)

Titanium (n/a)

Heavy Isotope refineries (n/a)

Silic Soils (n/a)

Public-Private partnerships (+1/pop)



now 6 pop should be "24 from planets" mouseover science reads "20 from planets"



And then the big one I just don't get at all;



Small terran (+2/pop)

No exploitation (n/a)

Coral reefs (n/a)

Hyrperium (+1/pop)

Heavy Isotope refineries (n/a)

Silic Soils (n/a)

Public-Private partnerships (+1/pop)



now 6 pop should be "24 from planets" mouseover science reads "7 from planets" !!!!!!



How is "7" possible?!?

No this is not due to some "factor" like the slider, distance from empire, disharmony, ect. All those are listed after the "amount from planets" in the slider mouseover.

Nor should this be due to the Harmony racial as dust on the systems should only be affecting industry and food production, not science. But even if it does affect science, I don't see how that adds up to "7" on that last planet.



If it has any bearing;

Its turn 15

difficulty level serious

Medium galaxy "Spiral-8" with 8 players.

those are my only 2 systems

No ships are orbiting either planet.

Both planets are currently producing a colony ship.

Slider is set to 50/50

"Other" items under the science mouseover for that terran planet;

+ 0.1 from Efficient stock

- 3.4 from distance from empire



Also;

Playing custom harmony with following traits;

Efficient Stock

Unlucky Colonist (became seismic activity)

Builders +++

Crowded Planets

Anarchists --

N-way fusion plants

Core Mining

Xenobotany

Black thumbs

Eternal war

Asceticism

Compact Fusion reactors

Strategically resourceful

Isolation Shields

Optimal Structure ++

Feeble Warriors





Would like an answer, I really want to try and get harmony working, but if their early FIDS are just all messed up, then why bother?

And yes this is a FIDS problem and not just a tooltip issue, those are the actual science points i'm getting each turn.

That made me curios and a just started also a game with the Harmony and even at turn 1 at your very first planet there seems realy be something wrong with the amount of Science.



The "amount from planet" is just not as high as it should be.



Example turn one Tundra brings 2 Science per Population you start with 3 Pop.

That would be 6 Science from Planet.



But its only 5?

And there is no malus or whatsoever listed.



The Harmony can get huge a Science bonus with their Slider but i always got the feeling that they produce way less Science then other races at least for the high % Boni.



Maybe thats the reason.