NLC is not automatically built

from GalCiv2 Forums
Since Neutrality Learning Centers produce more research than Discovery Spheres, why aren't any research buildings ever automatically updated and obsoleted? Now I have to go to each and every planet, and start the upgrade manually. You can also still build the lesser research building. Why waste time on building a different building, when you can build an NLC?
3,161 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I don't know if this is considered a bug or not, but it really is a bitch to upgrade all my regular research facilities to NLCs. And also to fix all my production queues. Unfun = Bug?
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
No, unfun doesn't equal bug. Doesn't mean that we shouldn't try to get the developers to change it however.
Start11 - Customize the Start Menu and Taskbar in Windows 10/11.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
And which building would you upgrade it from?

It would have to be the Discovery Sphere, because the lesser research buildings use that upgrade path - which is a different branch altogether from the NLC.

I usually focus on research when I start a game until I can get the NLC, then upgrade any research building I have built so far into the NLC before I go for the Invention Matrix and Discovery Sphere. That way I don't spent the extra on upgrading them over and over. And I only build 4-5 Xeno Labs right from the start, and upgrade them promptly as I get up to the Research Acadamy. After Acadamy it is Xeno Ethics and NLC. Then I don't go along that research branch anymore until I have replaced everything with the NLC's.

I do it all early in the game before the other races have built a military, and so that I can get the most benefit over the longest term with the NLC's. By the time the others military's are strong enough to be a threat I usually will have much stronger weapons and defense techs, and my industrial base is built up enough to build ships very quickly that can out gun theirs.

And that way I do not waste any money supporting an early military that I simply do not need. All that money can be better spent buying more NLC's or factories. And when I do finally build a military, the cost is much cheaper because I build fewer ships that are much more powerful.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
If you actually set the 'upgrade target' of the NLC to Discovery Sphere (in the XML file), it nicely upgrades all tech buildings to NLC's when you research the NLC tech. The NLC can be researched after you have Research Academies, which may actually cause some problems when you make it an auto-upgrade: You can no longer build the research academy, but the NLC costs 300 to build (more than a discovery sphere, which is 250), and the academy is just 150. So if you align with neutral early in the game, this might have the result that you will have to spend lots and lots of resources to build any research building whatsoever on a planet (well, ok, twice as much as on a research academy), whereas now you have the choice between an academy and the NLC.

I don't know if this is really a problem. Like I said, it can be edited into the XML file, it's just a single line.

P.S. the NLC uses a graphic/icon called Museum of Pain. Seems that a lot of buildings use graphics originally intended for something completely different.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
By the way, I don't think you spend anything extra on upgrading, other than the cost difference between the two buildings, which is 50 (shields?) for each next tech building. Doesn't matter if you build academies, matrices, spheres, and NLC, or build the NLC right away. At least that's my understanding of how this works.