Advent Communal Labor

from Sins Forums

I've been playing this game for a long time, and always felt very silly to ask this.

How exactly does Advent's Communal Labor work?

It seems straightforward, in that the constructors build faster at the cost of more resources. But it doesn't seem to work. Autocast does nothing, and if I manually assign it to a structure under construction, as per the description, the icon highlights as if it is about to be used, but then the regular construction icon gets highlighted. It's as if the builders say "Sure boss, no problem!" Then 5 seconds later, "Who does he think he is anyway? I'm building this damn thing how I want to. And the union says very slowly."

Am I missing something?

22,536 views 10 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

I seem to recall that you just ordered multiple construction frigates to work on the target structure, but I simply don't use this upgrade, so it's not a fresh memory at all.

Unless your build speed is set to "slow", communal labour is completely unnecessary.  The problem is by the time you get can a second one of those finicky little construction frigates into position, the first one has already finished the job.  A second issue is that new colonies start with only one construction frigate, so only semi-mature colonies actually have multiple construction frigates to do this.  All things coming together, build times are largely negligible in this game and it's moving units into position to build the structures where the inefficiencies crop up.

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

Thanks for the info!

I suppose a more realistic solution would be remove the build faster at more cost thing and just make it a fixed percentage increase like the other races. Now I hate that delay before the second contructor even more.

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Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

As I said, build times aren't that big a deal.  I don't consider it a major disadvantage for Advent at all.  The real disadvantage for Advent is that they don't have any good economic techs in the 4-7 lab level.  As a result, mid-game economic booming is a real dead-zone for Advent.  Their only real option in that stage of the game is to trade port spam, something the other factions can both do just as well if not better. 

That said, Advent has the most solid military overall.  TEC starts strong and kinda dwindles as the game goes on.  Vasari starts weak and gets stronger and stronger until they're practically unbeatable in the end-game.  Advent starts strong and ends strong, very reliable units that are great from the first minute to the last minute of the game.

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Darvin3, reply 3
As I said, build times aren't that big a deal.  I don't consider it a major disadvantage for Advent at all.  The real disadvantage for Advent is that they don't have any good economic techs in the 4-7 lab level.  As a result, mid-game economic booming is a real dead-zone for Advent.  Their only real option in that stage of the game is to trade port spam, something the other factions can both do just as well if not better. 

That said, Advent has the most solid military overall.  TEC starts strong and kinda dwindles as the game goes on.  Vasari starts weak and gets stronger and stronger until they're practically unbeatable in the end-game.  Advent starts strong and ends strong, very reliable units that are great from the first minute to the last minute of the game.
End of Darvin3's quote

huh trade port spam?i would rather save some logistic slots for labs

on the other way, Communal Labor only works perfectly on freshly colonized planets with several enemy siege frigates in its GW yeah u need to build some statics ASAP atm

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

huh trade port spam?i would rather save some logistic slots for labs
End of quote

Not saying you'd fill every logistics spot.  If you colonized effectively in the early game, you could have 15 or so planets each with room for about 5 trade ports.  That's a lot of logistic space, and even if you go crazy you won't fill it.  All I mean by trade port spam is that you build a lot of trade ports.

If your empire is small (8 or fewer planets) there's usually no reason to go above the 3-lab civic level anyways since the payoff is too small.

 

on the other way, Communal Labor only works perfectly on freshly colonized planets
End of quote

Uh, you only get one construction frigate from a freshly colonized planet, so no, you can't use communal labour in these instances.

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

But I think you CAN manually select a construction frigate from a nearby colony (say that has two), and have it warp over to the colony before you're finished taking the planet, then have it help. You can do this I think, yes?

Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting SliderFury, reply 6
But I think you CAN manually select a construction frigate from a nearby colony (say that has two), and have it warp over to the colony before you're finished taking the planet, then have it help. You can do this I think, yes?
End of SliderFury's quote
No.

 

:fox:

Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top

Construction Frigates don't have phase drives.  They're stuck in their planet of origin. 

Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top

When you have 3-4 construction frigates, the work goes pretty damned fast... but... the Vasari upgrade makes it look like a snail, by the end of the tech trees Vasari can damned near insta-populate a grav-well with structures.

Also, there is no need to manually select the frigates and tell them to work together, the auto-cast should be functioning. Sometimes if you queue up more buildings than you have construction frigates - the frigates will do 1:1 instead of trying to 3:1 each structure.

Double check what's happening... if your auto-cast is truly failing, you need to report it as a bug. When it's working you'll see several construction ships spewing little purple waves of (nanobots?) something at whatever the structure is they are putting up. Come to think of it, I'm not even sure there is an icon just for the ability to autocast... I think you may just have to look out for several ships working on one thing - but I rarely play Advent, so who knows... Point in case though, it should be working.

If you are having any doubts about Advent, just roll up a couple of Guardians with repulse, and watch 2 ships w/ some LRM backup rickroll TEC/Vasari fleets because they can't get close enough to hurt you.

Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top

I have tried this recently as I usually skipped the tech and was wondering what it was about. After communal labor is researched an icon appears when you select a construction frigate with the ability (same picture as the tech). Right click on this, and it autocasts. If you build one structure, there is a short (annoying) delay, and then whichever frigate has the autocast on heads in to help out.

I find it useful if I am defending a planet that i have had for a while, but is either caught by surprise or I need a few quick defenses put up. This is against the AI obviously, as players usually go for the construction frigate itself if they see it trying to build...