Make other Rover types available by Rover Printing

[Major Malfunction]

Right now, by the time you discover Rover Printing, you don't need them.
I, personally, never build more than one transport and several Explorers with one or 2 commander Rovers. Becuase I simply do not need more and the tech to build them is completely useless for me, especially because it is an expensive one.
In all my game session I never encountered a situation, when I need to build one as buying them from the Earth is muc much much easier.
But if Rover Printing could give us ability to build all nation-locked Rovers, that would make it a viable option.
Same could be made for wasp droes, for example, but rovers being the man issue.

 

[YertyL]

Several explorers? How many sensor towers do you build, and how early do you get deep scanning? I never had more than 1 explorer, and that still was mostly idle.
I generally agree, I have never researched rover printing so far. I tend to want 1 of each rover pretty early, but those will usually last me the rest of the game. Making the specific rovers only available after that tech might create new balance issues with the factions though, especially with those that do not have a faction specific rover.

Maybe you could just merge rover printing with another rover buff tech...or merge all 3? They all seem pretty pointless to me.

 

[Major Malfunction]

3 Explorers seem to be optimal early on, as more collaboration loss would be too high. 3 Explorers will provide 240 research, new wonder in Green Planet will provide 400. You are basically buying a wonder. Shove them to sit in the corner of the map and use one or two to research anomalies.
And I build A LOT of sensore towers because they are too powerful but only after I research a tech for them to be autonomous. Each sensor tower provides +10% to scanning in the map plus they are cheap and more towers provide warnings about meteors and other crap.
We already have balance issues because Europe and Blue Sun have super-powerful Seeker and harvester, while Russia and India have crap driller and Constructor.
It won't remove initial flavor from sponsor but will add some variety to mid-late game. Because now you start with your unique RC and end with the same RC.

 

[Zinegata]

3 Explorers seem to be optimal early on, as more collaboration loss would be too high. 3 Explorers will provide 240 research, new wonder in Green Planet will provide 400. You are basically buying a wonder. Shove them to sit in the corner of the map and use one or two to research anomalies.

Buying three Explorer Rovers for research is simply a bad move. As is comparing them to a Green Planet Wonder to pretend they are cost-effective.

The main way to research is to instead simply build research labs - which only require 10 Electronics imported from Earth and is a fraction of the cost of an Explorer Rover. One lab working two shifts very easily produces more research than three rovers, and likely exceeds the 400 paltry research of the Green Planet wonder.

Only Japan should consider importing Explorer Rovers for research, because they get a significant discount. For everyone else the research bonus is exactly that - a bonus. You instead simply import one or two Explorer Rovers for their primary mission of Anomaly Scanning. Ironically though, Japan needs the extra research less due to their scanning bonus.

We already have balance issues because Europe and Blue Sun have super-powerful Seeker and harvester, while Russia and India have crap driller and Constructor.
It won't remove initial flavor from sponsor but will add some variety to mid-late game. Because now you start with your unique RC and end with the same RC.

Lol, seriously? Seeker is not OP (a mobile sensor tower is not strong as you can build towers very cheaply), as is the Blue Sun Harvester (ditto for Concrete Extractors). Russia by contrast has the best driller because you would only use it on a couple of deposits but still net yourself a huge early windfall.

Really, have you actually ever played the game? All of your commentary seems to be little more than theorycrafting that spreads outright misinformation. None of the Rovers you claim are OP are actually OP.

 

[Major Malfunction]

I player the game a lot and driller was shit in all of them. Sensor towers become viable only after autonomous tech is discovered and that could be prolonged if game shoves it further via random. The amount you drill is negligable if you have a deposit nearby that geologists could work on. Early bonus is not so decisive because you can get all you need from initial funding untildomes start producing stuff.

 

[Zinegata]

I player the game a lot and driller was shit in all of them. Sensor towers become viable only after autonomous tech is discovered and that could be prolonged if game shoves it further via random. The amount you drill is negligable if you have a deposit nearby that geologists could work on. Early bonus is not so decisive because you can get all you need from initial funding untildomes start producing stuff.

Sensor towers only need a small solar panel before the tech to work 2/3rds of the time, and the tech itself is not that deep in the tree. Seekers are in fact incredibly "meh" as a rover, which is to be expected because Europe's other abilities make it good.

And while the Russian drill is slow it's still free money which Russia is short of. Moreover you can always just leave the drill operating on another deposit while your colony works a richer deposit. It fixes an actual problem compared to the Blue Sun glorified Concrete Extractor.