Hey I just played with Europe as sponsor and their special rover is RC Seeker - a special version of RC COMMANDER that acts as sensor tower when stationary.
In my opinion this combination is utmost stupid.
First of all RC Explorer is the least useful rover. Period.
True you scan anomalies, with early tech it grants 100 research, but most of the time it sits in one place (usually where last anomaly was scanned).
Its idleness becomes especially apparent, when I "work" with one or more Transport rovers literally ALL THE TIME. There is not a single time transport rover does not have something to do. In comparison RC Explorer is utterly useless. It kinda needs to be there and it is good to have at least one, but just looking at it's inaction makes me sad.
RC Commander is far more superior than Explorer in terms of usefulness. But in order for it to work it has to be stationary and usually in the point of interest to:
a) support maxed out, over tasked drone hub.
b) help out with major construction site.
c) help out transporting abundant harvest.
c) when you expand in some remote area without drone coverage.
d) At last but not least it is crucial when Shiitake Mushroom hits the proverbial fan, and drone hub (or hubs) are offline for one of the dozen reasons! Then it has to be in strategic space from which it can provide emergency backup ASAP. Like Ambulance, really.
So taking all of that in mind lets look at this oh so probable scenario:
I have RC Seeker (commander with sensor tower). I want to squish as much efficiency from it as possible, so I move it to currently scanned sector to get +400% sensor tower boost. At first I scan area in immediate proximity to my original landing site (obviously). However as time passes scanned sector gets further and further away. So I move my RC Seeker away. Colony was left far behind and due to this Drone Commander part of my RC Seeker is unproductive. What's this?! Anomaly was found!? Huzzah! let me send my RC Explorer so it can start working on it (where did I park that cra...OH HERE IT IS!)! Oh dear, something went wrong at the colony and I relay need RC commander to save the day right now! RC Seeker - Pack up your sensor tower and "sprint" back across entire map... hope You'll Make it... before entire colony is doomed... But You know what? That is TOTALLY FINE! At least RC Explorer that is sitting literally few feet away is not lonely and is happy of a new member of "Pathetically useless club"...
So that is how it works in practice. And it is simply dumb. Why send two rovers when obviously one could do the job of ekhem, ekhem EXPLORING!?
Scenario in Alternative universe in which RC Seeker is actually an upgraded version of RC Explorer:
My explorer with sensor tower is sent to explore boundaries of my colony, its sensor tower boosts sector scanning effort significantly. Anomaly was found. Good my RC Explorer is Just right next to it! Scanning commences right away! Scanning of nearby sector starts, while it is not on full maximum 400% efficiency it still is above 375% which is still very fast and well above acceptable boost speed.
TA DA! MATCH MADE IN HAVEN!
There is not a single argument against it. Unless you want to go into "Please NERF, RC Explorer is too Good" territory...?
Okay few simple arguments for the change:
1) Devs run out of vehicles to make special so even a probe (YES A PROBE!) got a special variant - yet there is not a single "special" version of RC Explorer, why?
2) There is already one other "enhanced" version of RC Commander - China's RC Generator.
3) Europe sponsor's entire theme is around "research" so making an upgraded RC Explorer should have been first and clear choice!
4) RC Seeker in current form does not fulfill its primary role of being an RC Commander, instead of expanding its functionality it looses it's core use.
5) Moreover it does not fulfill its role as sensor tower neither since it should not get too far away from the colony if you actually want to use it as RC Commander - in this case why have Rover with sensor tower in the first place? It is far easier to simply build regular God damned sensor tower in the center of your colony or 3 for that matter...
In my opinion RC Seeker should have replaced RC Explorer instead of RC Commander.
Just rip that sensor tower from RC Commander, move it RC Explorer in next patch.
Do anyone agree?
In my opinion this combination is utmost stupid.
First of all RC Explorer is the least useful rover. Period.
True you scan anomalies, with early tech it grants 100 research, but most of the time it sits in one place (usually where last anomaly was scanned).
Its idleness becomes especially apparent, when I "work" with one or more Transport rovers literally ALL THE TIME. There is not a single time transport rover does not have something to do. In comparison RC Explorer is utterly useless. It kinda needs to be there and it is good to have at least one, but just looking at it's inaction makes me sad.
RC Commander is far more superior than Explorer in terms of usefulness. But in order for it to work it has to be stationary and usually in the point of interest to:
a) support maxed out, over tasked drone hub.
b) help out with major construction site.
c) help out transporting abundant harvest.
c) when you expand in some remote area without drone coverage.
d) At last but not least it is crucial when Shiitake Mushroom hits the proverbial fan, and drone hub (or hubs) are offline for one of the dozen reasons! Then it has to be in strategic space from which it can provide emergency backup ASAP. Like Ambulance, really.
So taking all of that in mind lets look at this oh so probable scenario:
I have RC Seeker (commander with sensor tower). I want to squish as much efficiency from it as possible, so I move it to currently scanned sector to get +400% sensor tower boost. At first I scan area in immediate proximity to my original landing site (obviously). However as time passes scanned sector gets further and further away. So I move my RC Seeker away. Colony was left far behind and due to this Drone Commander part of my RC Seeker is unproductive. What's this?! Anomaly was found!? Huzzah! let me send my RC Explorer so it can start working on it (where did I park that cra...OH HERE IT IS!)! Oh dear, something went wrong at the colony and I relay need RC commander to save the day right now! RC Seeker - Pack up your sensor tower and "sprint" back across entire map... hope You'll Make it... before entire colony is doomed... But You know what? That is TOTALLY FINE! At least RC Explorer that is sitting literally few feet away is not lonely and is happy of a new member of "Pathetically useless club"...
So that is how it works in practice. And it is simply dumb. Why send two rovers when obviously one could do the job of ekhem, ekhem EXPLORING!?
Scenario in Alternative universe in which RC Seeker is actually an upgraded version of RC Explorer:
My explorer with sensor tower is sent to explore boundaries of my colony, its sensor tower boosts sector scanning effort significantly. Anomaly was found. Good my RC Explorer is Just right next to it! Scanning commences right away! Scanning of nearby sector starts, while it is not on full maximum 400% efficiency it still is above 375% which is still very fast and well above acceptable boost speed.
TA DA! MATCH MADE IN HAVEN!
There is not a single argument against it. Unless you want to go into "Please NERF, RC Explorer is too Good" territory...?
Okay few simple arguments for the change:
1) Devs run out of vehicles to make special so even a probe (YES A PROBE!) got a special variant - yet there is not a single "special" version of RC Explorer, why?
2) There is already one other "enhanced" version of RC Commander - China's RC Generator.
3) Europe sponsor's entire theme is around "research" so making an upgraded RC Explorer should have been first and clear choice!
4) RC Seeker in current form does not fulfill its primary role of being an RC Commander, instead of expanding its functionality it looses it's core use.
5) Moreover it does not fulfill its role as sensor tower neither since it should not get too far away from the colony if you actually want to use it as RC Commander - in this case why have Rover with sensor tower in the first place? It is far easier to simply build regular God damned sensor tower in the center of your colony or 3 for that matter...
In my opinion RC Seeker should have replaced RC Explorer instead of RC Commander.
Just rip that sensor tower from RC Commander, move it RC Explorer in next patch.
Do anyone agree?
