Tunnels in times of terraforming

[YertyL]

So, I wanted to start a small discussion here because so far, since the release of green planet I have built exactly one tunnel, and that was for flavor purposes after I had already transitioned into the "workshop phase" of the game.

Tunnels cost 80 concrete, 20 metal and 30 machine parts, which makes them quite a bit more expensive than a basic dome (80 concrete, 20 metal, 10 polymer). They IMO serve 4 main purposes:

1. Let your rovers transition to mountains/valleys
2. Connect water and power of two distant bases
   
3. Connect to a wind farm on a mountain
   
4. Connect to remote underground water deposits

Of course, with the release of the Armstrong patch, you can achieve purpose 1 from the start, with drones and for free, via landscaping. Purpose 2 is almost pointless, since there is very little reason to not just build up another power and water supply for the new base, which will be far less costly than the tunnel, and if you have not mismanaged, you will need to build up new water/power for the new base anyways. Same with reason 3, I have a hard time seeing a scenario where the different elevation bonus justifies such a huge initial investment. Which leaves us with underground water deposits. Most water deposits I encounter are low or very low, which means you produce 3 or 4 water for 1 machine part upkeep. 2 vaporators produce 3 water with a very early tech, and cost 4 metal upkeep, which is arguably cheaper in the early game. Most importantly, they never run dry. So, a few thoughts I had to balance things:

1. Halve tunnel cost. This is needed for them to ever be worth it in any scenario I can see.
   
2. Increase water deposit output by 50-100%, and deposit capacity by 100+%, or make it infinite. Currently, it is just not worth it to plan your base around water deposits, and it's really not worth it to tunnel to them. Deep water tech also needs a buff through this.
   
3. Probably the most controversial suggestion, but I would nerf landscaping by restricting it to the dozer (which is currently pointless) until you research the tech for drone landscaping, and giving it a machine parts cost, at least for ramps. IMO it's currently too powerful to be completely free.

What are your thoughts on this? I would especially be interested if anyone is currently using tunnels (or dozers) for non-flavor purposes.

 

[Tergon]

Well, I do use tunnels a good bit.
Current map has quite steep height differences between main area and several plateaus. It takes a LONG time to do the ramp and then need to have it covered by drones to make sure I get the connections working.

This is partly due to my gaming style I admit, I do not build separate colonies but connect all my dome centers together, creating map crossing meganetwork of air, water and power. This, for me, is best way to work as it lets me fill grid needs where it happens to be convenient for me, not where I must do it. And tunnels reduce micromanagement of grid for me by extending it.

Tunnels are also maintenance free, so it is single time investment for permanent connection.

 

[VATROU]

I do agree that they need some sort of buff I don't know about reducing the cost by half but give it a 25% range increase because sometimes all you need is another inch and you can connect two domes on different zones. That would reduce the overall cost of building two or three tunnels just to connect to another complex that has research nodes or water.

 

[DARK_MASTER]

Tunnels SHOULD be affected by the Mars Nouveau tech at least.
That really bothers me, specially when the tech says that it affects all buildings except domes. It affects EVEN WONDERS!!
But NOT the F!ing tunnels.

And yes tunnels for me now are useless. Flattening all the way.

 

[Foefaller]

I think 2 is still very useful, as it allows for redundancy in supply by allowing excess power/water to flow from one base to another as needed in case of meteors or dust devils damaging equipment at the worst possible time. You do of course want to make sure that each base is still relatively self-sufficient with what's already there though, or otherwise you could lose a dome when that meteor takes out the tunnel at the worst possible time instead.

3 and 4 to me speak more about the power of wind farms and ease in getting new Vaporators, IMO. I sometimes play with a self-imposed rule where I buy no more than 3 or 4 Vaporator prefabs until I unlock the tech to make the myself, and that completely changes how the water economy works for much of the game. Water deposits become invaluable for expansion, and the tunnels that let you link them up pretty much nessisary. All the techs and strategies for reducing water intake become a heck of a lot more appealing as well. You might try it sometime.

 

[Major Malfunction]

I used tunnels until terraforming. Because they mess up pathfinding and ramp not. Plus, you just send dozer in advance and do other things with the colony. By the time you will scan all sectors on accesable part of the map you'll have your ramp ready

 

[DARK_MASTER]

First and foremost tunnels are a freaking meteor magnets.
Not only by Meteor Showers, but also by the random stray single meteor that falls from time to time. And almost always will hit any of the 2 tunnel ends. God forbid if you have 2 tunnels built.

ALSO, the Capture Meteors projects which a lot of ppl would want to use constantly and early as possible, because these drop quite a decent amount of metals and even polymers. Hell 3, 4 times more polymers than a freaking 3 Sols+ regular Meteor Shower.
I prefer to use the polymers of these because I can use them long before I get enough ppl and stuff for a polymer factory.

So yes 3 meteor events which are the real stopper to tunnels. Every other downside of tunnels is not a problem and no benefits of them can beat the meteors threats.

Lasers are a tech that is buried waaay down the line and costs too much to research and build. THAT is the ONLY thing that can save a tunnel at the earliest. That is basically late game already.