murillokb wrote:As far as I know the spawners cosume pollution and spawn attackers. So the more your pollution spreads more spawners are going to send biters towards you. Also spawners can be spawned out of nowhere (i don't know what causes it) so you may need to scout the area now and then.
I've read somewhere that trees reduce pollution but i can't confirm it. Wind directions is also supposed to affect pollution but i can't confirm that too.
Yeah, after playing through the non-demo campaign, with the various narrative bits that are thrown in during it, the above is my impression as well.
With regards to the wind direction, I *think* that's the case as well. I noticed early on that smoke from your industry shifts around with time and there seems to be a correlation between that and the direction attacks seem to mostly originate from. I also can't really see a reason to code up shifting wind direction unless it has that kind of effect.
Anyways, it all struck me as a rather nifty self-balancing mechanism. The more rapidly you expand (which I would think tends to indicate a more experienced player), the more pollution you generate, which increases the alien problem. It also provides motivation towards cleaner but perhaps less efficient technology like electric furnaces and solar panels to reduce your environmental footprint.
It also occurred to me that what was described in a previous post about automating ammo production as early as possible and fortifying your base with turrets might create a bit of a downward spiral. More industry means more pollution, which means more alien attacks, which expends ammo, which causes more pollution to be created when it is replenished, which causes more attacks, etc. etc.
So I'm wondering if the number of attacks there might have actually been partially due to the attempts to defend against them :)
Anyways, I find it very interesting overall that there seems to be a mechanism in place to discourage overproduction and encourage a certain amount of efficiency.
On trees consuming pollution: I hadn't even thought of that, but it totally makes sense, and would be a very cool strategic consideration if that were the case and thus building upwind of a forest was an additional consideration in base building as a result. Would also cause me to alter my strategy of clear-cutting in the early game to fuel my base :)