Echoes of Earth mod: Overview and features

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=685790030

• You can download the mod from its workshop page
  
• Alternative download[forums.civfanatics.com] location from CivFanatics.
  
• Reddit discussion thread[redd.it] on /r/civbeyondearth
  
• CivFanatics discussion thread[forums.civfanatics.com].
  
• Development blog[mechanicsasmetaphor.wordpress.com]. Contains behind the scenes info and sneak peaks at future versions.

In the twilight of Earth's great civilizations, we were chosen to venture to the stars in search of a new home. But we did not travel alone. As we slept, behind us streaked messages from Earth. Their dream that we would not let the light of humanity extinguish. When we awoke we listened to words spoken centuries ago. As we gazed across the vast space and time that separated us, we hoped that Earth still lived and that the words were not the echoes of ghosts. Earth's commitment did not end when the seedships were launched. The messages of the Signal streaked across space, ready to decode and read upon arrival at the new world. Earth channeled much of its dwindling resources into aiding your survival, and the time will come to repay that generosity. When the messages from Earth grow desperate, what will you do? Will you take the extra step to start sending help back - even if it may not be enough to save Earth? Never before has the map been so critical in the choices you will face. What terrain and resources are nearby will determine what improvements you can make and what buildings are available. Specializing your cities to take advantage of the things they are uniquely suited to do will be key in growing an effective colony. Your technology and diplomatic trait choices will be shaped by what parts of your colony you want to benefit. Life is not easy on the new world. Energy will be scarce, Health will be a concern throughout the game and orbital units will require effort to sustain. Many yields are harder to come by. If your colony lacks for certain resources you will have to struggle to persevere with the constraint. The planet does not welcome you and survival will require foresight and cunning. No two games of Echoes of Earth will play out the same. From the moment you make planet fall you will need to form your strategy within the tools you have available. You will not be able to follow the same steps in every game. You will need to utilize your colony's strengths while mitigating its weaknesses. Even as your colony establishes itself on the new world its Affinity will shape its play style. Each Affinity has unique improvements, buildings and technologies that give it a fundamentally different play style than the alternatives.

In Echoes of Earth, the seedships did not leave alone. After launching the seedships, Earth launched a chain of satellites and used them to send messages ahead of the colonists. These satellites allowed Earth to send one way messages to the seedships that the colonists would be able to read upon landing. These messages contained the history of Earth after the seedships left, discoveries Earth hoped would help the colonists, and all the failed research on instantaneous communication.

The Signal is one of the core new mechanics in Echoes of Earth. From the start of the game two new buildings, the Signal Collector and Signal Decoder, provide a source of Science and Culture to boost your early game. Data from Earth will allow breakthroughs that provide your colony bursts of Production, Energy, or more depending on your pre-game loadout choice.

But the Signal will not last forever. The colony needs to build its own LaserComm Satellites to help maintain the connection. If the colony does not, then the transmission capability will be compromised and the bonuses will be reduced. As time passes the situation on Earth becomes more and more desperate and the content of the Signal becomes more haunting. Until the day when the Signal goes silent and calls the fate of Earth into question -- are they gone for good, or can the colony find a way to save humanity's first home?

• Free Technology upon landing
  
• Turns 10, 20, 30: Get a bonus depending on your loadout choice
  
• Turn 50: If the player hasn't launched a LaserComm Satellite, the Signal weakens until player launches a LaserComm Satellite
  
• Turn 100: The Signal ends, even if the player has launched a LaserComm Satellite
  
• Signal Collectors, Signal Decoders and Signal Archivers are cheaper to build in cities that are founded later

The free Technology at the start of the game lets you adapt to your immediate surroundings. If you don't have access to a river for Farms, then you can get Biology so that you can build Growlabs quickly. Or if your loadout lets you see Titanium and there are tiles with the resource nearby, you can take Engineering as your free tech to get the Titanium mine up and running faster.

The Signal provides a way to jump start your economy in the early game. But since its benefits don't last forever, you will need to use this early edge wisely and prepare your economy for the period after the Signal ends.

The technology web has been completely reorganized into a flatter, more specialized format, containing more branches and fewer leaves. This gives you better access to critical technologies that will help your colony grow. In the early game, leaf technologies unlock buildings that are highly dependent on the terrain and resources within your colony. Which technology you want to research will depend greatly on your colony and its surroundings.

Late game technology choices are highly connected to which Affinity you are developing along. Harmony technologies are clustered in the top of the tech web with Purity in the lower right and Supremacy in the lower left. If your colony is developing along the Purity path, you may still grab a tech or two outside of Purity, but you likely won't want to dedicate the effort to getting deep techs in the other Affinity areas. As an example, while you may miss out on the utility of Phasal Transporters, you'll have easy access to Magrails.

Engineer (the top one), Fusion Reactor and Weaponry are crossed out in the picture due to a known technical limitation. You should not pick those loadouts, as their UI is hard coded. If you pick them you will be given a different loadout instead.

Your colonist choice will give you a starting foundation to build your colony with. Artists or Administrators will allow you to rush specific Virtues or Diplomatic Traits. Technicians will ensure you can expand rapidly without maintenance holding you back or forcing your citizens to work inefficient generators. Engineers' extra production can allow your cities to build Signal Decoders quickly, mimicking a poor imitation of Artists during the early game. Each colonist choice will have implications for how you approach setting up your colony's economy and development. The different spacecraft choices gives you additional information and awareness upon landing. With the mod's emphasis on playing the map, this little bit of extra knowledge can be critical when deciding what to grab with your free technology. If Tectonic Scanner reveals a large cluster of Geothermal Resources nearby, then you may want to use your free technology on Physics so you can construct Geothermal Wells right away -- potentially even following the early Geothermal up with a quick Wonder. If Topographical Map indicates a large number of excavation sites nearby, you may want to use your free technology on Ecology so that you can build explorers immediately. Cargo has been replaced with Signal Data. This is the project Old Earth is working on to help your colonization effort. Because you get these yields after you land, how you use them will change depending on what is happening in your game. Even if you take Bootstrap Manufacturing every game, how you use it will be different from one game to the next. In some games you may find yourself cornered by Aliens and use the extra production to rush out a few tanks and rangers to beat the Aliens back. In another game you may find an ocean full of resources and use the production to rush out a Settler to claim the valuable territory ahead of anyone else. Or you could take History of Earth or Works of Art, allowing you to get a few Diplomatic Traits or Virtues even if you don't want to take Artists or Administrators as your colonists.

Brasilia, Slavic Federation and Pan-Asian Cooperative all play into the new identity of each of the Strategic Resources. Titanium for Military Units, Oil for Orbital Units and Geothermal for Wonders.

ARC can generate a large amount of Energy, but only if you manage your economy well. It won’t save you if you over expand before you are ready.

Chungsu can get multiple spies online before most Colonies will have their Spy Agency complete. Starting in the water will also make it easier to journey across the oceans to make contact with Colonies that landed on the opposite side of the world.

African Union also highlights the new Health system in Echoes of Earth. Because each population consumes more Health than local Health can counteract, Africa’s extra Global Health can enable a player to rapidly expand in the early game or grow much taller than their normal Global Health could support.

Franco-Iberia is not just a Culture Sponsor, she is also a Science Sponsor. If you combine her with Artists and other early Culture sources you can get your first Virtue in a dozen turns and use the free Science to rush out your first technology -- helping shave ten turns off starting your first Settler or Explorer.

Kavithan Protectorate’s ability may not look especially strong, but in Echoes of Earth Culture is much rarer and natural border growth will not always keep up with the needs of your cities. Her ability can save your cities from needing to build marginal defensive buildings just to get extra tiles for your citizens to work. Tile improvements generally take longer in Echoes of Earth as well so saving 3 turns off each Farm or Academy adds up over the course of the game.

Polystralia takes advantage of the new Trade Route system. Cities that haven’t built a Trade Depot get bonus Food or Production for every Domestic Trade Route sent to them. Most Sponsors can’t take advantage of this in more than half their cities because they don’t have the Trade Route slots. The bonus to Trade Routes in Polystralia’s capital allows it to provide for four or more cities single-handedly.

All of the Virtues are different in Echoes of Earth. When you adopt a Virtue you get a one-time boost of Affinity points. Generating Culture is a main way to progress your Affinity during the early stages of the game. You also have a choice between three opening Virtues within each tree. So every game where you open the Purity tree will not be the same.

The depth synergy bonuses all provide a source of Global Health. The final synergy bonus gives you Affinity points when you adopt other Virtues, allowing you to continue to progress your chosen Affinity even when grabbing Virtues in other trees.

Signal Virtues focus on the messages from Old Earth. Virtues within this tree provide a mix of all three Affinities. The left column provides Harmony, the center column provides Supremacy, and the right column provides Purity. This matches the order of the icons in the top most Virtue. Signal Virtues provide more Affinity points per Virtue than other trees, but you only get these Affinity points if the Signal is active or you have launched a LaserComm Satellite at some previous point. If you decide not to launch a LaserComm Satellite than you will likely want to shift to getting Virtues in the other trees once the Signal ends.

Harmony Virtues focus on adapting to the planet. It makes it easier to deal with Miasma, be peaceful with Aliens and rewards having surplus Health.

Purity Virtues focus on terraforming the planet. It provides bonuses to exterminating Aliens, building Wonders and rewards having lots of Culture.

Supremacy Virtues focus on being resilient toward the planet. It enhances Expeditions, Orbital Units and Covert Operatives.

All Diplomatic Traits do different things at each level. At the 2nd level every trait provides a way to get Affinity points. Each trait category (Domestic, Orbital and Military) has 9 traits in total, 3 traits associated with each Affinity.

Traits provide specialized bonuses that will depend on your colony's terrain and strategy. You can max a trait to take advantage of its powerful level 3 capstone ability. Or you could focus on getting multiple traits to level 2 to get the most Affinity points possible. Or you may opportunistically grab a level 1 trait of the "wrong" Affinity type because you need the level 1 benefit. Once the need has passed you can swap the trait to a different one that matches your Affinity.

Domestic Traits focus on boosting specific tiles within your colony. Domestic Traits provide Affinity when you settle next to specific resources or terrain features. To maximize the impact of your trait you should pay close attention to what your current and future territoriality looks like. Orbital Coverage is much harder to get in Echoes of Earth but Orbital Traits provide an efficient way to expand your coverage. As you launch new and more advanced types of satellites your Orbital Trait will provide you Affinity points. When combined with the Science satellites automatically generate from the Signal, early satellites can provide a strong source of Science in the early game. Military Traits can do more than just provide combat bonuses — although they do do that. They can also provide Affinity points when you capture enemy cities or pillage Alien Nests. Even if you don't intend to conquer the new world there are traits that will help you protect your own colony from more bloodthirsty rivals.

While Diplomatic Traits provide bonuses that are useful throughout the game, Agreements provide benefits that are useful during specific periods within the game. If you are fighting a war, you can sign an Agreement that provides a Warscore boost or yield when you kill a unit. Once the war is over, you can end the Agreement and spend your Diplomatic Capital elsewhere. If you just unlocked Solar Collector Satellites and want to get them over all of your cities, you can sign an Agreement that provides extra Orbital Production. Once the initial rush of satellite building, is over you can end the Agreements.

There are 12 starting Agreements and each Faction provides 3 of them. These Agreements provide effects that are most useful in the early stages of the game. Examples include: combat bonuses against aliens, greater chance of finding Artifacts, and extra population in newly founded cities. If you have the Diplomatic Capital, do not be afraid to sign these Agreements. If you can take advantage of them quickly and then end the Agreement, you will end up spending less than a Diplomatic Trait for a more immediate windfall.

The Affinity Perks provide additional sources of Culture, allowing you to continue acquiring Virtues in the mid and late game. The buildings that get boosted are the ones unique to each Affinity.

The Hybrid Perks are all the same. Harmony+Purity is the same as Harmony+Supremacy. Because the Perks are the same and do not stack, getting to level 1 of Supremacy when you already have a level in Harmony and Purity will not get you more Perks. It will only provide you the Supremacy specific Perks and allow access to buildings that require Supremacy levels.

Specialists are one of the main sources of Diplomatic Capital, the others being Wonders and selling Agreements to other players. In the early game, there are buildings that provide two specialists slots for each type of specialist. However, those buildings are only worth building if you plan to use the specialists they provide.

• Grower: +3 Food, +1 Diplomatic Capital
  
• Engineer: +3 Production, +1 Diplomatic Capital
  
• Technician: +3 Energy, +1 Diplomatic Capital
  
• Scientist: +2 Science, +2 Diplomatic Capital
  
• Artists: +2 Culture, +2 Diplomatic Capital

A core part of the new Health system is the difference between "Local Health" and "Global Health". Local Health is associated with a specific city, and a city can not produce more local Health than its population. Global Health, on the other hand, is not tied to a specific city. Rather, it is associated with the player or colony as a whole.

Cities can generate Local Health through buildings (such as Clinics), by working certain tile improvements or resources (such as Biowells), or by working tiles under the effect of a Paean Satellite.

Most sources of Global Health explicitly refer to themselves as global rather than local. Every player starts with a certain amount of Global Health depending on the difficulty level. More Global Health can be accumulated by unlocking synergy bonuses on the Virtue tree, completing quests for Health buildings, and getting Alien artifact rewards.

In Echoes of Earth, keeping your colony Healthy will require careful management of population, Local Health, and Global Health. Expansion is easier, as Cities cost much less unhealth. But populations much be watched carefully as every citizen costs more than 1 unhealth. Local Health is never enough to make a city health neutral, and the more population you have the more sources of Global Health you need to avoid penalties. If you’re diligent about keeping your local Health sufficient for your cities, you can make your starting Global Health last a long time.

Some tile improvements, like the Science boosting Academy, cost unhealth when worked. If you have a city working large numbers of these kinds of improvements, extra investment in local Health infrastructure will be critical even if the city population remains modest.

• 1 Unhealth per city
  
• 2 Unhealth per captured city
  
• 1.2 Unhealth per citizen in city (including captured cities)
  
• Land and Water cities have the same unhealth costs

• Completing quests for Health buildings
  
• From bonus Synergy Virtues
  
• From Diplomatic Traits and Agreements
  
• From Alien Artifact Rewards (combine Alien Artifacts to unlock)

Internal and Foreign Trade Route yields are exclusively determined by the buildings in the source and destination city. All of the buildings that improve Strategic and Affinity Resources also provide Energy and Science (respectively) for Foreign Trade Routes. A well positioned city can provide a huge amount of yield by sending its Trade Routes abroad. Cooperating with the other player will increase the bonuses even more.

For Internal Trade Routes, after completing the Trade Depot quest cities that haven't built a Depot of their own will get extra food or production from Internal Trade Routes sent to them. This allows a young city to expand rapidly. You may also decide to delay building Depots in some of your cities to maximize the amount of yield they get from Trade Routes your other cities send them.

• Everyone starts with a +100% yield from Internal and Foreign Trade Routes (this is why a building that says +1 Food from Trade Routes will actually provide +2)
  
• Cooperating or Allying will increase the International Trade Route yield multiplier from +100 to +200 (resulting in building that says +1 Energy providing +3 Energy)

Many sources and uses for Energy have changed. Now, roads are not the only tile improvements that cost Energy to maintain -- making the biggest limit to going wide Energy rather than Health. Over expansion is now more likely to result in tile maintenance tanking your Energy economy than your Health. Advanced improvements available in the mid-game, like Arrays and Terrascapes, cost even more energy to maintain but can push your economy even farther.

Unit maintenance is now calculated differently as well. Basic Marines and Patrol Boats are free to maintain, making them ideal units to garrison your cities with. More advanced units, like tanks, artillery and jets cost one or more energy per turn to maintain, so be careful about building a large army unless you plan to use it quickly.

Generating Energy can be done with Generator improvements, Trader specialists and certain resources. If you find yourself struggling to produce enough energy to meet your colony's needs, and there is terrain with plenty of Geothermal, expanding to grab that resource could help counteract your deficit.

Wonders in Echoes of Earth have three core properties:

1. Wonders require Geothermal Resources to build
   
2. Wonders provide one-time Affinity points when built
   
3. Wonders depend on the qualities of the city

Each Wonder requires 2 Geothermal Resources to build. The amount of Geothermal you have access to will determine how many Wonders you can support. If you plan to grab all the Wonders make sure you expand to areas rich in Geothermal. Research and quests are not the only ways to advance your Affinity! Each Wonder provides Affinity points when built. Different Wonders are associated with different Affinities. You don't get these points when capturing a Wonder. Wonders provide unique effects that not every city will be able to take full advantage of. What city you choose to build a Wonder in will determine how effective the Wonder is. If you plan to build a specific Wonder in a new city the Wonder will influence how you want to place the city. For a complete list of all the new Wonders see the pictures below:

Every building has been changed in Echoes of Earth, forming a unique and distinct economic skeleton. Many buildings, especially early game buildings, are highly dependent on what terrain and resources are around your cities. In the early game there are a collection of buildings that provide two specialist slots. These buildings can be useful for generating a basic amount of food or production if a city is lacking in those areas. But while those buildings may help compensate for a city's weaknesses, they won't be enough to turn a production poor city into a Wonder powerhouse.

In the late game, your building choices will depend on what Affinity your colony is developing along. Each Affinity has a unique set of buildings that incorporate distinct styles of play.

Generating Culture in the early game is harder in Echoes of Earth. Old Earth Relic does something completely different from the base game and the closest substitute are Signal Decoders. The Decoders won't last forever, but cities founded later won't need as much production to build them. These buildings provide access and bonuses for the Strategic Resources. If your colony has plentiful access to Oil the Petrochemical Plant can provide a significant boost. But if you only have a single source of Oil consider taking the quest that gives you extra Resources. The 4 extra units will give you more breathing room to meet your colony's needs.

Other buildings, like the Farm-boosting Vivarium and the Growlab, provide the basic sources of Food. Growlabs are cheap and best built in cities that don't have the terrain required for Farms. Which quest you take will depend on how much of your colony looks like it will be using Farms verse Growlabs.

There are also buildings that provide basic sources of Science and city defense. Depending on your quest choices the city defense buildings can serve as your basic sources of Culture or Diplomatic Capital.

Many of the Ring 2 leaf techs grant access to buildings that boost specific Basic Resources. These buildings can be extremely powerful if your colony has access to a large number of the correct type of Resources. To help remember which pair of Basic Resources are enhanced by a building, the Basic Resources always share the same Improvement. For example, the Alien Preserve enhances Resilin and Chitin, both of which use the Paddock Improvement. There are three main Science generators available in the mid game:

1. LaserComm Satellites, which enhance the Signal and provide +50% Science in covered cities
   
2. Spy Agency, to steal Science and Technologies from other players
   
3. Academies, which provide large amounts of Science but require a good Health infrastructure backing them up

Harmony buildings reflect the Affinity's desire to take full advantage of possibilities created by genetic engineering and biological manufacturing. By studying and learning from all of the lifeforms on the new world, they can even use the Xeno Sanctuary to generate Science or Culture from Alien Nests in their territory. Purity focuses on changing the world as a whole to be more comfortable for humans. As it learns more about the geological and tectonic forces, it develops new ways to harness them to achieve its ends. This mission is coupled with the best medical and surgical techniques to repair the damage that is caused by life on the world. Many Supremacy buildings boost Satellites and Spies. The Satellite boost comes from Supremacy's technological inclinations helping them to overcome the engineering challenges demanded by spaceflight. Spies are boosted because it is much easier to track individuals when every action is part of a measurable computer system.

Rivers no longer provide Energy on adjacent tiles. However, Rivers (or Coastal Water tiles) are the only places where Farms can be built. This means that in order for a city to be able to grow at a reasonable rate it will need to be located near a river, near the coast, or have basic resources that provide food. If a city lacks these, then it will be forced to rely on Grower Specialists or Internal Trade Routes for its food supply.

In the mid game, advanced improvements become available that -- depending on your Affinity and technology choices -- can allow you to generate food in locations that were previously barren. This can allow a wave of expansion as new parts of the planet become hospitable to your colony.

Unless they are next to Rivers or have valuable resources, Desert and Tundra are less valuable terrain than Grasslands and Plains. Desert and Tundra provide less yield than other tiles and they can't be enhanced through a building. The least bad way to make use of these inefficient tiles is by constructing advanced improvements that override their base yields like Domes, or by constructing improvements that are useful for reasons other than their raw yield like Arrays. Water Tiles start out weaker than Grasslands or Plains, but with the right investments they can be made just as good or even better. Coastal cities can build the Water Refinery to get +1 Food from water tiles, effectively turning Coastal tiles into Grasslands. Cities built on water start with +1 Production from Coastal tiles, ensuring they have access to reasonable tile yields from the start. With a Tidal Turbine they get +1 Energy from Ocean tiles, increasing the number of tiles they want to work.

These terrain bonuses stack with improvements that override base yields -- so Coastal cities can get 3 Food from Domes built on Coastal tiles, and Water cities can get 2 Food and 1 Production from Domes built on Coastal tiles.

Most advanced improvements can't be built on water tiles. Other than Domes, only Farms can be built on Coastal water tiles, and only Generators can be built on Ocean tiles. This means that Water cities are more dependent on having lots of resources nearby rather than lots of empty tiles with improvements. The extra yield from Water Refineries or Tidal Turbines will also enhance these resource tiles, making resources on water tiles one of the strongest tiles possible.

Each of the Strategic Resources in Echoes of Earth has a unique role and identity.

Oil is required for Orbital units. If you lack access to Oil, you won't be able to take advantage of the economic bonuses satellites can offer. Titanium is used to build Repair Facilities and Drydocks. These buildings are required to build advanced military units like Tanks, Artillery, and Submarines. Colonies without Titanium will have trouble capturing cities, but can still rely on jets for defending their territory. Geothermal is required to build Wonders. If you can limit your rivals' access to Geothermal, then you can ensure they won't be able to build the Wonder you desire out from under you. All basic resources are associated with a building that boosts its yield. For example, the Network building provides +2 Science from Silica and Copper. If you have lots of Copper inside your borders, a Network will help turn that city into a Science powerhouse. All of these basic resource boosting buildings can be found in the first and second ring of the tech web, so keep your resources in mind when choosing which techs to prioritize. Affinity Resources have strong yields, but it won't be possible to improve them until you research a moderately expensive ring 3 technology.

• Xenomass Wells: +2 Health (+2 Food with Xenonursery)
  
• Float Stone Quarry: +1 Production, +2 Energy (+2 Production with Skycrane)
  
• Firaxite Mine: +3 Science (+2 Science with Bioglass Furnace)

In addition, there are three buildings (Xenofuel Plants, Lev Plants, Hypercores) that consume one Affinity Resource. These buildings are efficient sources of Energy, Production, and Science, and also give you a way to use Affinity Resources you don't need for your main Affinity units or hybrid units.

Improvements can cost Energy and/or unhealth to maintain. The Energy cost is paid no matter what, but a city only suffers the unhealth cost if it is working the tile. While non-resource Mines and Generators don't cost Energy to maintain, Farms do. Avoid building unnecessary Farms or else you will needlessly tax your Energy economy.

Advanced improvements (like the Array or Dome) are more powerful but often cost more energy to maintain. Each Affinity is associated with two advanced improvements. Harmony has Manufacturies and Biowells, Purity has Domes and Terrascapes, while Supremacy has Arrays and Nodes.

Other than mines and generators, each Improvement has a building which enhances its yield. If a city is working a large number of Farms, a Vivarium will help it grow even faster. If a Science city is working a large number of Academies, an Institute will increase its Science even more. Diplomatic Traits provide another means of further enhancing the yields provided by various improvements.

• Farm:
  
  • Yield: +1 Food (+1 Food with Vivariums)
    
  • Requirements: River or Coastal Water
    
  • Maintenance: 1 Energy
• Mine:
  
  • Yield: +2 Production
    
  • Requirements: Hills
    
  • Maintenance: 1 Unhealth
• Generator:
  
  • Yield: +1 Energy
    
  • Not an impressive improvement but one of the few that can be built on Ocean tiles.
• Academy:
  
  • Yield: +2 Science (+1 Science with Institute)
    
  • Requirements: Flat land
    
  • Maintenance: 1 Energy and 1 Unhealth
    
  • Expensive but able to generate lots of Science.
• Manufacturies:
  
  • Yield: +2 Production (+1 Production with Biofactory)
    
  • Requirements: Flat land
    
  • Maintenance: 2 Energy
    
  • Associated with Harmony. A good way to get production if a city lacks hills, or you don't want to deal with the unhealth from working mines.
• Biowell:
  
  • Yield: +1 Food, +1 Health (+1 Food with Progenitor Garden)
    
  • Maintenance: 2 Energy
    
  • Associated with Harmony. Similar to a Farm but provides Health and doesn't require a River.
• Dome:
  
  • Yield: +2 Food, but overrides terrain yield (+1 Science with Feedsite Hub)
    
  • Maintenance: 2 Energy
    
  • Associated with Purity. Best built on marginal terrain like desserts or tundra. Is best on water tiles where it can stack with Water Refineries.
• Terrascape:
  
  • Yield: +1 Food, +1 Production (+1 Culture with TerraVaults)
    
  • Requirements: Flat land
    
  • Maintenance: 2 Energy
    
  • Associated with Purity. A hybrid farm and mine that can be built in places without rivers. The best way to get Culture from an Improvement.
• Array:
  
  • Yield: +1 Orbital Coverage (+1 Production with Neoplanetarium)
    
  • Requirements: Hills
    
  • Maintenance: 2 Energy
    
  • Associated with Supremacy. A very cheap way to expand a city's orbital coverage, provided there are hills nearby.
• Node:
  
  • Yield: +2 Science (+1 Science with Node Bank)
    
  • Requirements: Flat land
    
  • Maintenance: 2 Energy
    
  • Associated with Supremacy. An alternative to the Academy. Costs less unhealth to maintain but requires more Energy.

Orbital units are available much earlier in the game and provide large economic bonuses. In the early game, all satellites are able to help collect the Signal, providing as much as +3 Science per turn. As the Signal fades, this bonus decreases. Many satellites provide +50% yield (such as Food or Science) to the city beneath them, making satellites a core way for you to specialize your cities. The Paean's +1 Health to worked tiles is a very effective way to ensure a city working lots of unhealth improvements (such as Academies) to remain healthy.

But satellites are also expensive. Most only last 20 turns, requiring more production to keep them maintained as they age. Satellites also require the strategic resource Oil, which means the amount of Oil you have constrains the number of satellites you can have, even if you have plenty of production. Orbital Coverage is also harder to get. Cities start with only the tile they are on. If you want more, you'll need to invest in infrastructure to expand it.

There are many ways to get production and duration bonuses for satellites. Buildings, technologies, and Diplomatic Traits can all let you stack bonus upon bonus. Grabbing as many of these bonuses as possible is key to enhancing the effectiveness of the production you invest in your satellites.

• Weather Controller: +50% Food in covered cities and can spawn new basic Resources
  
• Orbital Fabricator: +50% Production in covered cities.
  
  • Useful for cities trying to get their buildings or wonders online faster.
• Solar Collector: +50% Energy in covered cities.
  
  • Ensures your Energy cities will be able to cover the maintenance costs incurred by your other cities.
• LaserComm Satellite: +50% Science in covered cities.
  
  • Can only be built during the first 100 turns when the Signal is active.
    
  • A great source of Science but one that won't work forever.
• Deep Space Telescope: +50% Science in covered cities.
  
  • Requires more technology than LaserComm Satellites but can be used throughout the game.
• Holomatrix: +50% Culture in covered cities.
  
  • Culture is rare in Echoes of Earth so if you have a city generating lots of it a Holomatrix will ensure you can continue to afford new Virtues even into the mid game.
• Paean: +1 Local Health in cities that work covered tiles
  
  • Useful for cities with very high populations.
    
  • Great for cities working lots of improvements that cost unhealth (like Academies or Mines)

When you complete an Expedition, Pillage an Alien Nest or collect a Resource Pod there is a 50%/50%/25% chance you will get an Artifact. If you do not get an Artifact you will get a reward of Energy, Science, Culture, Diplomatic Capital or a free unit. Artifacts no longer varry in quality. They always provide the same amount of yields. Old Earth Artifacts provide Energy, Alien Artifacts provide Science and Progenitor Artifacts provide Culture. The way Artifacts are combined remains the same (see this guide[mechanicsasmetaphor.wordpress.com] for how it works). What has changed is the rewards you get when combining Artifacts. Old Earth Artifact Rewards provide simple buildings that provide +2 Yield (Food, Energy, Culture, etc) and can be built in every city. While not flashy, these buildings can be workhorses that give your colony things to build without requiring special technology. Alien Artifact Rewards all provide +4 Global Health and Affinity points. You can learn a lot about surviving on the hostile planet by dissecting the native life. Managing Global Health is a key part of Echoes of Earth. Building an army and attacking nests will give you space to settle and provide the Global Health you need to support the additional cities. Progenitor Artifact Rewards give a free LaserComm Satellite and Affinity points. This can be the fastest way to get your first LaserComm Satellite. Allowing you to complete the Signal quest without requiring the technology to build them. Mixed Rewards are gained when combining Artifacts of different types. Mixed Artifact Rewards provide Strategic Resources (ei: Titanium, Oil or Geothermal) and +1 population in all cities. If you are in need of a specific resource type that isn't available in your territory Artifacts are an alternative.