Habitat not worth it in 2.2

[Spyre2k]

I like building tall and going for mega structures including a few Habitats so I was eager to see how they worked now in 2.2. When I first built one and saw the districts my reactions was that it looks cool, but then as I learned the new mechanics a bit more I saw how majorly flawed they were.

The major thing that makes Habitats worthless and why i don't plan on ever building them is their complete and utter lack of housing buildings. The districts on it look cool, especial the research district, until you realize that none of them coming with housing like districts on planets do. This means that your pitifully small district count of 6 will need at least 2-3 of them to be housing just so the people working in the other districts have a place to live.

This of course doesn't take into account buildings needing housing for their workers as well. And unlike planets you can't build Luxury Residence which means the only source of housing is the Habitation District. My original plan which is why I was stoked to see them after building my first Habitat was to make 6 R&D districts and some Lux Housing to support them so I don't waste it on Habitation slots.

But then I discovered they don't have any housing buildings and wrote them off as any potential build options are extremely limited due to most districts needing to be habitation as 6 districts with 10 housing is 60 total, that's not enough to have 6 Tier 3 facilities with 10 jobs each as still need need to supply them with amenities. Sure with Perks they can increase it to 80 but even then it's not really worth it.

The Ring world is much better and cost effective. A fully built ring world runs you 55K and nets you 200 Districts where as the 11 Habitats would next you only 66 districts and most of those would need to be housing because even Ring World Districts get housing like planets. And Ring only cost 300 Influence where as you would need 2200 Influence to put down that many Habitats. With resources scaling easily as your empire grows but influence staying static, it's much easier to to come up with the Inf for one Ring world than to try to build 11 Habitats.

 

[ShoGuL]

Are you sure you can't build luxury residence on habitats? I've mainly played as Hive Mind so far, and Habitats seem very powerful with them. You can build Drone Warrens and the upgraded version provides 12 housing, with just 3 or 4 on a habitat you can fill out all 8 slots of technician districts plus some extras.

I believe each habitat was making me something like 150 energy + providing another growth 'planet' for my empire.

 

[Mocarr]

As a normal empire you can't build housing, siencsc building as far as I have tried.
I pretty sure that it's not intended and will be fix.

 

[Bouchart]

Habitats can't build luxury housing. Might be an oversight, might not.

Habitats can bring in a lot of cash through trade if you push the trade district.

Honestly, the best thing about habitats is that you get some free building slots. Lacking in strategic resources? Fill a habitat with housing and synthetic gas plants. Want an FTL inhibitor but don't want to build a starbase? Drop a stronghold on a habitat. Or if you want to increase your resource capacity you can build a few silos.

 

[MightyFox]

This has come up a lot, and the problem isn't that habitats aren't useful, it's that habitats aren't useful in the same way they were before. People keep comparing them to Ringworlds and planets, both of which serve a completely different purpose now in terms of their place in your empire. Both of which are also far more limited in where they can be placed, appear, or the time it takes for them to become relevant to your empire. (A ring world takes a LOOOOOOONG time to reach full efficiency)

Habitats now serve a few select roles very well, instead of a single role very averagely. They aren't just mini planets anymore, nor can you treat them as such. You have to plan how you want to use them, and why. As trade nodes, they are very useful. As research posts, they are arguably better than planet based facilities. You can also move production of resources on to them so those buildings aren't taking up building slots on your planets. There's also the fortress build, enabling you to build fleet cap, and further fortify chokepoints, by having a fortified planet there the enemy now has to spend their time taking, before they get control of the system.

Are they perfect? No. Should they be cheaper? Probably. Should they be just a normal tech now? Absolutely not (and the jealousy of those making such an argument is telling) Once people figure out how habitats can and should be used, it's likely opponents of them will be asking the nerf bat be taken to them yet again.

 

[Ancillary]

I wouldn't say that habitats aren't worth it, but they are more of a situational pick for tall players, whereas pre-2.2 they were a no-brainer.

Before Le Guin they were the only way (other than continual conquest) to keep your empire from plateauing in the midgame, since planets would reach their full potential in two or three decades. Now that planets can continuously improve over the course of centuries, habitats are less useful as a population supplement.

In the current version habitats serve three major purposes as far as I can see. First, they hit max housing faster than regular planets, turning them into good sources of migration pressure. Second, they now have FTL-inhibiting buildings, which will let you lock down chokepoint systems far more effectively than with just a starbase. (Also, fortresses are the only habitat building that will increase housing.) Third, you can offload your manufacturing to habitats, particularly strategic resources, but also alloys and consumer goods if you didn't opt for an ecumenopolis. This frees up the building slots on your regular planets for efficient unity, science, and raw resource production.

Even though habitats have a district devoted to science, they are not allowed research buildings. Therefore I find it more efficient to ignore that aspect of habitats and concentrate my science on a few key planets with top-tier resource labs and supplementary science ships.

 

[Bouchart]

Habitats are allowed the Research Institute, so you should build that if you go with science districts.

 

[Surimi]

Habitats can't generally build things which replicate the function of their districts, so no, you can't build things like luxury housing, research labs or commerce buildings.

However, that does not mean habitats are useless by any stretch of the imagination.

One thing that habitats are great for, for example, is manufacturing advanced resources. Normally, these are annoying to build, because they take up a whole building slot and only employ a single pop. On habitats, this is actually a good thing because it saves on the need for housing, and the resources are vital for boosting your late game economy.

Conversely, they also make great places for building advanced production buildings. Just make a habitat which is mostly housing districts with one or two entertainment districts, then load up on advanced consumer goods or alloy buildings.

It's particularly good for agrarian idyll empires, which generally want to avoid building cities and for whom planetside building slots will be at a premium.

And yes, ringworlds are better. Ringworlds are also very, very lategame unless you're playing some kind of super optimized tech and unity rushing build.

 

[Spyre2k]

And yes, ringworlds are better. Ringworlds are also very, very lategame unless you're playing some kind of super optimized tech and unity rushing build.

Yeah like I mentioned in the OP I like to build tall, so I do tend to rush mega structures as in my first game in 2.2 I managed to get a fully built and colonized Ring World by 2367 and began construction on new Matter Decompressor for those sweet minerals. As I improve my strategy I figure I can't get there even faster.

And the housing would greatly increase flexibility on the Habitats as you could do what I originally wanted as well as go full in on the other districts there as well. I'm also think it's kinda unfair if what the ShoGul said about Hiveminds being able to build housing.

 

[Bobylein]

And the housing would greatly increase flexibility on the Habitats as you could do what I originally wanted as well as go full in on the other districts there as well. I'm also think it's kinda unfair if what the ShoGul said about Hiveminds being able to build housing.

I wonder if communal housings from the shared burden civic work on habitats... also yea, hiveminds are ridiculous at the moment.

 

[Scorpio_Shirica]

I used to enjoy habitats for going tall. Now they are a niche compliment at best. Largely agree with the OP, they aren't really useful. I'd rather an average all-around than a small trade or research booster. Usually around the time I can afford them, I can do city worlds and they are completely useless to me as they can't provide the food or minerals to feed my tall civilization. And the trade or research they provide are droplets in an ocean.

 

[Viljainen]

I've found the best build for habitats is to turn them into industrial centres. I use vast majoitus of thr 6/8 districts for housing to maximize population and building slots and then fill the slots with lvl 3 consumer or alloy factories. There provide a nice number of jobs so that in the end your habitat has almost all the building slots unlocked and pushes out manufactured goods like an industrial planet.

Obviously, this is not how habitats are "designed" to be used but the habitat districts ,except housing, are just so inefficient in what they do that I can't be bothered. To rebalance them the number of jobs they give should be increased.

 

[Scorpio_Shirica]

I've found the best build for habitats is to turn them into industrial centres. I use vast majoitus of thr 6/8 districts for housing to maximize population and building slots and then fill the slots with lvl 3 consumer or alloy factories. There provide a nice number of jobs so that in the end your habitat has almost all the building slots unlocked and pushes out manufactured goods like an industrial planet.

Obviously, this is not how habitats are "designed" to be used but the habitat districts ,except housing, are just so inefficient in what they do that I can't be bothered. To rebalance them the number of jobs they give should be increased.

I'd probably do this if I didn't already have city forge and industrial worlds already starving for minerals themselves.

 

[Teldaril]

I like my trade, research and refinery habitats. But i guess habitats could get a balance check. Some more flavour in terms of special habitat buildings would be nice. Same for ringworlds.

 

[Felius]

They aren't useless, but honestly, I don't feel they are worth a whole ascension perk just to unlock them.

 

[Cynoid]

I don't really get what niche/use the habitats are supposed to have in 2.2 (at least for standard empires).

* They cannot produce primary ressources

* Building limitations makes them bad at research (no labs, no housing building to free districts slots)

* Building limitations makes them bad at Trade (no Commerce Zone/Megaplexes, no housing building to free districts slots)

* You can use it as a manufacturing platform, but Eucumenoplises are much more efficient at this, it doesn't really make sense.

* You can use it as a refinery platform, but if you have Eucumenopolises, you don't need quite as much Motes and crystals, so I'm not sure it's worth an Ascension Perk.

It can be an interesting tool to create an emmigration source (but without Gene clinic, it may be more efficient to use planets). You can also use them as a hard-as-nails FTL inhibitors (using Fortress buildings). But otherwise, they seems outclassed by other options.

 

[Scorpio_Shirica]

They aren't useless, but honestly, I don't feel they are worth a whole ascension perk just to unlock them.

You know, that's true. If they were a tech and not an ascension perk, I could view them as more useful.

 

[Pragmatic]

Saying this as a novice player, take with a grain of salt.

I think that habitat PLACEMENT is better in 2.2. The take the same slot as mining/research bases, but I THINK planets do a better job of producing research and minerals (and alloys). And three of the five (?) strategic resources can be produced by planets/habitats. So why NOT build a habitat in that orbital slot?

 

[djmatipl]

But habitat count as district etc. soooo... they are not worth for me. Better is take planet, play as ME. After got tech use terraforming and create machine world, from this stage game is "easy" even on admiral.

 

[westamastaflash]

This has been gone over and over and over again.

- Habitats are great from a cost/benefit perspective for Research - no exotic gasses needed and you can get 3 housing / 5 research districts up and running *fast*. And then you even usually still have space for a few rare resource buildings (and if you're spiritual, a temple). Yes, they cost a few battleships worth of alloys to get stood up and maintain. But I think they pay for themselves pretty quickly. And if you're playing tall, they give you more places to train up your specialist scientists using assist research.

- Habitats are great on your borders as fortress worlds to save precious building spaces on your planets. I have a habitat with defense army strength of 6127 (Very Strong Resilient Battle Thralls working in 8 fortresses and a Military Academy). It can get even better than that if I wanted it to. I would need ~51 very strong battle thrall Gene Warriors to equal this army strength. Put one or two of these in a chokepoint system (add a planetary shield too), and it will take a long time for most enemies to bust this habitat open. Even regular strongholds do the trick earlier on and don't require motes. Oh and all those soldiers add +100 to by naval capacity so I don't ever need anchorages, so indirectly I get a bunch more trade value from those starbases (or bigger bastions of defense).

- Habitats are a great place to put a bunch of resource silos and clerks to generate massive amounts of trade value for very little cost. Late game having a large alloy stockpile is important.

- Habitats give you *building slots* for those 1-job buildings.

- Habitats are decent Unity producers as well though I think this is the weakest district they have.