Neinzul Regeneration Chambers - what's their point?

[Yavaun]

Hi everyone I'm new to the forums as well as to the game (only 2 finished games so far). I really like the design of all the ships the game has to offer because I can usually find a use for everything.


However, the Neinzul Regeneration Chamber seems pretty bad to me.

Don't get me wrong, I use Youngling ships and I know what these chambers are supposed to do but the fact that you cannot manually load them and they won't accept full health younglings makes them worse than any alternative (transports, rebuild, stand down) for a variety of reasons but most importantly because these chambers leave your younglings in a random and mostly bad shape.

Could somebody explain to me why they are designed in such a way that they cannot keep your youngling fleet at full health, especially given how costly, stationary and low capped they are?

[Bognor]

Glad you're enjoying the game! I'm pretty sure regen chambers are one of the exceedingly few parts of AI War that are really broken right now.  From memory, last time these were discussed no-one found them useful.

[Pumpkin]

Well... While it's right they're not that useful... sometimes (and I say sometimes), I find them useful. When you go along the Neinzul path aggressively (unlocking high mark of them and unlocking the true neinzul enclave mobile spacedock, you may want to use your little short-lived friends not only as a storming death legion but also as a vigilant quick response team. So, instead of being yourself vigilant and building them when you need them, you may send them to the planet you want to defend and add (if not already done) a NRChamber to it : the younglings will automatically enter and exit the chamber and stay (mostly) healthy. When the AI will warp/wave this planet, they will respond as a normal defense fleet.

Yeah, I know, not that useful. But stay, I've got something more.
When you're steamrolling a bordering AI planet (threat-hunting?), maybe you don't want these little guys to eat all your metal. So you build a NRChamber in one of your planets near the battle front, and they will automatically retreat when low life (because of self-attrition or firefight) and go right to the NRC, using no metal at all.

Yeah, NRC are lame. But maybe the game would be missing something if they weren't there. They're a little tool, useful in very uncommon circumstances. Even when I go Neinzul (against a youngster AI, stealing its design backups?) I often prefer my younglings to die in the battle; they don't eat that much of metal. Anyway, 9 mobile space docks kitting with V-click in an AI planet with some MkI-IV younglings in loop are just a death storm (even in homeworld assault).

While I'm thinking...
Maybe we should call this building the Neinzul Reproduction Chamber.
Just for fun

[Yavaun]

Well it's true that if you have your fleet on free roaming and don't pay attention to it for a long time then they're literally better than nothing. However, most of the time my younglings are either in reproduction loop (because they're fighting and dieing) or stored in an assault transport.

I thought about using NRC offensively too (like building them right in the middle of a battle"field" so my younglings can outregenerate incoming fire. It was a pain to observe >.<
First, most youngling simply succumb to the projectiles which are chasing them from the battlefield and most of the time catch up before they can enter the chamber.
Secondly, if you place several chambers they will visit them in the order you placed them - not the nearest. So having one chamber at the edge and a second right ontop of your fighting younglings means they will prefer to travel the long distance (and die due to what I said before - duh).
Finally, if you have your chamber on a nearby planet your younglings will spend easily half the time out of combat when you simply could have (re-)produced them where the action is - i.e. play their strength.

Bottomline, for every little useful bit about the NRC I find something outright stupid. One could say Neinzul regeneration chambers grind my gears... At least, speed bosster seem to fix this to an extend.


By the way, I discovered something else (perhaps a mistake): Do AI controlled yng RAILPODS grow additional segments per tier? Whether that's true or false, why don't player crontrolled RP do this? :< It would definitely make them look as badass as they are (especially in combination with munition boosters).

[Bognor]

you build a NRChamber in one of your planets near the battle front, and they will automatically retreat when low life (because of self-attrition or firefight) and go right to the NRC, using no metal at all.

I guess the whole salvage mechanic increases the value of minimising losses on AI planets.  I don't think there's been a big discussion about NRCs since salvage was introduced.  I can see how this would be useful against Mime or Overreactive AI types.