It's only just occurred to me that I have no idea what that actually means, and how my tools being "Sarween" brand or made by Sarweenians confer such a bonus. Are they automated? superior quality? Blessed? Most of the other techs have some semblance of reasoning behind it, but Sarween ?

What does it mean???

Could be a planet we don't know, or just mean "made by the Saar".

Stefan said:

"Sarween" only has one "a," which discourages the idea that its connected to the Saar race (at least in my opinion.) There's also the fact that the Saar are nomadic, which probably doesn't do wonders for their ability to mass produce any kind of product that would be in popular demand throughout the galaxy. They strike me as scavangers more than industry bigwigs. =P

I'm not saying you're wrong about that theory - technically there is no official fluff on the origin of the name "sarween." It could be the name of a planet, a race or a particular sentient being. It could also be a word in one of the alien languages. For all we know, "Sarween" is Hylarian for "really good." The Hylar strike me as a much more credible source for such technological advancements; not there's anything to support them over the Saar other than the fact that they're known inventors.

"These tools aren't just good, they're Sarween ™ good!"

I just love the fact that the developers could've given the tech any old mundane-sounding name like "Adv Production Bays" or "Matter Replicatiors", they ended up throwing a curve ball that, whilst daft sounding, makes it a unique part of the TI lore.

If Sarween was a planet, imagine what its stats and description would be?

Ween 5/2

Orbiting the bright star Sar, the planet
Ween is an extremly mineral rich planet
and home to the well known and
respected Sarween Tools Inc.

Fnoffen said:

That sounds a bit more right, considering in your everyday galactic imperial struggle, Sarween Tools Inc can be seen profiting to the sound of anywhere between 10-40 trade goods... That's a lot of representation right there. Their legal team probably inhabits the entirety of a moon somewhere.

Fnoffen said:

Is this a new planet in Shards?

Steve-O said:

Nah. Just from my wierd cranial passages.

Your sinuses?

Well who knows how each races biology really works? Xenobiology is a tough nut to crack... Speaking of which... That would be an AWESOME tech to have btw.

Xenobiology/Xenotechnology [Green/Red]

Prerequisites: X-89 Bacterial Weapon and
Daxcive Animators
or
War Sun and
Graviton Negator

You now have +1 on all combat rolls

This tech counts as both a green AND a
red tech for purposes of fulfilling objectives.

Knowing where to aim is crucial
to any military operative.

And now for something somewhat related:

The cranial passages of Fnoffen brings you: *drumroll* Repetetive Research! *tadaaaaa*

By this I mean that techs would be re-researchable for +100% effectiveness.

Hylar V assault laser would give +1 on the first research, +2 on the second, +3 on the third and so on.

The cost would have to be a cumulative +10 addition for each iteration though.

Any tech would have +0 cost on the first research, +10 on the second, +20 on the third and so on.

To keep track of the level of each tech, it could be marked by permanently adding a CC on it to show how many extra levels of research have been done.

One could even turn the CC into an additional cost paid from Strategy Allocation.

To sum up: Great benefits of multi-researching but at a great cost. Now that's what I call balancing.

And all that was thought up in less than 5 minutes. Jeez my cranial passages work in mysterious ways...

Fnoffen said:

So now the people who love to waste money on tech when they should be earning VPs can waste even more money buying the same techs twice? I like it!

One could come up with a new variant.

For instance, One could set the VP limit to infinite and incorporate a time limit instead. Whoever has most VPs at the end of the status phase of the round in which the time limit ran out wins.

Total VP = the normal (objective) VPs + 1VP per level per tech (- starting tech) + 1 VP per remaining TG + 1VP per planet production + 1 VP per influence

Or one could just ignore my caffeine-and-sleep-deprivation-induced ramblings...

a slight google search suggest a lot of people named Sarween on facebook, leading me to think that Sarween is a name =s

Sakes said:

That's interesting to know. Even if it weren't a human name, though, it could very easily be an alien name. And, conversely, the tech might yet derive it's name from some other source, despite the fact that "Sarween" is coincidentally also a name in some parts of our world.

There's no evidence that this tech was invented by the Federation, after all.