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With the way this game is going, I half expect the final update to simply be"Whelp, I went to load my save but the file is corrupted. So we'll just say the Psilons caused reality to collapse. Join me next time as I try again as the Meklar."
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Dec 27, 2017 12:01
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Episode VII: 2500-2525 For the last decade or so we've been even or ahead of the Silicoids in population as they gradually lose ground against the Psilons.  We are prototyping increased range, which will give us relations with the other three races I'm confident(Human/Darlok/Bulrathi), and also Anti-Matter Torpedoes, which will make it useful for us to build warships. It's time for us to be more aggressive and try to join in the war any way we can. The only path to victory I can see -- and a highly unlikely one regardless -- is to expand in the chaos of war, build enough strength to take Orion, and use the toys we find there at some point in a desperate struggle against the seemingly invincible Psilons down the road.  Here's the state of our defenses. Most of the other planets I can see from other empires have 30-45 missile bases so we are behind them but gradually building up as we advance.  We're also making a play for two different systems here. This colonizer is headed for Hyades, a system destroyed some while back. A Psilon colony ship will get there the same time we do so it's a question of who 'wins the tie'. Tyr was also destroyed recently, but the Silicoids got there first. They are reinforcing it with transports but not ships -- our transports will get there first, and the human(purple) fleet in orbit is a single cruiser so even if they attack our troops we should be able to take the system. Question is can we hold it. We realistically may gain both of these systems, and we also may get neither, but seizing these kinds of opportunities is our only chance to do anything right now since we have no fleet. The next year we capture Tyr, with an exchange rate of 18:4. Getting Zortium didn't seem to help us much. They've got Fusion Rifles and Absorption Shields. Incoming are a few silicoid destroyers, their relief transports which may well be enough to take us, one Psilon capship which will hopefully help, and Darlok colony ships. A chaotic situation that could go either way. Meanwhile the Silicoids got to Hyades first.  We get our range boost to Reajax II the next year, and will next go for Ion Drives, which would double our current mobility. The Silicoids land and re-take Tyr(losing 14 to our 54). I'll probably keep sending transports there simply because they are busy elsewhere, unless it looks like they are going to have enough ships in orbit to stop us.  Good to see you too.  That's a little better. Now we can get a proper handle on where we stand in the galaxy for the first time -- almost. We are still out of contact with the Bulrathi. Both Darloks and Humans are Diplomatic races, Xenophobic and Honorable respectively though. The Humans are on the other side of the conflict while the Darlok are on ours. We can't exactly choose our side here -- the Psilons are going to win and it's better to be their right hand than in their path. We bribe the Darloks with Zortium Armor and establish a 325BC trade deal.  As you can see the Darloks and Humans are tiny -- we basically know where everybody is fully now.  Things don't look as bad for us when you see a larger picture here. Even with no fleet we're a little ahead of the small fry overall. The nigh-omnipotent Psilons are the only reason we can't be optimistic. Meanwhile, they have destroyed Hyades so one of us will get a crack at it now ... I also decide not to send any more transports to Tyr. We need to wait for a clearer opportunity between them having ships inbound, us having no fleet, and the very lopsided exchange rate we have in terms of ground combat with them.  We get the nod for whatever game mechanics reason there is, but we're going to lose it if the Psilons don't stay in orbit and protect us. 29 Silicoid transports are incoming. GNN reports we are up to a solid #3 in population behind the Psilon and Bulrathi.  I'll be watching to see how this plays out also. If the Humans weaken the Silicoid presence, and they don't maintain a significant fleet in orbit, we may try and send another wave in. The next year, the Psilons take out all incoming Silcoid ships and transports at Hyades. We'll still need them to stick around if we are going to hang on to the system, but that's enough of a good-will gesture for me to send a few million colonists to get things moving a little more there. Another year, and the artifacts planet at Escalon, between Hyades and the rest of our territory was destroyed as the Psilons inexplicably moved their ships away like the AI does sometimes. The Silicoids have a couple of combat ships headed there, but I think a pair of colony ships might arrive first. One is ours, the other is Bulrathi. Meanwhile more ships are headed to reinforce Tyr so that option is off the table. We've now reached another situation where I've got to reassess the progress of the war every single year, seeing what doors of opportunity are opening and closing, where I should invest and when to conserve resources. It's an ever-shifting, dynamic situation and the Psilons are being just random enough to allow for others like us to possibly make important gains.  Another cycle, and this. Enough damage to penetrate virtually any ship shielding and modest planetary ones. In other words, useful against anyone save our allies who we are not nearly stupid enough to attack anytime soon. It's time to prepare for a real offensive.  I'm still primarily interested in our defensive capabilities, so we go Pulson Missiles here, which do a third more damage than our current Stingers.  I've always thought this was a fairly quality name for a ship, so I'll leave it. This is the best computer and propulsion stuff I can put on a ship, the shielding just thrown on at the end. Not the largest payload obviously, but it's new tech. We'll go to a 50-50 split between shipbuilding and research now. The rally point is Vega, with the idea of taking Tyr by force once we have enough of them to make a show of it. We won't get more than about one of them a year to start with, so it'll take some time.  Here's what the rocks currently have. The biggest thing I notice here is no missile development whatsoever. We needn't fear their bases much. There may be a chance for us to gain territory at their expense.  The Bulrathi colony ship was armed, and they seize Escalon. We will see how long that lasts, but having them this close to our territory is not pleasant. We have an uneasy peace with them, though we do manage to sign a Non-Aggression Pact with the Darloks. Meanwhile the Psilons remain in guard position over Hyades thankfully.  Yeah, you've never attempted to 'reason with us', liars. But whatever makes you feel better. The Psilons destroyed their Escalon colony, which seems to be the thing that pushed them over the edge. We'll try to sneak in there again.  This time everyone else left for whatever reason. Sure, we'll take that. Humans, Psilons, and Bulrathi transports are incoming. Meanwhile our first two Ajax cruisers just went operational. Escalon is the new rally point. The Psilons might protect it for us, and they might not, but an artifact system is important enough for us to throw everything we can at holding it.  Meklon, disaster magnet. You all were saying about what events hadn't fired yet? Here's another one off the list. We have only a few hundred in the reserve, which was going towards funding buildup on Hyades and Escalon. As important as that is, it will now go to saving the homeworld. Shipbuilding will have to be halted as the other systems pump money into the reserve to ensure we have enough to deal with this crisis. This is not a good time for this, not that there ever really is one.  The Psilons left, with predictable results.  Of course you are. Can we have something other than bad news, please?!? Kthxbye. Turns out our industrial base is just large enough to fully fund transfers to Meklon and put a few hundred into research. So that's all that's going to happen for the duration.  This showed up at Escalon the next year. We had one cruiser in place. Running like the cowardly fool I am, I watched them destroy the small settlement from orbit, while contact is broken with the Bulrathi again, and some saboteur took out a couple of bases on Meklon. Bad on top of bad with a side of terrible. The 32k ship bug has struck our allies the Psilons. Like they needed more help.  That's done with, and our two Ajaxs have managed to take down a few Silicoid ships at Escalon, including a colony ship that was incoming to take the system. We are actually fighting back, for the first time -- and now I can work on getting more ships there. Or not, since the Psilons got there first and the Darloks have taken Hyades. So it's back to Vega now and rebuilding to wait for another chance to do something useful.  Like say, defending our own territory. The Silicoids destroy Escalon a year later and send this our way. Vega is our weakest system, with just 14 bases. Combined with whatever cruisers we can amass in the next few years, I don't know if it will be enough. The Barracudas(single neutron blaster) don't worry me. That many Whales(death spores, nuclear bombs which can't hurt our defenses, hard beam, neutron blaster) could be quite interesting though. These ships are all slow, so I hope we'll be able to tear them up by the time they arrive.  So much for being fast friends with them. The Silicoids tried to bribe us to break our alliance with the Psilons. No thanks, we aren't suicidal. In 2522, the rocks arrived in Vega.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWLZNGJfL9I Those death spores almost did us in, but not quite. 21M, a third of the starting population, survived the attack. They've got the second tier Bio-Toxin but we haven't seen it in use yet. Definitely will want to grab any antidotes we run into. In the meantime, I think we're ready for a little expedition to Tyr. It'll take a crapton of population to wear them down and capture it, but hopefully we can eventually snag a tech or two in the process to help our chances later on. Everywhere except for the reduced numbers on Vega preps half it's population for the invasion. This is going to take a while, and it's going to hurt. Elsewhere the fighting over Hyades and Escalon continues, but I don't yet see a clear opportunity. The year before the vote the invasion begins in earnest. We take out 50 of their ships without a single loss(13 cruisers on station), and lose the first ground invasion(65, with 11M defenders removed). Population stands at 42, and now we will work on pounding the rock.  Same nominees of course, I expect that to be stable until/unless we can gain enough territory, and basically half of our people are in invasion transports right now. The rocks gained back two population during this period. ** Bulrathi(8) -- Voting for themselves of course. ** Darlok(2) -- Zygot ** Humans(3) -- Smurch. No change in either of these. ** Psilons(18) -- Same total they've had the last couple votes. They aren't being as successful in the war as they should be. We have just three votes due to the ongoing transports. 23-18 Zygot leads the vote this time, with our support. The Council is pretty stable, but once things turn the Psilons way that will no longer be the case.
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Dec 28, 2017 06:18
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"I've never seen the ameoba AND the crystal attack the player simultaneously", he said with hope in his eyes...
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Dec 28, 2017 07:24
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... Wow, you are doing awesomely playing out a real messy hand. I am in awe.
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Dec 28, 2017 08:03
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You know this is starting to seem an awful lot less hopeless.
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Dec 28, 2017 11:06
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Did you get the name Ajax from a particular war rocket?
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Dec 28, 2017 15:03
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It's one of the default ship names.
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Dec 28, 2017 17:12
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Ha ha, yep, there's the supernova. Geez!Randalor posted:Did you get the name Ajax from a particular war rocket? As mentioned it's one of the Meklar default names. Every race has a set of names specific to them and the size of the hull you're building, like how the Silicoids there had "Barracuda" destroyers and their battleships are things like "Whale" or "Monitor." The Meklar are particularly and appropriately metal, with things like "Devastator" and "Annihilator" for their battleships. Speaking of the Ajax, though, Thot, I normally recommend smaller ships for missile-only designs, since you really want volume of fire and they're not going to be attacked as much as short-range beam boats. If you can squeeze a torpedo on a destroyer hull, that's probably the way to go, and if you don't know AMTs have a +4 to hit that you'll only see in its Tech description, so you might be able to save room on the computer. Good luck turning this around!  Just be careful not to end up 2nd in population while still at war with everyone but the Psilons!
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Dec 28, 2017 17:51
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I didn’t expect the Psilons would just stall when clearly leading in both size and tech, but it gives a ray of light. A very small, dim one, but it’s there.
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Dec 28, 2017 18:13
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Wayne posted:Ha ha, yep, there's the supernova. Geez! I thought the names were based more on flag color? Never paid too close attention. Yeah, downgrading one level of computer saves you huge, and if you can cram 1 torp on a destroyer by doing so that would be more effective. Alternatively, go down 1 level and up your shields to ruggedize a bit. Luckily the silicoids don't have missiles so you can ignore ecm this generation.
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Dec 28, 2017 18:19
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GuavaMoment posted:"I've never seen the ameoba AND the crystal attack the player simultaneously", he said with hope in his eyes... ... wedgekree posted:ou are doing awesomely playing out a real messy hand. I am in awe. *bow* Wayne posted:I normally recommend smaller ships for missile-only designs, since you really want volume of fire and they're not going to be attacked as much as short-range beam boats. If you can squeeze a torpedo on a destroyer hull, that's probably the way to go, and if you don't know AMTs have a +4 to hit that you'll only see in its Tech description, so you might be able to save room on the computer. I obsessively go with the best computer available for reasons of initiative -- being able to move first is usually really important. I sometimes try out destroyer and cruiser designs to see which one gives me the best bang for the buck ... usually it's the cruiser but it probably wouldn't be if I knocked down the computer a couple pegs.
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Dec 29, 2017 04:52
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Wahahaha speak of the devil! Sorry to have further cursed our brave Meklar.
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Dec 29, 2017 05:23
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OAquinas posted:I thought the names were based more on flag color? Never paid too close attention. Did you play the games before a modern re-release, and had to deal with the copy protection? Because those were mostly 1 faction's names for each color plus a few extra (Purple are almost all Mrrshan names; Lynx and Warcat and such) and you might be remembering that. Thotimx posted:I obsessively go with the best computer available for reasons of initiative -- being able to move first is usually really important. I sometimes try out destroyer and cruiser designs to see which one gives me the best bang for the buck ... usually it's the cruiser but it probably wouldn't be if I knocked down the computer a couple pegs. Larges are the hull size I tend to use the least often, so I'll admit to being biased there! My logic is that is if you just want guns, you want smaller hulls with just enough base components (computer, shield, etc.) to beat what you're up against, and accept your losses and hope to not waste too many for scrap when you have to upgrade. Single-gun fighters with no shields are a classic choice, and sometimes I'll do bomber Destroyers with max shields if the AI has poor missiles so bases are no threat at all (like mark 6 shields if the AI is stuck with hyper/scatter Vs). Meanwhile, if you want ships to last the long haul, with max shields and computers and such, I use battleships so you can get all that stuff and still have a lot of firepower. Cruiser hulls are just small enough based on the ratios MOO1 uses to not have much left if you max out your core components. That also gives you synergy with things like Auto-Repair, since you get more HP back and lose fewer ships. Of course, sometimes you just don't have the production base to build those in a timely manner, so it's not like I never build cruisers either. I definitely hear you on initiative, and it can be nice to get your volley of ordnance in the air so the AI has to pull that ship type back or eat damage closing in, but long-range ships don't lose much going 2nd, so I wouldn't worry as much about that. Especially if you also cut down on maneuverability to save space, too; since that gets factored into initiative you might be going last anyway.
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Dec 29, 2017 21:31
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This is weird then - I always built the biggest ship available and never bother with smaller ones. You win a lot of fights by attrition that way since it takes a lot of production to build a few cruisers, but nothing to repair a 90% damaged large ship. Most games I have no fleet at all until I suddenly have the biggest, meanest ship in the galaxy.
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Dec 30, 2017 02:26
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I've found I often need a fleet of some type before I can afford to go with Huge ships; early-on it just takes long to build them, often 15 years or so even at reasonably-sized planets.
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Dec 30, 2017 06:08
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Episode VII: 2525-2550 The Silicoids recently got a production and fleet boost. Right now it's all about territory though, and hoping they and the Psilons can keep squabbling over the same systems.  Not getting much research right now, but we're about to see some new breakthroughs most important one being the new shield here.  We get it the very next turn. I'm tempted to go Repulsor Beam here, as I'd like to have that as an option. Only the Cloaking Device will give us new choices. It's almost a 3:1 cost ratio, but I decide to go Cloaking and see what that pops, then maybe go back for the Repulsor. 3 more transports land, taking 2 Silicoids with them. 68 to 13 now. Shipbuilding stops while we get the new shields up. The next year we got the latest Battle Computer ... and up pops Robotics VI! That's going to be a considerable upgrade. We presently on have tier III, so this will be a big push forward. Technology ratios are re-configured to focus on getting that ASAP. Meanwhile 101 transports land at Tyr ... and take just 11M Silicoids with them. That's some real bad luck with the dice there. 169 to 24 so far. If it gets any worse I'll have to bomb the darned thing out. 54 to 5 next time out(223 to 29 overall). I don't know why, they haven't gotten any additional tech. RNG just seems to be favoring them. 51 to 6 lost next as we get Class X shields up on Meklon and Crypto. They sent a new type of cap-ship at us as well but the Ajax cruisers swatted it before it could get close. They've got more ships incoming to Vega though, so we'll have to pull back soon and deal with that. We'll pause here from the troop transports. I'm not even sure we're going to win this as much as we've put into the grinder. I'm forced to admit the operation has been a waste; we'll have to go to bombing them out and recolonizing afterwards, as inefficient as that is. If the kill ratio had stayed at 5:1 we'd have been fine. What a freaking resource dump. 2532: The last of the Class X Shields are up, a year before the rocks arrive. Meanwhile the Darloks want a new NAP. Not sure why they've changed their minds, but we agree.  After obliterating the latest incoming Silicoid attack, I reassess the situation. The Psilons have a big fleet heading to Tyr, so I'll let them do whatever they are going to do there. I decide to send the cruisers back to Escalon. Nobody's been able to hold it for long, and right now the Silicoids, Psilons, and Darloks are all headed there. I'll look for an opportunity to take and fortify it. That's as good a plan as any.  As aggravating as this is, it will help them against the Psilons in the long-term, so it's probably good.  With our ships about to arrive at Escalon, nobody else is there, but a bunch of Darloks are incoming. If we beat them, I'll destroy the colony, leaving the Darloks to starve, and then re-settle it. This is a particularly cold and dastardly plan, which if successful will have us intentionally dooming 52 million citizens of an empire we have no quarrel with. But you know, they sent transports without a fleet in place, and in the end there can be only one.  Everything goes according to plan. Meanwhile the Psilons take out Tyr, and this happens to them. These were bugged 32k fleets; now they are even more bugged, presumably because they lost some of them. How does one have a negative amount of ships in orbit? Isn't that as hostile to the space-time continuum as say, dividing by zero? The next year we colonize Escalon again. I think we've got better chances of holding it now. Silicoids and Bulrathi are incoming though, so we'll need our Ajax cruisers to swat them.  And there it is! That's how to get the job done. The Psilons also destroy Celtsi, a nearby Silicoid world that is a large terran, very nice. But we don't have the ability to guard two worlds at once yet. After we deal with the incoming waves here, the Silicoids have retaken Celtsi but it looks like we can get to Tyr before anyone else. I divide our ships in half and give it a shot. A careful balance is to be struck here like walking a tight-rope; we've got to be aggressive in taking what we can without stretching ourselves too thin to defend it.  We just do beat the Psilons there in 2543. Back up to eight systems, and hopefully holding them this time and consolidating a bit now.  We get our cheaper factories in which will be quite useful once the new robotics arrives. Andrium Armor will move us forward here. Now that we are needing regular transfer payments, I move Crypto(our #2 planet) into reserve funding as is my custom. This will make sure we can adequately build up any new colonies. 2549: We lose contact with the Darloks. It appears the Humans are fighting them and have taken out the homeworld of Nazin. Didn't know they were tough enough to do that, but there's nothing to be done about it.  As the Council assembles we are given this update. This is not encouraging given that we are close to being maxed out for our current economic situation. The galaxy is largely mobilized, and as much as we've improved we clearly still have a long way to go. How the homo sapiens have managed a fleet this large, I have no clue.  Same stuff, different day. ** Silicoids(5) -- Smurch. The rocks are definitely losing now. It's only a matter of time. ** Bulrathi(8) ** Darloks(1) -- Zygot. Could well be the first to be eliminated. ** Humans(2) -- Smurch ** Psilons(19, +1) And then there's us, up to 6 votes which is the best we've achieved this galaxy. Third and creeping up on Smurch and his bearfolk. We vote Zygot again, leaving things at 26-15. If we get much stronger we won't be able to caucus with the Psilons without handing them the victory, and will probably be their opposing nominee. If that happens, it may be a lot more challenging to remain friends with them. The most shocking thing of all though is after everything that has happened, we've not merely survived but are legitimately a player in this game. I expected to be exterminated by now.
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Dec 30, 2017 06:16
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You continue to impress with pulling out good situations despite the deck stacked against you.
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Dec 30, 2017 07:39
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Thotimx posted:This is a particularly cold and dastardly plan, which if successful will have us intentionally dooming 52 million citizens of an empire we have no quarrel with. It's really a slippery slope in this game from being a peaceful leader to becoming space mega-Hitler
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Dec 30, 2017 09:54
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Dong Quixote posted:It's really a slippery slope in this game from being a peaceful leader to becoming space mega-Hitler Isn't the whole point of the game to eventually become space Hitler anyway? Invading your neighbors, committing genocide, and betraying your allies until the galaxy agrees to make you the unquestioned leader of all known existence.
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Dec 30, 2017 10:15
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Dong Quixote posted:It's really a slippery slope in this game from being a peaceful leader to becoming space mega-Hitler It doesn't help that your invasion army is formed by packing up half of your planet's total population onto transports, giving them weapons and armor, and throwing them all into the meat grinder. Men, women, children, newborns, it doesn't matter everyone gets a gun and fights to the death.
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Dec 30, 2017 10:16
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General Revil posted:Men, women, children, newborns, it doesn't matter everyone gets a gun and fights to the death. That's optimistic. I'm not sure we've researched guns yet in this game.
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Dec 30, 2017 20:17
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GuavaMoment posted:That's optimistic. I'm not sure we've researched guns yet in this game. That considered, all those millions of conscripts are doing pretty well.
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Dec 30, 2017 20:23
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Friend Commuter posted:That considered, all those millions of conscripts are doing pretty well. Tell that to the massacres at Tyr.
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Dec 30, 2017 21:54
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General Revil posted:your invasion army is formed by packing up half of your planet's total population onto transports, giving them weapons and armor, and throwing them all into the meat grinder. Men, women, children, newborns, it doesn't matter everyone gets a gun and fights to the death. Based on the game mechanics and the numbers involved, I take it to mean your able-bodied work force. So definitely not children and newborns. 300 million isn't very much for a huge, perfect environment planet to max out at anyway, but unless we assume that newborns are also working in the factories, I wouldn't include them in the population number. Not that you aren't 100% correct in it being a horrific matter regardless(wiping out the entire adult population, instead of, you know, subduing the major installations or co-opting them a la Stellaris). This matter would seem to require more discussion and debate from the august readership of this thread.
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Dec 31, 2017 01:18
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General Revil posted:hat's optimistic. I'm not sure we've researched guns yet in this game. Accurate observation. We had uh, Titanium Combat Armor. Not even a slingshot to spread amongst the lot of 'em.
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Dec 31, 2017 02:43
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Thotimx posted:With our ships about to arrive at Escalon, nobody else is there, but a bunch of Darloks are incoming. If we beat them, I'll destroy the colony, leaving the Darloks to starve, and then re-settle it. This is a particularly cold and dastardly plan, which if successful will have us intentionally dooming 52 million citizens of an empire we have no quarrel with. But you know, they sent transports without a fleet in place, and in the end there can be only one. I wouldn't feel too bad about this given that the Darlok plan was to send 52 million of their citizens with no spare food or power and no way of extracting them from a planet beyond taking the inhabitants' pre-existing infrastructure. Thotimx posted:Not that you aren't 100% correct in it being a horrific matter regardless(wiping out the entire adult population, instead of, you know, subduing the major installations or co-opting them a la Stellaris). Or, indeed, every MOO after this one. Something about MOO1 means that different sentient species cannot coexist even if their usable ecosystems should have zero overlap. Thotimx posted:We had uh, Titanium Combat Armor. Not even a slingshot to spread amongst the lot of 'em. And by "Titanium Combat Armor" we mean our average Meklar's walking-around-town exoskeleton.
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Dec 31, 2017 04:48
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Episode VII: 2550-2575 If our fleet is 5th and the Silicoids 2nd, there isn't a whole lot separating most empires on that score. I'm also really sick of looking at all those big red bars.  We're doing well enough to start tracking system counts. ** Psilons(15) -- Keeping them from growing is as important as anything. ** Meklar(8, +2) -- Second place, half of what they have. We're going to eventually have to be equal with them at a minimum to have any chance. ** Bulrathi(6) ** Silicoid(5) -- Getting smashed by us and the Psilons. They are not long for this galaxy. ** Humans(3) ** Darloks(1) A third of the thing belongs to the eggheads. We've got to rampage through everything else at any opportunity. Even that may not be enough, but that's where we're headed. Tech-wise we are in the prototype phase for the robotics.  Populations have mostly recovered from that abysmal failure at invading Tyr via ground assault, and we've now got about 40 cruisers operational. I haven't gotten anything in that would significantly improve them yet. The reserve is up to a solid amount, important to get that going before a big industrial expansion.  This is the most immediate problem. I may consider going after a third system once it has been dealt with.  Comes in the next year despite a low(14%) probability. This will increase our industrial output by 55%, and also ensures that even at max. robotics, no other race can match our production per population. It's kind of a big deal. We haven't gotten any ECM in ... well I don't know if I ever researched any. Level IX is the only forward option now. Research goes back to the usual distribution. Terraforming is the only project remotely close right now, and almost everything we have will go into the industrial buildup anyway. Another year, and Smurch says that 'both our races have suffered greatly' from our conflict. We actually haven't suffered at all, but whatever. Peace it is. I then discover they are at peace with the Psilons, and at war with the Humans/Silicoids. This is an opportunity, and I sign a trade deal as well(975 BC) and a Non-Aggression Pact. When the time comes, as the next-strongest empire it would be nice to have their aid in countering the Psilon menace. Then we lose several cruisers but defend well enough when the Silicoids arrive at Tyr. The Psilons destroy Hyades, severing contact with the Bulrathi again. Still worth it to get that NAP in place though.  I decide to sneak a colonizer and some cruisers back up there before anyone else settles it, then try to hold on to these three systems while we build industry. It works, but there's lots of stuff incoming. Mostly Bulrathi. Not sure we'll keep it, but we might if they honor the NAP. 2556: The Bulrathi transports are all destroyed and the first of their ships turn around without attacking. Our agreements hold and we've taken out another Silicoid group. Looking pretty solid at Hyades for the moment, esp. with the new factories now in place.  Seems a good time to re-up with our pretend friends. Last deal was 550, well under half this new one. I'm thinking it's time to start considering Orion. I know the torpedoes can do some damage to the Guardian, and with our expanded industry, sending the whole lot of our Ajax fleet there once these new systems are built up deserves serious consideration.  More and more systems are being fought over, making the Orion route less likely. Phantos is far enough to the right that it should let us establish permanent contact with the Bulrathi. That's pretty important strategically. As the fleet grows, we continue to spread out more. 10 cruisers a system seems sufficient for our needs right now. The machine might of Meklar industry is starting to shine now. In 2567 we lose Hyades. The Silicoids have a faster Mako cruiser now that can keep up with the Ajax, so we need superior numbers to defend against it. On the other hand, Tyr has the shield up and is starting on missile bases, so that'll be one less system that needs help defending itself soon. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FWtq2BEeNA I expected that to be a little more of a fight, but the reason for showing it is that we had the opportunity to settle Nazin, former Darlok homeworld. A nice system to add to our collection.  As we make another play from Hyades, using the ships that were re-routed from Tyr, the bears decide they need to be more aggressive as well. Meanwhile we've got the planetary shield up on Escalon. Won't be long till we can start getting research flowing there.  I've now switched to something I don't usually do; two rally points. Four systems send their ships to Nazin, which the humans are trying to attack and their ships do have the ability to threaten us in large enough numbers. Meklon, Vega, and Tyr continue sending their production to Escalon. Going from Escalon to Nazin involves slow travel through a nebula, so this will give me a better strategic situation -- but also requires more micromanagement to ensure the right distribution in both places. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rA45qf96_ns&feature=youtu.be Here's an example of the types of battles we have, with the twist that the humans have some missile ships. That wasn't perfectly done, but the basic idea is take out their missile ships and fast ones, then we can largely run away from the slower threats, or at least buy a little time. Council results: ** Silicoid(5) -- Smurch. Surprisingly no change as they are hanging in there. ** Bulrathi(10, +2) -- Good to see this from them. ** Darlok(1) -- Zygot ** Human(2) -- Smurch ** Psilon(19) -- No change in any of these. We are +2 with 8, a third more than we had last time. This time we abstain, as I want to stay on reasonable terms with the Bulrathi. Psilons lead the vote 20-17, but it's been quite stable.
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Dec 31, 2017 21:20
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Well, I think it's safe to say playing the vulture and picking over your foes' carcasses was definitely the right move. I really did not expect the Psilons to leave that many worlds open after bombing them. Maybe they upgraded their colony ships and the batch that usually comes along with their doomstack got scrapped and they had to send them from home, and you got there first? So you have no ground techs at all?  Well, that's the situation you normally use bioweapons in, but Guava Strats are out since you don't have those techs either, right? Not much else for it but maybe split up your fleet after you destroy the bases on a planet and try to limit bombardment damage....
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Jan 1, 2018 05:23
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Wayne posted:Well, I think it's safe to say playing the vulture and picking over your foes' carcasses was definitely the right move. I really did not expect the Psilons to leave that many worlds open after bombing them. Maybe they upgraded their colony ships and the batch that usually comes along with their doomstack got scrapped and they had to send them from home, and you got there first? He's got zortium armor at least. And the option to get armored exo, which he really should do next. I mean, he's screwed regardless if the bears or psilons land, but against the other races it should give him a fighting chance.
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Jan 1, 2018 06:29
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Wayne posted:Well, I think it's safe to say playing the vulture and picking over your foes' carcasses was definitely the right move. I really did not expect the Psilons to leave that many worlds open after bombing them. Maybe they upgraded their colony ships and the batch that usually comes along with their doomstack got scrapped and they had to send them from home, and you got there first? This game as someone lower end you -have- to play the vulture. To weaken your enemies and to get room to grow. If you are the one they're feeding on you hit the train where everyone declares war on you as they want your territory or to take out one oftheir smaller enemies.
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Jan 2, 2018 06:18
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OAquinas posted:He's got zortium armor at least. And the option to get armored exo, which he really should do next. Ah yeah, I missed that. I usually think of Construction as ship armor and size increases, so it didn't register I guess.  And yeah, there are times when you grab techs you normally might not because of the situation you're in, this is one of those times. Construction is a great field to focus on in general; you can cram a surprising amount of stuff on smaller hulls in the lategame, especially compared to MOO2 where a lot of stuff doesn't miniaturize.wedgekree posted:This game as someone lower end you -have- to play the vulture. Indubitably, it's just that earlier I recommended thinking about going after the Psilons, on the assumption that going after them when they were busy would've been more likely to keep Thot in the game then going after scraps in the middle of the board every other AI can reach. But I misjudged 1) how badly the Psilons did at sticking the dismount, and 2) how far behind Thot was on things like ground combat.
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Jan 2, 2018 20:00
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Wayne posted:I really did not expect the Psilons to leave that many worlds open after bombing them. Maybe they upgraded their colony ships and the batch that usually comes along with their doomstack got scrapped and they had to send them from home, and you got there first? I've found the AI sends it's ship around all over the place enough that sometimes they have colony ships along, and sometimes they don't. Something like this might have happened though as there were a couple times in here where the delay in one coming was more than I expected.
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Jan 5, 2018 14:06
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Episode VII: 2575-2600 Making progress everywhere except in terms of technology. That too will come, but we still have four systems(Nazin/Phantos/Hyades/Escalon) that are not participating and we need to keep pumping out the ships so that we can expand when opportunities present themselves and hold the undeveloped systems.  Really nothing new here but I haven't shown it in a long time. For about a century I think it's been Silicoids/Bulrathi/Humans vs. Psilons/Meklar/Darloks. The Bulrathi have no allies, which is the only thing allowing us to stay on their good side so far.  Even with a larger fleet, our expenses are much lower now thanks to the robotics-driven expansion. Bases are a relative pittance.  We'll see a wave of stuff coming in soon, with the first two(terraforming and faster engines) likely to also be the most important.  ** Psilons(14, -1). The failure of the eggheads to take advantage of their superior position over the course of the past few generations is stunning. We've had some to do with it but their haphazard attacks have led to the galaxy being somewhat more competitive than it should be. Any time they decide to get their act together though, they can still crush whomever they feel like. ** Meklar(11, +3). Closing the gap, though pretty much all the recently-contested systems have now been firmly taken. Mostly by us, but if things stay stable the lure of Orion will begin to be more attractive again ... ** Bulrathi(9, +3). Bears have been active as well, filling in a few gaps. ** Silicoid(4, -1). The rocks are simply no longer a real threat. ** Human(2, -1) ** Darlok(1). There are three players, and three empires waiting to be finished off. So long as we stay on good terms with the other two powers, I like our chances to keep improving our position.  Heh. Didn't last long. If I have to choose, I choose the Psilons.  2578. I swear we've been researching this for like 50 years. We have a fine selection of choices, but I opt for Soil Enrichment. Atmos Terraforming and Advanced Eco Restoration were also there, as well as Toxic Landings which we've never bothered to pick up.  In 2581, things get worse for the Silicoids as their homeworld is nuked from orbit. Psilons did it of course as you can see. We may as well try to sneak a colonizing force in there. The eggheads dawdle for just one year, and that's all it takes for us to get in there, once again 'winning the tie'. Another homeworld system will fit quite nicely into our empire.  Cryslon is the upper-left blue flag here, and you can see a long line of Silicoid ships below and at a slight diagonal to the right. We'll have to chase these off as they arrive; they are all en route from Neptunus, ultra-rich radiated world that has been serving as a ship source for decades for the rocks. Extended guard duty is in order, but well worth it. Once again, the most important thing isn't even that we settled this system, but that the Psilons didn't. At the same time, they bombed out another Silicoid world off to the right, but we don't have enough ships to go everywhere and we let it be.  A key moment arrives in 2584. Escalon, the artifacts system we've been working on for some time now and the rally point for the upper galaxy, is ready to start contributing to our research. The population isn't maxed-out yet, partly because we've had to ship some out for new colonies including Cryslon just last year. It's the most-protected planet(nowhere else has more than 35 bases), and will accelerate our research significantly. Even at this unfinished state, it's contribution is more than a third of what our annual imperial research effort has been. This should help us start making a bit of progress in catching the others. The rally point will now shift upwards to Hyades.  The next research wave begins the next year. Along with the new drives, we also land ECM Jammer MK IX. Bypassing the nice Oracle Interface for now, we will next go with Robotic Controls VII, finish off the path of maximum industrial expansion. The propulsion choice was between star gates and high-energy focus. Right now Star Gates are better for us, considering that we are using torpedoes, not beam weapons, and that the empire is large enough to benefit from faster travel.  For the first time in a long, long while we have new ships to design. Faster versions of what we already have, basically. The Tornado had to accept an inferior battle computer and no shielding in order to keep the same payload and faster engines. A trade-off well worth it though. Due to another coming development, we won't be building many of them anyway.  2588. We are now less inadequate on the armor front. We could take Tritanium next -- but opt for Reduced Industrial Waste 20%. There's still a modest waste-cleanup budget and this will cut it by a third to virtually nothing.  Only got a few Tornados out there, and you can question whether another 25% HP is worth 82 BC per ship, but nonetheless the IAM Cruiser(Ion-AntiMatter) is born. I expect this to be our next workhorse, with no improving techs coming down the line anytime soon. Meanwhile things are looking more stable now so we may be inching towards the Orion plan, but we certainly aren't ready for it yet. I'm thinking maybe when I'm ready to retire the Ajax, it might be best to retire them in battle that way. Of course much could and probably will change. Four of our dozen systems(Nazin, Phantos, Hyades, Cryslon) don't have planetary shields up yet. So there's a lot of baby-sitting yet to do.  This game has not been humanity's finest hour. It only takes a year for them to clean up the mess though.  Rhilus is unlucky system #13 in 2591. Psilons destroyed but it never sent in a colony ship. I'm not even sure who it belonged to before that. It's had multiple owners. A small world, but we got there in time to keep Humans or Darloks from claiming it. Well over half the galaxy is either ours or the eggheads now, with each passing acquisition bringing us closer to the moment of inevitable conflict. For now, I'm just pleased to have a new system. Nazin, the yellow star below it, finished the planetary shield the same year. Two years after starting it. Once we get industry up and running on a system that big, things happen quickly.  We have ... a lot of weapon systems here. The Pulson Missile in most recent in, replacing the Stinger which didn't see much use in this game as our bases haven't needed to do much. The Hand Phasor is a high-quality weapon for our ground troops, and we're already seen that our capabilities in that area are rather lacking. Seems the best option to me. Silicoid and Psilon colony ships arrive at Rhilus. Too late, slackers!  The beginning of the size-related warnings. We have arrived. The Darloks have one barren system, Herculis, with 45M population. We could destroy them at will. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bksmjkyQ-JM The Bulrathi then made their presence felt at Rhilus. We haven't fought them really much yet. Appears they are generally losing but doing ok against the Psilons. Take most of them out, but lose the planet. Bases would have helped. How much, I don't know, but they've got Zyro Shields so not all that much I'm thinking. Definitely got the feeling we're approaching the point where bases are of minimal value and attacking is king. A costly loss, as the Psilons immediately colonize the system. At least for now, Rhilus truly is an unlucky thirteenth. 2598: we try to sneak in on another planet, but the Bulrathi-Psilon war is too much for us. We simply can't dish out enough punishment to take down the Bulrathi ships. There's another one in a different part of the galaxy that we are going to try to sneak a colonization force into, but as the third century draws to a close there is a key decision to be made now. Our current strategy of stealing the Psilon spoils has worked well. It appears that it's usefulness is fading however. We must decide between two paths; a military-focused one and a research-focused one. The military option would go for a massive buildup at an accelerated pace, sacrificing research to do so. Once the fleet neared our top capabilities, we would strike wherever we usefully can with maximum force. There are really only two such targets right now. The Bulrathi are too strong, and it'd be insane to attack the Psilons. The Darlok would invoke the genocide penalty, and the Silicoid defenses are too strong(V Planetary Shields + IX Deflectors, 14 damage absorbed and our AM torpedoes only do 15 vs. planets). There is one nearby human planet, but the main point would be to go for Orion. By my calculations, we'd have to loose over two thousand torpedoes to kill the Guardian; it's Lightning Shield will take down over three-quarters of them, and Class IX shielding combined with 10k hp will require almost 500 to get through. We could double our current fleet without over-stressing the economy, and even at that level we could put a little less than 600 torpedoes into an alpha strike. Without losing any ships, we'd need four rounds of firing to do it. Probably would lose quite a few in the process. On the research path, we would keep a moderate amount of the newer ships, probably dispense with the Ajax entirely soon, and work on moving up the tech tree before lashing out. The goal would be to combat primarily the Bulrathi more effectively; they've invested in anti-missile defenses so a beam weapons approach would seem optimal there. We'd also want to work on getting bombing capability; definitely moving more towards a combined-arms approach. It's a tough choice. Despite everything that's been accomplished in the past century or two, we still trail the Psilons slighty in territory and would not want to get in a conflict with them. If they absorb a significant amount of Bulrathi systems, it probably won't take them long to turn on us. And we are nowhere near being ready for that. Orion would give us the capacity to even the playing field more quickly with it's 'gifts' and perhaps more importantly an eventual major research center a bit later. It won't give us the broad-based development we could get in the meantime by a more conventional advancement plan though. Ultimately this was a close-enough call that I decided to literally sleep on the decision. I went with the demobilize-and-research approach, mostly because I just hate philosophically the idea of building a massive fleet that won't be particularly useful otherwhise for the sole purpose of taking out Orion. Modernizing the fleet, filling out our capabilities, etc. will eventually result in ships that can do either job as needed. There aren't enough of the new cruisers in position to take over for the Ajax's yet. Once I do manage to get that done though, we'll get rid of those old war-horses and switch spending over to accelerating tech progression.  The Bulrathi got to that planet, a large but ultra poor terran called Incedius, a turn before we did. Unfortunate but not the end of the galaxy. Here at the next vote, we are nominated for the first time. That in itself is a herculean accomplishment given how things started. It also presents a problem, since we are at war with everyone save the Psilons. It was pretty obvious how the voting would go. Wayne posted:Just be careful not to end up 2nd in population while still at war with everyone but the Psilons! I knew this. I really did. I just didn't remember it at the time. And I paid the price. ** Silicoid(4) -- Zygot. ** Bulrathi(11) -- Zygot. ** Darlok(1) -- Zygot. ** Humans(2) -- Zygot. ** Psilons(19) It would take 17 votes to form a veto bloc. We have 12, and lose the vote here 37-12.  Our chances in a final war with our former allies at the head are nil, and so the Meklar go down, meekly accepting the rule of Zygot. We rode the coat-tails of the mighty Psilons up from the disastrous start to become one of the two major races after them(along with the Bulrathi), and our future might have been bright had we been able to survive diplomatically. In retrospect, once it became clear that I was going to be the second nominee I should have gotten peace with some of them. That would have meant breaking the long-standing alliance with the Psilons, and if they became our enemy we would have been in dire straits. Even if they didn't, continuing to grow would have been MUCH harder, because we wouldn't have been able to feed on their leftovers anymore. It would have still given more of a chance than this though. I was so focused on the continued buildup of the empire and the Council had been stable for so long that I totally forgot to think seriously about what was going to happen until it was too late. A fatal error, but in this kind of catch-22 it may not have mattered much. I probably wouldn't have been able to withstand the eggheads' wrath if I betrayed them -- but I still definitely should have tried. A fairly amateurish mistake to be perfectly honest about it. In other words, at the critical moment Meklar everywhere had to ask the immortal question: "TK-421, why aren't you at your post?". It was still a heck of a thing to get back in the game after that plague early on. Hopefully we will not start out so unlucky as the last two games(it could hardly be worse) and the choices will not be so desperate for the Meklar next time. The most surprising thing about this game? Nobody, ever, researched Radiated Landings. The Silicoids had free reign on those systems for the entire three centuries. Strategic Sage fucked around with this message at 22:48 on Jan 5, 2018 |
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Jan 5, 2018 14:24
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You have a broken img-tag on the image where eggheads tell you to go to war with the bears.
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Jan 5, 2018 15:02
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Ah, so close. Reading that last update I thought you’d pull it out, that the last tricky part was the diplomatic flip when the council nominated you.
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Jan 5, 2018 15:31
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Come on second turn "Sun going supernova" event! Let's see if we can make this pain train complete! But seriously though, that was a hard-fought loss.
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Jan 5, 2018 15:57
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This is actually how I mostly lose this game - I become the nominee at the worst possible moment and welp. 
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Jan 5, 2018 17:09
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Congratulations on staving off defeat as long as you did. I genuinely didn't think you'd recover that well.
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Jan 5, 2018 17:14
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Yeah, merely surviving so long after those early setbacks is quite the accomplishment.
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Jan 5, 2018 17:34
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This game was trying to murder you in the cradle, and you turned it around to be #2--another 20 years and you might have been able to stave that off.
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Jan 5, 2018 18:30
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