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It feels like the only way this could go south is if the rapid expansion pisses off everyone.
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Jan 12, 2018 20:36
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General Revil posted:All those blue dots make me shudder at the level of micro required. Further down the road in this LP, you may be subjected to even greater evidence of this. Prepare yourself. BurningStone posted:This is starting to look interesting. Who can snowball faster? Pretty much this. I was starting to look at it like Kanthulu at this point though; felt like I was in pretty much a winning position, or on my way to one at least.
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Jan 12, 2018 22:26
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Is it worth it once you grab all the prime places to early on fill in all the crappy ones just so you don't have another race stealing them and not really bothering to build them up? Or get a lot of colonizers just to fill in everywhere you can early on so you have them available for later in the game even if it slows you down building up the better worlds?
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Jan 13, 2018 08:19
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I don't think it's worth having 'spare' colonizers hanging around, they take up too much maintenance. I think it's almost always a good idea to grab every bit of land you can. They won't all be super-beneficial right away, but the only investment you make is the colony ship and whatever population transfers you do to the planet. That's only going to be a few million citizens for a small planet(1-2M for a 10M world, 7 or so for a 30M, etc.). Small bits of transfers from the reserve maybe, but still not very much there either. And then the new system helps you pay for things so not quite as much of the cost comes from the better planets. It's a long-term play of course, but as terraforming improves the smaller planets benefit the most and become closer to equal with the bigger ones. There are circumstances where it may be best to leave one unclaimed for a while, but I think those are mostly edge cases; if it's far behind your lines for example and you desperately need the resources you'd spend on the colony ship for vital research or war expenses. Generally speaking though it's a pure land-grab.
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Jan 13, 2018 18:09
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Thotimx posted:I don't think it's worth having 'spare' colonizers hanging around, they take up too much maintenance. Also tough to justify having a design slot taken up. But yeah, planets don't cost anything and even a 10 pop world will eventually contribute money and research, and you can't forget Terraforming techs. If you can get a planet, you should, the only question is which ones to prioritize. Some guys even go so far as to say your cue to stop the Farmer's Gambit is when the AI invades your furthest frontier world, anything up til then is fair game.  I've been thinking about doing a "stock race challenge" VLP for MOO2 and probably doing MOO1 as well to compare them, and I'd probably have to throw out starts like this since they'd make the game too easy.* Kind of like rolling a map in Civ 4 and getting 4 food sources and double gold mines and stuff. At least the Psilons are your main rival instead of the Sakkra or something! * At least it's not as bad as one time when I got referred to a "how-to" video for maxing population in MOO2, and the guy somehow found multiple terran and gaia planets in his neighboring solar systems. I didn't even know gaias showed up without monsters guarding them!
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Jan 13, 2018 20:10
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At this stage of the game I doubt the design slot is even a minor hardship.
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Jan 14, 2018 07:00
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Wayne posted:* At least it's not as bad as one time when I got referred to a "how-to" video for maxing population in MOO2, and the guy somehow found multiple terran and gaia planets in his neighboring solar systems. I didn't even know gaias showed up without monsters guarding them! I may be conflating NuMoo and MoO2 as it's been a few years since my last binge on the latter, but I think they do show up occasionally, though obviously not as the 25m max pop u-rich ones like the monsters guard. The galaxy age slider also affects this, surely. That said, it does sound like your guy used a trainer of some sort
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Jan 14, 2018 08:59
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Episode VIII: 2375-2400 I feared the Psilons were just going to explode -- and they still might -- but I haven't seen them push into the border territory at all. That's encouraging. The lead colonizer just reached Primodius, and I sent it on to Stalaz having seen no threats as of yet. We should have both in a few years, with a third en route to hopefully snag Lyae and more or less seal off the border. Now it's time to 'fill in'.  The Sakkra are making a push along the top, but I really can't concern myself with that. The lizards making themselves respectable isn't worth comparing to the threat that a runaway Psilon freight train would be. The priority is preventing the latter.  Only Meklon is close to being done with the factory process, but a number of others have a respectable start. The population base is looking good.  Surprised to see the lizards spread to the right this quickly. This is the only planet along the top that I wanted, but I already knew I was probably not going to get it. Now that's certain. In the meantime ...  and  The Sakkra are up to six, but we've got eleven. I'll live with that.  Best remaining and close by when I sent this ship out. Next in 2381, we double-up with the Psilons to 300BC trade. Another two years and Meklon reaches it's peak of 400 factories. Starting to pick up momentum now ...  I think this is the last one we'll scout maybe for the whole game. Another couple cycles and we spot a Mrrshan ship, top of the map again. Anecdotally it looks like it started with Sakkra at the top middle and Klackon/Mrrshan top left with Humans a little below them. Psilons were the lowest so that got free hand in the lower-left, and then we had the right side. In other words, another death match with the eggheads. I've seen this movie before.  2387 GNN Report. Guess who really doesn't care??  A stepping-stone, but we also had to get around to it eventually.  The border is now as closed as we can make it -- with a human colony ship not far behind. That could mean an invasion will be coming soon. Our grip here may not be at all secure .. but any help they add will have to come from far away. They only got here with the help of allies adding to their range. The next year our final Colonizer(for now at least) is finished at Meklon and we start dumping into the reserve from the industry there. It's only been a nearly 70-year focus on new colonists being sent out as fast as possible. Anything is a change of pace. Also ...  This will go a long way towards speeding development. Too late, but I'll take it. Finally we switch into 'normal' research mode, 'just' 91 years in. Controlled Dead or Death Spores next. Easy choice -- Dead gives us more colonies. Sorry Guava.  GNN also wishes to inform us that the Mrrshan now have the biggest fleet, while ours still sucks. WE KNOW.    All three come into the fold in 2395, leading to ...  Psilons, still at 8, appear to be in the #2 spot. I'm calling this right now; I'm a disgrace if I don't win this game. Better than a 2:1 territorial edge with Meklar should allow me to win by sheer force of numbers if nothing else. Easy Mode enabled here. And just to put the cherry on top ...  Now this is a bit of a surprise. I thought the Psilons would be second. Clearly the Humans have more of the left side than I thought, almost certainly doing me a favor by restricting and competing with the eggheads. Problem is, they have allies already. It's not out of the question I could lose this vote. ** Psilons(6) -- Abstain. They were allies, must have broken that recently. That should be plenty to survive this. ** Humans(7) ** Sakkra(4) -- QX-537. Surprised here but I can rely on them to be unreliable. ** Mrrshan(4) -- Bladrov IV. ** Klackons(2) -- Bladrov IV. Ahh, the old standby of the bug empire that never gets going. As for us, we lead the way already with 10. We abstain, it would have been 14-13 in our favor with the Psilons on the fence had we favored ourselves. Almost a veto bloc with 33 total votes, but there's one more Council in five years. If we survive that, I think we can get enough population to be immune. I start spying a bit, and Dynalon agrees to this:  With our rapidly-expanding economy, trade is also boosted to 650BC with them. Keeping the Psilons on the fence, at least for now, should be enough. I'm considering bribing them also. With the Humans opposing us in the Council, we can't be too careful. A seemingly-sure victory could still easily go sideways here.  ECM I arrives, and we'll happily snag the first Robotics option. New Council, same nominees, one more total vote -- and a small bribe(ECM I) to the Psilons ensures they abstain. 6 votes again. The others ... ** Humans(7) ** Sakkra(4) -- QX-537. ** Mrrshan(4) -- Bladrov IV. ** Klackons(2) -- Bladrov IV. We get 11, +1 as everyone else's totals stay the same. The Council is once again divided, just the way I wanted it.
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Jan 14, 2018 15:25
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And for the second game in a row the AI Psilons are slow to exploit their advantages. They must be sitting in a corner teching up. Yea, you've got this one.
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Jan 14, 2018 17:41
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If you lose a council vote you should just tell them to stuff it and start a war with everyone. You're big enough that you might actually win it.
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Jan 14, 2018 17:59
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Since you're probably going to win it you should rush Orion as an extra "gently caress you" to the AIs.
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Jan 14, 2018 19:09
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Wasn't figuring the Meklar for a diplomatic victory, but hey, if it works.
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Jan 14, 2018 19:16
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Rappaport posted:I may be conflating NuMoo and MoO2 as it's been a few years since my last binge on the latter, but I think they do show up occasionally, though obviously not as the 25m max pop u-rich ones like the monsters guard. The galaxy age slider also affects this, surely. That said, it does sound like your guy used a trainer of some sort Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised. I shudder to think how many resets it would've taken to generate that the old-fashioned way.  Here it is if you're curious. And I do usually play on Organic Rich, since Average seems a little too biased toward hostile planets and Minerals doesn't seem to do anything (it generates more blue/white stars, but I think map scripts cap how many empty systems there can be). turol posted:If you lose a council vote you should just tell them to stuff it and start a war with everyone. You're big enough that you might actually win it. The usual joke is that you have to be big enough to not lose in the first place to survive if you do lose. In all seriousness, the AIs pool research during Final War, and with Psilons in play, you have to take them out immediately or they'll ramp everybody's tech beyond what you can keep up with. And Thot's playstyle means he's just now getting "tech" at this point.  I 2nd the Orion suggestion: if you're going to win, do it in style.
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Jan 14, 2018 19:17
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Neophyte posted:Since you're probably going to win it you should rush Orion as an extra "gently caress you" to the AIs. Can I second this? Hell, I say rush Orion, then start a war with the rest of the universe and roll over everyone.
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Jan 14, 2018 19:50
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I'm all for winning this at the council, and then saying, "No, gently caress you. Genocide."
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Jan 14, 2018 21:12
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General Revil posted:I'm all for winning this at the council, and then saying, "No, gently caress you. Genocide." There can be only one!!
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Jan 15, 2018 13:04
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turol posted:If you lose a council vote you should just tell them to stuff it and start a war with everyone. You're big enough that you might actually win it. An interesting idea. I'll spoil enough though to say that's now how this ends. PurpleXVI posted:Wasn't figuring the Meklar for a diplomatic victory, but hey, if it works. If I can take the military route with the Humans, I can take the diplomatic/domination route with the Meklar. It's backwards ... but so what :P. Neophyte posted:you should rush Orion as an extra "gently caress you" to the AIs. Wayne posted:Thot's playstyle means he's just now getting "tech" at this point. Hey now -- I resemble that remark! Randalor posted:Can I second this? No you cannot. Wayne did that over half an hour before you did. Please try to keep up 
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Jan 16, 2018 23:41
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Episode VIII: 2400-2425 We were even in production about a decade ago, and then both other empires got one of those magical boosts. Been creeping up again. Hard to see us not passing them eventually though. The next sign of progress here will be starting to close the technology gap.  The Psilons took a rich planet along our border recently, boosting them to nine systems(they have Toxic landings already). Overall though they and the Sakkra are still pretty static and we have more territory than both combined. I'm curious about the Humans, but they haven't done anything else with Lyae after we just beat them there, and we only see them buzzing around our more remote Recons occasionally.  In the past decade, we've started getting a few planets maxed out in industry and switching over to building bases and contributing to research. Been a long time coming but finally starting to happen, so we're starting to get some progress here. Shields and missiles look like they will be the next customers. We're investing 10x what we were a decade ago, and rapid growth will continue periodically. Three years later the last standard Colonizer arrives at Guradas, which you'd be able to see if I didn't delete the screenshot before uploading it because brain fart. Research has already doubled again to nearly a thousand annually. Two cycles later we get deflectors in 2405, with Class III Shields the only choice afterwards. Getting some bad prototyping luck at the moment but we've got enough invested to brute-force these quick ones within a couple extra years anyway.  What the ... That's really weird this early on. Nice thing about a big empire is you don't miss one minor planet as much though.  These waited until the chance of discovery was 92%. I stuck with missiles, going Hyper-X next; the Ion Cannon, which is a lot more time-consuming, was the other choice. Meanwhile it doesn't look like we can increase trade much more, and we're starting to get some cash flow from that as well. Only a couple of systems still need payments from the reserve.  Robotics(also late) and nuclear engines show up in 2407. The usual detour to expand the economy will now be taken. Mk. IV Computer is the only real choice here, and while Sub-Light drives aren't urgent, they are the cheapest option to move propulsion forward. We have a couple of range options as well but I don't see a great need for that right now.  The Sakkra have a few destroyers here and we're still slowly building up this world. Were. Not ready to build combat ships yet. They may send in more ships, but we're building almost twice this much every year so this is not a concern yet. Also, we are almost to our factory-building discount so I keep some of our funding going to research; that'll speed up the building once we get it. The next year we liberate Stalaz, at the cost of about 25M Meklar troops. Also this ...  It was only a matter of time. One of my favorite war messages by the way. You can just imagine the 'great emperor Hissa' staggering out of some swamkp in a bong-induced haze before making this profound, eloquent announcement. The good news is that they could change their mind any moment if, say, they simply get bored of being at war with us or they decide peace is a good thing to do after reorganizing their sock drawer or whatever. In terms of our readiness, we've got at least one base on a few worlds(5 out of 19). If the war is still going on when we finish our robotics upgrade, I'll consider throwing some missile ships at them. The most concerning part is that they are allied with the Humans and Klackons. A hilarious 12 transports are incoming to Mu Delphi. No way their tech is good enough to take it with that many at this point in the game. We've got over 100M there.  The Psilon tech edge is showing itself as they continue to gobble up planets nobody else can land on, including this one: Maalor, a rich inferno behind our lines. If we ever do go to war with them, this could get complicated. They're up to 11 planets. Meanwhile, more Sakkra ships are inbound to the nebula. I notice some incoming ships several years away that look like they are headed for Rhilus, our other large/poor world. I switch to bases there since most of the industry is finished. We offer the Psilons an alliance, and are refused for a second time.  The factory discount arrives, and I think Battle Suits are an appropriate choice now. Cheapest forward option as well.  Almost held our own; they have better armor material but that's it. 15M lost, took 12M with us. They have a few cruisers in orbit now too though and their bombardments are starting to sting more. 2412: they are slowing wearing Mu Delphi down, and will probably take it eventually, but a few systems have now finished their new factories. That brings us one step closer to striking back, and when they reach Rhilus I now have a base up there and more being built. Another year and I'm ready to start building some ships.  Not a bad name: we'd very much like to torment the Sakkra. Hit-and-run missile ships that fire a pair of salvos from each of two launchers. We'll rally at Rhilus, and once that's secure, head to Mu Delphi. Probably not in time to save it, but at the least to recapture/recolonize. To start with it's just one of these destroyers a year coming from Selia, but soon more systems add their weight to the production.  Crap. I was hoping to ally them. It seems they formed an Alliance with the Sakkra though. That could be trouble. At the same time though, the first Sakkra attack is rebuffed at Rhilus. I'm confident we can handle their ships with our bases, so I start sending Tormenters on to Mu Delphi. 10 were produced the next year, even as the bombardment of the system intensified ...  So far so good on the robotics as our new battle computer(and dead landings) come in. First terraforming option(+30M) arrives and work begins on that, while there are two barren systems we should be able to claim before anyone else. The Psilons continue to snag up the hostile systems though, and there are some infernos out there that we can't get.  Class III Shields come in and we'll happily snag the Planetary V here. That should help us limit the damage done by this Sakkra war. However ...  We couldn't get enough ships there in time to hold it. Close to holding out one more year, but they were killing dozens by this time annually with their bombardments. Rhilus, the other system they've tried to attack, will be the new rally point. No more Tormentors are being built at the moment(bases/research/dead colonizers) so we aren't going to be retaking Mu Delphi any time soon.  First time we've been on the losing end of this situation. It was a Recon picketing a system with no planets, so it's hardly a big concern.  Hyper-X Rockets are in. You could make an argument for any of the four here, but I'm going cheap and therefore taking the Ion Cannon. I doubt we'll ever deploy it, but who knows.  Crap. The good prospects in this galaxy just got a lot worse. The Psilons have decent range, Class V Shielding which will absorb most of the damage from even our newly-invented rockets, Omega-V Bombs which will render our planetary shields, even when we get them, basically irrelevant. I don't know how much of that they have on their ships, but if they are determined to take one of our planets, they're going to take it and there's little we'll be able to do about it. Our only hope is continuing to tech-up and keep the base-building coming ... and hope that we can get peace with them before we've lost too much. Our next ship, the Tornado, steps up to cruiser size so I can add on the battle computer, for two reasons; to see what they have on theirs and also to hopefully give us enough initiative to move and fire first, vital for a missile boat. The damage-per-credit calculation here is not as good as the Tormenter, but the upgrade to Hyper-X rockets gives us a better chance at doing significant damage. We've still got several more systems than the Psilons, but it's not going to end well if we can't keep it that way. The Sakkra are ultimately to blame here; they reformed their Alliance with the Psilons, and then demanded they join against us. Erratic, and yet they manage to be on stable good terms with everyone else. They're really ticking me off right now. All we need is time, to allow our tech and our military to catch up with our economic might. Bastards won't let us grow so we can bomb them back to the stone age. Who do they think they are??  So it's time to play that game now.  Back up to 19.  Well at least we're ahead of somebody. We aren't that far behind the Sakkra though, so soon we should become an 'average' race in terms of advancement. That will mean nothing though if average just means 'still two generations behind the Psilons'.  As another Sakkra group -- with over 100 destroyers -- makes it's way to Rhilus, our ground defenses get a needed upgrade. The next choice is between Industrial Tech 7 and Zortrium Armor. Zortrium is almost twice as expensive, but we need it and we just got Industrial 8. Of course none of that matters when you mis-click and hit Duralloy Armor instead. Not a terrible choice to get that quickly, but largely wasted time.  Our 20th system, announced just as the Council prepares to meet again. We face off against Bladrov IV again, and we'd better have a veto bloc here because I expect the galaxy to unite against us now.  Figured as much.   I can get nervous now, as Bladrov has the support of half the galaxy ...  Hey, thanks! Apparently the kitties have decided to go and be hostile to everyone, per usual. That means they love us, since they haven't met us, and everyone they've met, they hate. The Klackons follow this up by abstaining with their 3 votes, and we have 13. Which is one shy of being able to veto. We still needed help, but got plenty. 21-17 had we voted for ourselves. That's a pretty evenly-divided state of things.
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Jan 17, 2018 00:07
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We were all waiting for the other shoe to drop, and here it is.
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Jan 17, 2018 02:57
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It's getting intereseting.
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Jan 17, 2018 10:11
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Psilon scuuuuum. I hope we at least get to turn a few of their planets to ash before this goes completely to poo poo.
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Jan 17, 2018 11:15
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Thotimx posted:It was only a matter of time. One of my favorite war messages by the way. You can just imagine the 'great emperor Hissa' staggering out of some swamkp in a bong-induced haze before making this profound, eloquent announcement. Erratic leaders are great for that. I like the "grown bored" one too, just imagine the poor Ambassador calling you up and it's like "Sorry, Hissa's off his meds again and he'd rather see your worlds burn than negotiate the 300BC trade deal, soooo...."But Erratic firing right after the Psilons broke the deal (and thus probably weren't available to try to bribe into war/break alliance with the Sakkra) is nasty luck, and yeah, the one thing that could possibly turn this game against you. PurpleXVI posted:Psilon scuuuuum. Seriously!  It is pretty great the Mrrshan would rather vote for the cybernetic overlords GNN told them were conquering the galaxy than a race they just don't like out of spite. That's a cat for you.
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Jan 17, 2018 16:48
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PurpleXVI posted:Psilon scuuuuum. Well put. It's quite easy to hate them so long as you aren't playing as them.
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Jan 18, 2018 13:36
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Episode VIII: 2425-2450 Fleet and tech still have a long way to go, but economically we remain #1.  Things shift annually here. A year ago the Sakkra were down to no allies. Now they have Psilons and Humans back on their side. Superb. They are at war with the Mrrshan, but that may not help us much. We've also started investing in security to counter-act sabotage efforts.  Sublight Engines will be in soon, and probably not long after we'll get the next robotics. Still a ways till we get planetary shields and some other goodies though.  This is the current problem. It's most of the current Sakkra fleet, but I don't think we can stop a force of this size yet. We may well end up losing more territory before we can equalize. I thought of bribing for peace here, but that would do little good when the Psilons are allied with them; we'd need to get both on board at the same time and that's not possible right now. Keep trying to grow and fend them off as much as we can is all we can do. Ship maintenance is still negligible, 4.3% going to missile bases -- we're at anywhere from none to 11 of those, depending on the system. Industrialization has happened in most places, it's more about getting enough technology, bases, and ships so that we can effectively fight back at this point. 2427 -- The lizards show up at Rhilus.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Vo04yzndnI Yep. Just couldn't stop their darned destroyers. The Psilon attack at Nyarl, their first, failed as we'd just built a base there and they are armed mostly with Graviton Beams. Didn't do enough damage to even take out a single base with a dozen ships. Meanwhile our new engines arrived. Warp Dissipator is the only forward-looking item. I decided to go for the Inertial Stabilizer instead, at a quarter the price, and boost our combat abilities.  Yikes. One more like that, and the planet will be gone. Our ships hung around but could only take out nine of the Banshees with their missile allotment the next year. Not nearly enough.  Another Psilon attack was repelled, but the Sakkra took out 8 bases at Selia, with this result. Might as well move our ships there; we did take out the majority of this smaller task force with the bases. We've got to find a way to stop them soon.  The Psilon-Sakkra alliance broke again; a chance to go for peace. After a couple of rounds of bribing, they still wanted more. If the eggheads don't have better than this they will soon. That was round one. Now what to do with the Sakkra? Well, if we can get peace with them as well, eventually chase them away from Rhilus, and re-settle it, I'd be ok with letting them keep Mu Delphi. What we need most in time, time at peace. After three mostly crap techs were given away(range 5, nuclear engines, and something else) they agreed:  We also signed a minimal trade deal to encourage their arbitrary nature to stay peaceful. With this accomplished, there is a still a big galactic war on, at least officially: Human/Mrrshan vs. Psilon/Sakkra/Klackon. We're right where we want to be -- on the sidelines. Who knows for how long, but I'll take it in any case.  We have two new colonies and will be heading to re-settle Rhilus ASAP. That will require some funding, and the planetary reserve stands at a pathetic 24 BC. One of our better systems will start doing some investments to help out with that situation before it runs out. You can also see that we're spending almost a third on waste cleanup despite already having gotten a couple of early advances to improve that. We need more soon, but nothing else has yet presented itself.  2431. Next up we'll go for the Advanced Space Scanner, and get some better sensors. Battle Computer VI was also available, but I think we can afford to stick with our current tier IV for now. We also re-colonize Rhilus -- another Sakkra group was there but decided not to risk our relations over a fight -- and sign an max 1150 BC trade deal with the Psilons. Now there's a trade deficit and industrial investment going on, which means research and shipbuilding take their usual back seat.  Two years later, before we can finish that, planetary shields come in. The economy is building up a definite queue here, but that's a very good problem to have. We'll go with the latest deflectors, but may well come back for the Repulsor. It certainly was beneficial in the Human game ...  Next year. This would be potentially useful against any non-Psilon ships. I don't have to decide yet whether to use it. I also notice that I'm an idiot and didn't factor in the fact that it wouldn't move the tech tree forward. So it's down to Ion Rifle, Mass Driver, or Merculite Missiles. We've progressed far enough in time that I want the missiles. Most of the factories have been built and we are still just barely ahead in production, as one of those magical boosts occurred for the others as well. 2436 was an important year, with 31M Sakkra troops blown up by our ships above Rhilus, and the first five planetary shields coming online. The next year, I started putting extra into research as I wanted one more toy before designing our next ship. I had a tough choice to make. Stick with the Hyper-X rockets as the weapon system of choice, or switch to the Ion Cannon? The rockets allow for more damage for the price, but beam weapons are better for system defense since they don't have limited ammunition. In figuring the specs here, the Sakkra are the main concern not the Psilons. If we have to fight them much we have bigger problems. The lizards have Class III Shields(II on the ships we've seen), same computer and armor tech we have, but they do have the fusion bomb and neutron blaster. What that all boils down to is that they've got better weapons, we've got better engines(sublight compared to nuclear), and it's really going to come down to numbers.  There we go. Now I'm ready, and I decided we were close enough in capability to the Sakkra to go with the ion cannon. Meanwhile the Warp Dissipator will move us forward in propulsion.  The old Tormenter is gone now; the two new ones are the Devastator and the Ajax. The Devastator has no shielding but relies on maneuverability to avoid damage, and features twin ion cannons. The Ajax, larger and more heavily armed, gives us scanner ability and is shielded, but no inertial stabilizer. Our fleet is rated at less than half the strength of our rivals, and it's time to change that.  Our first terraforming, merely 144 years into the game. With the next council vote in a few years, this is going to be critical to increase us to, hopefully, veto-capable status. Our average system has 64M at the moment and almost all of them are maxed out, so this should be an increase of between a third and a half. Call it 40% or so. The Psilons can build only half the factories per pop that we can and have only two-thirds of the territory, but they have still been able to equal our production despite no terraforming that I can see. Hopefully this will allow us to push ahead. A sizable fraction of the economy will be required to make that effort in the next year, but it will of course be well worth it. The micromanagement of making sure 20 different systems all have optimal spending investments, with new calculations and changes each year for each until they are maxed out on people and factories again, is not my favorite thing in the world. It does have its rewards though. Next is Bio-Toxin Antidote, the only choice. I was hoping for something that would let us snatch up some of the astoundingly still-unclaimed inferno worlds, but it wasn't to be.  The new scanner comes in, and we are now 3-for-3 on getting robotics in our list. That's some excellent news. A dozen systems are explored with the new electronics. Also ...  Haven't expanded recently, but this is our first overt size warning. From everything I can see, the war on the other side of the galaxy is one of stalemate. Nothing is happening, while our strength grows, which is just the way I want it. It is looking like we'll have to join the fight again eventually, but we aren't ready. 2449: Bad news from Cygni; heavy metals are depleted and one of our larger worlds is now mineral-poor. Not a good time for that, but it will give us, eventually, a second dedicated research system(along with Rhilus).  New council, same nominees. Getting the Psilons support, despite their uneasiness with our size, is huge here.  4 votes were added this cycle, and the Humans got one of them. They aren't nearly at veto status, but with the Mrrshans on their side that's probably still too much for us to win. ** Sakkra(6) -- Abstain. Or that, which also guarantees a deadlock. ** Mrrshan(3) -- QX-537. Really. The Human/Mrrshan alliance must be over, but even with that, I'd have expected them to at least abstain given the diplomatic prowess of our opponent. Must have been an unpleasant divorce. ** Klackon(3) -- QX-537. The galaxy is turning ... against the humans. Lolwut?? We have 16 votes. If we had 17, we could win this with 30 right now. Instead I vote Bladrov II to get on their good side, but it would have been 29-16. We're now over the veto threshold with every intention of staying there. Had I the first clue it would turn out this way, I would have bribed the Sakkra in an attempt to get their support.
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Jan 18, 2018 13:50
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Here, let me jinx this for you. It looks like smooth sailing from here to victory.
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Jan 18, 2018 17:41
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Episode VIII: 2450-2475 As hoped, we have pulled out in front on production again. Population is still growing after the terraforming. The overall picture is basically the same as it was 25 years ago -- I think we are at the point of basically keeping pace in research, but we haven't been able to build up the fleet much and I definitely still wouldn't fancy a serious war with the Psilons.  About to get our new missiles in, with the latest shields and armor following that closely. Then it'll be time for new ship designs. Meanwhile our missile-base target is up to about the 10-20 range, will probably go up to about 25 soon on the bigger systems. Better waste cleanup definitely remains the biggest current need.  So far as I can tell, this hasn't changed in half a century or more, but I haven't shown one in a while. We've got 20 systems, 13 for the Psilons, 7 for the Sakkra. Based on the voting amounts I'm thinking about 15 or so for the Humans, probably 2-4 each for the Klackons/Mrrshan. Still three inferno systems in our area that the Psilons haven't snagged and we haven't gotten the tech for. We can still expand, if we ever get anything better than Dead.  A positive trade balance now; I inquired about a new deal but we could only increase from 1150 to 1375, which wasn't worth it. Missile-base maintenance is still very reasonable, and with no active wars or recent sabotage I abolish the security budget after taking the screenshot. What's really clear how is how pathetically small our fleet is compared to the economy. I can't really do anything about that though while we still trail in research. Time would seem to definitely be on our side, and with each passing year our position continues to slowly improve.  A year later. Normally this would be a no-brainer, but I've been keeping our deals low due to their erratic nature. Given how close we were in the Council to winning though, I decide to accept anyway and take the risk they'll attack.  Zortium Armor arrives in '53, and then this. Finally we get a new waste-reduction option. This will slash our ecology bill in half; another way of looking at that is that it'll basically amount to an immediate increase of over 20% 'disposable' production at all of our systems. It's worth a little more than a robotics level-up at this point.  After the merculite missiles arrived, this was our next choice. Any of the bottom three figured to move us forward. Hard Beam or Fusion Beam is a tough call, but I went with the Fusion just because we're already using Ion Cannons; they're the same type of raw-damage energy weapon, just further up the chain and almost twice as powerful. Time for a new design, and with the terraforming I think any of our planets can handle a cruiser-sized ship so we'll only do one. 2455: We bribe the lizards with Hyper-X Rockets and get them to sign a NAP. The Psilons agree with no bribe. I'm basically just trying to build up relations and go for the cheap win here; if the Humans continue to aggravate everyone, I could end it in the next Council vote. Doesn't cost me much of anything to try, and if it doesn't work, keep building the economy. Also, Cygni is the first system to finish maxing-out industry since the terraforming; that's short-lived but we're nearing the end of another boosting cycle.  Next year. Class V Deflectors are in, and this has really been a charmed game for the most part in getting key techs. Class X Planetary Shields will be up next and go a long ways towards further securing our defenses. It's also time for a new ship design. All our planets can at least marginally handle a cruiser-sized vessel, so I'm only going with one.  The Ajax II here is basically the same as the original, with a couple more weapons and better armor. I toyed with putting the inertial stabilizer on it but I would have had to cut the weaponry almost in half to do that. Didn't think it was worth the price.  Robotics V is now in. 2460 as we crawl along, and I'll come back for Hyperspace Comm. at some point, but Battle Computer VIII would be a big upgrade(we're presently at IV).  The time to put Hissla in his place is coming, but not yet here. Meanwhile, we've built a whopping six of the Ajax IIs, and once again will now divert efforts to the new factories. Close to a thousand are added in the process, which takes less than a year and a half.  This arrives in the 'stuff I'm never going to use' category. Next up there's an opportunity to jump from Warp 3 to Warp 5 with Impulse Drives.  We're in something-happening-every-year mode here. Frankly this might not do much more than save me the trouble of breaking it later. Going on the offensive isn't viable yet; Sakkra bases would be able to withstand almost all of the damage we can inflict. They're definitely the long-term target though, for multiple reasons but process of elimination if nothing else; it's either them or the Psilons -- and it's not a hard choice there.  No rocks this time, but some of the others have developed biologicals. This could be useful. Once again only one option, the un-exciting Cloning. Incredibly, we've skipped the last three hostile landing techs; we got Dead, not Barren or Tundra, and then didn't have a shot at Inferno, Toxic, or Radiated. That sucks. One out of six! It is a bad field for us, but still.  How about that. Our lizard not-friends have limited computer tech, to put it kindly(three advances, we have five) and both Toxic and Radiated. I do believe it's time to go do some research the alternative way. We'll max out our spying with them and go Espionage. If we tick them off -- well, they have problems of their own and no friends, and I'm confident we can handle ourselves in a defensive war with them. I wonder how long this will take in a favorable situation. It's currently 2466. This was also the first point in the game where I was really able to 'settle in'; research progress is starting to slow down, so we were able to hammer out some more ships, missile bases are basically up to where I want them to be, and most of the spending bars don't need to be adjusted regularly. 2473: The next wave starts just as another vote approaches, with Battle Computer Mk. VIII. Three other projects are in the prototype phase, and once again we hit right on time with Robotics VI. 4-for-4.  The fusion beam has arrived, and next up are one of my favorites; the anti-matter Torpedo. I would have been fine with a bomb as well, but these will work. Once they come in we can prepare for a proper offensive.  Our latest effort with the new weapons. Doesn't have as many of them, but has a better computer for more accuracy. That's particularly important with these kinds of weapons due to the wide damage range. If we get enough of them and feel like it, these should be capable of handling lightly-defended Sakkra targets.  And here we go again. Same nominees, same vote from the Psilons. Notably the galaxy has added five more votes this time around. Much will be determined by who got them. ** Humans(10) -- They stay the same, good news for us.  Nice! The lizards are +2 and now side with us. It's looking good ...  That should do it. Klackons only have two votes but they choose us also. We lead 20-10 ... and have 20 votes of our own. 40% of the galactic population is Meklar, and a crushing 40-10 win!  Now, I could have played this out longer, but really it was just paperwork IMO. I'd have taken out the Sakkra first, gotten the hostile landing tech from them either by spying eventually or by capturing it, then added the inferno trio, and moved into the other side of the galaxy. With this large an empire, I was on a virtually unstoppable path, and the AM torpedoes would have sealed it. The early Psilon/Sakkra conflicts at the beginning of this century were the only real hiccup. Psilons had back luck with robotics which helped a great deal, as did our starting position and the fact that they and Humans bumped into each other at the beginning while the Klackons remained pretty hemmed-in. The rest of the galaxy was basically content to fight with itself and not accomplish much on the other side, while the larger threat(our Meklar) simply grew, and grew, and grew with our massive industrial base. As it ends, I'd surpassed the Sakkra in research and was slowly making ground even on the brainiacs. So a bit of a shorter win -- and now we go back to a medium-size with our next victims. Five races down, five to go; halfway home.
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Jan 19, 2018 13:32
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A convincingly easy win. The RNG taketh away, and the RNG giveth.
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Jan 19, 2018 14:30
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Well done!
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Jan 19, 2018 15:51
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I really like the fact that you essentially got elected Emperor because you were the only fucker in the entire galaxy with a track record of quietly minding his own business and not starting wars. "Yeah, the Meklar are alarmingly numerous and could easily kill us all in time, but they've always been pretty chill and the Humans frankly scare the poo poo out of me." Angry Diplomat fucked around with this message at 16:07 on Jan 19, 2018 |
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Jan 19, 2018 16:05
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Meh, too easy. Looking forward to see what the RNG comes up with to destroy us next time.
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Jan 19, 2018 16:07
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Angry Diplomat posted:I really like the fact that you essentially got elected Emperor because you were the only fucker in the entire galaxy with a track record of quietly minding his own business and not starting wars.
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Jan 19, 2018 16:32
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Angry Diplomat posted:I really like the fact that you essentially got elected Emperor because you were the only fucker in the entire galaxy with a track record of quietly minding his own business and not starting wars. This makes sense. The Meklar could kill us, but have been busy being themselves versus what the Humans have been up to? Let's get peacefully and ingratiatingly in on the winning side! Good job, Thot! After the crushing defeats, a great win! Who's next?
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Jan 19, 2018 17:08
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Angry Diplomat posted:"Yeah, the Meklar are alarmingly numerous and could easily kill us all in time, but they've always been pretty chill and the Humans frankly scare the poo poo out of me." Can I just comment on the hilarity of the humans pissing everyone off, and everyone looking at the Meklar and saying, "Let's vote in our new cybernetic overlords."
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Jan 19, 2018 19:52
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Turns out the Meklar are the China of this galaxy, cheaply producing what everyone needs. If they hadn't voted for the Meklars and been forced to fight them instead, the galactic economy would've collapsed.
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Jan 19, 2018 20:37
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AngryDiplomat posted:I really like the fact that you essentially got elected Emperor because you were the only fucker in the entire galaxy with a track record of quietly minding his own business and not starting wars. PurpleXVI posted:Meklar are the China of this galaxy, cheaply producing what everyone needs. If they hadn't voted for the Meklars and been forced to fight them instead, the galactic economy would've collapsed. I think both of these theories work well together. Aesclepia posted:After the crushing defeats, a great win! Who's next? Simply Simon posted:I, for one, welcome our new mechanical overlords. Probably the Meklar winning again is next, at my expense. See next post for the real answer to the question ...
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Jan 20, 2018 17:32
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Sakkra Preview ** Economy -- The Sakkra are the final race that have an economic bonus. Things get tougher after this primarily for that reason. They breed prodigiously, achieving double the normal population growth. ** Diplomacy -- Poor. Starting relations with the Mrrshan(Wary) are worse than any others in the galaxy, including the Darloks. The Alkari, Klackons, and Meklar are also distrusted by the lizard-folk for different reasons; cybernetic issues in the case of the Meklar, while the others are considered 'hostile predators' or somesuch. Bottom line is that we'll have to work harder to establish and maintain good relations than with almost any other race. ** Military -- Standard, no bonuses or maluses. ** Research -- Pretty good. No technological weaknesses, and the Sakkra are the galaxy's experts in Planetology. Summary The Sakkra are all about getting a fast start; only the Klackons can best them in this respect. A rapidly growing population means early colonies can fill up quickly; paying close attention to timely, accurate population transfers is vital. Planetology expertise is also valuable, as early terraforming, hostile landing, and waste cleanup advances can help get us on solid footing. This early-game bonus will give way to a very 'meh' racial profile once things settle down. Growing population faster doesn't help once everyone's systems fill up, and diplomatic issues are likely to present themselves later on. It's critical to have a strong position by the time that happens. ** Note: The people who wanted me to take Orion first were not ignored. I'm going to consider that if I have another 'Easy Mode' game in the future. Although, it may not come up with the races that are left to be showcased.
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Jan 20, 2018 17:33
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Episode IX: Sakkra Opening Green theme, naturally. Hissa rules from Sssla; get used to the 'S' frequency with this group.  Upper-left in a galaxy of Psilons, Humans, and the three aggressive 'animal' races. Yellow stars are pretty spread out so it should be a fairly 'equal' battle, at least in theory.  It's the two white stars here that are within range. We'll head to the one below and to the left, aiming towards the center, a much better position strategicially.  That wouldn't have worked anyway it seems.  A little subpar for a first colony, but it is what it is. Instead of having to drip colonists over for a bit, Sssla already is up to 54M population so they'll be sending several transports a year. This is going to get moving, and in a hurry. Meanwhile ...  Those are Mrrshans. We've got a nearby, likely antagonistic neighbor. Super. The Recon count here is five needed, exactly a year's work, and actually a sixth for Yarrow since they are so close.  Important for extending our range if not much else. We can get here without improving our fuel cells.  Lovely. Nobody's going to be able to reach it right away either so we might just get it.  That's two hostile systems now.  Nicer.  They don't waste time, do they. Less than a decade into the game and the cats are already on the warpath. These are clearly headed for Yarrow, which I think will have enough to survive the attack by the time the arrive. It better. I guess and send a half-dozen more from Sssla, even though that'll slow us down.  Could be a future battleground, despite it's size.  Not every day you get to scout a rival homeworld.  Our reinforcements arrive just in time. Would have won it anyway, but we couldn't afford to lose our first colony. An early super-aggressive Mrrshan gambit; planetary invasion in 2312. Yikes. It failed though, and now they are on the back foot having squandered much of their initial population. Fierias has just 45M on it. Even with the extra sent over, Sssla is at 82M. Advantage: Sakkra. Everything's been scouted now and it's real simple; a race to Firma, right between Yarrow and Fierias. It's the only planet in range that we can colonize. If we beat them to it, the Mrrshan will likely be in even more of a pickle. The next year a human colony ship shows up at Zoctan, the radiated system below us. It's sent on it's way, but that gives us a good indicator of where they are.  First Mrrshan attempt at taking Firma. You need to come with more than a bare colony ship, fellas. They're back a few years later -- with 26 destroyers. Figures.  Fat chance. Aggressive Technologists, they are already allied with the Psilons. Lol.   Sending an invasion to Firma would be pointless; we can't take on their fleet. And the only habitable systems are 5 and 6 parsecs away. So we're sort of stuck, and need some hopefully-quick research. Despite our bad initial relations(Wary), they do agree to a 50BC trade deal. That's good, since we have no way of bribing them this early. Time to check the research pulls. ** Computing -- ECM I, Battle Computer II, and Battle Scanner. Lots of options but we go super-cheap with the ECM. ** Construction -- Reduced Waste 80% ** Force Fields -- Class II Deflectors  Showing this so we can see our weird-looking blue lizard scientist. That's a super-cheap terraforming get there. We'll be grabbing both of these. ** Propulsion -- Both are available, but Hydrogen(range 4) would do us no good. It's Deuterium here. ** Weapons -- Hand Lasers only. Well, we've got some cheap ones there. Really the big problem is the fact that we've got to wait for a 1k research right away to expand, and we've got a trade deal weighing us down. Just -14 BC, but when the total imperial production is less than 300, that's still a significant amount. The whole Mrrshan situation is such a classic MOO thing; I simultaneously hate it and am forced to applaud it. They started out the minimum distance away from us, with Firma and Yarrow forcing both of us towards each other. They were already attacking before I could get the recon rush out there.
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Jan 22, 2018 14:38
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This update demonstrates one of my big gripes with this game. The AI sent an invasion force against the player without even having made contact first, across a distance they shouldn't have the range for. This bullshit has caused me many a ragequit in the early game.
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Jan 22, 2018 16:09
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Mountaineer posted:This update demonstrates one of my big gripes with this game. The AI sent an invasion force against the player without even having made contact first, across a distance they shouldn't have the range for. This bullshit has caused me many a ragequit in the early game. Yeah, that was some really blatant bullshit.
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Jan 22, 2018 17:45
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| # ? May 27, 2024 15:23 |
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I've been really enjoying seeing you curbstomp Moo1. Which made me even dust of my Moo2 and try a few Hard games. (They kicked my behind thoroughly) Keep up the good work!
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Jan 22, 2018 18:50
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