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Man, that's a tough one, the Meklar rolling lebensraum right after you finally got another planet.  I was also looking down the barrel at an Alkari - Meklar alliance after I got Rigel too, but since the Meklar were Relaxed, they agreed to be bribed into war against the Bulrathi. It took Robotics 3 which really stung, but it kept them both busy for the entire middle game, and turned a belt of 3 planets on their border into craters, which slowed both down. It does seem like a race at war is less likely to accept being asked in by an ally, which was my concern. You really don't have a ton of options left. Maybe try to ally with the Silicoids (since they're not Xenophobic) and use that range to go after the Mrrshan, wherever they are? You mentioned putting Jammers on your ships, do you normally do that? I've figured it's never really worth it, since missiles get an innate targeting boost and missile bases automatically have the best Battle Computers the race has; and if you have enough Maneuverability to stack with ECM to make most missiles miss, you can probably out-maneuver them too. What's funny is the Bulrathi pulled that "expansion attack" thing on me too (though they did break a NAP first), much later in the game:  But I completely ignored it (not a good idea to try the Threaten trick on a Xenophobe!) and just did what damage I could with my missile bases and some decoy ships, and just made sure to blow up their colony ships. Sure enough they sent the SoD away and when the colony ships came back it was with a much smaller escort, which I was able to destroy. Built the planet back up from dust and had no other problem with the bears. Good ol' MOO1 AI.  The Silicoids rolled supernova instead of comet, and did not handle it quite as well! .png)
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Feb 25, 2018 05:28
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Coolguye posted:i don't think i've ever seen a game where the two dominant powers are quite so dominant. literally nobody but the bulrathi and the silicoids are even remotely relevant. That's what's going to make this game last a long time I think. For one of them to establish supremacy when both are so big will take a significant amount of wanton destruction. Wayne posted:try to ally with the Silicoids (since they're not Xenophobic) and use that range to go after the Mrrshan, wherever they are? The Mrrshan are the clear #3, which does affect the previous point a bit. They are bigger than the Meklar and probably about as powerful overall. Add that to the time to reach their territory and I don't think that's really a viable choice. I thought Rigel was the last straw. Turns out it wasn't quite yet ... but it was close. As far as ECM goes, I think it's worth it on bombers, but generally not worth it otherwhise. At most TLs, much more effective than shields in terms of survivability vs. missiles.
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Feb 25, 2018 22:50
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Episode X: 2475-2500 Silicoids-Sakkra-Mrrshan is the only active alliance at this point. No profitable tech trades could be found, and the Bulrathi were not interested in any of our developments for bribing purposes. There's a window where that kind of thing is no longer as useful, and we seem to have reached it.  The galaxy is becoming more hostile; we lost rather than gained at Rigel but our alliance with the Silicoids leaves some chance, if a small one, of reversing that. This planet here, with Bulrathi and Mrrshan orbiting, could potentially be an opportunity. Certainly we don't lose much by have some colony ships at the ready. Three were built, one per two years at Phyco. One for the green star, and two to kept in reserve at all times.  2481. Stinger Missiles were available next, but also the 'Thotimx Special' -- Anti-matter torpedoes. Defense is good. Cheaper is also better, and the stingers are almost half the cost. None of that really matter though in the fact of the fact that we need to defend the territory we expand to(if any). Torpedoes it is.  This is the green star. An astoudingly-large, already-terraformed terran world. Yeah it's Ultra Poor, but beggars can't be choosers and that's a lot of Sakkra to increase our influence in the council and pay for the ships Phyco pumps out, if nothing else. The Silicoids arrived at the same time, but we 'won the tie' and chased off a single Mrrshan cruiser. A small -- very small -- flicker of hope is renewed.  Naturally. I'd have expected nothing less. An Alkari colony ship is bound for Rayden, two years out. That's it though -- and I'm mostly just hoping the Silicoids hang around a while. The Mrrshan, under Emperor Yalara, are Ruthless Expansists and Wary of us. All expected. Still, they agree to a trade deal of 375 BC. Hopefully that will keep them from exercising their more hostile proclivities, since they aren't interesting in any of our tech even as a bribe.  A little behind the Bulrathi, and just as irrelevant compared to the Silicoid as are everyone. We are still out of contact with the Alkari, but that's it.  Not a whole lot of places left that Orion can be. We probably would need another couple planets to fund a fleet that could take the Guardian on down the road anyway and we can reach only one of the few unclaimed worlds. Might as well get a ship out there to check it out(the green one, smack dab in the middle, is exactly 10 parsecs away).  We now have the irrelevant Energy Pulsar. Normally I'd frown on a range increase at this point in a game, but here I don't mind so much. The further our Orion-scouting expeditions and colony ships can reach, the more potential salvaging operations we will be able to countenance. I try to shop the Pulsar around, but with no success. We're in the opposite of a sweet spot; they won't trade anything useful, and don't want our crap as a bribe. The trade deals are proving particularly beneficial to Rayden's development, increasing it's production as much as I could with reserve transfers. Of course, a planet that size, nearly a decade away from the incoming colonist transports, ultra poor -- it's going to be a long time before it does much more than extend our range. It takes a full three years before it can do so much as build a tenth of a factory annually. In 2488, the first batch of colonists arrive. Up to 27M population, we can now build almost a full factory. ONE.  Another few years. This will help our survivability a bit. Time for another ship design. We've got a choice between cheaper factories(Industrial Tech 5), equipment for ground troops(Armored Exoskeleton), or waste reducted(Reduced 40%). Normally the factories would be the last one on the agenda, but with how long Rayden's going to take to build up, I decide that's the best use of the funding.  I decide here it's time to move up to Cruiser-sized ships. We still have laughably inept(MK I) computing and are mounting Fusion Beams. I add in a couple of heavy ones and a battle scanner to the latest design at the bottom, our first of the heavier class. The older destroyers were around since right after the first attack on Rigel.  AdvancedEco arrives to help the struggling economy, and Terraforming +50M here will add 20M to each world.  One more place that is not Orion.  A rare, but interesting event. This may shake things up a bit. Bulrathi and Mrrshan are now at war. The Silicoids soon joined them. If some of the Bears' planets become available to us ...  It's 2496. It's not the Bulrathi whose planets appear to be set to become available. They are attacking Ukko and Rigel, above and below Rayden. An opportunity to expand our influence potentially, and I pre-emptively send a colonizer in both directions, ordering up a couple more from Phyco. Ukko is gone the following year, with three Bulrathi colony ships in orbit. I expect the Bulrathi will just retake it, but had I not sent our Colonizer early they would have been able to do so before we were in position. At least this way there's a tiny chance the Silicoids will come to the rescue before the bearish ground troops arrive.  Finally our Toxic Landings get to be used for something ... and a nice rich world. It would be super-nice to keep it -- and the Bulrathi fleet has left! They didn't even stick around, so there's a chance that might happen, esp with a big group of Silicoids incoming. Thanks stooges! Erm, allies. Benevolent overlords. That's totally what I meant, rock dudes.  The rocks have been decreased. This is great news for all freedom-loving empires. And of course we love our own freedom ... but aren't so particular about that of our rivals. ** Alkari(2) -- Granid ** Bulrathi(15) -- Down as well, partly due to troop transports during the war. ** Mrrshan(11) -- Granid. +1 here, a bit more relevant. ** Meklar(7) -- Abstain. Now that is quite interesting. We have 6 now. It's 33-15 Granid, so we could afford to vote for either, but we need both of them to be in a tolerant mood so we don't. Abstain again. Six is a record for us. We're nearly as big as the Meklar now.
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Feb 27, 2018 02:21
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This isn’t completely hopeless. Just mostly hopeless. That war could be a big opportunity.
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Feb 27, 2018 04:06
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Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table. Or amphibious lizard creatures.
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Feb 27, 2018 08:42
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hrm. that diplomatic blunder could not have happened to a better pair for your sake. if the rocks and the bears are fighting now, that's potentially the end-war. the silicoids have the big territory advantage, but the bears have a slight tech edge and obviously have a racial that actually applies in war time.
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Feb 27, 2018 09:30
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I feel bad for all those lizard-folk stuck waiting around in the reserve colony ships, potentially for decades 
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Feb 27, 2018 13:24
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Looking better! There is hope!! Maybe.
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Feb 27, 2018 20:07
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BurningStone posted:This isn’t completely hopeless. Just mostly hopeless. That war could be a big opportunity. Aesclepia posted:Looking better! There is hope!! Yeah I'd say the war is the last chance to build something, one way or another. Rappaport posted:feel bad for all those lizard-folk stuck waiting around in the reserve colony ships, potentially for decades I'm assuming they go into cryosleep or whatever, unsure of when, where, or even if they will ever wake up. Which really might make them more deserving of sympathy, not less.
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Feb 28, 2018 06:27
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Thotimx posted:I'm assuming they go into cryosleep or whatever, unsure of when, where, or even if they will ever wake up. Which really might make them more deserving of sympathy, not less. They wake up once a year, put on a pot of coffee, check their email, delete a year's worth of spam, do some light exercises, check to see if the order to launch has been sent yet, then go back to cryosleep for a year.
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Feb 28, 2018 13:45
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Randalor posted:They wake up once a year, put on a pot of coffee, check their email, delete a year's worth of spam, do some light exercises, check to see if the order to launch has been sent yet, then go back to cryosleep for a year. My dream job.
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Feb 28, 2018 21:35
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Episode X: 2500-2525 Two centuries in, and our desperate struggle has reached a critical juncture(in case it wasn't obvious from the flow of the last update). The outbreak of war has already benefited us, despite the loss of Rigel. The nameless Bulrathi ambassador has set the galaxy aflame, and we will either grow or have our doom set in stone.  We're nearing Robotics IV, and will really need battle computers if we can snag one.  Per usual for Silicoid systems, Ukko's size has now doubled. A size-80 Rich world, a third bigger than Phyco. That'll definitely prove useful. Imra in the lower right was recently taken by the Bulrathi from the Silicoids. If they make for a planet with their colony ships, they are getting it -- much faster than us. Just above Rayden, Rigel is about to come back into play it appears. The Silicoid population there is down to just 6M. We have a colonizer in orbit, and the bears don't. That would make seven planets if we got it back, and also put us in contact with the Alkari making the Altair plan a potential option for a takeover at a convenient time. Also, the red fleets over Rayden and Ukko show the philanthropy of our allies. The balance of power will continue to shift, but here is the current systems controlled per empire: ** Silicoid(27) ** Bulrathi(13) ** Mrrshan(10) ** Meklar(6) ** Sakkra(6) ** Alkari(2) It's still the rocks on top by a mile, but you can also see that if we can keep sniping systems we could become a vaguely relevant 2nd-tier power.  Trade is basically a full third of our income at this point, making it a huge bonus for us to maintain peace with everyone as long as possible. Meanwhile the military maintenance has held in the low 30s for decades now. The cost of bases has decreased a couple points and ships increased, and that transition should continue once we get robotics boosted. We are growing ... but slowly and still very much at the whim of the others for it to continue. The ships are really starting to fly around, and soon I decide to boost our operational 'colonizer reserve' from two to five ships at all times. We've got to be ready to move whenever something happens.  Let's complicate things even more.  We must agree ... but we're going to have to hope the war starts going better for the Silicoids if we are going to make any progress of from this. It could be fatal, but refusing the dominant power in the galaxy wouldn't be much better.  Ukko gave us the range to reach yet another dead end.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ3GjJcasI4 Well, so much for that. Not really surprised.  Heh. Of all the races to do it. It came into their remote lower-right planet.  Definitely going with the planetary ones here. Meanwhile Meklar spies destroyed a few dozen factories. They are getting involved in the fighting. It's getting quite chaotic. 2511: We're now at war with the Meklar. I fear we will be consumed by this growing conflagration. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEPA9zYXaSM Rayden was of course destroyed. Had we chosen the Silicoid side I don't think we'd have fared much better. We are caught in the crossfire, and doomed.  +50M Terraforming has arrived. Complete Eco seems the best investment.  Far too late, Battle Computer VI is our next target. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSAY9scz6cQ&feature=youtu.be. First-ever Colony Ship vs. Colony Ship battle for me. Included just for the LOLs.  The galactic war rages on, and the rocks do not appear to be winning. ** Alkari(1) -- Granid ** Bulrathi(22) -- A veto bloc here and the Silicoids are just two votes short of it. Smurch could be looking at his first victory. ** Mrrshan(10) -- Granid ** Meklar(6) -- Smurch. The cybernetics have switched sides. It's evenly-divided, and we choose Granid. We've got to try to keep them on our side as long as possible, even if they are losing. Granid leads Smurch 36-28 in the final tally. Might as well grab some goodies, popcorn or otherwhise, as we have front-row seats to what promises to be a long and very destructive galaxy-wide war. The Sakkra are now simply waiting to be wiped out and/or absorbed into the conglomerate formed by the winning side.
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Mar 1, 2018 23:34
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Xenocides posted:My dream job. Shame about the retirement plan, though!  Thotimx posted:
Well, it was bound to happen. The Bulrathi are just so powerful in this game I'd never declare unless I saw them scrap most of their designs or somehow lose a battle. As bad as war with the Silicoids would've been (if they'd declared on you in turn), you might be able to bomb those radiated planets and limit which planets of yours they could reach. I don't think there are any answers at all for the Bulrathi, they just got such a strong start and a good tech tree draw.Did you manage to get any tech reports on the Silicoids? I don't think you ever get in trouble for Hiding spies. If you can verify an AI is lacking the Weapon techs to crack your planets (or at least not do so easily) there's less risk in going to war, since you can get in that loop of luring their fleets to your planets, defeat them with a small defense fleet + bases, and use your main fleet to take their planets. Sometimes that point never comes up and I'd be really hesitant about war if it doesn't.
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Mar 3, 2018 07:43
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Wayne posted:Did you manage to get any tech reports on the Silicoids? I don't think you ever get in trouble for Hiding spies. If you can verify an AI is lacking the Weapon techs to crack your planets (or at least not do so easily) there's less risk in going to war, since you can get in that loop of luring their fleets to your planets, defeat them with a small defense fleet + bases, and use your main fleet to take their planets. Sometimes that point never comes up and I'd be really hesitant about war if it doesn't. At this point I'm so far behind in tech that this isn't an option anymore. It's not a bad idea, say, 75 years ago or whatever. Meklar/Bulrathi/Silicoids and probably Mrrshan look sideways at a planet of mine and it self-distintegrates out of sheer terror by now. As far as the Bulrathi goes, everything you said is true -- but I would have lost the Silicoid alliance and they had fleets over two of my worlds so they'd have sent invasion troops there if nothing else. I thought I had a better chance of the Bears being occupied with the larger conflict. In retrospect I did probably back the wrong horse, but I really don't think picking the right one would have mattered ... I was getting smacked either way.
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Mar 4, 2018 01:12
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Episode X: 2525-2550 Still not in contact with the Alkari again, but its a small matter.  At this point it's territory that matters most. ** Silicoids -- 26 ** Bulrathi -- 16 ** Mrrshan -- 10 ** Meklar -- 7 ** Sakkra -- 4 ** Alkari -- 1 The Bulrathi clearly have more-developed planets, and right now they have the momentum. They have the Meklar on their side against the other four races. There's really nothing positive for us to do to be honest. I'm not so much playing this game as observing the carnage.  You've got to climb Mt. Everest on a cold day to pull off espionage against the Meklar in the mid-late game.  I went computers, just because(as has been noted) it will increase your chances at future stealing. We're researching VI, but currently are stuck at I so this definitely helps.  After some years of nothing, both these occurred in 2531.  A few years later. This is the 3rd or 4th time we've tried to colonize it. Meklars chased us off from another nearby world. The only reason I even mention this is to show that I'm still trying, doing what I can. It isn't much, and there's virtually no hope of retaining these brief acquisitions, but for the moment the bigger powers are mostly fighting each other, and it's not as if I have anything better to do.  The second of two tech trades: we got the Hard Beam from the Mrrshan in the first one. Had to give up Robotics IV here. The goal in these is not the weapons themselves, but merely getting something -- and strengthening the most powerful race in the galaxy, oddly enough, it actually much to our benefit here. The stronger they are, the larger the(now-infinitesimal) chance that we can profit from their war. Then more sabotage of our factories, and Rayden destroyed from orbit. Again. This time the Meklar. They are the ones profiting, doing what I'd like to do but don't have the fleet to accomplish.  This kind of thing hurts worse. We only have 20-30 bases per system at the moment, so it takes down a significant amount of our defenses and resources must be diverted from research. Academic anyway, but it still sucks.  What goes around comes around. Two dozen Bulrathi cruisers retreated from a single colony ship because random. Of course the Meklar incinerated the colony the next year. Our new function is that of very marginally distracting the real combatants.  Nothing but a roadbump for the bears, but every little thing helps. In 2542, I first notice signs of conflict over the regularly-glassed systems between the Bulrathi and the Meklar. That can only be a good thing. They are both at war with the Silicoids, but that seems to be as far as their friendship goes. It really is a galaxy of opportunity right now for anyone with enough strength to reap the harvest. Unfortunately that's not us.  I've probably never had a more important late-game range advance. Granted we are still in the mid-level techs, but not the other races. Now we can widen our net potentially in terms of where I send colony ships and looking-for-Orion Recons. If only I could get faster engines ... But all that is available is Trilithum Crystals(Range 10). Grrrr.  There. Now we can begin to think about fighting on a very limited level. My design goal is simple; in what way can I get the most torpedoes in play for the least amount of funding. I'm not planning to attack anyone, but seizing an 'open' system with a minimal fleet commitment might be possible. Limited defense of such a system or at least forcing a more substantive commitment of ships to drive us off. That's all that is in view here. Ukko, our only rich system, would do the building. Stinger Missiles will be next, an upgrade to our horribly-outdated bases.  A Bulrathi fleet was here, leaving just as we arrived in 2543. Sure, we'll take that, if for nothing more than the temporary range increase. Very temporary -- it was destroyed the next year per usual and didn't give us access to anything new that was interesting. However, we've now had Rayden for almost a decade, population is starting to become significant there. It seems that the demands of the war have caused everyone to ignore it for some reason. The new ship is called the Hydra. Cruiser class, it has no computer but the best armor, shields, and engines we have. 4 Anti-Matter Torpedo launchers. At this point we won't be able to avoid contact with the enemy so I wanted it to have some survivability. That seemed more important than a slightly larger payload. Here's hoping we are able to usefully deploy them once we get a decent amount built. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3RIGroLSos&feature=youtu.be Well, there goes Ukko. And another empty system scouted. Still, it was just a case of the Bulrathi deciding we were worth the effort of attacking.  Complete Eco Restoration is in, and we'll snag the +80M terraforming next.  New Council, same nominees.  Every vote counts ...  Gotta hand it to Smurch. He's played this one pretty smart in general.  Galaxy still quite divided.  We have 5 votes again. I decide to throw our lot behind Smurch for the first time. Partly because it looks like they are winning, and partly because there aren't many Silicoid ships out there. We'll have more luck trying to salvage their successes it looks like. It's a long way from being at war to the alliance we'll need to manage that ... but this is the one way we have of starting that process. And what do we have to lose?  This is about it, really. And what have you done for us lately, again??  So the next task is definitely set. Whether it does any good remains to be seen.
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Mar 7, 2018 02:16
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Episode X: 2550-2575 What sticks out most to me here is the Bulrathi tech. It really looks like Smurch is running away with this, and even our relatively poor efforts at keeping up are now really falling by the wayside. This reinforces my general impression: getting on their good side will help us last longer.  Here, supporting Smurch in the Council improved relations but not enough to bring peace. Three low-level tech bribes later, a truce was signed. I offered a max trade deal as well(525 BC).  This never ceases to make me chuckle. Yes, I offered the galaxy's tech leader the lowest of two first-tier range advances. 250 years into the game. And it meant something to you. You should have been insulted. But I digress. I was surprised to see their relations boost all the way to 'Amiable', so I proposed and had a NAP accepted. I'll let the Silicoids figure out that we aren't really allies with them on their own time, and will do some more bribing in a few years to try and get an Alliance with the bears. The Meklar wanted better tech to end the war, but we got away with just two gifts. The one they liked the most was Class V shields ... even though they already have Class VII. Somehow they've managed not to research any Robotics improvements, and they wanted both of ours. Nope. Therefore they stopped short of signing a NAP, but I did get peace. I'll have to keep working on them more. So after all that, the division of power in the galaxy is basically this: Bulrathi-Meklar-Sakkra vs. Silicoid-Mrrshan-Alkari. With the Bulrathi and Meklar squabbling and far from fast friends. I definitely think I'm on the winning side now. It probably doesn't amount to a hill of beans, but it beats the heck out of being on the losing side.  I think Rayden should be fairly secure now as we are not at war with anyone(for the moment) and friendly(ish) with the two races most likely to come for it. Five systems for us. The rest of the list: ** Silicoid -- 24. Still the biggest on the block but headed in the wrong direction. ** Bulrathi -- 15. Stopping them from getting any more permanent gains is top priority, if we have a choice in the matter. ** Mrrshan -- 10. Pretty much holding steady for almost two centuries now. ** Meklar -- 7. Good news is they haven't grown much. ** Alkari -- 1. They'll get wiped out once somebody bothers about doing it. I doubt I ever speak to them again.  Here's the immediate problem. We got Ukko back but Mrrshan ships are incoming and I don't see any way of stopping them. Hoping the kitties are nice isn't much in the way of a strategy but it's all I've really got here. The few Silicoid ships on this side of the galaxy seem to be in retreat everywhere. I think my best play is to put a modest amount of resources into getting more torpedo ships(the Hydras) out there.  Apparently 'being nice' was indeed not on the Mrrshan agenda. After a couple more bribes, I tried to get an alliance with the Bulrathi. They said 'why should we trust you now, when you have broken so many past treaties?' I'd like to argue with them, but they do have a point.  Over/under on how long I keep this is now at 2-3 years. Better than the 1 year it usually is.  Industrial Tech 5 is in. I think Andrium is the best value here as we have almost no waste spending right now. RigelLost Yep, three years. A couple of interesting things here. They have Andrium ... but no Battle Suits or shields. Losses were 10 Sakkra, 18 Mrrshan. So that's good to know. Also, they came from at least 3x as far away but I couldn't get relief transports in time. Would have been a year late(and then put us at war) even though Rayden is much closer. I really need engines, darn it. 2557 and I still have Warp 2. I had to give away more crap, but Smurch did finally agree to an Alliance. So that should prove useful.  Much-needed. I go back now for the Repulsor Beam, and then Granid says hello. He wants me to break the Bulrathi alliance. I tell him to go fly a kite.  Yeah the rock Alliance ain't lasting long, methinks.  The next year. Astonishingly cordial under the circumstances. War came in 2567.  Rigel and Altair change hands more often than some people change socks. They are the centerpiece of the war. The Bulrathi appear to have secured the rich toxic world of Ukko unfortunately, but our Alliance with them was enough to get us Lyae(and they unaccountably have one of their largest fleets in orbit as well). The Silicoids have destroyed a couple of our colony ships at Rigel -- they are so fast we can't retreat -- but haven't done anything else yet. So we're back at five systems which seems to be where we've held for at least a century, unable to permanently grow beyond that. Ship activity is higher from all factions: Mrrshan, Bulrathi, Silicoid, Meklar all flitting about. A couple of years later we had Rigel for a year -- but didn't have enough ships to protect it from the Silicoids. And so things went. The Council set to vote again with the fate of Altair and Rigel as yet undecided, despite a significant portion of the galaxy's tears and treasure being devoted to the task of figuring it out. I keep sending in Colonizers because if the Bulrathi do eventually get the upper hand, I want at least some shot at coming out of it with these systems in my pocket. ** Silicoids(37) -- Dang. Out of 97. There's some serious growth going on somewhere for them. Now they are back in veto territory. ** Alkari(1) -- Granid. ** Bulrathi(32) -- One vote shy of a veto. ** Mrrshan(13) -- Abstain. ** Meklar(7) -- Smurch. We have 7 as well, a new high! Whoop-dee-doo. I stick with Bulrathi. Smurch is my horse, and I'm going to ride him to a defeat as late in the calendar as I can. 46-38, Smurch will a small edge here. It's no longer obvious that the Bulrathi are winning the war though -- I'll take a look at that to start the next update as always. Combined Bulrathi + Silicoid population is now at over 71% of the galaxy. This is as stable, in a twisted sort of way, as the Human game was. Difference here is that I have virtually no input on how the war goes. In the former case, once I was able to turn the tide I ended things quickly. I have no confidence in the AI to do that. I've started thinking of some really strange possibilities. Like, for example, what if this is a nearly-infinite stalemate? I'll eventually research unlimited range(hopefully), or if not maybe I steal it somehow. Then I could potentially find Orion still. And an unlimited war might, in a long enough timeline, yield positives. Alternatively, maybe I don't get the range and I can't get anything out of the war. A near-infinite hopeless sideline struggle, in which I can't influence the outcome/can't make either side lose/can't do anything but keep going. And going. And going. And ... Energizer-Bunny time. Follow the Pink Rabbit. Eventually somebody wins I think, but I've never seen a game like this, as has already been mentioned by others, with two AI titans slugging it out and proxies on both sides. I don't know how long they can go at it. I think exploring that possibility, as potentially tedious(err, make that already tedious) as it is, might well be the point of this 10th game.
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Mar 10, 2018 17:26
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I'm kind of impressed that you haven't been shaken off yet and are still holding on to a distant hope of victory.
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Mar 10, 2018 20:12
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It's fine. You can do it!
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Mar 10, 2018 22:32
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Kanthulhu posted:It's fine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qztuEucrNBc
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Mar 10, 2018 23:40
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Kanthulhu posted:It's fine. Your confidence is inspiring. And quite possibly a manifestation of insanity. My mind didn't go to Rob Schneider -- I went to the 'This is Fine' meme, the one with the dog sitting on a chair at the dining room table calmly saying so while the house burns down around him. Official PSA: So I had a long weekend, and one of the things I spent a lot of time doing was trying to binge-MOO my way through the end of this game. I say trying, because I did binge the game. I played a LOT. But it still ain't over. So there's lots more Episode X coming, and while matters have not concluded I am expecting an epic finish when it does eventually come. All of which is to say there's lots more Ep. X to come, and I'm still honestly not sure how it's going to end. I can say the Sakkra do not go quietly into that good night, but beyond that I'll not spoil anything and let things come as they will. There will be a lot of stuff packed into many of the updates, long-winded exposition from yours truly, along with the usual screenshots and short videos. And that's with me not bothering some of the time with things that weren't of paramount importance for the sake of brevity -- well, not brevity, but more just not being pointlessly repetitive. The amount of stuff constantly happening gets rather insane, and I've had to put the game aside for now lest I get criminally behind on other projects. Next update I intend to have up sometime today.
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Mar 15, 2018 22:36
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Episode X: 2575-2600 If memory serves this is only about the third game to last this long. The Human one has the record, ending in 2699. So we're just over a century out from that. Of course things can change quickly at this late-game stage.  A look at the technology comparison indicates that we may not be long from the 'gang up on the Mrrshan' stage that always seems to happen at some point. Right now the Cats are on the sidelines, but overall our tech is almost as good as theirs. I'd like to be ready as we can be to pounce(pun intended) if that occurs.  In the Hunt for Orion, there are only two more possibilities. The purple star in the lower-right(13 parsecs range) and the blue one in the upper-right(18 parsecs range). Blue seems to be a lot more common, so unfortunately it's probably there, just past the heart of Mrrshan territory. Yet another reason to want to be ready if the galaxy gangs up on them -- of course it'll have to tire of fighting itself first, which is probably why it hasn't happened yet. We'll get to the purple one before too much longer, as it's just a single parsec out of range and we're researching fuel cells that will get us there. ** Silicoids -- 25 planets(+1) ** Bulrathi -- 17(+2). The rich get richer. It truly is the way of things. ** Mrrshan -- 10(no change) ** Meklar -- 6(-1) ** Sakkra -- 5(no change) ** Alkari -- 1(no change) Really all that's changed is that we got Lyae instead of the Meklar, then the Bulrathi took Ukko, and a couple more planets happen to be occupied right now instead of up for grabs.  The Battle Computer is the only notable thing we'll be getting soon. Stinger Missiles as well but those might have had a chance to be relevant a century ago. Possibly. Now it just means we'll scratch the paint job slightly more on any invaders.  Our best fuel cells got us this from our allies. More importantly ...  Finally, faster engines! Cost us the Inertial Stabilizer. That will make the Mrrshan a bit tougher in combat but at the current stage it matters little. And doubling the speed of all our ships would tempt Sauron to sign the contract in the blood of his firstborn if it came to that. The value of this acquisition is difficult to place highly enough. It got better. Hilariously, they were then willing to offer us Impulse Drives(warp 5) in exchange for Complete Eco Restoration, the only other thing we have that they are interested in. Sweet!! The Meklar also wanted Complete Eco, and handed over Andrium Armor to get it. Four new trades, and we're looking significantly less pathetic now. Though still pathetic, mind. A fifth saw us gain Hyperspace Communications for Controlled Dead Environs. That's all that was available that we were interested in. But it's a lot. Our next-gen combat ships are much faster and somewhat tougher, but actually a bit lighter armed; 3 torpedo launchers each instead of four. 2576: It looked like a bit of good luck was swinging our way with a bugged Bulrathi fleet incoming to Rigel as we snagged it for the latest time. However that fleet disappeared, apparently scrapped at an inopportune time for us, and the colony was destroyed once more.  2579. Presented mostly for the giggles of it after the Altair Plan failed centuries ago. First time we've gotten through here. The Bulrathi do have a few capital ships in orbit though, so we could have a chance if they stay there. I checked the range to that blue star, and this helps -- but not much. Still 16 parsecs, well past our present limit of 12(9 + 3). Overall ship activity seems to be decreasing -- perhaps the AIs are in a simultaneous rebuilding phase or somesuch. Instead though, the Bulrathi fleet moved on to Rigel(which we colonized), and Altair was destroyed. The wheel spins once again, with nobody benefiting.  Lyae getting the planetary shield up was of considerable importance; soon a fourth planet would be contributing research and ships. Rayden is still inching along on the industrialization path, being ultra-poor and all.  Nope. If you'd fought the war better in the early stages, we never would have left you. Too late now Granid. They proceed to offer over 21k in funds. That's a nice chunk of change, but it doesn't affect the answer.  In the mid-80s, the Whack-a-Mole Zone expanded to Rana, which is between Rigel and Altair. I'm not sure what to think of this development other than it's real close to Meklon which makes it troublesome. In any case, we'll take any diversions we can manage.  Also, check this out. Same year, 2586. The Bulrathi have been moving back and forth between Altair and Rigel for some time now, with our colonies getting glassed each time when they leave, but I've been keeping colony ships en route to both so that the bears can't claim them before us. That's lasted about a decade. Now, we've had Altair for just a year, but they have no colony ship in this group and they've stayed there. There's a chance to potentially hold it, like we've done in Lyae, if they stick around. I decide it's worth investing and send ships and transports from Rayden. We don't lose much if it fails, and if the Bulrathi stick around for long enough this would be a big addition. With our improved drives, transports will take just two years to get here. That makes this kind of thing a lot more viable than it was previously. The other side of this though is that Rigel is no longer protected. It looks like Silicoid and Meklar are mostly going to fight over it with the Mrrshan also involved. When it comes to that though, I really don't care who gets it. Another homeworld system added to the empire would help us a lot more than Rigel would help any of them. And at the moment there's nothing inbound to Rana either. This is looking like it could be a critical moment where things change a bit, and quite possibly in our favor.  Two years later, 2588, was a year of huge importance. It started with Battle Computer Mk. VI coming in. That was significant. Because of the tech deals I've made, there are two levels of Robotics(among other things) available. I'm going with V before VI, because it's just over half the cost and then we can leverage the increased industrial base to get the more advanced version. But this means a big economic expansion is coming, and it is most welcome.  And then there's this. Note that the Bulrathi now have fleets above Altair and Rigel. With us in possession of both. This is the opportunity I've been waiting for but not really expecting. I could kiss Smurch right now. I seriously could. In fact, screw it: this is to be known as the Smurch Triangle(a name coming out just slightly ahead of the Triangle of Determination, in honor of our centuries-long effort of sacrificing colony ship after colony ship to the effort of keeping anyone else from getting these). Of course you can see other fleets coming in to Rigel, but we only have it right now because the Bulrathi chased the others off. With no other open planets in the vicinity, their ships are more likely to stay. And if they do, it's possible we could hold all three(nobody's come after Rana). I'm investing maximum transfers from the imperial treasury in the effort to boost these systems as fast as possible based on that possibility. It's a real chance. IF this holds, we would be able to maintain what is now a high for this game of eight systems. That's still not a lot. But it beats the crap out of five, and the Rigel/Altair pairing will be among our best. Furthermore, after building them up we will have enough income to re-up trade agreements, further increasing our income along with the incoming robotics gains. A great many things need to go our way still, chief among them the Bulrathi maintaining a presence here. The war will undoubtedly continue to be fought somewhere, and I don't know what everyone will do. Best-case scenario, they continue to throw their ships at the Bulrathi in futility while they guard these expansions. This could well fall apart, but if it doesn't we will have taken a major, major step forward. Also, we have enough colony ships in reserve(with impulse drives) to stop building them for now and Lyae is now fully contributing. That will let us pump cruisers out at a much faster rate. They haven't really been combat-tested yet, but obviously the more I can put out there the better.  The very next year. A Silicoid fleet is en route to Rayden, and we have nobody close enough to stop them. If I'm going to lose a planet, I'll handle losing the Ultra-Poor one. Maybe we can all fight over Rayden for a while, I'm fine with that. Meanwhile the Mrrshan are coming to Rana. I don't really think I've got enough ships to stop them, but I have enough that I at least want to try and see what happens. Gotta get these things into combat eventually and see how they hold up against enemy designs. Thanks to having trading for Hyperspace Communications, I'm able to re-route a few extra cruisers there. I pull the usual 'abandon the colony' maneuvers at Rayden, transferring out half the population and putting the rest on research duty. I don't think I've ever gone this long before in a game between space battles of significance. The last one ... well it at Rigel nearby, nearly two centuries ago. What followed at Rana(but didn't properly get recorded) was n interesting battle of attrition that showed our ships can hang with cats. We lost, but took most of them with us. The small Wolverines(they had about 116 of them) will lose a lot of bite once we get the repulsor beam as well, as they are armed with only short-ranged beam weapons. The Stinger Missile also arrived, and we'll snag the Phasor, the only thing moving the tree forward.  I'd rather this than they invade and steal our tech, but that's really not a Silicoid move. Mrrshan did the same to Rana -- there wasn't much there to begin with. Still, I'm about as optimistic as you can be when you've just lost two systems and have 54 million transports headed to die on the surface of one of them if they don't get blown up en route. The old Hydras(the last two groups to get destroyed, the slower ones) were used up in service of something at least, instead of just getting scrapped.  Brave and noble Sakkra, every last one of them. Their sacrifice will not go unnoticed. However ...  It does look like they'll get Rana for now. We're not ready to deal with nearly that many Wolverines. Once we get Repulsors however, I'm seriously considering going to war with them. They're the one race I think we can take on, and they have no friends. It's a risk, but I think we'll have a significant advantadge over their ships once their small ones can't hit us. And if we could take a significant chunk of their territory, that could be just the break we need.  Something's wrong with this save. I haven't been subjected to a negative event in far too long. Must be a bug. With the Meklar not being that large in terms of planets, this could be a significant hardship for them. When the Mrrshans arrived at Rana, I lost a couple cruisers taking out their colony ship, then retreated. Legitimately one of the favorite tricks IMO. Have fun circling the planet with your thousands of ships now. Fat lot of good they'll do ya, now that your colonists are all so much space debris. Well worth the loss. However, despite my best efforts the Bulrathi did secure Rayden. Basically because the Silicoids fought us first, then we retreated, then the Bulrathi claimed it same turn. Not sure how the mechanics of that all work out, but it's hard to complain after all the filching off their ships we are doing. The Silicoids arrived at Rana the next year -- but with no colony ship. Have at it, boys. Looks like this may be the new ground zero, which basically means we'll have traded Rayden for Altair/Rigel. Not as much as I would have hoped but that would still be a considerable gain. And also ...  Time to start building up for a potential Mrrshan war. Class VII deflectors(we're at V now) are next on the agenda.  Here's the latest design, the Catastrophe. Get it? 'Cat'-astrophe. It's a play on ... yeah I know it's obvious. Anyway, 3 torpedo launchers, best armor and engines, repulsor beam means limited shields but it's well worth the tradeoff. Now we're only really at the point of defending against the Mrrshan with this. They have, among other things, Class XV Planetary Shields which means their planets are going to be easily impervious to our torpedoes. I'll need a second ship to press any attack, a bomber. With bombs we haven't invented yet. So this is only stage one. But being able to take out their ships, which this should be able to do, is a nice first step. And we don't want to dilly-dally around -- there may not be enough time, as they have invented High-Energy Focus. Which would render our Repulsor Beam obsolete. The chances of them throwing the HEF on their hordes of fighter-class ships though seems pretty remote though. We'll see. A lot of things are up in the air right now.  This is more like what I was hoping for. Meklar bombed out Rayden, then we and the Bulrathi arrive the same year, Meklar get chased off and we claim the planet. We may end up thanking the Silicoids for getting the Bulrathi to reinforce the system in the long run. Or we may just lose it again.  2597 here. The Bulrathi protectors are gone(though they remain in other systems) and while there are some Silicoid fleets we might try fighting, this one had 11 capital ships and a lot of cruisers. There was never any thought to standing up to them. A brutal reminder that we remain vulnerable to the whims of others. The situation is always changing, but right now the Silicoids are the aggressors on multiple fronts. A once-stable situation is flexing about with different systems in various sectors starting to look more vulnerable. Sauron intends to continue to profit from this is any way he can, large or small.  The flux continues right up into the latest Council vote to end the century, with no sign of abating. The galaxy is +3 votes on the whole with Granid down 1 here, but he's still immune.  Smurch just needs one vote for not-Granid to stay in it. He'll get that from us. The others: ** Alkari(1) -- Granid. Still that one stupid planet ignored in the lower-right. I forget they are even in the game when they aren't casting this predictable and usually irrelevant vote. ** Mrrshan(15) -- Granid. ** Meklar(7) -- Smurch And we are up to a new record of 8. Not super-exciting, but it does mean that we are now fourth in the galaxy. The Meklar and Mrrshan are definitely in our sights, in more ways than one. However with the current chaos our efforts will probably be occupied so much with colonizing planets of opportunity and continuing to work toward being able to defend that which the Bulrathi don't feel like guarding that any real offensive doesn't seem probable in the near future. We'll see though. And the long-term gaze is still fixed on the secrets of Orion, which remain out of reach(literally). And lest we forget its existence, the Guava Plan may well rear its head as well. This game could last long enough to implement it. As for the vote; 52-48, Granid with the slight lead over Smurch. No abstentions, and no movement in the dominance of the two great powers. We'll soon see if a 4th century has something different in mind than the first three. Strategic Sage fucked around with this message at 04:53 on Mar 16, 2018 |
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Mar 16, 2018 04:49
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Thotimx, you deserve some praise (and maybe some counseling) for sticking with this.
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Mar 16, 2018 05:37
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There isn't much commentary I can add, but I'm hype for every update.
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Mar 16, 2018 11:58
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PurpleXVI posted:There isn't much commentary I can add, but I'm hype for every update. Yeah.
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Mar 16, 2018 12:27
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if you somehow eke out a win here i am going to be mondo impressed
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Mar 16, 2018 15:09
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I don't see a win happening without serious shenanigans. Right now Smurch's name is a killing word. Winning would require grabbing at least half the Mrrshan territory and then either replacing smurch in the election (keeping granid as the opponent) or going full Guava on the galaxy.
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Mar 16, 2018 15:58
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General Revil posted:Thotimx, you deserve some praise (and maybe some counseling) for sticking with this. PurpleXVI posted:There isn't much commentary I can add, but I'm hype for every update. These.
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Mar 16, 2018 16:07
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i can see a win happening with the insanely unlikely protection that thot got from smurch this last update. that was really the unicorn opportunity here. he really only needs a small fistful of tech from here to have a fleet that's worth building, and from there you have one hit on orion to make that a fleet worth taking on the warpath. every game of MoO1 ends up boiling down to how you can keep the game going long enough to catch up in tech - because if you can keep the game going that long, you're going to win because the AI is from 1993 and can't fight or design for poo poo. ultimately the answer to that question for this game has been 'supplant the minor races as kingmakers to irrevocably stalemate the Council' and that's now theoretically possible thanks to Smurch doing a thing.
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Mar 16, 2018 17:10
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It's surprisingly interesting to watch how you keep holding on by the skin of your teeth and edging closer and closer to the faint possibility of some wildly unlikely Cinderella-story win, no matter how ridiculously unlucky or unfair the run might be. Really enjoying this LP.
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Mar 16, 2018 17:17
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In all seriousness, he just has to hold on a little bit longer to go full Guava. There are a few key techs needed, but this is totally a point where you need to consider either that, or an Orion play.
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Mar 17, 2018 06:13
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General Revil posted:you deserve some praise (and maybe some counseling) for sticking with this. I'll accept both. There's balance in that. One must take the bad with the good. Angry Diplomat posted:It's surprisingly interesting to watch how you keep holding on by the skin of your teeth and edging closer and closer to the faint possibility of some wildly unlikely Cinderella-story win, no matter how ridiculously unlucky or unfair the run might be. Really enjoying this LP. Thanks! It does seem that games like this where the RNG just hands me my lunch on a platter but I manage to hang around at least for a while seem to be the most popular. coolguye posted:i can see a win happening with the insanely unlikely protection that thot got from smurch this last update. Good points all-around here, but I will take a bit of issue with this one. It really isn't all THAT unlikely, the whole spoils of war routine largely depends on allies doing stuff like this. The question is how long they will stay there, because sometimes when I go with this approach I'm strong enough to maintain some semblance of fleet defense on a planet once I get it. That's not the case here. PurpleXVI posted:There isn't much commentary I can add, but I'm hype for every update. Cool! Another one comes today. OAquinas posted:I don't see a win happening without serious shenanigans. Right now Smurch's name is a killing word. V. Illych L. posted:if you somehow eke out a win here i am going to be mondo impressed Thank you for serving the purpose of lowering thread expectations :P. In all seriousness, I am still unquestionably at the mercy of others and there are no prospects for that changing anytime soon. GuavaMoment posted:In all seriousness, he just has to hold on a little bit longer to go full Guava. I think I'm a bit further away than that. Aside from getting the key techs, I would need to research quite a ways above them to get the necessary cost-reductions, or have a much larger empire, in order to build the size of fleet required.
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Mar 18, 2018 15:44
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Its fine. Piece of cake
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Mar 18, 2018 20:47
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I feel that the tipping point will come if you can get a fleet that can protect a colony well enough to let you build it up. Without that, any gains you make take luck. With that, you still need luck for the favorable diplomatic situation to hold, but at least you've got some control. I agree that the Silicoids have taken their best shot and are only sliding downhill from here. That seems typical for them if their early expansion advantage doesn't give a quick win. Thot, you are an amazing briber, or at least a lot better than me. Do you have any tips?
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Mar 18, 2018 22:16
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quote:Thot, you are an amazing briber, or at least a lot better than me. Do you have any tips? Races-Audience-Select Race-Offer Tribute .... oh, that's not what you meant. My approach is basically to bribe as much as I need to when I need to, and try to save things for that point. I suppose there are two parts to it: ** When -- If I'm at war and I need peace, or if I need them to do something(break an alliance, etc.), or pretty much anytime somebody I don't want to go to war with is below Neutral on relations. Any of those things is a good reason. ** What -- Whatever it takes. I usually offer tech because money is much less effective and I rarely have enough in the reserve to spare. Plus tech is twice as valuable. I try to offer something useful but not too useful. If total crap comes up(like Gatling Lasers when you're at TL 40) I';ll throw that at them because it does still help some and there is literally no downside. It might be worth mentioning that one reason it's good to try to go for the quick researches early in the game, even if they won't help you much compared to the more expensive ones, is that it gives you something to use here. You can't bribe with what you don't have. That's about all I can think of right now -- might be good to know what makes you think I'm better at it or what situations you are having trouble with getting it to work in.
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Mar 19, 2018 05:08
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Episode X: 2600-2625 Thus the fourth century of play begins. We are approaching the point where the technological edge of the great powers begins to matter somewhat less, simply because they are starting to reach the top of the tech tree. The Silicoids already have Advanced Construction Tech I, for example. Their ships will still be better than ours due to space and cost concerns, but economic/planetology advances will go in our favor simply because we are still inventing some while they've done most if not all of what they are going to get.  Bear in mind that these numbers are a snapshot of a very and increasingly fluid situation. ** Silicoid -- 24(-1) ** Bulrathi -- 16(-1) ** Mrrshan -- 9(-1) ** Sakkra -- 7(+2) ** Meklar -- 5(-1) ** Alkari -- 1(--) We're literally the only empire that holds more territory now than it did 25 years ago. That's a trend I like. Also interesting is that the Mrrshan core worlds are fantastic, as shown by the fact that they have only a little more territory but almost twice the population.  The stuff we are researching now is too expensive for an empire of our size to accomplish it in anything resembling a reasonable timeframe. The next two will be important though. The shown terraforming will give us 30M more for each planet(excepting those like Rigel which was already terraformed better than we could by others), and the range from propulsion will get us to one more system, which will by process of elimination identify where Orion is, one way or the other.  It's hard to show the broadening sphere of chaos in still-image form. This purple system is Nordia, the green one to the lower-right Iranha. Both were solid Mrrshan worlds until recently. Well below this, Rayden is still constantly changing hands. Aside from that, the Silicoids recently mounted a failed attack on Ukko(Bulrathi rich world), we have Rigel again but it's virtually unprotected, etc. There is little point in trying to fortify worlds or invest in transports to accelerate their growth. All I can do right now is attempt to magnify and profit from the chaos. Any system in range that looks like it's about to be attacked or is currently empty gets a colonizer sent to it. Targeted defense is possible when there are smaller fleets incoming, but increasingly difficult given the speed at which everything goes. The situation has truly devolved into a catastrophic grinder, just as the Human game did. Maximizing production on developed worlds, resettling destroyed ones as I am able to rebuild them, snagging any that become available due to other empires getting their worlds bombarded so that rivals can't claim them and creating more opportunities for those rivals to destroy each others' ships in the process, these are the tools now available. Much different than the early-game fortification concept. I will not build beyond 50 missile bases on any planet, and only that as a basic level of deterrent that encourages enemies to send their ships to more opportune targets. Similarly, fleet concentrations are done with the idea of defending strategic/valuable planets that do not have Bulrathi ships in orbit, hoping to act as a deterrent more than an actual defense. At Nordia, I was hoping to win a colony-vs-colony combat, but was surprised by their firepower. I guess I need to lure them into range to give myself the opportunity fire next time .. if possible.  This fleet paid a visit to Rayden and was too large for me to oppose. However, I was interested to see what they had here. Lots of Tri-Focus Plasmas, and Andrium Armor which is the same as what I'm using. Decent shielding but the Tornadoes in particular are interestingly slow. If I had enough ships to take out the other ones quickly, I might be able to make a fight of it. Interesting to note for the future.  The new terraforming came in, and as interesting as Universal Antidote is I'm really past the point of caring about it. I'll go for the next Terraforming level.  Relations are still positive after this, but significantly reduced. I definitely can't afford to lose the mighty bears as an ally.  2608. With all the up-and-down, another system joins the developed-and-contributing roster.  Here's a look at what the Silicoids fielded as they smashed Rigel again a couple years afterwards. Better armor than we have, better torpedoes, etc. And also more ships, so there was no point in fighting.  A long-standing Meklar world, and as you can see a pretty good one, joins the ranks of the chaos. At the moment though the Bulrathi appear to have a grip on Rigel with Rayden still up for grabs, so we have seen some reverses. Rana and Altair are still solid, with our total at 6 not counting Kulthos. As of 2612. Wait five minutes, it'll change. This brings us closer to reaching that blue star where I think Orion is, but not close enough -- 14 parsecs, two out of range. All I need is to get a planet for one year that is close enough, and I can send a Recon there(we have a few of them with Impulse Drives) even if I later lose the planet. I don't think I'll lose the ship until after it arrives and scouts things due to the range issue(that's how I think the mechanics work), and at that point I'm not going to care, since if it is Orion the Guardian's going to blow it up anyway. But we're not close enough just yet.  Same year. Rana is one of our two weaker systems(along with Hyades) but beggars can't be choosers. It now joins the ranks of developed worlds -- we have six. In fact, from now on 'developed worlds' is going to be a lot more important metric than mere numbers of systems. I think I'll include that at the start of each update as it will be much more indicative of the rise and fall of our fortunes than 'hey, we just settled Planet X for the 14th time and had it destroyed again two years later' kinds of systems.  Here's the Rigel and Rayden situation I mentioned. It looks like Rayden will go Meklar for at least a bit. That Mrrshan fleet in orbit has only a colony ship and a troop landing they just made failed to take the planet. The Bulrathi could of course intervene but I don't see any evidence right now that they intend to. Some things go our way, some things don't.  Also the same year, we re-up trade deals for the first time in over a century. This is a questionable call given the current chaos, but it's the first time we've been able to double them. Previous deals were in the 525-600 BC range. The Meklar deal wasn't quite a doubling, but it was close enough that I did it anyway. A strong argument can be made for leaving the Mrrshan/Meklar deals where they were and just doubling the Bulrathi one. If we do go to war, I want it to be on my terms, and my sense of things right now is that 'spoils of war' situation is going to last quite a long time, particularly given how slow we are researching. If I'm wrong about that, increasing all the deals will probably end up being a bad move. It costs us over 800 BC per year at the moment, which is roughly 13% of what our combined income(trade + production) was. We still have a positive trade balance but it is only a fraction of what it had been. Of course it's the potential long-term gain that is in view here.  2613, the next year. First time we've been able to get a foothold here as well. The Sphere of Chaos has shifted upwards it appears. We were able to time this arrival with a Bulrathi fleet, but they may not hang around. There are increasing signs that the tides of this war are shifting in favor of the Silicoids. Ironically it may be because of us, as there are significant Bulrathi fleets 'guarding' three of our worlds. The Meklar joined the war officially a while back on the side of the bears and have been in decline ever since, to the point where our production is now superior to theirs. Part of the reason for this is that the Mrrshan have joined the war on the Silicoid side(though they are not allied with them). Still, we regularly refuse Silicoid entreaties, which come multiple times a decade now, to break our Bulrathi Alliance. We've made our bed, and those guardian fleets would quickly eviscerate our territory if we switched. There is no real choice here.  A couple years later, and unsurprising. More surprising though is the large Bulrathi fleet holding at Nordia. We may retain that system longer. And Rigel is now in play again, though the Meklar grip on Rayden remains. A new dynamic over the past several years is that galactic fleets are exploding in size. We can't keep up, which means we can't really join in the fight at all to help out our allies as the tide looks like it's turning against them.  2618. It was only a matter of time. I expect they'll be spending more time fighing the Bulrathi than us. The biggest loss here is honestly a third of our trade income.  Here you can see how stupid-advanced the Silicoids are, but also the distribution of the war thanks to recently signed alliances. Everyone is now officially on a side. Rocks-BirdsStillExist?-Kitties vs. Bears-Lizards Rising-Cybernetics Declining. Honestly it's still pretty darned even. The latest fleet figures have the Bulrathi with a much stronger force than anyone else and equal tech to the Silicoids. If they weren't safeguarding our worlds, they'd be doing a lot more damage elsewhere. A rather disquieting stability settled in for no apparent reason the last few years before the Council vote. Only Kulthos continued to be fought over actively.  Granid and the galaxy are both +5 this cycle, confirming my observations that it was a strong period for them.  Now a full two votes shy of a veto bloc, and eight shy of their rivals. It's not time to panic yet but there is some concern in our camp. We are up to 11, +3 from the last time out so we did pretty darned great for ourselves also. That's still 4th behind the Mrrshan, who remain at 15. Granid holds a small but significant 57-48 lead, even with our support.
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Mar 19, 2018 05:21
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Perhaps this will be the run where you max out the tech tree (or come close to it).
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Mar 19, 2018 05:47
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Does the AI ever make a mid/late-game attempt at Orion, or do they just ignore it once it's "found" by them?
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Mar 19, 2018 12:52
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Late game only insofar as I’ve seen. I have seen the AI go after Orion once or twice but by the time they hit it it’s way too late for it to matter.
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Mar 19, 2018 16:48
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Pretty much that. Possible, but rare -- I've read that's due to the way AI vs. AI battles are done, essentially making it too easy for rival empires to take Orion so they wait too long instead.
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Mar 20, 2018 02:40
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Thotimx posted:My mind didn't go to Rob Schneider -- I went to the 'This is Fine' meme, Something like this?   Still following this with rapt attention! It's wild how much one simple roll of the dice (whirr of unfeeling RNG code?) can change a game: I finished my run and it was definitely a rough endgame, but not too far out of the norm besides the awful start. And I think that goes all the way back to the Alkari war, where I managed to get the Meklar to attack the Bulrathi instead of my new colony and had room to expand (and thus absorb the Mrrshan and later most of the Silicoids), and it could just as easily have not worked. That was the spoiler I mentioned in the first post, by the way: despite how dire it looked on the charts, the gaps in those two races' tech trees made them paper tigers, at least at that stage of the game (obviously in the endgame the AIs will have something to make your life miserable). Vis a vis Orion, I'd heard from the code monkeys that AIs will never go after it unless they do so accidentally (like to crush a space pirate event based there or something). And the reason is exactly that, that you'd never have a chance if they did because the Guardian auto-calcs as one ship (admittedly a hellacious one, but still) so it wouldn't be fair. Anecdotally I've never seen it happen over a few dozen games. You might be thinking of MOO2, where they consistently attack it as soon as they have near-guaranteed odds of success via auto-calc, which from my experience is around turn 250 on Impossible / Standard / Medium. So the AI almost always wins when they send a fleet after a space monster or the Guardian, but sometimes they lose their entire fleet in the process, which can be great if you're in the neighborhood with a colony ship! GuavaMoment posted:In all seriousness, he just has to hold on a little bit longer to go full Guava. There are a few key techs needed, but this is totally a point where you need to consider either that, or an Orion play. The only catch is I think he's past Bio-Terminators in the tree, and the AIs have Universal Antidote, so everybody's immune to bioweapons.
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Mar 20, 2018 18:08
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