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Silicoids also really like their biological warfare. Unless that doesn't give a diplomacy hit when the AI does it?
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Sep 15, 2018 17:06
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That's another good reason -- they do get the hit. The first game of the LP they were the main rival, ticked everyone off by using bioweapons, and then the Council sided with me.
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Sep 16, 2018 13:03
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Episode XVII: 2375 - The few Silicoid systems we've seen have been the usual 'meh' fare in terms of size for the most part. They're off to a good but not overwhelming start, which is about how I'd like them.  They're still allied with the Alkari. I recently boosted our spying efforts because they started catching more of them. I actually had a couple years where I had to take espionage off because we had no spies in, which is totally unacceptable. I think I'll keep spending about here for a while and see what happens. I'd like to have a few active ones if I can without breaking the bank.  The rocks are expanding away from us mostly it seems now. Also noteworthy is it doesn't look like that yellow star basically directly below us is a homeworld. There could be opportunities out that way if we can handle the range in time. Which would mean stealing it, really. I expect to add Gorra and Galos soon, and Tundra is entering prototype right now so we'll get that and another couple systems. That would put us at 13. Having the Silicoids next to us means we can't steal hostile landings from anybody yet, which isn't good. A core of five systems is now more or less fully-developed, so steady research should be a permanent thing and we can start building bases and whatnot, but I'm still nervous about being able to get enough systems here.  That's a blow to moving further along the top.  Clearly a big moment here for us.  Hiya back. Ruthless Ecologist is a rare type of bug. No current alliances. For now we match the spying investment, meaning 8% of production is now going there. It's one of those things where we're screwed if it doesn't work, but it's our best chance. 275BC trade deal is signed to keep the peace.  They have a dozen systems, and appear to be curling around our upper flank. Fairly boxed-in though at this point. Having two sizable foes means the galaxy may be fairly evenly divided. We can hope. Clearly our scouting work is basically done at the top here. Several recons are dispatched on the long journey towards the lower-right quadrant, where we'll be increasingly pivoting to soon. The Klackon fleet, tech, and economy are all much better than either ours or the Silicoids, as one might expect.  Played ring around the rosy for years with the Alkari, to discover there was nothing here. Super-great.  Tundra arrives a bit late, but it eventually gets here. We've found no Toxics, but there are a couple or so Infernos scattered about so this is an easy choice. It's also time to diversify research. The only hostile environment we haven't had a shot at is dead. I hope we aren't using up all our good luck, because I want Radiated bad.  This is extreme of course, but I'm still counting on us being able to steal enough to make up the other categories.  That's definitely worth having.  This seemed an appropriate time to start building missile bases on those systems that were developed and not working on Colonizers. The Silicoids encouraged me in that direction -- they've got a destroyer and a colony ship headed to Gorra, so I don't know if we're going to keep it or not.  Our first theft from the Klackons in 2382, and it could hardly have been a better one.  They weren't happy about it though. Relations dropped to Restless and I have no useful way to bribe them at the moment. I decide to back off and just maintain the spies we have until we can normalize relations again. They've allied with the Silicoids and I don't think I can afford to have a war with them right now. Really walking a tightrope here. The rocks have moved their ships on -- I think they are headed for that jungle system, and if so they'll get there well before we do.   Both Tundras are settled in 2385. That brings our total to 13 systems. 14 for the Silicoids, the Klackons are still at a dozen. So we're even with them in territory for now.  Anything we can do to keep them happy. This exactly doubles our initial agreement.   Bungling? I think they've been reasonably successful, actually. But ok. They're down to Wary, and we'll back off there for the time being as well. They've researched three computing techs, and we've stolen two of them.  I surmise from this that the Humans are off to a bad start. It may well be that our top rivals are those we've already met.  Deep Space Scanner comes in, and because of the things we've stolen we basically skip a tier here. Battle Computer IV is the next thing we probably steal from the Silicoids, so I'm definitely going with Improved Space Scanner here.  It appears that the Silicoids bypassed Jinga, the jungle planet at this red system. They were vectoring towards it, but I think they kept going to the purple star above and to the right. So we've got an extended-range colonizer en route. Fingers crossed.  A few years after relations returned to Unease and I resumed espionage, this comes in. Construction was the only available field, so I must have gotten a low roll with the infiltration. I don't think we got caught, because they have nothing to say -- until I look at relations, which are down to Tense. Sigh ... back to hiding you all go. I was researching this, and Industrial Tech 8 is the only choice.  Hand Lasers come in the natural way the same year. I don't think we'll use either anytime soon, so of the two next-tier options I go cheap with the Fusion Bomb. I'm hoping for a missile soon.  Everything but Computing was available. We needed range for our pivot to exploring the lower-right quadrant, and this will do nicely. Same warning from the rocks as before, and they're all the way down to Troubled. Well then. Looks like we're done spying for a while. We throw them the Deep Space Scanner plans, and it causes a slight upgrade to Restless. The Klackons are interested in more of our stuff -- we hand over Tundra(they already have Toxic) and the ECM we stole from their allies ... and then start spying on them again. This gameplay loop is really quite hilarious. Bribe them with stuff we stole from somebody else, so they will put up with us stealing more stuff from them, which will then be used to bribe their ally, Lather.Rinse.Repeat.  .... as a bribe, after stealing it from your ally. Don't forget that part. This they say when we ask for a boost in trade(275 to 575 BC).  We have found homo sapiens. Sol in fact. That is a homeworld ... so what on earth(pun intended) has humanity been up to all this time? Why have we not seen them before, if they are that close?? Jinga joins the empire as well, which is quite nice. The Silicoids did take that purple system, Rotan, and can use it as a base to clean out some of other hostile systems in the upper-right corner(two tiny inferno, one radiated rich). They haven't done so yet, but it's a constant concern.  2398. This is a big success for us, both in framing and in moving computing forwards.  We run into another human colony in that band across dark space, but this one isn't taken so an 'end run' around their territory might just still be possible.  Another Dead. That means our current colonizers are paper-weights. It's time to start shifting more resources into planetology and get Inferno ASAP. Right now, it would give us up to four more systems. None of them are good ones, but it's still territory to extend our range and grow eventually.  We'll go with the cheaper PDS here.  This ends the opening century of play, putting us at 15 systems. Nearly useless on it's own, it brings Yarrow just within normal ship range.
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Sep 18, 2018 07:57
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Nice expansion so far and nice managing to maintain stable relations. You're doing well as the Darloks!
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Sep 18, 2018 08:21
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That espionage-bribe cycle is hilarious. And I suppose you can continue it with the humans too once you get into contact with them!
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Sep 18, 2018 18:53
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Decoy Badger posted:I suppose you can continue it with the humans too once you get into contact with them! The more the merrier!
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Sep 20, 2018 20:47
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Episode XVII: 2400 -  Planets and population are pretty even. Naturally the Klackons have an economic edge, which they've turned into big tech and fleet leads.  I expect to be able to resume espionage against the Silicoids here soon. It continues to be a balancing act, trying to stay in their good graces in between taking their stuff.  The Silicoids lead with 17 planets, we have 15, 13 for the Klackons. A little math leads to the conclusion that we are the dominant powers right now most likely. Alkari and Bulrathi would appear to be on the bottom center/bottom left areas. The Council has not convened, which it will do when 72 system have been colonized. The three of us have 45, which means 27 to divide between the other three races. It's unlikely any of them have more than about a dozen I'd say. So at worst, we're in the game here. I also think it's about time to think more long-term.  We have everything they do in computing, and the Human alliance is of little concern. I'd like their engines to get around faster, and also their terraforming advances. If we have the chance, those are what I'd go for next. I think our odds of being able to rob the rocks blind long-term are quite good.  The bugs are another matter. Their computer tech is getting away from us which is making things harder and harder. Additionally, I think they are the biggest long-term threat. Their production edge will fade as time goes by, but it won't completely go away; they have more staying power than the Silicoids do. Also, since they are Ruthless and presently diplomatically isolated, they will go on the warpath sooner rather than later most likely. I'd rather be the right hand of the devil than be in their path. I decide to cease all espionage against the Klackons until and unless we end up in war with them. The goal is to prevent that, eventually bribing my way into being their ally if possible. Their enemies will become our enemies, and we'll aim to expand more than they do through war and eventually turn on them, assuming we don't luck out and get a Council victory somewhere in there.  After handing over a trio of low-level techs that won't help them much, they agree to this. Relations are up to Relaxed. We'll need a lot more to get them to agree to an alliance, but it's a good start. On the Silicoid side, the only thing they're interested in are Robotic Controls III, which I'm not willing to give them.  I've drained much of the funding into pursuing Inferno landings recently as mentioned. As soon as we get that, a new set of colonizers will go out ... and we'll see if Radiated landings are in our future. Getting defenses up is going to be more and more important as well. We haven't needed them yet, but it may not be long until we do. The whole of the empire has just six missile bases operational, which is a bad joke that needs attention. Right now my goal is to spend 12% on them, until we find out about planetary shields. That means we can afford about 10x our current number. Research will remain the primary priority though, at least until our planetology push is over. Economically trade is still a significant drag and has been since we made contact with the Silicoids. Most systems are still developing their industry, so we haven't reached the tipping point of really being able to heavily invest in much of anything else yet.  Took us over a century to see our first Bulrathi vessels. We've seen everyone else. Looks like they are headed for Rha, but my guess is they just leave once they find out it's occupied, given how far from wherever home is for them they are.  This is where they are coming from. Not as far away as I thought. Looks like our hopes of getting to the bottom of the galaxy will not be realized in all likelihood. This is Seidon, a relatively recent addition to their empire. Basically it looks like the Bears expanded to the right from wherever before we could expand downwards.  Grrr. I wanted the engines; this doesn't help us. Ahh well.  They word their warning slightly differently this time. I still say they're all talk.  Eureka!! We want all the new things. Inferno shows up in 2407. We want Radiated landings the most though, and will crash-research that. Soil Enrichment and our first Terraforming upgrade as well ... although those will take longer without the extra funding. But yeah, Inferno is in and we have colonizers to build, while R&D keeps right on going. With this, we could eventually add up to another seven systems from presently scouted possibilities. Five out of six hostile landings. I think that's making up for our bad propulsion luck. The Klackons have Terraforming +40 so either they are waiting to research Radiated ... or they don't have it in their tree, more likely. Of course that just means their economy is going to grow more, but it also means the Silicoids are the only ones who can beat us to those rich radiated worlds ...  An interesting little test of game mechanics here, as the Bulrathi don't leave Rha -- they're coming with 20M troops. We'll have more people than that by the time they arrive, but we won't be able to hold them off. However, colonizers - using the range Rha provides - are already headed to the Dead worlds beyond them.  Clearly the Alkari are more numerous than I thought. This is a good time to vote; it's 2411, so we've got some time to make any maneuvers that might be deemed necessary. ** Bulrathi(7) -- Farseer ** Humans(2) -- Abstain. Looks like they probably just have Sol and Trax, or maybe one more system. ** Alkari(11) ** Klackons(14) ** Silicoids(10) -- Abstain It's 18-14 in favor of Farseer narrowly. We have 10, not enough to put anyone over the top. It does look like a pretty balanced galaxy; the Bulrathi are behind but not badly so. Only the Humans are a dumpster fire. I vote for Kaxal. It's a double-edged sword to so clearly declare my loyalties. It appears to be shaping up as Darlok/Klackon vs. Alkari/Bulrathi, with the Silicoids as the wild card. There could be interesting times ahead. Our Klackon relations boost to Calm. That's not enough for a credible alliance proposal yet, but it's a good bump. I also discover that the Silicoids are allies with the Bulrathi. So you might as well add them, at least for now, to the opposing side of things.  Crap. We lost the crown jewel of the Radiated worlds. It's not at all a shock ... just ran out of time here.  Same year. It's ... well, it's something.  Industrial Tech 8 arrives. I'm willing to pay more here to get the waste reduction.  Way to screw up my entire plan there, MOO.  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Espionage back on. They are allied with the Silicoids now for whatever reason, so we can expect them to join in soon also. This is exactly what I didn't need. It's not like we need any help having the galaxy hate us ... though this type of assassination plot is a very Darlok move. I just wish they'd been better about it.  Here's what I think of your little alliance ... success the very next year! Meanwhile the Klackons blow up both missile bases on Endoria, also the same year. And so the wheel turns.  As expected, we lose this battle in 2415. They have slightly better tech, and are Bulrathi. We take out 6M of theirs, while our 27M are annihilated. We actually deserved slightly better results than that, but the result was a foregone conclusion.  An AI would immediately declare war after such an affront, but I do not since I'm not a complete moron.  10 systems for them now. They are a bit behind the curve, but credible. Looks like Alkari in the lower-left will be the one we don't meet for a while. They are very typically Aggressive Ecologists, allied with the Humans and Silicoids. We get an immediate big trade deal(850 BC) and get spies going right away. Our trade deal with the rocks is boosted to the same amount and we are set to start stealing from then again as well. That'll take a sizable chunk out of our budget, but we need another race to spy on. Overall they seem a good target; a little more advanced that the Silicoids, but not as much as the Klackons. 2416: More Klackon sabotage, and we get Inertial Stabilizer. Dotomite Crystals(Range 7) is up next as we have now missed out on the first two engines.  This will basically replace Rha, only without the whole Ultra-Poor thing.  Honorable Diplomats, as usual. We can only get a 200 BC trade deal with them due to their wimpiness. I'll still put the espionage effort in, until such time as they don't have anything useful for us to steal. They are still rated as being slightly more advanced than we are. Research levels for us are now down to just 60% of what they were before we met the Bulrathi and got into all the extra trade and spying. It's not as if there's much of a choice in the matter though.  Continuing to work our way through the cheap second-tier techs. It's Scatter Pack V rockets or Ion Rifle next. We'll take the scatter pack, being a bit cheaper and in dire need of a better missile for our bases.  We go back to computing since the Silicoids researched this. Bulrathi seem an obvious framing choice, stronger and an ally of the rocks. We really are a race of royal bastards, truly. And the alliance is no more, at least partly because of our asshattery.  I've always considered this a key early tech. We'll go for the Advanced one next; we're 3-for-3 on those but have to see a single Robotics advance in our tree. The other choice was upgrading our ECM or Battle Computer VI, and since we just got V neither of those were compelling.  Oh, for some terraforming tech so we could make these systems not suck so comprehensively.  The bugs are getting antsy, launching a large, long-range invasion of this Silicoid system. At least they aren't attacking us - that's proven to be another fake war so far. Things could be blowing up a bit early here once more.  The Silicoids strike again. Two other races have Toxic, but nobody else has radiated landings yet. We do, but just can't get it researched fast enough. I could have done it somewhat faster, but I would have had to sacrifice other things ... in the last few decades we are picking up the crap systems and they're getting the good ones. We will definitely pay a price for that.  Finally! A faster engine.  And our latest addition, as we stay solidly in second place when it comes to planet count. I notice that the Klackons have allied with the Bulrathi ... who have allied with the Alkari and Silicoids as well. That could be trouble. I need to try to get out of this bug war.  It takes this bribe, along with Fusion Bomb, Improved Space Scanner, and Irridium Fuel Cells to make them agree. Thankfully we had about 2.7k in the reserve, so it's not a huge loss for us. I only had one tech left on the list to give them. But it's enough to avoid the threat of war with most of the galaxy, so it's a bargain at any price. The diplomat leaves before I have a chance to offer a trade deal, so I hope this holds. Espionage is turned off with them again. I also ink a NAP with the Humans, just for the fun of it. We've got a Bulrathi fleet incoming to Bootis as well. Looks like they're going to take that one away from us.  Another hit on the Silicoids, and it's a very nice one. Those hideous Inferno systems will now be only a quarter as pathetic. Tao will climb to 180M, Arietis to 80M ultra-rich. Again the Bulrathi are the choice here. I delay this for a bit on most planets, because we're almost to our next big goal. The Klackons refuse a trade deal; 'why should we trust you now, when you've broken so many past treaties?'. It's clear that our ambassador's failed coup is not something they are going to forget.  As the Council prepares to convene. I was waiting to go for this until we got the ability to put Inferno landings and reserve tanks on a cruiser hull ... which happened two years ago with the terraforming theft. And then I noticed the bears were already coming. This was our only shot left at breaking out towards the middle/left of the galaxy. We are now cut off.  A 25% reduction of our current 8 BC price. And we researched the PDS, thrilled to get Class V Planetary as the next option. And ...  It was a busy year. Finally the Council did convene, with Kaxal and Farseer nominated again. The galaxy is +4 to 58 votes here. ** Bulrathi(7) -- Farseer ** Humans(2) -- Farseer. I'm detecting a pattern here. ** Alkari(12) ** Klackons(14) ** Silicoids(12) -- Kaxal. They abstained last time. 11 for us, +1 from before. That puts us fourth overall but not far behind. Kaxal leads 26-21 so we could vote for either party ... I support the bugs again. I think Klackons/Silicoids, if it holds, will be the stronger pairing. And it's definitely the one most dangerous to us being our closest neighbors. We owe them anyway after that whole business with the ambassador.  ROFL. Actually it's a vote for self-preservation and later backstabbing. You don't want peace and stability any more than we do.
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Sep 20, 2018 20:47
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The squeeze is on. Can the Darloks get powerful enough to survive before their allies inevitably betray them?
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Sep 20, 2018 22:38
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i really wish the AI wouldn’t cheat on security rolls in Impossible because that alone would take the Darloks from one of the weakest races for a player to pick to a fairly strong one
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Sep 20, 2018 23:56
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For some reason the "without sanction" part of the assassination event always gets to me, like it's a galaxy where it's entirely plausible that the diplomat would be sanctioned to go duel the enemy emperor.
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Sep 21, 2018 01:14
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PurpleXVI posted:For some reason the "without sanction" part of the assassination event always gets to me, like it's a galaxy where it's entirely plausible that the diplomat would be sanctioned to go duel the enemy emperor. I could believe it for the Bulrathis or the Mrrshan, really.
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Sep 21, 2018 05:40
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ManxomeBromide posted:I could believe it for the Bulrathis or the Mrrshan, really. Thank you. I am now convinced that all diplomatic meetings between the two species start like that memetic scene from Castlevania, where the Ambassador is Richter(?) and the Emperor is Dracula.
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Sep 21, 2018 13:05
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berryjon posted:Thank you. I am now convinced that all diplomatic meetings between the two species start like that memetic scene from Castlevania, where the Ambassador is Richter(?) and the Emperor is Dracula. WHAT IS A...er...man?...woman?.......cat? Throw me a bone here please.
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Sep 21, 2018 14:44
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Kurieg posted:WHAT IS A...er...man?...woman?.......cat? Throw me a bone here please. A miserable little pile of hairballs.
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Sep 21, 2018 15:39
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ManxomeBromide posted:I could believe it for the Bulrathis or the Mrrshan, really. Or for the Darloks: "Our bad. That was an unauthorized assassination attempt."
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Sep 21, 2018 16:01
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ulmont posted:A miserable little pile of hairballs. But enough talk. Have at mew!
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Sep 21, 2018 16:53
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PurpleXVI posted:For some reason the "without sanction" part of the assassination event always gets to me, like it's a galaxy where it's entirely plausible that the diplomat would be sanctioned to go duel the enemy emperor. I never thought about it that way, but you're absolutely right - the Orion Galaxy ain't the nicest place there is. berryjon posted:I am now convinced that all diplomatic meetings between the two species start like that memetic scene from Castlevania, where the Ambassador is Richter(?) and the Emperor is Dracula. Legit.
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Sep 23, 2018 21:14
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Episode XVII: 2425 -  We continue to look at a 5-way tussle here(minus the Humans, but plus the clearly strong Alkaris who we haven't met). In general that usually bodes well. There are no runaways in this game. Our technology is better than it usually is thanks to the rampant espionage. These days I'm usually trying to steal from an average of three empires any given year. We've surpassed the lowly Humans, and only the Klackons are really far beyond us. Right now they and the Bulrathi both have Robotics IV so it'd be nice if the bears happened to 'misplace' those blueprints.  We haven't been caught in a while, so things are actually looking relatively rosy here. After this shot, due to the boost to Amiable from our Council vote supporting them, the Klackons ... were nicer about rejecting our trade offer; 'we respectfully decline' and withdrew their ambassador. Sigh.  Couldn't resist the chance to get this earlier than we would have on our own. Cost Battle Computer V, which we stole from ... someone. Don't remember who. We'll move forward now with the always-useful Repulsor Beam, at the cost of our deflector tech still being terrible(class II). I need to upgrade that as soon as we can.  Inertial Stabilizer was the price for this.  And Inferno landings here. I don't want to do a ton of trading in this game, but each of these fills a hole for us. Esp. the planetary shields. We gave the Bulrathi a massive leap forward in battle computers but aside from that I don't think we helped the others much.  The purple star in the upper-right is Maretta, the only remaining option for us. It looks like the Bulrathi take Bootis from us, and we get that one when Radiated comes in shortly. It's not as good as Regulus, but it's still another rich system. Only reason it's still there I think is that it's out of Silicoid range. Assuming that's how things shake out, the planet distribution will read like this: ** Silicoid - 22 ** Darlok - 18 ** Klackon - 15 ** Bulrathi - 14 ** Human - 2 Alkari would seem to be in the 15-20 range, probably closer to the top end of that. I wanted to be in the low 20s, so while we didn't quite make it we're a serious player. I don't see any easy wars presenting themselves. Right now it looks like the Bulrathi are the most diplomatically isolated, but they've got good missile tech and shields, which combined with their natural strength would make them a tough one to crack. Doable, but I'm really hoping that a Spoils of War situation presents itself. Either way, I'll be looking at getting some kind of decent ship weapon and building up a fleet before too long. Not quite time for that yet though. It also looks like this may well be a game where going for Orion at the proper time could shift the momentum. Right now: ** Finish Radiated Landings ** Colonize Maretta ** Terraform ** Use reserve funding from the rich systems to boost research until we're ready to shipbuild. ** Continue stealing every last tech we can get our hands on. And one more thing ...  Base-building has a decent start, but we have a long way to go there as well. And of course the shields need to go up before that can happen.  The next year. Onwards!  Since we stole 30M terraforming it seems clearly best to bypass that. Soil Enrichment, then Atmos. Really nice to get that combo here. Over the course of this century we should be able to see an explosion in our total Council votes and economy.  There's still some things we can take from these guys.  Same year from the space rocks. This is getting fun! Also, it does upgrade our bases from the starting nuclear missiles a bit.  Chased the Silicoids away when we arrived ... they had a destroyer but still ran. I don't know how long it'll take, but I'm sure they are coming ... and I'd like to beat them. I think our chances of doing it are fairly remote, but I transfer extra funds to get the closest decent planet, which is Fantasia, to pump out a ship to come here in two years. It's worth the effort to try - but the very next year the effort is abandoned as a Bulrathi group is spotted on approach. They are rising to join the fray as a full equal among the Five. Silicoids caught us stealing the missiles so we have to take another 'operational pause'.  I'm going to keep asking until you say yes. You might as well just give in.  In 2430, with the Bulrathi invasion force a year away from Bootis, we made what is our final piece of the colonization push. It's now officially the start of the mid-game. We are now dividing our resources between research, building planetary shields, and enough factories to keep up the population growth after terraforming. This has brought the problem of waste to the front again, as we're really behind where I'd like to be there and it's becoming a significant drain. We got Improved Eco but nothing since, though the construction geeks are working on reducing waste levels to 60%. This is also one of those times when having a reserve really helps. The few growing systems left can still get their full aid from the reserve system, because I had enough stored up for that. It's not convenient to dump any more in right now because even the rich systems have to re-max.  The 'trade' is now complete. I stopped building factories when I saw them coming, so they wouldn't gain much, and just threw what little the colony was producing into research.  We have three ECM techs, the worst three, and all taken this way. I wanted robotics from the Bulrathi, but that's not the way it worked out. They threw us the usual warning about our bungling efforts, but only dropped to Wary; nothing a Deep Space Scanner couldn't fix. Also: literally all five other races in the galaxy are connected by Alliance right now. Those things have come and gone quite easily this game, but it's still a dangerous situation. Arietis completes it's shield in 2433; the others will start coming in soon. A couple years later we get up to even in trade for the first time, as the economy drags itself upwards step by step.  Our second robotics advance, like the ECM all achieved in underhanded fashion. Just as the economy was getting close to a peak, the bar is raised higher.  Same year. It probably won't be relevant by the time we start building ships, but it's better than anything we have to put on them right now. Bad year to be Bulrathi; we stole something from them and blamed it on their birds so they don't even know we did it, while framing them for another theft they had no part in ... in related news, they are back to be isolated diplomatically. The master puppeteer behind the curtain has struck again. Going for trade with the Klackons ... 'your offer does not seem fair to us.'  They must have just gotten this, because a couple years ago we had all their computer techs. Saves us the trouble of doing the work ourselves, which was progressing slowly. Our next computing project will be Battle Computer MK VII. Let the record reflect that this is the third Robotics advance(V is in that tier) in a row that we did not get. In other words, if we weren't robbing the galaxy blind we'd be so very, very screwed. 23 systems are remotely scouted. One is a small, remote rich inferno out of our range -- which naturally has a Silicoid colony ship incoming.  The Humans only have two things left for us to steal. Before long we may be able to save some money and only periodically do espionage against them. 2443: I decide to bribe the Klackons with something crappy; Industrial Tech 7, which I just stole. They still refuse our trade deal.  Our second engine tech advance ... both acquired in the same manner.  Been a while since we took something from the Silicoids, and it wasn't much.  I wanted reduced waste, but ok. Alkaris blamed of course.  Worth noting to see how the Alkaris are doing. We surpassed some of the others for a while, but they decided to match our economic boost. We're not as far behind as this would indicate.  Now we're in business! Ecology spending will take a big hit here, down to what I would consider reasonable or a bit better levels for this point in the game.  This is phrased a bit differently than the others - quite reasonably. This time they seem more serious, and relations are reduced to Tense. Battle Computer MK III and Nuclear Engines should ease the pain. Although I didn't realize they were still using Retros. Whatever. I want to keep spying, so it's still worth it. Trade deals with the Silicoid and Bulrathi are boosted to 1850 BC. If we lose those down the road, both sides will really feel it. And the trade balance goes down to just over -500 annually. Ah well.  Not at all worth it. The current one is 200.  Haven't seen these much in this LP. In 2449, we also get Dotomite Crystals(Range 7) as a wave of research is coming in. Energy Pulsar and the Fusion Beam are next. The latter is fairly expensive, but it looks like it'll be the backbone of our first serious fleet the way things are shaking out.  I thought about another tech bribe, but I didn't want to give up anything they wanted. Same nominees for the council this time, but in opposite order; Farseer the Unseen of the Alkaris has surpassed Kaxal. The galaxy exploded that last cycle, with 79 votes now(+21!). ** Bulrathi(11) - Farseer ** Humans(2) - Farseer ** Alkari(17, +5) - Wow. This has to be the strongest Alkari empire we've faced. Although we haven't actually faced them yet ... ** Klackons(17, +3) ** Silicoid(16, +6) - Farseer 46-17 in favor of the popular Alkari. It looks like I've been backing the wrong horse. We have 16(+5), and you can see it's one heck of a four-way race. We'll abstain here and let this play out, see what happens. That could put us at war with the Klackons before too long, as we have no agreements with them -- but if I keep opposing the Alkari and they do end up being the one everyone sides with, we'll be in real trouble. The shadowy Darlok are the only abstention, and Farseer comes up seven votes short. A little too close for comfort, but as long as the major powers remain balanced like this it's going to be hard for anyone to win.
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Sep 24, 2018 05:25
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It would be a heartbreaker if you get a council vote loss after all those beautiful planets at the start.
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Sep 24, 2018 05:55
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and all of the hilarious fun with espionage. I love the darlok spy’s eyes when you steal stuff, he just does a sinister squint and he looks so ridiculously hammy I can’t help but laugh every time
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Sep 24, 2018 09:42
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I'm beginning to wonder if you've researched or stole more stuff over the course of this game.
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Sep 25, 2018 01:36
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This has been a surprisingly good game as the Darloks. espionage properly handled is keeping you going very well
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Sep 26, 2018 03:05
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Dong Quixote posted:It would be a heartbreaker if you get a council vote loss after all those beautiful planets at the start. I don't think it'll happen, but it's my biggest concern at the moment -- what happens when we get to the point of being nominated … berryjon posted:I'm beginning to wonder if you've researched or stole more stuff over the course of this game. I'm pretty sure it's stolen, at least in terms of raw number of advances. Not everything I've stolen has been useful beyond raising the TL very marginally(less than 1 level in some cases), so it's more even in terms of actually useful stuff.
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Sep 26, 2018 04:15
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I've always felt like the Darloks are underrated. I dont think they're top tier by any means, but I feel like they're more low-middle than worst. And even stronger if you happen to get psilons or klackons that tend to advance quickly, you can ride their coat tails. Definitely requires a unique play style. I hope you get a chance to play around with regime change via inciting rebellions.
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Sep 26, 2018 04:51
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MillennialVulcan posted:I've always felt like the Darloks are underrated. I dont think they're top tier by any means, but I feel like they're more low-middle than worst. And even stronger if you happen to get psilons or klackons that tend to advance quickly, you can ride their coat tails. Definitely requires a unique play style. Oh dang I forgot to ask my question related to this. Are the Darloks playing any better than you expected so far?
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Sep 26, 2018 05:12
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MillennialVulcan posted:I've always felt like the Darloks are underrated. I dont think they're top tier by any means, but I feel like they're more low-middle than worst. Ditto, I was arguing about the same when we started getting to the bottom of the barrel.  I think the main criticism against the Darloks is the unfavorable diplo; if you go into the game expecting to win (which at some point you do in MOO1 Impossible unless you get a really unfair map) then only unexpected RNG can really sink you, and getting into unwanted wars is a lot more likely than with the other races. Otherwise, Computers is a great field to be Good at and getting a 20 number bonus on an RNG 100 numbers long is very strong. Speaking of....Coolguye posted:i really wish the AI wouldn’t cheat on security rolls in Impossible Can you elaborate on that? Unless you mean the Security slider, in which case that's probably not so bad; an Impossible AI losing 20% of its GDP to make your spy attempts more frustrating is probably better than them pumping it into even more missile bases. 
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Sep 26, 2018 05:34
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Wayne posted:Can you elaborate on that? Unless you mean the Security slider, in which case that's probably not so bad; an Impossible AI losing 20% of its GDP to make your spy attempts more frustrating is probably better than them pumping it into even more missile bases. they outright get security bonuses for free on impossible (+10 or +15, i forget which)
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Sep 26, 2018 07:26
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MillennialVulcan posted:I've always felt like the Darloks are underrated. I dont think they're top tier by any means, but I feel like they're more low-middle than worst. And even stronger if you happen to get psilons or klackons that tend to advance quickly, you can ride their coat tails. Definitely requires a unique play style. They have two glaring issues. The first is that due to their lack of economic bonuses, you can often get cut off into a corner with 1-2 species to talk to for most of the game. This means fewer targets to steal from, and fewer targets to rotate through to allow diplomatic penalties to cool off. The second is that stealing will at most get you to parity with an opposing empire. It's useful, it's strong, but it won't get you ahead, just catch you up from behind. Now, stealing does mean that you can focus harder on infrastructure over research, which is nice, but you can't fall behind in computer tech or you can't steal anymore, so you still need to maintain some level of research. Also spying isn't free; it costs diplomacy and credits, so if you don't get lucky you're out some of your pitiful economy and everyone hates you even more than they already do.
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Sep 26, 2018 15:59
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MillenialVulcan posted:I forgot to ask my question related to this. Are the Darloks playing any better than you expected so far? Somewhat so, but it's kind of hard to tell. The good early planets let us get just big enough to be firmly in the hunt faster than we might have otherwhise, and also gave enough money for spying without crippling the economy and before the other races got away from us tech-wise. Klackons still did, but if we'd been even a bit slower with a lesser start than maybe we don't get some of the stuff we got from the Silicoids which would have hurt across the board -- my sense of things is that they are a very double-edged race and I was able to have things come up mostly heads this time instead of tails. I have been somewhat surprised by how successful we've been at stealing stuff though, it's kept us more advanced than usual technologically so there's not as much of a mountain to climb in terms of that.
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Sep 27, 2018 05:27
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I don't recall if it was mentioned previously, but can you tell your spies what technology branches to focus on stealing, or is it just random what technology branches they steal from?
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Sep 27, 2018 12:26
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Randalor posted:I don't recall if it was mentioned previously, but can you tell your spies what technology branches to focus on stealing, or is it just random what technology branches they steal from? You first send spies to just conduct espionage, if they're successful, you then get to choose what technology branch to steal from, but not specific technologies.
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Sep 27, 2018 14:06
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Coolguye posted:they outright get security bonuses for free on impossible (+10 or +15, i forget which)  Didn't know that! Thanks for the heads-up! Heh, that's one thing I've really liked about this thread; all of us with knowledge from different sources putting the pieces together. It'll be fun to see what I don't know about MOO2 too. Randalor posted:I don't recall if it was mentioned previously, but can you tell your spies what technology branches to focus on stealing, or is it just random what technology branches they steal from? How it works is: if your spy successfully infiltrates (rolls high enough to get a steal, and doesn't get busted by the enemy Security roll, which is a separate check), you get a 2nd roll to determine the highest level of a tech you can grab. That determines which fields appear as choices to steal from: if your result is, say, 17, and the only Weapons tech they have but you don't is Fusion Beam (TL 20), then Weapons won't be an option to choose from. If there are multiple valid choices in the same field, it's random which one you get. Thotimx posted:my sense of things is that they are a very double-edged race and I was able to have things come up mostly heads this time instead of tails. Not having too many (any, I don't think?) Ruthless or Xenophobic enemies is really helpful. It's OK to get busted if you have the time and techs to repair relations (we talked about that previously); with those 2 sometimes there's nothing you can do and it's war, and that can be GG if it happens early enough or against the wrong foe (like Meklar with their 500 battleships).
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Sep 27, 2018 14:06
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Klackons are Ruthless, but they're the only one; Bulrathi/Silicoid Aggressive which can be iffy, and Humans are honorable. Biggest thing though on that front would definitely be having no Xenophobes, that one Bulrathi game I had with mostly Xenophobes would be murder on the Darlok approach.
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Sep 28, 2018 18:01
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Episode XVII: 2450 - I am acutely aware at the moment that if I don't win this one, it may take multiple attempts before I get another chance like this. Right now I'd put our odds at about two in three of pulling it off. I'd really like this to be the finale(in terms of Impossible games for this LP).  Our economic expansion did little more than have us keep pace with the others. I find that one of the most frustrating things about this difficulty. 'Oh that's nice -- you added 30M people to all your planets and a third more factories. Good job maintaining the status quo.' Tech comparison is stable or slightly gaining as well, and we did boost our population to being right there with the others. Significant, if small, gains were made in the last quarter-century.  The reduced waste that we'll get next is already obsolete thanks to our spies, but we'll get three other ones soon and some will be more important. Only a modest increase in spending on bases despite having several times as many in service as we did before, again due to the overall growth in the economy. 13 of 18 planets are now shielded though, and a few of our better systems have reached their quota so they won't be building as many bases from here on out. Once the reserve reaches the desired level(it's mostly there now) the transition to building our first fleet elements will commence. Aside from the intractable Klackons who just can't abide their emperor being offed for whatever reason, we're doing well in terms of relations and have reached critical mass where we can confidently bribe our way out of almost any amount of upset due to us stealing techs. I will say I'm quite enjoying the situation given how rough espionage has generally been in this LP. We're unfortunately back in the boat of everyone else being connected by alliance. Right now I've got nothing more concrete aside from keep building up our defenses, keep improving our technology, get a fleet going so that we're ready for whatever transpires. This love-fest is going to break one way or the other, and the best thing we can do is not be a particularly juicy target. I think a particularly long and destructive war is quite possible. I found no tech trades of use; the Silicoids offered Armored Exoskeleton, but I'm not giving up Robotics IV for that.  ** Silicoids - 23(+1) ** Darlok - 18(--) ** Klackon - 16(+1) ** Bulrathi - 16(+2) ** Human - 5(+3) That's not a good trend, but it can't go much further. The others are just snapping up previously-unclaimed systems that we can't get to. There can't be many left with a sizable Alkari empire still out there. Also, the humans prove that those stupid cross-the-galaxy colony ships do occasionally accomplish something.  This is a step forwards though.  Honestly that isn't a particularly large sum at this point.  This is worth noting because of how long it took to happen. It is 2452. Quayal was colonized in 2354. It took nearly a century, what with a couple of robotics boosts, terraforming, population transfers out to other systems, and being a large, poor planet in the first place, for this rock to max out it's industry. None of the original colonists will have lived to see it, assuming roughly normal lifespans. Imagine if it had been ultra-poor ... *shudder*.  Another espionage benefit; we can now just skip zortrium and go straight to Andrium armor. I don't see a good reason not to. By 2455 the reserve is where I want it and it's time to start the fleet buildup. First off, I want a handful of Colonizers out at all times to take advantage of any spoils-of-war situations. Sub-light engines are our best, and basically barely adequate for this kind of situation. Learning from past situations, I'm giving them a few missile launchers to be able to defend themselves if they happen upon a system that just has a destroyer or two or something. Given the size of our borders, we're going to need a half-dozen of these ready at all times. Battle Computer MK VII arrives the next year ... and gives us the opening for Battle Computer Mk VIII. Sigh. After this, the next tier is Robotics VI. Let's see if we finally get one. Spies report that everyone missed on Robotics V ...  That's what I call a long-range invasion ...  First success in almost a decade, and we only had three fields to choose from. It's getting harder.  On the other hand this came in the same time, and the Silicoids were an open book for us.  Don't know what changed, but they finally relent. I gave them that tech a while ago, and they still weren't interested at the time. Trade agreement for a whopping 2k. A Non-Aggression Pact comes along for the ride. Well then ... Shall we commit further espionage? They are still more advanced than us so it's going to be hard, but we shall definitely try.  This will be useful, and will make an appearance in our early combat designs most likely. Class X Planetary Shields will be eagerly gobbled up next. Also, the repulsor was the final tech the Humans possessed that we didn't. No point in investing in further espionage there for the time being.  In 2459, we design our first warship at long last. The Viper has the usual purpose of information-gathering and just getting something out there. For now we'll rely on the Repulsor for protection, along with speed and maneuverability. The heavy version of the Ion Cannon is deployed because we've seen that a couple of our rivals have the repulsor. Only the ultra-rich systems, Beta Ceti and Arietis, will be building these for the time being. Research is still top priority.  One year later. This is the last of this wave of advances, and the most immediately beneficial. Our empire is roughly evenly divided between hostile and standard, and a couple of them are already fertile. Only a handful will actually get a boost here. Atmospheric Terraforming is next, which is the one that will really change things. As it turned out, 10 systems were affected which is more than I thought. The big one of course was Arietis, up now to 95M ultra-rich. Could go either way, but I think we stand a decent chance of being nominated in the next High Council.  Nice -- this one we just missed, so it's a pretty high-level tech at this point in the game. It's also one that can be very useful on larger galaxies where fleets may be going on longer journeys.  Time for everyone to get their dander up. We get a similar statement from the Klackons. Apparently we are just large enough to get this penalty. I thought we'd slip underneath it for now. 2462; let's see how long it takes for actual hostilities to break out.  For whatever reason we're getting a bit more success against the Bulrathi lately.  It's not a lot better, but 10M per system is still almost two more Council votes. Bulrathi caught us taking the Death Spores, so we unloaded some crap to boost their opinion a bit(hand lasers, deuterium fuel cells). From Neutral down to Wary, then up to Unease.  Excellent! This reduces our current factory costs by a third.  Our first success against the Klackons in over a century(weren't trying most of the time of course) boosts our ECM considerably. In diplomatic news, the only active alliance is a Bulrathi-Alkari one, with no wars ... the posturing continues but no real action.  Another needed boost. Looks like we just hit a run of bad luck for a few years, as now the results are coming in fast and furious again. That terminates the only alliance in the galaxy. It would be really nice if we could keep things this way and just pick off whatever empire we feel like fighting, one at a time.  Once again we make our current research obsolete. We were caught, so we gave them Fusion Bomb and Duralloy Armor, both of which are actually better than what they had but still fairly low-level.  2470. The latest computer comes in, and all we can do is go after the next one because we still haven't been able to get any robotics in our own tree. Our last shot, other than stealing it(only the Silicoids have Robotics VI right now, and nobody has V) will come after this as we'll unlock the final tier of Computing tech and take our shot at Robotics VII.  I don't think I'll be using this, just because we'll get the fusion beam in soon. It's between that and the ion cannon we are currently using on our Viper cruisers.  As a visual answer to Randalor's question(answers given in the thread were correct), this is the first step you see when there's a successful steal. I can choose the category but not the specific tech in any way. And as you can see here, Computers is not an option -- that means they don't have anything in that field which fits into the range I can successfully pilfer on this attempt. So I go Construction. Industrial Tech 5, and we frame the Bulrathi.  Well that's not very useful, except to continue working on keeping the others diplomatically isolated.  This had a far-too-long prototype period, and probably is only useful if we have a war with the Alkari, the only race we haven't met. And maybe not even then. It does let us get started on Impulse Drives(Warp 5), which will be a lot more beneficial.  Here are the choices as the Fusion Beam arrives. I cackle gleefully as we get the torpedo option, my favorite all-purpose mid-game weapon. The fusion beam will allow a new and improved design for defensive purposes, and once we get the AM Torp taking a run at Orion is a real possibility. Our new Cobra has only 4 weapons compared to the 6 on the Viper, but with the upgrade from ion to fusion weapons(and a better computer in the remaining space) it should still be quite capable.  A boon for the birds.  Just before the vote. It does extend our range, which I don't really think does much for us but we'll take it.  Welp, our struggle has moved into a new phase now. Not only nominated but #1 in population now!(we know that because we are listed first). ** Bulrathi(12) -- Abstain. We can put aside any fears of losing this vote safely. ** Humans(2) -- Farseer ** Alkari(18) ** Klackons(18) -- Abstain ** Silicoids(18) -- Farseer We have 21 and abstain, leaving us with zero votes :P. 38 for Farseer, out of 89. If we voted for them it would have been one below the line of them winning, so I didn't bother risking it. We are +5 this cycle, and the galaxy is +10 overall. Nobody is close to the 30 votes required for veto. Three races in co-second place and the Bulrathi falling behind that group. The main question now is, what's the best way to win? I definitely see more population boost in our future, partly through tech and partly through Orion. Bribing the Silicoids, Klackons, and Bulrathi onto our side is one way; fighting at least one of them is the other. Normally I go the diplomatic route just because it saves time and isn't as tedious. Both routes would really be 'in-character' for the Darlok, depending on your interpretation of them -- the conniving manipulators, or the ruthless overlords? Since this looks likely to be the final Impossible run, I'll put it up to vote. I'm not ahead on this game, 2475 is the current date of my save so I can go either way on this. Bribery or War, what say you all?
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Sep 28, 2018 20:29
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Bribery! Seems more like the Darlok way.
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Sep 28, 2018 20:38
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Bribery! War only fits if there's some suitably underhanded way to get it about, like biological warfare means or some such.
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Sep 28, 2018 21:08
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Bribery! But pilfer the secrets of Orion first! War only if there's mass sneak attack biological warfare.
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Sep 28, 2018 21:21
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I concur. Bribery is far more the Darlok way than trying to win in a straight-up fight.
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Sep 28, 2018 21:27
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I'm curious: has your success in spying this game changed your view of the Darloks?
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Sep 28, 2018 22:05
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Decoy Badger posted:War only I've been waiting over a year for this, man.
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Sep 29, 2018 00:50
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