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idhrendur posted:In order: Same for me edit: same games, reverse order. New Myth and Homeworld LPs would be rad as hell. Broken Box fucked around with this message at 20:47 on Oct 8, 2018 |
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Oct 8, 2018 18:38
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If you do decide to do Homeworld, please do Remastered. If you do do Classic instead, then be wary of the very low resolution it runs at and how you process your videos. I ran into that problem myself a few times while doing those games all those years ago. Well, four years ago, but you know how it is.
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Oct 8, 2018 18:46
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idhrendur posted:In order: I'd like to see this in reverse order; the "current" Myth LP on the archive is positively ancient, and it's such a great game.
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Oct 8, 2018 19:03
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Adding my vote for Homeworld here.
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Oct 8, 2018 19:06
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Ground Control and Homeworld in that order
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Oct 8, 2018 19:21
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I'd love to see you try out a RTS from the PS1 era called Warzone 2100. You can get it for free because it's open-source now, no need to buy anything!
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Oct 8, 2018 19:50
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Match the Master: Start - 2303 Anyone brave or stupid enough to accept this challenge, download the save here. Uhmm …. good luck?!?  So off we go ... wait what button was that again? Oh yeah, New Game.  Yep, that all looks right.  Klackons. One might ask why not Psilons, who I've said are the strongest race in Master of Orion? Well that is certainly true over the long-term. In a speed challenge such as this though, I think the accelerated growth curve the Klackons can provide will prove superior. Gaining a tech advantage through sheer brute force of economic power should not be difficult. Silicoids would be the one race that would guarantee being able to settle every planet ... but their slow growth caused me to reject them.  Green is our color for some reason.  You've been reading my drivel for 18 months and you don't know what my name is?!?  "Unimatrix 101" wouldn't fit. Blasted ancient-tech char-limiters! Welp, only took six screens to actually start the game. *flex*  A right-side starting location with a seemingly clear path to the centre, though we could be blocked off going upwards or downwards. Psilons and Bulrathi are two of the top three potentially problematic(relatively speaking) rivals; we don't have the Silicoids and in this case I'm not worried about the Humans. At this difficulty an early Council loss would seem prohibitively unlikely, and we'd soldier on and crush them anyway even if it did eventuate. That would just be an annoying delay. Overall this is definitely a strong slate of opponents and on Impossible I'd definitely be concerned. I'm curious to see how much resistance they offer as it's been many moons since I played a non-Impossible game.  One immediate difference; we start with 50M population, 10M more than on Hard/Impossible. This is the default condition, and it will accelerate the early progress. Most races on Impossible will have 51 production and be able to build about 2.5 factories -- we're going to get a much faster start on things.  The starting fleet. We'll deal with getting rid of the un-needed designs a bit later on.  The Borg Empire, such as it is. Collective Data, GY 2300 ** Matrices: 1 ** Operational Drones: 50 Million ** Production: 82 BC ** Fighters: 2 ** Destroyers: 0 ** Cruisers: 1 ** Battleships: 0 50 production from population, 30 from factories, and 2 more apparently from the mysterious void of MOO. Rounding errors cause this kind of thing, and we've seen it on occasion before. Time to get down to business. Often I would allow a bit of waste to build up to get some population growth going in an Impossible game. That's not helpful here, because it will limit population growth; since we begin with the homeworld half-full, we don't have that buffer that you do when having only 40/100. So building up the factories is the only move, along with getting our ships going.  This is in a good direction to extend towards the middle of the galaxy, and favorably is only two parsecs away. That's one closer than you normally get.  This one leads downwards, three parsecs out, and as a red star is unlikely to be as hospitable. Inferior on all counts.  This is too far away, and everything else is at least that distant.  The best choice, at least from the initially available information, is in this case rather obvious.  Definitely want to head here just in case Bad Things(tm) happen to the colony ship.  There are multiple choices here, but I choose to head inwards along our most likely colonization route. And with that, 2300 is in the books. One year down, ?? to go. 2300 Naturally, there is nothing to do the next year but wait longer for our ships to arrive. 2301 So by two years' time in, we have a second system. Which will now need people, uhm colonist, erm I mean drones. It's decent, not great and not terrible. There are a few things that now need doing.  We have 10 systems within range of our two planets, and after taking into account the two scouts, that means we need eight Recons. I forgot to include the green star directly below, which is also just in range.  The very familiar schematics are here.  Our first convoy of five million colonists heads out.  Even without them, we can build the required Recons and still put a bit into industry. 2302 We chose wisely. 'Thrax' is a small, hostile system that we could not have done anything with. Orders must now be given to each of our new Recon ships.    There's already a scout headed here ... but we can get to the next green star in line by having it leave a year before the recon gets to this destination, while still maintaining a picket on all systems. Again, doing the small thing optimally early on pays dividends later.       More drones for Matrix 102.  And the industrial focus resumes. This was our first batch of micro -- there will be more. There will be much, much more. 2303 The first session ends with setup and four years completed. It is 2304, and the Borg are seeking out answers in every direction. The Recon Rush has begun and Matrix 101 is building nearly eight factories a cycle. 2 systems down, 106 to go. Strategic Sage fucked around with this message at 21:51 on Oct 8, 2018 |
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Oct 8, 2018 21:48
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I’d like to propose Imperialism or Imperialism 2, which are retro but with some very forward-thinking UI and an AI that can actually play the game on the strategic and tactical levels. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcmLNhRU61Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIurjc8rDDU Triskelli fucked around with this message at 23:28 on Oct 8, 2018 |
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Oct 8, 2018 23:21
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Triskelli posted:I’d like to propose Imperialism or Imperialism 2, I thought those would come up sooner, to be honest. I've never played them but am intrigued by what I've heard. Poll Results I'm not closing it yet but since a lot of you have held forth and things are slowing down, I thought I'd let you know where things stand. ** Bottom Tier: There's a lot of games I've never played. Quite a few I've never even heard of. I've definitely got some great material to throw into the hopper for future ideas or just stuff to play myself in-between if I want. Most of the suggestions were mentioned once or twice and then didn't get any traction, so I'm pretty much discarding those as contenders at this point. I say 'bottom' only because they got one or two votes only, not because there's anything wrong with the games themselves. ** Second Tier: A few votes, but haven't really distinguished themselves so they're stirring the ashes. Here we've got Alien Legacy, Myth, Master of Magic, MAX, Warlords, and Freespace. Good example of stuff that I mostly hadn't heard of. The ones I had(aside from Freespace), I haven't played. I'm particularly intrigued by Myth - can't figure out why I never knew about that at the time. Most of the others look to be worth the time also. Good variety. ** Third Tier: These still have a real shot at it but are lagging behind. Theme Hospital, Lords of the Realm, and Homeworld. All from my initial list so we needn't say any more about that. ** Top Tier: Two have separated themselves from the pack, with Ground Control presently holding a slight lead over Master of Orion 2. I'm keeping a record of who's voted for what, so if anyone wants to change their vote from something that hasn't caught on, that's fine. Unless something changes though, the top pair have a significant lead so I'd be remiss not to take one of them. I agree with the consensus that it makes the most sense to do MOO2 now on the heels of this LP if I'm going to do it, and people seem to be open to me skewering their sacred cow in the places where I think it's appropriate. Barring a significant change, I would do Master of Orion 2(at considerably less length than the first game, but a few runs), likely followed by Ground Control unless people are sadists and wanted me to do a MOO3 game. In which case I might just tell them to shove it and move on anyway, but I digress.
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Oct 9, 2018 07:44
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IT BEGINS. I'm looking forward to seeing how unbalanced this becomes. As for votes: Ground Control and Homeworld, because I've never really gotten the hang of the entire RTS genre and these are two well-regarded instances of it that are off the beaten path for genre expectations.
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Oct 9, 2018 07:57
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my votes were going to be Lords of the Realm, MOO2, and a Heroes of Might and Magic game 'cause that's my nostalgia. i really want to see lotr broken, i was a dumb kid when i played it i'm going to enjoy your LPs regardless of the choice among all the games mentioned in this thread, thanks for that last one it was a good ride
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Oct 9, 2018 08:40
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Alien Legacy does have the bonus of being a game that has never been LP'd here.
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Oct 9, 2018 08:41
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I'm going to vote for Lords of the Realm, Alien Legacy, MoO2 and Ground Control. Because why not make my vote completely pointless and redundant?
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Oct 9, 2018 11:42
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Well, I voted, but I want to add into the list Ascendancy as one of MoO clones/rivals.
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Oct 9, 2018 12:26
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Having lurked throughout the LP (great job, by the way), my vote goes to Ground Control first, then Homeworld, third place goes to Lords of the Realm.
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Oct 9, 2018 13:07
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I'm just going to throw my votes to Lords of the Realm, as I've never heard of it before, Alien Legacy, since I like the ideas presented in it, and Ascendancy, because while strictly mediocre according to reviews at the time, it has some interesting aspects to it too.
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Oct 9, 2018 13:47
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Thotimx posted:I thought those would come up sooner, to be honest. I've never played them but am intrigued by what I've heard. They’re like $3 each on GoG, definitely give them a swing if you’ve got the downtime.
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Oct 9, 2018 16:13
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Thotimx posted:I'm keeping a record of who's voted for what, so if anyone wants to change their vote from something that hasn't caught on, that's fine. Unless something changes though, the top pair have a significant lead so I'd be remiss not to take one of them. I agree with the consensus that it makes the most sense to do MOO2 now on the heels of this LP if I'm going to do it, and people seem to be open to me skewering their sacred cow in the places where I think it's appropriate. Barring a significant change, I would do Master of Orion 2(at considerably less length than the first game, but a few runs), likely followed by Ground Control unless people are sadists and wanted me to do a MOO3 game. In which case I might just tell them to shove it and move on anyway, but I digress. I'm keeping my top vote for Lords of the Realm but I'll toss in a 2nd place vote for Myth because I really loved that game and its' sequel.
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Oct 9, 2018 18:10
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Match the Master: 2304 - 2311 Matrix 102 still needs more drones for a bit yet. 2304 'Guradas' blocks us off from any chance of another standard system in range. There'll need to be research to get any further, but I don't know what yet until we get more information on the surrounding systems.   Collective Data, GY 2305 ** Matrices - 2(+1) ** Operational Drones - 67 million(+17 million). This includes 3 million in a transport convoy. ** Production - 124 BC(+42 BC) Economic growth of just over 50% in a five-year period is a heck of a thing. The Collective is satisfied. ** Fighters - 10(+8) ** Destroyers - 0(--) ** Cruisers - 0(-1) ** Battleships - 0(--) The Recons cost us a single BC per year to maintain.  Our target population here is 18 million Drones.  3M more are on the way, and figuring in population growth and a two-year travel time ...  I think another 2M should get us to the target. This is the last group. 2305 Still waiting on the Recons to reach their destinations.  Now we've got a couple industrial centers up and running on Matrix 102. Cleaning up the waste at this point is inefficient.  That's better. 0.2 more factories will be produced this year. We're also going to see the maximum size of the planet decrease(probably by 2, since each factory produces about one unit of waste). That's fine, so long as it never goes below double our current population. 2306 'Whynil' is yet another hostile system. This game is turning into a typical anti-Klackon setup; there isn't anywhere to go, at least not yet. That will considerably retard our potential growth curve, and prolong the suffering of the other races.  Our calculations were correct. We hit the target of 18M directly on the nose, and planet size is down to 53. A third factory has been produced, and once again we will let the waste accumulate.  The Recon is now one year away, so our scout can move on. 2307 A big year in terms of scouting. We reach three new systems, two of them habitable. 'Exis', the best of them, is within four parsecs so our first range research will allow us to at least get there. The other is five parsecs distant.  This is probably the last year that we'll be able to get away with ignoring the ecological consequences completely. 6 factories so the size should shrink to 45M, which will be just over twice our population. Each year the planet defaults to cleaning it all up(sensibly), so we must readjust the sliders to devote the effort to industry.  Meanwhile, we're now up to 10 factories per annum at Matrix 101. About one and a third per drone, or two-thirds of full production. It won't be long until we reach that and can divert resources elsewhere. Of course that also means ecology spending is necessarily starting to creep up as well. 2308 Well, that was unexpected. 'Stalaz' looks to be a potentially solid research center. I would have preferred a construction or planetology tech, or some free range, but we've now got our first deflector upgrade without having to pay for it. For those of you doing the challenge, this will be a good opportunity to meta-game, since the tech you get is random. I'm sure with sufficient reloading you could get something much better, if you are so inclined.  This is how much it'll cost to clean everything on Matrix 102. I don't want to do that, but I don't want the size to shrink any further at this point so I need to put some in there. We'll probably get +2 population to 23M next year, exactly half of the current size. Gradually cleaning up more to keep size at double the current population is the best move; keeping population growth at it's zenith while devoting as much production to industry as possible.  A little math reveals that this means taking half of the cleanup efforts, while leaving the other half intact. 2309 Two more systems are scouted, one of which is nothing but debris.  This time we must let a little over half the cleanup efforts remain in place, but can still siphon off a few BC.  Collective Data, GY 2310 ** Matrices - 2(--) ** Operational Drones - 88 million(+21 M) ** Production - 207 BC(+83 BC) Economic growth accelerates even further, population growth is steady. The fleet remains as it was, with no ships built or lost. 2310 'Mobas' was the final system to scout, and there was nothing there.  Very little could be diverted this year, and after this it will be none. 2311 Literally nothing happens other than continued industry-building. Strategic Sage fucked around with this message at 07:59 on Oct 10, 2018 |
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Oct 9, 2018 21:23
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Deathwind posted:Alien Legacy does have the bonus of being a game that has never been LP'd here. I agree. I don't place much difference between that and say something that was done a decade ago and the visual assets are all gone, but compared to something like Homeworld or Myth with multiple archived LPs I'd definitely consider it a decisive tiebreaker and take something new if the vote were to be at all close. That was a big factor in me doing this very LP; it was the only one in the series that was totally unrepresented. As it is now - get in ya'll if you want to change this! - Alien Legacy isn't the top 'no-current-LP' title on the list however. oystertoadfish posted:my votes were going to be Lords of the Realm, MOO2, and a Heroes of Might and Magic game 'cause that's my nostalgia. i really want to see lotr broken, i was a dumb kid when i played it No 'were' necessary, added. Similar for me with Lords of the Realm, difference being that I tried it again several years ago, and was a little stupefied at my inability to complete it back then. Randalor posted:Because why not make my vote completely pointless and redundant? Heh, it's not. Except of course for the fact that you listed four games and I limited it to three, so Ground Control was ignored in your list as the fourth :P
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Oct 9, 2018 21:34
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berryjon posted:If you do decide to do Homeworld, please do Remastered. If you do do Classic instead, then be wary of the very low resolution it runs at and how you process your videos. I ran into that problem myself a few times while doing those games all those years ago. Well, four years ago, but you know how it is. Thanks for the advice. It's probably a moot point now but I did look into this a couple weeks ago. With registry edits you can technically get widescreen resolutions on Classic, though my computer doesn't like them at all and crashes. What I'd settled on is 768p, which is a compromise between the lower resolutions and decent-sized interface and subtitle fonts. Remastered is unquestionably better-looking, but HW1 was not meant to run on the HW2 engine and it never worked properly on it. Stuff like formations didn't work right, etc. Which might be ok for some games, but I wouldn't want to do it for a work of art like Homeworld  .
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Oct 10, 2018 10:31
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Thotimx posted:Barring a significant change, I would do Master of Orion 2(at considerably less length than the first game, but a few runs), What, not going to play every race again? There are 3 more than last time too!  For what it's worth, I wasn't too keen on any of the LPs on the game done previously; Nweis does really thorough prose additions but he plays on Average so victory is never in doubt, and the Silicoid one used one of the most OP trait combos you can pick. Whereas all the stock races have some meaningful tradeoffs or are pushed toward optimizing a gimmick (except the poor Darloks, they're just complete trash in MOO2). As far as this Klackon game, how do you want to handle a video entry? Even if I wait until the same stardate as your updates, it might still have planets you didn't see or stuff like that. Obviously a Huge Conquest game is going to take multiple videos so I was thinking about getting started soon.
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Oct 10, 2018 14:29
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Wayne posted:What, not going to play every race again? There are 3 more than last time too! Yeah but most people do custom races and the number for that is exponentially larger. I know you were joking but there was a point at which I really did think about the every-race thing. Wayne posted:how do you want to handle a video entry? Even if I wait until the same stardate as your updates, it might still have planets you didn't see or stuff like that. Obviously a Huge Conquest game is going to take multiple videos so I was thinking about getting started soon. Do whatever you feel like doing video wise. My only request is that people don't talk in the thread about things I haven't encountered yet in my game.
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Oct 10, 2018 20:42
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Match the Master; 2312 - 2317  Here's an example of how any growing planet needs to be checked annually for optimal play. New production is divided proportionally between the sliders, so there was actually enough extra in ecology that I was able to get one extra segment of it into the industry for this year and boost that a bit more. This can happen later on with changing trade income, etc. as well. 2312  In 2313 we hit the uniquely Klackon 'problem' of factories outpacing population growth. The other races don't produce fast enough for that to happen nearly this quickly. So should I divert resources? Let's look closer.  At this population level, we could see up to 3M new people next year. 2 is most likely, it could also be less, but I want to make sure I have enough factories so that everyone is working at full productivity before I start spending on something else. So if we do get a +3 growth, that would be 76M, requiring 152 factories. Because of rounding, I always add 0.5. 152.5 minus the current 143 is 9.5 new factories to build this year, times the starting of 10 BC per factory is 95 BC to spend, maximum, on industry. Do this math a couple thousand times and you don't even think about it anymore, it just ceases to be more than a quick mental calculation.  After dumping all the industry into research just to see how much production is available(since that's a 1:1 comparison), I find that I can do that and still have some left over. I don't want this much in research though. Now that I have some 'elective BCs' to work with, I want to get the initial research pull done to see what the options are.  The amount used for research is what it is because it takes 12+ in order to fund the discovery of projects for the tech pull. Just need to make sure you get anything above 2 points per field. Exactly 12 doesn't always cut it. That also means I need to head over to the Tech screen for the first time ...  And hit equals for this. They never start out equalized, and I don't want them to stay there but I do for this so that we get the options for all six fields. Otherwhise we'd need to invest more in research and/or miss out on some of them. I also don't want the rest of the effort going to build Recons, but rather getting started on a new Colonizer. Which means I need to deal with the fleet situation.  Can also use the Specs screen for this of course - it's actually easier - but just doing it here because I almost never show this screen.  Bombers, Destroyer, Colony Ship share the same fate and now I've got four open slots. Can't scrap the Scouts of course because I'm still using the two starting ones.  Then it's over to the design screen to get this ready, again making use of the fact that it's cheaper to make a new one than use the overpriced default version.  There we go. Now obviously I'm not going to get anywhere fast with a 17-year production time, but the effort is going into the next ship I'm going to need and every little bit helps. Time to see what tech shows up. 2313 ** Class III Deflectors are available due to us finding the other ones earlier ** Always I like the scanners when I can get them. ** Terraforming +10M is a good quick one ** Reduced Waste is more expensive than the cheaper factories from industrial tech, but has a bigger impact. It'll let me have more production to use on whatever I want. ** Not excited at all about the Gatling Laser being the only weapons pick. ** Good to have both range options, but we only need range 4 right now and it's cheaper, therefore faster.  This happened to work out perfectly. Sometimes it doesn't, but it's better to build more factories than you need, as opposed to leaving some growth on the table so to speak.  Now we're going all-in on propulsion until the range boost shows up. As usual, I want to time this out as evenly as I can with when we finish the first Colonizer.  That means Matrix 101 sees annual adjustments. Always just enough in industry to keep pace with the population, and then at first somewhat more research than shipbuilding(because of the interest you get from previously invested research effort). Gradually I'll tip this over to more shipbuilding. It's a bit of an art getting it right. 2314  Collective Data, GY 2315 ** Matrices - 2 ** Operational Drones - 109 million(+21 M) ** Production - 298 BC(+91 BC) Growth is now starting to slow down, both in terms of population and the economy. The Borg need more space. No ships were built, lost, or for that matter even moved.  It's now time to start sending drones back to the primary Matrix. Matrix 102 is over halfway full. It does not contribute to research yet, which would speed that along but also retard its industrialization. That'll be crucial to getting more Recons out in a timely manner.  Starting to get some significant investment in the Colonizer now. 2315  And more coming ... there'll be several years of this.  Factory-building must account for the incoming population as well as natural growth now. It's a constant dance between the three needs. The research 'light bulb' is about a third filled. 2316   2317 We're close to the prototype stage on the range research, but not quite there yet.
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Oct 11, 2018 06:50
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Wayne posted:I wasn't too keen on any of the LPs on the game done previously; Nweis does really thorough prose additions but he plays on Average so victory is never in doubt, and the Silicoid one used one of the most OP trait combos you can pick. This made me wonder … where's your MOO2 LP?!?  I can hang with you on this game, but there you'd definitely be the master and me the pupil, so if there isn't a sufficient challenge/strategy oriented one out there for you, step it up comrade!
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Oct 11, 2018 06:53
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Match the Master: 2318 - 2322 Almost full.   You can see the waste cleanup efforts sucking more and more out of the economy on almost an annual basis now. That makes it hard to get much done while the factories are still getting built, but we do what we can.  Why am I doing this? Well, there's a third thing that needs timing up with the research range boost and the Colonizer finishing up, and that is getting Recons out to the trio of systems that are 7 parsecs away. They're just out of our range now, but won't be once we get Hydrogen Fuel Cells. The trick is to get the Recons out to to closest in-range system at the same time the research finishes. I'm a year late here I think, maybe two. I almost forgot about this entirely - there's a lot of stuff to juggle and keep in mind. 2318  Nearing the end of this.  12% chance of discovery now. I got a bit too far ahead on the research side of things so I'm swinging it back some.  Back to all industry here with the Recons finished. Still need to send them out ...  For the blue star below its destination.  White star to the right and above.  Blue star in the nebula. Optimally I would have built this earlier and sent it to the red star, but I didn't think that far ahead so now I'm just taking the most direct route. I doubt it'll end up costing me, but not being quite as much on top of this as I could be is my first definite error. 2319  Collective Data, GY 2320 ** Matrices - 2(--) ** Operational Drones - 126 million(+17 M, incl. 2M on transports) ** Production - 364 BC(+66) With Matrix 101 almost maxed, the rate of growth continues to bottom out. ** Fighters - 13(+3) ** Destroyers - 0(--) ** Cruisers - 0(--) ** Battleships - 0(--)  Last one. This will take two years to get there, 94M already in place and 2M more in transports. Depending on how growth goes the next couple of years, this should just about do it. If not we'll maybe be 1M short which will soon grow itself.  20% chance of discovery. Any more research and the ship time would go up to 3 years. 2320  Minimum necessary to finish the Colonizer. With this alone there's a 42% chance of finishing the research. But ...  Here, we're just about to hit enough factories for half of the planet's maximum population. Since I'll be using the drones here to transport out to new colonies, there's no point in going above that number(56 factories for 28M pop) right now; it'd just be wasted production better used for something else. So ...  I can now add some from here to give us a better chance.  Not a big gain, but the odds are nearly 50-50 at 44%. This is one of those points at which you're either going to get lucky or you aren't. If we don't, then we have to spend more on research next turn and lose a year while the Colonizer sucks up extra maintenance funds. There are things you can control, and things you can't. 2321 There it is! It's quite nice as well to get Nuclear Engines on a Huge map, to aid in getting around more quickly. The cheaper Deuterium Fuel Cells was also worth consdering; it'd help us avoid the need for any outsized Colonizers, but we'd also get there slower. Six of one, half-dozen of the other really and there's no way to know just yet which one is better. I'd go with the range on a smaller map, but it just takes so long to get places at this scale and cutting that time in half is not a small thing. Now we have a grand spanking new Colonizer and we can get it somewhere. But where now is the question?  There are two choices. Exis, the jungle system at the red star above us, or Stalaz, the blue star at the lower-left which is smaller but an artifact system. Stalaz really moves us into the heart of the galaxy(though there's some dark space there). Might get us to that arid green star below us as well(Paladia) but that seems questionable at best. Normally I'd go with the bigger planet first, but I think getting the research going from Stalaz is too much to ignore. We're going for both for sure anyway, but it's Stalaz first.  A six-year journey. Now it's time to build some more Recons. Normally we'd want to do it sooner, but I could get away with waiting till now because of Stalaz being closer to Matrix 102 than Matrix 101(aka, travel time's longer there). I'll want enough so that we can head out to any systems which will be in range once we get there. I estimate we'll need, at most 7 of them. Again I'd rather have too many that not enough.  Just barely enough here. It's cool when needs and resources coincide like that. It's also rare.  Two of our three in-transit Recons are close enough that the ship waiting at their system can depart immediately. It's only that one headed left towards the nebula that will need to wait an extra year. Of course, the reason I care about this is that leaving a system unattended for even a single year is tantamount to putting out a welcome mat for the AI.    Nothing in the reserve. That means I basically hit the nail on the head with industry spending. Matrix 101 is now maxed out and just waiting on the last bit of population. If there'd been anything here, and sometimes there are a few BC even if you're careful, I'd transfer it back to get the next Colonizer out a bit faster.  Everything's all-in for the next Colonizer, which will head to Exis. It's right on the borderline between 3-4 years to build this, so it's possible I may, or may not, be able to sneak it out a year earlier than this says. 2322 The opening is over now, and Ye Olde Landgrahbe has begun. The Borg are coming. You will be assimilated.
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Oct 12, 2018 07:27
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Match the Master: 2323 - 2328 We need a new research project, and this is the best choice by far. Terraforming +10 is super-cheap, and will benefit the economy more than reducing waste. It'll also slash the price of the colony base that is more than 60% of the cost of our Colonizers so we can get them out more cheaply, and get us a look at what we'll get in the next tier ... including potentially our first hostile landing techs.  Look at that - dropped from a 4-year timeframe to 2, in one year. Gotta love that math, but we finally got the final drones on-line which is the main reason for this. Most races wouldn't have been able to get that gain, lacking the worker-production boost.  Here, we shift from building those Recons to investing in getting that Terraforming done ASAP.  With its replacement almost here, this recon can head to the nebula now.  There are three destinations for the latest batch of Recons, based on the location of the systems I hope to have them scout. Here's the first.  One out towards the nebula.  And the rest are dispensed to Stalaz. 2323 Now I need to figure Recons for the other direction.  Much as I'd prefer not to slow down the research, it can't be helped. If anything, I'm still lagging a year or so behind when I should be having these out. 2324  Collective Data, GY 2325 ** Matrices - 2(--) ** Operational Drones - 138 million(+12 M) ** Production - 401 BC(+39) Maintenance is higher than it's been in a couple of decades, and growth is only crawling, relatively speaking.  We've got enough ships to picket almost a quarter of the galaxy.  Now a bit of a gamble. Both systems that are habitable and within range have a Colonizer now. Do we build another one right away and hope another system proves hospitable? Or divert resources to research till we're sure? Neither option has a certain outcome, and the whole situation underlines the importance of not having the least delay in spreading our recon network ASAP. My default is to get the ship built so we can send it out if a suitable system is found, and I see no reason to change that.  Back to working on terraforming tech.  This one heads off to the jungle.  Most of the new Recons will arrive a year ahead of it.  A couple will continue on past. 2325 Our first encounter with the Humans, who clearly occupy the upper-right of the galaxy. All three scouted systems are very hostile, which is not welcome news. It is now nearly a guarantee that another standard Colonizer would have nowhere within range to go.  Given that, I divert enough here into research to guarantee completion of our next project this year. We need either more range(and we'd have to get the already-queued nuclear engines before even starting that), or preferably hostile landing tech. So far this galaxy has not been amenable to a quick start, and I may very well rue the choice made in not getting Deuterium Fuel Cells. 2326 Barren doesn't help us; Tundra would have a bit, but Dead is really the one we needed to get out of this jam.  Tundra to the upper left, a dead to the right and a dead below, and that would also get us to those two arids. In other words, once we get Controlled Dead Environment we can progress from 4 to 9 systems. It's definitely a moment to keep the crash-course running, though it won't be cheap at nearly 2.5k RP.  The immediate concern is getting terraforming done to re-max the primary Matrix.  The Collective's secondary cluster will need to devote almost all resources to this task. 2327 We've reached the artifacts system and properly claimed and renamed it. There are now many matters to attend to.  We have almost, but not quite, the full allotment of drones for respectable startup and growth. Preferably I'd be able to send 4M more, so we'll see at least one more smaller convoy.  More facilities for the larger population.  And here as well, though we've got enough resources to continue the research efforts to a degree. At least there's plenty to more than avoid any atrophy penalty.  Turns out that six of the seven systems I thought might be in range, are. That's more than I expected, making me glad I didn't cut corners. A couple of Recons will have to wait a year to go out as they aren't quite in position. But we can do what we can.  I should have had a couple of them go here instead. Grrr.   2328 It's been a fast start, but not as fast as I hoped for. The galaxy itself offers a non-trival amount of resistance here, but it will assuredly be merely a speed bump in the grand scheme of things. Strategic Sage fucked around with this message at 02:34 on Oct 13, 2018 |
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Oct 13, 2018 00:16
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If it's not too much to ask, could you briefly summarize any particularly notable happenings that otherwise only occur in videos? Stuff like meeting the Humans or settling Stalaz. Most of the between-turns videos don't have anything of note, so I don't want to have to click on every one in case I'd otherwise miss something.
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Oct 13, 2018 00:47
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I'm not sure I understand the suggestion. Aren't I already doing that? Thotimx posted:2325 After some of the videos I say nothing, because well there's nothing other than watching ships move on the map, if that. The ones where something happens, I have a blurb like this.
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Oct 13, 2018 02:33
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Mm, I guess what I'm missing is the context shots, like, "here's where we encountered the humans" or "here's our new colony". You were providing those shots in the main LP, so it's a bit more noticeable now that they're missing. It's not a big deal though, I can cope.
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Oct 13, 2018 04:11
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Thotimx posted:This made me wonder … where's your MOO2 LP?!? Ha ha, yeah, I uploaded a stream of it I did back in December and promised one of the guys who commented on it I'd have more "early in the next year." And here we are.  I just got super burned out on LPs because editing is a time sink when I'm as busy as I am and I never got much response on them. I think MOO would be a good one to get back in the game on.Speaking of, I did a little practice run; played for an hour and jotted down notes on things to point out and what to talk about. Stopped at 2360 with just getting planet #12 and stopping the colonizers to start building warships. Klackons are freaking bananas! The biggest challenge is going to be boredom; that's a lot of planets to tweak sliders on. I read your updates after the first right now; good stuff and props for being thorough. I did make one mistake I probably won't again: I got Death Spores from Stalaz and the Planetology field it unlocked had another environment (not a spoiler since you've already committed to the previous field so you'll access it next anyway) so I went for that, and that's taking so long to research I left a lot of planets on the table that Dead would've allowed. You were Dead  on the money on that choice, I'll do that too on the real attempt.
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Oct 13, 2018 08:15
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Alien Legacy definitely deserves to be LP'd! I played it ages ago and never explored all its intricacies or finished it, and would love to see someone give it a thorough rundown
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Oct 13, 2018 08:29
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Wayne posted:Stopped at 2360 with just getting planet #12 and stopping the colonizers to start building warships. Klackons are freaking bananas! The biggest challenge is going to be boredom; that's a lot of planets to tweak sliders on. Good work; that's more than I'll have by then. I'm thinking just now that going for Nuclear engines instead of the range might have hurt me. And yeah, there'll come a point I'm sure where we'll be looking part at this part of the game and wishing for the days when I could get 5-6 years in a single update. I didn't subtitle this game Epic Micromanagement Pain for nothing. TooMuchAbstraction posted:I guess what I'm missing is the context shots, like, "here's where we encountered the humans" or "here's our new colony" Makes sense. Unfortunately I can't both put those in the video and do a screenshot of them, we saw earlier in the thread how that bombed when I tried taking screens from video footage. For the 'document everything' gimmick going on here it pretty much is what it is. I will do one thing to further differentiate the videos though; I'll put back the siren(  ) by any that actually have an event of some kind(colonizing a planet, scouting one, enemy encounter) to make that indication a little more obvious.
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Oct 13, 2018 22:56
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Match the Master: 2329 - 2333 A couple more Recons are in position to advance.   A smaller convoy departs.  A bit of diversion to research here now.  Drone growth was less than anticipated last year, so we need no industry this time. This is enough to give us the first sliver of progress towards Dead Environ. 2329 Our fourth, and for now final, Matrix is established.  We have so many Recons now(the same 24 + 2 Scouts as before) that their maintenance alone is almost noticeable. Collective Data, GY 2330 ** Matrices - 4(+2) ** Operational Drones - 156 million(+18 M) ** Production - 434 BC(+33) The doubling in the number of controlled systems is the most significant change here. Drone count increases are already ticking upwards from where they were. Economic production is still slowing, but that'll change once our transport convoys(13M out right now) arrive. 4 systems down, 102 to go(the two discovered asteroid systems are not included).  Time to send out more Recons into what I expect to be Human-controlled space.  I'll be shocked if this isn't Sol. Based on what I've seen it virtually has to be.    We'll be seeing this annually for a while. Matrix 103 will have to make do with slightly fewer incoming than I would have preferred. Matrix 104 has need of almost 25M, so it'll see a constant trickle.  Back up to the desired amount of industry here, so this proportion should remain constant now.  Not so here, where the crap drone growth continued. 2330 'Phantos' will be another nice system to add; we can reach it once we have gotten to the others around us.  A couple more of these are now in position to advance further. A case of travel strangeness as that sure looks like more than two parsecs.  Esp. with this one counted as three.  2331  We ended up with one 'extra' Recon out here and I'm not going to need it in this direction anytime soon. So I'm routing it to somewhere more useful. 11 years is the longest journey to date, but with our current plodding research that should be plenty of time.  The vagaries of population growth make this year's convoy a bit more than just a drip.  Almost maxed again. 2332 Well, that was certainly eventful. Bulrathi scout encountered to the left, three more standard systems scouted, and Matrix 101 has completed the industrial expansion.  We're making good progress here. It's not a trivial research task, but over halfway finished now. This brings up the question of whether to build some standard Colonizers ahead of time. Doing that would allow us to have some 'in the pipeline' so that when we get the hostile-capable ones out there will be less delay in reaching the standard worlds beyond them. There are times when I've done that, but I don't think this is a good moment for it. My reasoning is that we have a population crunch already that will get worse - there won't be enough colonists to grow new colonies so why add to that, slow down research, and have Colonizers sitting around eating up the maintenance budget? There are some arguments in favor; more colonies, even at slower growth, can still get started and will make up a bit of the population gap. A stronger argument is that expanding faster and getting recons out further helps exploration and limiting the enemy. On balance, however, I still think our present situation overall favors keeping the research effort going over getting some spare ships.  I do however take out a bit for this. I want enough spending 'stored up' in shipbuilding to get a Colonizer out right away once we do get the research done. So starting now I'll put a bit into that each year.  2333 Two more systems are scouted, a sizable ultra-poor, and a minimal Ultra-Rich. Not as nice as the ones in the Darlok game, but I wouldn't throw it back. Both are well out of range of any colonization effort for some time though.
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Oct 13, 2018 22:56
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Match the Master: 2334 - 2338 Dead Environs research enters prototyping, so I boost the shipbuilding a bit here.   Our artifacts matrix has reached the point where we're letting waste build up some in order to keep the factories coming. 2334 'Rigel' is another distant, but habitable system - nothing special though.  Collective Data, GY 2335 ** Matrices - 4(--) ** Operational Drones - 178 million(+22 M) ** Production - 480 BC(+46) Six million drones on three transport convoys. As expected, growth is up slightly for this report from the last one as the two newer matrices have a good amount of their startup units. Fleet numbers have not changed in any way as we continue to press forward on research. 4% chance of completion last year, 16% this year.  We're not far from the end of this, but Matrix 104 does not yet have enough incoming to satisfy requirements.  No video for 2335 due to me screwing up the hotkeys(which meant I ended up recording everything I didn't want to and vice versa for a while). On the replay I didn't have a save from this year. We reach Maalor and Sol, human systems. Keeta, another artifacts world, would be nice -- but it's six parsecs distant. We can see the AI is still building ships here, but we can LOL at the fact that they have only two missile bases on their homeworld. More than we have, but it'd be something like 20-25 by this point on Impossible. 30% chance of discovery now. Most likely we'll get there this year or next.   Cleaning up about half the waste this year, as we approach the population midpoint.  The two Recons who retreated from human-controlled systems will, by default, head back to the nearest colony. That's not what I want, but we can't give them orders(until/unless Hyperspace Communications) in-between systems. So if I want to re-route them, it's now.  We'll be needing more over this way soon.  This one I'll keep up in this general area as a spare for future outward pushing. 2336 Paranar is another hostile world, small but ultra-rich. That's the last of our current scouting wave. We've now reached almost a quarter of the galaxy. Still no joy on the research front; 44% probability this year.  Last shipment of drones departs for Matrix 104. Matrix 102 can now build up numbers, temporarily, to assist in the next colonization push.   This year, Matrix 104 joins the waste-ignoring club. 2337 Psilon colony ship, go away. And more importantly, breakthrough! Toxic colonization means we'll eventually be able to settle almost everything, and we'll need that eventually but that's all for the planetology crashing.  Here's job #1.  A year ago, a standard Colonizer cost 643 BC. Now it's exactly 100 BC less and I can make a dead-capable one for that price.  Time to roll, including using the Reloc trick to get moving a bit faster.  Matrix 102 is back into the role of handling all the miscellaneous tasks. Enough industrial growth on the newest pair of worlds allows us to take an additional production segment out of ecology, as they are handling a bit of the maintenance load. With the new colonizers heading out, we need more Recons to continue extending our reach, and they need to go out first in order for the timing to work out(so that they are at the extent of our scouting range by the time the colonizers arrive on station). That means there's not a year to lose here.  It seems worthwhile to crash reduced waste, since we're currently spending nearly a third on fully-developed colonies for waste cleanup and none of the eco-restoration techs have shown up yet in planetology. I might well go to a general research approach after this comes in.  Another 'growth stall' so we continue to wait for more drones to be ready here.  2338 The first dead-capable Colonizer is away.
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Oct 15, 2018 07:42
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Match the Master: 2339 - 2342 Time to talk a bit about where I'm going with the next batch of Colonizers. First one, which is en route to Matrix 102, is headed here; later I'll send out a standard ship to the arid system at the green star beyond this. Those stretch us towards the galactic centre.  Then I'll get one out here, where it'll start a longer string of acquisitions downwards. That's definitely our greatest growth area, and both of these systems are stepping-stones rather than being particularly valuable in and of themselves. So why didn't I head that way first? Well, going towards the center is better all things being equal, but the real reason is something else.  Enough Recons out for the moment though I'll need to keep a constant eye on that. For now, it's back to all research.  Time to terraform here. The technique is to terraform enough each year to reach double what the population will be with maximum growth, so that population growth is not at any point impeded. Here that means 25 BC into terraforming(5BC per) to reach 60M; we could see this as high as 30M next year, though 29 is far more likely.  Still accumulating waste here.  We've got two other recons(rerouted earlier from other places) headed out in this direction as well which will arrive roughly 'on time'. Two more should suffice for our initial purposes.  Most of the rest will head this way, hoping to scout out systems generally along the right edge of the galaxy.  One in a more-or-less directly down vector as well. 2339  Collective Data, GY 2340 ** Matrices - 4(--) ** Operational Drones - 204 million(+26 M) ** Production -- 627 BC(+147) 2M on one transport convoy. Quadrupled our population in four decades, and we're just getting started. We really are multiplying like insects, and the economy grew by nearly a third over the last five years.  The Colonizer won't last long of course, but we're up to almost three dozen Recons.  Didn't get quite as much terraforming boost as I hoped, but it ended up being enough. Probably had a little more waste cleanup than expected, but it can be a little wonky at times. Either way, the effort continues and we're above the natural planet limit now, so progress.  Still plenty of room for both us and the green slime.  Onwards to Guradas. 2340  Another year or two of terraforming.  Partial waste cleanup efforts begin here.  Time for more Recons. I'm going with three more here, which is no more than an educated guesstimate; still, I'll try to explain the reasoning.  This is the system I'm going to next, after the two(Guradas and Trax) I already mentioned. Trax's colonizer is about to be finished, and then a cheaper, 'standard' one will be started for here. I've already got Recons out here or coming for the closer systems that we'll be able to reach once Guradas is settled, but before I even get close to getting concrete results from that, I need to try to time out getting Recons to that new maximum extent of our range at about the time I colonize Misha, and then figure which systems are likely to get within range due to that extension. To an admittedly limited degree, it's like trying to think three moves ahead in chess, and I think I need three more for that stage. But I'm not at all certain. This kind of thing is why I try to alternate directions with the colony ships when possible, as I'm doing now -- it gives a little more time to get more information and get the ships moving in each direction. 2341  WOW. That's faster than I thought. Quite a bit of 'overflow' from the last Colonizer that almost went out a year earlier, but still unexpected. So I need to get a move on and get more Recons for the next extension downwards from the next ship ... Klackon production bonus of course being fully demonstrated here. Less than two years required for a standard ship. Whereas most races take four pre-terraforming. Yikes. It's good for the old growth curve of course, but the normal 'lag time' you can count on? Not so much here. And of course the Reloc tactic again.  The next system we're going for down there though won't get us much closer to any systems beyond what we'll get from Thrax, so even this might be more than what I need.  Need to wrap up terraforming this year.  Not much waste will be permitted now.  Stepping-stone ahoy!  That's a bit of a trip.  These need to go further -- that's just an intermediate destination for them while waiting for the Colonizers to provide them more range. 2342 The Guradas ... err, Matrix 105 ... colony/matrix is established. Things are slowing down and getting more complex; getting every last advantage out of the colonization rush will be increasingly difficult.
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Oct 15, 2018 22:44
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Voting closed. Lords of the Realm closed things up a bit to be a clear but distant #3 choice, while Ground Control edged ahead to be the definite #1. Still going with Master of Orion 2 first, and then that. I think LotR is a more repetitive game and that could be an issue with after a while anyway. Still might do that or one of the others suggested like Alien Legacy someday, but that's where it's going for now. After this particularly galaxy is properly 'sanitized', of course.
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Oct 16, 2018 12:58
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Match the Master: 2343 - 2345 This is just enough for needs, and drops Matrix 102 back down to exactly half population. Another happy and timely convergence.  The need for Recons continues as the Colonizers continue to flow quickly. It's starting to get really easy to lose track of what ships need to go where and when.  It's now all about the industry here.  Still growing towards the natural halfway point.  This is the only system out here that is actually in range.  Multiple ships will still be sent, as a couple nearby it are just barely out of range -- a situation that will soon be rectified.  The newest pair splits and heads a couple of different directions.  2343 Somebody tell the Psilons that two unarmed colony ships will do them no more than one. Which is nothing. I'm curious to see how long it takes the AIs to start arming/escorting them on standard difficulty.  Not a lot to tweak this year; Colonizers at Matrix 101, 3 more Recons at 102 so those don't need to change. Here I missed the mark by a hair, and almost all the waste is getting cleaned up now.  Another one arrives and is sent out.  And the second leg of the journey now for this colonizer.  More support scouting on the way. 2344 A sixth matrix on-line, the Meklar have the affrontery to lead us in production right now according to GNN, and Reduced Waste comes in. I go economic over military with the next pick, which may or may not be wise depending on how soon war comes to the Borg.  Collective Data, GY 2345 ** Matrices - 6(+2) ** Operational Drones - 238 million(+34 M) ** Production - 716 BC(+89) 11 million in one transport convoy. More drones but fewer production was added this time around.  The flotilla of scouts continues to grow.  Getting reduced waste in dumped a bit of each planet's production into research. Now we'll need to reallocate all of that.  We're now sending them out as fast as we can all in a downwards direction; a few quality standard systems that way.  A parsec closer than 103, and this way we don't delay getting that matrix up and running for research duty. I'd prefer to be able to send 1M more, but this'll do.  I've reached a stage where it's really impossible to know and I have to guess at how many more Recons I need out there. This is my fall-back in these kinds of situations; build a couple of them a year until I'm sure, and put the rest into research.  Speaking of which, I decide it's time to go broad-based and I just keep it simple and equalize everything. Four advances researched already, and a fifth that we got from the artifacts. Yeah, that just doesn't happen on Impossible. Feels weird.  The rest of our systems are really going to benefit from the lowered waste-cleanup spending, starting here. Well over half-industrialized at this point.  No more waste now. Over 15 factories a year between the two of them. Yummy.  Destination: Phantos. Paladia, the green arid one, is closer. Phantos is bigger and better and will stretch our range more though.  These recons arrived in perfect timing; just got here, no waiting or delays either way. Now it's time for them to head out to new, unscouted systems.   The far lower-right green one remains out of range.  So I switch up the plan a bit and send this one here. That is everywhere new that we can reach. I don't think there's anyone 'below' us. Psilons are to the left, but no room for anyone this way as we've almost reached the 'bottom'. 2345 Mrrshan! Fangless ones though. Get out of here with your colony ship, and have fun paying more maintenance on it as it heads back home. We have a general location(left) for them now. That's three of five pretenders that we've seen and not met.
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Oct 17, 2018 05:29
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PSA: updates are likely to be sporadic for an undetermined period due to what I expect to be a relatively minor issue. I know that's vague but I can't be more specific right now. Hopefully it'll be short and I'll be back to what passes for normal both personally and LP wise soon. Thanks.
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Oct 18, 2018 17:44
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| # ? May 25, 2024 02:09 |
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Thotimx posted:PSA: updates are likely to be sporadic for an undetermined period due to what I expect to be a relatively minor issue. I know that's vague but I can't be more specific right now. Hopefully it'll be short and I'll be back to what passes for normal both personally and LP wise soon. Thanks. Is someone trying to initiate the Guava Protocol on you?
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Oct 18, 2018 17:48
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