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Match the Master: 2373 - 2374 Tough call here, but I turn back around and start sending more drones this way because we're going to have a couple more systems getting settled in this corner before long and Matrix 115 will be the distribution center for them.  Biggest convoy yet, and I'm intentionally oversupplying by 5-6M here as we'll have at least one and possibly more systems coming beyond Matrix 118.     Every little bit helps.  Colonizer destinations are being chosen at the moment by their proximity to enemy territory primarily, particularly when we don't have the option to stretch our range. The Human expansion to Yarrow potentially threatens a couple of systems, including the large jungle - and unfortunately, Ultra-Poor - system.  I'd prefer to split these up, but since I can't do that they'll pull back here where one of them will wait to proceed to that green star when it is within range.  Just within range now. We have to find the Meklar out here somewhere ... right??  A few more cases of the leave-a-year-early as replacements arrive technique. We're now heading for another nebula, at least three-quarters of the way across the map, where we have no business being ... except for the fact that nobody has cut us off yet.  Is this Bulrathi, or might we find a landing spot on the other side of Psilon/Mrrshan territory?  There also somehow remains a chance that we might slip around the bottom of their territory, Mrrshan homeworld nearby or no. This is so surreal.   74 Nuc Recons on a map with a Guardian, at least a few uninhabitables, and five other opponents. And I STILL can't say for sure it's enough. So I build another batch. At least they're only a relative drop in the bucket at this point, so I definitely am in better safe than sorry mode with these. We also discover that Mrrshans, Psilons, and Bulrathi have formed an Alliance. Makes sense, given our dominance and their close proximity to each other. However, I also seriously don't care.  Annual tweaks here to get the right amount of industry.   Finishing up terraforming, and should be ready to start moving drones on starting next year.  The first inkling of the latest wave beginning the industrialization process.  2373 Another run-in with the same Bulrathi world at Nordia, and a couple of mildly hostile systems are scouted. Relatively quiet year, so I'll cram another one into this update.  Our first spy report is in. The Humans have nothing better than we have(Industrial Tech 8 and Dead Landings both best their highlighted items) and due to us surrounding them are diplomatically isolated. A less perfect race than ourselves might actually be moved to compassion for this cruel fate they've been bestowed. I award them the Order of the Purple Target, as our likely first conquest when it gets to that point.   Long journey, but right now the only place that needs drones out this way. A band of Inferno-or-worse systems has further expansion along the bottom of the galaxy blocked off until we get Toxic in.      This is the focus for the ships trying to get around Fierias, but we don't even know yet whether it's occupied for certain.      This latest and hopefully final group of Nuc Recons will split up across a few different destinations in a hopefully-reasonable spread pattern.    Even with almost twenty systems, the maintenance for the fleet - esp. Colonizers, with a record half-dozen currently active - is starting to take a toll and slow down construction of more.  Switching back once more to research efforts.   Another drip of research begins.  A third Colonizer-producing system gets into the act.    Drone count is starting to grow more quickly here now. We'll need everything it can get and then some, and before it's ready. 2374 Three more systems scouted; a Toxic, a Radiated, and an Uninhabitable. Yuck.
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Nov 5, 2018 21:50
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Decoy Badger posted:It's pretty amazing that you're still in the land-grab phase, but it's really bothering me that you didn't start the planet numbering with Matrix 100. That could be reserved for Orion!
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Nov 6, 2018 00:52
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for extra annoying points you could've done it in binary
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Nov 6, 2018 01:24
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Thotimx posted:I'd be highly interested in how you pulled that off if you are willing to share. I spent an absurd amount of time and tried everything I could think of, boosting the bit rate far beyond where it made any difference, and with multiple different recording options including OBS. Very impressive! Sure! So, the first thing is in DOSBox.conf I have the Output set to "surface" and the Scaler to "normal2x". Then in OBS I use Display Capture to grab the window MOO is in (and annoyingly in OBS Studio you have to type in the crop factor manually, you can't draw a bounding box like in OG OBS  ). I apply a .2 Sharpen filter and slightly bump Brightness and Saturation in the color contrast filter (to help mitigate the damage of upscaling 200p to 1080p, heh). Then I just have this in the local recording menu: Now for that still I had the video open in VLC and PhotoShopped it, but you can easily use whatever program spits out screenshots and batch-crop and resize them. Decoy Badger posted:It's pretty amazing that you're still in the land-grab phase, but it's really bothering me that you didn't start the planet numbering with Matrix 100. Or just 01, since unless Thot plans on bombing out and re-colonizing AI-controlled planets you won't get to rename them and thus probably won't need 3 digits of Matrices. I like the Orion idea, but I'm pretty sure you don't get to rename it (or is that 2? Pretty sure the name is locked in in at least one of these). Time for part 3! The first 15 minutes is an overview of the game and how the challenge is coming along, the rest is the history lesson and my thoughts about why MOO is so iconic.  Master of Orion - Klackon Assimilation #03This was recorded 2 (?) updates back from Thot's (the last thing I remember is the Humans getting their 3rd star), had to throw out the first take. So when it sounds like I think I'm further ahead than I actually am, that's because I'm about 15 turns ahead (I've played to 2390) now and a lot can happen in that time, heh. It looks like I made it to 19 in 2368 and he was there by 2372, that's pretty close!
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Nov 6, 2018 02:04
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Wayne posted:when it sounds like I think I'm further ahead than I actually am, that's because I'm about 15 turns ahead (I've played to 2390) now and a lot can happen in that time, heh. It looks like I made it to 19 in 2368 and he was there by 2372, that's pretty close! Don't worry, I've already prepared my psyche for the fact that you're going to win. I've made a few mistakes already, and it's good to see different ways of going about things. OAquinas posted:That could be reserved for Orion! Good idea! I'll probably take Orion like 2 years before I end the game or something so it'll be a bit anti-climactic, but sure. oystertoadfish posted:for extra annoying points you could've done it in binary Ugh. With extra ugh on the side. That actually would be hilarious, but it'd be just as annoying, if not more so, to me. PASS.
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Nov 7, 2018 00:39
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Match the Master: 2375 The Humans are growing a little. Otherwhise nothing has really changed.  Four new systems have been added since the last look here; two for us, two for the Humans. Up to 5 empty systems now, which means we have 19 out of the 103 others.  The next wave of research is coming soon. The only one that really matters out of the imminent group though is Controlled Toxic Environ, which will put a host of new systems within our grasp. Our total investment here is slowly but steadily creeping upwards.  Never thought I'd see the day when I need this many Recons. That's enough to cover all but a fifth of the galaxy - and I don't think it's too many. I only have 11 confirmed locations, though the Bulrathi/Meklar homeworlds will eventually be added to that list, where I'm sure we don't need them. Seven Colonizers and gradually growing there as well. Expansion efforts are at fever pitch ... and we're still ramping them up.  Collective Data, GY 2375 ** Matrices - 19(+3) ** Operational Drones - 746 million(+147M) ** Production - 2145 BC(+422) 24% economic growth, continuing to be very strong but ticking slightly downward again percentage-wise. Assuming I didn't miss any, we have 29 transport convoys carrying 84 million drones. A little over 11% there, which is up but not that much. Adding almost 150M population though is the biggest thing. The Borg are growing like weeds, or a virus. Which of course is the entire plan. The only real question is how long does this continue until I have to actually commence what I imagine will probably be very short hostilities? The other empires will probably decide that, and we're now approaching the point where they will likely start whining about how big we've become. It'll probably be best to begin throwing them useless crap just to keep them happy while we continue expanding. Never had to do that during the initial colonization phase before, but this setup throws all sorts of weirdness in.    Oh, lookie here. The Humans are about to take another system from us. A poor one, but still. Once again they will beat us by three years, and I really don't know what to do with that colony ship once it arrives. I don't have anywhere else for it to go at the moment, so it'll probably float around until I find another standard planet to send it to, eating up maintenance costs.      Don't need this ship here since the Humans grabbed Trax already.  Second leg of this journey, to get past the nebula.  Big but Ultra-Poor, though I still want to snag it before the Humans do.  Oh look, more terraforming!  Picking up the pace now.  With how quickly the drones were shipped here, this is probably the only year of waste it'll see. 2375 The Humans take Pollus as expected, while three more systems are scouted.
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Nov 7, 2018 00:40
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I think 1-year turns are likely to be the norm at least most of the rest of the way. I do not guarantee this will be over by year's end. Drip ... drip ... drip ... Match the Master: 2376 In thinking about the situation after that last turn, alarm bells really started going off in my brain. It won't be long until we have to fight, and so far we have nothing aside from the ability of our drones to repel invaders - and they definitely aren't up to what you'd call Borg standards yet. This is yet another case where it's hard to tell if my instincts are correct; I don't know how much of an impact Average difficulty will have on how soon they start attacking us and/or get upset about how many planets we have. If they do though, it'll disrupt our expansion and with our transports flying over the place, almost certainly end up putting us in a war earlier than I want. Diplomatically, I think I've been correct in not going for trade agreements, because I'm going to want to go to war by the time they'd pay off in future centuries. I think targeted tech bribes are best in terms of keeping the peace until I'm ready for that.  Of course it is a very un-Borg-like thing to offer toys to inferior races, but I'm only going to carry that RP approach so far. Handing them some old, crap range tech is the starting point.   Up from Unease to Neutral. We'll need to watch that because it will have a tendency to drift back down, esp. with no trade to keep it in place.  They actually have something we'd like(Improved Eco). And as Ruthless Ecologists, they'd be dumb enough to attack us if they get irritated, per usual. At least they are isolated for now. Maybe they'll be suicidal in someone else's direction.   Should have enough drones heading downwards now. Time to start feeding more out towards the nebula areas, where we're going to be sending more ships.      Big system to get here. I don't see any other way the Humans can further expand their territory; it's a near-homeworld-size terran, and their nearby fleet is all combat ships. I think they've used up their Colony ships and everything else around them is more hostile than they can land on. We should get most if not all of those planets first. I thought of sending another Colonizer instead of waiting for this one to get to Yarrow and then move, but that would have taken another year longer.  A fertile jungle system in our back lines that I never grabbed before in favor of extending range. It's time now.    Another long journey for a picket chased from its post.  Periodically I'm still moving up ships from systems that are far behind the front lines now.     Switching to a long-range hostile ship to push further into the nebula region on the other side of the galaxy.  There are only a couple of standard systems left and we can build the ships for those elsewhere. Also, this is a second nod to the fact that hostilities are coming. I'm going to build only about half the number of missile bases that I normally would, but on developed systems within range of a rival like the homosapiens here, I think it's time to start having minimal protection. A quarter of the elective production on any such system will be diverted to getting bases up. It will definitely slow down expansion a little, but I don't think the Farmer's Gambit can be safely sustained any longer.     Switching to an extended-range design to try and reach that jungle system we recently discovered before the Psilons/Mrrshan/Bulrathi get there.  Latest research contributor. As with all the larger systems, the question here is how long do we need it as a population source before I start maxing Matrix 112 out? I don't think it's time to pull that trigger yet.  Terraforming starts here.  And also here.  We'll have more I expect, but our first rich planet starts getting up and running. This will be a rare case where we'll completely bypass the whole 'drone-source' stage. 2376 Good-news, bad-news as Toxic Environ arrives. Bad news is we don't get Radiated ... or for that matter Soil Enrichment. I doubt any of our rivals will research that high in time for it to matter, though the Psilons might. We may well be able to ignore all of those particularly hazardous planets. Right now that would reduce our target number to exactly 100 total.
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Nov 7, 2018 22:30
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I have to admit, the tension's getting ME a little antsy, and I'm not even playing the game! Maybe it's time to start a military build up, if only for the sense of security a sizeable navy would bring. I mean, you must have enough planets by now, right?
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Nov 8, 2018 00:59
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Speaking of challenge runs, something that interests me is to see how much of the tech tree it would be possible to fill. You'd want to play as psilons or darlocks and unlike this run where you're trying to assimilate everyone ASAP, you'd need to keep the other races alive and well to contribute to research. You probably want to invoke a final war to get the enemy ai to cooperate.
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Nov 8, 2018 03:52
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Thotimx posted:Don't worry, I've already prepared my psyche for the fact that you're going to win. I've made a few mistakes already, and it's good to see different ways of going about things.  But we don't want them to know that!!I think if you kept the micro you were doing (especially with the "acceptable levels of pollution" stuff) and used that money to keep the gradual teching going like I do, that'd be the optimal way to handle this map. (Well, that and having multiple colonies building ships sooner, I diverted 102 / Arid M to that really early and expanded in all directions sooner.) Planetology techs lower the cost of your colony ships, so I was able to build them at the same rate as you despite not having as much industry. But hey, this means you can start over and play the map again! Maybe do the binary thing too!  Thotimx posted:I think 1-year turns are likely to be the norm at least most of the rest of the way. I do not guarantee this will be over by year's end. Drip ... drip ... drip ... My latest recording (part 6) was 1 hour... for 4 turns.  Of course, the reason why is germane to what you and Mega were just talking about : No risk of losing of course, but yeah, that slows me down a bit!  I didn't want to bring up Radiated 'til now, but yeah, I agree, it wouldn't really be the spirit of the challenge to leave the AIs un-assimilated and hope someone rolls that tech when it'd add a lot of turns to the game. I'll start counting those as None (lowering the cap in the thumbnails) once I get to that tech level on-video.  Master of Orion - Klackon Assimilation #04An extra-large return to live commentary. Runs from 2379 to 2390, so you can already see the turns taking longer. I'm skipping some micro for VLP purposes, so I don't even want to know how long Thot's game is taking him! General Revil posted:Speaking of challenge runs, something that interests me is to see how much of the tech tree it would be possible to fill. That's my primary idea for when I get to the Psilons; a nod toward how they're Creative in MOO2 by forcing myself to research everything in a tech tier before moving on. Seems like a fun restriction since it does slow you down, but it plays to their strength. As to your specific idea, I do think they're better than the Darloks for it: they get a 75% chance of having any given tech, surplus techs let you trade well, and invading is OP as always in MOO1 (you get even odds of looting all 6 techs once the planet has 300+ factories, which most will late in the game). I think the big issue would be AIs wiping each other out before the game gets to the lategame, and you'd probably want to play in a bigger galaxy to maximize economies and thus RP, and that's tedious enough before factoring in you're waiting on the AI to catch up. So I wouldn't do it, but I'd probably watch someone who did!
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Nov 8, 2018 05:53
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Wayne posted:hey, this means you can start over and play the map again! Maybe do the binary thing too! No. Just NO. I do have plans to eventually stream some MOO (thanks for the OBS details btw which will likely greatly improve the visual quality of that), but I'm going to go out on a limb and declare that I feel I've earned (and will benefit from) a break from the game after this journey. Wayne posted:I'm skipping some micro for VLP purposes, so I don't even want to know how long Thot's game is taking him! That's too bad … cause I'm going to tell you anyway. You have to figure in the screenshots as well, I get about 25-30 of them per year at this point … but I'm probably averaging a little over an hour per turn between that, the writing, uploading, etc. It fills my 'after-work unwinding' time window more often than not. It's a weird thing to just being doing a single turn a day, but honestly with the size of the micro I'm usually pretty cool with not doing any more than that by the time I finish up. CommissarMega posted:Maybe it's time to start a military build up, if only for the sense of security a sizeable navy would bring. I mean, you must have enough planets by now, right? Right now I'm right at my typical 'good-start target' of a fifth of the galaxy. Which, credit where credit is due, is only cribbing from Sulla who is probably the person most responsible for showing me (through his playthroughs) how to get from being able to take on Hard to being able to take on Impossible a few years back, even though I'm not as aggressive - he plays more like Wayne I think. Anyways, I did consider building a fleet, but ultimately decided to go with my basic fall-back position; success through superior economic power. Takes significant production to build a reasonably sized fleet, and then you have to maintain it and constantly be upgrading it. I still think in most situations, including this one (had a few games during this run where MOO forced me to defend of course instead) it's better to just keep expanding until you can't do that anymore. The long-term edge from the Farmer's Gambit is more important than possibly losing a couple systems to an AI throwing a fit - particularly since they tend to not be aggressive in actually invading early in the game. The potential dropping of a system or two is sort of a write-off if it happens, the cost of doing business as it were. And if I did build a fleet, what would I be defending? I find fleets to be much more useful on the attack (economically again, destroying the enemy's ability to support ships and wage war) than on the defensive - to defend you need a big enough fleet to hold off a sizable portion of theirs, and if you can build enough ships to do that everywhere then you should be rampaging through their systems instead of waiting for them to attack. That's a tad simplistic, but not by much IMO. It's possible I'll regret this, but usually I don't. The relatively passive MOO AI really plays into this - they just don't have the concept of invading multiple border worlds and then snowballing. Strategic Sage fucked around with this message at 08:02 on Nov 8, 2018 |
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Nov 8, 2018 07:57
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Match the Master: 2377 While I'd love to get more terraforming in, I really need the faster engines more than anything, so that takes top priority now that we have Toxic landings.        Last group to leave Nordia; this white star remains the only known Bulrathi planet(though it's a pretty good bet that not far to the left is Ursa).  The eggheads remain slightly ahead of us here. They have longer range, bombs instead of missiles, better ground combat tech by a bit, robotics III(grrr) ... and most notably, they have Controlled Dead Environ while neither of the other two have progressed past Barren. That means they are a greater threat to the hostile systems that we'd like to monopolize. Thankfully there are no Dead systems around them ... but there are several Inferno/Toxic ones. Those are a higher priority for us to snag than similar planets elsewhere, so we can keep the Psilons from expanding. Nice to see them as Pacifists who are diplomatically isolated though.  Naturally we now need a new ship. With only slot available right now, I go with the extended-range version. Eventually I'll need to scrap something else if I want both. We have to sacrifice one slot; with Nuc Recons and three different colony base types, I can't build normal and extended-range versions of all three. Because of the cost differences, I think the normal, standard colonizers are the ones that I will jettison first - once we've used them all up. This spec-slot-juggling will get all that much more fun when we get new engines in ... but first things first. Also, the existing designs just got significantly cheaper(almost 100 BC each) with the cost reduction that comes with Toxic tech. So that was a nice boon.  Switching to the new ships. There's two systems that esp. call out for these immediately; a Toxic-Rich on the other side of Psilon space, and that Toxic right down by Fierias.  The maintenance-cost reduction is significant enough(there are a record nine Colonizers en route to various places right now) that some systems get enough additional free production to require a minor optimizing tweak.   Switching to Toxic as well, and also headed towards Psilon territory. I'll need to constantly re-evaluate this situation of course.  Haven't mentioned them in a while, because Matrix 106 is hoarding drones to use in more nearby systems soon.    Now at full industry(for half-size).  Still going with a standard ship to get that jungle system by the Psilons.   Should finish up terraforming here; this cluster is ready to become core systems.  And this one as well, while the Colonizers still haven't reached any star systems beyond it yet.  Drones are starting to arrive here now.  The terraforming train stops at another destination.  This is going to build up hilariously fast. Almost a factory per year per million drones already. 2377 Two more Matrices are settled, helping to wall off the Humans. With one Colonizer produced, we now have 'only' eight of them out there.
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Nov 8, 2018 22:06
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Match the Master: 2378 - 2379 I really don't like journeys this long. At the same time, I don't think I have a better option. I could just keep the drones at Matrix 102, but there isn't enough population pushing out this way yet - so it is what it is. Anyway, switching to the newly-settled system as the rest of the transports going to the previous one are more than sufficient.   Same deal here. I hope they have really good, comfortable sleeping arrangements on these barges - which, it must be mentioned, you never have to pay for. So they're probably little more than repurposed civilian vessels confiscated for the 'good of the state' or whatever. Thankfully as true perfection-oriented Borg, we need not deal with such domestic issues.      A Dead system here, which the Humans can't settle yet - but again, I want to be in place there before they have the capability.  Off to the jungle. A sizable journey, but it would have taken over a decade from any of the other ship-producers.  Here's another one of those decision points that I'm not sure about - but doing it anyway. I'm going to start maxing out all of the larger systems(90M or higher max pop). We're going to be settling a lot of small, hostile worlds, and I'm betting here that I'm better off getting the Colonizers out for them - and having more productive worlds to pay the maintenance - than I am settling them slower and getting more population out. Plus I'll be in better position to build a decent reserve and pivot to building a war-fleet then. Another choice that a competitive game doesn't require you to make. Doesn't really matter what ship I pick right now of course - I'll worry about that more when I'm closer to being able to finish it.  Continuing the focus on snagging the hostile systems around the Psilon/Mrrshan area. There's a Tundra out there that isn't spoken for.  Another place where we've sent out our last drone shipment, at least for some while.  This is a bit smaller ... so MOAR TECH.  Still less than 1 factory per pop here, so more buildup to do.   2378 Two new advances pop in; missiles and shields. Mass Driver and better deflectors are next - no planetaries yet but honestly that might to our benefit, since you can't choose to not build them. First Toxic Colonizer and first missile base are also finished.       Here's a new drone source.  And here's the payoff for all of the extras sent from 105 and 107; now we can start pushing more population out this way.  This fine fellow spent several years getting here, and now it's basically going to turn back around and take an even longer journey - which will eventually result in getting the third artifacts system, a small one in our back-pocket. I have no other standard systems available, and that beats having it just sit around or scrapping it, which were pretty much the other options. I did weight gradually sending it to the exploration 'front', as we may be able to use it there -- but then again we may not. Bird in the hand, as they say.  Remember this guy? Time for the third leg of the journey - except I'm shifting the destination. This is Tundra, the green star above is Dead which is where he was originally headed, but this target is more likely to hem the Psilons & Mrrshan in, and is similar in terms of extending our range.  Going out beyond that to near the second nebula, the furthest extension of our left-ward range right now. Depending on what happens between now and arrival I may have this ship go somewhere else, but for the moment that's the target.  Just a slight adjustment.   There'll be an occasional year like this as population growth slows down at Matrix 111 - even though it's fertile, it is getting closer to the max.      I'll have to make one planet in here a drone donor - for now though I'm proceeding with large-planet buildup.  Yay for ultra-rich industry bonus! Obviously it's quite to our advantage to have bases on a planet this close to rival territory - despite it's size, this will of course make a fine ship-producer and reserve contributor after I get some of those going. 2379 Two new acquisitions in the top-middle of the galaxy bring our count to 23. Meanwhile a pair of freshly-built Colonizers leaves us with nine still out there.
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Nov 9, 2018 21:59
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Wonder how the game would change if population transfers cost anything (like 1 BC/pop) or required additional upkeep while in transit - keeping planets at the growth sweet spot probably wouldn't be as viable anymore.
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Nov 10, 2018 17:59
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There's already costs associated with them. They're not contributing to your empire and they don't count towards pop in council votes. The former especially at higher levels is a tangible cost, I would think.
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Nov 10, 2018 21:25
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Yeah I think you'd still do it in most circumstances, but there are some where it'd make you think twice about it. I don't think it would change the general flow of things - it would have to be a fairly hefty price to make it not worth the mass transfers to get the growth curve accelerated.
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Nov 10, 2018 23:28
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Match the Master: 2380 None of the others - that we've met at least - are growing; we still are. My strategy is focused on ensuring that continues as long as possible. Also, we've edged ahead of the Psilons in technology and aim to continue doing so.  Everything's still fine here ... for now.  I check on this annually, and am unjustifiably annoyed at how long the engines are taking. We are Klackons, and propulsion is our weakness in research. That is a thing. Also we'd have over 1k research going by now if I hadn't started building up more on those two systems - but you can't do everything. I just really want the faster ones to speed us up. The new Battle Computer coming in really won't get us anywhere in the short term, so it'll be a while until something significant arrives.  Right now I'm going with the slightly inconvenient plan of only building 'extended-range' ships; I'm going to keep a standard, dead, and toxic version of our colonizer with the reserve fuel tanks, scrap the others once the last of them land in a couple years here, and leave those two spots open for when we get the faster engines. It's slightly inconvenient still, but there's no plan that isn't. This is the best approach I could come up with. Can also see the reduced prices that Wayne mentioned and I think I talked about briefly; standard cheap Colonizer was 442, now 352 with Toxic tech in. Similar savings were seen elsewhere.  Ship maintenance was a bit over 5%; now it's less than 3.5% with more Colonizers out there. Progress. Collective Data, GY 2380 ** Matrices - 23(+4) ** Operational Drones - 915 million (+169M) ** Production - 2987 BC(+842) Economic growth spikes to 39%. In a five-year period, that's certifiably insane. Population growth is pretty steady at 23%, with 80M drones in 36 transports. More transports, but slightly fewer drones out there and down to about 9% of the total population again. We had the big 15M or so groups land which is a big part of this, and also the gradual conversion of a few systems over to making stuff instead of being incubators. The 1-billion population mark will be hit soon.     I could split this up a little more with the two new planets out this way, but I want to make sure we get Matrix 120 up and running quickly. It's a key defensive bulwark on the edge of Human space. Ok, it's not - but I want it to be ASAP.  From here we push out to the newly settled Matrix 123 -- which leaves ultra-poor Matrix 122 out in the cold in terms of drone supplies. It'll get leftovers whenever I'm darned good and ready basically, or else just grow slowly on its own. Unlike the two systems sandwiching it, 122 has no particular strategic value.    All of the current Colonizers are headed where I want them to be right now, but we've got the range to push further along the top of the galaxy here. All those Recons we've been saving out here now must get to work.         No real good way to get here except a slow trip through the nebula.  From here we'll reach it a year faster.   Just a 'get to the front' move, we have plenty further down around Fierias.  With nine Colonizers out there, and five Matrices now producing more, it's getting rather complicated to say the least to keep in my mind which ships are going where, what the next priorities are, and therefore what kind of ship to build at each system. Everywhere else the answer is 'more Toxic ships', but there is one small Dead system that is close enough to the Humans to prompt me to send a ship there and close off that potential future avenue for them.  Switching RELOC targets wherever useful, naturally.   All terraforming should be just short of what we need here.   Another wave of terraforming going on. Here I think we've got exactly enough to keep up with the drone growth. There's no waste at all, because about 80% of the population here just showed up on transports.  Despite the good size, I'm going to use this system as a drone relay, while Matrix 116 builds towards being a producer-matrix. We need one in this direction, and this is the best location for it. 2380 Two more additions, a back-pocket fertile jungle world, and that dead system in the upper-right.
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Nov 10, 2018 23:28
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I should mention that, in terms of the transports thing, this is one of those aspects that I think MOO2 actually did improve with the Freighters mechanic, which you have to build.
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Nov 11, 2018 00:59
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Match the Master: 2381 - 2382      And here's what I was saving up drones at Matrix 106 for. It's not a lot, but it's something to start this system off with.     Now we can explore the final star in this corner. ToxicCol Headed to a rich toxic system on the other side of Psilon/Mrrshan/Bulrathi space, which is also the leftward limit of our range in that area.  Eliminating one design that we are no longer using.    It's been a while, but we add another research system here.  When this one comes on-line in a few years it'll be a significant boost, but right now it needs quite a bit more industry.   Just about ready to become the fulcrum for our push leftward through the nebula regions.  2381 Another system is settled, the tundra out to the left, and five are scouted - all are free for us to colonize, including four standard ones! Welp, the mass-production of colonizers will most definitely continue.  And with that, we can get free up the other design slot.       Onwards to feed another consumer matrix.     A full 10 donor Matrices this year. I'm not going to miss this process one bit when we finally do reach our limit and the seemingly-interminable drone transport parade ends.  The last batch has arrived to be disbursed. I'm going to laugh - loudly - if I have to divert more Recons out here. We're running low again, though we have a bunch of extras I think at the bottom of the galaxy.   I begin the long upwards journey with a few of these just in case. I'm not sure what the proper balance will end up being.  For now, all I can really do is try to spread them out fairly evenly. There's no knowing for sure which region will hit resistance first.  Meanwhile, we do have a couple more new systems that we have access to now.  The Psilons have a couple of escorted colony ships out in this area - it remains to be seen whether or not their targets will be places they can land. They haven't advanced beyond Dead yet and have no range-extending alliances, so their reach is limited.  Another ship has reached it's first stop, and embarks on the long trip out past the nebula.  Switching up here to try and snag some of the recently-scouted systems. Any standard planet will be a natural target for anyone else who gets within range of them, and given the travel-time there's not a moment to lose.  Same change here.    Puts us back up to almost 900 RP, about 50 short of what our peak effort was.    Current factory count will almost double this year - there are currently only seven here.  The incoming drones have rapidly pulled Matrix 119 out of the 'waste is irrelevant' zone. 2382 Battle Computer Mk. III finally shows up - Improved Space Scanner will be next. We'd waited a while, with the odds of discovery being up to 38%. Four new systems are scouted - one standard, one uninhabitable, two hostile. None are occupied. And a quartet of Colonizers are finished as well, boosting the active total to a new high of 11.
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Nov 11, 2018 21:56
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Hopefully you're past a veto share by now, if you isolate everyone and they hate you for being too big it seems like a good way to lose in the galactic election (not that a loss would even matter by this point).
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Nov 12, 2018 00:52
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I'm quite sure I am. Based on the status screen I have roughly(depending on what Meklar/Bulrathi have) as much population as all the other races combined, if not more. I'm highly confident that I can ensure Abstain receives more votes than anyone else in every Council vote.
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Nov 12, 2018 07:06
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Match the Master: 2383  This is now known as a 'fairly short' trip, merely taking the better part of a decade. The new drives do enter prototyping this year though, so there is hope on the horizon ...  Enough transports are en route to Matrix 120 now, so it's back to pipelining drones to reach the more extreme extent of our territory.           The effort to continue distributing ships fairly evenly across the scouting 'front' continues.  Time for more of our first Toxic ships to make the final and longest leg of their journeys.  This is the one that is headed just below Fierias, attempting to sweep around rival territory there.  We're now ready to start flooding the area near Psilon/Mrrshan space with the Toxic ships we need there, while the producer-matrices in the upper part of the galaxy build more standard ones to send out closer to their direction.  I think I need three more of them to totally seal our border off, which means I'll probably need one more from Matrix 111.   The effort required for industry to keep up with population here is barely more than microscopic.   We're now at the point of having terraformed 20% of the galaxy ... 2383 Two more hostile systems scouted -- and we get our first DOW from the Mrrshans. "Our sincere apologies, but we must destroy you now". No warning about the size of our empire, and they were at Neutral relations last year - we didn't get any more territory this round either to aggravate them. *Sigh* Also, four new Colonizers finished. We have a stupid 15 of them out, which would increase the size of Borg holdings by more than half if they all find a suitable destination. The kitties are seriously hemmed in, esp. if the Bulrathi are sizable at all on the other side of their territory, so this is a typical Mrrshan choice; in a desperate situation with only two systems, they lash out - against the worst possible target they can find. Us. I frankly don't think there is a great deal they can do, even if they try. Their tech allows for Barren or Standard invasions only, and range is the same as ours (Deuterium, 5 parsecs). We have two systems within that, possibly a third at most. Matrix 117 (the minimal ultra-rich one that has a few missile bases on it and is building more) is the best-positioned to fight them off. Matrix 118, the desert one by the nebula that is still industrializing, is their best attack option and probably the only other one. It would merely be a moderate annoyance to us if they took that. So in immediate terms, I'm really not concerned. They are also Bulrathi allies, so it was pretty much us or the Psilons. That also presents a problem as the Bears are likely to get dragged into the war as soon as we meet them ... which will be soon. Naturally, their ground troops are a considerable concern this early in the game.
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Nov 12, 2018 20:40
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"This early in the game." Sure doesn't feel like it.
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Nov 12, 2018 23:18
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I could always drag it out as long as the winning Sakkra epic. Let's see, another 400 years or so would take … well, I'd be finishing it around the end of 2019, give or take.
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Nov 13, 2018 06:24
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Match the Master: 2384 We've got enough drones headed to the upper-right corner now. I considered pulling Matrix 102 out of the transfer business due to the distance involved in getting anywhere useful, and also waiting because we'll get faster engines for the transports and everything else soon. Those concepts were eventually decided against because of all the standard Colonizers headed out this way - we'll need as much population as we can get following them - and the desire to keep as many systems as possible at the sweet spot for drone/pop growth.        The last one out this way, at least for the time being.   A couple of ships depart to fill in the hostile targets on our side of Psilon/Mrrshan space.   There are a couple more systems to get that the Humans can't reach yet, but might with their next planetology advance. This will nab one of them.  We've got a Toxic as our furthest-left point of reach currently at the top of the map; it's time to go get that one.  I've decided to go max on a couple of small, hostile systems that are a long way away from everything and won't grow very many drones anyway. This is one of them.   The other minor system that's headed to building up.    This may potentially be an important defensive point in the region, particularly if the Psilons turn against us, so it's time to start working that.   Should be ready to start moving drones out from here as soon as there is a destination for them to land at. 2384 We find the Meklar at Helos, which I believe is where they had the 'situation' a while back. Also, the Psilons chase us off of Gorra, a barren system out near the second nebula on the left side of the galaxy. Our ship was a year behind theirs, or just two years late in other words. There's another system further on that I'll send it to once it arrives, but it's regrettable to allow the eggheads to expand and extend their range.
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Nov 13, 2018 19:06
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Match the Master: 2385 The others are slowly improving their starfleets; other than that it's pretty much the same.  There's not a whole lot left to explore. Out of 99 habitable systems; ** Borg - 26 ** Humans - 5 ** Psilons - 4 ** Mrrshan - 2 ** Bulrathi - 2 or more ** Meklar - 2 or more Adding in Orion, there could be up to 57 un-colonized systems left. Meanwhile, we've got almost twice as many as the others combined, depending on how much territory the bears and machines have acquired.  Only the Mrrshan are being antagonistic at all. It's only been a year or so, but they've done nothing aggressive that I can see. We'll be meeting the Bulrathi soon though, and the Meklar probably in about a decade, so then we'll really see what's what here.  Should have the new drives within a couple years, give or take, or cheaper factories not long after that. That'll help as well.   Ship maintenance is back up near the highest it's been; 15 Colonizers will do that. Collective Data, GY 2385 ** Matrices - 26(+3) ** Operational Drones - 1.098 billion(+183M) ** Production - 3529(+542) Economic growth is down significantly here at 18%, mostly thanks to the shipbuilding matrices having completed most of their buildup. Population isn't up as much either - 20% - but we've eclipsed the 1-billion-drone mark. That's just a start - next stop, two billion! New records in total transport convoys (53) and drone volume (115 million), about a 10.5% volume there.      We've got enough heading out to the left for now, so I'll try to make something out of Matrix 122 while the opportunity is there.    'Only' eight convoys this year.   New destinations as we've been chased off these two systems.    A bit backwards here to work our way around the nebula.      I chose Matrix 120 here because it's an important location - we had a bit of overflow spending from maxing out industry on Matrix 111 last year, which is where the income came from.      Yet another wave of matrices begins building up the infrastructure. 2385 Sublight Drives arrive, and I choose the Energy Pulsar to move things forward rather than going for more range. By the time we got the Dotomite Crystals (Range 7) I really don't think they'd be any use to us. The colonization push should be over by then. A couple of run-ins with the Psilons, who try to colonize Matrix 126 - several years too late. That race we won, jerks! :P Also, that jungle planet at the bottom of that galaxy is ours, prompting our second GNN notice for being the top territory-snagger, another system at the top is scouted, and two more Colonizers are sent out.
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Nov 14, 2018 19:44
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It's kind of surreal how long we've been pushing the landgrab phase. I'm finally attacking people in my latest recordings, and part of me is still wondering if I should just let the AIs waste time bombing me and trying to invade while I keep sending colony ships past them. I missed the transport question earlier, but the OSG does say each one costs 1 BC. I wonder if they scrapped that, though, since nothing ever gets deducted from your reserve and it doesn't seem like there's a reduction in the origin planet's production or anything. I have another Klackon update but I'll hold off 'til Thot catches up again, and a question. I've started on the MOO1 all-race videos I talked about earlier, starting with this Bulrathi game and Thot's save. It makes sense to post that one here since it's part of this thread, but I'm not sure about any others. It doesn't seem like there's much interest in 4X VLPs and it feels weird to do this one in particular since it's a spinoff of this LP. I was thinking about doing the Stock Race Challenge itself as its own LP (both MOO1 and 2 videos) but it's always hard to tell what the response'll be. Well, let me know what y'all think.  The Challenge Overview Video MOO1 Impossible Bulrathi Challenge #01Post-commentary for the first one, talking about the stipulations (minor, since this is a brutal map as you all know ) and general playstyle / theory stuff. Runs to 2375. Compared to Thot's run, I get lucky in some areas (no Psilons in sight yet, no early DoWs) and unlucky in others (Alkari snap up Volantis immediately and it doesn't seem like Klaquan has called divine wrath on anyone yet).
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Nov 15, 2018 09:16
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Match the Master: 2386 Ahh, it's so nice to have these going out at double the speed. Those already in transit will still limp along at a single parsec per year, but gradually the amount of drones hurtling through deep space producing nothing will be decreased simply because they'll get where they are going that much faster.         Nowhere near the full amount needed, but a nice starter pack regardless.  This batch of ships can finally move out, having waited in place for years - over a decade for some of them. I'd put a sizable bet on this being the Bulrathi homeworld of Ursa.   We may end up getting here quite a bit faster, as some of this journey is probably not actually in the nebula but just outside the edge of it. The ETA always plays it safe in such situations. Regardless, this destination will push the limits of our range and is a rich system as well. A nice alternative to Gorra.  We need two new ship designs now, and will start with a Dead and a Toxic. Of course I'd like more than that but I have to wait until we use up all the existing ones. In this way we can still land anywhere, and the biggest price break by far is going from Toxic to Dead, so Dead-capable ships will have to suffice for reaching standard systems for now. This is of course to get the faster warp-3 engines in service and get where we're going 50% faster.   Research investment goes back to equal across all fields, with all eyes now on Construction for the factory cost reduction.  All of the ship-producers will be revisited, pumping out the new designs.    Ship-production is catching up with our explored space, but isn't quite there yet. Soon we'll be able to start filling in the remaining systems behind the front lines - and after that, eventually turn our attention to the reserve and then building a proper combat fleet.    This isn't exactly the direction I want to go, but at the speed our ships are going now anything close to the best vector is still preferred over waiting another year to move.    2386 A fiery new system is colonized, a radiation accident strikes one of our newer matrices, and the Bulrathi say hello.
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Nov 15, 2018 14:49
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Considering how isolated all the enemies are, is it worth espionaging the hell out of them to rebel or steal techs from the Psilons? I get that the focus is currently on expansion (amazingly) but maybe eventually it'll become the cheapest way to get new stuff.
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Nov 15, 2018 17:33
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If we're lucky, Thotimx might just decide to do that crazy idea and try a Psilon run and try to unlock the entire tech tree.
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Nov 15, 2018 23:15
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Decoy Badger posted:Considering how isolated all the enemies are, is it worth espionaging the hell out of them to rebel or steal techs from the Psilons? Rebellions take too long to produce to be worth it. You could make an argument for stealing from the Psilons, but they only have 2-3 things I even want, which is more than I can say for the others. Given how relatively trivial it should be to invade with equal or better tech and a massively superior economy, I think the shortest distance between where we are and the goal is simply to strike as hard as possible when the time comes for it, and then just steal the tech via the violent, invasion method. @ General Revil; You aren't going to be lucky. The chance of me continuing this LP beyond this game is basically nil. 18 games is enough  .
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Nov 16, 2018 06:42
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Match the Master: 2387 Here's where the Bears are located; I was right about the location of Ursa just left of Nordia, and they also have a third system. They are Aggressive Technologists, and still allied with the Mrrshan. I don't think it's worth going in with a raft of bribes to break that up, and it would be a very un-Borg-like thing to do, but we'll have to watch how things develop there. That's 14 systems between the four of them that we'll have to take, plus 2 or more for the Meklar who we don't have contact with just yet. It also looks like there's still room to slip around and/or through them to the far side in the bottom-left corner; we'll see how that plays out.      Another destination change here to feed the newest acquisition. It's a hike, but there is no better, closer one at the moment.   Here's a new aspect of the radiation accident that I've never encountered before, but it does make sense; I can't send more drones out this way until the mess is dealt with.   The Meklar only have a handful of years left to take away the standard systems at the top of the galaxy before they belong to us.   Looks like we're going to succeed in filling these gaps at least; the other races are nearly stalled on research by all appearances.         Some extra cleanup here, but it's also time to start getting defenses up.    Another waste-producer joins the roll call.  There's nothing in the reserve yet, so it's a good thing I don't need it. 2387 Two more matrices are founded, bringing us to 30(9 years behind Wayne I believe :P), while we note that Ursa is defended by a single cruiser and a dozen missile bases. Apparently that's what passes for a fortress system in the late 24th century on Average. The radiation on Matrix 126 is cleaned up, and four more Colonizers are finished bringing our total there to 17.
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Nov 16, 2018 19:12
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Thotimx posted:@ General Revil; You aren't going to be lucky. The chance of me continuing this LP beyond this game is basically nil. 18 games is enough Especially with the last one being an epic for the ages (well, the aged, anyway) like this, and MOO2 on the horizon somewhere.  MOO1 Impossible Bulrathi Challenge #02It's interesting how early strategy can revolve around a single point. In this case everybody is fighting over Spica, and while it's actually pretty close to us, I decide to go after the Mrrshan's homeworld while they're busy fighting over it. This episode is all the buildup (grabbing the remaining planets down south, getting the economic techs, trading and diplo, etc.) and war starts next time. Edit: Thotimx posted:Two more matrices are founded, bringing us to 30(9 years behind Wayne I believe :P), Even on maps like this it's interesting to see how the RNG hits the AIs differently. The Humans tried to expand a lot more quickly in your game, and the Psilons (and it looks like the Meklar) didn't. They actually had Xendalla / 117 by the time I met them in my run. Granted, if I'd had your picket of 100 scouts I might've been able to prevent that!
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Nov 16, 2018 20:58
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It's kind of hard to get a grasp of overall strategy when we're looking at things at such a detailed level. Is there some broad-strokes difference between Thotimx's and Wayne's strategies that helps explain the discrepancy, or is it all attributable to RNG?
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Nov 16, 2018 21:34
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** He went Deuterium(range 5) right away; I chose Hydrogen(range 4) and ended up going back for Deuterium which is better. ** Wayne also got more extra systems building up Colonizers earlier; fair to say I was more surprised by how long the colonization phase has lasted than he was. ** I think he hit Planetology tech earlier than me, and might have also gotten a better artifacts 'free tech' pull - this made the colony ships cheaper. He just basically had a small edge by about 50-60 years in, and those things accelerate over time. That + RNG are I think a fair synopsis.
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Nov 16, 2018 22:03
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Is there some broad-strokes difference between Thotimx's and Wayne's strategies that helps explain the discrepancy, or is it all attributable to RNG? Everything Thot said was right (and to elaborate, both Artifacts planets were Planetology; I got Death Spores and then Cloning, and that lowers Colony Base cost), but there's also a "broad-strokes difference." Thot: play the map as a normal run but with a faster and longer expansion phase: you know, building up the planets first, choosing techs efficiently, specializing planets as shipyards or research worlds, etc. Wayne:  that colony ship buttonI had Arid M / 102 start on its own Colonizer in 2324 and split up expanding to hit north and south at the same time, and because I was focusing on research interest (having every planet contribute a little so RP keeps growing, instead of switching over after industrializing) I was gradually getting techs, and that meant I had the Construction TLs to get Reserve Tank Colonizers very early. Not having to build a single XL put me about 4 planets ahead of Thot, and the faster you get those colonies up and going (especially as the Klackons), the faster you grow. I had Class M / 104 building those LR colony ships to swipe all the Human planets by video 2 sometime. Now, here's the thing: in a more typical game, Thot's approach would make a lot of sense. Heck, like I posted earlier, in my current save I'm heinously overextended with almost everyone at war with me. But this isn't a typical game; we're the Klackons and we have some amazing planets, so I figured I'd try "viral expansion" (rapidly building up the good frontier planets and having them start building their own colonizers) and it was definitely the right move.
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Nov 17, 2018 08:48
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Match the Master: 2388 The economy's strong enough that I don't need constant effort to keep spies active. Since I've got 2-3 each in the Psilon/Mrrshan/Human empires, I've pulled the funding there until I'm down to 0-1 active agents each. Small benefits and all that.         Now we have a new home to send the drones to, and there'll soon be more.   This is a nice terran destination.  Another piece of sealing off the border.   The Psilons are continuing to expand this way as well, picking up two more systems. Looks like they could well prove the strongest of our rivals.  So naturally we'll keep the Recons moving wherever we can.  We've now moved firmly into filling-in-the-leftovers mode for Colonizers. There's still about ten of those that we need ships for, and any newly scouted systems on the other side of the galaxy will still get prioritized. Still, the point has been reached where we are colonizing more systems than we are scouting. The tide has begun to turn in favor of industry winning out over exploration.  Taking a run at that Tundra in the extreme corner that I've mentioned from time to time but haven't actually gotten to yet.     A trio of 'mildly hostile' planets, two barren and a dead, will get grabbed next in the lower-right quadrant.   Getting Matrix 115 developed here is a non-trivial addition to our research efforts.  We may benefit from having this location significantly closer to the 'front' than the other ship-producers, but at the moment there's nothing left out there to grab.  Just about done with the bases I want here; it's hard to tell how many to build really, but I'm going with about half of what I would usually produce. Reserve funding is next on the agenda.  Another newly-ready tech contributor puts us over the 1k mark annually for the first time.    Another member of the 'new class' joins the permissible-waste club. It'll definitely get worse, but we're transitioning into planetary micro being the largest share.  And then there's the aftermath here. I think Matrix 126 was roughly halved in size. It appears destined - barring another bash from the RNG - to be our only Radiated system. 2388 The Borg flag was planted on two more Inferno worlds, and a new Tundra was scouted along the bottom of the map. That'll be prioritized ASAP.
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Nov 17, 2018 20:35
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Production & Planetology Tech: A Mind-Boggling Discovery Ping: All MOO experts and prospective ones. I've discovered something today which basically blew my mind about planetary production, the core of the economy in Master of Orion. First of all, demerits where they are due: here's what I originally said about how production is calculated - and nobody who was reading at the time noticed, or at least they didn't correct me: Thotimx posted:Production in MOO is equal to one-half of the current population plus the current number of factories. That's from the second post of the thread, well over a year ago, the first update of the first game, aka the only time I played as Psilons. However, in point of fact this is only true at the beginning of the game. For Klackons of course we adjust this to all of the current population plus factories, since they get double worker production. So workers + factories = production, right? Except, as I'm working on beginning the planetary transfers phase, I noticed that this is emphatically not the case right now:  This is from the current game in progress, 2389, the year after today's update. ** Recently-colonized matrices 130, 131, and 132 obey the rule; 2M population = 2 production. ** Nobody else does. Matrix 119 has 231 production and should have 177. Matrix 113 has 161, when it should have 124. Etc. Now what the heck is going on here? Obviously these differences are far too large to be explained by rounding error. Where did I get my bad information, and how was I wrong about for literally dozens of games and probably thousands of hours of play? Master of Orion Manual, page 32, first sentence posted:Colonies produce one unit of production for each working factory and half a unit for each colonist. Here's excuse #1. That is exactly what I said. Way back many years ago when I was working this stuff, I looked statements like this up, and then verified it in-game … by starting a new one. And it is true at the start of a game, as I've verified in the LP. Why didn't I notice when things get 'off' later on? Well, I always chalked it up to trade income, as I've always got sizable trade deals with somebody. This is literally the only game I can remember when I didn't even try to do that, due to its 'unique/challenge' nature. Trade income is distributed proportionally between your planets, so I thought that was where the extra is coming from. And some of it was, but clearly not all of it. So I went searching for answers, and I found this: StrategyWiki posted:the two components to production are that from the manual labor of the population and that of the output from controlled factories. Source link Well … that doesn't really match up with what we're seeing either. If we assume the extra production all comes from Planetology, and is implemented as a bonus to production from population, then we'd be getting 1.89 production/population right about now - Planetology TL 15. That number comes from math and the fully-developed systems I have in the game, such as Matrix 101. However, when freshly colonized, we'd be getting 3-4 production out of a system if that was how it worked; 2M population * 1.89 = 3.78. And that's not happening, they still start at 2 production. After careful comparison of planets at varying levels of development, I have discovered that the StrategyWiki answer appears to be basically accurate; but with one caveat. The extra production from population does not kick in for planets with extremely small populations. That seems weird, and contradicts the general simplicity of MOO systems, but it's very consistent. Proportionally, the 'extra' production is much greater on planets that aren't industrially developed, to the point where there is no mathematical option possible to suggest some of it is coming from industry. It appears that sometime between 5-10% of maximum population there is a 'jump' - the planet has reached critical mass of something or other and the population is able to make use of the empire's tech to be more productive than you'd otherwhise expect. I still need to verify that it's Planetology doing this, after I get the next advance which won't be for a while I'll be able to tell if overall production boosts again. But assuming that's the cause, this makes planetology even that much more valuable - and makes me rather astonished that this nuanced a mechanic made its way into the game in the early 90s. It also means that production from population basically scales with production from factories, which in particularly helps the Klackons; their advantage doesn't erode the way I thought it did. This gives them a much stronger argument as a legit alternative to Psilons in 'best MOO race' debate. I still think they're probably 1B, but a definite 1B and not a 2. Strategic Sage fucked around with this message at 22:13 on Nov 17, 2018 |
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Nov 17, 2018 21:30
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Wayne posted:Especially with the last one being an epic for the ages (well, the aged, anyway) like this, and MOO2 on the horizon somewhere. Was interesting to hear your bomber thought process. With all the focus on expected casualties does the Duralloy help any? I would think the merculite missiles might be over killing them already
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Nov 17, 2018 23:18
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Thotimx posted:After careful comparison of planets at varying levels of development, I have discovered that the StrategyWiki answer appears to be basically accurate; but with one caveat. The extra production from population does not kick in for planets with extremely small populations. The "base production" is indeed improved by Planetology. I think I referred to that during one of the Sakkra games (talking about how amazing Planetology is and "improved base BC" or something like that is part of it), had no idea you didn't know about it. The formula is just 50 (where the base 1/2 comes from) plus Planetology TL x3, divided by 100. So at the very beginning citizens make .53 BC each, doubled to 1.06 for Klackons; and the leftovers are usually rounded off. TL 50 just so happens to evenly be 50 + 150 = 200, so that's why that was the first thing people caught onto. The fact that Klackons double that Planetology bonus too is what really makes them nuts. As somebody on RB pointed out, that will eventually be 2+ BC per person, which is the entire Meklar benefit of manning 2 more factories, without actually having to build those factories. Freaking Klackons.  Speaking of, time for more of this game! The last decade of the 24th century was so involved I "one more turned" it to 2 hours, so I split it in half. Here's part 1:  Klackon Assimilation #05I start filling in the gaps with Toxic colonizers (turns out Thot and I got that at about the same time) and building warships. And micro. Lots of micro. LordSloth posted:Was interesting to hear your bomber thought process. With all the focus on expected casualties does the Duralloy help any? I would think the merculite missiles might be over killing them already No, you're right, that was a consequence of me starting from the destroyer design and tweaking it without Clearing first. There are certain breakpoints where choosing the right shield + armor combination can make a huge difference*, but the 1 hit point on a frigate bomber is not one of them. It only wastes 1 BC per, at least.* For example, going up against Merculites (10 damage), a Shield 1 on a destroyer is worse than useless: it adds a lot of BC to the design and doesn't help survivability at all (against Duralloy, it goes from 30 damage per missile base to 27, exactly enough to still kill you in 3 hits). But a class 2 shield lets you take an extra missile (24/27hp), but so does a class 3 (the 4th is 28/27) so you wouldn't bother; and as we discussed a few games back, class 6 completely screens out Scatter Pack Vs so if that's an AI's strongest missile, you're invincible.
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Nov 18, 2018 07:14
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