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Cythereal posted:God created Al-Jalidia to test the faithful. And it’s one of those tests that’s curved so a certain percentage must fail...
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Aug 21, 2019 23:51
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You know, I was wondering how the presumed significantly large muslim population in Al Falah would handle the Hajj, since they obviously have no way of reaching Mecca within their lifetimes. Like a lot of the requirements of Islam the Hajj only becomes an obligation if you are actually capable of doing it, but I could see the population finding some sort of substitute. It would certainly have been a hot topic among the original expatriates, since they pretty consciously committed their descendents to abandoning one of the five pillars of the faith. I could definitely see a faction in this story seeing Al-Jalidia as their punishment for doing that.
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Aug 22, 2019 00:09
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Tenebrais posted:You know, I was wondering how the presumed significantly large muslim population in Al Falah would handle the Hajj, since they obviously have no way of reaching Mecca within their lifetimes. Like a lot of the requirements of Islam the Hajj only actually becomes an obligation if you are actually capable of doing it, but I could see the population finding some sort of substitute. It would certainly have been a hot topic among the original expatriates, since they pretty consciously committed their descendents to abandoning one of the five pillars of the faith. Hey now, Al Falah is actually doing just fine! To the point that I think with this next update I'm going to stop mentioning every little thing I do in the game - I did that originally because I knew not many people have played Beyond Earth. It's everyone else that seems to be having issues with this planet.  My outline of the next update actually addresses the Hajj and other things a bit: the Muslim and Jewish populations of Al Falah, among others, are going to straight up schism between factions that want to adapt their religious calendars and whatnot to the new world and those who insist on staying true to Earth's calendar. Remember that the Al Falah who landed on this world are fifth-generation on the colony ship. Edit: Oh for the love of... two of these derelict settlements have survivors, so now I need to decide who the latest refugee waves to Ard are. And one was from a derelict settlement a stone's throw away from a neighbor colony's capital/starting city... Attributing these derelict settlements to failed Seedings made sense at the beginning when there were just two. But now... Sheesh. I've written myself into a bit of a corner. Cursed planet is going to be cursed, I guess. Akratic Method posted:And it’s one of those tests that’s curved so a certain percentage must fail... It's a Dune reference. Cythereal fucked around with this message at 03:37 on Aug 22, 2019 |
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Aug 22, 2019 00:15
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It seems fairly clear at this point that Al-Jalidia is the Promised Land. Anyone other than Al Falah that tries to settle it gets smote, leaving it open for god's chosen people.
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Aug 22, 2019 03:39
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At least Elodie got to become queen.
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Aug 22, 2019 05:01
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Cythereal posted:Edit: Oh for the love of... two of these derelict settlements have survivors, so now I need to decide who the latest refugee waves to Ard are. And one was from a derelict settlement a stone's throw away from a neighbor colony's capital/starting city... You could always have the one near the neighbor colony be outcasts or breakaways. It stands to reason that someone would rebel and try to start their own colony, with their own hookers, blackjack and booze.  As for the other one...Penal Colony seeding attempt that saw Al-Jalidia as a New Australia?
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Aug 22, 2019 16:03
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Tenebrais posted:You know, I was wondering how the presumed significantly large muslim population in Al Falah would handle the Hajj, since they obviously have no way of reaching Mecca within their lifetimes. Like a lot of the requirements of Islam the Hajj only becomes an obligation if you are actually capable of doing it, but I could see the population finding some sort of substitute. It would certainly have been a hot topic among the original expatriates, since they pretty consciously committed their descendents to abandoning one of the five pillars of the faith. Probably to Ard seeing how it is the closest thing they have to a memorial of home, not to mention how it contains the place they have probably "Hajj'd" to during the five generations in space. Cythereal posted:Edit: Oh for the love of... two of these derelict settlements have survivors, so now I need to decide who the latest refugee waves to Ard are. And one was from a derelict settlement a stone's throw away from a neighbor colony's capital/starting city... I mean, just take another nearby space that isn't already taken by the big factions? Or just splinter groups from the other factions. You've already pulled in Mexico and Japan, nothing says there wasn't remnants of them that survived similar to how the Dutch and Americans had several splits? Not to mention places that are related to the other factions but still aren't the same. For the NSA and Slavs you can easily bulldoze in Finland as a renegade faction (I know technically they are part of the NSA, but it feels better to have them separate), for Central Europe you can have the Swiss who have always done their own thing, for Asia you can take any Centra-Asians and other non-Arabs as factions: Turks, Central Asians (Turkmen, Khazakh, Uzbek, etc.), Afghans, Irani-Kurds, Baloch, and surely many more. If you ever stumble upon Brasilia or ARC you can somewhat justify Anglo-Franco-Dutch refugees from the Guyana region. Nothing's impossible! Luhood fucked around with this message at 16:14 on Aug 22, 2019 |
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Aug 22, 2019 16:11
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A less successful ARC: mid-tier corp trying to jump itself up in status by investing in a seeding, cuts too many corners, failed colony ahoy.
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Aug 22, 2019 16:16
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Gideon020 posted:You could always have the one near the neighbor colony be outcasts or breakaways. It stands to reason that someone would rebel and try to start their own colony, with their own hookers, blackjack and booze. Luhood posted:I mean, just take another nearby space that isn't already taken by the big factions? Or just splinter groups from the other factions. You've already pulled in Mexico and Japan, nothing says there wasn't remnants of them that survived similar to how the Dutch and Americans had several splits? Not to mention places that are related to the other factions but still aren't the same. For the NSA and Slavs you can easily bulldoze in Finland as a renegade faction (I know technically they are part of the NSA, but it feels better to have them separate), for Central Europe you can have the Swiss who have always done their own thing, for Asia you can take any Centra-Asians and other non-Arabs as factions: Turks, Central Asians (Turkmen, Khazakh, Uzbek, etc.), Afghans, Irani-Kurds, Baloch, and surely many more. If you ever stumble upon Brasilia or ARC you can somewhat justify Anglo-Franco-Dutch refugees from the Guyana region. Nothing's impossible! The splinter of the nearby colony (it's a sponsor we haven't met yet in the LP) is in fact exactly the plan. The other settlement so far with survivors is close enough to one of the others that I'm ascribing it to another bunch of survivors from the same group. I wasn't seriously complaining, mind. I actually kind of like that Al Falah is turning into a melting pot of refugees of all stripes. Next update should be up tonight if all goes well, and should also be shorter now that I'm not recording every single tile improvement and city construction. Edit: I should also mention, we're nearing the end of what I consider the early game of Beyond Earth. In the next update and hopefully the one after that, we'll knock out the last of what I consider to be the essential early-game techs and our options will become less linear. I'll probably start opening specific tech paths to a vote, but noting ahead of time what some important techs I'm looking at will be: Autonomous Systems - Supremacy tech, unlocks a wonder that gives all our workers +1 movement. Civ fans, the Fast Worker is back. Non-Civ fans, this is a deceptively powerful wonder that's much better than it might seem. Swarm Robotics - Harmony tech, unlocks a wonder that improves worker improvement and explorer expedition speed by 50%. All hail the Weather Paradigm. Vertical Farming - +1 food and +1 energy to farms. All of them. Forever. Cognition - Lets us build Academies, a tile improvement that grants +3 science and can be built anywhere. Anywhere. There's a non-trivial chance I'll cover Ard's polar region with these.  That or Terrascapes, which are +2 food, +2 production, and +2 culture.
Cythereal fucked around with this message at 22:16 on Aug 22, 2019 |
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Aug 22, 2019 18:00
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Cythereal posted:Seriously, was anyone expecting the Balkan nations to be part of a big supra-national alliance thing and not immediately splinter upon landing? Go gently caress yourself.
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Aug 22, 2019 20:05
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I am actually offended by the notion of all Latin American countries uniting. Especially uniting behind BRAZIL of all nations. Like, no offense but Brazil isn't really that United with the rest of Latin America, isn't really the most powerful, organized or militarily numerous of Latin America.
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Aug 22, 2019 20:45
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None of the political unions really made a hell of a lot of sense to me, they just seemed to arbitrarily want big continent-approximate blocs and threw a dart at a board for principal national players at times. Maybe this is supposed to reflect the chaos of The Mistake or whatever.
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Aug 22, 2019 20:50
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GunnerJ posted:None of the political unions really made a hell of a lot of sense to me, they just seemed to arbitrarily want big continent-approximate blocs and threw a dart at a board for principal national players at times. Maybe this is supposed to reflect the chaos of The Mistake or whatever.
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Aug 22, 2019 21:02
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I mean just imagine a whole continent speaking the one single language. Except the one country talking Brazilian, the one country speaking English and the one speaking french. And then you try having like 20 countries with centuries of (fútbol) rivalries and individual cultures and poo poo uniting behind the one country that refused to speak the same language as their neighbors.
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Aug 22, 2019 21:03
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Sylphosaurus posted:Didn´t the blocks emerge after what was basically a minor global Dark Age? If so, I guess it would be a somewhat reasonable explanation. The conceit of nations somehow becoming less nationalistic as things get worse is a clear conceit of the fiction here and it is, well, absurd in so many ways but apparently they rolled with it Siegkrow posted:I mean just imagine a whole continent speaking the one single language. Except the one country talking Brazilian, the one country speaking English and the one speaking french.
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Aug 22, 2019 22:08
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my dad posted:Go gently caress yourself. My apologies, I didn't realize that joke was offensive and I have removed it while changing those specific plans. Siegkrow posted:I am actually offended by the notion of all Latin American countries uniting. Especially uniting behind BRAZIL of all nations. Brasilia is formally the Organization of South American States, and if they show up I was thinking about making it originally an alliance of Brazil, Argentina, and Chile that grew to encompass the rest of the region. More a South American EU or NATO. But yeah, all their city names are in Portugese. For reference regarding the other factions we've seen: Al Falah: All city names in Arabic. Chungsu: All city names in Korean. PAC: Mandarin Chinese, Vietnamese, Mongolian, Korean. NSA: English, Swedish, Irish, Old Norse, Scots Gaelic, Norwegian, Icelandic, Finnish (spoiler for the update to come up soon) INTEGR: All city names in German. Cythereal fucked around with this message at 22:19 on Aug 22, 2019 |
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Aug 22, 2019 22:15
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Do we know if Al-Falah includes Iran and other Shia groups?
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Aug 22, 2019 22:47
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Mechanical Ape posted:Do we know if Al-Falah includes Iran and other Shia groups? Yes, absolutely. For that matter, in my mind Israel is part of Al Falah as well. The differences between the nations and cultures of the Middle East largely fell by the wayside during the Mistake, the collapse of the petrostates, and the general global turmoil. Unrealistic? Probably, but I want to believe in a brighter future.
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Aug 22, 2019 22:57
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Cythereal posted:That or Terrascapes, which are +2 food, +2 production, and +2 culture. I don't think Terrascapes are +2 resources, rather they set the tile production to +2 of each- they seem to overwrite the base tile production, which makes some sense considering they're supposed to be sealed environment domes AFAIK. They also provide +2 energy, though they cost 5 a turn in maintenance so it's still a net loss.
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Aug 22, 2019 23:01
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In From the Cold State of Al Falah, Turn 76  Ard  At the center of Farah's new public park will be a treasure of Al Falah: the Golden Shah's deep space telescope through which the ship kept an eye on Al-Jalidia throughout the ship's long voyage. Farah  Aswat Adida   Nomad locates another lost human settlement, this one startlingly close to the site of the Amaterasu Foundation's settlement that had been explored shortly after planetfall. An American refugee fluent in Japanese is found in Ard in case there are survivors to communicate with. This game.  Ard starts work on a water refinery for +1 production to every water tile.  And Farah on a drydock, which grants +2 production and +20% production speed for naval units. Can only be constructed in a sea city. It was around this time that I decided y'all know how this stuff works and I stopped taking screen shots of every tile improvement and building.  The Civil Administration had hoped that a comprehensive survey of Al-Jalidia's local planetary system and starscape would settle the ongoing disputes in the religious community over precisely which direction Earth lay in and whether religious calendars should continue adhering to Earth's orbit and moon or use Al-Jalidia's local conditions. Their hope was dashed almost immediately as schisms erupted in every single religion practiced in Al Falah that maintained a religious calendar between Jalidian sects that adapted their calendar to their new world and Terran sects that insisted on continuing to follow an Earth calendar. The fact that a Jalidian year was about 1.3 Earth years was acknowledged and disregarded by the latter. Arshia Kishk made waves across the colony when she began attending a mosque following a Jalidian calendar. So sea cities in Rising Tide can indeed move as another poster stated, but they have to be founded on a coast tile and initially can only move into other coast tiles. Planetary Survey lets them move into deep waters, and also unlocks the thermohaline rudder. Rudders decrease the cost of moving a sea city and provide a science boost. They can only be built in sea cities, naturally.  Science and Development next moved to address the colony's electrical power situation. While Al Falah was doing well so far on a mix of nuclear, wind, and solar power, investigating alternatives and strengthening the colony's power grid was seen as a priority. Nothing the colony had yet begun to build required this sort of infrastructure expansion, Kishk explained to her recurring dinner companion that there were some very ambitious ideas being talked about behind closed doors at the Civil Administration... Power Systems is our first specifically affinity tech, and I'm researching it for that reason. Nothing here is very useful or interesting, but it's the Supremacy affinity points I'm here for.  Outrider's message came less than an hour before Arshia Kishk stood camera-to-camera with another neighboring colony. INTEGR, the Initiative für Nachhaltige Technologien, Effizienz, Gerechtigkeit und Rechtschaffenheit ("Initiative for sustainable technologies, efficiency, justice, and righteousness"), was on Al-Jalidia. Al Falah's historical records spoke of INTEGR in glowing terms, a major European movement based in Germany but one whose influence was strongly felt from the Baltic to the Mediterranean throughout central and southeastern Europe. INTEGR had been an ally of Al Falah's progenitors on Earth, and of the African Union - pacifistic, green, and idealistic, it had been a severe blow to morale on Earth when even INTEGR left the planet. Lena Ebner, American and Dutch records detailed, had been a prominent lawyer, economist, and ultimately politician as she rose through INTEGR's ranks, and the half-German, half-Polish woman greeted Al Falah warmly. The last of Rising Tide's new factions is INTEGR. A Germany-based sponsor was probably the most clamored for sponsor in a Beyond Earth expansion after the launch, and many speculated that Germany would be combined with Scandinavia. I have to wonder if Firaxis made INTEGR specifically to gently caress with a certain kind of fan: INTEGR is very explicitly a pacifist, liberal group that loves helping refugees, prioritizes environmentalism, and formed a major power bloc on Earth in its mutual alliances with Al Falah and the Peoples' African Union. INTEGR's faction flavoring is about Germany as a nation of diplomats, drawing on a more positive side of German history than usual for Civilization, and from what I read in fan communities at the time, the German fans of Civilization loved the group. After INTEGR was revealed, it also became a really popular thing in fan communities to believe that Lena Ebner must be a lesbian based on her looks. There's nothing to suggest Lena's preferences either way, for what that's worth. Or indeed most leaders in the game - we know that Kozlov, leader of the Slavic Federation, has a wife and children, and we know Arshia Kishk has a daughter but no word on who her daughter's father is. As an AI, INTEGR is another group that tends to be peaceful and laid-back. They tend to build a good-sized military but only use it defensively unless severely provoked. Lena's traits here are Commercial, which makes her more money and she'll judge us based on how much money we make; and Efficient, which gives her a production bonus towards military units and she'll judge us based on how many military units we have. (image broken and had to be removed, pretend there's one here)  Not far from Weltgeist, INTEGR's capital, Nomad finds and investigates another derelict settlement. Oh for the love of...  Farah and Aswat Adida have trade depots but are busy with building projects. Ard, however, has built everything important for now so I have it build trade convoys so I can rehome one each to Farah and Aswat Adida.  Lena Ebner is complimentary but guarded concerning Al Falah's energy infrastructure, perhaps aware of the expanding power grid...  Private companies had always had strictly regulated privileges in Al Falah, owing to a dread of corporate greed that the people had brought from Earth. The institution of a new Office of Economic Development in the Civil Administration only tightened the reins further. Private companies would not be allowed to destroy this world. A simple but useful cultural virtue, and a synergy bonus promptly kicks in to give us another virtue!  The OED also imposed strict building codes across the colony, mainly as a safety measure to ensure habitability in the harsh Jalidian weather. One consequence of this was an adoption of standardized architectural practices in the outlying settlements. Rome in a virtue. Ard's a production powerhouse, so barring stuff exclusive to aquatic cities this bonus should apply to drat near everything.   INTEGR approaches Al Falah about assistance setting up a strategic network of supply posts for their military, which the Civil Administration decides to pursue. Our first diplomatic agreement! We could say no to this, but Strategic Supply Network will just save INTEGR a bit of energy and signing the agreement makes them like us a little more so I go for it.  INTEGR's military leadership is impressed with the Al Falah Defense Force while working on the joint arrangement.  Traders establish a convoy route between Farah and Ard, bringing a wide range of goods from the capital out to the eastern border. I set up an internal trade route here, giving Farah extra food and production, and Ard itself a small amount of production. I usually send a city's first trade route to the capital, or to a station if there's one available.  Nomad's search was not in vain. Some of the Amaterasu Foundation's colonists had survived the crash of their ship, the Hakudo Maru, and subsequent subsistence on Jalidia's surface. The Sleeper Quarter in Ard grows, and the Japanese refugees are overjoyed to not only be warm again, they're living in a city that's producing tea.  Also setting up an internal route between Aswat Adida and Ard.  Al Falah's explosive industrial capability has not gone unnoticed by their peers. Arshia Kishk sighs and decides it's not worth IT's time at this point to try to track down the sender.   Private enterprise may be strictly regulated in Al Falah, but the spirit of finding and seizing opportunities is alive and well. Arshia remains outspoken in Council meetings on the virtue of inter-colonial trade, once the requisite infrastructure develops. We don't actually have any international trade routes yet, but we will and they are good. This will make them better. The AI also really, really loves the agreement here. I don't share the fascination, myself, but AI leaders begging for it will be a steady supply of diplomatic capital and making people like us.   To that end, trade convoys are fitted out with the newly portable ultrasonic fences. The other option here expands the fence's range of effect to three tiles. It's useful, but trade routes sometimes go through the damndest places and I hate losing them unexpectedly. This will remove a source of uncertainty.  When the Civil Administration granted a request by Aswat Adida's city council to enshrine a piece of American cargo in the city's new public square, they were not expecting a spacecraft. The ancient American space shuttle Enterprise, the United States' first shuttle from that era of spaceflight history, brought to Al-Jalidia in a cargo container that miraculously survived the crash of the Conestoga.  Negotiations for the first international trade route between Al Falah and the Pan-Asian Cooperative are surprisingly brief. Al Falah's gift economy is readily welcomed by the PAC Commerce Authority, and what quickly tops both colony's desired goods? Food. Ships depart Ard laden with tea, lambs, and barley; and return with holds full of rice, peanuts, and chicken. Negotiations for the PAC to acquire the genetic design for tea plants that can survive on Al-Jalidia quickly become so important and heated that the matter is bumped up to formal diplomatic channels. International trade routes give energy and science to both factions at the basic neutral status, and make our trading partner like us a bit more. I could trade with any of our neighbors, but the PAC is so close I want to ease off any territorial tensions.  Just assume that someone comes asking for Black Markets every three or four turns for the rest of the game before canceling it a turn later because they ran out of diplomatic capital.   The Office of Economic Development makes its position clear: unions enjoy the government's permission and protection in Al Falah. Really, I'd take this decision no matter what it offered. As it happens, the alternative choice is +2 energy.  The Defense Force's first capital ship departs Ard's shipyards. The need for warships of this size had not been expected by Al Falah's planners on Earth, and in truth the navy's gunboats are militarized whaling vessels - whales of course were long extinct on Earth, but planners had foreseen the possibility of needing to hunt large aquatic lifeforms. A five-inch smoothbore cannon wasn't much, but it got the job done in place of the explosive harpoon launcher the original design featured. Our first proper warship, albeit not much of one. With not much else for Ard to do right now, I start building up our navy. Just in case.  The expansion of Al Falah's power grid completed on schedule. Nothing here is terribly important. The Faraday Gyre is our first wonder and can only be built at sea, and it's useful but nothing amazing. Improving the output of geothermal wells and quarries won't do us any good right now, as we don't have any of either, but we will in the future. Small stuff, and not what we're here for in any event.  The project accompanied a sea change in the attitude of Al Falah's people. It was technology that had brought them to the stars. Technology that had brought them to Al-Jalidia. The original Shipborn's technology had permitted them to arrive safely, and it was technological failures on the Conestoga, Reiziger, and Hakudo Maru that had doomed their colonists to a hardscrabble existence until Al Falah found them - and destroyed the Quetzalcoatl, seemingly without survivors. Humanity on Al-Jalidia would not exist if not for machines, and the people of Al Falah began to look to technology again as the solution to whatever problems this icy world had left in its arsenal. We gained enough Supremacy points that we completely skipped level 2! Supremacy Level 2 posted:The first five machines of Earth are: The wheel, the lever, the inclined plane, the dynamo, and the screw. Level 2 Supremacy gives all our explorers another expedition. More importantly, by hitting level 3 we are now officially considered a Supremacy civilization! Arshia's appearance in the diplomacy screen won't change just yet, we don't have any unique Supremacy units or structures yet, and no AI is going to care because none of them have hit level 3 in an affinity of their own yet, but we're not going to see any more branching affinity quests. By committing to Supremacy, we're now only going to see Supremacy exclusive quests, like the children's toys achieving sentience and asking for their rights. Yes, that's a thing that can happen.  Upgrade time!  The Defense Force's new armored combat units were designed for maneuver warfare and flanking attacks rather than hitting the enemy - whoever they might turn out to be - head on. I find the flanking bonus comes into play more often than the anti-fortified bonus.  The converted whalers were deemed an embarrassment to be quickly forgotten. The new Corsair class cruisers enjoyed a rifled six-inch cannon firing guided projectiles and a stern-mounted missile launcher with modular software capable of firing both anti-surface cruise missiles and surface-to-air missiles as needed. I don't see the point of the land bombardment bonus on this kind of map. If we're going to fight anyone, it will be mostly in the water and the air.  Advanced camoflauge and thermal shielding were adopted by the Defense Force's ranger units, making them much more resilient to bombardment. If you can't see it, you can't hit it. If you can't hit it, you can't kill it. Eh.  Al Falah's first submarines were civilian craft refitted with torpedoes and missiles. The new Tidehunter class were dedicated subsurface warships. Both bonuses have their use. Where do you think you're more likely to use them?  That Al-Jalidia was volcanically active under the surface had been known since Planetfall thanks to the Golden Shah's tectonic scanner. Actually making use of the planet's geothermal resources safely, though, required in-depth study of the planet's geophysics and local conditions. A study authorized by the Office of Science and Development. I usually leave this for later if there isn't any geothermal around. We do have geothermal around, though, so even though energy isn't a priority of mine, may as well get it hooked up.  Arshia was amused when it was Farah's city council that jumped first on a truly massive engineering project proposal: the so-called Faraday Gyre, which would provide an immense source of electrical power. The project was risky, but Kishk approved the project all the same. Better to dare and fail than never try. This is a gamble, and the Faraday Gyre isn't even all that good. The AI likes to beeline for this wonder, but I decided that since no one's grabbed it yet, might as well give it a shot. The Gyre requires a sea city, though, so I can't build it in Ard.  What is that attitude, after all, if not the spirit that brought humanity to this world?   ...Admittedly with varying degrees of success.    Another controversial decision by the Civil Administration, but one Kishk signed regardless. Everyone in Al Falah must contribute. The vivarium quest: +1 food or +1 science. I go for some more science, I've been picking lots of food options anyway.  Greek voices join the Sleeper Quarter in Ard as Outrider completes its expedition near INTEGR. Hermes Industries had been a world leader in aerospace technology at the time of the Seeding, and purchased space aboard INTEGR's starship with their technical support in exchange for the freedom to depart the colony after planetfall to seek their own fortunes. Notably poor fortunes as things turned out, and a vote by surviving Hermes personnel elected to join Al Falah in Ard rather than go back to Weltgeist. The Balkans joke was in poor taste and I'm sorry.  Despite Al-Jalidia's icy surface, the planet was remarkably active under the surface. Tapping the world's geothermal resources would require great care, and the studies suggested other, less volatile sources of energy as well. Now we can make use of geothermal resources, which naturally enough grant energy. Not too useful, but many of the game's wonders require geothermal. Tidal turbines are an energy producing structure exclusive to sea cities.  The Office's next priority came down from Arshia Kishk herself: the colony is established, and now it's time to build a proper computing infrastructure. Science and Development was only too happy to comply with the mandate. Artillery, spies, and a science boosting structure. What's not to love?   Water was very common on Al-Jalidia. Potable fresh water was not. The Civil Administration began to crack down on the security and maintenance of city water supplies. The alternative is free maintenance for water refineries. I'll take the food any day. State of Al Falah, turn 96 The end of Al Falah's third local year on Al-Jalidia marked more than four years on Earth, a disparity that would only grow as time went on. As preparations began for the four-day celebration of Planetfall with the new year, a Chungsu officer reported a palpable change in the mood from the year before. Al Falah's first Planetfall festival had had a certain nervous energy, a not quite mania born of uncertainty whether they would survive in this cold, brutal realm where so many had not. This year was different. This year, there was no question that Al Falah would survive. Shipborn and Sleepers both looked forward to the new year, confident that there would be many more to come. What was on everyone's minds above all else was the announcement that martial law would be ending during the Planetfall festival. Though the Golden Shah had launched under civilian control, sixty-one years into the journey the military had taken control and created the Governing Council with the Captain at their head. This oligarchy had lasted even onto the new world. Until now. The Peoples' Assembly had recently finished construction in the government district of Ard, and at the end of the Planetfall festival Arshia Kishk would formally step down as Governor. Every citizen of Al Falah of at least eighteen years of age, even the recently arrived Japanese and Greek refugees, would be given the right to vote for both representatives in the Assembly and for the post of Secretary-General. A carefully leaked copy of Kishk's planned speech for the festival stressed that Al Falah were not merely the Shipborn, not a race or line of descent, but a people united by a spirit and vision for the future.  Ard is the largest city in Al Falah, and quite possibly the largest human settlement anywhere on Al-Jalidia. Darker rumors hold that Ard might be the largest human settlement in the entire galaxy. Arabic remains the official language of Al Falah, but travel to the Sleeper Quarter of Ard and a traveler will see signs in English and Dutch as well - and, more recently, also Japanese and Greek. Take a tram or ride a slidewalk, and in the residential neighborhoods of Ard you can easily forget that you're on an alien world at all. Street vendors and restaurants sell all manner of foodstuffs, some Earthly and some Jalidian, and semi-feral cats (escapees from Ard's cytonursery cloning the domestic cat back into existence) happily perch on public benches for pats while a local mosque sounds the call to prayer. The artistic spirit of Ard's citizens remains strong, and almost every street enjoys some local's paintings. Look up, and drones buzz through the skies overhead. Look to the side, and it's a rare resident who doesn't have a personal digital device at their side.  Farah remains a little more provincial than the other cities of Al Falah to date, drifting on the seas to the east of Ard and northeast of Aswat Adida. Farah was, any local will proudly tell you, the first new city to be settled on Al-Jalidia, and there's a stubborn streak of independence to the city and its inhabitants. The immense Faraday Gyre is steadily taking shape on the edge of the city, and the smell of salt air is inescapable in the city. Most ARKs on Earth built large contiguous platforms where it was easy to forget you were at sea at all. Not so Farah, which is a labyrinth of criss-crossing platforms and walkways. Drones are no less common here than in Ard, but here they're most frequently found corralling anyone who seems in danger of falling into the water.  Aswat Adida remains smaller than Ard and Farah, but clearly has plenty of room to grow. Arabic is still the dominant language here, but signs everywhere also have English in smaller script underneath. It's a young city, filled with a sense of potential, and a number of Japanese refugees have recently drifted into the city. Construction works around the clock in Aswat Adida, promising a better future for these intrepid souls. Cythereal fucked around with this message at 01:41 on Aug 23, 2019 |
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Aug 23, 2019 00:50
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How many abandoned/derelict settlements does that make?
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Aug 23, 2019 01:47
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Kangxi posted:How many abandoned/derelict settlements does that make? Eight. And a wrecked colony lander. I'm recording the next update right now and already found another wrecked lander.
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Aug 23, 2019 02:11
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quote:Farah remains a little more provincial than the other cities of Al Falah to date, drifting on the seas to the east of Ard and northeast of Aswat Adida. Farah was, any local will proudly tell you, the first new city to be settled on Al-Jalidia, and there's a stubborn streak of independence to the city and its inhabitants. The immense Faraday Gyre is steadily taking shape on the edge of the city, and the smell of salt air is inescapable in the city. Most ARKs on Earth built large contiguous platforms where it was easy to forget you were at sea at all. Not so Farah, which is a labyrinth of criss-crossing platforms and walkways. Drones are no less common here than in Ard, but here they're most frequently found corralling anyone who seems in danger of falling into the water.
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Aug 23, 2019 02:17
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Cythereal posted:Eight. And a wrecked colony lander. I'm recording the next update right now and already found another wrecked lander. This planet is no curse! Planet is a blessing, keeping us safe from the depravities of the other Terran factions while we finish our search for forgiveness and transformation. Thank you, Planet! 
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Aug 23, 2019 02:42
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Siegkrow posted:"FARAH DRONES KEEP CLUMSY HUMANS FROM FALLING TO SEA, FARAH DRONES ARE GOOD DRONES" It's like they're weird reverse Roombas.
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Aug 23, 2019 02:46
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Slaan posted:This planet is no curse! Planet is a blessing, keeping us safe from the depravities of the other Terran factions while we finish our search for forgiveness and transformation. Thank you, Planet! May as well show my finding:  If anyone's alive down there, they're either the luckiest unlucky bastards in the history of mankind, or the unluckiest lucky bastards. Either way, submarines can't do expeditions and explorers can't cross the ice. Assuming I remember, I will get an explorer in here to investigate before the game's end. Just, it will require... unconventional methods, that we won't have access to for a long time.
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Aug 23, 2019 02:46
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That Balkans joke was 100% accurate and also funny
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Aug 23, 2019 09:53
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Reversing polarity: the solution to all engineering problems!  With so many cultures, Al Falah is starting to feel like Earth in miniature. Let's hope the fledgling democracy will successfully safeguard minority rights. Also "Jalidian" rolls off the tongue nicely, well done.
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Aug 23, 2019 16:48
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Darkest Auer posted:That Balkans joke was 100% accurate and also funny Also, I'm loving the way INTEGR is the exact opposite of what a lot of wehraboos want. It's a nice, refreshing look at Germany.
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Aug 23, 2019 16:51
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Civlopedia time! People we met, things we learned, and stuff we made!INTEGR posted:When the EU dissolved in the years following the Great Mistake, a party known as INTEGR arose as a political movement in opposition to the Franco-Iberian majority. Germany had long preached the value of accountability, and many in central and eastern Europe felt the Franco-Iberia leadership was committing the same mistakes that caused the dysfunctional nature of the original EU in the first place. Franco-Iberia was using outdated ideas for contemporary issues; focusing on growth when they should be enforcing austerity measures; being irresponsible in the wake of a global catastrophe. While early Franco-Iberia had pledged to tackle environmental issues, it was the first item to be shelved. Seizing the opportunity, the INTEGR had found their tent-pole. Lena Ebner posted:Born in Berlin to a German diplomat and a Polish teacher, Lena was raised as a “child of the world.” Over the course of 15 years, she lived on four continents and learned to speak eight languages. She received an international education from prestigious academies in Moscow, Bogotá, the Franciscan Archipelago, and Vilnius. It was during this time that she fostered an interest in the arts, technology, and biology. As a young woman, she combined her interests and pursued a Law degree at the famed Ruprecht-Karls-Einstein-Universität Heidelberg with a specific focus on ecology, biodiversity and humanitarian tech. Yes, Lena, the leader of space Germany, and Elodie, the leader of space France and Spain (and Portugal and Italy and parts of North Africa but you'd never know it in the game), are cousins. You'd better believe they have unique dialogue with each other if you're playing one and meet the other. Planetary Survey posted:By the mid-21st Century, the stellar neighborhood of Old Earth had been completely surveyed and mapped, due in large part to the launch of numerous orbital satellites making use of such equipment as wide-field infrared, nanometer spectral, gravitational microlensing, and polarimetric telescopes and sensors. Extensive databases were filled with the information, and these databases accompanied the colonists to the new planets. Once there, using ground-based equipment primarily, the “planetary surveys” were updated and augmented to reflect the new constellations and stellar configurations as observed from the surface. In turn, these “star maps” were utilized by the colonists for a variety of pursuits, from commercial fishing to predictive agriculture to planning the positioning of orbital satellites around this new planet. Power Systems posted:From the crude coal-fired electrical generators to the massive “sunscoop,” the production of energy on Old Earth was a race against demand and dwindling resources. On this planet, plentiful sources, traditional or unexpected, for the production of energy to feed the needs of the growing colonies exist. It was only a matter of those first colonial engineers discovering how to extract and utilize those sources, constructing innovative power plants and transmission systems; utilizing a variety of methods, colonial survival is a testament to their success in doing so. Even today research into sustainable power systems is critical if we are to avoid the energy crises that plagued distant Earth. Geophysics posted:Investigation in the geophysics of this planet began even before planetfall by the colonists, for knowing the physics of their new home was critical for survival. Survey teams had started the lengthy process of cataloguing the planet’s shape, gravitational and magnetic fields, hydrologic dynamics and plate tectonics, volcanism, rock formation, internal composition, atmospheric conditions and weather, nutation, and its relationship with the rest of its star system; it was an effort that would be continued by colonial specialists for decades. Once orbital satellites were in place, the last mysteries of the geophysics of this world were understood. It remained only for colonial scientists to apply their findings to practical matters, an ongoing process of discovery and application. Launch Complex posted:The architecture and design of launch complexes has remained relatively unchanged since Mankind first sent satellites into orbit around Old Earth. The pre-Seeding spaceports and cosmodromes had launch gantries, runways or landing pads, hangars and storage, and centralized control complexes for oversight; initially built and administered by the government prior to the Great Mistake, a few commercial launch complexes for vertical or horizontal launches had also begun operations. With the efforts to expand into Solar space and exploit the other worlds circling the Sun, launch complexes were also built on the Moon, Mars, Titan, Ganymede and elsewhere. When the Seeding began, given the size of the interstellar ships, Earth’s powers constructed “Node 1” launch complexes in low-Earth orbits for these. The colonies on this world, when ready to return to space, perforce used layouts similar to those perfected in the Solar System. The most challenging aspect of building launch complexes proved to be the scarcity of geologically stable sites; even with underground storage for propellants, the risks of having a complex near a settlement were daunting. Nevertheless, a number were constructed in the traditional style … until advances in mag-lev altered the manner of launching objects into space from this planetary surface. Water Refinery posted:On Old Earth the term “aquifer” refers to a substratum of water-bearing permeable rock; on this planet, the colonists used “water plants” (deep-well pumping stations) to extract water from these deep underground layers. Having somewhat less free fresh water than Earth, it was found that water requirements for agricultural, industrial and human use often exceeded availability on the surface. Thus, in many places it became necessary to drive or drill wells to bring useable water to the surface from aquifers, where water plants purified the liquid of the many contaminants found in it on this planet. The first step in the placing of some settlements was the use of sophisticated seismographic equipment by xeno-geologists to identify promising locations; using a variety of drilling methods – top-head rotary bits, lasers, masers and other forms of high-energy fracturing – a deep-rock well was driven down to the aquifer. Once capped, through a variety of filtration and chemical methods, the water plant removed the suspended particulates, parasites, fungi, chlorine and minerals. The well head and plant were protected by the construction of an enclosed structure to regulate flow and storage. In many settlements, the water plant was, for many years, the single most important structure for the residents, for without it there would be no settlement. Petrochemical Plant posted:Whether producing petroleum products, food oils, or natural gases such as ethane, butane and pentane, petro plants use bio-chemical engineering processes to convert raw resources into usable products. Other types of refineries use anhydrous pyrolysis to recycle plastic, rubber or biological waste into crude fuel oil, carbon black and non-condensable gases. Whatever the end final product, the colonists needed it for their burgeoning industrialization. Despite technical advances over the decades on Old Earth, however, there were still significant safety and environmental concerns attendant to plant operations. Hence, some colonies invested heavily in the building of refineries, while others avoided construction so much as possible. The issue would develop into one of the first significant ethical divides separating the various philosophic tenets to settling this planet, most notably between those adopting Harmony and those following a Purity approach. But none could argue with the need for the materials produced, so petro plants remained common in the colonial landscape, with air and wastewater pollution limited – but not eliminated – in a variety of ways. Repair Facility posted:In such harsh conditions as this planet offered, a facility for effecting repairs on military equipment, especially vehicles, was a necessity. The first military repair facilities were similar to military backshops on Old Earth, a warehouse for modular SRUs (shop-replaceable units) and LRU (line-replaceable units) that could be used to build and later repair vehicles through the swapping in of pre-fabricated sub-systems (such as engines or suspensions or weapons). Specialized facilities were later devoted to construction and maintenance of air and naval units where appropriate. After the vehicles that had been part of the original manifest had been put together, the colonial repair facility was usually put to service adapting ship salvage, machining parts individually and constructing new military vehicles, often from improved designs developed after landing. Many of the repair facilities included laboratories and testing areas, for the “mechanics” of the settlements were often highly trained engineers themselves, and discovered and adapted new technologies to produce new vehicles suited to this new world. The repair facilities evolved as the vehicles did, becoming ever more sophisticated operations, and remain an integral part of the colonial armed forces even today. Drydock posted:All watercraft, from the ancient raft to contemporary hydrophobic a-levbarques, are constructed outside of their aquatic environment. Access of personnel and heavy machinery to the most delicate and sensitive portions of an aquatic vessel requires dry-land assembly, or the ability to remove the vessel from the water in some form. The Drydock complex facilitates and expedites the latter by utilizing mag-lev engines in tandem with automated machinery to construct vessels in a marine environment. A mobile factory platform comprised of aerial and subaquatic drones, the Drydock is capable of simulating a dry-land environment in any situation. Larger craft—such as cargo vessels and carriers—are constructed above-water and lowered into regular dock, whereas smaller naval vessels like submarines or gunboats are constructed by displacing the area around the construction site. This allows for subaquatic construction while minimizing production time. Some colonial engineers have integrated the use of Floatstone hydraulics to aid in suspension and build time for component assembly. As far as construction, the Drydock completely replaces the graving and floating docks of Old Earth in favor of an adaptable, multi-purpose facility.
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Aug 23, 2019 17:24
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Cythereal posted:Cursed though Al-Jalidia might seem, the planet is at least rich in thorium. A nuclear fusion plant relying on thorium fuel begins to take shape in Ard. Very minor note: thorium reactors are fission, not fusion.
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Aug 24, 2019 07:13
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The Lone Badger posted:Very minor note: thorium reactors are fission, not fusion. That distinction would seem to be the opposite of "very minor"
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Aug 24, 2019 10:15
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HannibalBarca posted:That distinction would seem to be the opposite of "very minor" It's a difference of 2 letters, that's pretty minor.
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Aug 24, 2019 11:04
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Breaking the Ice State of Al Falah, turn 96 Ard Farah Aswat Adida  The new year also brought an official government endorsement of private trade with the other colonies. That's +2 health right now, and will only get better as we grow and expand. Small but handy, and a prerequisite for other things.  No survivors from the latest derelict settlement. Standard Mineral Resources had broken off from the Stet Mining Consortium's successful platform hoping to strike it rich on their own. They failed.  Arshia Kishk easily won Al Falah's first open election. Critics cited her emphasis on protecting the rights of the Sleeper and Planetborn minorities in Al Falah and strong support of inter-colonial trade and cooperation as key to her continued success.  More expeditions. I churned out a couple more explorers off-camera, so I'm going to stop covering the details of what sites they find, just the results.  The PAC sent its regards concerning Al Falah's new year celebration.  Faraday Gyre posted:The Faraday Gyre is a city-sized electromagnet capable of creating an immense source of low-voltage power that can supply modest motors and batteries. The massive vortex turbine artificially-induces an oceanic gyre seeded with millions of metallic micro-filaments. When properly applied, the magnetic force from this phenomenon induces a significant electric current. The Faraday Gyre, which had met with considerable skepticism from the Civil Administration in Ard when proposed, was a success. More than a success, the facility was a spectacular feat of engineering. The long-term effects of the Gyre on Al-Jalidia's currents and marine wildlife would need to be monitored closely, but Secretary-General Arshia Kishk personally toured the facility's grand opening and declared it a triumph of Al Falah's ingenuity, industry, and imagination.     The Gyre was also a diplomatic boon to Al Falah as word of Farah's achievement filtered across Al-Jalidia. Every colonial government recognized Al Falah's achievement as a great success. This surprises me, to be honest. The AI likes to get the Gyre super early, and if you build a wonder that an AI was building or simply wanted, they'll be rather snide and disapprove. Daoming's comment about not having spare time for projects like this amuses me for a different reason. The PAC's special ability is building wonders instantly. Lady, you are the one person on this ball of ice who doesn't need to worry about the time investment of wonders.  The discovery of another colony lander at the bottom of the ocean was disturbing, but the Defense Force reluctantly concluded that there was nothing Al Falah could do about the situation. Explorer units couldn't penetrate the ice pack, and submarines didn't carry the requisite equipment. We will eventually be able to check this out, but that won't be for a long time.  Al Falah's naval buildup and technological advancement had admirers. Among people who knew more about said advancement than they should.   Another coup for Kishk's first term as Secretary-General was the North Jalidia Cooperation Treaty with the Pan-Asian Cooperative. Though the PAC seemed more interested in preserving their past than looking to the future as Al Falah did, relations began to steadily warm between Al-Jalidia's two northerly powers. Our first cooperation treaty! The PAC is leaning Purity, but I'm glad to be friends with them. A cooperation treaty improves the yields of our trade route between Ard and Tiangong, and will grant other benefits we'll see later in this update.   The forces of capitalism may be tightly leashed in Al Falah, but basic economic realities had yet to be overcome. The Peoples' Assembly began pressuring the Civil Administration to seek new trade markets.  Fortunately, such opportunities were available. 'New Babylon' was the newly founded floating headquarters for the Ishtar Studios corporation that had come to Al-Jalidia with the North Sea Alliance. On Earth, Ishtar had been a film corporation of some size active in North America and Europe - the name suggested a tendency towards the more salacious and scandalous sorts of films, but by the time of the Seeding the company had reinvented itself in a more wholesome image supporting the Seeding. Our first Supremacy exclusive quest! We don't have any available trade route slots right now...  ...But we have ways of changing that. Another city will do us nicely.   The Treaty of Jeongsang formalized the state of peace between Al Falah and Chungsu, though trade had yet to pick up like the treaty between Al Falah and the PAC had done for those powers. The best guess by Al Falah officials for the real motives of the notoriously enigmatic Director Han-Jae Moon in pursuing closer relations was fear of Al Falah's steadily growing navy. Our second peace treaty! Note the red score at the bottom of the screen that reads 9/9. Moon probably doesn't love or fear us as much as he's claiming to here - he has one of the lowest honesty scores in the game - but I'll certainly take it.  Personal computers for the everyday citizen and huge research machines were once again a fact of life in Al Falah. Computers had been a critical part of life in the colony since Planetfall, but only now were truly sophisticated computers commonplace and a part of life for even the lowliest citizens. On the left we have missile rovers, our first artillery unit we'll probably never build. In the middle, the spy agency, a national wonder that will give us access to the espionage system. And on the right, the network, a science building that in Rising Tide also gives diplomatic capital. The internet is back!  For the Sleepers, at least, it was a potent reminder of home. Like I said in the affinity post, we'll get random incidental levels like this from general research.  The notion of an official spy agency for Al Falah did not sit well with Kishk, but she grudgingly admitted the necessity.  Given Al Falah's growing tendency towards technophilia, jumping from computer research to practical robotics for the colony was a matter of course. Hey, that isn't the cropped tech web screen we've been looking at from the beginning of the game! Even if Robotics wasn't an incredibly flavorful tech for a Supremacy civilization, it unlocks a lot of useful stuff.    The same vision as before, but no less electrifying for the explorers. Shortly after the discovery, the so-called Muses began to appear in Al Falah: personal digital assistants that could 'inhabit' multiple devices, and would 'learn' the preferences and common requests of their users. Muses were nothing remotely like artificial intelligence, but they were so convenient for everyday life in Al Falah that they rapidly became an omnipresent fact of life. People tended to give their Muses names and even commission artwork of their vision for their personal assistant. Arshia Kishk remained characteristically reticent about her personal life when asked whether she had a Muse - and whether she would consider marrying after this long on Al-Jalidia as a single mother.  The explorers also found a more concrete Progenitor artifact in the ruin, and could identify what the artifact was. What it was actually used for remained obscure.  Another affinity level means another unit upgrade. Here's the full screen, though we can only upgrade our missile rovers right now.  The Defense Force's new model of self-propelled artillery were optimized for destroying hostile forces in the field rather than siege bombardments. Pretty simple choice based on what you're using your artillery for.   Orbital operations advocates prevailed over more conservative military thinkers in the Defense Force's latest debate. Here's an odd one: repair facilities (barracks, for you regular Civ fans) gaining a further bonus to unit production, or further expanding the city's orbital coverage? Both have uses, but I've been such a production hog I opted for the orbital choice.  Kishk agreed. All the military traits are somewhat situational, but this is a highly versatile bonus considering how far our orbital coverage can reach.  This expedition made me realize I have no idea how much time is actually supposed to be passing in this game.  This was not the strangest thing Arshia read all day. This is Jim, Bob, and Willy. They are very docile raptor bugs. They cannot board transports and will be left on this island until the end of time.    This was. Why the result of researchers working with hallucinogenic alien planets, Progenitor technology, and high-powered construction equipment should be an easily produced pill that let one go without sleep for a week at a time was a question for greater minds than Arshia Kishk's. YES. This is the other reasonably common super good reward from artifacts. You normally have to build a wonder to get this effect - a wonder I was planning on going for soon, no less.   They did not. +1 culture or free maintenance for networks.  Farah's citizens watch from afar as a North Sea Alliance gunboat exterminates a local school of rippers. The AI will almost always go to war with the aliens.   More mysterious broadcasts were sent less than a week after the Internal Security Service began operations. Like I said, I'll probably ignore this questline. It wants you to do offensive spying and rewards you by making you better at offensive spying, and that's not where my interests are.  Welcome to the espionage screen - possibly the last time we'll ever see this. On the right, you can see the Headquarters assignment. This is a passive bonus you get from agents not assigned anywhere, and this early in the game I set it to Propaganda for the health bonus. However, look at Ard. See that blue diamond and a half under the city name? That's Ard's intrigue level. Somebody's been spying on us! There's a wide variety of covert operations you can perform in a city, and most of them generate some amount of intrigue in the city. As a city's intrigue level goes up, spies can do more and more powerful things in the city. Low level actions tend to not actually harm the target city at all, but as intrigue gets higher nastier things become possible. At level 5 intrigue, Bad poo poo can happen to a city. Never, ever let a city reach 5 intrigue.  I dispatch agent Lisha to Ard to get a handle on intrigue. While assigned to Ard, she'll have a good chance of stopping covert operations, exposing or even killing hostile spies, and steadily decrease the city's intrigue level. As a matter of fact, it's almost certainly Chungsu that's been spying on us. I can't prove it, but Chungsu's sponsor bonus is all about spying, and they start with a spy agency and one spy to make use of it from the word go. You can also see a new use for espionage in Rising Tide here: we could spend diplomatic capital to deploy an agent to secure one portion each of strategic resources from the black market.  The People's Assembly signed a new series of trade practices and standards into law. This is +18 energy right now from Stet Mining. This will turn into 18 more with any other station we trade with. Like New Babylon once that gets started.  The NSA gunboat near Farah continues to clear out the wildlife. Thanks, Duncan!  The new colony expedition settles to the northwest of Aswat Adida on the same large island. The settlement's name is typical of the optimism that's recently begun to characterize Al Falah. Midfa'a is literally 'place of warmth' in Arabic, and is typically used to describe a hearth or fireplace. Fitting!   In the vote, the Assembly favors the Civil Administration's agenda over the Defense Force's. The militarist faction is disappointed. +1 production, or +15% production for naval units. I'll take the more general boost.  Al Falah explorers look on as the Alliance's aggression against the wildlife is not restricted to naval campaigns.  I decide it's time we got an agreement of our own! From the diplomacy screen, we can see a list of all the available agreements with our neighbors. Chungsu and PAC are marked in green because we're Cooperating with them, which improves the effect of most agreements between the cooperating colonies.  The Office of Foreign Affairs first approaches Chungsu about support for an academic lobbying group, but Han-Jae Moon politely declines. When asked why, the director simply states that Al Falah lacked the harmony required for such an endeavor. I forgot to get a screenshot of Moon saying no, but the AI can be frustratingly unpredictable about whether to make agreements or not even when you're on good terms with them. Might be because as we can see at the bottom of the screen here, Chungsu's going Harmony.   The Pan-Asian Cooperative is considerably more receptive to a proposal to impose direct government control over Al Falah's strategic resources. Chungsu shot down my desire for more science, so I ask Daoming to indulge my industrial production fetish and she says yes. This would only be +1 production if the PAC was merely neutral to us.  The agreement is lauded by the PAC's civil authorities. The person you sign an agreement with will always pipe up that they're happy. Anyone else they're cooperating or better with will also chime in that they approve. Anyone hostile to who you're dealing with will call you an idiot. Daoming is neutral to everyone else we've met so no one else comments on the agreement.  Practical automation and industrial robotics, a staple of the Seeding on Earth, finally returned to Al Falah. At long last, the people of Al Falah could say they had rebuilt capabilities equivalent to the world they had left behind. Everything here is good. Tacjets are the game's first air unit - you get them from Robotics because they're explicitly UAVs like a Predator or Global Hawk. Autoplants are a production boosting structure that used to have the most broken building upgrade quest in the game. We can now mine firaxite, our first alien strategic resource and one that Supremacy uses for drat near everything. And we can build Manufactories, a tile improvement that can be built on any land tile for a big production boost.  In less than a year, most of Al Falah's industries were largely automated. More than just a technophiliac society of early adopters, the people of Al Falah were increasingly proud of their dependence on machines and technology. They had been on the voyage from Earth, so why should anything change now? Muses were only getting smarter, to the point of predicting their user's needs, and on the new networks many citizens were able to work from home - sometimes executing their will through a robot at the actual job site. Telecommuting took on an entirely new meaning. No unit upgrade at level 5, sadly.  At last satisfied with simply rebuilding humanity's capabilities from Earth, Al Falah's brightest minds turned their attention to a greater understanding of their new world and its unique opportunities. Another important tech, Alien Sciences will let us make use of xenomass.   That and the massive pollution from regular civil access to plastic on Earth was a well attested part of public record. Al Falah had always abhorred waste, and the use of plastic was to be strictly regulated. +2 production or +2 culture. I feel that culture's value is falling off now, I already got the big early game advantages it gives you. We also happen to have only one source of petroleum at the moment anyway. State of Al Falah, Turn 113 I'm pretty happy with how things are going for us. We're almost done with what I consider the crucial early game techs, and we lucked out big time with our artifact discoveries. The one real drawback to the game so far is the dearth of firaxite. Most of Supremacy's special toys require firaxite, and my exploration's found shockingly little of the stuff anywhere. We probably won't be seeing all of Supremacy's unique units and structures for simple lack of resources to make them with, unless I get lucky with finding city sites. Diplomatically, we can expect relations with Chungsu to cool and INTEGR to warm from here on out. Chungsu is at 3 Harmony, meaning they'll likely stay that way. INTEGR is at 3 Supremacy, so the Germans will likely be our robot buddies. PAC and NSA have yet to settle on an affinity - PAC is at 2 Purity 2 Supremacy, and NSA is at 1 of everything.  Ard is promptly setting to work on an autoplant while a worker starts on a manufactory in the tundra hills to the west. We have plenty of useless tundra and snow to explore all the weird special improvements.  Not much going on in Farah, just the usual building and resource exploitation.  Aswat Adida is growing fast. Given all the miasma forests, I'll need to think about either clearing the miasma or researching the tech to make workers immune to the stuff.  Fingers crossed Midfa'a gets off the ground before New Babylon folds. I'd like to complete this quest.
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Aug 24, 2019 12:30
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There's no reason to not at least do the first couple steps of the Culper lodge quest, since it's not going to piss anyone off and extra spies can be used for a variety of things, like fixing that lack of firaxite. In general the AI's are pretty chill about offensive spying as long as you keep to the lower level ops that aren't going to actually harm them, like siphon energy. And, since you're going supremacy, you'll have easy access to a bunch of spying bonuses from quests, so maybe consider getting up to some cloak and dagger stuff.
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Aug 24, 2019 16:28
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The SA forums are getting brought back in the new planet.
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Aug 24, 2019 17:04
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Good news is, I recorded the next update and we get a bunch of shiny new upgrades while meeting the rest of our neighbors. Bad news is, four more derelict settlements. Cythereal fucked around with this message at 17:46 on Aug 24, 2019 |
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Aug 24, 2019 17:31
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Siegkrow posted:The SA forums are getting brought back in the new planet. Cythereal posted:Bad news is, three more derelict settlements.
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Aug 24, 2019 17:47
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Cythereal posted:Bad news is, four more derelict settlements. Good news, we're far enough in these can be failed or unsanctioned outposts, enclaves of artists, people with mirror-touch synesthesia from less welcoming landings, homesteaders who underestimated the local wildlife, or etc. Bad news based on your planet size and how bad the AI is at exploring you're probably going to run into 30 more
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Aug 24, 2019 17:58
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PoptartsNinja posted:Good news, we're far enough in these can be failed or unsanctioned outposts, enclaves of artists, people with mirror-touch synesthesia from less welcoming landings, homesteaders who underestimated the local wildlife, or etc. Yeah, I decided that it's been long enough for that stuff to have happened. It's just turned into enough of a running gag in this LP that I'm still making note of it when I find them. I'm skipping most of the expedition sites and results now unless they unlock something interesting.
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Aug 24, 2019 18:01
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