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I told you that we needed farms before research! Hire the guy and Get soil enrichment Kelev will still be the preferable planet in this case. Keep on writing the Lore! This game doesn't have too much so your interpretation of the technology in the game and how our species uses it enhances the story you are writing.
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Oct 11, 2016 17:03
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nweismuller posted:Shipkillers, Laser Cannon, and Attack Boats- the Basic Theory of Void Combat This is a good post. What's the current Narestan thinking on spaceborne combat tactics? Squadrons of drones deploying from dedicated carriers? Energy weapon frigates? Long range missile cruisers?
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Oct 12, 2016 04:27
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Teledahn posted:This is a good post. There are, currently, three main schools of thought with their own proponents. Some advocate a pure attack boat strategy for potential void combat, thinking that attack boats will be able to thwart any missile-armed threats and effectively launch offensive strikes. The other two schools believe a hybrid approach might be more viable. One side believes that reliance on missile volleys from long range as primary offensive firepower will be reliable and powerful, using carrier escorts to protect against missile counterfire or launch offensive strikes as the situation warrants. The other believes that development of long-range kinetics could effectively defeat enemy armor and do absolutely devastating damage from long range, again backed up by escort carriers that can flexibly operate either defensively or offensively, and which would likely be able to use better kinetic weapon technology to upgrade their attack boats. Do feel free to advocate for any of these sides.
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Oct 12, 2016 04:43
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What difficulty is this LP being played on?
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Oct 12, 2016 04:49
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cheetah7071 posted:What difficulty is this LP being played on? Normal. I tend to prefer Normal playthroughs on 4Xs, mostly because 'transparent cheating by the computer' isn't terribly fun for me, even if I'm good enough to overcome it.
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Oct 12, 2016 04:53
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Definitely love the lore posts! Thanks much for doing them.
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Oct 12, 2016 04:55
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How far are we from any kind of technology that'll make planets more habitable? Or is that not a thing that shows up in this series?
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Oct 13, 2016 00:53
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Terraforming exists, but I don't remember where on the tech tree it is. And there are techs to deal with gravity and radiation as well.
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Oct 13, 2016 00:55
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Glazius posted:How far are we from any kind of technology that'll make planets more habitable? Or is that not a thing that shows up in this series? Terraforming is an early midgame tech if you prioritize it. There's a lategame tech that can turn a terran planet up to a gaia planet too. Combined with planetary shields turning radiated planets into barren, and gravity generators normalizing gravity to whatever your species' preferred gravity is (or maybe always to normal gravity, I'm not sure), the only "unfixable" aspects of a planet are its size, its mineral richness, and whether or not it has a toxic atmosphere. Of course, if you play a tolerant race then terraforming has almost no purpose, since it's pretty trivial to do all your farming on 1-3 breadbasket worlds, and tolerant races don't suffer a maximum population penalty on sub-terran planets. e: apparently tolerant races do have their maximum population reduced by planet climate, just significantly less so than a non-tolerant race. Learn something new every day. cheetah7071 fucked around with this message at 01:18 on Oct 13, 2016 |
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Oct 13, 2016 01:03
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Gravity generators mean you can have gravity as high or low as you want (within reasonable limits) anywhere on the planet. In gameplay terms, you can have different species with all 3 gravity preferences on, say, a high gravity planet, and they'll all be able to function normally and at 100% productivity.
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Oct 13, 2016 01:11
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First of all, Nweis, darn you for getting me to reinstall this game. I don't have time to "1 more turn" until 2am anymore!  nweismuller posted:Normal. I tend to prefer Normal playthroughs on 4Xs, mostly because 'transparent cheating by the computer' isn't terribly fun for me, even if I'm good enough to overcome it. I actually jumped back in on Hard, and except for one bit* it was pretty smooth sailing. The cheating is pretty minor and basically serves to make up for an AI that doesn't actually know how to play the game (they don't know how to optimize colony choices, so they get extra production and population, stuff like that). If you're content with the council ending, Normal is way too easy because you can out-expand everybody and vote yourself god-emperor. * That one bit actually kind of reminds me of your other LP. I randomly picked the off-the-rack races and got Sakkra, and on my dino baby liebensraum expansion the first AI met was silicoids, who proceeded to immediately send scouts into my new systems, sneak attack and declare war. It was a smart play, and I actually had to reload and start making missile boats to counter theirs (I guessed wrong on what ships to rush build) to survive the early game, since I couldn't bribe them since Repulsive. But after that, no big problems. One thing MOO2 veterans might be able to answer me about : the silicoids and mrrshans think I'm an oath-breaker and refused peace under any terms unless I capitulated big-time (like giving them 2 systems and a tribute plan). But I never attacked first and I played enough Simtex games to know not to even move military units at the border (which left me wide open when the mrrshan attacked  ). Any idea what caused that? The silicoids did frame me for espionage on the klackons and mrrshan (and imagine how they pulled that off), but I don't know if that counts (maybe it violates a research treaty...?).
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Oct 13, 2016 02:57
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Did you have a nonaggression pact with anybody you got framed with? Having a nonaggression pact broken by you conducting espionage counts as an oathbreaker thing, and being framed saddles you with those consequences.
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Oct 13, 2016 03:38
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Ahh, yeah, that's probably it. I like using non-aggression pacts with people I don't plan on fighting (like if there's another empire between them and me), and didn't realize spies count against that. Gotta say, that's a pretty clever way of getting around Repulsive: you don't have access to Demand somebody go to war against your enemies, but frame their allies and you can probably make it happen. Edit: Oh, yeah, I forgot but my brother was watching at that point and reminded me; but I actually made a research treaty and non-aggression pact with the mrrshans once, and then lost contact when the silicoids wiped out one of my colonies. When contact resumed, all my treaties with the mrrshan were gone. I didn't have any problem making friends with them again at the time, but now I wonder if the game counted you as breaking those agreements. I just quit a run on Impossible with Mrrshans (only change was swapping from Empire to Feudal and picking up Lucky with the points, y'know, since cats) and guess who my first neighbors were again?  I guess with 8 players out of 13 options odds are you'll draw a silicoid, but next door twice in a row? Argh.
Wayne fucked around with this message at 04:16 on Oct 13, 2016 |
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Oct 13, 2016 04:10
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I'd advise against using feudal on impossible. I really like it, but it requires a very specific playstyle, and a set of traits that lets you get around its biggest weaknesses. Try out custom humans with the subterranean trait added, and take the minuses to combat skills, it can work out surprisingly well. Even if you can't negotiate with the likes of Silicoids, charismatic helps give you time before they decide to invade you, and subterranean allows you to make far better use of planets than you normally would, while not making your game a gimmick run.
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Oct 13, 2016 04:21
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Wayne posted:Edit: Oh, yeah, I forgot but my brother was watching at that point and reminded me; but I actually made a research treaty and non-aggression pact with the mrrshans once, and then lost contact when the silicoids wiped out one of my colonies. When contact resumed, all my treaties with the mrrshan were gone. I didn't have any problem making friends with them again at the time, but now I wonder if the game counted you as breaking those agreements. In my experience, loss of contact cuts trade and research treaties, but not non-aggression pacts- if your non-aggression pact was broken, that suggests more happened than just loss of contact.
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Oct 13, 2016 14:20
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Trade on Alien Shores By 482, major breakthroughs in robotic automation revolutionised mining, construction, and industry in Narestan society. Heavy equipment able to be programmed for semi-autonomous operation and capable of high-precision remote operation for delicate tasks that required Narestan judgement allowed for most of the difficult and dangerous tasks in mining, construction, and forestry to be handed off to robots and drone operators, while continued advancements in design of robotic assembly lines and industrial equipment allowed factories to continue to expand their capacity. As the new technology was quickly adopted, mines were pushed deeper, production of raw resources was increased, and factories expanded their operations to churn out the equipment and goods needed by Narestan civilisation. Preparation for a second interstellar colonisation mission accelerated.  Within a decade of this breakthrough, in 492, a new colony was established on Telesen, the radiation-seared planet orbiting closest to the red star Kelev. Despite the hostile environment and relatively poor local resources, Telesen nonetheless seemed to be one of the best candidates for exploitation by Narestan colonists in the immediate area, who were hoping to overcome the challenges of creating a prosperous colony through ingenuity, industry, and technology.  A short time later in the year, Narestan colonists on Sadesal were shocked by the appearance of an alien communications probe in the Vij system. Sending a probe back to the alien probe's source strained the capacity of current reactor design to the utmost, but nonetheless eventually enough information was gathered to translate the language used by the alien probe. The Interstellar Union of Yilaria and its Colonies, a government unifying the Mrrshan species, had achieved sufficient operational range to reliably send long-range ships and probes between its territory and the Vij system. A consortium of interested companies and investors overseen by a new Board of Directors hammered together an ad hoc framework for negotiations with an alien unitary government, and prepared to see what opportunities could be achieved in dealing with the Mrrshan.     Early negotiations with the Interstellar Union in 492 were fairly productive. The Mrrshan had developed methods to use heavy isotopes of hydrogen to squeeze more endurance out of a given volume of fusion reactor fuel, which allowed for greater operational endurance for their spacecraft and probes. The ad hoc diplomatic consortium negotiated data on this technology in exchange for Narestan information on cargo mass drivers, orbital spaceports, and other innovations that expedited interplanetary trade, then parlayed this into permission for Narestan shippers and investors to begin to do business in the Interstellar Union's territory, while Mrrshan shippers and businesses could begin to visit Narestan territory. Efforts were made to get legal barriers to coordination of Narestan research departments with counterparts in Mrrshan territory removed, but the Interstellar Union's government was reluctant to permit this, at first. Investment capital began to be sunk into financing trade between the two species.  The Interstellar Union is the Mrrshan answer to endemic societal violence and warfare that previously plagued their species, a carnivorous mammaloid species. Instinctive Mrrshan territorialism and hunting behaviors render them touchy and violent outside of their familiar peer groups, with successful Mrrshan societies developing layers of hierarchical domination to force cooperation between different groups and elaborate codes of formal courtesy to ease contact between strangers. The various Mrrshan nations were eventually unified under a single military government headed by the High Marshal of the Armies and Navies. Mrrshan military doctrine emphasises tactical flexibility and independence of operations by individual commanders, and the ingenuity displayed by Mrrshan strategists, logistics officers, and tacticians is remarkable, allowing their forces to operate with an extremely high degree of effectiveness and with an extremely efficient military supply chain. Personal and economic freedoms amongst the general populace are subject to sharp and arbitrary curtailment by the government in the interests of avoiding threats to the ruling power, but a private economy continues to operate under stern government management. Personal weapons for hunting and marksmanship are a matter of art amongst the Mrrshan, and, despite Mrrshan curtailment of personal liberties, the right to personal firearms and blades below the effectiveness of military standard is unchallenged. Even with strict codes of courtesy, honor duels remain common amongst the Mrrshan.  Meanwhile, by 493, Narestan researchers had developed a series of genetically-engineered microorganisms that could be introduced into the soil of agricultural land to create a self-renewing fertilisation process that would help promote healthy plant growth, increasing yields both of vegetable food and of feed for livestock. These microorganisms had been introduced by agricultural concerns across Nares within a year, leading to a boom in agricultural productivity which eventually led to a reduction of the land area under agricultural cultivation, a drop in agricultural employment, and cheaper food prices throughout Narestan society.  Continued intense competition between agribusiness concerns on Nares continued to push attempts to find ways to bolster productivity even further. Little changed at first, but, little by little, yields began to see improvement.  By 497, security firms studying the potential threats presented by piracy or by action from the Interstellar Union had finally evolved a firm theory of space combat tactics and practises, although the practical tests of their ideas remained in the future. Defensive positions in orbital shipyards should prove sufficient to secure planetary colonies against many threats, while the development of mobile armed spacecraft to hunt and destroy hostile vessels could eventually prove critical to keeping spacelanes open to shipping. The immediate threat from the Interstellar Union was believed to be limited, given that it was not believed that the Union fielded military vessels with the necessary reactor bunkerage to cross the distance. For the moment, civilian trading vessels were all that crossed the space between the stars of the Union and those of Narestan society.     Improved reactor bunkerage had allowed the Intrepid and Venturer to strike out on new voyages of discovery. Although many of the stars they explored were fairly unremarkable in what could be found about them, the white star Perseo was found to have a planet with a nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere, wide oceans, abundant rainfall, and a biosphere largely comparable to Nares' own. Although this planet was somewhat smaller than Nares, nonetheless it proved an incredibly tempting prospect for future colonisation by the Narestan people.   As 500 YE opened, the consortium handling negotiations with the Interstellar Union was able to negotiate for the Union to remove restrictions on research collaborations crossing the Union's borders and to minimise censorship of routine communications between the two civilisations. Although Mrrshan science was notably less advanced than Narestan science, nonetheless correspondence and cooperation between the two civilisations would likely nonetheless help bring new ideas to the fore. The consortium also sounded out advanced technological applications available to Mrrshan industry, seeing if domestic firms and investors would be interested in acquiring the data necessary to replicate these achievements. Narestan Civilisation as of 500 YE  Nares is now well beyond fifteen billion persons in population, with population growth slowing as the planet's cities grow more sprawling and crowded. Much of the new population growth is now absorbed by volunteers for a new colony spreading Narestan civilisation to a fourth star system. Agricultural employment has dipped to approximately 250 million, a notable reduction from two decades ago, while industrial productivity has boomed with the new advancements in robotics and employment in scientific and technological development fields has sharply increased. Despite any crowding, the planet is more prosperous than ever before, with only growing issues with hazardous waste disposal marring the improvement of recent decades.  Sedal's population now exceeds three billion, with a growing network of R&D departments administered by local firms. Improvements of robotic technology in mining and industry have bolstered productivity, while a new armed and armored shipyard protects the planet and serves as the manufacturing center for more commercial shipping to expand Narestan civilisation's interplanetary transport capacity. The growing population has demanded food imports from Nares, which the increasingly productive local economy has no difficulty paying for.  Growing populations and expanded trade have led to a growing sophistication in Sadesal's economy, which, like Nares and Sedal, has implemented new robotic technology throughout its mining and manufacturing sectors. Local specialty industries are able to provide the necessary components for local infrastructure, while trade and specialisation help bring new wealth. Sadesal has become a port of call for colonists beginning to set up a new colony on Vij Prime, eager to seek opportunity on new worlds.  The new colony on Talesen has somewhat over one billion persons, with thriving basic industry, industrial-scale hydroponics, and modest high-tech industry and local scientific data gathering. The local population has difficulty producing necessary specialty components to keep local infrastructure running on its own, making Talesen heavily reliant on imports of precision industrial machinery. As with the colonies on Sedal and Sadesal at similar stages of development, these imports are largely paid for by agricultural exports and the provision of scientific services for large R&D departments back on Nares.  Trade with the Interstellar Union has provided many new goods for Narestan consumers, not least of which are personal weapons manufactured by Mrrshan arms manufacturers. The Mrrshan, for their part, import significant quantities of precision industrial machinery along with other products, providing profits for Narestan manufacturers and profits for shippers hauling goods to and from Union space. The establishment of communications channels between Narestan firms and their Mrrshan counterparts to set up collaborative research arrangements and publishing channels for academic papers has, thus far, produced little real good, while the expense of initial implementation is significant. Still, it is expected that a payoff will materialise within a few years. It costs a certain amount of money annually to initially set up trade or research agreements, but, thereafter, they start providing money or research points every year for both participants indefinitely.  Although much of the new investment capital generated by the growth of the Narestan economy has been dedicated to supporting a massive increase in raw industrial output and to the financing of new research arrangements, nonetheless the capital markets have seen a modest increase in liquid investment capital available each year. Industrial productivity and innovation, for their part, have seen explosive growth over the past twenty years, helping drive continued growth in standards of living. Narestan shipping capacity has increased, helping support the boom in trade enabled by contact with a new established civilisation, while the Intrepid and Venturer continue their voyages of discovery. The three Narestan colony worlds all contribute to Narestan prosperity, while Nares itself remains, by far, the economic center of the known galaxy. Investment Proposals Farming Leader Competition between agribusiness firms on Nares should lead to improvements in productivity at negligible initial cost, although method improvements may have some operating cost thereafter. Vote on whether or not to hire the farming leader. Although the farming leader is aggressively mediocre, they're the only colony leader available to us just now. Research Priorities Multiple different projects are receiving funding in Narestan R&D departments. Continued refinement of economic analysis and improvement in business methods is likely to lead to a boom in entrepreneurship and more efficient operations amongst existing firms, while several different research projects seek to develop new generations of computer technology for scientific or consumer applications. Heavy industrial firms have invested studies into improvements in material science and development of more efficient processing of industrial waste, while the improvement of ship drive systems remains a matter of some interest. Please vote between research goals in Economics, Scientific Computing, Consumer Computing, Materials Science and Chemistry, and FTL Drive Design. The two computing goals lead to mutually-exclusive applications, so choosing one will pass up the other. Colonisation Priorities The planet around Perseo seems an incredible prize, and is the focus of most attention for the next colony mission to depart from Nares. Mrrshan Technical Breakthroughs The diplomatic consortium dealing with the Mrrshan could potentially acquire two different technologies dedicated to thwarting hostile missile attacks- advanced electronic warfare to baffle the relatively limited seekers on shipkiller missiles, or high-manuever kinetic-kill light missiles that can successfully knock out shipkillers in flight. The Interplanetary Union will likely require Narestan technology transfer to approve Narestan firms acquiring these technologies, however, and there is some question of just how much technology Narestan firms are willing to share. Give me an idea of just how much you want ECM Jammer and Anti-Missile Rockets. We'll have to trade away one technology for each- probably one with a higher research cost than the technology to acquire- but I'd like to hear what people would consider acceptable trades for each. The Mrrshan will suggest the trade price, so I can't make specific offers, unfortunately. Contact with a new civilisation, however repressive and unpleasant to Narestan sensibilities, has nonetheless provided vast new wealth in trade to join with continued economic development through Narestan innovation. The future, on balance, seems bright. nweismuller fucked around with this message at 02:47 on Mar 27, 2017 |
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Oct 17, 2016 02:06
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Hire the farming leader. At the very least, you'll be able to move a few extra pops to more useful stuff, which more than pays for its upkeep. I know science is insanely important in 4x, but I can't really see the Narestans doing anything but beelining economics, followed by consumer electronics. Grab the ECM jammer if they don't ask for anything important. At the very least, it'll save our space stations some missile-related headache. We'll get better stuff for regular point defence.
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Oct 17, 2016 02:39
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Hire the silly monkey He's really drat cheap. 30% increase in farming for 1BC a turn? The 30% increase is probably worth more than 1BC a turn. We should get some better drives. We are painfully slow. FTL Drives should be our research goal. I believe we should pass on trading technology with these new aliens. We know they have defenses against missiles. We can use different weapons other than missiles when they turn on us.
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Oct 17, 2016 03:31
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Hire the farming spaceman, go for  computing
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Oct 17, 2016 03:45
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Just popping in to say that I'm enjoying the LP. I haven't been participating in the voting because I have approximately zero clue about the game mechanics (aside from exceptionally obvious stuff), but the writeups are neat. Keep it up!
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Oct 17, 2016 04:04
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Definitely stoked to see the Mrrshan up first, since my Impossible game with them is going pretty well.  They're kind of a gimme if you end up fighting them, since, yeah, they basically never miss, but they're usually behind the curve on technology enough what they hit you with isn't too dire.* Hire Magistrate Monkey, he's free and we can fire him later. * Not sure which techs you're referring to on the computer options, so when in doubt go Science! No opinion on the other stuff. my dad posted:I'd advise against using feudal on impossible. I really like it, but it requires a very specific playstyle, and a set of traits that lets you get around its biggest weaknesses. I ended up making it to the lategame (I stopped the last session after getting Orion) by buddying up with nearby AI and focusing my own research on espionage bonuses so I could steal clutch techs from people I was at war with anyway. I got neutron blasters from boarding and scrapping a gnolam ship, then stole plasma from them later and used it to hold off a Klackon doomstack (I actually had to replay that fight several times until I noticed most of their damage was coming from 2 ships, 2 titans loaded with autofire mass drivers; and had just enough firepower to take those out in my first 2 turns). I really should've taken your advice on Charismatic over Lucky, though. I only got 1 positive event (a 50BC pirate stash, woo) and the antarans have hit me 2 out of 5 spawns anyway, while the AI is really trigger-happy. I know it's Impossible, but the trilarians went from Peaceful to war in one accident, it's ridiculous. (I had a destroyer go through a wormhole and retreat from enemy ships there, and it took the long way through triliarian space instead of going back through. Ended up reloading and scrapping it instead. )
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Oct 17, 2016 04:04
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Wayne posted:* Not sure which techs you're referring to on the computer options, so when in doubt go Science! The two computer options in question are Planetary Supercomputer and Holo Simulator. I happen to be quite fond of Holo Simulators, actually; they make everything run more smoothly on all levels, and still end up boosting science, even if not as much. Planetary Supercomputers are still awesome, though.
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Oct 17, 2016 04:09
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Wayne posted:I really should've taken your advice on Charismatic over Lucky, though. I only got 1 positive event (a 50BC pirate stash, woo) and the antarans have hit me 2 out of 5 spawns anyway, while the AI is really trigger-happy. I know it's Impossible, but the trilarians went from Peaceful to war in one accident, it's ridiculous. (I had a destroyer go through a wormhole and retreat from enemy ships there, and it took the long way through triliarian space instead of going back through. Ended up reloading and scrapping it instead. There's another benefit to Charismatic which people tend to overlook: You get much better leaders, including some that bring really awesome tech early on. Like, I've had games completely changed by getting early terraforming, autolabs, advanced government (which actually happened in nweiss' previous moo2 LP), and even a certain robot dude who can, depending on your race picks, completely change the way you play.
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Oct 17, 2016 04:16
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Voting for Hire. Even if we don't keep him permanently, we can drop him on one of our core systems and keep pumping up the population and then use our freighters to dump the extra pop to our frontier colonies. Voting for ECM Jammer as a priority to trade for. I don't find anti-missile rockets super useful but if we can exchange something low end for them will take it, but not a better tech. Voting for FTL Drives for next tech. We're still on the first or second level drives, we need to get out fast quicker.
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Oct 17, 2016 07:28
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nweismuller posted:The two computer options in question are Planetary Supercomputer and Holo Simulator. I happen to be quite fond of Holo Simulators, actually; they make everything run more smoothly on all levels, and still end up boosting science, even if not as much. Planetary Supercomputers are still awesome, though. Based on the spoilered text and on my role in a previous nweismuller LP, I'm casting a vote for Consumer Computing.
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Oct 17, 2016 07:53
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Hire and don't trade the Mrrshans anything.
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Oct 17, 2016 08:28
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Hire. For one, even if he's aggressively mediocre he's still miles better than no leader at all, and a 30% increase in food production on your best agri world for 1bc a turn is a good bargain no matter how you look at it. There may be better deals in the future, but the important thing is that this one is here now. We can always replace him later if a better offer comes along and all our slots are full already. For another, if we don't hire him, another civ that could get much better mileage out of his food production bonus likely will, putting us in a relatively weaker position.
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Oct 17, 2016 08:50
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Hire and FTL drives.
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Oct 17, 2016 11:43
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This is a fun LP nweismuller, thanks for doing it! I've been playing this game since it came out and I'd never tried a race build like this, and just won a game with it, so  to you!  I'd say don't hire the farming leader, he's pretty garbage and by dismissing him you'll get a better deal sooner.
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Oct 17, 2016 14:21
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my dad posted:Hire the farming leader. At the very least, you'll be able to move a few extra pops to more useful stuff, which more than pays for its upkeep. Going with My Dad. Again
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Oct 17, 2016 14:25
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nweismuller posted:I happen to be quite fond of Holo Simulators, actually; they make everything run more smoothly on all levels, and still end up boosting science, even if not as much. Interesting. I grabbed that for the first time this game because Feudals are garbage at research anyway, so I figured I'd get research labs + autolabs and steal the rest (and then ended up stealing autolab anyway, heh). It was pretty underwhelming, and if you invest in androids later in the tech tree, it doesn't help them anyway. my dad posted:Like, I've had games completely changed by getting early terraforming, autolabs, advanced government (which actually happened in nweiss' previous moo2 LP), and even a certain robot dude who can, depending on your race picks, completely change the way you play. Sounds like I need to find a list of the colony leaders you can get, heh. I did get pretty absurdly lucky as it is, with Blackrazor and the space elf in a game where I'm spying all the time. I also got the ship captain with super Ordnance, that's pretty crazy with the Mrrshan! Rappaport posted:This is a fun LP nweismuller, thanks for doing it! I've been playing this game since it came out and I'd never tried a race build like this, and just won a game with it, so Congrats! Did it go pretty smoothly? I've only tried "space libertarianism" a couple times since I like war in these games too much; but it seems like you either coast to an election win pretty easily or somebody picks a fight with you and you're scrambling to turn all that cash into a navy quickly enough to survive.
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Oct 17, 2016 17:35
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Wayne posted:Congrats! Did it go pretty smoothly? I've only tried "space libertarianism" a couple times since I like war in these games too much; but it seems like you either coast to an election win pretty easily or somebody picks a fight with you and you're scrambling to turn all that cash into a navy quickly enough to survive. I got a couple of good leaders to help with diplomacy early, raced the techs for improving efficiency in all areas and managed to turtle until the tech plus production advantage enabled amassing massive fleets fast. After that it's either going space hitler or destroying the Antarans.
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Oct 17, 2016 17:44
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Wayne posted:Interesting. I grabbed that for the first time this game because Feudals are garbage at research anyway, so I figured I'd get research labs + autolabs and steal the rest (and then ended up stealing autolab anyway, heh). It was pretty underwhelming, and if you invest in androids later in the tech tree, it doesn't help them anyway. Supercomputers are actually, uh, super important for feudal races. That flat +10 bonus to research is actually really drat powerful for them. That's worth 5 extra feudal researches (if you include the research lab +1 bonus to researchers, even more if you don't) Flat bonuses are why autolabs are the holy grail of feudal races. Wayne posted:Sounds like I need to find a list of the colony leaders you can get, heh. I did get pretty absurdly lucky as it is, with Blackrazor and the space elf in a game where I'm spying all the time. I also got the ship captain with super Ordnance, that's pretty crazy with the Mrrshan! http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Master_of_Orion_II:_Battle_at_Antares/Colony_Leaders
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Oct 17, 2016 17:58
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my dad posted:Supercomputers are actually, uh, super important for feudal races. That flat +10 bonus to research is actually really drat powerful for them. That's worth 5 extra feudal researches (if you include the research lab +1 bonus to researchers, even more if you don't) Well yeah, but I really wanted to see if Holo Simulator was going to pay off and I planned on stealing/researching Autolab instead. If you're playing on Impossible and not cheesing a custom race, you're going to be way behind on tech anyway, so I figured I'd try new things while seeing what I could steal/trade for. Speaking of techs, I don't know if it's confirmation bias since I've only played 5 or 6 games through on Impossible, but it seems like the AI all researches mostly the same stuff (I noticed every single player got Zortrium armor on its tier) so picking the things they don't makes it easier to trade. Like this time around, I was the only person who got Survival Pods, and it's harmless to give to the AI (and I'm really paranoid about losing leaders, heh). Yeah, that's what Google turned up, but thanks.  Really neat, I've never seen a good chunk of those leaders. Probably because I play with a lot of opponents, and there's only 1 copy of each leader in MOO2 (I thought it worked like Master of Magic where each player got a differently-named version of each hero). Another good reason to pick Charismatic, heh.
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Oct 17, 2016 20:11
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I will preemptively say that if a leader wants to join and has Megawealth, we take them unless we have no room left in our leader pool.
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Oct 17, 2016 20:13
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Wayne posted:Well yeah, but I really wanted to see if Holo Simulator was going to pay off and I planned on stealing/researching Autolab instead. If you're playing on Impossible and not cheesing a custom race, you're going to be way behind on tech anyway, so I figured I'd try new things while seeing what I could steal/trade for. The "uh" was my way of saying "pun not intended" The impression I get is that the AI has a sort of a priority list, and depending on the race picks, values some techs much more than others. However, the AIs are also a lot more egalitarian when trading techs with each-other, and also spy on one another a ton, forcing them to research less important applications to advance a technology level. I also suspect that there's a bias towards getting tech picks that the player doesn't have. In general, when I'm playing a race capable of diplomacy (or at the very least a production oriented non-diplo race than can spy well) I tend to focus on tech picks that give me an immediate benefit (or a component I can fit into a ship I'm building right now), and try to get the more long-term important techs (or ship techs that get applied retroactively) through other means.
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Oct 17, 2016 20:26
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Wayne posted:Interesting. I grabbed that for the first time this game because Feudals are garbage at research anyway, so I figured I'd get research labs + autolabs and steal the rest (and then ended up stealing autolab anyway, heh). It was pretty underwhelming, and if you invest in androids later in the tech tree, it doesn't help them anyway. Not true! At least for Android Workers, morale bonuses work perfectly well, despite what is claimed by the game.
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Oct 18, 2016 04:21
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nweismuller posted:Not true! At least for Android Workers, morale bonuses work perfectly well, despite what is claimed by the game.  You'd think after playing so much Master of Magic, I'd look at the full list of bugs and erroneous descriptions before getting into a game! Thanks for the tip, now I feel really silly about firing her.
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Oct 18, 2016 04:32
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Sedesen Fine Imports Rifles, Enamel Artworks, Data Records, and Curios of Mrrshan Origin [image: A table spread with several rifles, enamel plates, and various knick-knacks of alien origin.] With the opening of Mrrshan markets, the products of an entirely alien tradition of arts and culture now can be brought to the Narestan consumer, and Sedesen Fine Imports is very pleased to offer a selection of Mrrshan consumer items to its customers. Rifles Mrrshan personal armaments are products of a tradition of deep craftsmanship and dedication to quality. Even the simplest and cheapest models we have imported, if simple in design, sport excellent accuracy at all effective ranges and are fine items for the dedicated marksman. More elaborate examples of the craft exhibit hand-customised components, engraving, and inlay to create weapons that are themselves one-of-a-kind works of art. [image: A rifle with a reddish wooden stock, darkened steel barrel, and brass accent fittings. The stock is carved on either side with elaborate knotwork designs, while engraved lines down the barrel inlaid with gold make a striking contrast to the dark metal.] Enamel Art A long tradition in the dominant Mrrshan culture of decorative art is of decorative enamel plates set into the walls of dwellings. The vivid colors and striking scenes depicted help provide a window into a culture very different from our own. [image: An enamelled ceramic plate, about a foot on a side, done in bold colors with stylised forms, depicting a Mrrshan in metal helmet and metal-reinforced leathers, plunging a spear into the throat of a shaggy beast larger than he is, with long claws and teeth. The claws and teeth are very white, and the blood flowing from the spear wound very red.] Data Records A sampling of the literature, music, and images of famous artworks and architecture of Mrrshan history are available for study and enjoyment. The library of translated literary works is still limited, but self-study courses for Mrrshan languages are also available. [image: A computer screen covered in text in an alphabet unfamiliar on Nares.] Assorted Curios Artifacts of Mrrshan daily life and culture of various sorts are available for the collector. Check our online catalogue for what is available with current shipments. [image: Mrrshan garments, tablewares, vases and pots, and jewellry, spread for display.] Sedesen Fine Imports- bringing the alien into the homes of the public. [data address: Sedesen Fine Imports network site, Nares planetary network] nweismuller fucked around with this message at 06:05 on Oct 19, 2016 |
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Oct 19, 2016 06:01
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| # ? May 7, 2024 17:17 |
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Looks like we'll grab improved FTL early on, but that takes a short enough time that we need a tiebreaker between Economics and computing for advanced research for our second priority. First vote cast will break the tie, and I'll play through as soon as I notice it.
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Oct 19, 2016 18:15
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