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Huh. GG I suppose 
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Jan 25, 2017 22:10
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Who woulda thunk it
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Jan 25, 2017 23:07
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The traditional response to this is to reject the council's decision and go to war with everyone because you weren't done yet.
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Jan 25, 2017 23:28
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inflatablefish posted:The traditional response to this is to reject the council's decision and go to war with everyone because you weren't done yet. But I don't want to!
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Jan 25, 2017 23:35
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Huh. That was... quicker than expected. Honestly it still feels like the tail end of the midgame.
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Jan 26, 2017 00:16
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Crazycryodude posted:Huh. That was... quicker than expected. Honestly it still feels like the tail end of the midgame. Seems like a reasonable response to managing to trade everyone into prosperity to me. I can have moments of... eccentricity and sometimes be quite curious about things. Please forgive me if I do something foolish or rude.
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Jan 26, 2017 01:09
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So what makes the AI vote for someone else to win the game? I mean, I like that it happens. I guess a better question is, what decides who's up for a vote?
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Jan 26, 2017 03:12
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Glazius posted:So what makes the AI vote for someone else to win the game? I mean, I like that it happens. The two highest-population empires in the game are candidates for leader of the council when the council first convenes, which seems to be tied to when somebody makes contact with all other alien empires. It then meets every 25 years thereafter, putting the two biggest empires up for vote each time. If anybody wins two-thirds of the vote, they win.
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Jan 26, 2017 03:25
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Glazius posted:So what makes the AI vote for someone else to win the game? I mean, I like that it happens. While the diplomacy system has some... Issues, if you're actually allied with / sufficiently friends with other races they'll vote for you if they're not the other guy nominated. Not sure if this works at higher difficulty levels, it's a 90s game and instead of AI the computer just cheats on everything.
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Jan 26, 2017 03:38
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Rappaport posted:While the diplomacy system has some... Issues, if you're actually allied with / sufficiently friends with other races they'll vote for you if they're not the other guy nominated. Not sure if this works at higher difficulty levels, it's a 90s game and instead of AI the computer just cheats on everything. They'll also vote for you if they really hate the other candidate, even if they're pretty neutral on you.
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Jan 26, 2017 03:39
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And if you're playing the game properly, the player on his own already has more than the absolute majority anyway.
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Jan 26, 2017 09:28
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Nuramor posted:And if you're playing the game properly, the player on his own already has more than the absolute majority anyway. 7 of 34. I dare you to say I've been playing 'improperly'.
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Jan 26, 2017 09:29
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nweismuller posted:7 of 34. I dare you to say I've been playing 'improperly'. Perhaps he means properly for a xenophobe, which is almost the exact opposite of what you are? I can have moments of... eccentricity and sometimes be quite curious about things. Please forgive me if I do something foolish or rude.
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Jan 26, 2017 11:34
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Stephen9001 posted:Perhaps he means properly for a xenophobe, which is almost the exact opposite of what you are? I'm talking about properly as described in the victory cinematic.  You know, "Your army is undefeatable, your fleets patrol the skies of every planet in the galaxy."
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Jan 26, 2017 17:00
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The Beginning of the Long Peace   Late in 600, the Xenogovernmental Negotiations Consortium arranged a series of technology transfers which helped improve ship design and materials science across Narestan space, while helping disseminate other technological ideas further across the region.     Two years later, both the New Orion Empire and the Interstellar Union of Fieras made notable diplomatic overtures- the New Orion Empire sought Narestan aid in its war against the Great Commonwealth of Gnol, while the Interstellar Union wished to gain access to modernised drive technologies. The Xenogovernmental Negotiations Consortium explained its inability to commit to such an alliance to the Alkari government, while the transfers the Mrrshan sought were approved.  By 605, ongoing reforms in arbitration services, financial services, and security helped ensure that the business of Narestan space was conducted more efficiently, with justice enforced accurately and the Narestan people feeling secure in their lives, property, and freedoms. The economy of Narestan space strengthened with renewed entrepreneurship and innovation. Science and money bonuses are increased from 50% to 75%.   In 606, Narestan explorers surveyed the Altair system, the home system of the Alkari people, while two years later a war erupted over border tensions between the Interstellar Union of Fieras and the Autarchy after the Autarchy's recent colonisation of the Lycaon system. With a second war threatening lines of intercivilisation trade, many persons were beginning to have growing concerns that the previous golden age of prosperity the galaxy had been enjoying would be swept away by bloodshed and destruction. Quiet negotiations began between the Xenogovernmental Negotiations Consortium and every major government in the region.   By 611, these negotiations bore fruit in a major peace summit hosted by the Xenogovernmental Negotiations Consortium, in which the Consortium advanced a simple proposal- that the governments of the region submit disputes to arbitration by the Consortium itself, which would seek to ensure that justice was served and that the areas of sovereignty of the differing nations would be protected. Perhaps, had the proposal been advanced by a party with less of a reputation for impartiality, one which had not earned the friendship of every other government in the region, it would not have succeeded.  As it was, even the mysterious Silicoids, who had fought border wars with the Coalition of Nations and the Great Commonwealth of Gnol, sent representatives promising not to violate the space of other powers if the Consortium would restrain them from abusing the Silicoids. Although trade and friendship with the Silicoids seemed unlikely to materialise, given that formulating this offer seemed to have taken every speck of diplomacy they could muster, nonetheless it seemed likely that at least this would not flare to war in the near future.   Ultimately, only the Coalition of Nations was initially reluctant to support the proposal, and that only because they believed that they might be able to muster support for a bid for leadership of any intercivilisational order. When it became clear that Narestan arbitration was supported by every other government, they too agreed. The Galactic Confederation was born, marking the beginning of a long era of peace, prosperity, and growth by the civilisations of the region, although they were forced to join together when an invasion force from beyond this dimension itself appeared to try and devastate the civilisations of the Confederation. Antares, of course, still lurks in the background.   Still, that remained in the future, and for now the galaxy made merry and welcomed a new era of peace... After receiving praise from every other leader left when you win an election, you get a short cinematic before the default cinematic, rising up to see a bit of a celebratory lightshow. A voice-over says, "The elections are over. The ballots are cast, and you have been elected leader of the galaxy. Your years of labor have paid off. Now peace reigns supreme in the galaxy- peace at your command, and equality for all who have served you so well. You are truly the Master of Orion." nweismuller fucked around with this message at 05:28 on Jan 30, 2017 |
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Jan 30, 2017 00:15
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And an early Council victory is more or less the classic end to a run through the game as the Narestans. I hope it was enjoyable, and will still take questions and requests from my readers. Thanks for following this, and I hope it was enjoyable.
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Jan 30, 2017 00:17
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Some people may have considered this a 'gimmick' run. Arguably it is. That said, this particular custom race is my usual go-to for MoO2 games, and in many ways its 'gimmick' is no more gimmicky than the default Klackons. Although there may have been some variations in my style based on player input, this LP was nonetheless very close to my default style when playing MoO2. Yeah, I'm really not very aggressive in this game.
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Jan 30, 2017 05:20
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My impossible diplo-runs tend to be with modified charismatic sakkra. Being really nice to everyone + cheaper colony ships + a metric fuckton of pops per planet does wonders for you during the vote.
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Jan 30, 2017 05:24
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my dad posted:My impossible diplo-runs tend to be with modified charismatic sakkra. Being really nice to everyone + cheaper colony ships + a metric fuckton of pops per planet does wonders for you during the vote. Heh. Yeah, sheer weight of population from the Sakkra covers many sins.
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Jan 30, 2017 05:25
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Well, the Narestans ended up in charge of a multispecies coalition, guaranteeing an unprecedented level of future prosperity. Mission Accomplished!
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Jan 30, 2017 05:25
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POOL IS CLOSED posted:Well, the Narestans ended up in charge of a multispecies coalition, guaranteeing an unprecedented level of future prosperity. Mission Accomplished! Indeed. I've always found it odd how the Silicoids participate in council elections, given their incapacity with diplomacy otherwise, but I did my best to present a situation where they were at least trying to communicate. E: For reference: the Sakkra cast 9 votes, the Narestans 7, the Silicoids 4, the Gnolams 4, the Mrrshan 3, the Meklars 3, the Alkari 2, and the Bulrathi 2, which roughly reflects relative populations as of YE 611. nweismuller fucked around with this message at 05:35 on Jan 30, 2017 |
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Jan 30, 2017 05:29
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Personally I find the repulsive trait utterly bizarre; the designers might as well have written that the silicoids are utterly incapable of communicating with non silicoid life forms despite being sapient. Who is disgusted by an ambulatory pet rock? The klackon and meklar are stranger by far, being a hive intelligence and semiartificial respectively.
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Jan 30, 2017 05:39
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There were 34 possible votes, you got 25 of them, and the remaining nine were the Sakkra voting for themselves. Holy poo poo, that's some Diplomancy. 
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Jan 30, 2017 05:40
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POOL IS CLOSED posted:Personally I find the repulsive trait utterly bizarre; the designers might as well have written that the silicoids are utterly incapable of communicating with non silicoid life forms despite being sapient. Who is disgusted by an ambulatory pet rock? The klackon and meklar are stranger by far, being a hive intelligence and semiartificial respectively. Yeah, I tend to parse Repulsive in MoO2 as representing extreme communications difficulties more than 'just having a hateable nature'. E: That said, my father and I have a running joke about Silicoids laughing evilly about absolutely everything they do, and basically being Repulsive because they're such transparently moustache-twirling villains. ... and now I'm imagining a Silicoid with a moustache pasted on to its stony hide. nweismuller fucked around with this message at 05:47 on Jan 30, 2017 |
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Jan 30, 2017 05:43
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I mean, it's a de facto government trait, since it has zero effect on the pops once they're in a different empire. More like, the faction does not recognize the legitimacy of other factions' governments. Possibly somewhat xenophobic since it also slows down assimilation. If I wanted to model revolutionary France in space, I'd probably make it a "repulsive" democracy.
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Jan 30, 2017 05:47
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Incidentally, Crazycryodude, I'd still love to see some ships, assuming you're inspired to design them. And, of course, I'll continue to take questions about the setting generated by this LP.
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Jan 30, 2017 05:48
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my dad posted:My impossible diplo-runs tend to be with modified charismatic sakkra. Being really nice to everyone + cheaper colony ships + a metric fuckton of pops per planet does wonders for you during the vote. You don't need charisma - I've done it as *repulsive* modified Sakkra without building anything except colony ships/outputs (and maybe starbases, I forget if you need that to make more colony ships?)
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Jan 30, 2017 09:03
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thsgrn posted:You don't need charisma - I've done it as *repulsive* modified Sakkra without building anything except colony ships/outputs (and maybe starbases, I forget if you need that to make more colony ships?) Any planet can build colony ships. And yes, subterranean is one of my favorite picks for a drat good reason. However, charismatic helps keep the AI off your back instead of opportunistically pouncing on you if you get unlucky and run into a more aggressive one early on, which is a big issue on impossible. If your fleet is sufficiently small, and your relationship bad enough, even humans won't hesitate to stab you to death with space lasers.
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Jan 30, 2017 09:09
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my dad posted:I mean, it's a de facto government trait, since it has zero effect on the pops once they're in a different empire. More like, the faction does not recognize the legitimacy of other factions' governments. Possibly somewhat xenophobic since it also slows down assimilation. If I wanted to model revolutionary France in space, I'd probably make it a "repulsive" democracy. Yeah, but the fluff canon is explicitly that other races find the Silicoid disgusting and creepy, not that the Silicoid refuse to recognize other governments besides their own. Any other explanation offered by the denizens of an Nweiss thread will make more sense than the game's actual writing. That's what I find bizarre about the trait -- the extremely bad fluff.
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Jan 30, 2017 16:34
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So would you say the hard part is expanding enough as a Narestan to be considered for the position?
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Jan 31, 2017 00:52
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Glazius posted:So would you say the hard part is expanding enough as a Narestan to be considered for the position? More or less. That said, given a little time to spin up, the Narestan economy can support a steady stream of colony ships. The biggest risk is somebody trying to take a bite out of you before you're really ready to put together a security fleet as insurance.
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Feb 1, 2017 13:34
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nweismuller posted:Some people may have considered this a 'gimmick' run. Arguably it is. That said, this particular custom race is my usual go-to for MoO2 games, and in many ways its 'gimmick' is no more gimmicky than the default Klackons. Although there may have been some variations in my style based on player input, this LP was nonetheless very close to my default style when playing MoO2. Everyone has their personal taste when playing a game, that's not enough to call something a gimmick, I think. Your way is certainly a lot more relaxing then my own default style, which is basically to make pessimistic assholes who are good at science and building things and then just let the galaxy devolve into a never ending chain of wars. Caused by my race's bad diplomacy skills.
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Feb 1, 2017 15:10
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I usually give my race all the combat maluses, get creative and Democracy (along with whatever to fill out the points) start pre-warp and go on a conquering spree.
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Feb 1, 2017 16:02
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CommissarMega posted:I usually give my race all the combat maluses, get creative and Democracy (along with whatever to fill out the points) start pre-warp and go on a conquering spree. Give subterranean aquatic democracy with either a rich or a large starting planet a try. Another fun gimmick is to play creative subterranean aquatic feudalism (possibly with) a large planet). Results can be... interesting.
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Feb 1, 2017 16:06
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I've always enjoyed the telepathic side. Seizing ships and pressganging their crews is objectively horrible, but I like it better than murdering all hands. e. I hope I'm not misremembering that! I do recall that landing Elerian ground troops gave you the option of mind controlling the planet. POOL IS CLOSED fucked around with this message at 16:18 on Feb 1, 2017 |
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Feb 1, 2017 16:16
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my dad posted:Give subterranean aquatic democracy with either a rich or a large starting planet a try. That one is hilarious. I find subterranean tolerant even more fun.
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Feb 1, 2017 17:33
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ulmont posted:That one is hilarious. I find subterranean tolerant even more fun. As an aside, I really dislike tolerant when it's not paired with unification (the two taken together being the most powerful combo in the game) Too many points for what can be replicated with cheaper picks that don't become obsolete as soon as you get some anti-pollution tech. e: POOL IS CLOSED posted:e. I hope I'm not misremembering that! I do recall that landing Elerian ground troops gave you the option of mind controlling the planet. Their cruiser+ sized ships can mind control planets, and they take control over enemy ships as soon as they're done boarding them instead of after the battle. You still need to dispose of the crew, first, though. Less telepathic persuasion, more half-dead meat puppet sort of thing. my dad fucked around with this message at 18:41 on Feb 1, 2017 |
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Feb 1, 2017 18:38
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my dad posted:As an aside, I really dislike tolerant when it's not paired with unification (the two taken together being the most powerful combo in the game) Too many points for what can be replicated with cheaper picks that don't become obsolete as soon as you get some anti-pollution tech. The population bonus of tolerant doesn't go away, though.
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Feb 1, 2017 18:47
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ulmont posted:The population bonus of tolerant doesn't go away, though. Most of the time, aquatic does roughly the same for half the cost. Maaaan, why couldn't one of these picks cost just 1 point less so I could take all 3 of them.
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Feb 1, 2017 18:50
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my dad posted:Their cruiser+ sized ships can mind control planets, and they take control over enemy ships as soon as they're done boarding them instead of after the battle. You still need to dispose of the crew, first, though. Less telepathic persuasion, more half-dead meat puppet sort of thing.  Everywhere I go, I must kill.
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Feb 1, 2017 18:55
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