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If it weren't for the fact that in both of those videos there were untold millions of virtual human beings being killed off in a most brutal fashion, they would be funny.
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Nov 25, 2017 04:19
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Ouch. Yeah, late game bio terminator stacks are a pain to deal with. You really need to primary that tech nullifier capship ASAP. They may take a while to burn down your ships, but that special will reduce your damage output to nil in a hurry.
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Nov 25, 2017 05:37
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my dad posted:I'm not sure if the combat transports work quite as they're described. I've seen whole transport fleets go poof on strongly defended enemy worlds despite the tech. Yeah, Combat Transporters are bugged and don't do a thing. There was speculation that they still help against ships and just not missile bases (the thought being that they're calculated differently, using the "size points" that's used for shooting down comets and such) but so far as I know the tech doesn't help at all. And of course missile bases are your problem in mid- and late-game MOO1. The "whack-a-mole" thing is another area where you can see that overpowered stuff in MOO2 is an overreaction to 1. In this case you have the Warp Interdictor tech, which creates a well 3 parsecs around systems that slows other civs' movement to 1 parsec a turn, giving you plenty of time to react. The problem is in 2 defenses aren't often but can be stronger (at least with Ground Batteries and planetary shields) and fleets are smaller, so Interdictors can make it impossible to actually take out a planet, and even if the other guy decides he can't protect the system after all, well, that's 3 turns your ships are slowed he gets to run around your territory in. At least the AI doesn't know about the redirection bug!  But yeah, MOO1 could've really used a 1-turn delay tech, maybe added to Subspace Interdictor because teleporters are so late in the game.That battle was painful to watch. I'd been thinking for awhile that shield-piercing weapons (besides the NPG and Gauss Autocannon) were just too bulky to be worth it, and watching your fleet get slaughtered and doing so little damage to ADC battleships was just... man. May our next fleet be the one that turns Cryslon into a quarry! 
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Nov 25, 2017 15:41
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Thanks for this LP! This thread has inspired me to dig up my copy of MOO and play. So far, so good for the space rocks.
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Dec 1, 2017 18:30
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PhotoKirk posted:Thanks for this LP! Excellent! my dad posted:I'm not sure if the combat transports work quite as they're described. I've seen whole transport fleets go poof on strongly defended enemy worlds despite the tech. Well, that does suck. Guess it's a good thing I decided against using them for other reasons. Good to know. Wayne posted:That battle was painful to watch. I'd been thinking for awhile that shield-piercing weapons (besides the NPG and Gauss Autocannon) were just too bulky to be worth it, and watching your fleet get slaughtered and doing so little damage to ADC battleships was just... man. You are totally correct here. Were it not for the lack of any other reasonable option, I'd have put something else on. Computing tech isn't high enough to reliably do any damage with anything else that I had. Missile boats wouldn't hit nearly hard enough at this stage.
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Dec 3, 2017 16:03
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Episode VI: 2650-2675 Just a few years ago, fleet strength was virtually nil. Still would really like to see the Meklar expand, but they keep getting slowed down in the nebula and haven't been able to do so yet.  ** Silicoids(18) ** Humans(16) ** Meklar(9) ** Alkari(9) ** Bulrathi(8) ** Mrrshan(2) The cats have been relegated to the lower-right. My goal with the Dreadstars is to knock out some of the nearby Silicoid and Alkari planets, and engage the big fleet of the rocks also given the opportunity. This will protect our planets indirectly, by making them travel a longer distance to reach us. If given the breathing room to do so, I'd also like to try for Orion. I don't want to take out too many Silicoid planets, at least not yet -- I don't want to make the Bulrathi our Council foe. I'll probably focus on the Alkari for invasions. We've only got 7 of them right now though. I'll wait until there's 20-25 before making a move.  Research is slowing with most systems focused on building ships, but that's temporary.  It's 2656, and Altair/Guradas are quite lightly defended. We have 18 Dreadstars operational, so I decide it's time to start using them. We'll colonize/invade each planet we attack, not because we expect to keep them, but just to keep others from having them. That goes esp. for the Bulrathi, who we'd like to keep at just the size they are. I also start shifting systems back to research once they've completed their latest Dreadstar.  Now we'll journey back through the lower-level Force-Field options, three or four of them left.  A couple of years later, another long-standing productive system, though a smallish one, falls to the Silicoids. However, we have a chance to invade Obaca here and hopefully capture some tech. Or not, as the Bulrathi incinerate the planet -- and capture Fierias for good measure.  Little more than annoyance at this point, but still aggravating.  Our first successful ground invasion of the game, believe it or not. We were outnumbered 53-21, so we've got a nice kill ratio here of almost 3:1. The same year the Mrrshan send 28 transport to Guradas. Only one defender is lost.  Useless at this point, but here's the human salvager portrait. We also get Cloning, which will rarely get used.  The next year, Rana and Guradas are destroyed from orbit, while we re-colonize Fierias expecting to lose it again soon. And so it goes.  A couple of new things here. I think we are slowly winning this chaos. We just captured Quayal, and while who owns, if anybody, many of these systems is constantly in flux, it does seem to be trending in our direction. We've also moved the rally point to Ursa. It was terraformed Gaia by the Bulrathi, so it has a max pop of 250M and grows people like crazy. Right now it hangs out at about 150M, growing slowly but also sending transports out for invasions where needed. The Meklar fleet over Altair, for example, gives us hope we may keep that for a while.  Here's our latest fleet. I've always thought the capital-ship portraits were generally ugly for all of the various ship sets. We've been gradually upgrading the capabilities of ours, and also can now build ships capable of colonizing any planet(and with reserve tanks just for the fun of it) at destroyer size. Once the cruiser ones(top line) are used up, we won't make any more of those. This makes it even more trivial to ensure we've got a dozen or so at all times for spamming to wherever they are needed. We've also finally got the Bulrathi back in a full alliance, which should prevent any more 'accidental invasions' like we've had a couple of from them. They refused earlier, but we attacked their enemies enough over the last decade to change their minds.  This is rather hilarious, esp. considering we had just achieved one the best mistakes I've ever made. At some point I accidentally started doing espionage on our next ally -- and got Robotics V! We're currently at IV, so now industry can get upgraded. As Computers experts, the Meklar are one of the hardest races to steal from, and I wasn't even trying. Very weird, but apparently we didn't get caught. 2670: The Silicoids break the Meklar protection on Altair, and the colony is destroyed again. Oh well. I send everything there, but they are gone by the time we arrive.  The Cloaking Device is in. Three more to nab here.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhdhq4XTHxE In 2672, the best thing I could see to do with the fleet was to expand the conflict. This is our first assault on a fortified planet -- the Alkari in this case. Almost out of bombs by the end of it. We definitely aren't ready to take the more heavily-guarded planets that are around, just not doing enough damage to the bases for that.  '73 now. This allows for a new strategy. Hyper Drives(Warp 9) are next, and a second invasion of Vox fails. The Alkari are proving remarkably stubborn. They had to bring in troops and ships from nearby Vega to stop us, and even then they aren't going to be able to last. The alternative strategy using combat transporters here would be to just spam population at the enemy planets, no matter how fortified. Half of them would be destroyed, but half would make it through. ** OOC: Obviously not, as the thread discussion between updates revealed they are bugged. This would allow us to whittle down the Silicoids. Right now though, I think I'd rather keep our economy up and keep the ships and research coming. I may consider doing this later though against the Silicoids, at least on a limited basis(or not, in retrospect).  Finally, in 2674. Didn't discover anything immediately useful, but collectively they did help with minaturization and cost-reduction. Now we can fit more bombs, faster engines, tougher armor, and 19 Particle Beams on our ships.  *Yawn*. Round 13 of this prize-fight. The Silicoids have expanded their numbers and are once again in veto territory. ** Meklar(7) -- Johann III ** Bulrathi(17) -- Johann III ** Alkari(6, -1) -- Granid ** Mrrshan(2) -- Granid ** Humans(19, -1) 43-35 the final count. In our favor, but this time 9 votes shy of victory, 3 more than last time. This galaxy just steadfastly refuses to crown anyone.
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Dec 3, 2017 19:46
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This is starting to remind me of that eternal game of Civ 1 that got snapped into nuclear deadlock.
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Dec 3, 2017 20:20
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Might just be me, but the human ground troops look quite a lot like the Megacity Judges for some reason.
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Dec 4, 2017 15:35
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PhotoKirk posted:Thanks for this LP! I'm used to playing Civ and thus ignoring diplomacy completely, and just lost a great Psilon game because everyone flipped on me in the senate. That hurt. I'm trying to learn how to balance my rapid expansion with diplo to avoid pissing everyone off and this LP is certainly helping.
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Dec 4, 2017 18:36
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StarFyter posted:the human ground troops look quite a lot like the Megacity Judges for some reason. Never noticed that before, but they do. They really do.
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Dec 5, 2017 21:23
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Completely unrelated to the LP, by the way, Thotimx, but is your name from any particular source?
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Dec 6, 2017 03:01
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It comes from the scariest source of all; the strange depths of my mind :P Essentially it's a combination of three words that describe what I try to do with LPs in general(though this one has admittedly been somewhat more metagamey): Thoughtful Immersive Experience.
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Dec 8, 2017 02:34
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Episode VI: 2675-2700 Occasionally losing some of our best planets temporarily has hurt our population, but overall we're still right there with the other powers.  Just boosted trade again; these amounts are nearly a 50% increase over the prevous 2225 that we had for a while. The clean galactic divison can be clearly seen here.  The constantly-shifting yet stubbornly stable balance of power here. ** Humans(18) -- We're in the lead now, and I think we can stay there. ** Silicoids(16) ** Bulrathi(12) ** Meklar(9) ** Alkari(5) ** Mrrshan(3) We should be able to gradually reduce the Alkari and Mrrshan holdings over time here.  I want to get a new design out there, as the Silicoids have deployed a highly annoying new cruiser, the Mako. It moves slowly but features the feared Black Hole Generator, which kills the crew of ships outright. We faced it in the nebula before they destroyed the colony at Jinga recently, which wasn't fun(only shields limit the effectiveness, so we literally had no defense against it). But first we've got some new stuff in the pipeline here. The Neutronium Bomb will help out with planetary attacks, and when we get our latest Computer project done that'll miniaturize things some more.  This and the new ECM both came in 2679.  A new Battle Computer, and the always-effective Proton Torpedoes are the next course.  And now for our latest designs. The Anti-Ship Battleship, second from the bottom, eschews the Zyro Shield for the Repulsor Beam. Their BHG ships should be completely neutered by this. The High-Energy Focus will allow it's weapons to still strike them. Second-best available jammer, computer, and shielding there. The bottom one has only one job; killing missile bases. Hence the name Uberbomber. Zyro's back there, maximum computing, shielding, and speed. And of course, a liberal allotment of neutronium bombs. I didn't put any ECM on, only because that wouldn't have left enough space for a sizable payload.  Soon afterwards we finished Complete Terraforming, hitting the top of that tree. Don't worry Guava, we'll get to that BioTerminator soon ... but I think Advanced Cloning could be more helpful. We're constantly needing to grow population as fast as possible on planets that were destroyed but still have factories intact.  I'll be. The Meklar finally colonized an open system. Rana is ultra poor naturally, and we'll see if they hold it, but it's something. I'd flat-out give them a couple systems if I could. Meanwhile we continue to have the upper hand slightly, with the deciding factor being the fact that our allies continue to sometimes park their fleet over worlds and defend them. The Bulrathi here at Altair are one example.  Here's a good example of the chaos that's been going on for decades. Just recolonized Fierias for the umpteenth time. Silicoid ships and transports are incoming. The Bulrathi are in orbit. Mrrshan approach from the right, Meklar from left, and Alkari en route as well. All six empires are literally involved here. I have no idea how this will turn out. All you can do is wait and then adjust after the debris clears, as millions of human citizens(and other races) are slaughtered over and over again fighting over pretty much the same systems. Year after year after year after decade after decade, more lives are poured in to the grinder. When will it end? What follows is by far the longest battle I've ever committed to video in this LP so far. You have been warned. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roFCiqP0kng Long, but an instructive battle. Notice how I kept the ships with the green repulsor beam on the bottom, keeping the Makos from unleashing their BHGs(until they very end against the already-dead planet, but it no longer mattered). That whitish spidery thing that distinegrated is the Tech Nullifier, which reduces battle computers effectiveness. That really hurt our damage in the middle of the battle for a couple groups. I kept waiting for them to use it on the third one -- I don't know why they didn't. Their capital ship, called Monitors, have ADC and basically suck for that reason. That repulsor beam is key though and allows us to not only survive, but completely neutralize the Mako ships. From Fierias to Quayal to Obaca we bounce, and by 2689 I feel that we are starting to wear down the Silicoids. We fight over Altair in '93 -- we lose, but take out enough of their ships that it seems a lose the battle, win the war moment.  Here's our ships late in the battle. Note the Attack Levels; -44!! Basically our weapons are doing near-minimum damage here, and missing quite often. That's their best weapon against us, and the only reason we're having to slowly wear them down. We're taking only minor losses, but every battle against those things is a slog and we've got to try to get our licks in early as much as possible. As has already been noted by some of the astute readers. Eventually the battle reached the point where neither side could inflict enough damage to continue. We only knocked out one of the their six Monitors, but got most of their cruisers including a few dozen Krakens; they bear the Hell-Fire torpedo and are one of the more dangerous types the Silicoids have right now. Still quite a success for us overall. We also lost contact with the Mrrshan, as the main Alkari fleet destroyed Incedius. That's just fine with us. It only lasted for a year, but our fleet was rated above the Silicoids after the battle. We hoped to press them harder. I thought about showing the whole thing, just like at Quayal(this one actually lasted a minute longer) just out of sheer just because, but decided not to.  Cygni, once Silicoid, taken by the Bulrathi, then destroyed by the rocks from orbit, was occupied a couple years later. I don't expect it to last long, but I did think it was time to test out our capabilities against a fortified target. Rhilus, shown just below here, is a rich planet that would do very nicely. Let's see how our bombers do vis a vis their bases ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s55SFbjKD1Y Conclusion? We'll do just fine against their bases -- just need more bombers to handle large numbers of them. The next year we finished the job, ahead of a large transport force. It's time to finally take this galaxy from the Silicoids. Also ...  This arrived. And Advanced Cloning. And Hyper Drives(warp 9). All at once. Moved on with Bio Terminator(which we won't use), Improved Industrial Tech 2(which will slash the cost of factories by 60% from the current 5) and another make-work research task.  The writing's on the wall. Even the Alkari see it. A new anti-ship design with the latest toys is pressed into production. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6_SUB2LJDs Close but not quite there. Lost almost as many as they did -- we'll get em next time.  That's the next year, 2699. I really want to win this now -- I don't want another 25 years of mop-up if I can help it. This is among the tech captured at Rhilus, and it will really give us a lot more space on the ships. We get several others ... including Adv. Construction Tech IV!! At the end of the 27th century, fourth since we began this game, the Council says thusly:  Not nearly enough for a veto. They'll need help. I think we got this.  Our faithful allies pitch in as always.  In the lead now, but a bare majority won't be enough.  The Alkari vote here should clinch it. There will be yet one more objection ...  But it is of little consequence.  Nearly a full third to ourselves. We vote in our favor ...  And it's over! The 14th High Council declares Johann III as the unquestioned ruler of the galaxy. It is finished!! The Curse of Not Calling Myself Ender has been overcome, along with the disastrous start. Included the video here just for the shadowy human portrait. Aside from that we've seen this already. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zv-XX9CZ9yc
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Dec 8, 2017 02:38
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I'm almost sad to see the game end! Congrats. I doubt future games will match that.
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Dec 8, 2017 03:06
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drat, that was a pretty intense game. Looking forward to see how the next one goes!
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Dec 8, 2017 03:20
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Success! And we didn't have to wipe everyone out to get there.
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Dec 8, 2017 04:41
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 Not what you expect from a Human game. Congrats on an exciting victory.
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Dec 8, 2017 05:29
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Exciting all the way to the end. Definitely no complaints from me about the council vote cutting off the game much too early. This was a very satisfying conclusion to a very satisfying game.
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Dec 8, 2017 05:41
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That was a hard fought victory. Makes it feel so sweet.
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Dec 8, 2017 06:10
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Yeah, that game ran long enough as it is. Good fight! It was looking tenuous for a moment there, and drat, those planets were swapping hands often.
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Dec 8, 2017 11:15
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Quite a brawl there. Thotimx, I've noticed two consistent differences in our combat styles (which are probably related). First, I don't build nearly as many missile bases as you; really only on planets that the AI insists on invading repeatedly. I'd be horrified if they were taking a significant percentage of my economy. Second, I tend to send my fleet to hunt the enemy fleet first, with invading planets second. Of course, they often have their best fleet around their best planet, or you can only reach one or two enemy systems, but the AI tends to spread its fleet, letting the human wipe out a theoretically stronger enemy by concentrating forces. I don't know that one of us is right and one wrong, or it depends on the situation, or its just a style difference. I just found it interesting, because we play much the same otherwise. Well, your diplomacy is much better than mine.
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Dec 8, 2017 16:55
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The end seems typical, winning the council just as your ships get strong enough to start turning the tide. On that note, didn't you still have Orion in your pocket? I think you should have mave a play for it's guns a while ago.
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Dec 8, 2017 16:56
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Deathwind posted:The end seems typical, winning the council just as your ships get strong enough to start turning the tide. On that note, didn't you still have Orion in your pocket? I think you should have mave a play for it's guns a while ago. They both kind of serve the same purpose; saving time on the wrap-up once you're in position to actually win. Taking Orion is less direct than winning the vote obviously, but Death Rays (especially with High-Energy Focus, which is one of the few guaranteed techs) easily blow away missile bases and let you take their planets that way. And for Humans, it makes sense to take the win with diplomacy.  Speaking of, congrats on a good win, Thot! Definitely not the "Human game" us veterans were expecting! It's neat to see allies actually playing an important part in "your" war, as opposed to the usual thing where the AIs bomb out each other's worlds for a few turns and then make peace again. There might be some code that makes AIs start to go for the jugular in the lategame, as opposed to the "fake wars" early on (where an AI declares but makes only a token attack on you if that). Then again there are some inexplicable pathfinding bugs; I remember reading some reports back in the mid-Oughts where one civ was a 1PE in one guy's game and not in another, despite having habitable words in range.Last thing, looking at your ship designs; I think I figured out the niche for shield-piercing weapons. I was trying an Alkari game to see how useful their defense bonus is (spoilers: super useful!) and restricted myself to small/medium designs like they do as the AI, and at about your tech level you can fit 3 particle beams on a destroyer and still have room for a special and a decent computer, and for 120BC instead of your battleships' ~5000. The reason being seems to be that they have a lower Power requirement than "normal" beams of their tech tier, so they cost less and require fewer engines (as an example, after putting Interphased drives with full speed on one, the beam was about the same size as a plasma cannon, instead of way more with Retro engines).   for next time if you don't know: Cloaking Devices trump reaction fire, including Repulsor Beams!
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Dec 9, 2017 00:15
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Galaga Guardian posted:I'm almost sad to see the game end! Congrats. Ithilion the Brave posted:that was a pretty intense game. General Revil posted:Exciting all the way to the end. Purple XVI posted:ood fight! It was looking tenuous for a moment there, and drat, those planets were swapping hands often. idhrendur posted:That was a hard fought victory. Thanks everyone. In terms of excitement, ebbs and flows, etc. I agree with Galaga Guardian. I expect this will end up being the best game in the LP. I can't think of another I've ever played that was quite like it. Losing the colony ship to the guardian right away, then almost but not quite coming back from that soon enough to limit the Silicoid expansion, the space amoeba and Silicoid bioweapons combining to knock us down to seven systems, gradual rise up from there, then the chaotic whack-a-mole towards the end in which we very slowly made small gains ... almost lost and won several times. And ultimately, the Alkari switch at the end was the straw to break the camel's back. BurningStone posted:I don't build nearly as many missile bases as you; really only on planets that the AI insists on invading repeatedly I used to play this way, but FWIW I've found that it's too late by the time you know where they are going to attack. BurningStone posted:I tend to send my fleet to hunt the enemy fleet first, with invading planets second. Often the enemy fleet is stronger so I'm trying to hit them where they haven't defended and weaken them that way. They also move their fleets around so much and so haphazardly at times that I don't chase my own tail, I just go for the locations. For better or ill, that's my thought process on these two things. DeathWind posted:didn't you still have Orion in your pocket? I think you should have mave a play for it's guns a while ago. I did, and I could have, and I was thinking about it for a good part of the last two centuries. Thing is, the kind of fleet that you use to take down the Guardian is often different than what you need to fight the enemy. It was in this case, and if I failed I didn't want to give them a free hand in taking more systems particularly given how close it was. I didn't think I could afford to make that expedition until it was no longer needed. Definitely an argument to be made for it though. Wayne posted:Definitely not the "Human game" us veterans were expecting! Yeah me too. Wayne posted:ere might be some code that makes AIs start to go for the jugular in the lategame, as opposed to the "fake wars" early on (where an AI declares but makes only a token attack on you if that). I think at least part of it is risk assessment. The relative strength of defenses decreasing makes them more likely to be aggressive as time goes on. In the second and third centuries here they didn't really help me that much, esp. at first, but were definitely more useful later as you say. Wayne posted:they have a lower Power requirement than "normal" beams of their tech tier, so they cost less and require fewer engines (as an example, after putting Interphased drives with full speed on one, the beam was about the same size as a plasma cannon, instead of way more with Retro engines). Interesting. I didn't think the Power thing actually affected anything. I feel dumb now.
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Dec 10, 2017 15:24
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The vote before this game held that we should go Meklar if they showed up, otherwhise Sakkra. Well, they showed up, so Episode VII arrives as I have a 4-2 record with wins in the last couple, and the cybernetic Meklar will be next to put their two cents in. Most guides divide the races into 'Good', 'Average', and 'Poor' races; by that measure, we've now gone through the Good ones. Next three are the Average category. Meklar Preview ** Economy -- The primary distinctive of the Meklar is their ability to operate two extra factories per population; not quite as well known is they also don't pay refitting costs which can become considerable in the mid-late game. This gives them an 80% production bonus at the start compared to standard races, though this will eventually shrink to a little under 27% by the end. It also means their ecology bill will be relatively slightly higher(because it's based on the number of factories, not production itself). ** Diplomacy -- Average. The Meklar start neutral with most races, with the same propensity to trust Humans and distrust Darloks that everyone has. They will also tend to side with the Silicoids, the only other non-organic race, and will not get along well with the Sakkra, who view machines as an inherent threat. ** Military -- No bonuses or penalties ** Research -- Definitely above-average overall. The Meklar are rated Poor in Planetology; combined with their high number of factories, this can lead to considerable waste cleanup expenses. They are average in most fields, and more than counter this weakness by being the galaxy's foremost experts in Computers. Among other things, this makes them the second-toughest race(after the Darloks) to spy on successfully. Outlook The Meklar are still an above-average race, possibly the last one we will be able to say that about. They tend to start slow, so a Medium galaxy won't be great for that, but once they get going, watch out. A big Meklar empire is one that can out-produce any foe. The main challenge, then, is to get big enough. If we can do that, we will likely succeed. TK-421 is not a standard name, but the Meklar use similar alpha-numeric nomenclature, and I just had to. Sorry. Blue theme, and our homeworld is Meklon.
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Dec 10, 2017 15:28
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Is TK-421 a Star Wars reference?
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Dec 10, 2017 18:53
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Thotimx posted:I think at least part of it is risk assessment. Good point. MOO1's AI is pretty primitive (and as we found out, buggy in a lot of was  ), but it definitely checks your defenses somewhere. You can see that later in the game where they'll try to send fleets to planets further back if they have fewer missile bases.Thotimx posted:Interesting. I didn't think the Power thing actually affected anything. I feel dumb now. Well, it doesn't affect much, heh. Basically as your Power requirements go up, you have to get more engines to power your stuff, which the game handles by automatically increasing their cost and space requirements proportionately. I've seen some guys argue you can basically stop at Fusion drives (first one to give you 3 speed), since miniaturization applies to your extra engines too, but those are probably the same people who only play Small galaxies. PurpleXVI posted:Is TK-421 a Star Wars reference? Ooh, nice catch, that's pretty obscure. I always name my Meklar DEUS-451, that's a little more obvious.
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Dec 10, 2017 19:01
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PurpleXVI posted:Is TK-421 a Star Wars reference? We have a winner! Your door prize is ... drumroll plz ... ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!! Ahem. Episode VII: Meklar Opening  Psilons, Humans, and Silicoids. You figured we weren't going to avoid the egghead menace twice in a row. No Klackons once again, but the rest of the top competition is here. 'Easy Mode' is likely off. The galaxy itself displays a glut of homeworld possibilities in the lower-right quadrant, and a land of opportunity in the upper-right. Naturally, pinned against the left border, we appear to be the furthest empire from that territory. Please don't let the Psilons take it. Pretty-please. With sugar on top.  Here we are. That blue star to the left is in the wrong direction, but it's the only thing within three parsecs. A lot of negative indicators early on. The colony ship will head there, scouts will push into areas that will extend our range the most as always -- that yellow star in the nebula, and the green one below and to the right. Let's see what the galaxy has in store.  It could be worse ... but only if it worked at it pretty hard. That's it and that's all until we get better range tech, so we'll proceed on that once we have the homeworld built up. But first things first: it's time for the Recon Rush. We need five of them, exactly a year's work. We got to Vega quickly and without incident, something we couldn't say last game as the humans. Not much else is good though right now.  One of the closest systems, four parsecs out. It's not much.  Better than this drek though. Sheesh. In 2307 the last colonists depart the homeworld for Vega. All told, 8 million over 5 years go.  That's better, and we should have a lock on getting it.  Planted itself right in the middle of things this time around. I don't know if that's good or bad.  Another nice one, but our chances of getting there before somebody else in the upper-left does are probably not good.  First hostile so far.  All four, Guardian included, were scouted in 2310. And artifacts! Also likely to be not claimed by us. But are we the first??? Nope. Silicoids are already here. That means they'll take Celtsi soon as well I bet. They got here VERY recently too. I think within a year or two. Too bad we weren't able to keep them away for a while ... That's everything. Celtsi is 6 parsecs away so we can forget about that whole direction. That and Tyr are going to go Silicoid I'm pretty-much certain. In the nebula, Ukko is horrible and the only thing near it is the Guardian. So it's downwards and hopefully pushing down-right as far as we can. Early returns are that it could prove difficult to carve out enough space. We chase the Silicoids off from Tyr a year later, just a scout. That will only last so long. Then Celtsi in 2313, a colony ship and a scout. Yep, they're coming. Back on the domestic side, Vega starts shipping people back to Meklon to max things out there sooner.  Celtsi, 2317. That didn't take long. Already sent a fighter along, and they take it. By 2324, Meklon is almost to maximum population, and Vega diverts enough resources for a year to get our first tech pull in. ** Computers -- Deep Space Scanner. Only choice. ** Construction -- Improved Industrial Tech 9. No Reduced Waste. ** Force Fields -- Class II Deflectors, always. ** Planetology -- Controlled Barren. Awesome. No terraforming, no Eco Restoration. We can land on planets that we haven't found any of. Super-great. ** Propulsion -- Both choices available, which is nice. We'll run with Hydrogen for purposes of getting moving more quickly. ** Weapons -- Gatling Laser or Hyper-V Rockets. no Hand Lasers. The Rockets are cheaper, and better initially for defense. Getting no help on waste spending at all, or even terraforming, really hurts. Hand Lasers, another quickie, didn't show up either. Nice to have both range tech options but that's the only thing that doesn't completely suck here. I'm starting to think that our only hope here is to have a repeat of the Klackon victory; the Silicoids and Psilons fighting it out while we sit on the sidelines until the time is right to strike.
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Dec 11, 2017 03:30
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Off to a terrible start!
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Dec 11, 2017 04:11
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If it weren't so bad, it wouldn't be so good!the littlest prince posted:Off to a terrible start! Unrelated, sorry, but ... what is going on with your little triangle gangtag? It's hypnotic.
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Dec 11, 2017 04:29
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It wouldn't be fun if things worked out well for you.
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Dec 11, 2017 08:11
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Tangentially related: the guy who does the art for Starsector (and a bunch of other games!) recently tinkered around with making high-def/updated versions of the MoO 1 ships. https://twitter.com/dgbaumgart/status/937122845376647168
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Dec 11, 2017 10:18
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POOL IS CLOSED posted:Unrelated, sorry, but ... what is going on with your little triangle gangtag? It's hypnotic. It's the BYOB community tag.
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Dec 11, 2017 22:50
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General Revil posted:It wouldn't be fun if things worked out well for you. You and POOL IS CLOSED should be real happy then. All kinds of 'Fun' is headed your way. Record-level 'Fun', in fact. Enjoy-joy ... if you dare.
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Dec 13, 2017 01:40
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Episode VII: 2325-2350 Now, a tough choice to make. It's 2325, exactly a quarter-century in. This is a distinctively Meklar decision. We've already got more factories on Meklon than any other race would be able to build at this point. How far do we keep the buildup going before we switch into research and getting the colonizer out there? It will take about another decade to finish up the factories and I don't think we can afford to wait that long. Vega's going to be of little help, small as it is. Bearing in the mind the 'interest' system that research operates on, I want to put a modest amount in that and the rest in industry. As time passes I'll gradually up the research investment, and then when we get close to getting the breakthrough on the fuel cells, pull funding out of industry for the ship. That seems to be the way to get this done the best, though I'm not positive.  Here's how it looks like at the beginning on the process. After a couple of years, I start shifting more into research.  Bastards. We're still stuck at two. Although I must admit this is probably good in the long-run -- decreasing the odds that the Psilons just crush everyone. It's 2329, and they've come back to Tyr a couple times but not with force. So at least we've kept them away there. 2331: Vega has 31 factories, and almost exactly the same population. It'll shift into research now to finish this up, while Meklon starts building. The homeworld has 297 factories, about three-quarters of the way to max.  2335, same year the Colonizer is finished. I don't know that I could have done better.  Haven't missed a single choice here. Tough choice, but I go with the range(Irridium) this early on. None of our initial choices are worth rushing though.  I won't have this much into it right away, but here's our distribution based on the Meklar's strengths. Naturally we're going to be all about the computing. Vega will follow the usual first-colony pattern of splitting effort between industry and research, but not until after it pushes a few more Recons out there.  We're off to Zhardan, which will get us to the better planet at Crypto. Beyond that we can only hope for good returns from the Recons. Back on Meklon, we have just enough investment in the next Colonizer to finish it in the minimum amount of time; the rest goes to industry.  2339. Better late than never ...  Scanners immediately report a Darlok scout duo(orange) nearby. There's no time to lose in extending our knowledge of the surrounding systems.  Ouch. Dead last in production as Meklar. It is good to see the Psilons and Humans not doing well though. Darloks third? Bulrathi first?? This is not expected.  We chase off the shape-shifters to find a system that will be important, but not until somebody can land on it. 2343: we finish an 'extra' Colonizer and get it moving. No more will be built until the scouting confirms we can at least land the one we have, so Meklon will now work on getting the industry finished up.  Four systems now, and our first good one that we've added. That red ship just appeared, a Psilon scout heading this way. Darrian(50 max, Desert) was discovered also. Everything is just out of range now though at 5 parsecs or more. Crap. That's at least two we could land on if we had the ability to go the distance. I decide to crash our next range tech in order to make that happen, after Meklon gets industry finally wrapped up in two years. Vega's job is mainly to keep sending out colonists.  Another radiated world of high economic value, once again the Darloks had a scout here already.  Then the Bears show up here, colony ship with no escorts. It sucks, but you're still going to have to earn it fellas.  A third system we can get once we get the range. Even if we get all three, that would still only be seven -- a lot better than four, but an uphill battle head to be sure. Also ...  Good grief. The only freaking planet that is worth a darn yet, and now I can't even do the bloody research there. Naturally there's not a darn thing in the reserve either. That's how the first half-century ends; no official contact with any other empire, but the Silicoids off quickly, multiple others stretching their legs, and a plague raging across our homeworld, sidelining critical efforts to remain relevant. Somewhere, a shadowy figure is preparing the last rites for the Meklar Empire.
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Dec 13, 2017 01:55
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The game is really piling it on you
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Dec 13, 2017 02:10
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How does a plague affect robots?
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Dec 13, 2017 02:11
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the littlest prince posted:How does a plague affect robots? Computer virus...
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Dec 13, 2017 02:37
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Deathwind posted:Computer virus... I guess so. You were right Thotimx. It's looking fo fun.
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Dec 13, 2017 03:00
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Oh boy, lots of FUN indeed!  This run's starting off at least as dramatic as the last.
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Dec 13, 2017 07:15
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