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My actual thoughts are "who do we conquer first  " but that won't get traction, so I won't bother pushing that angle.  There are some default settings for how different species feel about each other. The Alkari and the Mrrshan, unsurprisingly, do not like each other, but they're going to have to go through the Klackon to fight, or make a path through the core. Which I don't think they'll be able to do once people start throwing down colonies there and hardening borders. So the ants will make sure the birds and the cats aren't constantly at each others throats at best. At worst, the two of them will both try to court the Klackons, and whoever manages to get the Klackons on their side in a two on one war will win. Maybe they'll settle for open borders? But then there'll be a lot of "hey give us open borders but not them so we can go wreck their poo poo but they can't retaliate" going on. I don't know who's next to the Humans, but I suspect that someone is going to notice "hm, they're small and weak" and eat them alive. But there's not a lot of space over there for a big empire, so they may also be small and weak, which means that a war with the humans would be kind of a T-Rex slapfight. There's not a lot of space for the Bulrathi, and the Bulrathi and the Sakkra both love fighting. I smell a war between those two sooner or later. The Bulrathi have already started some poo poo with the Meklar, and they took some territory, but I don't know how dearly they had to pay for it. Of course, all this assumes that the Sakkra can reach them through the conduit, which is a thing I have already forgotten. I assume the usual strategy of "trade and research deals with everyone, make all the money" is going to be put into play, but room is finite. At some point, the easiest way to get new planets is going to be to take them from someone else, and then you're going to have to start picking sides. And while I don't know which victory conditions are in play, it doesn't matter too much because only one of you can get there, and everybody knows it.
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Jul 30, 2020 06:25
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MechaCrash posted:I don't know who's next to the Humans, but I suspect that someone is going to notice "hm, they're small and weak" and eat them alive. But there's not a lot of space over there for a big empire, so they may also be small and weak, which means that a war with the humans would be kind of a T-Rex slapfight. The Humans are actually the second most-advanced major race, and the second-highest GDP per capita. Their population lags Meklar and Klackon populations, but their total economic size doesn't significantly lag them. They're... not really 'weak'. They're at worst a mid-rank power with a technological edge over other powers.
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Jul 30, 2020 06:28
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I guess they have quality instead of quantity, then, so you shouldn't have to worry too much about them getting taken over. Unless you do it.
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Jul 30, 2020 06:44
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nweismuller posted:What if we are the Darloks? Honestly, when I saw you had both the Sakkra and the Klackon in the galaxy, welp. I usually like the Sakkra, at least, they're nice enough diplomacy-wise but they will still become a population powerhouse eventually. But the god drat bugs, just shoot on sight 
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Jul 30, 2020 12:56
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As the galaxy is explored, and new civilizations are encountered, the most striking thing was just how familiar the aliens were. Before the first contacts happened, works of speculative fiction had hypothesized aliens that would be truly alien: perhaps lifeforms based not on carbon chemistry, but on silicium chemistry, creating mineral beings? Perhaps beings made of luminous protoplasm? But no. Instead, with the partial exception of the Meklar who had turned themselves into machines so long ago they do not have archives documenting what they looked like before, every alien civilization encountered was basically the same, biologically speaking -- on a world where multicellular life is spread between three main clades of photosynthesizing plants, non-photosynthesizing fungi, and animals. The similarities were astounding. Certainly, all planets with a native biosphere had their own species and there were sometimes dramatic differences, but on the whole, everything was so similar that either convergent evolution was extremely strong, or perhaps planets had been seeded long ago by an ancient empire, presumably either the Antarans and Orions before their war. For example, all known civilized races were animals (at least originally), most of them were vertebrate (the Klackon being the exception), and among the vertebrates most were mammalian. All known intelligent species (with the possible exception of the Meklar since, again, it's not known what they used to look like) shared the same basic body plan with a head containing a brain, eyes, ears, nostrils, and a mouth, connected by a neck to a torso containing lungs, heart, digestive track, and to which are connected both lower limbs for locomotion and upper limbs for manipulation. Even just the relative position of the various elements on the head (eyes, ears, nostrils, mouth) had very little variance; sure the Eldritch and Gnolams have three pairs of eyes instead of just one like most others, and the Nyunyu have a triplet of eyes, but that's about all. Many scientists were working on comparative genetics, attempting to see if any species from a given planet was related to another species on a different planet, to confirm or infirm the idea of ancient astronauts kickstarting life on different planets by seeding them. It was thought that the Orion planet could bring many answers if only it could be safely reached, but its dreadful Guardian was an obstacle to any scientific expedition. A few attempts at sneaking unmanned probes past the Guardian unerringly resulted in rapid disintegration, so this was a dead end. One of the nearly-universal constants in the comparative study of planetary civilizations was that once a species developed sapience, it would eventually want to ensure its food safety. An early agrarian phase would invariably result in food reserves being plagued by various opportunistic pests, and this in turn led to the domestication of a very useful little predator that was remarkably similar in shape and general attitude on all planets where it appeared: the cat. A playful, inquisitive little animal, whose main activities are looking cute and investigating for unwanted pests. Again, convergent evolution had been given a solid workout on the various galactic cats: the sakkra cat, for example, was technically a spiny lizard, but remarkably feline-looking. The Alkari were one of the few catless homeworld, but they had owls instead -- adorable little purring owls. And the Klackons' antlions were quite surprisingly literally named. It turns out that in the Fieras system, this scenario did not follow the script. Instead, on Yileria, it is the local cat species that became sapient in the first place.
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Jul 30, 2020 13:09
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Sorry I've been a little slow with this one. My sleep has been a mess. Be assured I'm slowly plowing through the image collection, sorting, and naming process I need to guide my writing.
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Aug 1, 2020 13:40
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Is there any way to get peace or ally with the Antarans or do they just always have an unyielding diplomatic malus
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Aug 1, 2020 13:58
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Victis posted:Is there any way to get peace or ally with the Antarans or do they just always have an unyielding diplomatic malus Antarans only listen to the sweet sound of 'being blasted into superheated particles'.
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Aug 1, 2020 14:07
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Victis posted:Is there any way to get peace or ally with the Antarans or do they just always have an unyielding diplomatic malus If you build four research stations on Antaran ruins, you can find out how to build a portal generator to the Antaran home world, and then you can send a diplomatic mission to negotiate peace with them. By that I mean exterminate them once and for all. The entire point of the Antarans is that they're a threat you can't reason with.
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Aug 1, 2020 14:47
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Speaking of the Antaran victory, if it is okay, I would like to throw in some extra content in the form of various starting options and also achievements. It'd cover galaxy generation, victory conditions, racial picks, and achievements, any of which can be left out due to spoilers or whatever other reason if requested.
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Aug 5, 2020 02:30
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Go ahead, MechaCrash. Insomnia is still being a problem for me, so it's difficult to work, and something that helps fill time is welcome.
nweismuller fucked around with this message at 19:08 on Aug 5, 2020 |
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Aug 5, 2020 09:24
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Right then! First up, Galaxy Generation Options. First is Galaxy Type, which controls the shape of it: Circle, Spiral, or Cluster. Circle is just a circle of evenly distributed stars, as the name implies, and Spiral has a series of arms, so you can make chokepoints with that. Cluster, however, means that the stars are grouped together with relatively short lanes between them, and those clusters are connected with longer lanes. Which are probably of the turbulent "do research to get through" variety. After that is Galaxy Size: Small, Medium, Large, and Huge. Small is only available as a Circle, and consists of about 30 stars. Medium is 45ish for Circle, 50ish for Spiral, and 60ish for Cluster. Large is 70ish for Circle, 80ish for Spiral, and 90ish for Cluster. Huge is 120ish for Circle, 100ish for Spiral, and not available for Cluster. The size controls the maximum number of opponents you can have, from four in a Small Circle all the way up to eight in a Huge Circle or Large Spiral. Next is Galaxy Age: Young, Average, and Old. Young galaxies have lots of life-rich but mineral-poor worlds, while Old galaxies are the opposite. Not much to this one. It's a question of "do you want an easy early start with planets that are easy to colonize, or planets that will be good late once you can do the work to make them not kill you with BURNING ACID RAINSTORMS"? Next is, hm. Well, look, I'll be honest, I don't know if "Planet Density By Star" is added by the Unofficial Code Patch or not at this point but I'll include it anyway just in case. v v But like it says, it's an option for just how many planets, on average, are around every star: Low, Normal, or High. I like setting it to High myself.After that is Starting Age. Pre-Warp, Post-Warp, and Advanced. Pre-Warp is where we started in this LP, and you have nothing. Not even space flight. Post-Warp is "okay, everyone can do space flight." You start with two scouts and a colony ship. Advanced puts you a bit into the tech tree, and gives you some basic (but crappy) military ships, some scouts and space factories, and a couple of colony ships. Next is Difficulty Level: Very Easy, Easy, Normal, Hard, Very Hard, and Extreme. Enemies take penalties to various forms of production at lower difficulty levels. At higher difficulties, they get bonuses and more racial picks (more on that when we get there). I don't know how it controls for their aggression and/or intelligence. After that is AI Opponents, which is pretty simple. How many AIs do you want to fight? This lets you pick, within the restrictions of the map type and size you've chosen. And (almost) finally is Game Pace. Choices are Lightning, Quick, Classic, Heroic, Colossal, or Custom, which lets you set individual speeds for Research, Production, and Population Growth. Finally, ikt's the Big Bang Seed, which lets you seed the RNG for making the game, so if you use the same seed and settings, you can get the same galaxy. There are also advanced settings, which have assorted things you can turn on and off (plus the already-covered speed settings). The things you can toggle are Random Events, Pirates, Monsters, Minor Civilizations, Allow Racial Traits, and Balanced Starting Conditions. Most of those are self explanatory, but Allow Racial Traits controls if everybody is playing the race they picked or if everything is just generic with no bonuses, penalties, or abilities. Balanced Starting Conditions makes sure that you're evenly distributed around the map, and at least one of the systems next to yours will have a planet that can maybe sustain life. If you turn that off, gently caress it, anything goes. --- Next we have Victory Types. There's six ways to win. The first one is the only one you can't shut off, and that's the Conquest Victory. This one is fairly straightforward: last man standing wins. Next is the Score Victory. This limits how many turns the game can run. When time is up, if none of the other victory conditions have been achieved, it tallies up everyone's score using the other victory conditions (even if they're off!) and declares a winner. Then there's the Diplomatic Victory, which was seen in prior Master of Orion games. Once everybody meets everybody else and you've settled enough of the galaxy, there's a meeting every now and then. The two empires with the most people are nominated, and everybody casts votes for who's In Charge, one vote per population unit I think. Get two thirds of the votes and you win! Even if your own empire alone accounts for 75% of the votes. You just need two thirds, doesn't say they can't all be from you... Next is the Technological Victory. To get this, you acquire certain technologies as you progress down the tree. You need to research and build the Hyperplanar Transfer Tracking Premises, which then upgrades into the Transponder Control Plant, which upgrades into the Ultraplanar Dimorphic Prospector (HTTP, TCP, UDP, ha ha). You can't buy these out, you must build them the hard way, and once you build them all you transcend this plane of existence and win. Then there's the Economic Victory, which is probably how we're going to win. You get this one via building the Galactic Currency Exchange, which is pretty deep in the tech tree. Doing so opens the Galactic Monetary Fund. Buy enough shares and have a controlling interest for ten turns and you win! I am, I must admit, unclear on how the hell the GMF works outside of that, but I am sure I will learn. And finally, the Antaran Victory. If this one is on, then in addition to some asteroid belts with weird glowy ruins in them, you also have to deal with Antaran attacks. If you build a lab on one of these asteroid ruins, you make progress towards learning how to build a portal to the Antaran Dimension. Build four, and you get all the pieces of the puzzle, and learn how to turn a star into a portal to the Antaran dimension, and send a fleet through for a final confrontation. It will not be a surprise to learn that this is difficult, because that talk about sending through just a sliver of a raiding fleet through the tiny cracks in their prison is not empty posturing. --- Now we've got the Racial Picks, which fortunately are pretty straightforward. You can pick any race as the basis, it's mostly the one that you think is cool, or would rather not run into. Like the loving Darlocks. You get ten points to use. You can take drawbacks to get more points with no limits, and you don't have to spend all your points before starting, but there's no score bonus or anything so you might as well smoke 'em all. Population Growth: -50% for -7, -25% for -4, +25% for 4, +50% for 7 Food from Population: -25% for -3, +25% for 4, +50% for 7 Production from Population: -25% for -3, +25% for 3, +50% for 3 Research from Population: -25% for -3, +25% for 3, +50% for 6 Credits from Population: -25% for -4, +25% for 5, +50% for 8 Pollution Tolerance: Only one setting, it keeps pollution from reducing food growth, and it takes 8. Homeworld Size: Small for -2, Large for 2, Huge for 4 Homeworld Minerals: Poor for -2, Rich for 2, Ultra-Rich for 6 Beam Defense: -25% for -1, +25% for 2, +50% for 4 Beam Attack: -25% for -1, +25% for 2, +50% for 4 Command Points: +10% for 2, +20% for 4, +30% for 6 After this are some special things. You can have some Ship Improvements, which consist of Auto Repair for 3 and Stealth for 2. Auto Repair means that ships restore 5% of their HP after every round, which is super useful early on when you have no shields but would like your roving pirate killers to keep roving. Stealth means that your ships can get closer before they're detected. There's also Ship Cost: 20% ship discount for three points. You can also choose Specials for your home world: Artifacts for 1, Low Gravity for -3, High Gravity for 4. Artifacts means your home world has the Artifacts special for +2 research, which can be huge super early. Low Gravity means your homeworld has low gravity and your race is built for it, taking a 25% production hit on Normal-G worlds (and 50% on High). High Gravity means you don't take penalties on High-G worlds, which is a boon because gravity is a function of planetary size and richness, so the bigger and richer it is, the higher the gravity. Low-G worlds tend to be pretty lovely, and High-G worlds tend to be pretty rad, so you can see why being restricted to Low-G worlds is a drawback, and being able to freely colonize High-G is a boon! And after that are all the various Specials which are a bit more complicated. So I'll just bang out these relatively quickly.
The thing with the "upgrade planets" is that races that start on specific planets can make Uber Biomes. These Uber Biomes are almost but not quite as good as Gaia planets, but are a hell of a lot cheaper to do.
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Aug 6, 2020 05:59
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I believe that the number of labs you need to build on ruins for the Antaran victory depends on galaxy size. I think it's three on Small and Medium.
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Aug 6, 2020 12:07
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You say that young galaxies are life-rich but mineral-poor, with the reverse in old galaxies. But shouldn't this be the other way around? I'm 80% sure it was young=more minerals and old=more habitable planets in MoO2, and I think the explanation was that young planets usually haven't formed a biosphere yet, while old planets lost some of their easily mined minerals to erosion and other chemical processes.
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Aug 6, 2020 13:08
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The game is not necessarily very realistic.
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Aug 6, 2020 14:03
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Cat Mattress posted:The game is not necessarily very realistic. I wouldn't have brought it up if I wasn't sure that MoO2 did it the other way around. I'm looking at the (New) Master of Orion wiki, and it seems like in this game, habitable planets are far more likely to appear in average age galaxies, with old and young galaxies being equally suited or unsuited to life? The table is not very easy to read, but that's what I'm getting from it. https://masteroforion.gamepedia.com/Galaxy
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Aug 6, 2020 14:18
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A side note about diplomatic victory: as the galactic council only meets when all major races meet all other major races, in a crowded spiral galaxy like this, it's almost insurmountably impractical to get it going. I think the requirements for the council are too strict. I was interested in seeing if we could manage a diplomatic victory... but no. We'll have to try for another victory form. (As far as continuing on the LP, I finally got my first decent night's sleep in several weeks, but still have a bit of a fatigue headache. If I can get another good night's sleep tonight, though, I suspect I'll be golden.)
nweismuller fucked around with this message at 14:30 on Aug 6, 2020 |
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Aug 6, 2020 14:26
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For the galaxy age thing, I agree that the chart is a motherfucker to read and it'd be nice if they summarized it with "here's how age relates to biomes and richness" and then give you the detailed breakdown, but actually summarizing things instead of looking like a calculator sneezed on a spreadsheet is a lost art. I may have the ages backwards, but if I do, so does the official wiki on a page that doesn't appear to be linked from anything. For the victory conditions, getting the galactic council going in a big galaxy can be done, it just takes longer. Or you can expedite the process by making sure there's fewer races to meet. 
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Aug 7, 2020 00:01
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MechaCrash posted:For the victory conditions, getting the galactic council going in a big galaxy can be done, it just takes longer. In a more peaceful manner, sometimes when going for the diplomatic win I've just gifted conveniently located planets to AIs that hadn't met each other yet, just to get the god drat council up and running. It's a bit of an infuriating mechanic, to be sure. Honestly, it sort of looks like they put in the score victory just to make sure there's a game-ender that happens no matter what, but since in order to reach the score win, you kind of have to play exactly the same as winning any of the other conditions, so...
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Aug 7, 2020 11:47
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MechaCrash posted:For the galaxy age thing, I agree that the chart is a motherfucker to read and it'd be nice if they summarized it with "here's how age relates to biomes and richness" and then give you the detailed breakdown, but actually summarizing things instead of looking like a calculator sneezed on a spreadsheet is a lost art. Someone must have made a copy/past error, because in the wiki I linked, there's no difference between young and old galaxy age. On the other hand, this is a post on reddit by a NuMoO developer, and it seems to support my initial theory: quote:Here you go, direct from MoO's lead designer: https://www.reddit.com/r/masteroforion/comments/4i690v/galaxy_age_explanation/
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Aug 7, 2020 12:00
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Torrannor posted:Someone must have made a copy/past error, because in the wiki I linked, there's no difference between young and old galaxy age. The difference is in the chance for each star type to appear, but there's indeed no difference for each planet type for a given star type to appear between young and old. Go to Master of Orion\Modding and look at GalaxyAge.yaml (star probabilities) and BiomeChance.yaml (planet probabilities). Mineral richness is not directly tied to galaxy age; but it is tied to star types. E.g. planets orbiting a blue star have a 30% chance of being abundant, 40% chance of being rich, 30% of being ultra-rich, and 0% risk of being poor or ultra-poor. At the opposite end, planets orbiting a brown star have a 10% chance of being ultra-poor, 34% of being poor, 35% for abundant, 16% for rich, and 5% for ultra-rich.
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Aug 7, 2020 13:52
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All right, I've finally sorted through all the images and done uploading, but am tired again. I should do the writing in the next couple of days. Sorry for this jag of slowness- it's just been my experience that fatigue and foggy thinking is the enemy of creativity, and I can be prone to insomnia at times. Thanks for sticking with me. 
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Aug 7, 2020 16:50
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Hey Nweismuller, While I haven't been following you lately I have participated in some of your previous LPs. I thought you and your fans might want to know that I just plugged some of your older work. I hang out on a blog called According to Hoyt. It's mostly a political blog, but they do weekly "Book Promo" posts (a lot of the regulars are writers and/or super-readers). A while back the hostess was swamped and asked for guest posts, so I offered to do a "Let's Play Promo" (inspired by their Book Promo posts) to give the super-readers over there something new to try. The post went up earlier today. You got plugs for SMAC, MOM and one of your MOO2 runs. I figured the crowd over there would like you both for your focus on lore and world-building and because your writing fits a style they call "Human Wave" (pro-humanity and focused on entertaining rather than lecturing or demeaning, basically). A couple of warnings before I link to it: 1) Like I said, this is mainly a political blog. My guest post isn't political at all, but if you're the sort who can't remain civil when it comes to politics you might not want to wander around. 2) We consider ourselves a community of capital-"O" Odds. We don't intentionally try to scare away Normals, but if you do decide to wander around be prepared for some silliness. Oh, and mind the ballistic carp. The post is here: https://accordingtohoyt.com/2020/08/13/lets-play-promo-by-dgm/ P.S. Oh, and you can ignore the stuff about a cat named Greebo making me do it. That's just part of a running joke over there. DGM_2 fucked around with this message at 02:52 on Aug 14, 2020 |
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Aug 14, 2020 02:49
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Hey, DGM. Thanks for the plug. I've had a bit of a dry spell for writing right now, but should be ready for the next update Soon(tm). I really appreciate the added exposure!
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Aug 14, 2020 04:34
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Sorry for further delays. Old air conditioner broke and new one is being delivered by the first of next month; for some reason I find it extraordinarily difficult to maintain creativity for writing in a 95 degree room.
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Aug 24, 2020 00:03
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Took longer than expected, but I now have a working air conditioner. Are people still following this? It might be a little rough to get back into the swing of writing after such a delay, but I can certainly continue now.
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Sep 7, 2020 15:31
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By the magic of bookmarks, I am still around.
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Sep 7, 2020 15:41
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If you update, they will come.
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Sep 7, 2020 16:15
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You won't get rid of me that easily.
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Sep 7, 2020 17:33
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I love talking about this game, and a month's hiatus or so isn't exactly huge by the LP forum standards anyway 
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Sep 7, 2020 17:40
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Someone has to beat the war drums around here.
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Sep 8, 2020 00:14
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Someone will have to huck in a few of our spiciest cultural achievements into a collapsing Antaran wormhole to utterly disrupt their society forever. Or did we do that already?
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Sep 8, 2020 00:55
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Headed out early this week. My writing has been slow as I get back into the swing of things, but I've gotten some solid progress getting through the update. I'll finish it up after I return during the weekend. Thanks for bearing with me.
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Sep 16, 2020 21:21
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No, thank you for making this excellent LP!
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Sep 17, 2020 09:12
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Thank you for the update. This has been fun to read, and made me pick up the game.
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Sep 17, 2020 14:18
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Belial42 posted:Thank you for the update. This has been fun to read, and made me pick up the game. As ever, it's cool for me when my writing is enough to inspire somebody else to try a new game. I hope you enjoy yourself with it!
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Sep 17, 2020 16:33
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Protectors of Degon    In 2226, authorities from the Universal Mercantile League entered into negotiations with the United Republic, negotiating the right of passage for UML scouts and fleets in exchange for helping expedite export of modern Gnolam educational methods to Human space. Similar negotiations were simultaneously underway with the General Oversight Combine, with the UML offering to help transfer technological data and assistance to allow the Combine to implement a wide variety of technologies well behind the League's cutting edge in exchange for similar access to Meklar space. With these negotiations concluded, League scouts began pushing further outward, seeking to make contact with new alien civilisations. The year also saw Lilka's Raiders retained by the League as elite special forces in the event of the outbreak of war that required surface forces. The Raiders, for their part, settled into a rigorous routine of training, with sudden access to the finest of cutting-edge weaponry and equipment. Accidentally missed getting a shot of hiring Lilka, but I did hire her.   Later, in 2227, negotiators from Human biotechnology giant NordPharm approached Gnolam companies seeking patent exchanges. In return for Gnolam retroviral treatments to improve adult neuroplasticity and improved brain efficiency, NordPharm offered to share its own patents on treatments to develop telepathic capabilities in a subject, developed partly by reverse-engineering Klackon neurology and adapting it to the brain structure of other species. Human volunteers had helped NordPharm refine the ability to create a controllable telepathic ability that could cross species boundries, while being able to be suppressed and avoid the side effects seen in Klackon species empathy. Secure telepathic communications between field agents and the ability to observe the thoughts of others proved of particular interest to LIIS, which began a program of providing telepathic augmentations to its field agents once the technology was available on the League market.   The following year, the Klackon approached the League seeking an exchange of astrographic charts. League negotiators willingly accepted this, helping ensure Gnolam charts filled in the last remaining sections of the galaxy and helping maintain cordial relations with the strange hive society of the Klackon.  Work by Apocrypha Engineering and Reliant Aerospace saw breakthroughs in 2232, with Apocrypha Engineering taking advantage of extremely thin cables of stable synthetic superheavy metals to provide the necessary structural strength for true space elevators, while Reliant Aerospace took advantage of the same advances in materials science to allow for scaled-up military ship designs. With space elevators to ease delivery of materials into orbit, ship assembly could be remarkably cheaper, while the new spaceframe engineering pioneered by Reliant promised to eventually allow for a new, more deadly generation of main-line battleships for the Navy.   When GOC negotiators approached the League n 2234, seeking an exchange of astrographic data, swapping the new data the League had gained from the Klackon with modest additions to the Combine's own charts, League negotiators agreed to the proposal- although only as a measure to avoid strain between the two governments. Policymakers amongst the Assembly and the League's commodore both doubted the added value gained by this scrap of additional exploration by the Meklars.  With the exploration of multiple species into the core region, the cast-off detritus of broad interstellar societies came with it. In 2236, a pair of pirate vessels was detected moving in from a new pirate haven in the Lirr system, one that hosted an uneasy alliance of Gnolam, Human, Meklar, and Sakkra criminals and renegades. Although border defenses for the Montone system were still under construction, they were anticipated to be ready by the time of the pirate arrival.  With contact with a wider array of trading partners, the great trading and arbitrage firms of the UML had continued to undergo strong growth. Axelsson Interstellar Trading, long ago established to take advantage of opportunities in handling arbitrage between Human and Gnolam space, was by the beginning of 2237 engaged not only in trade that brought alien products from Humans, Meklars, Klackon, and Sakkra, but also in transferring resources between one alien society to another, taking profits in the process. The continued growth of specialisation in the Gnolam economy continued to drive growth in incomes and in living standards.   As part of the process of arranging arbitrage, Gnolam trading firms helped arrange a major series of loans to help allow trading families amongst the Sakkra nations to capitalise the necessary industrial and port operations to support continued large-scale trade with the UML. With this, the benefits of trade between the Sakkra and the Gnolams continued to be enjoyed by both species.   The pirates inbound from the Lirr system arrived at the border defenses at Montone in 2238. As usual, the engagement was swift and decisive, with the pirate raiders wiped out before being able to inflict any real damage.   With improved command and control capabilities enabled by rapid transmissions across the whole of the League, League military planners were able to continue to adapt strategic doctrine to take advantage of centralised command and improved logistical networks by the early 2240s. The logistic challenges of scaling up system border forts was not, at this point, insurmountable, while support for major movements of surface troops would be easier in the event it was ever required by the UML.    A Naval punitive expedition to Lirr arrived at the pirate settlement in its asteroid belt in 2242, beginning a program of bombardment that finished in 2243. The destruction of the settlement left a reasonable quantity of refined metals free for the claiming, providing a quick infusion of capital to help pay operating expenses for the UML government. The surviving exiles scattered across the Core, doubtless to slowly build up again in the background.  In 2243, Gnolam exploration through General Oversight Combine space confirmed why no Meklar settlement had ever been made in the Hera system. The system hosted another massive deep-space organism like those within the Xanthus and Laan systems in League space, a daunting challenge to any settlement of the system.  2244 saw the hostile toxic planet of Tollesen in the Niallar system colonised by Gnolam settlers. Although the dark quartz deposits on Tollesen offered some inducement to settlement, perhaps the greatest value of the planet was its strategic position directly on the existing shipping lanes between the Guad system and the growing colonies of the Montone system. The Tollesen colony allowed the League to cement its control over the route to its farthest outposts, and would help ease shipping and trade into and out of the core region.      League negotiators had a significant influx of business to handle over 2245 and 2246, with both the United Republic and the Sakkra's Father of Nations approaching the UML with proposals, while Gnolam corporate negotiators arranged fresh funding for Meklar trade endeavors. The United Republic had not given up on negotiating free access for its ships through League space, offering a financial incentive to induce League cooperation. With the Assembly still concerned about the potential for Human settlement in League space, this proposal was declined, much to the disappointment of Republican negotiators. The Father of Nations, for his part, proposed an exchange of astrographic charts, a proposal that could easily enough be accomodated by the League, mostly to help maintain friendly relations. Continued trade relations with the Meklars required an influx of capital into Meklar space, and Gnolam investors readily pursued this opportunity, purchasing bond issues made by Meklar industrial and shipping magnates.       The Val-like planet of Lassen in the Azimon system was colonised in 2248, shortly followed by the garden world of Ryhen in the Sena system in 2249. Both these planets, although promising additions to the League, brought diplomatic friction, with the General Oversight Combine requesting that the League refrain from colonising in the Azimon system and the Klackon requesting that the UML not claim the Sena system. The League refused both these requests as infringements on its sovereignty, and investment promptly began flowing into both new worlds- and, with a Gnolam presence in the Sena system, investors began to scramble to make commercial contacts on Degon and to begin offering the fruits of advanced technology to the Degonites in exchange for agricultural surpluses.  2249 also saw the colonisation of the lifeless, barren world of Surren in the Cygni system. Surren had little to recommend it save its position and its access to dark quartz deposits that could be incorporated into local electronics industries, but nonetheless this position was strategically vital. With the control of the Cyngi, Montone, and Sena systems, all routes of approach to the Orion system would be controlled by the UML. When the time came, the UML would be in a position to claim the ancient riches and secrets of the seat of the Confederation of Orion.   Early in 2250, Gnolam explorers finally arrived in the Elnen system, there making contact with the Nyunyu and the Global Republic of Nyu. The Gnolams had long been aware of the Nyunyu through their contact with the Meklars, but for the first time Gnolam emissaries were able to meet with the Nyunyu, one of the few other modern species governed under broadly republican ideals. With the capture of the Bulrathi world of Korga in the Elnen system, the Global Republic had concluded a separate peace with the General Oversight Combine, and resumed their offworld trade to the colony at Korga. Gnolam emissaries found the Nyunyu a congenial and enterprising people, although the fact that the Nyunyu shipping fleet was limited to in-system shipping and their distant position meant that the Nyunyu would remain effectively a Meklar client state for the foreseeable future. Nonetheless, the Citizens' Council that served as the highest authority of the Global Republic welcomed a Gnolam ambassador warmly, seeing in the UML another state recognisably committed to democratic ideals, even despite the many differences in implementation between Nyunyu and Gnolam republics.   With continued friendly relations between the UML and the Sakkra Nations, a formal non-aggression treaty and recognition of borders was concluded by League negotiators in 2250. With this, the UML had concluded treaties to secure its borders with all major powers it was in contact with save the Klackon- and relations with the Klackon were, at this point, tenuous, with the Klackon agitated by the Gnolams cutting off their avenue of expansion into the Core. Known Space and the Universal Mercantile League as of 2250  The Universal Mercantile League has seen modest growth in investment and innovation over the past 25 years, along with a quite respectable expansion in territory that should support further growth. The League has settled four new systems in the Core, while the Oshiad system has been settled by the General Oversight Combine, isolating the League system of Azimon from the remainder of the League. The General Oversight Combine has seized the systems of Xendalla and Elnen from the Great Empire of Bulra, while colonisation of new worlds behind Sakkra and Klackon borders has expanded those two states. League scouting has confirmed that Jupiter in the Sol system has had the majority of its atmosphere blasted off and material collapsed into a new, massive colony planet settled by Humanity, while the Klackon have formally established arms-length cooperation with the ruling Masters of the Mysteries and Powers of Nyemor. The Navy currently supports three task forces scattered across the League and three independently operating scouting vessels, while two private corporations have purchased obsolete Naval cruisers for security purposes. A task force of two Adjudicator-class battleships and a Defender-class escort frigate is being redeployed from the Guad system to Sena as a safeguard against Klackon aggression, while two Adjudicators and two Defenders remain stationed in Shimari as a security force. A pair of Defenders has been stationed at Montone to watch the Meklar borders there, while the three Suppressor scouting/counterpiracy frigates of the Navy have been deployed so that one is passing through Republican space on a scouting mission, one is about to exit Combine space on its own scouting mission, and the third has been tasked with counterpiracy duties in the core.    Border defenses have been established to completely secure the Montone system, and a series of laboratories has been established through the asteroid belt of Montone. Work is underway both in Cyngi and Niallar to establish appropriate border defenses, sucring approaches to League territory.   Although the League controls the Sena system, and Stollen Innovations has been commissioned to station its testbed cruiser at Ryhen to help protect the planet, the Klackon have a pair of frigates stationed at the border of the system. Gnolam investors have poured significant amounts of money into negotiating land leases from various kingdoms on Degon, introducing agricultural mechanisation, modern fertilisation methods, and loans on favorable terms for Degonite landowners to modernise their own agriculture. The upheaval in agricultural production on Degon is already having social consequences, and the population on the planet is expected to grow notably in the coming years. Competition with modern methods is forcing adaptation on the previously stagnant Degonite social and technological situation, and opportunity and unrest walk side by side on Degon now. Once an independent civilisation is your protectorate from you having a colony in its system, you can spend 400 BC in investment funds to increase the independent civilisation to level 2, and 800 BC more to increase it to level 3, increasing the effective output provided to your colonies in-system. We immediately invested as much as we could into Degon, allowing it to provide a very healthy food surplus to Ryhen.    The Naval base over Val has seen major expansion as a safeguard against Antaran aggression, while a space elevator using modern materials has been put into place to more easily support shipbuilding activities there. A network of shield generators that could hopefully protect the planet from bombardment is in the process of construction, with a future colonisation mission planned for completion within 20 years. The planetary economy still easily supports the expanded fortifications and infrastructure for increased shipbuilding.    Stevas now supports an expanded Naval base providing increased logistical and training support for the Navy and stronger defenses for the planet. Regular shipments of ultradense synthetic materials now depart from Stevas nearly daily, bound for Tessin and its current space elevator construction project.     The past 25 years have seen Tessin's Naval base expand, with supplemental defense platforms now in place to help secure the planet. Construction is under way on a new space elevator on Tessin, which is anticipated to be another center of shipbuilding in the future. Tessin remains a vital, heavily-developed world near the heart of the League, and may soon displace Teziv as the most important shipbuilding planet of the UML.    Eglein's population has grown to over 12 billion, with access to education now matching that on Val or Tessin. The Naval base on the planet has been expanded, while work to establish a network of planetary shield generators has begun. Improved education and an expanded research sector have greatly improved the innovation coming from Eglein, although it is still only a fraction of the innovation coming from Val.    Navok remains much the same as it was 25 years ago, its population growth drawn off by the demands of new colonisation and the establishment of a new naval base yet to be completed. The planet has a relatively stable economic situation as a stop along several major trade lanes, and with the industrial infrastructure to help compensate for its poor access to native resources. Still, for now, Navok remains a relatively backwater world within the League.    Eydin has seen no effective population growth over the past 25 years, emigration to new colonies having drawn off whatever natural population growth the planet has enjoyed. A new defensive platform has been established in orbit, and work to terraform the planet and bring more usable land area out of the seas is under way. An expansion of Eydin's Naval base is planned following this terraforming project, helping to secure the world and support the growing needs of the Navy.    Teziv remains the most important shipbuilding planet of the League at the moment, although Tessin may challenge this with its ability to draw upon additional supplies from Stevas and the lunar manufacturing facilities supporting its shipbuilding. Teziv has been working to recreate a border defense task force at Guad, with the existing task force drawn off to reinforce the Klackon frontier. Plans are also in place to expand the local naval base, helping to support continued Naval expansion and safeguard this vital strategic world.    Sluyen's population has dipped back down below 13 billion persons as new colony worlds have drawn off settlers from the developed core worlds of the League. Its local defenses have been reinforced by a new missile base platform and an expanded Naval base, while work is under way to establish planetary shield generators to even further ensure the planet's security. Sluyen remains one of the critical core worlds of the League, and one of the engines of the League's prosperity.    With the completion of terraforming on Skeggi, the planetary population has grown to seven billion persons. A new orbital defensive platform has been put into place, and plans have been formulated to expand the local Naval base. Although Skeggi's small population renders it fairly dependent on outside investment, it nonetheless makes a respectable contribution to Gnolam science.    Tarvaal has grown to nearly seven billion persons in population over the past 25 years, the Gnolam inhabitants of the planet rapidly spreading and establishing new cities. New research facilities on Tarvaal's moon provide excellent facilities for Tarvaal's tiny research community, while the steady labor of the planet's 150 million heavy industrial workers have helped allow for the spread of new modern optronic luxuries and conveniences amongst the population. A new Naval base is planned to be established over Tarvaal, helping protect the world and serve as a recruiting and logistics base for the Navy's operations.    Over the past 25 years, Nevan has seen new modern cargo ports supporting greater commerce, new export industries taking advantage of the greater shipping capacity, and the establishment of new laboratories on the planet's moons and access to modern optronic entertainments and appliances for the population. The planet is steadily prospering, and work has begun to take the first steps towards introducing a biosphere, breathable atmosphere, and water onto the planet. With a proper biosphere, agriculture on the planet should be able to move beyond sealed-environment hydroponics, helping to supply a growing population that now exceeds four billion persons.   Genein, over the past 25 years, has established extensive industrial infrastructure, along with organised governmental legal services, a basic research sector, the fundamentals of sealed-environment agriculture, and a network of gravity generators that compensate for the unpleasantly high gravity. Over 100 million heavy industrial workers making use of modern robotic technologies and automation have begun work to establish proper cargo ports on the planet, which is heavily dependent on outside imports to support the extensive infrastructure now in place on the planet. Genein remains a fairly underdeveloped world at the edge of the League, but conditions on the planet are immensely more modern than they were on first settlement.   Slightly over a billion Gnolams live in the sealed dome-cities of Tollesen, protected from the ravages of the harsh and reactive atmosphere outside. Extensive prospecting to identify promising mining sites helps feed raw materials to the factory complexes so far set up on the planet, while the population is currently fed by small domed farms and industrial hydroponics. Establishment of small industrial research departments is under way here, but Tollesen remains a relatively poor, thinly-populated world with minimal contribution to the greater League and ongoing issues with heavy gravitation.   Lassen has had basic industries and small research outposts set up, surrounded by a penumbra of farms growing food in the relatively hospitable Val-like environment. Relatively heavy gravity presents challenges to the settlers here, but the world offers great promise over the long term and a pleasant environment conducive to Gnolam life.   Several industrial cities dot the surface of Ryhen on the shores of its murky seas and set amidst the thick, rainy swamps that dominate much of the land surface. The first shipments of food from Degon have begun to arrive here, allowing the Gnolam workforce to concentrate on industrial development rather than setting up farmsteads here. Basic industrial infrastructure is in place and helps with local productivity, although high gravity reduces productivity here and makes daily life somewhat exhausting for the Gnolam settlers. It seems likely that, with the assistance of Degonite food imports, Ryhen shall grow swiftly and eventually claim its place as an important world of the League.   One of the first priorities of the settlers on Surren has been to identify promising mining sites on an otherwise resource-poor world. The planet remains underdeveloped, although access to dark quartz provides at least some valuable resource the settlers have access to.  LIIS efforts to acquire Sakkra astrographic charts were in progress when the Sakkra Nations offered them in trade. The LIIS team responsible for the operation needs to be recalled to League space for counterintelligence duties. The past 25 years have been relatively uneventful for LIIS, with no identified hostile operations against the League.  With improvements in communications and the growing network of trade linking the League to other galactic powers, efficient galactic-scale trade conducted by corporations of unprecedented scope has begun to take shape, a development which will only continue to boost average incomes within the League. Proposals for the Universal Mercantile League Research Proposals Several advancements present themselves to League researchers. Refinement of theories of hyperspace physics, as way as laying the groundwork for future improvements in communications technology, would immediately allow for hyperspace phase cannon to be adopted as a Naval standard, and could allow for usage of hyperspace as a momentum sink for shield generators, allowing for a stronger gravitic component in existing magneto-gravitic shields. Further development of gravitic systems could help allow for a new generation of shields, and provide an effective containment system for weaponised antimatter. Antimatter used as a local power source for computing could provide the energy density needed for a greater density of calculations supported by powerful active cooling systems, allowing for the next generation of high-grade optronics, while a Nutris program to do large-scale food production in sealed environments with artificial climate control and artificial light is already in development. Further work into the biological sciences could allow for a new generation of terraforming, creating garden worlds with good fertility across essentially the whole of the planet, avoiding local desert and wasteland biomes. A new generation of star drives taking advantage of antimatter power could be of some benefit, while nanotechnological engineering could allow for significantly cheaper manufacture of miniaturised components needed for devices. Please vote between Multi-Phased Physics, SUBSPACE FIELDS, Positronics, Astro Biology, TRANS GENETICS, Anti-Matter Fission, or NANO TECHNOLOGY. Subspace Fields research also implies Supergravity research, Trans Genetics also implies Astro Biology, and Nano Technology also implies Anti-Matter Fission. Colonisation Proposals Promising worlds are available for colonisation in the Taurio, Baalbo, Biots, Montone, and Azimon systems. Lirr II, although resource-poor still has remnants of Confederation-era ruins, a moon with some valuable resources, and a position that will allow exploitation of a new asteroid belt, as well as pushing League borders forward. Propose where to colonise next. I can remind people of the exact contents of the systems mentioned if needed. Tessin Shipbuilding Tessin will soon become one of the major shipbuilding worlds of the League. Current civilian plans are to use Tessin's shipyards to support new colonisation measures, but the Navy believes that having two dedicated Naval shipyard worlds operating in parallel will allow for the Navy to keep up with the potential hazards presented by other galactic powers. Vote on whether to use Tessin as a Naval or colonisation shipyard. Diplomatic Policy Diplomatic relations between the League and the Klackon are currently quite tense- there are concerns there may be a breakdown in negotiations. League diplomats also believe that attempting to maintain free and open trade relations on both sides of a war will be a losing cause, and wish preliminary guidance on whether to favor the General Oversight Combine or the Great Empire of Bulra as a friend and trading partner. Please provide guidance on future policy toward the Klackon. Please vote between favoring the Meklar Combine or the Empire of Bulra diplomatically. Make any further diplomatic proposals you want to see implemented. Although the UML has made great gains in expanding into the Core, it is experiencing real competition from the General Oversight Combine, and it is possible that Klackon aggression shall break the League's long peace. For now, at least, Gnolam peace and prosperity endure, and there are hopes that it shall continue to endure. nweismuller fucked around with this message at 05:55 on Aug 10, 2021 |
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Sep 22, 2020 18:38
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Sorry for the long delay there. Writing progress was slow, after getting back into it after a hiatus. Finally got it pushed out.
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Sep 22, 2020 18:41
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Oh boy, voting time!  For research, I'm going with SUBSPACE FIELDS. We already have everybody pretty well out-teched, I think, and by getting better shields we can help reduce attrition. We can roll over anybody we drat well please right now, but they will hurt us as they do, and anything that reduces how much they can hurt us will help us keep poo poo rolling. For where to colonize next, I say Lirr II. I was thinking of abstaining but there's that "push borders forward" thing so gently caress it let's go with that. v vFor Tessin's output, I say Naval ships. Good planets to colonize are starting to run out, and of course there's the other matter you can already see coming. Namely, what we do about the Klackon. Do I even need to say gently caress those guys and whatever bug horses they rode in on and if they don't like it they can kiss your rear end oh wait they can't because you're busy taking over their capital? No? Well I'm doing it anyway to have my vote recorded for the sake of procedure and decorum. I know you're not big on wars of pointless aggression, but we have a good reason for our aggression this time, namely that they're asking us to not settle near them. They have no problems settling near us, though, and if it were "hey let's leave a little space between our empires," that'd be fine, but it's never that. No, it's always "hey buddy don't grind your borders against ours, give us some personal space," and then they settle a planet that's in your back pocket, and then they whine because of how close your borders are. So gently caress 'em, let's just skip to the inevitable end of this story without all the posturing and bad-faith negotiations and get right to grinding them beneath our heel.  For diplomacy on who to favor, Meklar's General Oversight Combine. We have a long standing relationship with those guys, and far more importantly, we share a border with them. What have the Bulrathi ever done for us, anyway? gently caress those guys too. My further policy proposals amount to "you have better ships than anybody else in the galaxy and your troop transports carry 50% more people now, leverage that" but I already know that arbitrary belligerence won't get any traction. We're the  dudes, not the  dudes.
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Sep 22, 2020 19:50
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News All Day Network posted:-lopment of these subterranean systems is still underway, with many technical questions still unanswered as per our Nutris Corporate Liaison, but the conglomerate's stock is nevertheless rising steadily due to favorable speculation- Astro Biology Lirr II and Tessin Colonization focus Overheard at Nutris Marketing posted:"But we're longstanding allies, aren't we?" Favor the Empire of Bulra. Suggested Advert Jingle, Denied by the Nutris Department of Xenomarketing posted:BIG MEAT!
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Sep 23, 2020 17:55
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