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I am going to vote for Research and putting it into Physics. The sooner you can figure out new factories, the sooner you can get them built, and the sooner they're built, the sooner they can be generating fat stacks of cash money. 
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May 30, 2020 10:02
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For research priority, I am voting Government, so we can snowball the research. For similar reasons of snowballing, 100 million workers. The faster it's done, the sooner it's working, and the sooner we can maintain similar industrial output while diverting people into farming and/or research. For our military, one ship. Zero seems foolish because we don't want to be caught with our pants down, but having a giant mobile defense force doesn't mean much if there's nothing to actually defend. For the ship, all I've really got is "give it a bomb, fill the rest with front mounted neutron cannons, any space left over should go to PD lasers." But I'm sure we won't need to bomb anybody. It's not like there's a bunch of shapeshifting assholes in the galaxy who'll make nice to our faces and then pick our pockets when our back is turned, right? How I pity the nuclear fury we'd have to call down on a bunch like that if they were to exist. But seriously if the Darloks show up I will immediately call for glassing every single dirtball those motherfuckers have even thought about touching. gently caress those guys.
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May 31, 2020 16:55
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Sure, that works. To be honest I wouldn't include a bomb at all, given that we're unlikely to encounter a reason for them before this thing is obsolete anyway, but you made that a requirement. In the unlikely event we do need such a ship, we should be able to squat on the reason we need it while we fart out something that's packed full of bombs and not much else. Still, "this has a bomb, just in case" is a solid thing to have, and it's not like swapping out the bomb for another neutron cannon and PD laser (or swap the bomb and the three PD lasers we have for two more cannons) is going to make a big difference against the kind of stuff we'll meet this early, and if it does we're probably already boned. I already got metagamey enough by declaring up front that Darloks are KOS to me so I won't delve much deeper than that. 
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May 31, 2020 17:56
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I know, but how likely are we to run into one at this point? Seriously, how likely is it? I think it's pretty low odds before we'll want to make another new ship, but if I were any good at the game I'd be playing it myself instead of shouting about glassing Darloks in the LP of someone with a very clear anti-warcrime stance.
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May 31, 2020 18:07
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MechaCrash posted:Sure, that works. To be honest I wouldn't include a bomb at all, given that we're unlikely to encounter a reason for them before this thing is obsolete anyway, but you made that a requirement. In the unlikely event we do need such a ship, we should be able to squat on the reason we need it while we fart out something that's packed full of bombs and not much else. MechaCrash posted:I know, but how likely are we to run into one at this point? nweismuller posted:Guad  To have some actual words of value here, one of the things this game added that I really liked was an auto-explore option. So you could build some scout ships, turn that on, and they'd go map the galaxy for you automatically. Is that being used here? I assume it is not.
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Jun 1, 2020 18:39
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The Vindicator is more dangerous to use due to its lower speed, but five neutron cannons are going to kick out way more DPS than three missile launchers. This early in the game, though, it doesn't make a huge difference. As for the Enforcer's fluff, yeah, that's good stuff. Not to worry, though: MISSILEGEDDON is coming, and I'll shoehorn in an Ichiro Itano reference when I do, because I am a gigantic nerd.
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Jun 2, 2020 13:37
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For the ship, I'm okay with adopting the Enforcer, but do not refit the Vindicator. Not just because it's my design (if grunting "MAX BEAMS" counts as designing), but because of the whole "can crank out more DPS" thing. And having five guns that individually shoot faster means that it's going to be better against larger numbers of crap dudes, which is what we'll be fighting. Plus, why waste the time and money refitting a perfectly serviceable ship? For colonization, Kakari Prime. I think the higher population and gold make up for the gravity penalty of Kakari II, and the system can serve as a chokepoint before enemies can get to Gnol itself, because that's the only way anything external can get there. For the next chunk of workers, Agriculture. More food means more people faster means more workers means more money.
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Jun 2, 2020 19:31
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See how the Enforcer has a thing in the Specials slot, and the Vindicator doesn't? That's Augmented Engines. It increases ship speed on the map. The combat speeds listed are the same because in combat, the augmented engines don't give a permanent boost to speed, but they can be activated for a temporary boost.
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Jun 3, 2020 07:16
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jng2058 posted:Buy and sell things? I presume Monopoly is what Gnolam toddlers play instead of Candyland. Given that Monopoly is adapted from a game about how unchecked capitalism in general and landlords in specific are society-draining leeches, I don't think it would even exist in Gnolam society.
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Jun 4, 2020 20:23
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A lot of these places are kind of buttso, but the hyperspace lane layout does at least carry some advantages. It'll be a good while before you have to worry about it, but Miract and Guad make excellent chokepoints. If you take those, then every system you've explored except Horne, Sarti, and Gularn become locked off unless someone can punch through those borders. Gularn would make a better point than Miract, of course, because then Horne and Sarti would be inside the border instead of outside it, but Gularn has no planets to colonize to support setting up various forts.
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Jun 5, 2020 16:59
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Oh, whoops, didn't realize that oh right there's that unexplored star that could go to other stars. I saw the two lanes leading to it and no others and didn't think through "the reason we don't see any other stars is because it's unexplored." Presumably I wouldn't have made that mistake if I were playing it myself. I hope. Well, worst case, the chokepoints would be Guad and Shimari, then.
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Jun 5, 2020 17:49
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My two big questions are "how many heroes can you have" and "how the hell did she get here?" The first will determine if I think we should keep her or not, and for how long. The answer to the second is probably some variation of "shut up."
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Jun 6, 2020 20:37
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As I recall, the way the galaxy is set up is that it's broadly broken up into four chunks. Going from one chunk to the next requires you to be able to handle those nastier hyperspace conduits, and each chunk gets two empires in it. We got the Humans as neighbors in our little playpen, so we can start trading with them and making each other filthy loving rich (us more than them) in a jiffy. If we wanted to get paranoid, I could say that securing Guad and Shimari will ensure they can't encroach on our borders without us knowing about it, and if I wanted to get belligerent I'd say taking Saliba and Guad would help box them in. But there's no need for that kind of talk yet, so let's not worry about that. I am torn between which Terra Nova to make an obscure reference to so choose your own.
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Jun 7, 2020 02:03
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For research, I am thinking Private Funding, because we're playing the race, and anything contributing to is therefore good. For security considerations on colonization, Yes on changing our plans, and Yes on securing our borders, with Naval Expansion and yes on throwing money at it. It doesn't matter how nice and friendly the AI acts, they will expand as much as they can, and if they think they have a strength advantage, they will use it to roll right over you, past history be damned. They might get pissy about being boxed in, or worried about the fact that we're more heavily armed than they are, but if that happens, too bad. Despite the fact that I'm advocating for hardening our borders and building up a military big enough that nobody will gently caress with us, I am still in favor of making trade agreements with everybody and stacking paper instead of bodies. We may be the people, but it's hard to cut deals from the bottom of a radioactive crater.I am still going to bang the drum for the immediate extermination of the Darloks if those assholes show up though, on the basis of "gently caress those guys."
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Jun 7, 2020 22:57
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I noticed that the beam weapons do not have any modifications available, specifically Heavy Mounts. I guess "bigger guns" is something that needs to be figured out? Yes, I know these things are way more complicated than just "make it bigger," I only got so much space for pithy jokes before it gets cumbersome. I'd like to do something with a Cruiser that has some forward heavy guns and 360 standards but if heavy mounts aren't available, there goes that.
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Jun 8, 2020 16:01
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My votes are as follows: For research, Molecular Manipulation. I don't know if the Gnolam have a Philosopher Stone, but turning trash into treasure sounds good to me! For cooperative research, I say Yes. As long as we're maintaining military parity with the Humans, this will be very useful for everybody, and make sure that when we can get through the super fucky wormhole, we'll be fine. Or maybe even ahead of the game! For the technology transfers, I think buy the Class I shield. The shield will be useful now, with the ships we have, whereas the electronic computer is only useful for the beam weapons we aren't using. And by the time we are using beam weapons, we'll have better computers. For the asteroids, Lab in Shimari and Lab in Guad. We have more than enough money rolling in, and four more science will have a bigger impact than eight more bucks. For more ships, as much as I'd like to say FOUR VICTORS FOUR SENTINELS ROLL OVER EVERYBODY, I think that's too much of an opportunity cost to hold off a neighbor who hasn't made any aggressive moves yet. However, I do want to maintain enough of a lead that they don't decide that they can flex on us, so I will say two Victors and two Sentinels. We can stick one at each of the systems that can be used as an entry into our turf, and hopefully between those and any fixed fortifications, we'll be secure enough that nobody gets any big ideas. You don't want them to get ideas, because if they start getting ideas, you're not going to have enough time to build up enough of a military to convince them that their ideas are bad ideas. For spying, absolutely spy on them. Just because they haven't acted aggressive doesn't mean they aren't aggressive, and having more information is always good when you want to start cutting deals. I know that my posts lack the flair of the more fluff-oriented votes, but hopefully the explanation behind my reasoning makes up for it. It's a drat shame there's no peaceful way to get members of other races into your empire. Encouraging some humans to live in Gnolam borders and work for us would be useful for settling normal-G planets, but if we want human colonists, we need to take some human planets, and that is not currently on the table.
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Jun 10, 2020 01:05
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Rappaport posted:If we're stretching pacifism, it's at least in theory possible to diplomatically trade for one of their planets. The price is usually steep, and presumably the AI has to... Respect your fleet strength to even consider this. I had forgotten about the fact that "planets" are on the list of things you can use as bargaining chips! But when I say "peaceful," I am willing to stretch the definition around enough for "does not require or cause an active shooting war." So talking to Emperor Q because he's voiced by John de Lancie, you see and saying "nice empire you got here, maybe it's a little too big for you to manage, be a shame if something happened because of that, maybe we can help you out" counts. I once crushed a rival empire by paying way too much in terms of technological breakthroughs to "buy" all of their planets until they only had their home world left. While I had a big fleet full of bombs on the jump point in. Needless to say, as soon as it was the last world left, I promptly glassed it. Shenanigans like that are why there's now a cooldown on how often you can buy planets. It does make me wonder if trading for planets will be on the table in this LP. But, given that we're , probably! Why get into a big nasty expensive war when you can get what you want by slapping a big pile of money on the table?
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Jun 10, 2020 14:53
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It looks like autofire doubles the firing rate but does not double the space. The question is if the volume of fire is enough to make up for the accuracy penalty. There comes a point where the answer is a resounding "yes," but I don't know when that is. I'm pretty sure we're not there, though. Anyway, since range is a concern, for our control cruiser, my proposal is "two heavy autofiring forward neutron cannons, two autofiring 360 degree neutron cannons, fill the rest with forward autofiring neutron cannons, shields, a computer, and devote whatever space is left over to PD Mass Drivers." So far, this thing only has to deal with crappy little pirates, so even this is overkill, but the idea is that the heavy guns should kill or at least severely weaken most stuff coming to get all up in our grill. The rest of the batteries should make sure that anything that does close will be eating fire from all the other guns, and anything small and light enough that "get in our blind spot and stay there" is remotely viable won't be able to survive the two guns that can shoot it no matter where it goes. (This raises the question of "what the gently caress happened to its support frigate," but the answer to that is not my job.) The computer is to make sure it can actually hit stuff with all this, and hopefully the pure volume of fire will make up for the inherent accuracy issues. After all, quantity has a certain quality all its own! I would have a very different proposal if we were going to be facing humanity, something a bit more mass driver focused, but "it ignores shields" doesn't mean much against pirates. If the idea of a ship that's meant to just go AAAAAAAAAAA while pointing the guns at the enemies and clamping down on the trigger until the explosions stop is not really good, then my alternate proposal can be summed up quite handily with a simple picture:  ...or to actually use words, Cruiser with shields, all the missiles it can fit (which should be six), two KKVs, and that leaves 2.5 tons left over we can't put anything in. Don't bother with a computer, since as far as I know that's just an extra expense that does nothing to help anything.
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Jun 12, 2020 19:09
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I don't think the bombardment is necessarily a war crime, depending on what you drop. Orbital bombardment to thin ground defenses doesn't seem like it'd be off the table, as long as you're dropping explosives and not pathogens. (Why bioweapons aren't complete poo poo in nuMOO is something I can cover when we get there if I remember.) But yeah, it makes sense that you're sending small, cheap ships that carry a bomb and some anti-ship weapons to deal with pirates, because pirate ships are garbage you can just push the hell over as long as you're capable of putting up a fight, and the lone bomb is more than enough to deal with their base. The second ship I proposed would indeed just be a Padan, but I wanted an excuse to post that gif. v v The big problem with that is that by the time we get all the super cool missile boosting stuff that makes missiles Super Radical, we're past the point that beams have overtaken missiles. I think. It's been a while. I'll probably try proposing it anyway because I am a giant nerd.I would like to formalize that first proposal, but I don't have a number on how much space will be left over after the heavy autofiring guns. So to put that in a cleaner format, with changes because I actually bothered with math this time... Titanium armor, because we don't have anything else. Nuclear drive, because we don't have anything else. Electronic computer, because we're already taking a to-hit penalty. Type 1 shields because it's this or nothing. No specials, because I don't think the augmented engines will help out of combat (it's a guard) or in combat (fatass ship by the current standards), and there's enough anti-missile stuff that jamming shouldn't be needed. Two heavy autofiring forward mount neutron cannons, 126 tons each if I'm doing the math right. One autofiring 360 neutron cannon, 162 tons. That leaves 248.5 tons, which is enough for two autofiring forward neutron cannons. This leaves 68.5 tons, for two KKVs, leaving 8.5 tons. I would name it the "Friend" as a pithy joke about the saying "keep your friends close and enemies closer" but that seems out of tone. "Constable," perhaps? As you said, we don't want to have to use these, and I suspect that by the time it's time to start actually stomping on people these things will be long since obsolete, but y'know. Just in case. I'm going for designs that are more interesting to see in action than my usual MO for making ships in these games, which is to go "this gun seems good" and then I headbutt the MAX IT OUT button. Giant piles of heavy autofiring weapons with PD weapons wedged into the cracks are a common sight in my fleets. Out of curiosity, will you be using actual scout ships again? Being way cheaper is nice, but if they run into trouble (or pirates), there's nothing they can do about it, and while I really like being able to push the "just explore on your own" button, you're micromanaging so that won't help much.
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Jun 12, 2020 20:49
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Hm, point taken with the indiscriminate nature of the bombs. I will still advocate for their use if we find Darlocks because gently caress those guys. For the ship, I would rather drop the KKVs and keep the anti-ship firepower. We'll have a frigate that is festooned with the things as a little buddy, after all. I think this would mean two heavy autofiring cannons, one 360 autofiring cannon, two autofiring cannons, class 1 shields, a computer, and only one KKV with zero frills. This means that, in theory, it's relatively undefended against missiles. I don't foresee this being a problem because we're going to have a little buddy stuffed to the brim with anti-missile technology. Plus I think we can out-DPS anything that'd be throwing missiles at us, which again, would be just Humans, who have no reason to fight us, and we should have better stuff by the time we get into a war. Plus, to metagame again, I don't think the AI designs ships with "specialization" in mind, so they'll just throw a handful of missiles at you, which our escort frigates can easily handle for us. We, on the other hand, will either not bother and render their PD useless, or go so hard that their PD is overwhelmed. For voting, Artificial Gravity so we can do something about all these normal-G planets that our poor low-G people have to live on. For investment, new Research Treaty, because more science is more better. Plus it will endear us to the humans, if I'm remembering how this works, which is good because they're less likely to decide it's worth pushing us around. For colonies, no real opinion at this time.
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Jun 12, 2020 23:51
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For research, I vote for low hanging fruit. We need to clear 'em out eventually, better to not let our research lag behind forever. I'd say to trade for or buy those technologies, but I do not think that is really feasible. For Naval stuff, update the ships. The cost isn't too high, and while I'm sure our anti-piracy ships are more than up to the task of putting down pirates for now, I think they do eventually and slowly tech up. Or at least throw more stuff at you. The point is that you eventually need to throw better stuff at them, and more importantly, a strong military will make sure nobody gets any ideas about loving with you. NAPs don't mean poo poo in the face of "we could easily roll over those guys and take all of their poo poo." Due to the aforementioned "trust nobody" issue, I say expand the Navy. We don't need a lot extra, depending on what kind of a fleet humanity has, but why take a chance? I think we can afford it, although not much more. I don't remember exactly how many fleet points the various ships and fortifications take, but I think listening posts are free (except for the time it takes to build them), and the fortifications take one each. We have three points open, from the looks of it, which I think is one more cruiser and one more frigate, or three frigates. For LIIS Appropriations, continuing with the "trust nobody" thing, four teams. Yeah, they're 25 BC to train and 5 BC/turn upkeep, but we're The Money Guys so we got this. As tempting as it is to keep all four teams at home for security operations, I think we should deploy cautiously. We're not in a rush to ferret out their secrets, and I'd rather have good intel in a week than a war tomorrow. For future diplomacy, I propose a full alliance. After all, these guys are cool and down for some mutual winning, but that doesn't mean everybody's going to be, and you'll want someone to watch your back when it's time to grind the Darloks into dust. If Darloks exist in this. Or maybe they do and you just don't know because they're shapeshifters. How do we know we're actually dealing with Humanity and not Darloks pulling a long con anyway? 
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Jun 16, 2020 06:48
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Cat Mattress posted:It's indeed not. The Master of Orion series separates technologies (which are, in themselves, just pure science) from technology applications. In MOO2, if you acquired all the possible things you could research in a particular area, you could just skip it. So like if you got Transporters and Food Replicators via alternate avenues, you could just skip the Matter-Energy Conversion category. I was going to ask if that applies here or not, but I can see why it wouldn't: when you research Advanced Magnetism, in addition to your choice of Class I Shield or ECM Jammer, you also just get Neutron Blaster Modifications, and from the looks of it, the only way to get those is to do the actual research yourself, and you can't go past that bit of the tree until you do. Speaking of Neutron Blaster Modifications, had I paid better attention to all the mods, I would've proposed a cruiser with a heavy autofiring enveloping continuous armor piercing neutron blaster, because I like building giant wads of doomcannons and strapping engines to them. (Why not shield-wrecking too? Because class one shields are speedbumps.)Oh well, I can get absurd with this later, it's not like we won't be designing more ships in the future.
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Jun 16, 2020 22:56
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nweismuller posted:For what it's worth, 'continuous' and 'armor piercing' are the same thing in nuMoO, as are 'shield-wrecking' and 'enveloping'. I've been writing the mods to their effects, trying for maximum plausibility. Oh! I was under the impression that "continuous" was like MOO2's accuracy bonus, and "enveloping" was MOO2's "hits all sides." For the comic Outsider, I knew about it, but I didn't know that a member of the Stars In Shadow dev team was involved, although the art makes it pretty clear in retrospect.
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Jun 17, 2020 00:14
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The Meklar are rad dudes. We should be ride or die with them. Also, if I knew that alliances and open borders would let humanity glide past our borders to settle stuff in the heart of our territory, I would not have voted in that manner.
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Jun 17, 2020 23:52
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Hm. This is the kind of situation where I would strongly consider ringing up the humans and saying "hey, wanna team up and roll someone for all their poo poo?" I think you can take the Meklar down if you have help from the humans, and given that the Meklar are rivalling you both with only that tiny amount of territory, letting them spread could be hazardous to your health. On the other hand, we don't know if they have friends to come to their defense and stomp our faces in for messing with their buddy, and while a two on one mugging sounds profitable and fun, a two on two fair fight does not. The Guad-Neptunus link seems to be the only way any of that stuff can get here, though, so with adequate hardening that won't be a problem. The smart play for someone who isn't constantly thinking in maximum aggro terms would probably be to wave some trade contracts under the Meklar's olfactory sensors. Because, again, we're so we'll make gigantic piles of money off of it. They will make merely large piles of money, so they will want to continue, but we'll still be coming out ahead.One of the things that may get lost or overlooked for this is just how slow it is to conduct a war. I don't know which of our planets would be able to crap out ships the fastest, but it'd take a while to get them to the front lines, and the prosecution of a war where you intend to take planets rather than burn it all down and recolonize requires a lot of planning for troop transports, because it takes a while for them to get to the front lines. And I don't know if it was just circumstances I was dealing with or what, but assuming parity in ground combat power, you need a two to one soldier advantage to take a planet, so you need approximately One Fuckload of transports if you don't want to stall out partway through. I brought three transports, four troopers each, they also had twelve troopers, all twelve of mine died and they had six left, thus my math assumption. Or maybe I got unlucky. I suspect it's going to be a good long time before any of that gets shown off though.
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Jun 18, 2020 02:19
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nweismuller posted:There's also the minor detail that power projection is currently literally impossible between the GOC and ourselves, over and above my position on unprovoked aggression. I forget where in the tech tree the ability to get out of your little pond and get into the universe at large is, but it's going to be fixed sooner or later what no I didn't see a small empire and have all thoughts other than conquest fall out of my head, why would you think that. I already know that "hey go arbitrarily roll those dudes" is not going to get any traction, so I'm not going to (seriously) propose actually starting wars for whatever reason. With the oft mentioned exception of the Darloks, of course.
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Jun 18, 2020 05:07
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For research, I say ROBOTICS. Because robots are cool For increased "home security," I vote four more teams. Better to have too much defense than find out the hard way you didn't have enough. Plus, if needed, we can send our defensive teams out for, uh, reasons. You know. For colonizing, Yes on the ultra-rich swamp. I forget if it has a moon, but if it does, then "acquiring" Orbital Shipyards is super nice. I do understand why the labs were taken, though. The shipyards are only good if you're actively building ships, while the lab is useful as long as there's stuff to research. Which there will be for a long time. For our investments, first thing I'd want is new colony ships. I would put a second priority on a new research treaty, but if we can't get that, oh well. Speeding up development of our existing stuff would be nice, but it'll get done even if we don't poke at it. New colonies will not get done if we don't build new ships, though. For the forts, as much as I would like to say to keep them, we're running pretty close to cap on our command points and we are not actively in a war. Ditch the old forts. These orbital forts are currently enough to hold warp points all on their own, and anything mean enough to take one is going to be either so powerful that nothing else we have matters, or pay so dearly that the navy we have can finish the job. Also, a neat thing about the tech tree is that you can click on it to tell the AI "research this, also research any prerequisites to it, and don't bother me about it until you get the thing I told you to get." This includes the end-game "hyper advanced" technology that is only good for more points and is available only after you've gotten everything else, so you can click on that as a research priority and the game will just go along the entire tech tree for you, only stopping when you need to pick between applications.
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Jun 20, 2020 23:17
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A thought occurs about taking down the old forts. The only maintenance involved in those is the CP cost, right? And as long as you don't go over your CP, it doesn't really matter. Is there a plan for the CP that this will free up? I'm assuming so. One frigate isn't going to make that much of a difference, but a frigate on the front lines pushing over pirates is a hell of a lot more useful and relevant than a fort in the rear end end of "if they got this far we already lost" space.
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Jun 22, 2020 00:56
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That's about the size of it. In Master of Orion 2, the Antaran attacks were largely bad for you, but if you could capture one of their ships, you could scrap it to acquire their super technology. Antaran ships technically broke the design rules, because they carried more stuff than a hull of their size could fit, but the designs were poo poo so who cares. Here, however, it's just a straight up "they are an equalizer that will come for whoever's strongest" mechanic. It's going to be a while before the best strategy for dealing with an Antaran attack is anything other than "evacuate as many people as you can and cross your fingers."
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Jun 23, 2020 05:29
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I assume that the Automated Repair Unit was chosen over the Dauntless Guidance System because by the time fleets are big enough for it to be relevant, we won't be using missiles as the main armament of our ships anyway? For the voting, I am going with GENETIC MUTATIONS for research priority, because it sounds like that leads to more research, and more research is always great. VOTE CHANGE: Make it short range sensors because the new thing is a new system, not a computer, and eventually I want to go BEAMAGEDDON if we have enough space left over after all the "please don't get wrecked within thirty seconds of engagement" systems. For spy teams, I will vote four more teams as I always do, especially now that we know they're spying on us. Probably just harmless information gathering, but that can change uncomfortably fast. And since turnabout is fair play, yes we should spy on them. For their spies we catch, we should ransom them. Just handing them back seems a bit too much, and sitting on them for extended durations doesn't seem to me like it will help anything. Execution carries a diplomatic penalty, and let's not piss them off yet. Besides, "we caught your dude, but we'll sell him back to you" is the most choice.For fortifications, at this time I think save the Star Base for developed worlds is the way to go for now. We'll eventually want to get that poo poo on lockdown in more places, because star bases serve uses other than just orbital defense platforms, but the smaller planets are going to have a rough time getting those things built. And the cold ugly part is that if it's small enough that putting a star base over it would be an issue, then it's small enough that you can restart it without losing too much if the Antarans bomb the poo poo out of it. For colonization, I say Varinia Prime, because it has a pretty good population capacity and a moon. MechaCrash fucked around with this message at 15:03 on Jun 24, 2020 |
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Jun 24, 2020 06:18
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So thinking about the defenses, here is my question: what, exactly, are they meant to stop? I assume you're getting them up now because the answer is a shrug, and since fixed defenses are automatically given the most up to date stuff, it's not like there's a huge loss in building them now. But I don't think there's anywhere for pirates to spawn inside our borders, and any pirates that spawn outside or borders are not getting past the fortifications on the node. Antarans can bypass all that and go for an actual planet, but I still have doubts about our ability to stop them (and if we do stop them, can we do it without losing so many ships that the Humans jump on us?). There could be problems if we get into a shooting war with a real power, but right now the only ones that can do that with us are the humans, and I do not foresee things go that bad with them any time soon. The thing about short range sensors means that I'm going to change my vote to that, because when the time comes for Beamageddon, I want all the beamy stuff. The post will be edited appropriately.
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Jun 24, 2020 15:02
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For research, I say Advanced Engineering. Rebuilding ships that got blown up is expensive, and if we have tougher ships, that will reduce attrition, which will in turn reduce costs. Also, bigger ships, and bigger ships are lots more fun. However, the need for escorts will become ever more apparent as they get bigger, because unlike in MOO2, in nuMOO, "a small ship got in my blind spot and shot my rear end apart" is a very real threat. So when it's time to get bigger ships, that's something to keep in mind when determining fits and/or fleets. A couple of little buddies with missile launchers, which are natively 360, will help make sure nothing gets any ideas. It's a drat shame there aren't forward extended arcs in this game, they'd be really handy. But I am getting off topic. For Military Cybernetics, my vote hinges entirely on one question to which I'm pretty sure I know the answer: can tanks be used offensively or are they only good for repelling ground invasions? Since I'm pretty sure they're purely defensive, I will vote for Power Armor, and not just because power armor is super cool, but because ground invasions are costly, and we'll want every offensive edge we can get. While I'm at it, I take it that the narrative justification for getting this far down the tech tree without figuring out loving tanks is that we're already using tanks, it's just that now we can have significant enough numbers of drone tanks via direct nueral control that they can make up entire divisions by themselves? For investment proposals, I am going to go with new research treaty. Sucks to be those other guys, but bootstraps and all that, plus getting the science done faster will give us more of an edge in the long term. For colonizing, I vote Parmag Prime. Getting it up and running will be a pain in the rear end, but now that we have terraforming we can do something about it (eventually, slowly, and at great expense). The large population means that it's versatile, and can be used to produce science, sitizens, or stuff as we need it. Yes, I spelled citizens wrong on purpose, I'm doing a thing with it. This LP inspired me to pick the game back up, and a few scuffles with Antaran raiding parties have caused me to downgrade their threat level from OH gently caress  to "a dangerous foe that can be beaten if we adequately marshal our power." It might have made me shift my vote on defensive installations, as a missile base, star base, and proper fleet support could quite possibly fend off the Antarans (or at least kill whichever one of their ships is loaded with bioweapons), plus the star base provides command points. But that ship has sailed, so eh.
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Jun 27, 2020 09:07
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For the sneaky vote that got ninja'd in while I was babbling about other bullshit, I say credit boost. I suspect that the trade treaties will give better returns, but in order to give better returns, you must have them. You are always going to have colonies making money, though, so it's a much safer bet. Just because you don't want to start poo poo for the sake of starting poo poo doesn't mean everybody around you will be so agreeable, unfortunately. MechaCrash fucked around with this message at 15:44 on Jun 27, 2020 |
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Jun 27, 2020 14:03
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Unfortunately, shipping food between colonies is not in this game. Everyone has to provide for themselves until you get a specific technology much later in the game, and even that is only within the same system. So you can't just have a few worlds feeding your empire.
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Jun 28, 2020 17:39
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Oh! Yeah, having a people-factory world works out. Shame that shifting population around is a pain in the rear end, but at least you can churn out new schmucks to go to new planets in a relative hurry. Just make sure they can eat when they land. I accidentally lost a population unit by deploying a little too hard to a high-G Barren world.
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Jun 28, 2020 18:07
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For research, I'm going to say Galactic Trading, because really, is there any other choice? For security, Yes on scanners, because the humans not only keep spying on us, they keep sending the same motherfuckers. Next time we catch 'em, we should just sit on the spy. That way the humans have to keep paying a salary to someone they can't actually use. If we can't just sit on that rear end in a top hat forever, gently caress it, send 'em to the firing squads. Although I do not know the benefits of just executing spies instead of sitting on them forever. Seems like it's not as good, really, because once a spy is dead, their bosses don't have to pay them anymore, but a spy that you've got in a cage isn't doing them any good either. I'm not sure how captured spies still draw a paycheck, but eh, not my problem. For if we should get new teams, I'm going to vote more teams like I always do, and spy on those motherfuckers because turnabout is fair play. I swear, it's like we give them back their spy and that rear end in a top hat immediately turns around and starts trying to dig into our poo poo again. For local investment on Eydin, I vote industrial and agricultural improvements. The moon lab is a nice chunk of research, but it'll get done faster if we get the other infrastructure up and running. It doesn't have a ton of value, either, due to being Poor and not being on any border. Shimari and Guad have things pretty well on lockdown, although both would have to worry about incusions from two directions. Still, an outpost is only one command point, and it's pretty sturdy all things considered. It's not going to hold off someone who wants to gently caress with us, but it will discourage casual invasions (and, of course, is more than enough to repel pirates). For migration, yes to moving them. It'll take a little time to build the transports, but not that much, and as noted, it'll help deal with that population unit contributing gently caress-all to their home world and accelerate the new colony. A second person on a planet can really help things along!
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Jun 30, 2020 19:26
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I know we can use captured spies as bargaining chips for other things. That's one of the things nuMOO did with diplomacy that I really liked: you don't have to trade tech for tech, you can trade tech for other concessions. Like "I will give you this pile of money for this new shield" or "teach me how to make this weapon and I will give back your spies." But my point is, don't do that. They clearly can't stop throwing this spy at us, so gently caress it, they can't have him back. At all. Ever. Unless it's in a pine box.
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Jun 30, 2020 21:22
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While I am unclear on the exact mechanics of how spying works, it is an undeniable fact that spy experience only goes up. The Human Alpha spy keeps getting caught for now, sure. But eventually, he'll be too good and we won't be able to stop him before he does whatever it is he's trying to do. Far better to just sit on him from here, I think, so the humans can only send green morons after us, if they can send anybody at all. Note that I am not advocating for the firing squad yet, just maybe let's not sell them back this guy who's growing in skill. If somewhat slowly, given how often we catch him... For voting, while it's tempting to go for teaching methods, I am going for GENERAL MILITARY RESEARCH PROGRAM for a new array of technologies. The fact that mass drivers ignore shields isn't too important at this stage of the game, except against Antarans, but the fact that they maintain full damage over their entire range means that they'll be easier to use in a standoff capacity without worry about merely tickling the targets to death. I vote give the leaders their own frigates. I figure that if the leaders are all in frigates that move as a single fleet to snuff out pirate activities, they'll be safe enough, and are unlikely to encounter anything that's a threat. Pirates can throw bigger ships at us eventually, but I don't think they can do anything bigger than a Destroyer right now, and a pirate Destroyer is no match for even two frigates made by an actual player. As a bonus, having two bombs means you don't have to worry as much about whiffing the base destruction. It can still happen, obviously, but it's less likely, and you only need one of them to hit. For general investment, I say fusion plants and soil enrichment as needed. Getting those crappy new colonies up to speed better will help make them contribute more quickly. The already relatively developed planets should have less of an issue building any remaining infrastructure, and the major reason to have at least one world packing top of the line everything is to churn out ships for a war. And you don't have one of those at the moment, and probably won't for a while, as you aren't going to go picking any fights, and are strong enough that nobody is going to go picking fights with you. For the investment proposal, I am not going to go with the answer this time and say Star Base instead. The idea being that yes, a spaceport will get us more money per planet, and more money is always more gooderer, especially for us, but our Command Point total is kind of crap, and I would like to get that up in case we suddenly feel the need or desire to field a real navy. The only cost in building up some ships is opportunity cost anyway, although you have to shovel money into refits when those happen. drat shame you can't do the "refit ship" thing like in Master of Orion 2, but at least this is instant and requires fewer facilities.On the subject of war, I am still amazed that this version of Master of Orion makes doing that take so long, relatively speaking. You didn't get the ability to invade other planets until past turn 200, which I can see being a deliberate choice to make the player seriously consider colonizing even the less desirable but unclaimed worlds rather than start a war, because there are four ways to get a planet from someone else: acquire it via negotiation, bomb it clean and recolonize it, invade it, or just mind control everybody from orbit. Invasion can't be done without the transports, and only Elerians can mind control out of the box, and even then doing so is even further down the tech tree, because you need a Battleship to do it.
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Jul 2, 2020 20:02
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Not that it is of immediate relevance, but "open borders" doesn't work like trade and research treaties. It's another bargaining chip like any other. It is entirely possible to give someone a pile of money or tech or a colony and, in exchange, you can pass through their territory, but they can't pass through yours. This is useful if you have some decent planets you want to backfill, but someone has decided to gently caress with your poo poo, and you can't reach them because a neutral power is blocking short paths.
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Jul 2, 2020 22:13
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I know that I tend to be a little too quick to reach for the biggest guns, but I will actually be voting no to Destroyer playpen ships. My reasoning is that we have not yet hit the point where Frigates are completely pointless (arguably that point doesn't really come in nuMOO because you can order ships in batches; the fact that any planet worth a crap could churn out even Cruisers in two turns in MOO2 is part of why smaller ships became obsolete), and we also have not hit the point where we can sling command points around like they don't even matter. The frigates that we put our ship leaders on should not be anywhere near real threats, and as I stated earlier, a pair of Pirate Hunter Type frigates are more than a match for anything the pirates will throw at us, and the ships with our VIPs should probably not be in the same system as any other real foreign power, at least without escort from at least one real military ship. Wouldn't want them to decide that it's Conquest O'Clock and start with our undergunned military cosplay toys, after all.
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Jul 3, 2020 19:15
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