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They say that ignorance is bliss. I never paid enough attention to the plot to pick up on wonky details like the question of what time it is. So all I knew was that Dante has a tendency to hallucinate and the doctor just shrugs it off even though she's interested enough in Dante's mental wellbeing to give him a psych eval on the bridge. Personal theory: Dante's suffering from a combination of spacecoffee addiction and never getting any decent sleep. It sure looks like he's dozing off on the bridge when it happens. Ok, the spacecoffee is a joke. But I genuinely thought Dante was suffering from a lack of rest and spent time poking around in his quarters trying to interact with the bed in the hope it would trigger more plot. Before I went to the bar. The smuggler event is one of those that throw me for a loop. You're not told which ship the smuggler is on, only that full access to the planet must be denied or bad things happen. So I go; "Ok, we don't know which ship is the target, so let's check everyone and make sure that no-one suspicious gets even close." (My guess is the smuggler shoves his cargo out the airlock while still in flight so it gets picked up by a local contact. That would explain why the governor can't just have every ship inspected at the spaceport and has to bother the player.) So that's my first instinct. My second instinct is to do the same with every ship going out just to make sure. And as I actually had radars set up on every planet out of paranoia, there were a lot of ships to check. The end result is a lot of running around which gets frustrating quick.
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Nov 30, 2020 20:33
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Torranor posted:I'm really impressed by your colony micro, but I imagine that will become hell with bigger empires. I've found it to be something that comes and goes in my test run - there are times when there's a lot to do but at a certain point many planets are essentially 'finished' and only need to occasional maintenance. That really helps in terms of the micromanagement load. maininthesuit posted:(My guess is the smuggler shoves his cargo out the airlock while still in flight so it gets picked up by a local contact. That would explain why the governor can't just have every ship inspected at the spaceport and has to bother the player.) You're going to love the conclusion of that particular mission then. maininthesuit posted:And as I actually had radars set up on every planet out of paranoia, there were a lot of ships to check. Nah, that's not paranoia, that's just 'playing normally'  For those who may not be aware, it's going to be a very busy next couple of months and this LP will suffer some due to that. The two longest-running, most-watched projects on my channel both have major releases coming up, beginning with Creeper World 4 later this week. It'll likely be roughly Christmas week before I get another episode done on this, but I will toss in updates here and there as I'm able.
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Dec 1, 2020 05:41
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I did a youtube search of Imperium galactica, and there's quite a few LPs of it, and apparently even an imperium galactical 2 and an Imperium Galactical 2 HD remastered version. I'm still going to watch this LP for how interesting it is.
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Dec 9, 2020 11:16
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When I looked, I found two of the original, both more standard-ish runs. Maybe there's more out there I didn't see. FYI I'm aiming for Sunday to get the next episode here and get this rolling again.
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Dec 24, 2020 16:39
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Enjoying this one so far so great to see you picking it back up. Have memories of playing the game when I was younger, getting into a stalemate situation in the endgame and eventually giving up. Good to watch it being played strategically and by someone who knows the mechanics.
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Dec 24, 2020 18:31
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 Return of the Garthog (22:53) We're getting into the heart of Captain's rank here, and that means some quite unfair missions. In this case, we finish up with the smuggler, and then a few days later the Garthog return with a larger invasion force. It's possible to actually break the game's progression here if you do things the 'wrong' way.
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Dec 27, 2020 16:25
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You can fully cycle through your planets, pressing + while having Naxos selected will select Centronom next. It loops from the planets furthest "south" to the one furthest "north" on the map. Or the other way around if you use -, of course. This is a real dick move by the game, and can be quite tough. A pretty stark contrast to the non-existing difficulty of the "mission" just before it. I found barracks or their upgraded forms quite lacking in general. If you don't cheese away the attack, you always want to fight off the enemy in a space battle, where you don't lose a significant amount of population even if you defend successfully.
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Dec 27, 2020 23:46
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I actually made heavy use of barracks at this stage. I used them to try and limit the number of sides I need to watch for and buy myself time while I mop up elsewhere. Any tank duelling a barracks is a tank not shooting my tanks or more critical buildings. Besides, being able to field more tanks never hurts. Ideally the enemy never lands of course, but at the moment it is impractical to take on a Garthog fleet in a straight up and fair fight. (I mean, just look at it. 3 flagships? That's the kind of fleet the Thorin and co would have been running away from.) So for the plot to progress the Garthogs must land but they must lose the invasion battle? (I'm assuming that the colonel still strips you of command the moment a single planet is lost.) Looking back now, the game really is very railroady.
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Dec 29, 2020 14:30
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Having 2-3 barracks and 16-20 tanks can definitely make the fight easier to handle for sure. maninthesuit posted:for the plot to progress the Garthogs must land but they must lose the invasion battle? (I'm assuming that the colonel still strips you of command the moment a single planet is lost.) Yep, correct. I tested it out and you still fail if you lose a planet - probably because you can't retake them yet, as we don't have access to the necessities for conducting an invasion. We're not that far away from having more freedom there of course, but for now it's still zero-tolerance on not keeping our holdings intact.
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Dec 29, 2020 16:38
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It's probably a fail safe to avoid a failure state where you can't take planets, and also don't have enough planets to invent ways to take more.
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Dec 29, 2020 20:02
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Pandemic! (21:36) The most unfair mission yet IMO, this one isn't bad if you know it's coming. It causes a ton of problems if you don't, including yet another failure state. I also find it interesting what having a viral infection impacts, and what it doesn't. An annoying but so far as I know unavoidable population growth bug strikes for the first time - it won't be the last . There's also the final morale-boosting building, the Stadium, which is another example of how very 90s this game's flavor is. For those who it has been bothering, we do have radar coverage again ... with interest ... and we are nearing the end of the long economic buildup. Our attention will soon turn to other matters
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Jan 4, 2021 20:17
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Dumb people trying to get around public health measures with lies because they put their business and wallet above the safety of themselves, their workers and millions of others? Claiming to have an antidote to a pandemic that really isn't? Tch, this game is so unrealistic. This poo poo would never happen in real life 
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Jan 4, 2021 20:43
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Do the satellites remain in place permanently?
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Jan 4, 2021 21:29
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Slaan posted:Tch, this game is so unrealistic. This poo poo would never happen in real life Please stop causing problems. Also, you are not wrong. hectorgrey posted:Do the satellites remain in place permanently? Yes. They're all we're gonna get though.
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Jan 4, 2021 22:49
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As you said, this mission is of course a lot easier if you don't disable your radar coverage, as you can then easily intercept incoming traders away from the planet, and have more time to run after outbound ships. It also doesn't result in that much clutter, making it less difficult to select your fleets. I do think every single trader ship will try to land on the infected planet once the event pops, which is kind of a dick move by the game. The Garthogs will infect your planets again and again if you don't ask the colonel for help. I'm not sure whether you can cycle through your fleets with +/- as well, but I do know that a simple right click will order a fleet to move to a certain position, while a ctrl + right click will order it to attack. In case you get tired of manually selecting the commands.
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Jan 4, 2021 23:17
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Torranor posted:The Garthogs will infect your planets again and again if you don't ask the colonel for help. I think it's actually hardcoded how many infection events you get. The right-click thing ... I find that screws me up more than anything else, because if the map is in Zoom mode I'll just end up zooming in the map instead of moving the fleet *shrug*
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Jan 5, 2021 17:38
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I've tested out the virus infection issue ... and I'm going to stand corrected on that, at least partially. It's not much of a spoiler, I'll talk about it before long in the videos, but basically there will either be one or two of them. If you get on the horn with the Colonel right away as we did in this run, you don't get a second one. If you wait and say, talk to him after the first infection is over or whatever, you get a second one (also on New Caroline). I'm not 100% certain you can't get more than two by ignoring the Colonel, but I'm 95%+ on it. I know I've gone through this part without talking to the Colonel at all before, and I don't think I got more past the second one. Anyway, this fact will play a significant role in how quickly we get through the rest of Captain rank. Keeps the pressure on me to keep building the economy.
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Jan 6, 2021 15:03
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Strategic Sage posted:I've tested out the virus infection issue ... and I'm going to stand corrected on that, at least partially. I know I got my planets infected a second time in my firts playthrough because I didn't call the Colonel, but I think I contacted him then. So it's very plausible that you can have two infections, but get a game over if you get a third for any reason. I'm also reasonably certain that my two infections were on different planets, but I'm not 100% sure on this.
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Jan 6, 2021 19:23
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Torrannor posted:I do think every single trader ship will try to land on the infected planet once the event pops, which is kind of a dick move by the game. I believe the traders' thoughts go something like this. "Blockaded planet? That means no imports! That means supply is nil and demand is through the roof. First ship to get through the blockade can set its price and make all the moneys. Full speed ahead, space-capitalism ho!" (and then the whole galaxy died of the space-plague.) I thought the first "antidote" ship was a Garthog trap on account of being a different type of ship than the ones before. But then Leila right afterwards follows instructions without raising a fuss so I was wrong. And while I'm on the subject, due to being called virus carriers and needing a special sattelite to be spotted, I had expected the Garthogs to use a stealth ship of some sort, or a commandeered trader. But instead they're using unmanned missiles, which isn't something I've seen in any other sci-fi game. Missiles carried by ships, sure. The occasional unmanned warship, ditto. Interstellar missiles flying around with no controller in sight? Never.
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Jan 6, 2021 19:32
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maninthesuit posted:I believe the traders' thoughts go something like this. As an occasional space trader I can confirm that this is my first thought when I discover that a planet has dropped out of interstellar trading due to... unfortunate events.
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Jan 7, 2021 04:50
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Complications posted:As an occasional space trader I can confirm that this is my first thought when I discover that a planet has dropped out of interstellar trading due to... unfortunate events. Starsector?
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Jan 7, 2021 12:03
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Ending the Beginning (30:38) We can now pronounce the gradual building/start of Imperium Galactica to be completed. Our final small random pirate encounter is over, all of the key economic infrastructure including trade buildings are in place, and it's time to start building up our fleet. We get our first try at using a flagship - and taking one down. Soon larger fleet actions will become normative. For good or ill, Dante has a much larger path ahead of him now.
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Jan 10, 2021 15:51
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Strategic Sage posted:random power plant production That's hilarious and infuriating. What a choice in game design. Do any other buildings do similar things? my dad posted:Starsector? Yes.
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Jan 10, 2021 18:18
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Complications posted:That's hilarious and infuriating. What a choice in game design. Do any other buildings do similar things? Nope, just power plants. I would understand it if it was like a 10-20% variance. But Nuclear for example can be about 4700 kwh, or 8900, or places in between. I think I've even seen less than 4k. Which is just ... you can't even plan well for roughly how many you need, so there are times when I'll end up building an entire extra one just to make sure.
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Jan 10, 2021 20:24
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Now it's just waiting time, building factories, ships, and research centers. I actually don't remember the mission that leads to our next promotion, but I can remember the first two missions of our next rank. So I'm actually pretty curious about what happens next.
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Jan 11, 2021 09:21
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Gah, that power fluctuation! (add one more thing to my list of notes for things to keep track off when I play this game myself) Seriously, that doesn't just happen. Someone had to code it. But why? The first thing that comes to mind for me is that the game at one point called for having planets affect building efficiency somehow, possibly through local resources. (radioactives deposits for example) On the one hand I'm glad that's one detail that doesn't need thinking about when playing planetary tetris architect, but blegh. I like things predictable. A nuclear plant should give me X amounts of energy every time, all the time or at worst have a clearly communicated and regular modifier dependent on where you place it. No dice-rolling. This will just lead to me building and demolishing power plants over and over till I get something on the high end of the scale. I'd also forgotten just how much hurt missiles dish out. The downside is that they're an expendable ordnance you need to build and equip first but drat, they just melt things. If the admiral had rolled in with a full load of missiles instead of wasting half his racks on bombs, you may have had enough missiles to knock out all the capital ships outright. I don't think there was any defensive fire either.
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Jan 11, 2021 21:49
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There is defensive fire from lasers, we'll see that more clearly later on in the battles the next episode brings. Also FYI re: the missiles/bombs loadout ... that's just how flagships work. You have a certain amount of slots for missiles and a certain amount for bombs. They are not interchangeable, you can't take less bombs and therefore get more missiles, just like the destroyers can't sacrifice lasers for more shields or whatever. As said though, I'm not defending the random power output implementation. That one just blows period. It's one of those things they definitely improved in IG2, where some power plants get a bonus based on the planet *type*, but it's entirely predictable what you are going to get.
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Jan 13, 2021 13:43
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Ah, ok. So there's not much point to making separate anti-space and anti-ground fleets then.
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Jan 13, 2021 22:09
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maininthesuit posted:Ah, ok. So there's not much point to making separate anti-space and anti-ground fleets then. I think that can still be useful; some ships are better for different tasks. Probably better that I demonstrate what I mean when we get to the point where I can do that, which isn't that far away.
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Jan 17, 2021 01:53
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Preparations (26:31) Some more 'wait ... what?' moments as Dante's personal drama continues with intrigue aboard the Terminator and we meet another member of the crew. It's also time to start overtly planning for the next rank, including getting Development Centres up and running. Next episode will feature that promotion finally arriving, but it will be more costly to get there than anything we've run into so far.
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Jan 17, 2021 18:58
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Strategic Sage posted:
That's no transport, that cutscene clearly showed a Flagship 1, while Admiral Benson's cutscene showed the "armed" transport, imho.
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Jan 17, 2021 20:16
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Is our doctor a garfhog spy? Or maybe she was just going through our browsing history to blackmail herself a new summer home.
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Jan 17, 2021 21:38
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Poil posted:Is our doctor a garfhog spy? Or maybe she was just going through our browsing history to blackmail herself a new summer home. Don't be so close minded, perhaps she wanted a nice ski resort on San Sterling?
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Jan 17, 2021 23:05
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Do ships in fleets just passively get repaired over time? Or do you have to use some command or building on your colonies?
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Jan 18, 2021 02:50
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Capital ships & flagships passively repair at a fixed rate which cannot be improved. Fighters are automatically repaired instantly between battles.
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Jan 18, 2021 02:57
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Torrannor posted:That's no transport, that cutscene clearly showed a Flagship 1, while Admiral Benson's cutscene showed the "armed" transport, imho. I noticed the mismatch between the cutscene and the admiral's flagship, but didn't say anything because I figured they may not have had a cutscene with the right ship ready. But now that the transport gets the flagship cutscene, I also think it's been swapped by mistake. This makes me wonder where the swap is. Is it the cutscene, or the mission? Personally, I feel like the admiral's mission should come later. Both lead to game over upon failure, but escorting an admiral and fighting off a full battlefleet feels bigger and more in line with constant escalation than escorting a load of space-money. (Surprised that money is apparently still a physical thing that needs shipping, and even more surprised that the Garthogs knew this was the freighter they needed to hit) I like the scene with Kelly. It humanizes Dante by showing that when he's off the clock and amongst friends, he becomes more casual. As for the age disparity (Kelly does feel older and being balding doesn't help), I've got a theory. Dante is your typical spacejock, who went to the academy in his early twenties or so. You know the type. Dashing, bold, looks good in a tight suit and posing dramatically on a recruitment poster. Kelly is not. Either he was a civilian or he'd retired from military service. However, the situation in the empire has gotten so bad that they can no longer rely on young good-looking and most importantly, volunteer spacejocks with ambition. Kelly was either drafted in spite of his age, called back into service or maybe he volunteered because Garthogs killed his family on Achilles for example. He met Dante at the academy in any case. (if retired, then this would have been a refresher course for him). Regardless, Kelly is the McCoy to Dante's Kirk. I disagree with his opinion on the subject of spies. So far, the Garthogs seem to know exactly what targets they want to hit. Either they do have spies or they've seeded spy sattelites throughout human territory. I lean towards the latter. We've already seen that the Garthogs can build small, stealthy drones in the form of the virus carriers. A spy sattelite wouldn't be that much different. I do seem to remember spy sattelites being an important game mechanic later on, but I don't remember if the alien empires also used them.
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Jan 18, 2021 21:57
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I'd say that Kelly is an enlisted to officer career path guy, rather. I know this game has a sequel, but I don't know much about that, or any sequels, until Nexus: The Pluto Incident (ignore Jupiter, there's nothing there) which was apparently planned as a sequel for this, or so I heard. Regardless, it's an interesting game with a lot of uncommon interesting elements to it, and even a little bit of interesting SF thrown in although it's not really exploited for what it could be worth.
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Jan 19, 2021 01:48
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I didn't notice the cutscene switcheroo, but I think you're right. Amusingly, next episode also starts with decidedly the wrong ship being shown. Interesting thoughts on Kelly. maninthesuit posted:This makes me wonder where the swap is. Is it the cutscene, or the mission? Personally, I feel like the admiral's mission should come later. Both lead to game over upon failure, but escorting an admiral and fighting off a full battlefleet feels bigger and more in line with constant escalation than escorting a load of space-money. I think it's probably the cutscene. IG seems to like having a quiet period in-between conflicts/escalations, rather than a constant 'every battle harder than the one before' progression. SIGSEGV posted:Nexus: The Pluto Incident (ignore Jupiter, there's nothing there) which was apparently planned as a sequel for this, or so I heard. Regardless, it's an interesting game with a lot of uncommon interesting elements to it, and even a little bit of interesting SF thrown in although it's not really exploited for what it could be worth. LOL. The project that became Nexus was indeed supposed to be a sequel, but rather the sequel to the sequel, i.e. Imperium Galactica III. Then they decided to go in the direction of the kind of game that Nexus became and not do a sequel, so it's a bit more complex than 'Nexus was an IG sequel', but more or less.
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Jan 21, 2021 02:53
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Strategic Sage posted:LOL. The project that became Nexus was indeed supposed to be a sequel, but rather the sequel to the sequel, i.e. Imperium Galactica III. Then they decided to go in the direction of the kind of game that Nexus became and not do a sequel, so it's a bit more complex than 'Nexus was an IG sequel', but more or less. Nexus originally being pitched as IG3 sounded weird to me at first, but then I remembered that aside from game mechanics IG2 has next to nothing in common with this game, so it actually checks out. Speaking of IG2, any plans on LPing that after you're done with this?
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Jan 21, 2021 03:27
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Nexus makes perfect sense as the sequel engine turned into something else, it's the showy tactical combat mode made into a complete game.
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Jan 21, 2021 05:30
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