Post by: bvanevery on September 04, 2021, 04:41:05 AM
One way that my mod plays very differently from the other mods, is I retained the original game's draconian global warming scenario. If you've read my AARs in the past, you'll know it's definitely possible to get yourself seriously killed, offending Planet with minor atrocities. Yet, I have survived! Planet looks like hell but I've survived.
Huge map, 30%..50% land mass, average settings, Transcend difficulty. I will take any random human faction. I won't take an Alien because they don't have any U.N. Charter restrictions on the use of chemical weapons. That would make genocide a bit too much cake. Humans at least have to work for it a bit.
Maybe I'll try some narrative interspersal while I'm at it. Stretch myself.
desert landing |
Always I have tried to surround myself with 'good' people. But lately it has become impossible. So many went their own ways. The best navigators are not among us, but at least we are alive. We could build here, but we will never thrive. We are lost, and shall wander out of Zion for a time.
Post by: bvanevery on September 04, 2021, 05:24:42 AM
the ocean wide |
Only a scrap of busted parabolic dish to make do with. We believe ourselves in an ocean. Land to the east is more likely to gain resources. We will salvage what supplies we can along the way. The Unity is now vast, a diaspora of no endurance. May we fare better.
Post by: bvanevery on September 04, 2021, 05:29:31 AM
seed of Earth |
Good fortune brings us agricultural supplies from home. And a new vegetation along our path.
Post by: bvanevery on September 04, 2021, 05:34:45 AM
wall of fungus |
This new vegetation is forbidding and extreme. It stretches for miles across the horizon. We are not so brave as to push through it. Our mere colonists, may be half of Earth. We know nothing of the scientists, the cyberneticists, and the industrialists who split apart from us.
Post by: bvanevery on September 04, 2021, 05:43:23 AM
calamatous interaction |
An exploding body of springs, wheels, and fuselage parts, greatly disturbed our new neighbors. Spreading everywhere, what once was barren land, is now covered in giant pink spores. Our scouts cough in fits. We seek another way. Perhaps a few lifeboats...
blockage |
Post by: bvanevery on September 04, 2021, 05:47:37 AM
death of a monster |
The giant tower, which spread so many spores so far, proved surprisingly vulnerable to a few well placed shots and kicks. Will it always be so?
Post by: bvanevery on September 04, 2021, 05:54:42 AM
the best laid plans |
Maybe we should have been more brave. Maybe these spores are not such a problem. But it took us a long time to get out of that rough, and I don't see how we'd build a road through it. I fear our isolation. We could have camped upon this dry coast awhile ago, and made for the best. Maybe we spend too much time staring at broken radar screens, imagining ourselves clever.
We shall put to sea.
Post by: bvanevery on September 04, 2021, 06:03:13 AM
sustainable scouting |
We are never sure why we carry such large amounts of uranium around with us. At the end of our time on Earth, it seemed to be a way of life. Always processing, always reacting. It's all a bit wasteful. Our support resources are limited, so when necessary, we like to build cleaner furnaces for our fuels. I don't recall exactly how it works, but I believe it's the electromagnetic topology of a Klein Bottle. Such devices are more costly.
Post by: bvanevery on September 04, 2021, 06:07:22 AM
completionism |
Manufacturing is so much easier when distant luck, nay, the Fates, intervene and cause great things to occur. If we could reliably do this, we could have this planet settled, pacified, and governed in no time at all.
Post by: bvanevery on September 04, 2021, 06:14:35 AM
The Monsoon Jungle |
We have discovered exceptionally fertile land. We must relocate there at once! Think of the huge population we could support in such a place. All those voters. I hate to be crass, but, land was king in the last days of Earth as well.
Post by: bvanevery on September 04, 2021, 03:25:33 PM
the first spore launcher |
A beast of many tubes had consumed all the provisions of a supply pod we found. We backed away, but it hurled many spores in our direction. They made us slightly ill, and we could not in good conscience continue with such an onslaught. So we turned about and emptied every ammunition clip we had into it.
oddly satisfying |
It collapsed in a piteous paroxysm of squirming, hurling spores at great velocity in the horizontal as it went down. Many of them embedded in our suits and gear, and we would take a long time to clean them. No more scouting of the land would be done for many days.
recovery in the field |
Post by: bvanevery on September 04, 2021, 03:33:36 PM
bubbling Artifacts |
From the ocean, we are procuring a number of contraptions not of our design. They seem attracted to the metal masses floating upon the water from the Unity wreckage. Shells and foams and such. We are clearly not the first peoples to come to this place. We have also found some of their ancient ruins near our base.
Post by: bvanevery on September 04, 2021, 03:40:00 PM
the back door |
A tip of land is near us, so we thought it best to know our defensibility. We have not moved to the jungle yet. It takes a long time to get colonists to move. They always want a lot of stuffs and creature comforts. We are building a road to make their seaward journey easier. You get a lot less complaining out of your constituents, when they don't have to walk!
Post by: bvanevery on September 04, 2021, 03:45:19 PM
dangerous depths |
We fished up a most unlikely object, not related to the Artifacts we found earlier. It is a towering mill of dangerous arms! Each capable of crushing an adversary or knocking a building to rubble. I used to watch old movies of this sort of thing. It is quite imposing, and may have a calming or at least controlling effect on our citizenry. We'll be sure to set it up in our capitol. What would dare harm us now?
Post by: bvanevery on September 04, 2021, 04:22:11 PM
unhelpful luck |
We already had our water trawler nearly finished anyways. In the future, we may contrive to start a big, grandiose, expensive project, in the hopes that one of these salvage operations will miraculously complete it for us. It's cynical, it's like your bureau being awarded a fixed budget and spending it lest you lose it. But it works. We'll wind down our plans and exuberance to something more reasonable in the 11th hour, i.e. another scout patrol.
Post by: bvanevery on September 04, 2021, 04:42:41 PM
old fashioned pork project |
We designed a suitably outlandish project for our current societal state. It's not that such devices will never be useful. It's that we could make 3 of the slower, messier formers in the same time. Although frankly I'd put armor on it if we knew how. The people love armor! It gets them so excited, especially when they don't have to pay for it. Which is the point. When the sky is the limit, always say, "It needs armor." You can scale it back later, when you're not in a committee hearing anymore.
Post by: bvanevery on September 04, 2021, 05:00:24 PM
get thee to the jungle already |
We were not so fortunate in our sea fishing last time. The fast and furious terraformer remains unbuilt. Next year we would like to try again. But our colonists are foot dragging, having been given ample warnings, incentives, and deadlines for putting to sea. We don't want our limited workshops taken up with their petty concerns any longer. There are blue sky projects to dazzle the public with. So we hand them a pittance to get them out the door and on their way.
roughly 2 credits for 1 mineral |
roughly |
<SIGH> I know the accountants didn't run off to form their own faction. The United Nations is the best thing they ever had going! What went wrong?
penny wise |
pound foolish |
We shall live with our mistake for now. Next year, we could avoid our nearby fishing excursion, but there's opportunity cost. Maybe we'll dredge up simple revenue anyways.
Post by: bvanevery on September 04, 2021, 05:09:58 PM
bounty of the deep |
Remember how I said the people love armor? Poseidon provides! This stuff is even simple enough to make right away, no prototyping required. We shall retrofit an uparmored design to our overly expensive land former forthwith.
what a boondoggle |
Post by: bvanevery on September 04, 2021, 05:21:49 PM
good logistics |
Our colonists are finally underway. But our transport is now on the wrong side of the land, to get to the jungle. I've tried to explain to the people that our salvage campaign in the ocean has been insanely useful, far more profitable than we could have ever reasonably hoped. But all they do is carp about settlement and eye that Battle Ogre in the town square suspiciously. I don't think they appreciate what a good job
Now, stop complaining about that stretch of dry ground before your destination. We've walked over far worse before. And it's not like we won't be sending our one Former after you. You will have a road, you will be able to greet your loved ones in the capitol shortly.
Post by: bvanevery on September 04, 2021, 05:33:06 PM
my kingdom for a horse |
We failed to complete any of our former behemoths yet again, but we did dredge up a Unity Rover. It will be useful for exploring more of our continent. You can never have too much scouting for establishing safety.
Post by: bvanevery on September 04, 2021, 05:42:19 PM
uuuh WHAT |
Now, sadly, we know the origin of that thing we call a Battle Ogre. We are not happy to meet an unknown species who owns one as well. Their minds are clearly destructive, to make something so intimidating, with so many forceful limbs. And what little our sailors can see of their ogre's crew, they are quite ugly. I must try not to be prejudiced, as for all we know their looks could be deceiving. But I have a bad feeling about this.
I hope they don't think it's "their" jungle. Our few archaeologists have already established that they're not indigenous. They are marooned like us, but we do not yet know why.
Post by: bvanevery on September 04, 2021, 05:48:52 PM
they speak perfect English |
Perhaps they will simply tell us why.
They claim a mighty enemy, called the Usurpers.
WE are the Peacekeepers |
And they think they will successfully combat this enemy, by extorting us. They have a lot to learn about international diplomacy! We know that they have hard power, but they do not know that we have one of their ogres as well. We've also learned quite a bit of bushcraft in our 32 years here. We will spew out many scouts forthwith, and locate the center of this new enemy. Then we will teach them about "jurisdiction".
We should find these Usurpers as well. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, how does that go? It doesn't often work that way, but we still need to know. And if these aliens are scary enough, perhaps the other factions will come back into the U.N. fold.
Post by: bvanevery on September 04, 2021, 06:00:23 PM
boondoggle completed! |
Timely. We are hard pressed to move on to matters more important than politics.
bad breath down our necks |
The enemy is literally our next door neighbor. This demonstrates the clear wisdom of our explorational policy. Without our diligent scouting, they would have taken us completely by surprise. We can be reasonably confident that we know more about our domains than they do, having never spotted them before. Unless they have some kind of stealth or invisibility, which would be... disconcerting. But we will not assume the worst.
What we can see, is that they have discovered minerals suitable for powering large industries. And that they haven't developed this resource. We will deprive them of it.
We unfortunately have no other decisive advantage. We have parity, not superiority. We are going to have to be more clever than them, if we are to prevail. And perhaps a bit sacrificial. We need our scouts to buy us time as we establish real industry and make a real war effort. We will continue our sea exploration as the salvage has yielded us great resources. Perhaps we are better explorers than they are, and can turn the tide in this way.
Post by: bvanevery on September 04, 2021, 06:09:30 PM
settlement phase two |
The people are complaining a lot less, now that our free boondoggle actually got done, and actually built a road quickly to their destination. The more astute among them are already starting to worry about the massive pile of hostile fungus they'll be camping next to. We're going to need a lot of cheap, disposable formers to clear that barrier and make it defensible. And some crews brave enough to steer them. And some real armor, not just slapped on for show. Things sneaking up on us through the bush, simply wouldn't do.
Post by: bvanevery on September 04, 2021, 06:14:11 PM
bounty of sealift |
In but one year, Poseidon has tripled the size of our merchant marine. Moreover, they came equipped with Unity space class radars. This will make uncovering even more golden oceanic resources, even easier. This proves the wisdom of our explorational policy. I only hope these aliens aren't as wise as us.
Post by: bvanevery on September 04, 2021, 06:19:51 PM
farther oddities |
Losing contact with a scouting party, if even briefly, is terrifying because it usually means they are dead. So far to my recollection we have been lucky and lost no one. This is why we don't keep families in the loop about the actions of loved ones in the field. It's too traumatic for them, and threatens base morale. Like everything else, our budget for civil unrest is limited, especially with a fullblown war on.
short jumping |
Fortunately they reappeared not far from where they had faded. But I wondered how far they could go.
twice to Wonderland |
And they opened a pod, and jumped again! Is this region "cursed" ? A geophysical anomaly? It's a pity we don't have Professor Zhakarov to consult on such matters. But he will be wondering about other things, like how to keep a mob happy.
lazarus |
Again they reappeared not far from where they had been. But farther than previously. They headed for home, to reunite with loved ones. And because if there are any resources near us, we need to know. A great resource that we can't reach, is of little value. Even the Monsoon Jungle is effectively out of our reach for now.
Post by: bvanevery on September 04, 2021, 06:50:38 PM
incautious scouting |
Unfortunately our Unity rover ended its movement next to their battle ogre and was summarily vaporized. Such is war. It hasn't shown a lot of desire to cross the fungus to bother us, so we can be thankful for that. Meanwhile at sea we dredged up yet another Artifact.
Post by: bvanevery on September 04, 2021, 07:00:26 PM
wiggler in the bush |
We complete a Sensor Array, simultaneous to a creature we've never seen before, under our enemy's direct control, emerging from the fungus. It looks like a relative to the spore launcher we slew earlier, and we have to presume it's dangerous. Our formers run for the cover of our capitol. At least our Sensor will give us plenty of defensive capability, if it should attack our bases. If it goes for the Sensor itself though, well, I suppose we'll have to build another one. We don't have the personpower to meet this new threat in the field just yet. Perhaps we could aim a ship's gun high into the air, from port, and thereby bother it?
just take us somewhere good |
These transdimensional migrations are nerve wracking. They haven't interfered in any plan, yet, but transparency requires us to keep the citizenry nominally informed. They don't like all this weirdness! Well I'm not sure they could have ever expected less, I mean Earth is a terrible place if its surface isn't one big crater by now, but this isn't comforting. People like to know that they have two feet solidly on the ground! Not that the ground is this ground or that ground or some other ground...
drafted for the backyard |
We are going to try to spin this as heroism. As opposed to the disaster of having no idea where our scouts are moving. We've only seen 3 patterns so far. This never seems to happen at sea. We always end up somewhere we've not yet been. And it's usually near where we are. So, if we can explore the Alien's backyard without getting killed, we can at least hope it will never happen again. Here, this way. And who knows, maybe we'll gain valuable intel from this
Post by: bvanevery on September 04, 2021, 07:08:02 PM
more disaster |
The ground on this planet just cannot seem to be the ground. It happened far away and we suffered no misfortune, but I'd not want to be at sea, in the face of such an event. It is again an aspect of this world, that we have no control over. I lay awake at night, folding pieces of paper, and burning them. Well at least I think we can control the Aliens.
Aliens. There are 2 Aliens...
Post by: bvanevery on September 04, 2021, 07:47:33 PM
especially for money, no other reason |
Yes I'm quite sure I'd like you to talk to these Aliens as soon as you can. Since the first words out of their ugly mouths were "Pay us or die." I'm sure you'll be seeing it our way any year now.
but we're hoping you have lasers |
Of course. We're all about helping good actors and isolating bad ones.
how 'bout them lasers |
I'm surprised we're still trading at parity with these eggheads. Maybe advanced research programs and intellect aren't worth anything in the absence of logistical support. Our merchant marine is legion! It will win us the war. We can even afford to pay them for something, if they have anything left to offer.
I'm not sure pacifism is rational |
Sadly, no lasers. Or any further tech from them. Ordinarily I would not relinquish a trade advantage, but we've done a seriously good job of buttering them up. If we keep going, we might even get an alliance out of it. And if nothing else, we will know where they are. Can't be too careful about the scouting.
far far away |
Well at least we've established that we won't be fighting for hundreds of years. It's a huge planet after all. They are geopolitically a non-issue. Famous last words! I wonder who their neighbors are? So far they don't have any, but these eggheads aren't as disciplined at determining the political lay of the land, as we are.
the machine turned me down |
I pop the question. Since you're in such a good mood, how about we get married? Politically, I mean. Not that the other way wouldn't be nice, but it's a bit impractical. Nor are you my type. Not that that ever stopped anyone in my homeland before, but such practices of human trafficking are archaic. Anyways, yes, compute your lovely way onwards.
you have friends with lasers |
This is a longshot, but she hasn't lost patience with me, so I have to try. At least I will determine who she doesn't know. I've never seen the other factions to be terribly good at lying about such things. They might tell me they won't hand over the comm frequency, but they don't lie about possessing it. I think their egos cannot help but gloat about a trade advantage.
where is a warmonger when you need one |
I am not sure who is likely to have built a viable laser, but I doubt it's my dear Zhakarov. He'd probably just offer to plug me into his own research network. Morgan is probably counting stacks of coins, but I'll ask anyways. I compute the odds of Aki knowing more about Aliens than I do, as nil.
But who is this "Planet Cult" ? There was no such thing on the Unity. I know they didn't grab some pod and crash land with it. I was watching our mission crumble rather carefully, at the time. It must be some kind of New Age movement. Well, at least we are actually in a new age, although it's gonna be a footnote to Earth's demise if we don't get some things going around here soon.
Why don't we have lasers? It's not like we don't do any weapons research at all. Peacekeeper's gotta keep.
you can't really have a clue |
She's still talking, boring as this is for both of us. A professional diplomat would have long since shut up. I like to say, "What a pleasant conversation we've had! Lal out" when it really, really counts. But a babbling cyborg might know more than I'd expect. I could certainly get a laser from a "conqueror" Marr. And he might even hand it over, to a sworn enemy of his enemy. But of course, Aki did not know anything. As I knew would be the case. Why did I ask? Right, because I am bored. That's a risk, being diplomatically bored. One might let something slip.
marriage next time let's talk |
If you sit around in your little lab counting numbers all day, you are not going to know where Zhakarov is. That is elementary, my dear cyborg. She ended this ordeal before I could bore myself with asking about this "Planet Cult". I don't care. Whatever it is, it's not next door to us. Back to real work.
Post by: bvanevery on September 04, 2021, 07:56:39 PM
for the benefit of all humankind |
That horrible little worm is making a move on our Sensor, threatening to undo all our hard work. We deputized a brave contingent of Scouts to go out and meet it. It will not undo our work without a fight! I hope we know what we're up against. We had no problem with the spore launcher, but that was years ago.
fish remnants and rust |
The glorious merchant marine advances the cause of light industry. Waste not want not.
Post by: bvanevery on September 04, 2021, 08:08:27 PM
we will repay you |
That little creep ruined our Sensor. At least it gave us the initiative, so we opened fire with every handgun and rifle we had. We took modest damage from its parts exploding everywhere into little eeny teeny tiny bits. I don't think we need to worry about these things if we have the upper hand, but I wouldn't want to fight them in the fungus. They seem to move about it rather easily.
a dime a dozen |
This is a good symbolic and practical victory over the Aliens, so long as we can get it home. Strictly speaking we actually do have lasers, 2 of them. They emit a strange resonance frequency. But we don't know how to make more, or even repair the ones we've got. War is a matter of industry and this is merely a matter of assistance. But we will be happy to showcase yet another explorational prize, in yet another town square.
awful, awful things not of Poseidon |
We don't know what this thing is and we don't want to. Just get our boat out of the way! We took the precaution of waiting next to the floating junk, and getting a good night's rest, before making our move on it. We are fresh and lively, and may yet have time to scurry out of the way.
how to avoid a swallowing |
Post by: bvanevery on September 04, 2021, 08:24:09 PM
we dodged well |
We don't know where this "Isle of the Deep" is going, but it's not towards our boat. It seems to be heading in a straight line for "something". Could it be for our settlements?
scanning the land |
Battle ogres have a big radar mounted on top, which makes them useful for exploration. And getting home more safely.
fluid exploration |
Well the ground may not be the ground, but the water is the water. Swept off course by a rolling wave. I'm surprised our marine has had it this easy for so long.
wave wave duality |
It amounts to nothing but... did we just drift to the other side of a peninsula. Is that body of water even connected to our own? This is a strange place if we can move like that! Hopefully we can get back to where we once belonged.
Post by: bvanevery on September 04, 2021, 10:42:59 PM
recon |
I haven't spoken to Aki in some time. Maybe she's figured out something useful, like lasers. No such luck, but she knows how an Alien's brain works. That will be useful when I finally run into these Usurpers. She's still cagey about an alliance. Give it time Aki, give it time. Find out what these Aliens really mean for you. I ask about the prophet Cha Dawn because I've not asked before. She knows nothing and is mercifully impatient with our continued communication.
war status |
They have more cities than us, but we are more defensibly grouped. Minus the touching fungus. If we can push forward to Melody of Souls, and hold it, we will have them cut off from expansion by land. Then we can take the jungle without incident, and finish them when we are strong.
explorational spread |
Our orphaned transport dredged up another Unity rover, proving that random things don't have to be bad. Maybe this is how we adapt to the new world. Accept what it is.
Post by: bvanevery on September 04, 2021, 10:58:15 PM
forward motion |
Our enemy settles a new city, causing our citizens some consternation. We have a Scout Rover rolling off a makeshift assembly line any day now though. If we make enough of such things, we can wreak havoc upon them. Even if we prove unable to breach their cities, we can deny their resources, and strangle them into submission.
The Isle finally lands on our shore and spreads out some "mindworms", threatening our expensive former. We attack quickly as before, destroying one of them without much hardship. But it seems to strengthen the remaining one. Using another scout as an escort, we remove our former from harm, then retreat to our base. Perhaps we can provoke it into a poor assault.
Post by: bvanevery on September 04, 2021, 11:05:07 PM
crawling horror |
It slithered off to the ruin, and as a result grew larger. Knowing the ruin can make things grow larger is helpful, but we need this thing dead. We decide to assault it with our newly minted Scout Rover, whether that will be effective or not. With luck, we may prevail. And if it is not enough, we need to know.
the odds forever in our favor |
We made a good decision! This is how to destroy them. We may not need lasers to deal with these life forms at least.
success with small arms |
Post by: bvanevery on September 04, 2021, 11:15:12 PM
welcome training |
The same healing and improving effect the monolith had on the mindworm, it had upon us. Our scout rover is now ready to deprive the Aliens of their minerals.
another magical mystery tour |
We walk, we disappear, we appear again. This is the way of our existence.
indigenous threats |
Maybe we live, maybe we die. I am tiring of all this survival stuff though. I want to get back to the business of running a world. It is my strong suit. Even a world in chaos, is still a world, brimming with people. We don't have the brimming part. We have this petty survival.
Post by: bvanevery on September 04, 2021, 11:20:11 PM
casualty |
Our luck finally ran out. We lost a scouting party to the horrid worms. I would tell everyone they will be missed, but... will they be? I am glad Morgan is not available to give his cynical opinion. Well, as long as people are motivated to remove the Alien menace, we are doing the right thing. We can avoid worms, but we cannot avoid existential threats.
Post by: bvanevery on September 05, 2021, 05:13:34 AM
the annoyance of life |
We don't really have a good method for fending off seaborne spore launcher attacks. They just sit off our coast and ruin all our hard work. Perhaps a simple ship's cannon could thwart them, but we are busy cranking out scout rovers to defeat the Alien menace. We will get around to ships someday, I swear it. I made a campaign promise about it. But meanwhile, we hope brave citizens will defend our infrastructure. The spores hurt and sting, but they are not lethal, if nothing else comes.
Post by: bvanevery on September 05, 2021, 05:23:57 AM
primate brain beats fungus |
These dumb spore launchers came inland, seeking better targets! We attacked with vigor. Unfortunately that won't be the last wave of them, but we are ready, if distracted from our true task.
Post by: bvanevery on September 05, 2021, 05:56:30 AM
we've got this |
The Caretakers want a parley, right at the moment we've finally cut off their minerals supply. Perhaps they are worried we have more where that came from, and they are right to do so. Still, we will hear them out, if only to gauge their level of fear.
perhaps not the military side of the family tree |
They don't basically seem to comprehend disadvantage. If they could have come through the fungus at us, they would have. We are now in control, and this is the opposite of an incentive to listen to them.
bold words from a foolish foe |
We have been putting despots in their place for a few hundred years. A human who knows this game, I might worry about them. But not you. Show us your wonder weapons, or commence being the subject of enforcement.
However I would not mind stacking the deck with some lasers. Their infrastructure is nonexistent, and perhaps they don't even comprehend terraforming. We will have no trouble harassing them until they yield. But lasers could make this go much, much faster. Where is Aki? Has she learned anything of any use at all?
the stateswoman |
Well no, not for battle. But she does purport to lecture me on the underpinnings of democracy! Well I must credit her: her rational brain has figured out a way to speed up basic legislative initiatives, in a novel colonial context. I'm good, but even I couldn't have hoped to have done that. Her price is steep but I'd really welcome some polling booths for a change.
announce the slate of candidates! |
We pay. We have lots of cash anyways, a byproduct of all this good exploring and indigenous life form killing. When I use the word 'indigenous' like that, I feel a bit embarrassed. But we haven't seen much sign of these things being much more than plants.
nerve stapling is a crime against humanity anyways |
There is really no downside to free elections. The money is awfully good, when people feel free enough to spend it on all the things they want. Like sex toys, lavish dinners, all the vices that more uptight human societies considered decadence. Who cares! When your nation has money and others do not, ultimately, you will be telling them what to do. That's because money talks, and free speech is powerful talk.
If only these Aliens would trade with us, instead of bellowing uselessly. It's as if they don't understand the concept of nations and international trade. Or are they just uninterested in it? In any event, they have shown less diplomatic intelligence and sophistication than the average tribal warlord. You don't make threats you can't back up. Not unless the threat is political theater, for the consumption of your home audience. I'm not sure they have such theater. But they certainly have drama, with these enemies the Usurpers, that we've never met. Wonder if they are any better?
she's astute |
But we were speaking to Aki. I asked for her hand in political convenience yet again. And she wisely rebuked me. How refreshing to have at least 1 person who knows how to play the game!
I'll let you in on a little secret. Yes we are having free elections now, but I'm so good, they're going to elect me forever. I can't ever see the end of it. Sure, many other positions will be filled, and they will even make recommendations I don't like, that I must nevertheless act upon. But supplanting me, how would they ever? Not a single person on this planet is qualified to run things as I am. You watch, you will see!
Term limit? I don't know the meaning of the words.
As usual, she became bored with my pesterings about factions I jolly well know she's not in contact with. We signed off. That is to say, she abruptly ended the link and I don't care.
Post by: bvanevery on September 05, 2021, 06:15:56 AM
paving the way |
We have so many Scout Rovers now, that I think we can afford to get back to terraforming. That will yield more minerals, more roads, and more removal of fungus, which is increasingly a barrier to our progress. I'd love to see some good old fashioned Earth trees eat all this fungus. We have a biologist or two who thinks that is our best plan. Make it a nice, green world.
Post by: bvanevery on September 05, 2021, 06:17:55 AM
the sentinel |
Have they really just left their battle ogre on guard duty all this time? They could have been exploring, and finding more of them. How does an Alien brain work anyways. Humans, we know what we are doing.
Post by: bvanevery on September 05, 2021, 06:20:50 AM
we think them dead |
Again I wonder if anyone will really miss them. We will put it on television, but that's good form.
Post by: bvanevery on September 05, 2021, 06:28:02 AM
the game of pickle |
We decide to test our maneuverability. We can't scratch their ogre, but we can induce them to wear it out. We doubt they can fix it any better than we can. When it's gone it's gone. An ancestor of mine said, he who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day.
Post by: bvanevery on September 05, 2021, 06:32:34 AM
a worthy test |
We survived, but they did themselves no damage. Try again? If we must slink off in shame, at least we only seem to suffer the consequence of moving a few transports about. Perhaps these Aliens don't even understand that they're in a war. They talk like it's war, but they don't act like it.
Post by: bvanevery on September 05, 2021, 06:37:51 AM
a knight's errand |
Well, we wounded them, but that must have been a slow crew. I'm not sure how to explain this one to their families. In practical terms, we would be better served with cheaper units, if this is to be the result. I hope it was unusual, but if not, then shortly it's back to infantry. We really could use some basic training. I'm not sure why we haven't even figured out how to do that yet. We have the form of a democracy, but not the teeth.
Post by: bvanevery on September 05, 2021, 07:01:28 AM
tactical withdrawl |
Another speeder crew blew up, and this time, did not even scratch our foe. Perhaps we have made the mistake of allowing them target practice. They might be getting better at their guns. Scouting of their interior still shows no offensive capability or lines of communication at all. We have encountered one pathetic former, perched upon a rock so we did not kill it. We will just keep building and eventually our industry will level them. And who knows, Aki might finally come through with lasers.
have they got some goddamn lasers |
I hate paying a lot for simple communication, but we are quite rich. I smile and say thank you, like a good little diplomat. Then I cut her off. If she's any use to me later, I'll worry about it later.
a bedfellow! |
Or not. Well, this is a surprise. I accept her hand. Do we jump a broom, perform a tea ceremony, trill at the four moons? I don't think we're even signing a piece of paper. But allies it is.
the readout |
I hardly noticed, in all the fuss, that she's a good Democrat as well. We're going to get along famously. I don't think I'll invite her to our private war just yet. As a practical matter, she is unlikely to be able to assist. And her smiling face might be useful for back channel spying.
training aid |
She has a military tech that we do not. This might be as good as a laser, if we put enough industry behind it.
basic fighting |
If we had not found her comm frequency in a bottle out in the ocean, where would we be now? We have explored, but not as much as I'd like. We haven't run into anyone else. Well, oh yes, Zhakarov. Let's get on with it. I don't expect much from him. He's... haughty.
diving down |
Like many items in our military inventory, we've been sacrificing things that consume our resources. Not intentionally, we try to get something out of them. But we've been throwing things into harm's way. When we no longer have to pay their support, we are free to make new things. Yes, Zhakarov, any minute now. So many incoming files on my bureau desk.
Post by: bvanevery on September 05, 2021, 07:13:09 AM
talk with the Aliens, walk with the Aliens |
By all means, wear out your own ears with their burbling rubbish. Here's a free clue for you. They will not have any tech you want to know about. That's assuming I even do. Have you been busy, Zak?
unimpressed |
What did you land on, a one foot square rock? Am I to be your brain trust? Well he would learn recycling from someone else anyways.
runt |
Gosh, Aki's poor neighbor. That almost explains his pathetic country. Except his lack of good sense to get in a boat. It's not like we don't all come with boats. I don't care if Aki wipes this loser out. Get me a real ally.
[Limit reached]
I will happily pull your strings, or buy you for a pittance, on election day. This I promise.
Cut him off. Gods.
I forgot to ask if he knows of anyone far more useful than himself. Know what? He doesn't. I can see he's never been anywhere. He didn't even know about that huge volcano echoing on the radar to the east of him. How can a man of science lack such basic curiosity about the world around him? I don't know if it's common sense, but he's clearly lacking some sense.
Post by: bvanevery on September 05, 2021, 07:33:31 AM
Well someone finally has an explorational motive like us. As the one entity on the planet likely to have figured out a laser, I will try not to upset him. I must remember that his superficial ugliness and similarity to my other horse faced adversary, does not imply any particular culture, mannerism, or habit of thought. I will now audience his true self.
[Limit reached]
Volunteering a key to my planetary election victory, goes a long way with me.
[Limit reached]
And I almost liked him. Horse mouth!
[Limit reached]
Sadly, he triggered a pod and our noble ship, was lost at sea.
[Limit reached]
I suppose we will need more, to find the origin of the Usurpers, and this mysterious "Cha Dawn". Our 3 Command Center crushing of the Alien neighbors, shall be reduced to a summary 2.
Post by: bvanevery on September 05, 2021, 08:13:42 AM
I think we could get along well together. We both agree that money is important for running nations. Even if we have a noticeable shift of emphasis, on what the ends are.
[Limit reached]
Yes I am happy to learn the ways of prototypical capitalists. You can go train some troops. I doubt they'll be doing anything near me for centuries. Hey, maybe you can go kill some Usurpers.
[Limit reached]
Capitalism has some serious disadvantages for dealing with the ecosystem. Like the kind that get your troops killed when advancing upon enemies. This is still a reality for us, and until it is not, we must forego the gold. The survivability of our scouts in the field, and ships at sea, are also concerns. We have made great economic strides, not stirring what we don't need to.
[Limit reached]
However we could most certainly use an alliance, in pursuit of our future, mutual economic interests. Did he drool?
[Limit reached]
Let's tell Aki the good news.
[Limit reached]
I cut him off again because I figured he might want to know about the Caretakers as well.
[Limit reached]
I was right. Cutting off communications, and renewing them, has this speedy effect on both comm frequencies and map acquisition. With new allies, it's an extremely useful way to get map info about old enemies. Just have them make friends and get the map to you by proxy.
[Limit reached]
Even Zhakarov wants to know everybody, no matter how deleterious that relationship may prove to be.
[Limit reached]
I laughed in his face and he still wants an alliance with me. I guess that's the advantage of being weak! You'll do anything. Well why not present the humans as a united front. There is only this human prophet to find now, somewhere out in the bush. I will make it a priority.
Post by: bvanevery on September 05, 2021, 11:09:42 PM
I'm simply not going to bother to commit myself to writing from Lal's perspective anymore. Maybe at some point, I'll see an opportunity to describe something "Lalishly". Maybe I'll take it. But for the most part, I'm going to continue with the more functional style of game mechanical description I have in the past. Pointedly, only talking about the major events, and not every single detail. 4 web pages is a lot for only getting 63 years into the game.
On Reddit, I started with 1 upvote for announcing this AAR. That number has risen to a mighty 5. This is way below the level of interest usually shown for my mod releases, and is not encouraging or incentivizing as far as bothering to produce this content. Meanwhile here, 173 views so far and I really don't know what that means. Does it include my own writing and replies as views? Well, it's obviously more than what I wrote myself, but not much more.
The main reason I'll continue this for now, is it's still an interesting scenario. I'm in a rockfight with the Caretakers due to inadequate military tech, in pursuit of the Monsoon Jungle. I've acquired a moon's worth of Artifacts advancing my cause. I actually do expect my industry to suffocate the Caretakers, it's not just Lal's in-character posturing.
The halfway house of character, might be attempting to pursue trade rather than obliteration with these noxious neighbors. From a purely gamist perspective, one would switch to Conquer as the research focus, get the lasers, add the chemical weapons that come along with them, and summarily eliminate the Caretakers from the game. There would be no penalty to it whatsoever, as they're not a part of the U.N. Charter. There would be no retribution from Planet.
So, it is quite a contrivance to try to trade with them. Also, they don't share our Commerce system, they have their own, so the concept of "trade" isn't even terribly meaningful. Trade what? Techs? I've already got better techs than they do, and that will always continue to be true. If not by my own research, by that of my many allies.
Perhaps I should write the scene where Lal thinks this through and finally decides to wipe them completely out.
Post by: bvanevery on September 05, 2021, 11:39:50 PM
Mission year 21 . The elusive Planet Cult has contacted my ally of convenience and declared war upon him. I must press upon Zhakarov, that this is not at all convenient. Planetary elections will shortly follow and I hardly need worry about his paltry number of votes, so he will do as I say. I cut him off and contact this problem child. Literally a child! Walked out of a fungal patch somewhere.
[Limit reached]
I can't get him to trade a tech, or sell it for a reasonable price, and he loses patience before bringing up a Treaty. But at least I got him to knock off his bullying of my nominal ally. What's the point of taking over 3 puny cities anyways?
[Limit reached]
I seek to sell the comm frequency to as many people as possible, before calling a general election. This includes the distant Usurpers. They even sign a Treaty. I buy a tech that I probably could have stolen from the Caretakers soon enough, but this is quicker.
Post by: bvanevery on September 06, 2021, 01:30:58 AM
A real life interruption causes Zhakarov to call the election instead of myself.
Post by: bvanevery on September 06, 2021, 01:35:35 AM
MY 2170. Cha Dawn demands a pittance from me, which of course I refuse. We are at war.
Post by: bvanevery on September 06, 2021, 02:06:20 AM
MY 2181. I've occupied all the food producing squares of the nearest enemy city. This should begin to induce a process of starvation. It will likely take several turns to take effect, and I do not have infiltration yet to see the progress. In addition to not learning how to make lasers, for some reason I haven't learned how to make a probe team either.
Belatedly, I realize I forgot the ocean squares. They might not starve. I will hurry my facilities so I can get to ship building.
Post by: bvanevery on September 06, 2021, 02:27:21 AM
MY 21 . Cha Dawn wants to trade with his foe? Well, he does have a unique tech, that I wasn't willing to pay 200 credits for earlier.
[Limit reached]
It's a prelude to a Truce. Actually he signs a Treaty.
Post by: bvanevery on September 06, 2021, 02:30:25 AM
MY 2188. I research the tech necessary for the Virtual World. As I have 6 Artifacts in my home territory, I cash 4 of 'em and 400 worth of credits to rush the project. I believe that's the most productive use of Artifacts until the late game, when supply crawlers finally become available. My citizens are going to be very happy and we shall have a big 3 cities.
;danc
Post by: bvanevery on September 06, 2021, 02:44:09 AM
MY 2191. Zhakarov traded me probe team tech some time ago, and I finally got one to the front. I made the cheapest possible team because predictably, it died. The Caretakers have nothing of note.
[Limit reached]
Now I can see the progress of my starvation campaign. I did indeed fail to block off the water. At least this base will be useless for quite awhile. The objective of blocking the enemy from reaching the Monsoon Jungle has been mostly achieved, at least by land. They could still try to make use of it by sea, but sea bases are notoriously feeble.
[Limit reached]
I doubt I will actually build a fleet now. I have these lovely facilities to build. Gotta plug my citizens into the Virtual World, to keep them
Post by: bvanevery on September 06, 2021, 02:56:57 AM
MY 2197. I've been playtesting The Will To Power mod for so long, that I forgot my own version of Green doesn't have any downsides. It doesn't do all that much, but, no downsides. This is because of a bug in the original game where the Gaians won't choose Green until they know how to make Locusts of Chiron. That can be almost late game and it's ridiculous for the Gaians not to go Green. The only way to induce them to do it, is to make sure there are now downsides for Green. People playing my mod for the 1st time who don't read the fine print of my design notes, i.e most people lol, may think this looks funny and wonder why my Social Engineering Table is laid out this way. But it's for a reason, to work around bugs in the original game. Some of the other table values are about preventing the AI from obsessing about things it shouldn't.
Post by: bvanevery on September 06, 2021, 03:01:32 AM
MY 2198. The fleet is getting built because the Caretakers seem to be trying to shell my coast. Gotta put 'em in their place, then starve 'em out.
Post by: bvanevery on September 06, 2021, 03:25:13 AM
The downside of sunspots is you can't trade techs with your allies. However they're all busy building various Secret Projects and are not trading right now anyways.
The upside of sunspots is if you want to commit otherwise illegal atrocities, no one will find out! But it's still distasteful to Lal, and irrelevant to fighting Aliens anyways. You can commit as many atrocities against them as you want. Or if you are them, to anyone else. Only humans have to worry about the pesky U.N. Charter. I'm in a good position to repeal it, but I'm still determined to partly roleplay this, so a monologue about repeal is not yet forthcoming.
Heck, I don't even have lasers yet. Nobody does! This is an oddly pacifistic game. Nobody has research foci that reward much in the way of conquest techs, with the possible exception of the Usurpers. I have half a mind to get a Foil Probe Team up their way to see if they're the military "superpower" of all these rockfights. But presently I'm more interested in blockading the Caretakers.
[Limit reached]
This reminds me that I acquired Neural Grafiting some time ago. In recent versions of my mod, I moved it quite early. I also forgot that I decided mindworms were overpowered, and made Hypnotic Trance free in order to partly nerf them. This is actually no different than the original game, and for all I know, was done for exactly the same reason. So, I should be putting it on my blockade ships.
I also keep forgetting that I went Green and could capture some indigenous life forms. Boy, the WTP mod has really warped my brain!
Post by: Buster's Uncle on September 06, 2021, 03:27:13 AM
Good work. ;b; Hope the minion can get you some sharks with freakin' lasers soon.
Post by: bvanevery on September 06, 2021, 03:52:54 AM
[Limit reached]
MY 2213. I researched this a few turns ago, then forgot about it. I have a load of cash from exploring, and plenty of Artifacts again, so I mostly spent cash to rush this. It won't help me at all, but it will block others from completing SPs and acquiring techs. Lal prefers democratic hegemony. ;lol
WTP plays very differently than my mod, regarding Secret Projects. In my mod, you just save up your cash and blow it, maybe with a few Artifacts to goose it along quickly. In WTP, you must do it in one city for most of the game, and the SPs are super expensive. I made mine cost "more"; WTP costs like, you would not believe how much! Well you would if you played it, but... I'm not used to being able to build SPs.
I got to the point where I had played my own mod so much, that I was bored. It seemed better to put my gaming energy into playtesting WTP for awhile. Then I thought, gee, I really should kick my 1.52 release out the door. So this becomes the vehicle by which it is done.
Post by: bvanevery on September 06, 2021, 04:07:12 AM
[Limit reached]
In our long campaign to suppress the Alien aggression, we have suffered few defeats and many victories. Yet for lack of a simple laser, that we were pretty sure was "less than theoretical" upon leaving Earth, we have been utterly unable to penetrate their defenses. In the field, they can do nothing to us, and we burn their strange foodstuffs at will. Yet they stack their bases with the same cleanliness of reaction, as we ourselves favor.
It is a stalemate. About to be resolved, by the final cutting of supply to their forward city. In human warfare it has been decreed a bit unconscionable for a few centuries, but medievalists and Romans would surely understand, the necessity of our action. We simply lack another way. We cannot induce surrender, in the absence of decisive force.
They have resisted with some vigor at sea, foolishly firing shots that cannot penetrate our armor. We mostly decline to return the favor, except to the extent they encroach upon our home waters. Which has not happened in many years now. Our ships have steadfastly sailed to target. When they arrive, there will be a great wailing among the Aliens, I predict. I have not often liked to use food shortage as a weapon, as it has been the province of many rogue warlords, back on Earth. I had an entire department for food security. Here, it means something else.
Post by: bvanevery on September 06, 2021, 04:24:31 AM
MY 2217. It has begun. They have been busy, building sea based mining platforms to offset their lack of food and minerals on land. We would prefer that their trawler leave without weakening our defenses, so we shell it. However if they do not move, we may have to bring up our one tame spore launcher to induce it. Or wait for more ships to arrive. Always so much waiting.
[Limit reached]
But we do have their attention now. It is a pity the sunspots continue, that we cannot hear a surrender. Even if we could, I think it likely they will blame themselves for their misfortune, and not credit us. They will remain defiant, which poses a difficulty for peace.
Post by: bvanevery on September 06, 2021, 04:47:22 AM
MY 2218. And now my conscience is tested. I preferred the simpler calculation, of having no "choice".
[Limit reached]
My dear allies are exemplary civilians, not a thought of armament among them. But Morgan, although carping at our planetary friendliness, has made us an astounding offer. Not only does he propose to breed mindworms in captivity, he has shown us a blueprint of the entire human genome sequence, to control it. It is a gift! Why does he not think to keep this knowledge for himself? I ask no questions; I sign the dotted line immediately. Perhaps he is too busy building his "Planetary Energy Grid" to care for other contrivances.
[Limit reached]
In our war room, I examined the disposition of new ships, guarding their mining platforms. I meant to speak with more allies before conversing with Aliens, but my finger slipped upon a comm switch. Old horse-mouth graces my screen. Has her attitude improved? No, she still demands money. Well, my conscience is clearer now. Back to work.
[Limit reached]
Marr... Marr... I only needed to move a few wounded life forms on a corner of your land. I had no hostile intention. If you had but asked, I would have gladly spirited them home. Instead, you make preposterous demands. Do you not realize that even now, a team of probes comes to spy on you? I would have merely infiltrated, but now, I will just take. If you have anything to take. Where are your lasers, Marr? And no, I didn't like Cha Dawn that much either, you are a fool.
Post by: bvanevery on September 06, 2021, 06:06:26 AM
MY 2219. This may be why Morgan was so free with his Human Genome. He may think he's about to complete it!
[Limit reached]
With several redundant copies of his Grid underway, he may have enough piled up, to have masked his true intent. I could look into his cities to find out. But it is of no use, as I can either build this now, or I cannot. My accountants say, not. We are perhaps 68 credits short of a rush job.
This is a valuable happiness, that will assist our United Nations citizens for generations. It is worth a few bribes to a plumbers union to get this done!
[Limit reached]
We can do without the 4th probe. I'm sure that Marr is not worth it anyways. We must build the Project here, as it's where we happened to mothball our last Artifact. We had wisely sent our other Artifacts to join it, just down the road. They will arrive by nightfall.
[Limit reached]
We surely don't need so many sea formers. We aren't even utilizing the many tidal harnesses we've already built. We have land formers running around the Monsoon Jungle planting trees, for when we eventually settle there. It's all quite absurd! But cleanliness is next to godliness and formers run out of things to form eventually.
[Limit reached]
My accountant says 4 Artifacts produce 200 minerals worth of supplies. We have the credit reserves to buy the rest! But a little voice inside my head, says to wait until the end of the fiscal year, to make the purchases. You never know how your budget may change.
[Limit reached]
The Caretakers foolishly abandoned their sensible sea position, hastening their death.
[Limit reached]
We found the broken engine of the USS Unity. But someone, presumably the Caretakers, had already salvaged it. I'm sure we shot their fat, grubby mindworm near this peninsula years ago. This is a marker of old, sad things. Very personal failures.
[Limit reached]
We made no additional money this year. It is time to buy! I don't know what incantations our techs perform to get these exotic lightbulbs to work, but they sure do work.
[Limit reached]
We have 1 Artifact left. I really hate the idea of using a valuable Artifact, when a pair of scouting boots might do. Accountant, what's the going rate on a used pressure suit? Is it enough? ...You don't know? Well, send them to the site anyways. Have them strip.
[Limit reached]
They complained that they thought guarding the Monolith from hostile life forms was a permanent job. In perpetuity, like the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier back on Earth. I pointed out, they were well known. Beers in the mess hall every Sunday, and we'd buy them new boots. Later. I finally settled the squawking with the offer of a small honorary plaque.
[Limit reached]
One lousy scout, the key to our greatness! I did promise them a plaque.
[Limit reached]
Quote
It is a little known fact of our early expedition, that the skin cells of Corporal Lance Jensen and company, were instrumental in the sequencing of the human genome. Their boots had suffered long term exposure to the ancient monolith near the city.
- Commissioner Pravin Lal
Mission Year 2219
Hogwash all of it, but it will delight schoolchildren forever.
Post by: bvanevery on September 06, 2021, 06:26:21 AM
MY 2220. One of our land squatters was summarily eaten by a Caretaker controlled mindworm. We've known for awhile that they can capture them. Fortunately breeding in captivity, that is our new ability. Our synthmetal sentinels were minted in an earlier era when we did not understand the mental effect of the mindworm. We begin training of units that can calmly withstand these horrific attacks.
[Limit reached]
Meanwhile, I see no choice but to remove our limited troops to safety. They are no match for these horrific attacks. And it's not like putting them on guard duty somewhere else, costs us anything. We will have proper troops on the front line shortly.
Post by: bvanevery on September 06, 2021, 06:38:53 AM
MY 2221. And now we do not command the oceans. I'm surprised our sailors were so easily brainwashed. Do we not pay them well enough? Maybe we need new ships as well. With a
[Limit reached]
In the interim, we double our forces to prevent further hijackings. I'm not sure if it'll make us easier targets for conventional attacks.
[Limit reached]
And now at least we have something to steal.
[Limit reached]
We're not extremists, we're pragmatists, you greedless goat! Possessing the only viable weapon on this Planet, that you designed, do you not think we would seek to maximize it? We're in a war, and you're sitting back nicely profiteering! Well good riddance to you. Don't come begging for help when your conquering neighbor comes knocking down your door. We've got Caretaker mindworms to clean up.
Post by: bvanevery on September 06, 2021, 07:10:45 AM
MY 2222. We deliberately scattered to avoid this subterfuge, and were tagged anyways. Did we get confused about which Alien is subverting us?
[Limit reached]
Our probe team is blocked from quick theft by a slowly moving trawler. We consider buying our way through the obstacle, but the price is impossibly steep. How do they achieve such high-mindedness, when seemingly our own sailors drop anchor for pennies?
[Limit reached]
Because they are a police state. I must not let my blood boil this morning.
[Limit reached]
We attempt to select a new target, and unfortunately sail past a ship meant to kill us. Well at least we won't die in ambush.
[Limit reached]
Meanwhile, our tame spore launcher is ineffective against their giant, well-fed mindworm. We see no choice but to attack this boil, as retreat will simply let it attack first. We scatter it to bits, but we are weakened. Hopefully our enemy is weak enough not to press again, but we will be retreating.
[Limit reached]
The first of the Trance troops arrive at the front. I hope we can reestablish our siege. We're using dirty reactors because we expect some casualties. Those were awfully big mindworms!
Post by: bvanevery on September 06, 2021, 07:27:40 AM
A Caretaker probe team, threatens our new front line troops. It prevents them from spreading out and starving the enemy. Soon though, we will have mindworms, which cannot be bribed.
[Limit reached]
Morgan, that savvy profiteer, allows me to simply buy a laser.
[Limit reached]
They can come with nerve gas tanks as special enhancement. He thinks of everything. I am... not yet ready to see our foes as irreconcilable. But I surely must have these Caretakers beaten.
[Limit reached]
This frees our team to do some very basic spying. It took a long time to get here. We took the long way round, to avoid those pesky laser ships, which we suppose were headed for Caretaker territory. Infiltration was a wise move, as they had no other tech.
Post by: bvanevery on September 06, 2021, 07:58:51 AM
MY 2228. How long has it been since we researched something of military importance? It's 1/3 of our appropriations budget, and yet, we do nearly nothing in this area. I can't in good conscience pull our people away from exploration and basic research though. It just feels... wrong. We generally leave the money grubbing stuff to the Morganites and buy those few products as we have need.
Our brilliant scientists have found a way to shoot little guns off our little ships, by pointing them at land. And I have to wonder what took them so long. On the other hand, linking all our barracks together in one massive network, might help us when we someday expand.
When will that be? Our people are awfully comfortable in this little 3 spoke corner of the world. We don't even pay anything to make them happy. They are playing video games in the virtual world, turning their skin blue with white stripes because they can...
[Limit reached]
Our first mindworm food is a Caretaker probe team that's getting too close for our comfort. It dies readily, which was the plan. Their front line should evaporate similarly. I believe the Aliens landed on this planet with knowledge of the Trance, but they've done quite a poor job incorporating the practice into their troops.
[Note: real observable defect of the mod. Not sure what the holdup is; should probably do something about it.]
Post by: bvanevery on September 06, 2021, 08:19:06 AM
MY 2232. The Caretakers finally figured out lasers. There goes our naval blockade.
[Limit reached]
With an Artifact, we goose the Command Nexus along. We need another pair of boots to finish it off. And I'm not renaming UN Headquarters, no way.
[Limit reached]
This time we just order someone to do their duty and quit hustling. You won't have to face mindworms anymore anyways.
[Limit reached]
This isn't going to be resolved by siege. I don't think we need to test whether that new laser infantry can fry us on open ground. I'm starting to wonder whether we've let them build up too much. We used to be certain of our industrial advantage, but they have a lot of bodies in the field. I don't think we need to worry about another probe team incursion just yet, as we're monitoring their production of such units.
Post by: bvanevery on September 06, 2021, 08:34:15 AM
MY 2233. I've lost control of the elections??!? Clearly I've fiddled with these Caretakers too long. We should have expanded into the jungle. We still can, but... this is madness! Cha Dawn, I am so insulted, but I will take your money. Better you than Morgan.
Post by: bvanevery on September 06, 2021, 08:53:16 AM
MY 2236. The Morganites and the Usurpers are at war. That is very good.
[Limit reached]
This kind of pileup on the Caretakers' part, is starting to resemble an army.
[Limit reached]
I had just enough mindworms. My first Recon Rover rolls out of my newly completed Skunkworks. I've abandoned the pretense of trying to take Caretaker cities intact, and have begun a campaign of degrading their empire to slow them down. My formers have all finally made it back to my homeland and are working on mag tubes to speed defense and conquest. If I tear up my enemy's roads from behind her lines, I can build my own invasion roads later. This will do until I obtain some more decisive advantage. For now, I think I'm just beating them in the field.
Post by: bvanevery on September 06, 2021, 06:19:47 PM
MY 2245. Morgan should have spent less time on grandiose projects. Beating me to the Hunter-Seeker Algorithm is not going to matter if he loses his kingdom.
[Limit reached]
We have whipped the Aliens at every turn and taken no losses, luring them into fungal pits of death. However they are numerous, and seem to have an endless appetite for their own destruction. If they value their own lives so little, should we? They are steeped in a quasi-religious fervor, invoking "God" or at least "My God!" in their last breaths.
Sensing the buckling of their line, we press forward with a mass of recon rovers we've been assembling for a final assault. However we really should be softening them with artillery, so perhaps first we must encircle them.
Post by: bvanevery on September 06, 2021, 11:00:21 PM
MY 2250. Our spores launched at the enemy city, had a strange effect upon the defenders. They scattered to avoid being blasted repeatedly.
[Limit reached]
Moving to open ground was not advisable for them, as they have no particular strength in the open, against our large contingent of speeders. If they make this mistake repeatedly, their base will soon be ours, or gone.
[Limit reached]
Fearing volatility in energy markets, we put a small number of credits into our latest secret project, to avoid having 1000 in the bank. There is something about this magic number that triggers the wolves.
Post by: bvanevery on September 07, 2021, 01:00:59 AM
MY 2253. With 2 Artifacts and a lot of cash, we complete the Network Backbone. This will have far reaching consequences for our society. Possibly elevating us to dominance in the field of basic research, and cementing our alliance with the cyborgs as a way of life.
Post by: bvanevery on September 07, 2021, 01:24:05 AM
MY 2254. We wipe out an empty Usurper sea base that tried to settle in our home waters. I can't imagine what they were thinking. That we were weak and busy? We're actually building many armored ships with marine contingents, to seize the various weak vessels trying to move through our waters. The Usurpers have even settled the far side of the Monsoon Jungle, utilizing the forests that we ourselves planted. I am surprised the Caretakers allow it. Maybe their empire is about to crumble.
[Limit reached]
With the completion of the Network Backbone, a cybernetic society brings us nothing but advantages. We have not heretofore been a research power, concentrating instead on exploration and growth.
I would not even call us industrialists, as we have simply grown a lot of lumber. Surprising numbers of things can be accomplished with basic wood fibers. Even energy production. If you have enough people working the mills, even metallurgy is possible. Lumber is ultimately how we support all our troops in the field. And we have enough troops now, and enough railway, that soon our enemy's gate will be broken. They are choking upon our spores, launched high from - yes, you guessed it - towers made of lumber.
Post by: bvanevery on September 07, 2021, 01:31:34 AM
MY 2255. We have the enemy so harried, and think so little of their present capability, that next year we will finally end them. This will coincide with the completion of a railway straight to their front door. With such, we can attack their city directly from our biological labs.
[Limit reached]
The question is, once we do so, will we offer peace? Strategically we will have finally cut them off from the land. They may encroach by sea, but when we claim the land, they will not work the land. And without the land, their bases are nothing. We could take them at any time, to remind them who is in charge here.
We should perhaps attend to our new strength: research. And be wary of developing political conditions across the globe. I do not fear a weak neighbor; I fear hearts and minds. I would dearly love to be running this Planet again.
Post by: bvanevery on September 07, 2021, 03:00:16 AM
MY 2256. The Caretakers had the temerity to demand their base back, which of course will never happen. They insisted on dying more. I don't think we took a single casualty. There may be no complex weighing of options in this. We may simply be up against a radicalized enemy that cannot quit.
Post by: bvanevery on September 07, 2021, 03:14:05 AM
MY 2259. The moment of truth. They are so weak, and we are not even spending a dime on new troops. Why stop, when we press them so easily? They simply cannot stand up to our mindworms, and our many Recon Rovers always finish the job. The consensus among the cabinet is to pursue unconditional surrender, or at least push them off the land.
Post by: bvanevery on September 07, 2021, 05:00:04 AM
MY 2261. By establishing UN Humanity Base, we have cut off Bird Cry from its supply of land minerals. However we lack enough formers to do all needed jobs, so our lines of communication have slowed. It's not a problem, it's just a reality that doubling our territorial size takes some time to digest. Our citizens are also not especially eager to leave our cities, as they still have ample food, room, and entertainments.
Post by: bvanevery on September 07, 2021, 05:33:01 AM
MY 2263. After a productive trade summit, Morgan declares his undying enmity for our Green way of life. Mr. CEO, it is an effective weapons platform and that is all. Yes yes we cut a lot of lumber, thank you for the Tree Farms that will make that so much more profitable. Now if you really must hunt us down on the other side of the world, as you continue to contend with our mutual nemesis the Usurpers, be my guest.
;morganercise ;mindworm ;brainhurts
[Limit reached]
In a particularly exciting sea operation, we thwarted a jacking attempt and captured a useful probe team. If we can get it to perform a mission before it is summarily torpedoed.
Post by: bvanevery on September 07, 2021, 05:36:17 AM
[Limit reached]
The Caretakers have finally begun to deploy Trance units, making our mindworms less effective. We lost a Great Boil due to overconfidence in our odds. The perpetrator did not survive, but it distracted us from conquering our next base. We have taken the opportunity to heal and regroup.
Post by: bvanevery on September 07, 2021, 05:49:01 AM
MY 2265. I accidentally voted for my nemesis Morgan, in an election of his own instigation. I was thinking too hard about how much I didn't want him to hold the post. It is of no consequence as he was going to win no matter how I voted. This war has really lost me a lot of political control. However our actual geopolitical position and growth outlook is strong and unassailable. We have weapons at our disposal that we don't even use, such as fusion reactors and Isles of the Deep. Why build new things when old things still work? We have taken so few casualties, and we really must credit our 3 spore launchers for turning our enemy, mostly to mush. Even their new Trance units don't withstand it.
Yes, Morgan, Green is good. We shall help you to see that someday.
Post by: bvanevery on September 07, 2021, 06:08:43 AM
MY 2267. Victory over Phantom Forces was slightly painful. We lost a few venerable units. We may still yet have enough to remove the Caretakers from our continent though. Meaning, that we can be very lazy about our military progress, and tend to our research and infrastructure. Our sea units are limping home, having done nothing decisive, but they succeeded in their mission of harassing the enemy. Meanwhile the Cyborgs have done a good job of undermining their sea bases from the opposite direction. So good, that I hope our friends don't get ideas about the Monsoon Jungle.
Post by: bvanevery on September 07, 2021, 06:32:04 AM
MY 2269. I'm not sure why I bother talking with them, as they have no interest in surrender. They may insist on de facto extermination.
Post by: bvanevery on September 07, 2021, 06:44:31 AM
MY 2270. Who would guess that a theocratic despot could have such insight? I find the basic philosophy appealing, but the reality is, these jacks in the sides of our ear lobes are bought and paid for. They're winning us wars. I can't very well have peace without global domination. If you could even show me how to live in an eudaimonic state, I might consider it. But for now, realpolitik makes your concerns utterly impracticable.
And won't Aki just be whining at me, if not you? I think I'll take her Democratic Green Knowledge Cybernetic over whatever you're espousing. If this war would just end, we'd be doing that as well.
[Limit reached]
I don't trust them. That inbound probe team looks like it might want to help itself to something. As a precaution, I move our valuable artifact to land.
Post by: bvanevery on September 07, 2021, 06:59:59 AM
MY 2271. Once again we have the opportunity for dirty deeds, but they are logistically impractical.
Post by: bvanevery on September 07, 2021, 07:23:47 AM
MY 2275. I spend 2 Artifacts and a lot of cash to beat Aki to the Theory of Everything.
Post by: bvanevery on September 07, 2021, 08:57:01 AM
MY 2292. Zhakarov insists on war with Cha Dawn. Since I can never please everyone, I acquiesce.
[Limit reached]
It occurs to me that all my mindworms and spore launchers are dead. The Caretakers haven't fielded an indigenous life form in eons. Battling Planet life forms has been rare, although that could be attributed to my Green stance. I have buckets of new weapons technology I could wipe out the Caretakers with, that I'm not even using yet. All I'm really doing is sitting around garrisoning, and finally claiming the Monsoon Jungle. Why be Green anymore? Perhaps I can make peace with Morgan, and be the total planetary sycophant I always aspired to be.
Morgan doesn't want to talk. It usually takes a probe team to bring the recalcitrant around. They like to interrupt just as you're about to steal from them.
Post by: bvanevery on September 07, 2021, 09:31:09 AM
[Limit reached]
With so many wars afoot, why not train my troops better? It will tick off Zhakarov, but he doesn't provide me any tech anyways. I don't want my people unhappy because I'm marching troops around, and it looks like I'll be doing that for quite some time.
Post by: bvanevery on September 07, 2021, 10:22:58 AM
MY 2299. At the beginning of all of this, I said I didn't care what happened to you. That Aki could overrun you if she liked. Back then you only had 2 bases. You've improved and occasionally been useful since, but you are not what I'd call, an asset.
I try to broker peace between him and Aki, but he points fingers at her. I'm not going to pester her, until she pesters me.
[Limit reached]
I didn't mean to. I guess it's Capitalism. I'm building Centauri Preserves to try to keep it from getting worse. But I'm equally determined to build Robotic Assembly Plants afterwards. If this is enough to put Planet underwater, well won't that be amusing.
[Limit reached]
I finally took over their capitol. I lost my modern unit in the process. I don't care. The real issue is global warming.
Post by: bvanevery on September 07, 2021, 10:33:43 AM
MY 2302. Yeaaaaah Robotic Assembly Plants. I never build those things. You're not watching how to win the game anymore. It's 5:30 AM and this is what your brain looks like on global warming.
;mindworm ;brainhurts
And I'm just refusing to build Trance units because I'm mental. Like why can't I kill everything with Scouts? Because they're getting picked off here and there, that's why.
I do have a few Trance units from the old days. I just don't have the rails to move them around so easily. Recently I made mag tubes take a lot longer to make. They were overpowered, you could get anywhere with them. I think I've found a balance where they're still useful, but not quite a superweapon anymore. I've had incentive to build other things.
Actually it turns out my 2 Trance units are right where they should be. I'm going to wait for the mindworms to attack. When I attack them, it strengthens the remainders. Let's see if they'll wear themselves out on me, without getting stronger.
Post by: bvanevery on September 08, 2021, 04:14:26 AM
MY 2305. Coming back to the game from last night, and being foggy headed not really knowing what was going on, I had to save scum this turn. That probe team actually took over Decision: Manifold ! Piles of hitting the ESC key to get that stupid turn to end.
I think it's pretty ridiculous, as they've only got 297 credits to their name. I've got 1321 credits and I don't know exactly how the takeover equation works, but your bank account vs. theirs is one of the factors. Yes it's their former capitol, but it was stocked with military units they can't individually afford to subvert, and it's only 10 squares away from my own capitol. Yes they have a slight advantage running a Police State, giving them +1 PROBE, but it shouldn't make it that easy for them. My captured citizens aren't even unhappy, they've got 1 yuppie and 1 plumber, due to all my wonderful secret projects for keeping people cheerful.
Subversion is very much overpowered in the original game. I've toned it down in my mod, making mind control cost 2x as much for most factions, but there are still problems that can't easily be solved with .txt only modding. Binary modding could put it to bed, but it's a lot of work to get into that, and it's illegal. So as an indie game developer wary of exposures, I'm not going to get into it.
I haven't done any kind of probe defense at all this game because it just hasn't been an issue. I've managed to block and kill the various teams that they sent at me, mainly by marching my units around doubled up in pairs. Eventually they got to the point where they just weren't fielding enough probe teams to be dealing with them, but I got a bit over-extended and extremely slack, making the final push on land. I'm finally deigning to make a Missile Needlejet which is going to end it all.
Here you see an expedient that works, which illustrates why this problem is complete baloney. Since they can't afford to mind control my individual units, they are used individually as a wall around my city. If they were actually in the city, the probe team could take it over! Total. Misdesign.
[Limit reached]
I meet Morgan in the field and that's enough to get him to talk. My big mindworm was only evenly matched with his unit anyways. He signs a Truce but not a Treaty. I move out of the way as I don't trust him to honor it.
Post by: bvanevery on September 08, 2021, 05:03:53 AM
MY 2306. This is why I usually don't play Capitalist and build all these factories. I've got mindworm pops galore again, and not much in the way of units to fight them. All my hard work hand terraforming every single square of my empire, is in jeopardy of being flooded out. Cue Weird Al Yankovic singing, "Our Land's In Jeopardy, ba-by. Oooh oo ooo ooooh!"
;belal ;former ;mindworm ;buttdance
The good news is, it's probably not severe enough yet, to actually be a problem. I have a lot of productivity. Much more than I'm used to having, for winning these games. And this is merely an ecological flood. Not a Planet punishing you because you're an evil chemical weapons abuser flood, with beaucoup de mindworms. That is a problem. I've done AARs about that and lived to tell the tale. Sorry if I'm totally breaking character with this commentary and reportage, but I'm really tired today after last night's late night bender with this game. I've probably got, a thimble full of acting ability right now.
[Limit reached]
So here I have the problem that Cha Dawn is threatening to blow a big hole in my defensive line. Somehow the Caretakers are spamming probe teams and another one will be produced next year. Must be the AI's INDUSTRY advantage on Transcend difficulty. That team could walk right through and take over.
[Limit reached]
I didn't really think my Elite Recon Rover would win against the Cultist units. They're on forest and they've got better armor than my weapon. I think my best bet is to put 3 sacrificial units in front of them and just take the hits. With luck, the last unit will survive, blocking the probe team from getting through. I'm also not sure of the turn order. Maybe the Caretakers will move before the Cultists attack.
Could somebody please tell me why my 13 year old laptop is getting so hot just playing this stupid game? Well, and having a web browser open to type this up, and the Snip & Sketch screen capture program. And a .txt document about something else. Still, it shouldn't exactly be intensity. I think it's Microsoft's fault, pulling baloney with Windows 10 again. Overheating is definitely a recurring theme if you troll the internet about it. Another possibility is something is ageing and therefore heating more. It's bad enough that I might have to do something, like beg off. Let's see if running on battery power will cure it. It's supposed to be on passive cooling, and it's like it's not doing it.
Task Manager shows low to no disk usage, and not really any load on the CPU. I was expecting to see one of Microsoft's wonderful background tasks chewing up everything. What gives?
Need to go look at a schematic of the motherboard to make a guess at what's cooking. It's not the battery, as that's external old school snap-on and cool to the touch. Fan is blowing.
Gotta go deal with this. Gripping conclusion to the probe team problem later.
Post by: bvanevery on September 08, 2021, 01:59:33 PM
MY 2307. The plan worked. The Cult showed no appetite for attacking. I guess Green Impact troops don't feel good about attacking Elite Synthmetal troops on Rocky terrain. I've left a hole for the probe team to walk around if it wants, so that it can land neatly at my front door. That would allow my returning Needlejet to kill it.
I still don't know what's causing my old laptop to overheat. It started very quickly after I started playing again this morning. The only expedient I've got so far, is I put a small piece of metal under it as a "foot" to elevate it from the surface it's sitting on. That gives somewhat more air circulation. It is not enough and again, I'm going to have to beg off to go deal with this. What a mystery.
[Limit reached]
I've got too much money, but not quite enough to complete the Self-Aware Colony. I've rushed everything I can without penalty, meticulously making partial payments just to be a completely efficient jerk about it. The drill is multiply your mineral output by 2, then subtract that from the payment required to complete. It's approximately if not exactly correct. Good enough for government work.
[Limit reached]
For some reason, even at a Skunkworks the cost of completing a Conventional Missile prototype is egregiously expensive. The missile itself isn't that much, as obviously I can bang it out in 3 turns. "10 minerals in" isn't enough to avoid a huge penalty. Maybe it is treated like a Secret Project and 50 minerals have to be in, to avoid a penalty? I suppose I'll be finding out next year.
Post by: bvanevery on September 08, 2021, 04:07:59 PM
Can't blame Firefox for my laptop running hot. Having a lot of subprocesses is normal for it nowadays. I probably have to open my laptop up and frankly, I just want to play my game right now.
[Limit reached]
Because I've been worrying unduly about the theoretical potential of an Energy Market Crash, I have left myself without enough money to rush the Self-Aware Colony. Aki will complete it next turn. I don't like this SP much anyways. It has a misfeature where you can actually get less Non-Lethal Methods performance out of it, than you otherwise would. It does cheapen maintenance costs though.
[Limit reached]
The Conventional Missile prototype still costs a lot for the minerals involved. I've had a historical aversion to rushing units, for reasons I can't remember, and this may be why. The equation for facilities is 2:1 credits to minerals. For units, it may be nonlinear.
Post by: bvanevery on September 08, 2021, 05:09:07 PM
MY 2309. I've worked long and hard to push these 2 unarmored clean independent sea formers back to safe waters. I'll be darned if I'm going to let some pesky wimp ship kill 'em now! My Missile Needlejet wasn't in position to do anything, and I don't keep a navy out here. These waters have been pretty quiet. I've previously sailed a captured Sea Colony Pod all the way home and made a base with it. Fortunately when you do that, you don't get freaky Aliens for your citizens.
[Limit reached]
Since Aki just finished her SP, and I want to burn excess money, and there aren't enough research powers in the game to get things through the Planetary Datalinks, I thought this would be a good time to trade for techs. I ended up straight trading techs with her, not buying them. I really don't care about research supremacy, as I've got enough techs to wipe out the entire planet as is. Production is my limitation, and mindworms when I scale my production up. They seem to have calmed down now, but I don't really want any more global warming. So, my original 3 cities are the big producers, and the rest are just making garrison scraps.
I've almost got a semi-modern Trance Silksteel garrison up everywhere now, but Aki just traded me the Photon Wall. I don't need it for any immediate neighbors though, and the mindworms certainly don't care about conventional armor. I'd be going back to 3-Res armor if things got really dire. I switch my Skunkworks production to a prototype that will complete next turn, and I switch all my Silksteel to Photon production, in cities where I won't take any penalty. That's all but 1 of them. That's a funny quirk of paying cash for barely completed units, as it pretty much ensures you won't have 10 minerals in next turn. I suppose if I wanted to be maximally productive, I'd add 20 credits = 10 minerals in to the cost, so that next turn I could do it again.
I finally got her to knock it off with Zhakarov. I don't really care what happens to him, but I don't need wars between my allies for their own sake. If nothing else, I make more COMMERCE income when I have allies, I think. I'm fuzzy on that math. I certainly make a lot of money nowadays for whatever reason. Some of that was mindworm kills.
My laptop only overheats when I'm playing this game. This makes me wonder if the graphics emulation is somehow running through the integrated 3D graphics chip, using far more GPU resources than would be normally expected. This would explain why I don't see any indicator of performance overload in Task Manager. It could be the GPU that's doing all the cooking, not the CPU. This is some ancient Intel integrated graphics thing. For that matter, maybe the recent Windows 10 bug-free graphics driver is at fault. I can't remember exactly what I have installed in that regard, although when I've done it by hand, I've used a Windows 8 driver. Keeping a 13 year old laptop running Windows 10 is a bit of a trick. Not a hard trick, if one is a techie god, but there are mysterious problems here and there.
I need a GPU activity detector.
Post by: bvanevery on September 08, 2021, 05:52:52 PM
MY 2310. Sorry, Aki. ;aki; ;danc
I've completely forgotten to check my own cities for flooding threats. That's a reality of playing late at night and singing off when you're dead tired. Hard to remember what's going on the next day. Well hopefully nothing's gonna get me. I usually remember to do a check, when my cursor finally drifts over something that's threatened. Other reasons to inspect cities from the top level map, would be to look for particular units. Haven't needed to do that lately.
I've played games where I've tried to use global flooding as a weapon against the AI factions. It doesn't really work. It degrades their empires but it never eliminates them. They also have a nasty habit of rebuilding their sunken cities in the same locations. In short, the AI has a proclivity towards spam. The idea of wiping them out all at once sounds good on paper, but doesn't work in the real ocean.
Another thing I learned one game is that if you commit serious atrocities to an enemy, and then the planet floods, and all of Planet's mindworms come to get you, and you didn't finish off that enemy, the flooding will slow down their demise. They can survive long enough to build nukes and take you out later! So if you're going to commit atrocities, you'd better finish them off. The corollary to this, is only commit atrocities to enemies one-by-one. Unless you're trying to write your own epitaph.
After a bunch of dog interruptions, finally remembered to check my cities. None of them are at flooding risk.
Post by: bvanevery on September 08, 2021, 06:37:52 PM
MY 2312. I had to reload my turn because I didn't see that my mag tube line was broken. So obnoxious when a unit just tries to move into the rough. I don't remember having a minerals resource in the ocean either. Must be another flooding consequence. I checked my bases again and none are in danger.
[Limit reached]
The Monsoon Jungle got cut off as well. Looks like I'm going to need formers more than anything else. My Trance garrisoning is reasonably complete now, and it's actually only my original 3 cities that get threatened by mindworm pops. The hinterlands don't have enough productivity to matter. It seems that if I could just get every city up to at least 10 minerals, I could run everything on cash, hurrying every turn. I've not generally played that way, but it could work for my circumstances now.
[Limit reached]
160 credits seems like an awful lot to complete a unit. That's getting up into Research Hospital territory. If this were a facility, I'd only have 40 minerals to get through, so 80 credits. This suggests that units may be at a 4:1 ratio, rather than 2:1 for facilities. Looking at alphax.txt, these ratios are not moddable. Well I'll just let these things complete in their own sweet time, I guess.
[Limit reached]
I never stopped working on the Self-Aware Colony. I completed my research this year, and although I can now start on nukes, I didn't gain a new secret project to switch over to. As I do have supply crawler capability, I cash my last Artifact to try to get a SP-bearing tech.
[Limit reached]
It worked! Maybe I'll finally win an election. I can't complete the project this turn because I had a drone riot.
[Limit reached]
It occurs to me that with Chaos weapons now available in prototype, I don't really need a MORALE advantage over the Caretakers. In fact I can probably easily afford a disadvantage. It may not be great for fighting off mindworms, but a lot of my troops are pretty experienced. This won't make Zhakarov any happier, but I'm not going to take penalties for military units out of my territory, until the war with the Caretakers is over.
Post by: bvanevery on September 08, 2021, 07:27:20 PM
MY 2314. With the undue influence of the Empath Guild, I'm finally able to wrest control of the Governorship from Morgan. The vote shows that I don't really have an ironclad standing in the world yet though. If I were to alienate Zhakarov, he could play kingmaker. If I want to rule, it would be best to get the war with the Caretakers over with.
Post by: bvanevery on September 09, 2021, 04:50:13 AM
MY 2315. I just looked at their credit balance before taking this turn. They had like 254 credits or so. How much did it cost them to buy this unit? And surely, they don't have enough money to keep going and take over my base?
[Limit reached]
No, but that probe team is being a pill. Maybe I'll finally make a defensive probe team unit.
You ever just felt like saying, "I'm busy making my stuff. Leave me alone." ? Like really expensive gewgaws for my 3 oldest cities.
Their team survived. That's annoying. It's Commando.
[Limit reached]
Meanwhile in real life, I found out that Task manager can show you stuff about your GPU and power usage. I don't know if the GPU monitoring actually works or is relevant to an Intel integrated GPU. I'll do further research on that. But power usage is way up there. It often hits "very high" as well.
Hmm, I'm using a Scient modified binary, to give me automated game saves. Does a stock binary draw the same amount of power? Better check that.
[Limit reached]
It seems they only paid on the order of 100 credits to buy my unit. That's not good. It means they could thwap me a couple more times. On the other hand, it might also deplete their bank account for nothing important. I mainly don't want my facilities trashed.
[Limit reached]
Because I am extremely lazy, and resentful of all the probe team nonsense I've suffered in this game over the years, I refused to cough out a team of my own. It wouldn't be ready to help this year anyways. My immediate expedient, is go to back to having 2 units in every blocking square. Now if the team comes, it'll have to come right up to where I can kill it. The Caretakers will not be pulling that stunt again. Not without actually sallying forth and attacking me.
But I'm not shelling them anymore, which is mildly annoying. But I'm very, very lazy. When did I start this game? 11:30 PM thereabouts? And I'm hungry. Whatever. I just don't care. I want my "big base stuff" finished, to see what that gets me. Nukes and so forth. Maybe do some pop booming.
[Limit reached]
Almost forgot I have a perfectly good Missile Needlejet to be hitting them with. That's what happens in day-to-day gaming. I need food.
[Limit reached]
Ok ok, I just learned Organic Superlubricant and should make a "slider" hovertank prototype. Might as well be a probe team. It doesn't have to do a good job.
I need to make some food, let my laptop cool down, and try the stock binary. I mean, I could burn my pinkie if I really wanted to, holding it on the side vent.
Post by: bvanevery on September 09, 2021, 05:31:52 AM
My 2316. Are we all following Morgan to hell in a hand basket? Is this kind of peace worth it? Well, remember what I said about making only 1 atrocious enemy at at time. I'm not really fighting the Caretakers. I'm worrying about everyone else, and I'm not really sure how well I'm doing against everyone else. I don't always necessarily know how to play my own mod. A start where I'm only doing 3 cities for a very long time, is unusual for me. Sure they're pretty good cities, and I'm the Governor, and I have a pile of Secret Projects to my credit, so I'm doing something right. But the world seems to be slipping forwards...
[Limit reached]
Look, Zak. I'm slack. I really feel like building more than warmongering. So I've taken forever to prosecute a war I could clearly win. No hard feelings but, I'm busy, y'know? I don't have time for your ideological rubbish. If you make problems for me, you'll just be on my list of local bases to take over. At least you're of some use that way.
Why don't you go kill the Caretakers yourselves, if you think it's so bloody convenient.
Post by: bvanevery on September 09, 2021, 05:52:09 AM
MY 2317. The AI loves to fixate on sea bases. I hadn't seen any Cultist activity in the area, but then again, I had no reason to look. They got a photon armored garrison out of that. I just really... think this whole aspect of the game is a drag. What is responsible for the most rage quits in the past, before I stared modding the game? Probe teams. Totally overpowered in the original game. Not as bad in my mod, as let's face it, this is a brand new size 1 sea base with precious little in it. But the stock AI is still geared up to be super annoying about this, and it's succeeding.
[Limit reached]
The irony is that I did see their foil probe team coming from the opposite direction. I deliberately played them, knowing they'd stop their movement right in front of my base. Where my marine detachment unit would summarily pick them off, possibly capturing them. I've captured several foil probe teams this way, and 2 are even en route to my home waters. But they take a long time to move around.
[Limit reached]
The Cult doesn't know C6 Photon/Wave Mechanics yet. But they're making my trance photon garrison design, all the same. Well at least it'll be a bit overarmored, and thereby take a long time to produce. I guess I'd better put my 1 probe team in the water, to keep this sort of nonsense from happening again. It'll be some time before either my captured foil probe team heals up, or my other ones arrive.
[Limit reached]
Not much difference in the power output of the stock binary. So how is the culprit Windows 10. Pretty sure I've played this game for years on this laptop without it becoming a hot plate.
Post by: bvanevery on September 09, 2021, 06:35:47 AM
MY 2320. It's fun to watch others suffer.
[Limit reached]
Only now, have I completed rails to every land city of my empire. In a recent iteration of my mod I slowed down the speed of rail construction quite a bit, as it was quite overpowered before. This rail system actually took some effort to accomplish.
[Limit reached]
I've determined that I want to win the race to the Space Elevator, which is quite expensive. So, I have my 3 oldest cities all working on it. Meanwhile I will retake the sea base the Cult took from me, using my most modern weapon. It'll probably be destroyed in the process.
Post by: bvanevery on September 09, 2021, 07:20:54 AM
MY 2324. I was too lazy to check on whether other factions were close to completing the Space Elevator. Fortunately I researched the tech for the Cyborg Factory this turn. I'm too lazy to check on whether anyone else knows the tech. I'll settle for whether anyone's working on it. F5 says, nope! Must all be me. So it's not urgent. Just as well, because I have other nagging needs.
[Limit reached]
I start work on a nuke, because I can. It will take surprisingly few turns to complete. Assuming the mindworms don't come in droves again to bother me. 53 eco-damage, gotta love it. After all that nice eco-friendly prep I did, one little mine or two, just derails the whole thing. You won't find that in Thinker mod or The Will To Power mod! This is the harshness of the original game. I even toned down Capitalist to be -2 PLANET instead of -3.
[Limit reached]
I actually lost my nice new expensive ship, almost destroying my own photon garrison. I killed a Usurper plane that landed there, and the garrison. Next year they're rushing another Trance Photon Sentinel and it starts all over again, without my expensive ship.
[Limit reached]
I will sulk and spit out some cyborgs.
Post by: bvanevery on September 09, 2021, 07:54:16 AM
MY 2325. What's with this guy? Build your cities somewhere better, duude.
[Limit reached]
I got popped again. My rails were broken again. That means I couldn't bring any units back to wipe out mindworms. I killed their 2 biggest stacks with what I had on hand, but the remaining 3 big worms I see, I'll just have to take the hits.
[Limit reached]
After all this low intensity probe team drama, it ends with the Usurpers blowing apart the wounded battle ogre and the Artifact that were left in the city. I was intending to gain that Artifact myself, hopefully. It's quite possible that the AI spitefully analyzed that and preempted. It's well known to take pot shots at your Artifacts with Conventional Missiles if you give it the opportunity.
[Limit reached]
I finally pay to make people a little bit happy. I'm tired of having occasional drone riots in my core 3 cities. I've built so many facilities, this actually puts a lot of my population into a Golden Age! I could turn this into a pop boom, if I just do something out of character for Lal.
Nah.
I rush all my Tree Farms though. Give 'em a reason to stay happy.
Post by: bvanevery on September 09, 2021, 05:32:52 PM
MY 2327. The dividends of shameless worker and environmental exploitation are paying off. I won't be having to fight Morgan. In fact, I got him to sign a Pact.
[Limit reached]
I could honestly switch to Knowledge at this point, to placate Zhakarov. I'm not actually fielding military units outside my territory, and I've got overwhelming happiness anyways. Also I sorta forgot, -3 POLICE means you can have 1 military unit per city running around on campaign, before people start complaining. I thought I was going to get 1 drone, which is actually -4 POLICE.
[Limit reached]
The Usurpers really want after this sea base. They threw a Conventional Missile at it, killing an old ship that wasn't worth nearly as much as the CM. I've started to build Flechette Defense Systems everywhere, but I don't have appropriate garrisons to go with it. Spore launchers are actually great garrisons against missiles, if you have a high PLANET rating. Of course I do not. That's the price of keeping Morgan happy.
[Limit reached]
I finally have a city in danger of sinking. I rush its previous production and queue up a Pressure Dome.
[Limit reached]
With Morgan no longer hostile, I could have the Manifold Nexus if I want it. I didn't get the Space Elevator and early orbital insertion capability, but I could make a Drop Colonist and just do a lot of hops to get to target.
A disadvantage of global warming though, is the Nexus eventually sinks. There's really nothing you can do about it other than reverse the planetary trend. You can't, for instance, raise land to save it. Once it's gone, it's gone. It doesn't come back if you try to raise land after the fact. The current altitude of the nexus is 325 meters. That's not a lot of margin for error.
Post by: bvanevery on September 09, 2021, 06:01:52 PM
MY 2328. I don't remember seeing the AI fire a Fungal Missile before. I made them available quite a bit earlier in my mod, and cheaper, as I don't think they're much of a threat. Well now I suppose we'll see!
Post by: bvanevery on September 09, 2021, 06:18:31 PM
MY 2329. Should I switch politics, pop boom, stop eco-damage, and get in a war with the Cyborgs? Or should I accept that this is how we roll, and wipe out Cha Dawn? Or should I wipe out Aliens and seek Diplomatic Victory? Or build Orbital Power Transmitters and seek Economic Victory? I got that capability a few turns ago, but without either the Space Elevator or the Cloudbase Academy, I'm not feeling too bullish on building enough of them. Plus militarily, I hardly seem to be able to handle simple garrisoning. Hmm, needing more productivity, is a good argument for a higher PLANET rating.
[Limit reached]
I dunno, with all these Tree Farms I recently built, maybe a new round of Genejack Factories wouldn't be so bad. I'll soon have the Neural Amplifier to keep the mindworms off.
[Limit reached]
I can't remember when Solar Shades become available, but I've got the capability. Got all sorts of space techs I'm not using, for lack of productivity. Let's make Planet a little safer for polluting!
;belal ;orbit
[Limit reached]
Fortunately we don't have to care what you think. You're the problem around here. Gonna get a drop of 333 meters.
Post by: bvanevery on September 09, 2021, 09:20:16 PM
MY 2329 ??!? My turn counter did not advance this year. I actually reloaded my saved game to check. This is with the stock binary and must be some kind of bug. Wonder what gives. This isn't the 1st time this game either. There was one or two other times I was suspicious of this, but I just sort of blinked, stared, and edited the dates on my AAR entries.
Well now I have a nuke. Technically a quasi-nuke. Way worse than a nuke really. It leaves huge honkin' holes in Planet's surface. Using one of these is a major atrocity, even if you've repealed the U.N. Charter. It's a quick way to make enemies out of everyone. Factions that didn't get nuked are capable of eventually liking you again, if you behave yourself, but otherwise it's fight fight fight forever. When I've done games with a lot of nukes, I've almost never been able to consistently make peace afterwards, because you keep needing more nukes to wipe out more stuff.
The only way I know to cheat fate, is to save up a huge nuclear stockpile, preferably with at least Quantum reactors to hit multiple cities at once. Then destroy the whole world in 1 turn. I don't have the manufacturing capacity for that sort of thing, and it's pretty out of character. I've been too groggy lately to roleplay Lal, but I haven't completely given up on the idea.
[Limit reached]
This was the point of switching to Knowledge, making sure that Zhakarov wouldn't be a pill. Could you please go usefully kill something, like some Caretaker scraps?
Post by: bvanevery on September 09, 2021, 10:52:33 PM
MY 2330. With the cyborgs' probe team action in this final corner of the Monsoon Jungle, the Caretakers are finally and officially kicked off the land. Even though I had a road to it, it was too far away for me to get to from my capitol. I just could never spare the troops, as I had all these advanced facilities to build. I think the Caretakers and the Consciousness have been in a low grade probe team war about these 2 cities forever. The Consciousness would be expected to get the upper hand, because they are one of the +1 PROBE factions with somewhat cheaper costs for mind control. They've also repeatedly taken some fringe Cult bases.
[Limit reached]
I'm pretty advanced. One of the liabilities of being advanced, is you keep coming up with new shiny toys to build in your cities. These toys are useful to my "increased productivity agenda" though. They will greatly lessen my eco-damage as I crank out more factories.
[Limit reached]
I get a nice little map read of Planet. I could have done this long ago with a Sky Hydroponics Lab, but I've been busy. It's not like I didn't know the lay of the land, but this turn I should be able to see exactly what kinds of terrain improvements various factions have developed.
[Limit reached]
I am of course, slick. +4 RESEARCH will do that. Of course, the University starts off with +3 RESEARCH, so the other half of the equation is my excellent economy, highly centralized research facilities, big populations in my 3 core cities, and the Network Backbone. There's a reason I haven't been cranking out troops. I've been busy getting ahead! I didn't mean to, but it just kept on piling up and I thought, buying all these labs seemed like an advantage.
I could probably win the game by Transcendence if I wasn't morally opposed to it. I'd only do it if I was hardcore role playing a freak like Cha Dawn. I think the death of human individuality is pretty evil. I can't believe the positive nonsense this game spins it as.
[Limit reached]
This could make it harder for the Usurpers to bother me at sea.
Post by: bvanevery on September 10, 2021, 02:19:49 PM
Even the title screen is demanding a lot of power. That would seem to indict the graphics system somehow.
[Limit reached]
Power usage is often at "High". Task switching also often seems to spike it, sometimes to "Very High". Maybe it has something to do with compositing, and it runs really really badly by brute force?
Post by: bvanevery on September 10, 2021, 10:30:31 PM
[Limit reached]
MY 2336. Are we really this late in the game now? This sure has been a tiny empire. Maybe it's just my advanced research. The benefits of the Manifold Harmonics are too good to pass up, so I guess I'm not going to be friends with Morgan much longer. And I might have to do an about face with Aki and Cha Dawn as well.
[Limit reached]
Wow I really am advanced. It's not that easy to get to these techs in my mod. I certainly don't need to go pell mell through the research anymore. So maybe I'll just chill out and go all Thought Control about everything.
Post by: bvanevery on September 10, 2021, 10:45:27 PM
MY 2337. I wonder if I really will become the world's eco-police, now that I have a practical stake in it.
[Limit reached]
I coolly captured an Artifact from the Cult last year, in that sea base they took from me so long ago. I don't know that it makes it all worthwhile, but I'll take a free tech.
[Limit reached]
I've got way too many things to think about building. I don't think anyone else has even made a nuke yet. Let's check that belief. Hmm, the Cyborgs have 2, and Morgan has 1 in production.
[Limit reached]
Having different denominations of supply crawlers available, prevents waste of minerals and time. It doesn't matter how expensive you make a supply crawler, it'll all go to Secret Projects when you cash it in.
[Limit reached]
Finally I liberate the sea base the Cult stole from me. Only took a Tachyon Cruiser. Let's see if they'll talk peace now. Nope.
Post by: bvanevery on September 10, 2021, 11:10:17 PM
MY 2339. I'm technically so far ahead, that I have trouble being all that mad. I should probably build defensive probe teams before someone decides to steal from me. I am lazy.
[Limit reached]
The Tachyon Marines make their 1st showing. The clearing of the Caretakers from my coast has begun. Now I've got 1 powerful land, sea, and air unit. What an empire! Pretty minimalist on the offense. I've also got a nuke and a funky fungal missile. Tectonic missile coming eventually too. Maybe I'll bridge to the Planet Cult continent?
Post by: bvanevery on September 11, 2021, 12:40:58 AM
MY 2340. Wow this is really getting up there. Aside from the Dream Twister making pretty much invincible offensive mindworms, Soporific Gas Pods is a tech I deliberately delayed until late game to "soft retire" it. That is, make it so late in the game, that gaining it would hardly matter. I can just brutalize things if I actually want to. Yet I'm still just making a bunch of supply crawlers to complete even my existing Secret Projects.
[Limit reached]
My expensive Tachyon Marines, and my Missile Needlejet, both blew up attacking Isles of the Deep. Maybe there's a point to R-Bolts after all.
Post by: Buster's Uncle on September 11, 2021, 01:56:14 AM
Post by: bvanevery on September 11, 2021, 02:21:02 AM
MY 2344. With the completion of the Cloning Vats, I don't have to worry about politics in order to grow my population like crazy. It'll just grow. I could have done that with either Theocratic or Eudaimonic and a lot of happiness budget to trigger Golden Ages. I certainly have the happiness infrastructure to do it. But it just wasn't in Lal's mettle. I'm not sure what his decisions are going to be now, as we're soon coming to a moment of reckoning on how to do Planet.
[Limit reached]
Clinical Immortality will double my votes yet again, so it's getting the new top project priority.
[Limit reached]
I've actually got competition for the Manifold Harmonics now. At the rate I'm going, maybe it won't be as important to me as I thought. Cloudbase Academy and a bunch of satellites should pretty much win me the game.
Well, except for that Aliens have to be wiped out for a Diplomatic Victory. That's a problem.
The irony is, if I used genetic plagues on the Aliens, nobody would care. And I've long since had that capability. But if I nuked 'em, everyone else would freak out! Now how could I make a role playing excuse for that?
[Limit reached]
Truth is, Power and Thought Control don't actually do anything for me that I need. If I actually wanted to make troops, nobody could touch me anyways. I'm not at much risk of having my bases subverted, as my screen of 3-Pulse probe teams is well underway. I'm not out on campaign so my POLICE rating doesn't matter, and I'm sure I could trash everyone with 1 unit per city anyways. Not that I really have to stick to that, as pretty soon I'll have lotsa extra Empaths in various cities. Plus I could also make Brood Pits. That again was supposed to be a late game wonder facility that nobody would actually use, and I'm surprised I'm playing a game where I might consider doing it. I could home all my nukes to 1 city that doesn't get unhappy about them, for instance.
Post by: bvanevery on September 11, 2021, 02:49:50 AM
MY 2346. Well it's only been occasional, and maybe the Usurpers have been building one for a very long time. But this is proof that Photon Wall won't stand up to a Conventional Missile, even with a Flechette Defense. I'll need some heavier armor with AAA.
[Limit reached]
For now, I put my best AAA Trance Neutronium unit on the job, since the Usurpers are fixated on this one base. I'll need more of them. These units are expensive. I don't really quite have a level of productivity, commensurate with my tech. It's adequate and will get all my jobs done, and it keeps Planet from getting flooded more, but I think population is gonna happen before bigger factories.
The problem with the "nuke 'em all" plan, is it would take a lot of productivity. Soooo much cheaper to poison the Aliens. I have existing ships that could do it. It's just... not very Lal.
Post by: bvanevery on September 11, 2021, 03:20:23 AM
MY 2347. Cha Dawn had the temerity to call an election he couldn't possibly win. I haven't even completed Clinical Immortality yet! Yes Cha you've got twice as many citizens as I do, but it just doesn't matter. We're far more equal than you.
Hmm. He does have more votes than everyone else though...
[Limit reached]
I learned the Quantum reactor. It seriously changed the price of my prototype Tectonic Missile, so I switched production in my Skunkworks to another nuke. A big one!
Post by: bvanevery on September 11, 2021, 05:17:37 AM
MY 2348. The Usurpers just landed some wimpy unit on my coast, and I've met them at sea with my very powerful new R-Bolt ship. I suppose I can take them up on this. There is no strict requirement that I be sincere. I could always send probe teams to wreak havoc and start any war I actually want.
[Limit reached]
This particular conqueror believes strongly in Thought Control. To bad he's not part of the U.N. fracas. I could add him to the list of factions I mutually cannot please. Well except by refusing any advanced society, but that's not gonna happen. Hmm... but what if that got Cha Dawn to vote with me? Nah. Humans are too fractious, they'll never buy it.
While I'm at it, I get him to knock off his wars with the University and the Cyborgs. He's still at it with Morgan, his next door neighbor. That's fine with me.
[Limit reached]
The Cyborgs have all but taken Bird: Cry! Can I get an amphibious unit in there before they complete the conquest? Unfortunately I never built a rail to the edge of this city, because I didn't expect it to be the 1st one I'd conquer. Rails are far too expensive for me to instantly lay one this turn, with the relatively few former units I have.
[Limit reached]
What I need is a ship that can zip over to the other side of my awkward land mass. Drop pods are allowed on ships in my mod. They can be really useful for moving infantry around. I think larger reactors add additional movement to the unit, as I need to go 6 spaces, not 5.
[Limit reached]
I only have 1 of these old foils from the old days. If I upgrade the entire ship design, not just the individual ship, then all such upgrades occur instantly. I instantly have a drop ship to use this turn!
[Limit reached]
Unfortunately my plan has 2 flaws. One is my reactor doesn't actually make my ship go faster. Even if it could get to target, it doesn't have enough movement for the walk-in. That problem could be solved by upgrading one of my cruisers.
The other is usually at this point in the game, I've had the Space Elevator and been capable of orbital insertion. I haven't learned Graviton Theory yet, so I'm only capable of limited cross land hops! My ship is simply not in range to get to the other side of the land mass. Note the parachute icon near U.N. Headquarters. That's the limit of my range. I can be "cute" and make it all the way to U.N. Sea Habitat in 1 turn, but that's it.
[Limit reached]
I do have a cruiser transport that if upgraded, could jump to Vision: Sound. If I loaded it with a Marine, it could move 7 squares to Bird: Cry, and then the Marine could walk into the base.
[Limit reached]
I design an appropriate transport and perform the upgrade. 160 credits later, I'm in flight!
[Limit reached]
I forgot about the "non-combat air drop" rule. Movement stops.
[Limit reached]
A warship is a combat unit, so it could keep moving. It moves 8, so it has enough range from Vision: Sound. Problem is, it's nowhere near Vision: Sound. Back to the drawing board.
[Limit reached]
I don't think I can upgrade a Unity Rover. But I can upgrade a plain old Scout Rover that I designed myself. I have one such unit left from the beginning of the game, which has been on mindworm killing duty for a very long time. I used to have some Elite Clean Synth units as well, but I think that's from when I had chosen Power. Yeah, they're only Commando nowadays. This Scout Rover will have to do.
[Limit reached]
Another 180 credits down the drain, and I've finally got a unit that can take the base!
[Limit reached]
For good measure I also bring in an amphibious rover probe team to cover it from any attempts at mind control. I wish I had a way of capturing those sea colonists as it's a quick way to avoid having to make them yourself, but my navy long since abandoned these waters.
[Limit reached]
I don't trust that Cyborg probe team heading for my city. Since they're allies, they could just be heading towards somewhere else along my rail. But I bet Aki's trying to steal. I move all the land probe teams I have, to cities closer to her territory. Since she's an ally, she can ride up my rail to any vulnerable city if she really wants to, but I'm doubting the AI has the brains to do that. I bet it strikes at something closer, or is deterred.
Post by: bvanevery on September 11, 2021, 05:30:21 AM
MY 2349. I don't trust that Usurper creep sitting next to my city. It's one of the few bases I haven't put some serious new armor in. I've moved my mindworm from its holding fungal patch to the rail, in case the Usurper is a jerk. I don't think it can penetrate Silksteel backed by a Sensor Array and a Perimeter Defense, but maybe it can.
Post by: bvanevery on September 11, 2021, 05:44:02 AM
MY 2350. Wonder how they got that done. Serious supply crawler work? I didn't think the AI had it in it, as that's a 1000 mineral project. Credit to my mod I guess. Seriously, how did they do it?
[Limit reached]
Must have been supply crawlers. Pretty sure the stock binary knows how to do that, but doesn't know how to save up a big wad of cash. Well, at least now I won't have to worry about changing my politics around. Not relevant.
Post by: bvanevery on September 11, 2021, 06:21:10 AM
MY 2351. Now I won't be worrying about how far away my drop ships are from anything. Only whether they've got a coastal base to land at. Actually they can land inland, they just can't go anywhere. One game I felt like I was going through this "Scottish locks" system to get to the other side of things.
I guess I already have the votes to win this thing, so building up lots of food ala Sky Hydroponics Labs, doesn't seem so important anymore. The only thing stopping me is the pesky Aliens. And here I am plodding along, trying to make the perfect Conventional Missile proof garrison. And the perfect probe team proof garrison. And it's a drag. I don't think it's wrong to make every SP you can, but it's not turning out to be an exciting play style.
[Limit reached]
It takes a lot of energy to make people vote the way you want.
Post by: bvanevery on September 11, 2021, 06:29:27 AM
MY 2352. Now what's the blast radius on these things? If it's 3, then just northwest of that fungal tower would be an excellent spot to detonate. It would turn a lot of that deep ocean around Sealurk City into coastal shelf. Then I can rapidly terraform it. Now if for some reason I'm wrong about the radius, I'm saving my game.
[Limit reached]
This is how you set off one of these things. Futzy, but eh, what can you say? It was expansion pack content.
[Limit reached]
I've read this is supposed to be just as eco-damaging as setting a nuke off. I've always had a hard time believing that. I will wait until my SPs are finished before doing any more of these. At least nobody else has caused any flooding in awhile. Maybe they built some Centauri Preserves.
Post by: bvanevery on September 11, 2021, 02:00:10 PM
MY 2352. You're all so selfish! Has it been long enough to increase the solar shade?
[Limit reached]
I'm not sure how I feel about this. We're good allies... but you start wondering if you're "not the USA" anymore. A real risk: what if I got framed for something? Zhakarov did try to pull that before.
[Limit reached]
I never did look into the cost of just buying these bases. In fairness my money was spoken for. But between money and minerals to be spent, which is cheaper? Well, a walk-in precipitated by the Consciousness, was awfully cheap. Except for all the money I spent on upgrades to take advantage of the situation, that didn't work. I must remember that I'm a global power now. I can take Secret Projects away from, for instance, the Cult.
[Limit reached]
How do you usefully terraform a lake? Why not with a flying ship. I seem to be having an awful lot of trouble getting around to sailing my former fleet to the other side of my continent, and they've got plenty to do on their side of things for the time being anyways.
[Limit reached]
I've begun shelling the last Caretaker annoyance city. Unfortunately I'm doubting I can starve them out, due to the 3 food in the city square proper. However if I reduce it to size 1, can I wipe it out when I conquer it? That would be a good result, as I definitely don't need another city in this crowded water. I'll bring the transport around to block that last water square.
[Limit reached]
This is how capitalists do it. Abuse the planet, then just put a big shell around it to cool it off! Actually it only works to a point. Fortunately our level of industrialization, still fits within these parameters. I can only undertake this action every 20 years. We will be dropping 333 meters, which actually can have its own annoyances here and there. However I expect Aki will just heat it up again.
[Limit reached]
I can now get in on the space race too, if I want to. However my diplomatic priority would be eliminating the Usurpers.
Post by: bvanevery on September 11, 2021, 03:35:06 PM
MY 2354. We exist out of time and place, and can walk through walls.
[Limit reached]
But we can't kill a single !#@$#!$$ Isle with our ridiculously @#$!##! expensive R-Bolt Battleship! Do you have any idea how long it took to produce that thing??!? Nevermind sailing it to your little hellhole??
[Limit reached]
In true capitalist fashion, we drag in some empath consultants to make this thing work properly. We throw the anti-air guns on the scrap heap, as no air force has ever challenged us. It's best to design for your actual enemy.
[Limit reached]
Our war planners are pretty unhappy with the usual transit times around our continent. They point out that this is an assault ship, not a sustained voyager or pleasure cruiser. We could do without any scans of our waters, long as we attack quick enough.
[Limit reached]
We upgrade our existing pork barrel project in progress, as well as a floating older ship that's seen no action.
[Limit reached]
Orbital insertion makes any jump distance trivial.
[Limit reached]
We cautiously start shelling the base afterwards, not wanting to take a post-insertion attack penalty.
[Limit reached]
We haven't seen a fungal pop in quite some time. Must be our burgeoning population. Or maybe that tectonic missile we set off? We lost our venerable Unity Rover fighting the good cause. We bring our single captured mindworm forward to the defense. We need more anti-mindworm planning, as we just don't have the Elite Synth garrisons running around like we used to.
[Limit reached]
Enter the Empath Recon Tank, a fairly simple weapon we could have engineered awhile ago. We simply had no need.
[Limit reached]
Since we have minerals to spare and this is for home defense, we design a clean version of it. However in the 1 city we can produce it, it will take 2 turns to build instead of 1. Most of the 2nd year's minerals would be wasted, so we just build the gas guzzler version. We could send it on a mission to pick up that supply pod to the west of our empire.
Post by: bvanevery on September 11, 2021, 04:07:25 PM
MY 2355. I cannot conceive of this attack failing. I can conceive of it doing our ship a lot of damage. And having to go back to port, and heal, and it taking a long time to liquidate the defenders. But let's just see how it goes. 40% damage. This won't be over soon. If we had completed the Dream Twister, it would be easier, but it's an expensive project.
Post by: bvanevery on September 11, 2021, 07:30:10 PM
MY 2356. I have seen many changes in my democratic rule of Planet. Yes, my rule. I am immortal, in the sense that nothing natural will kill me. I am also ubiquitous, in the sense of many copies of myself surrounding me. Yet I am still who I am, and the people vote for me. I have so many ways of manipulating their votes, that their freedom is almost a ruse. Almost, because everyone else is still subject to displacement. But not me.
[Limit reached]
We have finally garrisoned ourselves against any probe incursion by our trustworthy allies, the Cyborgs. Holding the most advanced technology on Planet, is a great responsibility. It must be used wisely and judiciously. Over the decades we have declined a number of technological avenues, because they would bring us ultimately to darkness. I am proudest that our Planet Busters have merely functioned as mild symbolic deterrents. We have built no arsenal. We also refrained from liquidating the Aliens with horrible genetic plagues, when it was well within our power to do so.
[Limit reached]
At a policy meeting of the war cabinet, the final fate of the Usurpers has been decided. They are, frankly, backwards. A simple police enforcement action, should be sufficient to end their diplomatic disruption and finally unite Planet. It is not even necessary that we conquer their bases. Only that their bases are conquered. By someone. Anyone. Any human, that is. We need merely depopulate their centers, and hopefully one of many actors, will simply walk right in.
[Limit reached]
We plan nothing fancy for them. Nothing too expensive. We just don't want any surprises from the occasional indigenous life form anymore. The Usurpers are our neighbor, and transit times to the front, should be well within war tolerance. We need no special factories, no additional facilities. Just an endless rotation of police enforcement vessels, will do this final job.
[Limit reached]
We don't expect much from these weapons. They may be good for killing 2 of the accursed Isles. We know that the Usurpers do not favor a relationship with Planet, as their antagonist countrymen did.
[Limit reached]
Our mastery of the... hollowness of the human mind, assures that no disruption to our agenda is reasonably possible.
Post by: bvanevery on September 11, 2021, 08:03:19 PM
MY 2358. All that time sniffing and snorting about the fungus, has allowed our one human adversary, the one malcontent, to master a technology that we have not. An organic orbital minerals mining process, no less! How did they do it. I suppose the dilemma of a sycophantic foreign policy is you can't be all things, let alone all people.
[Limit reached]
We scarcely need the massive number of credits we're pulling in. And this, without a single orbital facility, only one model Hybrid Forest in our capitol, and barely a single Soil Enricher completed. Not to speak of the horrid thermal boreholes! Capitalist though we may be, we are a model of sustainability.
[Limit reached]
Consequently, the dividend shall go to the people. We enter our truest golden age.
Post by: bvanevery on September 11, 2021, 09:08:54 PM
MY 2359. We meet our tree-chopping ally Morgan at sea, on our way to stealing valuable Cultish intelligence. He points out the flaw in our enforcement plan. We are not actually at war with the Usurpers. Well why the hell not? We acquiesce to his perfectly reasonable demand, feigning all manner of slight resistance to the principle. Wouldn't do having him think too hard, about our final bid for power.
[Limit reached]
They built no goodwill over the years, refusing to leave. The odds using our mindworm are deceptive. We crush them easily.
[Limit reached]
Morgan's imploration timely coincides with the release of our 1st enforcement gravship. It has tremendous range. It can wipe an undefended base in seconds. When the ocean spray settles, we listen to their fearless leader. Whether he has in any way, contemplated unconditional surrender.
[Limit reached]
Really this obsession is unbecoming. Perhaps you should have considered people control or voting booth control. I don't think we'll need to speak again. We can always give these Aliens one last chance before final reckoning.
[Limit reached]
And this is with just 1 craft. So many more to come.
[Limit reached]
We simply have nothing reasonable to spend money on anymore. Even our favorite ineffective boondoggle gets the completion.
[Limit reached]
Our war planners clamor for a much faster, cheaper, garrison only ship, to hold or starve any Usurpers we care to. It's cheap by our standards. It'll certainly hold up to any conventional attack, and we don't think the Cult can field many Isles this far from their home waters. Even if they do, we will have quite an umbrella of R-Bolts to wipe them out.
[Limit reached]
This armor needs prototyping. It is surprisingly heavy and expensive to put into a land unit. We're not exactly sure why. It is so bad, that we will never prototype such a design.
[I'm not sure I have any modding variables at my disposal that will remedy this. Ship armor is steeply discounted, perhaps improbably so, and I think the formula is baked into the game binary.]
[Limit reached]
We already had a unit in progress at our Skunkworks. We design something more expensive that will not waste our committed minerals.
[Limit reached]
We still make far more money than we need, so once again, we pay the people. We've always been afraid that if we don't get rid of our cash, we'll just lose it in a market meltdown. Our bean counters have never been sure just how reasonable that fear is.
Post by: bvanevery on September 11, 2021, 10:02:29 PM
MY 2360. Morgan did his part taking over a Usurper base. Hope he keeps it up. I'm happy to weaken everything.
[Limit reached]
Another gravship becomes available and in range of a target.
[Limit reached]
Since the point is to eliminate the Usurpers as a faction, if not as a conquered people, I can't very well let them go settling new bases.
[Limit reached]
This base has only 1 defender, and it is not an indigenous life form. Even with AAA I don't think it can much stand up to us. I was right. We took a 3% wound.
[Limit reached]
I feel like doing a little terraforming for my sea base's benefit. If I get a new tech to prototype, I can always abandon it. I don't really want to sap my minerals output with a lot of gravships in the field. Not that I expect this to take all that long anyways, considering their performance in that last battle.
[Limit reached]
Orbital insertion will get you everywhere.
[Limit reached]
I wonder what the cheap missile armament can blow apart, if it's actually used? After all, it's quantum backed. I'll probably just shell stuff though.
[Limit reached]
Our expensive boondoggle ship finally steps up to the firing line. What seems like a lot of minerals in one era, a good place to put a Naval Yard, turns out to be not so much in another. They were trying to build a probe team. They've reconsidered.
[Limit reached]
We begin the Living Refinery as well. We certainly don't need it. I wonder if the Cult will do their supply crawler thing again?
Post by: bvanevery on September 12, 2021, 11:53:01 AM
MY 2361. Ok I really gotta find out what their secret sauce is.
[Limit reached]
Maybe the AI gets motivated when others like myself and Morgan try to compete.
[Limit reached]
The Cult city in which it's being built, just has a Genejack Factory and a Hybrid Forest in it. Nothing particularly special. It wasn't accomplished with this city alone, as 600 minerals would take this city 15 turns.
[Limit reached]
Actually it only costs them 420 minerals due to the AI's INDUSTRY advantage. Still it's been way longer than 10 turns, so they boosted this somehow. If they did use a bunch of supply crawlers, their administration of crawler production was perfect. They don't have any left over and aren't making any more of them. I notice they're also making a nuke, which is a bit disconcerting.
[Limit reached]
They don't have any substantial income. However they do have a fairly large cash reserve, so maybe it was even larger last year? I myself just got a lot of cash from killing a mindworm stack. I'll need to look at the previous turn to understand what's going on.
[Limit reached]
I start walking back the years to see how they did this. Their money hasn't really changed, nor have they used any supply crawlers.
[Limit reached]
4 years ago they had the tech, and maybe were juggling some funky mindworm production before making it into the Secret Project. The only legit thing I can think of, is maybe the AI is disbanding units to boost production? If so, I didn't know it was capable of that. Otherwise I think I've caught the AI cheating.
[Limit reached]
Due to that big mindworm stack I liquidated, I think I unexpectedly got the cash to actually complete this project. However I'm one mineral away from the minimum needed to avoid the huge penalty. It's time for another enlisted person to do their duty!
[Limit reached]
"But we're an ancient relic! We do parades, senators' birthday parties..."
"You're sucking minerals. It's not like every infantry unit doesn't know how to cross their eyeballs in a trance nowadays."
"But we're almost as old as you are!"
"Yes but I'm elected and you're not. Executive order. We'll name it after you, something nice, if you succeed. Now give me those boots, soldier!"
[Limit reached]
It's remarkable to me that I wouldn't have had the money, absent the gaming of giant mindworm stacks. Not like I couldn't have completed this, with some premeditation, but I really didn't think the AI could challenge me on this. Disbanding or cheating? Inquiring minds want to know!
[Limit reached]
By the time we got to the point of theft, we had long since researched the technology ourselves. Since we're determined not to plague the Aliens, we start sailing back.
Post by: bvanevery on September 12, 2021, 12:08:46 PM
MY 2362. The Central Appropriations Committee has determined that it would be tacky to elevate more surnames in the manner of the famous Jensen. We make a general nod to their contribution to space based mining, and put their actual names in tiny engraved print on the requisite plaque.
[Limit reached]
The Morganites "solved" my deep sea ocean development problem, by getting hopelessly in the way. I'm not sure if I can legally detonate a tectonic missile near them. Technically it's not their land, but it is their water now.
[Limit reached]
We attack the weakest targets, hoping Morgan will do the rest. Indigenous life forms are the only things that can actually scratch us.
Post by: bvanevery on September 12, 2021, 01:01:21 PM
MY 2364. Such is capitalism.
[Limit reached]
What's 200 meters. Ok it's a skyscraper. Still, what's 200 meters? Issue the zoning ordinances for building inland.
[Limit reached]
Cha Dawn is the least likely to benefit from this arrangement, which is why we all agree to do it.
[Limit reached]
Can you believe the cheek on this thing? Or the mandible? I've never gotten used to looking at that.
[Limit reached]
Amazing. I guess they don't know the difference between weakness and laziness. Well your time is almost now! This is how they talk before being conquered.
[Limit reached]
Now my home waters are clean, pure, and sparkling. We set up a bottling plant.
Get this, they're still demanding money.
[Limit reached]
Turns out I can't blow this darned thing up much of anywhere. Affecting Morgan's territorial waters is definitely off-limits.
[Limit reached]
I will keep making these things and try to improve the waters around UN Information Agency.
Post by: bvanevery on September 12, 2021, 08:09:14 PM
MY 2365. I've stopped making the R-Bolt gravships. I do have enough to do the job, and they do make my people unhappy, when more than 1 is assigned to a city. All my cities pretty much have at least 1 terrifying warmongering unit now. A few have 2, and I'm not sure I can spread those out any more, as they are ships. If my allies would but do their job, I'm sure the Usurpers would eventually crumble. Meanwhile I still haven't even reduced the last Caretaker sea base.
I'm getting into the orbital defense business. I consider it an insurance policy.
[Limit reached]
I need my cruiser formers to relieve hunger in our western home waters, and to get back there much faster than they've been sailing. It's time to use orbital insertion exclusively. It's a surprisingly cheap upgrade.
[Limit reached]
Going from a modern quantum reactor design to another quantum design, seems to be a lot pricier than going from fusion to quantum. Well I do have the money, and the need.
Post by: bvanevery on September 13, 2021, 03:12:17 AM
MY 2367. I've started to get more aggressive with the Usurper bases. Clashing with the Caretakers, has taught me that I don't particularly have anything to fear, from small grown indigenous life forms. My Empath, R-Bolt, and Dream Twister abilities definitely compensate for my Capitalist penalty. I'm now fighting on Morgan's front line, emptying cities out so he can walk in. I use his nearest Aerospace Complex to heal up.
[Limit reached]
We're in sunspots, so I did not have the opportunity to hear H'minee plead for her last city. Just as well. Keeps Lal from having to wring his hands about the loss of diversity. (Horse face!)
Post by: bvanevery on September 13, 2021, 04:30:04 AM
MY 2368. It's always a good idea to invade your own capitol. I didn't even think about whether any Secret Projects had ever been completed there. Too busy securing my victory as a foregone conclusion. Turns out there was nothing special in it, which went along with my instinct about it being invaded a long time ago.
[Limit reached]
I'm not sure if I'll have these waters improved before the game ends, but I'll keep working as though it'll get done. I've got Cruiser Formers manually raising the tight spot in the waterway to the north. Several cities with low food are also making Sky Hydroponics Labs, so nobody's going to starve.
Post by: bvanevery on September 13, 2021, 04:55:54 AM
MY 2369. I really don't care who takes the Usurper cities. They're worthless! They depopulate to size 1. Even if their full population was retained, at this point it wouldn't matter. My orbital growth is legion.
[Limit reached]
Hey Morgan it's like you snooze you lose. At least this means Marr doesn't have any friends. Why make friends with a weak horse-faced runt anyways? He's not even worth a vote on the Planetary Council.
[Limit reached]
Psi Gates can be useful if you have to go long distances. I don't. The Bulk Matter Transmitter, on the other hand, is a good way to wreck an ecological balance you've already honed! I'll only build it if others threaten to. I haven't checked on how far ahead I am. I don't see the need. My backup policy is putting all my spare money into Orbital Power Transmitters.
[Limit reached]
I feel like I need a new late late game government form. Awesomidic or something. I see no basic point in further research, so I shave off yet another dividend for the people's happiness.
Post by: bvanevery on September 13, 2021, 03:18:03 PM
MY 2370. I notice 2 supply pods at the south pole. I send my 1 drop cruiser to a University coastal base, to eventually pick them up.
[Limit reached]
I keep saying I'm going to grab that supply pod with my hovertank, but the reality is, it's been on occasional anti-mindworm stack duty. It's very good at that job. I think it's time to make something a bit more purpose built for retrieving the very few supply pods remaining.
[Limit reached]
If I put a quantum reactor on it, the minimum cost would be 90. Mindworms don't care about reactors, they just chew things up, so it would be a waste. This might survive 1 mindworm hit. Using a couple of my bigger minerals output cities that have nothing better to do than build satellites, I'll have 2 of these next year.
[Limit reached]
I also see 2 supply pods in inland lakes, with Morganic coastal bases suitable for drop transport landings. I'll need to build 2 to get them, as my existing ship is busy at the south pole. My coastal bases with substantial productivity are all busy, so I need to make some tradeoffs.
[Limit reached]
The quantum version costs 80. I do have 1 coastal city that was making a Drop Trance 3-Res unit, so I switch it to this new drop cruiser. My available inland cities only have 40 minerals productivity. Can I make an even cheaper land drop unit?
[Limit reached]
Yep! That takes care of the land.
Post by: bvanevery on September 13, 2021, 04:01:31 PM
MY 2372. The Cult launched 2 Orbital Defense Pods this year. First time they've been in space. They may have gotten in a shooting match with the Cyborgs, but I didn't get any notifications for that.
[Limit reached]
I have no reason to take chances. I shift most of my production to ODPs.
[Limit reached]
My 1st pod dropping is a misadventure, but at least he'll be able to get out of the way. The 2nd pod, I think it sunk! Well at least if I ever want to drop things on someone's head, I've got the power.
Post by: bvanevery on September 14, 2021, 12:57:38 AM
MY 2373. Who says enemies can't be useful? The enemy of my enemy, who is still my enemy... sheesh.
[Limit reached]
Yeah Morgan you're awfully slow with the mindworm marching. All these doors I've left wide open for you.
[Limit reached]
It's not an Artifact, but at least no one else can claim it anymore.
[Limit reached]
I'm again making way more money that I need or can spend, and still stay below 1000 credits. It's probably from all those Hybrid Forests I built, just to give everybody some more "terrestrial food". I give a dividend to the people yet again.
Post by: bvanevery on September 14, 2021, 01:25:43 AM
MY 2374. The Usurpers are doomed.
[Limit reached]
It's so tasty and delicious. Essential to the diet of even advanced technological civilizations. I'm sure Morgan will be pleased at his growth! Yeah, kelp. KELP!
[Limit reached]
So worth the trip. Again, no one will claim it. Someone else popped the pod to the east, so this boat's done.
[Limit reached]
Found a use for the cheap drop unit. It can wipe out an unoccupied size 1 land base. I would have healed a gravship instead, but it was only reduced to size 1, when I had 1 fully healed gravship remaining. This allows my healed gravship to strike somewhere else.
[Limit reached]
I saw the Cult launch another ODP, but the Cyborgs must be shooting at them, because it's gone now. Once again I didn't get any notification of that orbital warfare. I have a pretty comfortable lead in ODPs, so I think I can stop stewing about producing more of them.
[Limit reached]
I switch most of my excess production to Orbital Power Transmitters. This doesn't make a whole helluva lot of sense, as I'm not really trying to stockpile credits. Why would I put in the work for Economic Victory, when Diplomatic Victory is so near at hand? I guess only on the false premise that something in the 11th Hour could yet happen. It can't, but... I pretend like it can!
Really I could probably end this just by walking into all the Usurper bases I've emptied. Maybe it's time to finally do that. I just... really don't want ownership of even a single one of them. I guess in a sense, I'm toying with my enemy. Seeing what the limit of my fleet of gravships can do.
Post by: bvanevery on September 14, 2021, 01:57:33 AM
MY 2375. I prefer it when the spoils of war are shared.
[Limit reached]
Can I build a subspace generator and lose the game?? That would be funny. Lal loses his mind. "I wanted more voters!"
[Limit reached]
I clearly don't need more research, so I diminish it to the lowest level that isn't fiscally irresponsible. The people rejoice! Well they already were, hard. But they rejoice! Again!
[Limit reached]
I'm finally getting my land bridge, which is one of the things I was really holding out for. I don't know that I'll feel so bullish about terraforming the new land though. With all the Sky Hydroponics Labs, it's rather unnecessary. I certainly won't make new land formers. The few that I have, are on Soil Enricher duty in various places. So, I never really maxed my terrain. When you hand terraform every single square though, there's a bit of achievement in what I did do though. I'd probably need a different theme to justify blowing up lotsa tectonics. I wonder how many of those I could do, before Planet gets really mad? But I don't think tectonics can give you an Infamous rating, which is where the real deadliness starts.
[Limit reached]
Ok Cult, run this way! Actually it only connects to Morganic land.
I don't think I'll rush Orbital Power Transmitters anymore. I'll continue to rush Sky Hydroponics Labs, which I build in cities that have 0 or 1 food. Otherwise I think it's time to just let the money ride and build up. It would currently cost 256k credits to Corner The Energy Market. Now in my mod, you only have to wait 5 years after that to be declared the winner, instead of 20 like in the stock game. I figure if you amass such a stupendous amount of money, you really shouldn't have to sit around forever to win. It already takes a long time to make that kind of bank.
Post by: bvanevery on September 14, 2021, 02:24:47 AM
[I don't know how we lost a calendar year yet again. The game says 2374.]
[Limit reached]
In the year 2374 of our mission to what is now called, Planet... we harnessed the power of a small black hole. In the face of such inconceivable singularity, I had a hard time believing in our current method of governance. My administration has been largely sycophantic, keeping the peace between most human factions, so that I myself might be anointed Supreme Leader.
But how can I pretend, in the face of such abundant energy, that Capitalism is even remotely necessary anymore? We have enough energy for every man, woman, and child, to fly about this planet in personal rocket ships indefinitely. How can we possibly believe that such people must collect wages, or punch clocks, or personally tabulate their contribution to societal wealth? Let alone Morganic, oligarchic wealth. It is an archaic system and makes no sense, just as a theocracy makes no sense.
One thing our Capitalist tutors have taught us though, is that we need not strictly fear the ravages of this Planet. It is best to look after humankind - the voters - and not fret unduly about the next worm lurking behind the hedgerow. The worms can take care of themselves. We've even had the ability to control them better, for centuries, if we had ever chosen to muscle in on the arcane Manifold Nexus. We have not, and we've been none the poorer. Actually leaving it in Morganic hands, may have curbed some of the worst of his planetary abuses.
Henceforth to this day, I declare Socialism the one and only true viable economic system, of and for Planet. If Morgan doesn't like it, he can take it up in Council. Lord knows he's been slow to make gains upon all the easy would-be victories we've offered him, and my patience wears thin with him.
Post by: bvanevery on September 14, 2021, 03:18:34 AM
MY 2375. I've seen the Cyborgs do nothing but lose ground, for many decades now. It's slow, but relentless. Why should we pretend that cyberneticism matters anymore? We've gained nearly everything that could be gained, from the fusing of the intellect and the chip. And yet they show themselves to be inferior in practice, to an army of simpletons kowtowing to false mindworm gods. Do we learn that the human spirit is indomitable?
[Limit reached]
[Limit reached]
I do not pretend to need this Cult for anything. They are not the ones who emptied the Usurper bases. They are a tool, a force of human nature, that we have taken advantage of. We could crush them if we so chose, and the worst insult is, we have ignored them.
[Limit reached]
It is time to politely and firmly put an end to all violent struggle on Planet. We prefer everyone remain a part of the new social order. For those that cannot put their differences aside, we shall trust in the flagrant superiority of our arms.
[Limit reached]
Planetary peacekeeping requires broad discretion upon the placement of troops, at key choke points if nothing else. We are but one global village now. We shall perform our mission in accordance with the most exemplary standards of social justice.
Post by: bvanevery on September 14, 2021, 04:08:40 AM
MY 2376. We have made unilateral changes in the ordering of Planet. Reflecting the reality that, we are the determinant of its destiny. Now we shall find out, what our junior partners have to say about this new arrangement.
[Limit reached]
I have no plans to mollycoddle this inconvenience. But I will hear what he has to say.
[Limit reached]
Oddly, before he pronounced moral judgment on that sorry chip still protruding from my earlobe, he merely hemmed, hawed, and stuttered. I counted 3 times, an attempt to reason with me, but he was seized as with a palsy. Perhaps it's sunspots.
[Limit reached]
He's half right though! I've controlled the people's votes my whole life! It's in my blood! Now let's make sure my control, can never be subverted. What good is police enforcement if a few of Morgan's shiny coins, causes corrupt officials to look the other way? No, we must make sure the machine of planetary bureaucracy functions.
[Limit reached]
The Cyborgs flag one of my gravships flying over the sea. They complain that the big, mean, oh-so-bad Morganites are victimizing them. I can't help but wonder what they did to deserve it, aside from being exceedingly weak. Running another one of your probe missions again, eh Aki? The reasons don't matter. You folks can make peace or you can slug it out. I will have impartial U.P. Observers to sort you squabbling brats shortly.
[Limit reached]
It's not going to matter. What did you do to Morgan during the sunspots anyways, Aki?
[Limit reached]
Morgan has made such a mess of things. I handed him victory, and from it he snatched the jaws of defeat. Well I'm tired of cleaning up his messes. He can waste his own precious resources on endless anti-air spam. The Usurpers never really get tired of dying and I don't know quite how they manage it. Maybe Morgan can finally just buy them. I certainly have no interest in this wretched backwater.
[Limit reached]
Black holes... big lightshows... sounds like God to me.
[Limit reached]
I know he told me this long ago. But he was wrong then. I don't know if he's wrong now. I just have a zero tolerance for bribery.
[Limit reached]
Seriously, the Cult is going to kill them all anyways. Absent my aid.
[Limit reached]
And don't forget this favor. If you forget, I swear I will do genetic tests upon your kind.
[Limit reached]
Allies that start stabbing each other in the back, are truly insufferable. Which are you going to be?
[Limit reached]
You don't have to like everything we do from now on, Morgan. You can have your lavish household etc., just so long as you remember the sunset clause on your economic system. The Singularity has spoken.
[Limit reached]
This guy isn't even at war with the Cult anymore! I wonder how long ago he gave that up? I really never paid attention. It would explain some of his intransigence on the battlefield.
[Limit reached]
Morgan's empire is actually quite close to Cha Dawn's capitol. And without the restraints of Capitalism upon our Dream Twister, wiping out mindworms is rather trivial. We plan to secure key infrastructure of their empire for the betterment of humankind. First on that list would be the Xenoempathy Dome and the Manifold Harmonics.
Post by: bvanevery on September 14, 2021, 05:56:55 AM
MY 2377. We begin a pinning movement at Upsilon Depot, which contains the Space Elevator. It is defended by 2 nearly dead mindworms and we seek to cut off their reinforcement. If this base is liberated by the Cyborgs, it is hardly a disaster. We merely do not want Cha Dawn to have an easy time in space. We of course would prefer it for ourselves, and will garrison it accordingly given the chance.
[Limit reached]
We're proceeding with caution at Dawn of Planet because its depth of defense is seemingly limitless. A new mindworm every turn. It seriously needs some shelling. Our ships are coming but they're way slower than gravships. I could make some drop artillery. Well, maybe what we have coming is enough. We'll see.
[Limit reached]
Police units are actually of use to us again, so we create a modern design. The primary job of our home defense forces is to ward off Conventional Missile attacks. Secondarily, we defended against many mindworm incursions in our formative years. But that is now in the past. For a faction not composed of tree huggers, we're as sustainable as anyone could reasonably ask. I'm not sure we even have any measurable eco-damage anymore.
Our scientists currently consider the risk of indigenous life form threats to be near zero, and we do not respect any capability of the Cult. We place a strong Resonance armor on the unit only because it is cost effective compared to antimatter plate. Our policy of sustainability does have certain impacts on our manufacturing processes. You cannot put a quantum reactor in every village and expect the ecosystem to stay happy.
[Limit reached]
The good news for our beancounters is we generally always have more money where that came from. Orbital Power Transmitters are quite a boon.
[Limit reached]
Surprisingly, we've used our entire budget on such upgrades. And we still have an inventory of very ancient garrisons, that have not been refitted. Our planners told us of a Secret Project that could help with such expenses, controlled by the Consciousness. But we are not prepared to march into their capitol.
Post by: bvanevery on September 14, 2021, 06:26:50 AM
MY 2378. I thought we were done with this nonsense, but it seems not. Enough time has passed for another mechanical intervention, even as we move towards more sustainable practices.
[Limit reached]
I'm glad I didn't have to reason with anyone.
[Limit reached]
The Cult destroyed our 2 squad picket around Upsilon Depot rather easily. It seems we can only come in force. It also raises questions about the wisdom of our enforcement policy. Our command of the air, has given us naive confidence in our control of the ground.
[Limit reached]
We elect to pull back from our enforcement agenda, and pursue more indirect means of policing.
[Limit reached]
Making an assault cordon around their capitol, had a surprisingly beneficial effect upon their war posture. They don't seem to know that their job is to defend. Instead they think it is to make the citizens happy about being trapped.
Post by: bvanevery on September 14, 2021, 07:02:26 AM
MY 2379. What was Cha Dawn's political calculus? Pretend to rule Planet? Hope that I'd vote for him, instead of myself? It defies any ordinary logic. Maybe the move was for their home consumption, to show what an oppressor I am.
[Limit reached]
If gravships work so well, against an enemy without command of the air, perhaps I should build a lot more of them.
[Limit reached]
It's a little known fact that we already fought in the fungus as well as could be done. Courtesy of the Pholus Mutagen. High tech does have its advantages over rustic platitudes.
[Limit reached]
I do wonder if we're now supposed to hum and sing and tap our feet.
[Limit reached]
Dawn of Planet is now held by an absurdly large occupational force. Is Cha Dawn ready to behave among factions?
[Limit reached]
I'll be needing a siege gravship.
[Limit reached]
It's a simple design, and not as powerful against mindworms as the Empath ships. But it's got a decent weapon and it's awfully cheap to build. We shall flood the Cult with these.
Post by: bvanevery on September 14, 2021, 02:49:26 PM
MY 2380. This is the kind of weapon that a Capitalist doesn't design. We have no experience with it ourselves, and wonder how it will perform. We have noted the abundance of native life facing our occupation of the Cult, and have wondered if this is the key to holding our line.
[Limit reached]
Antigrav sled technology was fine when patrolling our local waters, but has no relevance to global enforcement. We design a suitable replacement, meant only to be a difficult block of unassailable conventional material. We are forever surprised at the cheapness of this antimatter compound so long as it floats.
[Limit reached]
We do not appreciate the ravaging of what's now our land, so we broaden our anti-mindworm perimeter.
[Limit reached]
Although the tide of world enforcement seems predictable, we can never be too sure of our advantages. It's not as though our peacekeepers spring from our factories instantly. Our industrial planners have suggested we can optimize our output, if only we are willing to take more control of Planet's ecosystem. We will at last take possession of the Manifold Nexus, without protest, as it sits near a band of neutral territory. For many decades we ignored it, thinking it would inevitably sink, but it did not. And now perhaps we can ensure that it will not. Or if it does, then at least we are no worse than before.
Post by: bvanevery on September 14, 2021, 03:25:05 PM
MY 2381. We are unsure what world enforcement actions will be required of us, particularly in far flung outpost such as the Manifold Nexus, or Dawn of Planet. Possession of colonies in the hinterland of uncooperative territory is only going to be the new norm. So we will now ensure that we can always reinforce.
[Limit reached]
We expand our perimeter to include ground forces. Shooting at the zoo of Cult mindworms leaves our lines, random.
[Limit reached]
We did not build these drop formers for this purpose, but their completion happens to coincide with our need. They will put the terrain in good order before we get a Psi Gate established and can bring in more conventional earth moving equipment.
Post by: bvanevery on September 14, 2021, 06:49:43 PM
MY 2382. I'm not sure we can exaggerate how many mindworms we are fighting.
[Limit reached]
We have taken the Manifold Nexus. We need more colonies to secure it from territorial encroachment.
[Limit reached]
We intended to let our Drop Formers heal from their rough landings, but time is of the essence securing the Nexus. Even the nearest Morganic city is planning to spit out a colony pod, nevermind what they may have in inventory already. We drive a road to our next home, aided by our fungal highways. However with all our Psi Gates under construction, we do not have a city free to produce a colonist. The urgency is not quite dire enough to interrupt our present production.
[Limit reached]
We finally afford the upgrading of a class of old police units to a modern design. The conversion program is still not over.
Post by: bvanevery on September 14, 2021, 07:43:47 PM
MY 2383. With our slight greenliness to mitigate the damage, we undertake the Bulk Matter Transmitter.
[Limit reached]
We design a series of supply crawlers to speed our project along its way.
[Limit reached]
This is the last of the ancient garrison units needing upgrade. Probably our remaining units could be used in the field, somewhere. The Cyborgs have made a number of probe team incursions against us recently, but so far they've been roundly rebuffed.
[Limit reached]
We hold most of the mindworms at bay with our gravships, but a few are always manufactured in the cities we don't bother to occupy. They've done damage to our cordon. We have plenty of units to rotate out, but needing to do so is a nuisance. We really must bring more formers in, to build proper Sensor Arrays.
[Limit reached]
It occurs to us that we've never actually secured Dawn of Planet or the Manifold Nexus against technological theft or other negative actions. We are immune to mind control but that does not mean we can't take damage. We do not design a drop unit as it is 50% more expensive and we will soon have Psi Gates everywhere.
Post by: bvanevery on September 14, 2021, 11:31:00 PM
Ok, but before I even do that, does my installation of "SMACX AI Growth mod with Scient's Patch" solve the problem? I just updated it with my latest greatest .txt files. I've copied the .sav. Firing it up. ...Nope, Scient's Patch goes down like a ton 'o' bricks as well. I'll have to find the guilty city.
[Limit reached]
Step 1 of fixing this kind of problem is to determine the official turn order. Since it happens after the Cult takes a base, it's probably either the Cult or the Morganites that have the problem. If we want to get really extreme about narrowing it down, we can use the Scenario Editor to completely eliminate factions, thereby narrowing the possibilities. But as I've been down this road many times, I think simple manual searching will probably suffice. Famous last words.
[Limit reached]
Cha Dawn is at war with everyone. So anyone in his bases other than his own troops, is a bug. It might be helpful to know if alliances changed from last year, but in his case I doubt it. These relocation bugs can be sleepers for some time before an actual combat event triggers the crash.
[Limit reached]
Morgan has alliances, treaties, and wars. I'm not sure that narrows anything down by itself. It's just information to know, when I'm looking around.
[Limit reached]
That badly wounded Cult mindworm shouldn't be inside Alpha Prime! Gotta go eat dinner. Later I'll figure out a way to get rid of it.
Post by: bvanevery on September 15, 2021, 02:21:12 AM
This is the source of at least 1 problem. It's possible to have more than one problem, but this will surely cause a crash. So, that Cult mindworm has to either be deleted, or changed to a Cyborg mindworm. Unfortunately my experience with the Scenario Editor is that deleting units inside a city is rather clumsy and coarse. All units get deleted if you go that route. So, the less invasive procedure, is to change the ownership of the unit.
Using the Scenario Editor is going to mark my score as "Cheated!" That's not true, it's the game's damn bug and not my fault, but the anti-cheat mechanism is too stupid to know that. If I was very determined to protect my score, I'd have to find a way to solve the problem in the game, before it manifests in a crash. For instance in this particular game, I think one of my allies is at war with the Cyborgs. In principle I could declare war without harming my Reputation, then take over the base. In practice, I don't have any units that can reach the base. Also, having Lal flippantly declare war like that, is rather out of character for the "arch peacemaker" way I'm playing him. Anyways the point is moot for this game, it doesn't matter. I'm not playing this game for a score, I'm playing it to demo this version of my mod.
[Limit reached]
The 1st step is starting from a saved game before the crash happens, activate the scenario editor.
[Limit reached]
There's nothing you can do about being branded a cheater. You just have to live with it. If I knew a way to unflag this in the game's .sav file, I would. But I don't.
[Limit reached]
Right click on the unit that doesn't belong in the base and is causing the crash. This will bring up a menu. You know you're in the scenario editor because you've got an option you otherwise wouldn't, called "Edit Unit".
[Limit reached]
Select "Edit Unit".
[Limit reached]
Select PLAYER. This brings up a menu that shows who owns the unit. You can use this menu to change the unit's owner.
[Limit reached]
Change the unit so that it's just another part of the base owner's army. You might not want to use this technique if the unit is very advanced or very powerful, because it would give an advantage. However in this case the Cyborgs already know how to make mindworms so it doesn't matter. Even if it did matter, sometimes you just gotta do what you hafta do. Wiping out a base full of units just to solve this problem gives someone else an advantage, so this could be the least invasive technique.
[Limit reached]
Look Ma, no more suspiciously weird inhabitant of the base! This is probably going to solve the crash, but strictly speaking, we don't yet know if this the only problem. We do want to save our work for this part of the problem, in case we have more to do.
[Limit reached]
You deactivate the Scenario Editor by choosing its menu option again, or using the shortcut key. You know you're out of the Scenario Editor when the center part of the panel looks normal again, with no terrain editing stuff. It'll also briefly flash a small message saying you deactivated it.
[Limit reached]
When you save your game, don't just overwrite your old one. You might want that original problem game for a bug report, or to try to solve the problem without using the editor, or who knows. I mean, the sky might fall. I'm optimistically calling this the "fixed" version. If it isn't, well there's gonna be a lot of name clowning.
Post by: bvanevery on September 15, 2021, 02:59:32 AM
[Limit reached]
MY 2384. We've landed 2 colonists for the permanent territorial claim of the Manifold Nexus. They took minor wounds in the descent. They are escorted by the usual complement of modern anti-mindworm unit. These took no wounds, as they simply landed at our previously established base and walked in. Being Elite forces, they walk quickly.
Post by: bvanevery on September 15, 2021, 05:54:44 AM
MY 2385. At an emergency meeting of our security committee, we sought an answer for why the Cult is so disruptive of Planet's ecosystem. They are exceeding the Planetary Council's ability to provide cooling by far-flung technological means. We consider a military solution.
[Limit reached]
Like ourselves, the Cult is Socialist. We can find no evidence that they do any substantial eco-damage. Not even in cities recently seized from the Cyborgs. Despite the claim, they are simply not the problem. Nothing for the ecosystem, can be gained by campaigning against them, in any manner different than we currently are.
[Limit reached]
Given who has been crushed, the Morganites are the only faction who could be unilaterally blamed. Yet, we find no evidence of them doing any eco-damage at all. We believe the report is populist and misstated. Our leading scientists tell us, the collective effect of our population upon Planet, and no other explanation, is cause for the warming. Overall, humanity has had a history of industrial development, and we are still suffering from history. There is no one we can invade, kill, subvert, or sabotage, to change this circumstance.
[Limit reached]
We will be to hell in a hand basket if Morgan is allowed to complete this. Fortunately our entire civilization has already been working on it. We will make a cursory check of whether he's got any massive building program we don't know about.
[Limit reached]
Morgan has a large reserve of cash, which he could use to complete the project, if he were prudent. However, I've never known any faction to exhibit such prudence. Except of course us. It's our standard method of contracting. Morgan does not otherwise have any remarkable construction capability. He could build a pyramid to the gods with all his mindworms though, if only he'd think of it!
[Limit reached]
The point is moot. We completed massive numbers of supply crawlers this year.
[Limit reached]
We don't know what horrific consequences even more mineral capacity can have, upon this relatively delicate ecosystem. We were hoping to merely absorb the Bulk Matter Transmitter into our ongoing operations. However we recognize the research of other factions, does not stand still. We may have to build it before others do.
[Limit reached]
We don't know what these new minerals will bring, so we begin preparing for the worst. The new units are expensive and mainly useful for fighting the mixed forces of other factions. If Planet intends to stomp us, the older units are best.
[Limit reached]
This one naval yard, used to be the state of the art of our forward presence. It has been a long time since direct sea power mattered. We bring back a cheaper sea former design, because it does the work just as well as modern units, and we are badly in need of sea minerals.
[Limit reached]
Again, an older unit design is faster to produce and does the same work.
[Limit reached]
A Cult probe team is unusual. We have not previously seen one. Perhaps they have been busy harassing the Cyborgs, or defending against them. We are baffled that it did not summarily steal technology from us, as we quite neglected to defend ourselves from probes. Perhaps this base has been stolen from in the past, and still has old security measures in place?
[Limit reached]
We did build a defense. We just forgot the means of delivering it. Our Psi Gate network still does not extend to our foreign holding.
[Limit reached]
In principle, Morgan could encroach upon the Nexus, but we don't believe he actually will.
Post by: bvanevery on September 15, 2021, 04:30:25 PM
MY 2387. Aki, I have some fond memories of our past. I hope you are not expressing suicidal ideation.
[Limit reached]
The cyborg priestess is still rational for now. Aki, a secret for you. The plugs that people put in their heads... they are ugly.
[Limit reached]
Morgan is not the one overrunning your core cities, Aki. I don't see that a cyborg is needed to reason it out.
[Limit reached]
This old naval yard is foolishness. If we wanted a warship, we would surely build it somewhere else. Even our existing fleet, has nothing to do. It now sits in our home waters, awaiting the Cyborgs to completely lose their minds.
Post by: bvanevery on September 15, 2021, 05:21:43 PM
MY 2388. We gain a massive fungal eruption in our occupied territory. In a city that does no eco-damage. Well... at least the entire purpose of this garrison, is to fight mindworms. But it is all rather distracting.
[Limit reached]
We drop in a new contingent of anti-locust regiments for defense, as well as the proven ground assault units of decades past. In the shuffle, we forget that orbital insertions are tiring for non-combat ship crews. We will have to stall the mindworms by other means.
[Limit reached]
We are doing well in our campaign against the Cult horde, and wish no delay. We decide to simply stall the mindworms in place, accepting their regenerative growth, and a few shellings of our base. They will all be dead next year, with little effort spent. We will suffer a bit of disruption to our gravship repairs.
[Limit reached]
We could complete the Singularity Inductor. It is well within our fiscal capability. However this latest fungal pop alarms us, being so inexplicable. Cities that have verifiable emissions, we've mitigated. We have but one further Temple of Planet to complete next year. After that, pollution is what it is. We have small amounts of it in a few cities, none of which have seen any fungal pops. We don't really understand the population claims of some of our scientists, as we have much larger cities that haven't in any way been victimized. Perhaps these phenomena are sporadic, random, and unpredictable.
We simply prefer to let sleeping dogs lie, as we wait to see whether the ecosystem will stabilize. We do not need the productivity. Frankly, our productive output is only being used for this project! and the defense its inevitable completion will require. It's a bit of chicken and egg really. We undertake it knowing that we're the best stewards for this kind of project. And the prestige of knowing, it may be one of the last projects we ever undertake.
[Limit reached]
We finally bring in a contingent of probe teams to the Manifold Nexus, to guard against any attempts at theft by Morgan. Or any sudden change in our alliance.
Post by: bvanevery on September 16, 2021, 04:05:18 AM
MY 2389. Aki declared war on me, between turns. I want to say I can't believe it, but I can believe it, since she's Seething about my ideology. Well now she gets to learn why I get to do what I want.
;danc
I can't really take this seriously. It's way too pathetic. Let me try to get into character. Drumroll please...
Lal blinks.
"Send in the gravships."
[Limit reached]
What is with Dawn of Planet? It does no eco-damage, and its population is unexceptional compared to my other cities. Is this a bug? Well at least I've got - count them - TWO ground units to take out their stacks. Money for us.
[Limit reached]
This is the advantage of waiting for a purpose built unit to do the job.
[Limit reached]
After dispatching 2 giant stacks, I have all of 10% wounds. Did I just make 2k or 3k credits? I forget, who cares. I have 2 moves remaining, so I'm happy to order up 3 more stacks where those came from. I return to base.
[Limit reached]
On the other hand, I just lost a gravship trying to take out that locust. I don't remember if it was a good ship, like with Empath ability. I've got 2 kinds in field and they look alike. I did attack with a somewhat wounded unit, maybe 20% damage, in an act of overconfident total blase. Mental note that fully leveled locusts can be a bit of a pill to shoot down. If they ever really become a problem, AAA Heavy Artillery is the way to take out huge stacks of flying things. But you don't get any money for that.
[Limit reached]
Immediately taking an enemy's base often gets them to beg off. How about this time?
[Limit reached]
You lost your damn Cyborg mind. It's understandable. With all those screws and wires sticking out.
[Limit reached]
I'm so looking forward to our relationship of mutual respect. Just like before. Guess you didn't need that sea base. I'll be sure to starve out your other one.
[Limit reached]
Complain complain complain yeah yeah kvetch kvetch. You attacked the world security organization unprovoked. We can do more of the same at any time. Say the word.
[Limit reached]
I'd tell her to knock off her war, but I'm at war with them myself, so I can't. Wouldn't it be drole though!
[Limit reached]
We're doing very well against the Cult mindworm horde. Next year I think we're finally taking Otkrietia-Discovery, home of the Hunter-Seeker Algorithm.
[Limit reached]
An entire Planet is a lot of territory to cover. Why not this cheap little ship? It could drop anywhere and slay any mindworm, at the cost of wounds from the orbital insertion and post-orbital rushed attack. Limp back to base and heal up, just like I do with my expensive gravships anyways. I have lots of bases that only produce 50 minerals, so we could have buckets of these things. Currently I make AAA Trance 3-Res units in those bases, also with fusion reactors. I just have a cheap doctrine. Makes me wonder what the value proposition of the bigger reactors is. In fairness, they're good for cracking bases with a R-Bolt.
[Limit reached]
I build a fair number of these Quantum 70 mineral Supply hovertanks, in cities that have that level of mineral production. I really don't have any more than that anywhere. I've been very cautious about ramping up my industrial output, because we've had enough flooding as is. I really do not want this Singularity Inductor, but I feel obligated to complete it, before someone else does. It's time to stop contributing to its hastier completion. This means I need to design some other kind of unit, that costs 70 minerals, that is useful for something.
[Limit reached]
Well ain't this a little number. Fall out of the sky, wipe out 4 mindworms, have a beer. Plus it'll probably be Elite, so 5 mindworms. I don't think I'm even facing that kind of threat from the Cult anymore. But if Planet gets mad about the Singularity Inductor, I guess I'd be more than ready!
Post by: bvanevery on September 16, 2021, 06:49:22 AM
MY 2390. Citizens Against Frivolity, a post-decadence political movement, has picketed my private mansion. They point out the extreme waste of our budgeting process, mollycoddling all manner of very happy citizens at great public expense, when the most simple of entertainment resources would suffice. It's as though no one is allowed to be proletariat anymore.
[Limit reached]
They also point out, the fear of a market crash is a bogeyman of years past. We don't operate as though that's our reality anymore. We sit around on huge piles of cash that do nothing. We have the social justice infrastructure to budget anything we want. All we need do, is decide how many citizens are supposed to be happy. And the rest, we can pocket it.
[Limit reached]
We were shocked to learn, that reducing our happiness spending to the minimal fiscally responsible value, made no difference to the happiness of our citizens at all. It seems they all took Basic Income and became painters long ago! It makes sense, that with such large populations supported partly by off-world farming, that our cities would enter a virtuous cycle.
[Limit reached]
Only our recently captured Cyborg base had any complaints. We promised them a Rec Commons and similar amenities "soon". Our 3 cities surrounding the Manifold Nexus are unhappy, but only because we have prioritized military defense and not the basics of human comfort. We made similar promises of comfort, which are easy enough to keep.
Citizens Against Frivolity, has saved us over 3000 credits per annum! We present them with the Withering Of The State award, one of our civilization's highest honors.
Post by: bvanevery on September 16, 2021, 04:05:07 PM
The Cult attempted to reinforce their vulnerable secret project, but mindworms simply aren't a credible garrison force. We now no longer need fear any foreign probe.
[Limit reached]
We ignore Cha Dawn, as we intend to divest the Cult of all secret projects. They have little other basis for power. Certainly their mindworms are no threat to us anymore.
[Limit reached]
War planners remind us that Chiron Stigmata is the home of the minor wonder, the Planetary Transit System. We completely forgot about it, since we almost never colonize anymore. Even when we do, our cloning vats grow new colonists so fast, that it hardly matters. Their favorite food nowadays is typically roasted fungi!
[Limit reached]
Are we just capitalist collectors now? Was this part of their historical culture? Could we have left it to them? Do we remotely care?
Post by: bvanevery on September 16, 2021, 08:20:24 PM
We're not sure what to build in a city with 60 minerals. Having a little empathy supplies the answer.
[Limit reached]
A more powerful punch against mindworms, is probably more important than shooting more of them.
[Limit reached]
The quick antigrav tank holds up rather poorly against mindworms in practice. It killed a smaller one with almost no injury, but a bigger worm left it crippled. We'll either need to abandon it or send in a protective garrison.
[Limit reached]
We devise a civilian 60 mineral option.
[Limit reached]
Sometimes a quick, cheap anti-mindworm defense is needed. It won't hold up to much of anything else, but it may not have to.
Post by: bvanevery on September 16, 2021, 09:00:13 PM
MY 2391. For the ecosystem stalling, we're out of time.
[Limit reached]
The Cult may have finally fielded a garrison that can resist our currently deployed weapons. We are in a hurry to end this struggle, so we accept a casualty.
[Limit reached]
[Limit reached]
This concludes overt military necessity. Covert actions to take the secret projects of allies and people we have treaties with, would be covetous.
Post by: bvanevery on September 16, 2021, 09:23:20 PM
Citizens For Transparency, probably a Cult funded astral turf movement, has been picketing the capitol non-stop since the leak about the Hunter-Seeker Algorithm. They contend, no probe team can possibly harm us now, so why the policy of wide-ranging covert operations? Internally we've found we do have a vulnerability to Algorithmic Enhancement, that inexplicably, other factions never seek to exploit. But we can't announce this in public so we've lost the moral ground. And they want to know, why are we listening to the wise pronouncements of Brother Lal anyways??! Is he our Commissioner or our Chairman?
The people are happy, so what's with all the police in the streets? Why do they carry big stun guns? What's with all the warmongering? Do we control Planet now or don't we? Isn't the average Cultist just a hapless, poverty stricken, marginalized dupe, who must do Cha Dawn's biddding or be thrown to the brood pits? They should all be our comrades in arms!
We deftly pivot our policy in the face of such public pressures. Signing a Treaty with the Cult isn't crazy, if they'll have it. It may take a few more cities worth of persuasion, but we can do that within the parameters the people espouse.
And secretly, we fear what we're about to unleash on Planet's ecosystem. We cannot leave this transition to the Morganites. If refraining from overfishing the oceans, recycling carbon plastics and so forth, or even petting the occasional mindworm larva will make this transition easier, so be it. Any advantage compatible with our Socialist principles, should be employed.
I will miss merely thinking what everyone must do though.
[Limit reached]
It's a good time to speak to the Cult about world peace, having just squashed another one of their important cities.
Hi Cha. Can I call you Cha? I'm going to call you Cha. Cha, did you notice our recent and shameless turnabout on public policy? Were you impressed? You're the largest potential constituency on Planet. Wanna talk peace?
[Limit reached]
Try to stay focused. Look at my 2 fingers. Peace, Cha Dawn. How 'bout it?
[Limit reached]
Riiiight, we too had a conversation with Planet this morning. It's remarkable how consistent Planet is in its point of view and pronouncements.
[Limit reached]
I think our shameless pivot is working. Well timed.
[Limit reached]
I won't sell him down the river, but it's time for you two to stop squabbling.
[Limit reached]
I suspect they won't sign a Treaty unless they're no longer at war with our buddy Zhakarov, so I press the point.
[Limit reached]
That was the last I could get from him, but it's a significant start. We have a basis for world peace. He really swallowed our conquests of his major centers! I wonder if I trust him? Well I don't have to.
Post by: bvanevery on September 17, 2021, 02:38:46 AM
I wonder if I can just tell others to stop fighting with Cha Dawn? I don't think it's worth the conversation. It would have gone better before we did our pivot. "Conqueror" Marr really likes bossing people around.
[Limit reached]
We actually don't want the Cyborgs to stop fighting the Cult, for now. If the Cyborgs lose their capitol, we can pick up 2 more secret projects. Nothing we need, but we love these kinds of enforcement opportunities.
[Limit reached]
We pull our gravships back to our borders, and block access to our developed terrain. The Cult doesn't like to attack us anymore because our hypnotic trance defenders are too strong. Instead, they typically take the cowardly approach of chewing up our forests. This just creates more work for the Formers Union, so we endeavor to put a stop to it. It's not that we don't trust the Cult, we just don't trust them. Yet.
[Limit reached]
70 minerals is an awkward price point to design units around. Advanced reactor designs usually have a minimum cost above that. We wanted to make AAA artillery pieces but there's no way to get those within budget. We settle for conventional artillery instead, providing a light anti-mindworm armor jacket for fieldwork.
[Limit reached]
We grit our teeth and hope we have prepared well.
Post by: bvanevery on September 17, 2021, 04:53:57 AM
MY 2392. We've completed the Singularity Inductor, and so far, have not suffered any indignity from it. But Morgan is now talkative, and demands action from us. This is a delicate moment, as in practice, it could be the choice between war with the Usurpers, and war with him. It would not happen immediately, but it would send us down that road. We know that if we eliminate the Usurpers, I become Supreme Leader, so we have strange motives. I acquiesce.
[Limit reached]
The Usurpers have an ally? I'm shocked. Well they just handed us Alpha Prime. We didn't see this coming. We might very well have a Treaty with Cha Dawn, faster than we imagined.
[Limit reached]
Socialism is peer pressure, Morgan. Everyone else on Planet is doin' it.
Post by: bvanevery on September 17, 2021, 05:29:37 AM
Citizens For The Advancement Of Science, a possible astral turfing front for our long quiet ally the University, demands to know why we've allowed the Morganites to nearly reach research parity with us. They claim it is counterrevolutionary.
To which we say, Meh. We don't need new things, we need merely build the things we already know how to build. The compulsion to exploit workers using new technologies is an old one, and we do not easily fall for it. Still, we have to admit that our bellicosity is rather unnecessary. Even if the Morganites wanted to challenge us, they could not possibly do so.
And so we pivot again. In this manner, we avoid any possible surprise from our long term ally. If Morgan ever chooses to go against us, he will do it alone.
[Limit reached]
In our move towards near pacifism, we notice a small amount of civil unrest. Since all our forces are within our own borders, we know it is not foreign adventure, whipping our people into a slight froth.
[Limit reached]
Rather, The People hate our gravships. Who knew? They see them as symbols of militant oppression. Boy they sure have all gone soft! They'll be singing kumbaya with Cultist tunes next. A mindworm for every household.
[Limit reached]
How about that, Cha? I'm calling you Cha. Our interests are surprisingly aligned now. Talk peace? No? Talk nothing? Fine. Be that way.
Post by: bvanevery on September 17, 2021, 06:43:35 AM
The Singularity Inductor has induced small amounts of ecodamage in various cities, that we cannot mitigate, because we have already built every facility possible for such. On the positive side, the higher minerals budgets allow for more effective ordinance.
[Limit reached]
We lost 3 R-Bolt gravships to this modern AAA defender, which is merely weakened. As the people hate our fine gravships, we calculated this as an acceptable loss. But the job is not done, and no further "big gun" gravships are in range. Leaving them on patrol duty to guard against Cult trampling of our land, they are not available to jump into theater. Even if they were, their performance would suffer quite a bit after orbital insertion. That might be acceptable as the people really hate gravships, but it is so wasteful.
[Limit reached]
We simply do not have strong weapons to drop into theater. We are not used to fighting an adversary of more equal quality. We have quantity, but it all remote, and we want action now. What we have in theater already, is probably what we have to work with. These units can, however, be field upgraded.
[Limit reached]
We reason that the key to victory, is negating their AAA defense. The dissociative wave cannon accomplishes that. We do not, however want to engage mindworms, as then this expensive and exotic capability would be wasted. So it must be a R-Bolt gun. We hope that's a large enough armament to do the needed damage. At least we are only attacking 1 weak unit.
[Limit reached]
The Drop R-Laser Skybase is a current, if anachronistic, design that we can certainly live without, in the name of expediency. The main benefit of upgrading it, is we only have 4. 2 of which are in theater. So the application of our cash, is at least 50% effective, if we have no further difficulties from the Cyborgs. It's a pretty penny, but this is what it takes to perform remote conquerings on demand.
Post by: bvanevery on September 17, 2021, 07:49:48 AM
It performs poorly, even against non-AAA armor. An Aerospace Complex is a formidable defense. I don't believe drop probe teams can intervene to sabotage that, as they are non-combat units. Not that we have any anyways. It would be another upgrade game.
[Limit reached]
Actually the 1st gravship nearly took the defender with it, so we are in better stead now. This one dies as well, "heroically", with mixed feelings on behalf of the population. But the defender is so drubbed, that it may pose no further threat.
[Limit reached]
We noticed our 3rd Wave pilot was sipping beers in the mess. Repairs more finished than not, we order him into battle. He toasts what's left of the stronger defender and tells great war stories about it, a major propaganda victory for us.
[Limit reached]
An Elite pilot with a bad armament and underpowered reactor, is sent to finish off the nearly dead AAA defender. It is a surprisingly even match. He dies. Another of his comrades follows him.
[Limit reached]
Our 3rd pilot has the luck, of being 3rd. We give her a medal, the Order of Someone.
[Limit reached]
We are out of gravships in theater, but not options. Only mindworm defenders remain, and this is the kind of fighting we were well prepared for. We drop a simple R-Laser hovertank outside of the air defense screen and zip in. It... dies. There's a reason we upgraded such units to an Empath design, but it nearly kills a Great Boil on the assault.
[Limit reached]
We send another, by a different direction, taking advantage of fungal highways and our gravship to arrive quickly on target. It... well it dies again. Its performance was so poor, that we question the wisdom of the entire antigravity sledding program! But it's ok, really, because...
Post by: bvanevery on September 17, 2021, 04:59:47 PM
...we stopped making those inferior designs several years ago. We do have proper Empath units. It crushes the spore launcher, at the cost of 50% wounds.
[Limit reached]
A 2nd hovertank utterly splats the wounded Great Boil. The 1st hovertank zooms into the base, rested and refreshed, as liberated Cyborgs throw garlands and rose petals at their feet. We consult our beloved Aki on the outcome.
[Limit reached]
After all, we got what we wanted. Cheap upgrades and cheap maintenance costs. You really shouldn't ever ally with an Alien. It's bad for your health.
[Limit reached]
Now let's talk whirled peas.
[Limit reached]
There. See? Not so hard. World nearly stabilized. Just pesky Aliens.
[Limit reached]
With a Treaty signed, we kick out their spy. We could have just allowed it to fry itself against our Hunter-Seeker Algorithm next year. But somehow, we suspect that the presence of enemy units, can cause belligerence from the Cult. We'd rather not have that. We hope the Cult does not believe that it's still assaulting a Cyborg base. We've flown the appropriate flags to show that it has changed hands, but mindworms can be mindless.
Post by: bvanevery on September 18, 2021, 02:22:19 AM
To celebrate our near unity among humans, and the relative dearth of Planet activity in the face of our industrial expansion, we decide to knock some fiery junk out of orbit! But many people like looking at the fiery junk in the evening sky, and insist we leave it alone. As a reminder of who we once were.
In the halls of my great mansion, I am confronted by one of my many wives. A fairly good one... relationships are so complicated nowadays. As our populations got larger and larger, we both gained and lost. I am surrounded by many people who think similarly to me, even look similarly to me.
[Limit reached]
"Why, Lal, why?"
"Pardon?"
"Why must you be at war with the poor, pathetic Usurpers?"
"Because they are pathetic?" I tried to sip my sherry harder.
"No I mean you could have done this, 30 years ago. 50 years ago! Instead you've alienated Morgan, ignored Zhakarov, clashed with Aki, and stolen from Cha Dawn. You put goons on the streets, and handed everyone little blue books to read! Why have you done any of it, Lal?"
"...I..."
"You could have been Supreme Leader! You're not trying to unify humanity!!!" She stormed out. She's that way.
I sat stunned, and a bit drunken. I've been afraid, for ever so long, that there's nothing really to me. I know politics, I know games. I know brinksmanship. I've been pulling the levers of power for so long, that I don't know what it means to stop. I don't even know if I can handle world peace. What is a Peacekeeper keeping, when there's peace? Doesn't peace mean, I'm not needed?
Post by: bvanevery on September 18, 2021, 03:45:39 AM
The next day, I gather myself. I intend to inform "Conqueror" Marr of my resolve. But per usual, he is not listening. I shall attempt contact by covert channels. That often gets attention.
[Limit reached]
We only have 1 probe team ship left from the old days, and it's at the extreme of our
[Limit reached]
Citizens Against Progress has nothing against the use of old units for the legitimate functions of government. In fact for the old coots who usually populate their meetings, it's a bit of a lark. Riding around in ancient probe team chasses and whatnot. "Stick it to those scabs! Beat them with your wooden handles, ye men!" Well if they must go on safari we'll oblige. We drop a boatload full of them into Morganic territory, expecting to ride the rails and make contact with Marr next year.
Post by: bvanevery on September 18, 2021, 05:02:40 AM
MY 2293. I can say that I'm surprised, but I can't say I'm shocked. They wanted Alpha Prime as badly as we did, for the same reasons. I can't imagine them having the resources to actually take it, but we did have to shift our defense screen to capture this far flung outpost in a hurry. It will be halfway a test of our true mettle. In the worst event, we have so many drop reinforcements available. And Citizens Against Progress reminds us, we have never tested our Psi Gates. Maybe we march Cultist prisoners through them first...
[Limit reached]
Zhakarov cannot provide meaningful assistance, as I believe Cha Dawn pushed him into the sea, long ago. But we appreciate the gesture of token support. Fear not, Zak. This escapade is likely to gain us a nice sea port.
[Limit reached]
Morgan, on the other hand, could take a sea base, or kick the Cult off his continent. I won't dissuade him from such courses.
Post by: bvanevery on September 18, 2021, 05:28:04 AM
This place is a magnet! Is it because the Xenoempathy Dome resides there? Or did it just have excessive industry from the Singularity Inductor? We do not recall.
[Limit reached]
I wonder why we never capture anything? This is our only captured mindworm, and it is ancient.
[Limit reached]
We intended to give ourselves a sea port, but the logistical limit of our Wave gravship, opts for a contiguous inland base. We take hardly a scratch.
[Limit reached]
Right, we know you can't fight. Be at peace now. I can't get him to stop fighting either the Morganites or the Cyborgs. He points the finger at them, and signs off.
[Limit reached]
My buddy, ally, Zhakarov. In my home waters. What does he want? Wants war, snivels for money. Gets neither from me. I ask him to knock it off.
[Limit reached]
Loser. Where are Citizens Against Progress when you need them?
Post by: bvanevery on September 18, 2021, 05:48:00 AM
We come knocking at the door of the Usurpers. Their city stinks of... horse meat. Marr is not answering.
[Limit reached]
A long time from now, Marr might toss a nuke in someone's direction. Although it'll probably be shot down, it might hit something.
[Limit reached]
I do not know if I really wished him to speak. The truth is I am a racist. I always have been. Ever since the first ugly, horse-faced Caretaker attacked us. And their kin, proved no better. They're as undemocratic as they come. Even their cuisine is nearly inedible. I do not value their diversity, I see them as a never ending source of problems. I rate them only to the degree they are an inconvenience to me. I simply cannot summon the will, to regard them like human beings. They are Alien.
[Limit reached]
These teams are Elite. I considered framing another faction for this. But I thought it less hypocritical, and easier to live with myself, if I take full responsibility for what I am about to do.
[Limit reached]
It took a surprising number of teams to reduce their base to the size of a village. We lost one "brave" operative. Meanwhile the world community is silent. They do not care that we are doing this.
[Limit reached]
As usual we only have light units for the cleanup, as this is not the war we prepared for. The voters would prefer an almost complete demilitarization and drawdown. I intend to accomplish that only as casualties. And this unit, sadly, is the first. It was soon joined by another. I never liked the antigrav sled designs. They never won us much of anything.
[Limit reached]
We are not sure why the Empath unit finally broke the badly wounded defender. Only that it did. Overall we think our doctrine is poor though. Either heavier weapons for immediate drops, or longer term planning to avoid immediate drops.
[Limit reached]
The remainder were easily destroyed. We have warfare, half right.
[Limit reached]
Again, no one cares. We are at the logistical limit of our drop ground forces. To make further progress this year, we would need drop gravships. We actually have few of those, and we wrongly placed them on picket duty.
[Limit reached]
We put a lot of garrisons in the water, to properly protect our captured sea bases. This will free up our drop navy.
Post by: bvanevery on September 18, 2021, 06:18:28 AM
And now I take the responsibility. It is the height of hypocrisy, to pretend that extermination of a species by genetic means, is somehow "more ok" than nuclear annihilation. And yet this is what humanity believes. I will not pretend. And it may serve as a historical warning, not to use these weapons against our own kind.
[Limit reached]
All my allies have deserted me. Everyone has declared war against me. The world community calls me Wicked. If this is wicked, then I am wicked. At least I am no liar.
[Limit reached]
In for a penny, in for a pound. This the upgrade deal of the century! I haven't heard a peep out of Citizens Against Progress. Maybe they're racists just like me.
[Limit reached]
This bigger one is quite the show. It takes out a chunk of land in front of our ground forces. Those dirty devils cheer!
I'm quite impressed at the durability of the mining platforms and tidal harnesses. Who would have believed they could hold up to such abuse?
[Limit reached]
Now they call me Infamous. Two nukes, I'm infamous. I could have wiped the genetic material of an entire race off of Planet, and no human would have batted an eyelash. The difference seems to be, nukes actually scare them. This seems to be a failure of imagination.
Post by: bvanevery on September 18, 2021, 06:32:58 AM
I thought Cha Dawn would be the easiest to convince of my good intentions, but he's not responding to hails. He's also the easiest to muscle, since we've been fighting before and our troops are in a forward position to do it. I think taking a city will be required to get his attention.
[Limit reached]
Cha Dawn is surprisingly blunt about the sincerity of this vendetta, of the moral principles at stake.
[Limit reached]
I'm glad you don't hold it against me, that I dropped a couple of nukes into the ocean. On top of a race none of us likes. I realize I fried the coastline and chewed up a few birds. And rocks. For that I'm truly sorry.
[Limit reached]
Cha... I'm calling you Cha. In the past, you've backstabbed me without provocation. At least my action was principled! Yours was greedy and foolish. But that is in the past. Let's think of the future together.
[Limit reached]
Yes yes yes and please some genuflecting as well. It becomes you.
[Limit reached]
Fellow Socialist. We have something that we think can help your people, in the spirit of international camaraderie. Enough money, to pay Basic Income to your people, for quite some time. We think you lack this, and we are glad to bestow it. How 'bout it?
[Limit reached]
Wimp? We kick your ass, we nuke your neighbor, and you call me a wimp? Why the...
[Limit reached]
Let's try being unequivocal, about what I'm trying to offer you. We have a lot of MONEY. Do you want it?
Wow. He repeated exactly the same thing, then signed off. Good; it kept me from doing something rash.
Ok, note about humans. Don't expect to bribe them. But a Truce is enough, for now. I wonder if it will hold? We could make some kind of new Truceworthy garrison units. Something the people don't hate.
Post by: bvanevery on September 18, 2021, 04:35:37 PM
[Limit reached]
I bring up a couple of R-Bolt artillery pieces, that were meant for fighting some imagined Planet horde. They injure the Isle of the Deep most easily, and in fact the 2nd piece was quite redundant. Unfortunately, they barely scratch the modern cyborg armor. I could bring up every such artillery piece and it probably would not matter. I'd prefer to hold them in reserve for some other contingency, since they're clearly ineffective here.
[Limit reached]
We attempt to heed the desire of Citizens Against Progress and just use an old clunky short range ship for this job. It was adequate to task and became Commando. I think our difference in combat experience, is a lot of what made this a success. A bigger reactor didn't hurt either.
[Limit reached]
An Empath R-Bolt Cruiser made trivial work of the wounded Isle. An Antimatter Gunboat, good for nothing but being a big hunk of impenetrable metal, took the honor of sailing into port. This brings Aki online.
[Limit reached]
The cyborg is so boring! Stimulation this, stimulation that. I offer this Socialist the same big money deal as I did Cha.
[Limit reached]
At least she's not as rude as Cha. But seriously, we were at war with the Usurpers. Ok fine, we started the war with an act of genocide. That you didn't care about. Morgan kept instigating the war! There's blame all around, but we didn't break any treaty about anything. You're just sore that you didn't get to drop the nukes yourself!!!
[Limit reached]
It'll save me the trouble of being pestered about you in the future. She signs off. Well again, a Truce is good enough for now. If it holds. But she's the easiest to thrash back in line.
Post by: bvanevery on September 18, 2021, 04:38:02 PM
University, University, oh is the University. I share a surprising amount of surface area with the University. They settled the coastal waters long ago when I wasn't willing to. And then my cities got big, and I forgot all about them. They've been a mostly useless ally and I don't recall them previously being an enemy. Once upon a time they tongue wagged me about my Power, but they love my Knowledge now. 'Specially because I'm way better at it than they are.
[Limit reached]
It's such a weighty question, that looking around my coastal waterways for a victim, I decide to come back to it later. The Morganites have left me a golden opportunity! I have hated this little pipsqueak of a city ever since it deprived me of my nutrient pile. What cheek, and now I will cheek it back! It's the most excellent use of a big hulking useless antimatter ship.
[Limit reached]
And I cannot help but laugh, at the 363 years they think they're going to take, to build a Black Hole Gun there. A Marine version, no less.
[Limit reached]
There is one big flaw in my plan. I can't even drop a drop ship into the ocean. Hey I didn't make these weird rules of physics. I'm burning paper again, this doesn't make any sense. But I'm required to find another way to go about it.
[Limit reached]
Citizens Against Progress be damned, this is going to require an upgrade. I do have this one ancient drop unit, that need only be made into a Marine, to do the job. Land on the coast next to the base, walk right in. Let me check that. No Aerospace Complex or other visible impediments. Enemy units wandering around could get in the way, but that seems unlikely. We're doing this.
Post by: bvanevery on September 18, 2021, 04:40:12 PM
Or we could just fly, east. Sometimes it's hard to remember that Planet is round. In fairness, we've had a huge continent obstructing movement in this part of the world for a very long time.
[Limit reached]
Not exactly crossing the Atlantic, but it'll have to suffice. It probably is our first circumnavigation of the globe though. With a lot of intervening years on active duty. It earns us an immediate audience with Morgan.
[Limit reached]
He blathers about fighting Cha Dawn, he blathers about getting his base back. His price is steep even by my standards, and I'm not in a generous mood to this Capitalist [progeny of unmarried parents]. He's not asking for Basic Income. He wants a solid gold bedroom suite for all his concubines. Actually, for all the concubines of his government. Go clone yourself!
[Limit reached]
He does give me an idea though. For that kind of money, I could just buy several of his cities. Except that... I can't. For the same reasons I once undertook it, he has locked his population into Thought Control. No mind control is possible. Although... even with Algorithmic Enhancement? Which all my fusion powered probe teams are. I must find out.
[Limit reached]
To be cheeky, I transported the oldest viable probe team I could find, in the oldest boat I could find. I've hated Xi Sector ever since it was a blot on the water. Someone popped a supply pod and it became land borne. Now I will finally free the land for my proper use!
[Limit reached]
That was awfully easy. I should do it more often! The expense is large, like a Secret Project when we first landed on Planet. But in this late era, who's counting now? I think we make that much money per year.
[Limit reached]
Land access triggers an industrial boom nearby. Building a Robotic Assembly Plant is no longer a good idea! This was the 1st we ever proposed to build, in a city that used to have a poor minerals supply. No longer. Now we need something green, like a Centauri Preserve.
[Limit reached]
That was a tenth of what you asked for. Be more reasonable next time!
[Limit reached]
What's with these payment schemes? How do I pay people to bump off my enemies? Oh, right, I'm trying not to have enemies...
[Limit reached]
Nobody trusts me anymore, due to beliefs that are completely unfair and based in their own bigotry. It wouldn't matter if I broke my word to Cha Dawn. But I actually want a Truce with everyone, so that I can get on with a Supreme Leader election when the Usurpers are all dead and buried. Asking me to break Truces simply isn't a value proposition on the table for me.
He signs off. Well, one more Truce is better than nothing. Hope it holds.
Post by: bvanevery on September 18, 2021, 04:41:50 PM
Oh My God. The University and the Morganites, know a tech that I don't! I have been that slack for that many years on the research agenda. I could have taken this from the Morganites. I'm glad I noticed this before bringing Zhakarov to heel. Now I need to steal from him, then take a base.
[Limit reached]
Of course I don't have any viable boat and probe team combinations in the places they're needed now. It's always been an awkward land mass and Zhakarov has never been an issue. Quietly slyly sneaking up on the research, eh Professor? I didn't think you had it in you. Thought you were just some vanquished faction eons ago.
[Limit reached]
I don't recall ever running a mission on Mir Lab. Maybe the Usurpers got to them. Or even the Morganites could have done it, once upon a time. No matter now. We hope Algorithmic Enhancement is worth a secret project.
[Limit reached]
What is Citizens Against Progress' view on technological theft? It's not our progress. I know they won't like it if I order any units retrofitted though.
[Limit reached]
I never realized Zhakarov's empire was quite so soggy. It seems University Base sunk quite some time ago. I forgot how many of his cities the Cult had taken from him. Now I realize, I don't need a city that is contiguously valuable to me. I only need to bring him to the negotiating table. These cities are close, to where our gravships wait in a mere picket line.
[Limit reached]
Their base atop Mount Planet is uniquely vulnerable. A single small spore launcher defends it. It is straight in the flight path of several gravships, whose pilots would laugh, if they were told they were going on such a milk run. It is also a good inroad to further conquest if necessary, as it is well supplied with resources, not in competition with other cities.
[Limit reached]
We thought about insulting them with the Drop Plasma unit, but thought putting a gravship back on the front line to be best. We gain our audience.
[Limit reached]
Given that he was more technologically advanced than us, I almost think he means it. We should not destroy ourselves. Aliens, yes, but not each other.
[Limit reached]
I don't bother to ask why a contract matters to him. I see a dead thing in his eyes. The entire fate of humanity, going on this way forever. Until someone, has the pluck to put a fireball to it all.
In the morning, we shall complete this crazy year of holocaust and backpedaling. We would very much like to see, a way for the Usurpers to all drop dead. Immediately and all at once. Without having to go through delays. Or further placations, of factions manufacturing their outrage. I'd like to think that with our industrial power, we can do it. But it is a weighty matter and my mind must rest.
Post by: bvanevery on September 18, 2021, 04:45:46 PM
[Limit reached]
I think I have enough existing gravships to take out this grouping of 3 Usurper bases. They will be additionally backed by Singularity Conventional Missiles. These only cost 60 minerals, and I have several cities that have that output. I'm not sure if they're all in range, but CMs have a pretty long range.
[Limit reached]
I find my 1 remaining Marine unit, now free as the sea base has been garrisoned. I will bring it to the north by rail, where a transport will take it to sea. I will bring probe teams along for the ride.
[Limit reached]
I bring the 1 Marine and 8 probe teams to the north in a flotilla. With CMs backing them, I think that takes care of these 2 sea bases.
[Limit reached]
I drop my remaining lightly armed Empath tanks into the fungus around the Usurper's only land base. It will be hit by 2 plagues next year from probe teams already in theater. I'm not sure if these units will heal in the fungus before next year due to the Pholus Mutagen, but there are probably enough in any event.
That really only leaves the 1 remote Usurper sea base, that is building a nuke, as the difficult thing to reach. If I hit it with a CM, and I have a Marine unit on the coast, I can take it.
[Limit reached]
The cheapest Drop Singularity Marine I can design would cost 120, regardless of armament. I can't complete such a unit in 1 turn. I need to reduce the cost to at least 90. I would also like a 70 mineral design as I have cities only putting out that much.
[Limit reached]
The cheapest Drop Quantum Marine is still 100. Too much. Looks like we're going old school Fusion.
[Limit reached]
Chaos guns are the big point of expense jump. Even with a Fusion reactor, this armament costs too much. So now I'm starting to have problems of whether I can deploy an effective Marine. It's a strong argument for designing a drop gravship and calling it a day. But, my pacifists will hate me for it. I'm still willing to entertain the placation of the voters.
[Limit reached]
This is the limit of what I can design. I can't make a 90 mineral unit, only 80. If I change it to a Speeder chassis, it drops to 60. Well, at least an 80 mineral design in a 90 mineral city, will roll over 10 minerals into the next year. It'll have to do.
[Limit reached]
Might as well make what I can. With enough cities on it, sheer quantities of suicide missions could prevail. But it may all be overplanning anyways, as CMs may do the job.
Post by: bvanevery on September 18, 2021, 04:48:34 PM
MY 2394. That Truce with Cha Dawn wasn't worth the paper it was printed on. Mindworms attacking my Trance defenders hardly did me any damage though. The man inconvenience was some pillaging.
[Limit reached]
The Morganites aren't behaving any better. Again, ineffective with their puny mindworms though. I wonder if a Truce matters for a Supreme Leader election, like their willingness to go along with it?
[Limit reached]
Wonder if we can get some Solar Shade going.
[Limit reached]
Dawn of Planet has a whole lot of minerals, and finally completed all ecology improvements. This looks like it would be a good picket unit to start spitting out.
[Limit reached]
Actually I can have a hovertank unit for the same price. Usually, that's even better. I haven't seen the Cult field much in the way of fast units, so ECM doesn't really matter.
[Limit reached]
Some of the time Dawn of Planet outputs 100 minerals, so I'll need some units at that price point. This is a pretty big artillery piece! It might pack enough punch against enemy cities to be worth something. I wasn't very impressed with R-Bolt artillery.
[Limit reached]
I hope this is just a delayed effect from the Singularity Inductor. If it's Planet getting angry because I have an Infamous reputation...
Post by: bvanevery on September 18, 2021, 04:49:26 PM
Look at where all my probe teams ended up. Morgan's capitol is Morgan Aerodynamics, to the northeast. Buying Kappa Sector could be expensive, but it's permanent security for the Manifold Nexus.
[Limit reached]
Well I bought one of their bases last year, so what's the deal now?? Was last year the 1st year they had changed to Thought Control, so it wasn't really in effect yet? I gotta check the save files to see. Meanwhile I drain his energy reserves, walking away with a lousy 36 credits. Not the high rent district.
[Limit reached]
Loaded up the game from MY 2392. Morgan was Eudaimonic then! All hell broke loose in MY 2393. He switched to Thought Control, and that's why I was still able to buy a base. My Algorithmic Enhancement did not matter. Well, now I know what can and can't happen. Resuming game.
Post by: bvanevery on September 19, 2021, 02:39:25 AM
3 of my hovertanks that got wounded from orbital insertion, seem to have been healed by the fungus. 2 of them are wounded. 1 of them could have been shelled by their tiny spore launcher. The other I don't know, I wasn't watching closely. I don't think you're prohibited from healing if you're next to an enemy unit, but I can't remember. Some game had that rule, can't remember if it's this one.
[Limit reached]
2 probe teams reduce the armored defender to a shadow of itself. I still lose 2 Empath tanks attacking, because let's face it, they were designed for something else. Then the spore launcher splats and I take the base. After scrapping its Perimeter Defense I obliterate it. Although it could have been used to get some units into orbit next year, I prefer to take no chances on recapture. Plus, the goal of this year is to make it politically possible to vote for Supreme Leader. The Aliens must be gone to do that.
[Limit reached]
I don't really know what to do with these weak tanks afterwards. Poking around, I do find one Morganite spore launcher to kill. But mostly, this northern land is empty. Most sit down on fungal patches to heal, hopefully out of harm's way.
Post by: bvanevery on September 19, 2021, 06:58:44 AM
[Limit reached]
My transport unfortunately didn't have enough movement to bring my teams to the 2nd city. Looks like they'll have to bail by interfering with Morgan. It took 3 teams to reduce the Usurper defender to the level of drool I wanted. Then I blew it up with the Chaos gun mounted on the Drop Antigrav ship. Then I sailed my R-Bolt ship through the size 1 base, destroying it.
[Limit reached]
Sadly I only have 1 movement remaining for either attacking or entering the base. That means I won't be able to sail in and then Obliterate it. This could turn out to be the one base I can't get rid of. Technically I can get rid of the Usurpers though, by capturing it. It's actually my antipathy for the horse faces that causes me to wipe out their bases, and not a military necessity. And, I could still Obliterate it next year. Citizens in a captured base don't count as your own citizens, they're still considered the enemy for quite some time.
[Limit reached]
An interloping University probe team disrupted my minerals output for one of my Conventional Missiles. So I have 4 to work with, not the expected 5. I always intended to use at least 1 to knock out the AAA defender. Looks like I also have to waste a 2nd on the Isle, as I don't see any other units at my disposal. I pick the 2 that seem farthest away from other targets and let 'em fly.
[Limit reached]
I forgot about escaping colonists. I hope when their last city is gone, the game doesn't give them the chance to establish a new base! That might ruin my plan, as I just don't have units that reach this far. I think 2 CMs left, that's it.
Post by: bvanevery on September 19, 2021, 06:59:39 AM
I switch to the grouping of 3 sea bases, where method and outcome seem fairly certain. I use a Wave gravship to knock out a single AAA defender. I fly in a wounded ship to get healing for it. By selecting the unit when it's inside the city, I manage to avoid having its movement stopped. This makes it able to strike another target.
I only have 2 of the Wave gravships, and the other is far away and badly wounded. So, now I just have to take the hits against AAA defenders. They're only Photon units with Fusion reactors though, so perhaps it won't be so bad. Citizens jeer as I lose 1 of the hated gravships. And in my haste and distraction writing this up, I move my healed unit before remembering to Obliterate the base it's sitting in.
[Limit reached]
While trying to get a screenshot of the healing trick, I prevaricate, wanting a nice Rec Commons to be shown as my totally unnecessary production. Fiddling my mouse causes the gravship's movement to be forced to end! So don't fiddle around trying to explain stuff. This UI tweak is very fragile and the slightest breathing on it, ruins the magic.
[Limit reached]
This time I'm able to perform the healing trick, as I don't even try to get a screenshot of it. I'm about to be disciplined and Obliterate the base, before forgetting and moving on to the next thing. But guess what? You can't Obliterate with an air unit anyways! I forgot about that. The 'B' command is used for bombing runs and they don't provide a workaround.
Post by: bvanevery on September 19, 2021, 07:00:43 AM
This is now the last Usurper base. Blithely trying to produce its vengeance weapon, a Fusion Planet Buster. I don't think you're getting the 16 turns you need.
I throw my 3rd CM at it, leaving it empty. Now it wants to make an AAA unit in a hurry.
[Limit reached]
I find one of those Drop Marine Speeders I cooked up. It lands in fungus, and then walks right in.
[Limit reached]
It's a big city. If I have to hunt all of these down, then the Usurpers will survive the year.
[Limit reached]
For posterity, we keep the cameras rolling on the Fearless Leader.
Post by: bvanevery on September 19, 2021, 07:01:45 AM
Haha! Marr, those were your famous last words! I didn't want to say so until I knew for sure. But Marr, this is great! You're famous! Famous I tell you!
[Limit reached]
This unit can't swim, so Obliterating the base would be suicide. Not gonna do it. Don't have any way to get a ship over there quickly either, as you can't drop into the ocean. It'll just have to wait until our ships sail in. Meanwhile, this base has got some expensive facilities I can trash for a few turns.
Post by: bvanevery on September 19, 2021, 07:03:56 AM
Ark of the Edicts is the easiest thing to dispossess Cha Dawn of. For some reason he thought he had 84 years to produce an Empath Chrono Shock Troops prototype. Even if all of Planet turns against me, it's not gonna take 84 years...
[Limit reached]
Since the R-Bolt on a gravship could in principle fry something a lot bigger, we don't waste one on a walk-in. Instead another Marine speeder does garrison duty. How do you feel about that, Cha?
[Limit reached]
Any time you want to contribute territory to your Comrades. Any time. Cha insults me again. Look I only need a Truce to hold for the rest of the year. It's either enough, or it isn't. I sign off.
[Limit reached]
We've had a couple mindworm bursts. They could use some killing. This is completely trivial, as we have extensive Empath R-Bolt Hovertanks for home defense. A single such unit takes out 2 of the stacks without even taking a wound. We probably made a good amount of money on that, but who's counting anymore?
Post by: bvanevery on September 19, 2021, 07:05:32 AM
Morgan has several bases in his distant hinterlands, that are only defended by 1 or 2 mindworms. These would be very easy to take from him, if the point is to get his attention. But I would very much like to have this base. It was one of the most colossally irritating things, him muscling in on my developed home waters. And we were either at peace or allies at the time, so there was nothing I was prepared to do about it. A war with him never came, until MY 2393 and my Infamy.
[Limit reached]
I've come up with an elaborate and kludgy transport plan, since my ships are out of position. I could commit all manner of suicidal Marines to the enterprise, but this is easier. My people don't like Conventional Missiles any better than gravships, so stockpiling them is not in my best interest. Better to fire the last one off, even if it deprives me of a longer reach capability. I think this is probably the only fighting left this year. And if there is a next year, I can have more CMs where these came from.
[Limit reached]
I send a transport from U.N. Ocean Authority to U.N. Planetary Trust. It picks up the rest of the Marine Speeders, an R-Bolt Artillery Speeder, and a couple of future garrison units. The transport sails back to U.N. Ocean Authority as best it can, stopping in mid-ocean.
[Limit reached]
I send a transport from Sealurk City to the mid-ocean spot. By clicking on each unit and hitting "L", they will load onto the transport that still has moves left! This trick can be used with an infinite number of transports. Even units that have moved already, can be transferred in this way.
[Limit reached]
I move 1 square north. The artillery disembarks and then shells the base. I forgot they had a spore launcher. I should have brought 2 artillery pieces. It is still 3 to 1 against the Isle though, and I do have the Dream Twister.
[Limit reached]
The battle was easy. After taking the base, I use my last transport move to bring it into port. The garrison units take up permanent residence.
[Limit reached]
Morgan rolls over as usual. I spare myself any further indignities parlaying with him.
Post by: bvanevery on September 19, 2021, 07:06:44 AM
So this is it. If the other factions accept an Infamous leader, the game is over. If they don't? Let's just see the vote.
[Limit reached]
2 years ago, I knew this could happen. But 2 years in real world time, was a long time ago! Events so massive occurred, that I broke a web page with all my screenshots. So... now we plan for Morgan and Cha Dawn to keep backstabbing me. Maybe every year, until 2402. I think my territory is going to look nice and neat by the end of it.
This also implies I can't propose to Increase Solar Shade. We have to live with the sinking.
Would Conquest Victory be faster at this point? It wouldn't be faster in terms of mouseclicks. It would take a lot of unit pushing to rule the world. It could be faster in terms of game time.
Well, Morgan has a number of secret projects. Once I've neatened my borders with him, I'll be sure to deprive him of his special infrastructure.
Post by: bvanevery on September 19, 2021, 07:07:42 AM
We've had a Fungal Singularity Missile sitting around unused for a long time. I think I made a very cheap reactor upgrade at one point. I actually now have a use for it. We're in an era where arguably, fungus is actually the best terrain. I honestly can't ever overcome my Earthly green trees bias, so I do plant trees. They do look better on the map.
Part of the reason for keeping a missile design around, is so the game doesn't forget your design. It happens when the game runs out of design slots, as it will just recycle the ones for units that are not in use. This is particularly annoying in the case of a nuke, which takes a long time to complete a prototype. It's not so bad in the case of a Tectonic missile, which has happened. I was working on a new Tectonic missile at my Skunkworks "just in case", but now Inertial Damping armor is available. I might as well prototype the capability, just to have it ready.
[Limit reached]
Where I once had hardscrabble dry flatlands, now I've instantly got 6 squares of beneficial fungus! Of course big nasty mindworms and a small fungal tower are sitting on top of them. But when I bought this base from Morgan, I inherited 3 tiny mindworm larvae. That was the only garrison. And then I cheekily dropped in my surplus of Fission Drop Trance 3-Res Garrisons, because I had them, and not much else frankly. Not good enough to resist a conventional attack, but totally excellent against mindworms. Even if every single one of my larvae dies, I seriously doubt the mindworms can harm me. I mean, I am the master of both the Neural Amplifier and the Dream Twister.
[Limit reached]
Even better, I finally get something for all this +2 PLANET I've had since forever. Unfortunately a captured fungal tower will turn right back into an indigenous enemy next year. I don't think it's possible to move it into a land transport, aka a "truck", but I don't remember actually trying. This doesn't come up all that often. It might also be a source of weird "fungal simultaneous existence" bugs on the map, so I'm gonna try to disband this thing in a minute here. First I kill or capture other stuff though.
[Limit reached]
Not a single loss. Hardly a scratch on my worms. In fact, this is a recruitment strategy! I can guarantee the position of mindworms within a small area, that I know I can either capture or kill. It farms me either recruits, or a small amount of money if unsuccessful. With the missile range increases in my mod, I could keep walking a front of this stuff for quite some distance from my home territory. I bet anything captured would also be Independent, if I was operating far enough away from my territory. I've never thought of such tactics before. I think I will make another missile, to preserve my capability!
[Limit reached]
Um, I can't get the captured fungal tower active in order to disband it. Right clicking on it doesn't do anything. However, it did Home itself to Xi Sector when it appeared. I can get a right click menu in the unit support window!
[Limit reached]
Although it is tempting to discover what the other menu options might do to an immobile shouldn't-be-mine unit, this has been a long After Action Report. I've already had to fire up the Scenario Editor once to fix a problem, and I don't really want to tempt fate. However I will post about this exotic experience elsewhere in the forum, to encourage others to find out what's up.
[Limit reached]
Tempting as it might be to see this thing explode in a shower of spores, I'd like my own units, in and around the tower, to stay intact. Again, something to explore some other time. In case anyone wants to explore this now, I'm attaching a saved game.
Oh shoot. I am big dummy! Getting all excited typing this up, I hit Confirmed. Of course now there's no point in the save, because there's no fungal tower. Sorry!
;tower ;brainhurts :doh ;rotflmao :stickpoke: ;clap
Post by: bvanevery on September 19, 2021, 03:00:07 PM
I need a new 70 mineral unit, as I've got various cities that produce that, and I don't need any more R-Bolt Artillery Speeders. What I really need are garrison units that are easy to deploy, that can hold up to some kind of attack, if not all possible attacks. Cheaper drop units have to be Fusion reactor units. This one might be good for preventing pillaging, as its high movement gives it a good chance of disengaging from most attackers. It may get wounded and have to run away, it may not be able to steadfastly hold ground, but that may not really be necessary in combat practice. And we've seen from recent battles, that lots of ground forces can take out enemy mindworms in the field, without any special equipment. The Dream Twister is that powerful.
[Limit reached]
I also need a new 80 mineral unit. Amphibious Missile Hovertanks are nice and all, but I already have a number of those, and not that many coastal bases to worry about. This unit would be interesting if I was facing a lot of Fusion ECM stuff, but I don't think I am. Its armament is a bit weak and the jump to Chaos is huge. I don't think Drop Chaos Fusion anything is possible, so maybe I just can't think in terms of conventional assault units.
[Limit reached]
A mechanical mindworm that can drop? Let's try it! I have so little experience with psi weapons and armor.
[This may mean that this weapon is way too damn cheap in my mod. I would need to play another game where I use it when it first comes available, to see if it's overwhelmingly powerful or not.]
[Limit reached]
Another way to move troops into the field, is to just accept that they can't attack right away. Let a non-combat vehicle do the dropping, and let a non-drop unit emerge next turn. Adding Heavy Transport would give this unit a capacity of 2, but would totally blow the budget. It at least has the benefit of being a big chunk of armor and reactor, so whatever is carried, is unlikely to be hurt. Might be good for eventually bringing unarmored and very expensive Black Hole Guns into combat. Knowing that I can drop into fungus and thereby heal up the drop damage before next turn, is a good tactic with this unit.
Post by: bvanevery on September 19, 2021, 07:23:45 PM
MY 2395. What if I have to do this every year? I suppose it would still take less of my real world time than a Conquest victory. But this is getting old. Perhaps I should press the Cult to the limit of my easy industrial output.
[Limit reached]
Is there any threshold of stomping, at which either will calm down? I suppose once I have enough troops in the field, I can form a wall to sweep them back.
[Limit reached]
I certainly don't need any of Morgan's secret projects. The Weather Paradigm might be "nice to have" for the speedup of my Formers. But these bases are right in the middle of Morgan's territory. I really haven't even secured my "land islands" inside of Cultist territory yet, so I think it would just be annoying, bothering to take such cities right now.
[Limit reached]
Instead I'll just neaten our borders and deny him forward bases. There might be some point at which he gives up "surprise attacking" me. Even an AAA Singularity defender can't stand up to a modern Conventional Missile.
[Limit reached]
I don't really want the bother of these formerly Usurper sea bases, but I do need to pick up all the probe teams that ended up in them. The ship will Obliterate and move on to the coastal base, to do the same.
[Limit reached]
I think I forgot to sell off a facility in there, in my haste writing this up. I won't make the same mistake in the next base, as I remember it has some valuable stuff worth selling off.
[Limit reached]
The Marine speeder climbs on to the land and finds better things to do. The Drop R-Laser hovertanks have been killing Morganic mindworms and spore launchers.
[Limit reached]
I accidentally meet Morgan while tending to other matters. He wasn't persuaded by the loss of a trivial base. He needs more of a beating somewhere.
Post by: bvanevery on September 19, 2021, 09:04:31 PM
This base is just out of range of my 1 remaining Conventional Missile. Although missiles can stay in the air a long time and hit anything on Planet, it takes multiple turns to do that. I want it now. That means this base has to be a test of the new Psi Hovertanks. I don't have anything else that's both drop and heavily armed.
[Limit reached]
When I designed this unit, I didn't think about 12-Res armor ruining my agenda. Next year I might prevail, when I don't have an orbital insertion penalty. But if I want it now, this is not a unit I'm just going to throw away. It costs 80 minerals and a Conventional Missile only costs 60. Makes me wonder though: what would I throw away, to be in a hurry? Maybe nothing. So this is not actually a good "get Morgan's attention" base.
[Limit reached]
Morgan Gravitonics is on the flank of my Manifold Nexus enclave, and it was within range of my CM. Unfortunately I barely dented the defender, doing only 22% damage. The base had an Aerospace Complex and a Sensor Array.
[Limit reached]
Most Morganic bases that I could easily take, are not desirable to have. Morgan Construction is a notable exception. It's home to both the Ascetic Virtues and the Longevity Vaccine. Contrary to my earlier thoughts about creating more "islands" that are just hard to defend, it's actually contiguous with my existing territory. I think I need to take and hold this region, even if it requires multiple turns.
[Limit reached]
I was guessing that a psi unit doesn't have any special advantage attacking a mindworm, so I should try one of the slightly cheaper high speed skirmisher units, that I have more of. I didn't expect a 3-pulse foil probe team to be able to intervene as the defender! That ship shouldn't even be in there since it's landlocked. Probably went on a mission at some point and had an unfortunate return. So the disadvantage of a skirmisher, is it's a fast unit that can be countered by low level 3-pulse armor. Well I shouldn't have too much trouble finding something to overcome that.
[Limit reached]
It might be worth designing these units with Empath capability. The problem is, now the mindworms are being selected as the defenders. I don't think I made enough psi tanks to power through all 3 of them. These are why things like Empath and R-Bolt are useful, because they change who is selected as the defender. Granted, if I had 3 psi tanks, or more precisely 3 psi strikes where I don't die, then the probe team probably just dies and never gets to defend. I'll check my inventory before committing some gravships, which I've realized are also in range. Nope, 2 psi tanks is all I managed this year.
[Limit reached]
I guess I shouldn't have expected a probe team to just jump in front of a really big gun, just because it has Resonance on it. It's time to just start getting the job done, whatever the wounds. Actually that cost my gravship 50%. Not what I'd call a stellar performance. The psi tank took 80% wounds. Not impressed, but hey, I did get to drop it where I wanted it. And now the problem is, I had a gravship in range. It wasn't plural like I thought.
[Limit reached]
I could have avoided half these problems if I'd had some artillery to soften the mindworms with. A R-Bolt isn't going to do anything against 12-Res armor, but Morgan and other factions have a habit of garrisoning with a mix of conventional troops and mindworms. I couldn't make a cost effective Singularity unit, but a Quantum version is 90 minerals. I have a few cities producing that much, so I switch their production from Drop Transport to this. Actually just 1 city right now. Shouldn't oversell my capability.
[Limit reached]
I sent a Drop Transport loaded with Graviton Artillery to prepare for an assault on Kappa Sector next year. Notice that the Drop Transport took a wound when landing, but the passenger did not. I disembark because there's a Spore Launcher to fight in the base, and I don't know if being Loaded on a Transport would be bad. Previously I cleared this landing space using one of the somewhat cheaper Photon Skirmishers. It took a stiff wound blasting a mindworm, but it'll live. The psi tank takes up position under the protection of the Drop Transport's 12-Res armor.
[Limit reached]
Belatedly I realize I actually have an R-Laser tank in theater, with plenty of moves to get to Morgan Construction and attack. The reason I can do that job, is because of the "inferior" antigrav sled design I stopped producing awhile ago. I must get some of these obstructing mindworms out of the way first. The newer antigrav sled skirmishers can do that.
[Limit reached]
In fact, I can do it with the skirmisher I already landed. It has that much movement. Taking advantage of some fungus and the Xenoempathy Dome to find my route, I am forced to attack at 2/3rds strength. I do prevail, although I'm knocked down to 90% wounds. Next time I'll think about scouting and positioning more.
[Limit reached]
It takes a 2nd skirmisher to destroy a small mindworm and a nearly dead spore launcher, but I clear the way for my angle on the base. It blasts the mindworm easily and the probe team dies too. I take an additional 10% wounds, totaling 30%, which means I did well. I'm out of moves though. Before taking the base, I need to decide whether I want to fry other Morganic mindworms in the field.
[Limit reached]
I'm starting to feel a little bit greedy. The city just to the north contains 3 secret projects! I need to think about whether I have a way to overcome that 12-Res defender in a hurry.
Post by: bvanevery on September 19, 2021, 10:09:57 PM
Morgan has a base full of nothing but mindworms on my flank. I easily have enough drop units to conquer that. The rail also ends at that base, so it's a good stopping point in that direction. I take Morgan Construction with a drop garrison that desperately needed to heal. Since it had an Aerospace Complex, I had to drop outside its radius and walk in. But that was no problem due to it touching fungus and the Xenoempathy Dome. I do not talk to Morgan after the conquest, I cut him off. I don't expect to talk to him until after I've got Morgan Solarflex, and even then, we'll see what capabilities I have remaining. It's not like I expect him to actually honor any Truce. It's for sake of form, wondering if there's any lower limit after which he'll stop backstabbing.
[Limit reached]
Taking a base gives me a place to land without taking wounds. I still suffer the -50% orbital insertion penalty. I'm out of new skirmisher units and it's time to call up other units. I don't want to use Drop Trance 12-Res units on this because their defensive capability is important. However I can spare some of the few Drop Trance 3-Res units and just spread my Drop Trance 12-Res units thinner to cover the holes.
[Limit reached]
Psi combat is not particularly complicated. I've run around in various games with Scouts on rails. No rails connecting my homeland though, so this is what must be. Seems to be pretty good training, as my unit takes 70% wounds and goes Elite.
[Limit reached]
So what do I have to take out a 12-Res Singularity garrison with? A whole lotta probe teams that are actually in range over fungus, with nothing better to do. Unfortunately Morgan is the proud owner of the Citizens' Defense Force at Morgan Metagenics. It makes a Perimeter Defense impossible to destroy.
Post by: bvanevery on September 20, 2021, 05:33:12 AM
Morgan Metagenics and Morgan Processing are well within range of my gravships. They're also decently defended with AAA units. Morgan Metagenics in particular has 2 of 'em. I have a Wave gravship in the area, but it's 40% wounded. The other one is way to the south. This reminds me that I don't even have a Transport in the region. I'm not really equipped to assault Morgan Metagenics from across the sea. And sending 20% wounded Marines into battle after orbital insertion against Singularity units is suicide. That base just isn't going to be taken this year. Maybe if I sacrificed most of my gravships, but I don't think that's a good idea.
[Limit reached]
I switch to pacifying the Cult, to the extent that will ever happen. Unlike the cities near the Morganites, here I have completed Psi gates. I have many conventional forces I can bring through them, that were once made to deal with mindworm pops that I expected to be much worse. I'm limited to bringing 1 unit per gate, but that's plenty for taking some of Cha Dawn's cities.
[Limit reached]
Compared to Morgan, beating up Cha Dawn is trivial. I've already gained a Truce. Since I'm tired of them backstabbing me every year, I've decided to up the cost of such actions for them. If they sign a Treaty, then breaking it will cost them more of their reputation. If they get mad and declare Vendetta despite our Truce, I don' t know if that harms their reputation or not, but I'll just take another city. And if they're diplomatically clever, and just taunt me, it's not really any different than if I hadn't tried.
[Limit reached]
I expected this. I certainly don't have to stop fighting. I wonder if there's any threshold of loss, at which signing a Treaty would actually start to make sense to them?
[Limit reached]
This city does 29 eco-damage. That's not a consideration of conquest that I expected. The main difference between their cities and mine, is they don't have Centauri Preserves and Temples of Planet. We repeat the "Treaty Bug" dialogue sequence. The war continues. My big R-Bolt hovertank is too wounded to continue. Unfortunately I forgot that I've only completed one Psi Gate. The rest are under construction. I'm also out of garrison units. Still I think it's probably best to sweep out as much as I can, because they're not going to stop attacking me anyways.
[Limit reached]
A wounded Wave gravship is still tough enough to take out an AAA defender when it only has a Fusion reactor. The fight is damaging though, and I'm promoted to Elite.
Post by: bvanevery on September 20, 2021, 06:42:27 AM
I've started committing the Drop Marine Missile Hovertanks because I have nothing else to clean up all these mindworms with. I've used wounded gravships to clean up some of them. I'll use base takeovers to heal and get a bit more mileage out of them.
[Limit reached]
I'm out of Drop Marines and gravships. I've done lots of damage, and have minimized the Cult's opportunities to strike back at me. But I suspect they're going to find a way. I try for a Treaty, which gets the usual response about what I wimp I am. I don't belabor anything with threats, as it makes no difference. They will surely attack again.
[Limit reached]
I'm out of Drop garrisons. Citizens Against Progress be damned, I need some upgrades! I'm very close to what I need, so maybe I can keep them a little bit happy.
[Limit reached]
This 1 unit out in the middle of the ocean, needs to go to a base I actually care about. For that it'll need upgrading. Unfortunately I forgot it had already moved this turn and can't accomplish the mission.
[Limit reached]
Covering with a ship, is the reasonable alternative until I get something more permanent together.
[Limit reached]
Nobody will miss this feeble ECM unit that Morgan gave me a long time ago. It becomes one of the usual Drop Trance 12-Res Sentinels and goes off to do its duty. After this unit I stop fooling around looking for small stuff, and just upgrade a whole lot of Fusion AAA Trance 3-Res designs. It covers all the Cult problems and I have a few left over to throw at Morgan.
[Limit reached]
These 3 bases are a pain that tie up 3 gravships. Next year I'll obliterate 2 of 'em.
Post by: bvanevery on September 20, 2021, 04:52:31 PM
I use a drop ship to bring 3 R-Bolt artillery pieces and 5 Empath R-Bolt hovertanks to assault Morgan Solarflex next year. I'd like to think that's enough. My last skirmisher destroys a Sensor Array to give more advantage. Although I do have another drop ship, I don't actually have more offensive equipment to move around. Drop garrisons yes, but damage doers no. I leave my AAA R-Bolt hovertank artillery at home, in case of unexpected giant stacks of Locusts. Those units are a little too valuable and specialized to commit to the front.
[Limit reached]
My surplus of Drop Trance 3-Res garrisons, I deploy in the field to cover wounded hovertanks. I didn't think Cha Dawn had a chance to attack my nearly dead units before, but now, there's no possibility. They're all on rail systems so I haven't lost any orbital insertion capability doing this.
[Limit reached]
Morgan is under Thought Control so I cannot buy his bases. Cha Dawn, however, has a strategic vulnerability because of his ideology. He insists vehemently on a Eudaimonic, Planet friendly future for human existence, so he cannot switch to Thought Control and gain its +3 PROBE immunity to mind control. He also has no capitol. Surely was one of the cities I've taken over. I've already moved my 2 drop ships so I cannot bring any probe teams to his lands this year, but I've moved my probe team surpluses to the drop ship cities so I can jump next year. Without interference from possibilities such as floods and broken rail lines. Next year will be another military swipe at Cha Dawn, since I have numerous gravships and garrisons to do that with. But once they reach their extent, perhaps the rest I'll just summarily buy out.
Post by: bvanevery on September 21, 2021, 02:25:44 AM
MY 2396. 2 spore launchers got in the way of my R-Bolt artillery. I prevailed, and weakened the remaining mindworms with the 3rd piece, but the main armored defender took no real damage. Consequently, I lost 2 tanks on the assault. I completely forgot about Conventional Missiles, but they do very poorly against Singularity AAA defenders anyways. If I want to consistently take Morganic bases without losses, I need bigger guns. Otherwise it would be best to concentrate on weaker factions.
[Limit reached]
At Kappa Sector, my Graviton artillery did a mere 3% damage to Morgan's defender. It's not going to put me into any bases.
[Limit reached]
However a fresh psi tank, that doesn't have to drop from orbit, can open some doors. It blows the defender to smithereens and has enough movement to take the base. I guess this is how we're fighting Morgan.
[Limit reached]
Because of the poor performance of psi tanks in some other circumstances, I'm having cognitive dissonance about what this war is going to be like. I anticipate needing to throw big Black Hole Gun infantry at Morgan. I devise an expensive land drop transport to do it. By 'expensive' I mean it'll take some base 2 turns to make, instead of 1. The turn after it has dropped, I think the 'truck' can just carry its cargo right up to the base. Then the transported units attack. Pretty cheap shot really, and the AI doesn't know how to do this. That's why there's no 'truck' predefined unit in my mod. But here we are, pulling out every cheap trick in the book.
[Limit reached]
Black Hole Gun infantry and artillery is really expensive. My 60 mineral cities could make a Conventional Missile or a Fungal Missile in 1 turn, or one of these in 4 turns. But CMs aren't scratching anything, and I'm dubious about fungal patches ruining the terraforming around a city I'm going to take over. Since the cost is an even multiple of 60, I might as well make a few of these for the future. The CMs aren't doing me any good. I also design some Singularity Infantry to try to hit different production expense points.
Post by: bvanevery on September 21, 2021, 02:29:59 AM
[Limit reached]
I shell a stack of 1 Locust and lots of Isles, simply because I can. The Isles aren't any threat as my base hasn't sunk yet, and the Locust would just die on my Trance 3-Res armor, but I feel like demonstrating.
[Limit reached]
I'm surprised that the Locust didn't take any damage. Was there more than 1? I didn't look that carefully at the stack size. I heard a lot of artillery pops, so it could be a size 32 stack with multiple Locusts.
[Limit reached]
Why isn't it hitting the Locust? Oh shoot! I designed these guns with Anti-Aircraft, which is totally stupid as they don't even have any armor. I should have made them with Air Superiority. Well consider this a weapons test. Gotta work out the kinks. In my brain.
[Limit reached]
I upgrade the 2 dumb units. Ships can do this sort of design too. It's a good plan when Planet turns into waterworld. I don't think we're going to get there though.
Post by: bvanevery on September 21, 2021, 05:49:47 AM
Silly Aki swore a Pact with Morgan and attacked me. I take a base to settle her down. She signs a Truce. While garrisoning, I notice all my home guard are AAA units with Non-Lethal Methods. That's a complete waste under my social engineering choices, so I upgraded them all to Drop units.
[Limit reached]
Singularity Conventional Missiles barely put a dent in Singularity AAA defenders, but they blow Quantum defenders to smithereens. I've stopped making CMs due to their impracticality most places, but I'm finding ways to use up the ones I made already. I take the base with a wounded gravship. I successfully use the "right clicking trick" to enable it to continue its movement.
[Limit reached]
Due to the capture of the Maritime Control Center, I have enough movement to guard the 3rd base with my ship and free up all 3 gravships.
[Limit reached]
Knowing that I may be able to buy all of Cha Dawn's cities, I send my gravships to hunt mindworms in Morganic territory. He has a huge horde of them, rather like Cha Dawn used to have. I eventually wore most of those out, so perhaps I can do the same to Morgan.
Post by: bvanevery on September 21, 2021, 04:10:26 PM
I've had so much trouble balancing the cost of base buying in my mod. It's so overpowered in the stock game, yet, this is pretty unsatisfying. It would only cost 289k to Corner The Energy Market! I don't think 11k is a representative portion of the cities that are left, but maybe I'm wrong about that. At any rate this ain't happenin'. I'm not sure what all my probe teams are going to get used for now, but it won't be for this.
[Limit reached]
I've absorbed a lot of the world. Unfortunately there is no intermediate zoom to get this better in frame. The little blue squares are me. I've eaten a lot of the yellow and pink bits. Like a cancer that's metastasizing.
Did I just mindlessly quit my turn without saving my game first? Good grief. Morning play. 1 cup of coffee wasn't enough. I was just so annoyed by this small map readout. Oh good grief, now I have to do my base purchases all over again.
[Limit reached]
I've been meticulously taking advantage of "make partial payment" this whole game. You have to do a small addition problem in your head, to figure out what the optimal hurrying expenditure is. Since I was a math competitor in my youth, I just see this as keeping up a skill. However in the face of coffee, bothering with all the UI clicking is a drag. Since I'm fairly rich, and seemingly will never spend all my money, nor win an Economic Victory, it's time to just click through the UI in the more straightforward way, and not bother with the obsessive micromanagement. This is the kind of decision you make when you're forced to do things over again.
This endgame is, officially, a boring drag. I totally get why 4X gamers blow this stuff off. The only reason I'm doing it is for the AAR. It would really help, at this point, for someone to chime in that they're actually reading this.
This time I jolly well remember to hit Save!
Post by: bvanevery on September 21, 2021, 04:59:03 PM
MY 2397. I certainly didn't expect the Cyborgs to finish the tech tree. Their empire has been runted for quite some time. Well maybe it's glorious cooperation with Morgan. I might have to put on my roleplaying hat one last time. It's been quite a lot of careening around between narrative concerns and just, oh good Lord, getting the game actually done. Aki you're wearin' me out gal!
[Limit reached]
Citizens Against Progress be damned. I think it's time to spend all my money on just killing everybody. This is the most expensive boondoggle I can come up with. It costs more than a Secret Project at the beginning of the game. Is it a conceivable upgrade proposition now?
[Limit reached]
The problem with roleplaying made-up political lobbies like Citizens Against Progress, is it imposes a real time cost on me writing up an AAR. I've spent a lot of time playing with one hand tied behind my back, as opposed to what I could actually do with all the money I've got. Now maybe that makes for a more interesting AAR. I dunno, one of you readers would have to actually tell me that. For all I know, only Buster's Uncle is actually reading. Now though, with other factions actually threatening to Transcend, it's time to switch gears and pull out all the stops.
[Limit reached]
I was never that impressed with the psi gravship design. Maybe I wasn't fair to it. I don't know about air units, but for ground units, I think the psi weapon is too cheap. I plan to up its cost, along with my other mod changes, and do another AAR. Maybe one with an excuse to test psi more? Like as Deirdre.
[Limit reached]
Although I've got enough money to upgrade the vast majority of my gravships to BHGs, I don't really want to commit my cash to a hugely expensive weapons platform that's not field proven. So this will be the last chunk of BHG gravships that I buy. I think the rest are getting upgraded to some kind of Wave R-Bolt, as they're probably a lot cheaper. They might do just fine in a lot of circumstances.
[Limit reached]
I didn't realize a lot of my gravships only had Quantum reactors on them. In fact, did I just make another coffee mistake? I rescind my confirmation and check again. No, it's ok. The Wave design has a Singularity reactor on it. Soon we'll see if I should have been fighting with Wave ships. Wave is expensive when designing a unit, so it's not an obvious decision. But this upgrade was awfully cheap, only 60 credits per unit.
I know I've got the Nano Factory helping with that, but even 120 credits is nothing compared to absurdist BHG upgrades. This almost feels like an upgrade exploit. I guess we'll see. I don't remember playing any game where I had a serious reason to bring out the BHGs. I suppose it could be argued, including this one! I had to deliberately hem and haw about winning to manufacture the circumstance where they might actually be needed.
Post by: bvanevery on September 21, 2021, 05:27:52 PM
First order of business is stealing the last tech and putting Aki back in her place again. Although maybe it's a formality at this point and she's just gonna keep attacking every year. Although it may look like I only have hovertank units in my home territory now, and that an ECM unit might be a good choice, this forgets about that Conventional Missile I held in reserve. It didn't really have a good target, and now it does!
[Limit reached]
Almost all of my probe teams went abroad, for reasons that proved fruitless. But I kept a couple of amphibious probe teams in reserve, in case Zhakarov acted up.
[Limit reached]
I'm not sure why we're gonna keep up with this pretense. She calls me wimp.
Post by: Buster's Uncle on September 21, 2021, 05:28:25 PM
Post by: bvanevery on September 22, 2021, 04:43:54 AM
[Limit reached]
Even a fairly wounded Wave R-Bolt gravship will smash up an AAA defender that only has a Fusion reactor. In future games I don't think I'll be standing on roleplaying principle. Abundant, properly armed gravships would have won this awhile ago, and honestly I had plenty of Empath citizens to keep my population in line. Where's the democracy in that? Just beam happy thoughts into the public...
Oh, and the "apparent" difficulty of the engagement, promoted my unit to Elite as well.
[Limit reached]
This is the 1st firing of the expensive BHG gravships. It will probably go well, but it's only a Quantum defender. I've pretty much run out of drop hovertanks to take out the hordes of puny mindworm spam in various places. Psi tanks actually hold up rather poorly after orbital insertion and I've lost at least 2 to mindworm base defenders, maybe more. I won't make any more of those and need to come up with a different 80 minerals design.
[Limit reached]
I have enough Psi Gates now, that I probably don't need all my units to be Drop capable.
[Limit reached]
The last of the hated horse-faces have been inconsequentially put to death.
[Limit reached]
This is all that's left of the southern portion of Cha Dawn's empire. Next year it'll probably be united with my occupation to the north and everything from north to south, swept out. Cha Dawn still has a large land to the west, but it is sparsely populated with not much of a rail system. Such a hinterland is unimportant. Even the Cyborgs are a better target than that.
[Limit reached]
2 of these cities contain Morgan's last secret projects. I don't expect them to last next year either. The Citizens' Defense Force, in particular, will finally go down. That will allow my probe teams to destroy his Perimeter Defenses, if I so choose. I actually have Blink Displacer technology available to me now, as in my mod it's at the very end of the tech tree. However it is expensive and probably unnecessary.
[Limit reached]
The Cyborgs could in principle complete the Voice of Planet, but in practice it will never happen. I don't think she can resist attacking me again, and obviously, this will be the 1st thing on my list to make her back off. Earlier I imagined doing some big roleplay about how awful Transcendence is, when someone finally got to this point. But this is one whopper of an After Action Report and I really just want it over. Suffice it to say, Lal would rather just own Planet as its leading democrat.
[Limit reached]
I'll probably buy the Telepathic Matrix in a few years for a big wad of cash. I really don't need to prevent people from rioting, they're all pretty much fine. The big cities have so many Transcendi as to be self-sustaining. The smaller, newly conquered cities, I really don't mind making some nice stuff for them. I don't need any kind of overwhelming number of units to finish this up, my current production is fine. I blew half my money on the BHG upgrades and they're pretty much good for task. I haven't really taken on a Singularity defender yet, but even if I lost gravships, I have a wave of BHG and Singularity Infantry that will be completed soon. That will surely be enough to stomp the northeastern portion of Morgan's empire.
Post by: bvanevery on September 22, 2021, 05:20:41 AM
I just realized my income is now so high, I can afford to pay those ridiculous prices on base takeovers. I definitely don't have anything else I could possibly do with the money. I don't remember it being quite this high before. Maybe it's a Transcendi effect.
[Limit reached]
I mean, what does the Telepathic Matrix even cost, if you've got enough minerals into it? I think you only need 4 lines of minerals to overcome the rush penalty, so next year, I'll find out. It's probably gonna be cheaper than this! But money just doesn't matter anymore.
[Limit reached]
I don't know if I find this convenient, or completely silly. It's certainly incredibly wasteful.
[Limit reached]
The 3 bases are The Three Stooges. Cha Dawn's mindworm comedy.
[Limit reached]
I'm doing so well that I'm actually running out of garrison units. The AAA Fusion units I've captured could stand to become something more immediately useful. This is my design for something that can clobber the mindworms generally wandering around the bases. I do mind control some of them when I take a base, but for some reason, not necessarily all. Plus they're just such a swarm everywhere.
[Limit reached]
I'm not sure why, but that upgrade only affected 1 of my AAA Photon Fusion garrisons. I have 3 remaining, and they have no unit design associated with them now. I've used them as glorified Scouts against some mindworms. If they die they die.
Post by: bvanevery on September 22, 2021, 12:20:52 PM
MY 2398. It is the Aerospace Complexes, not the Perimeter Defenses, that are now a barrier to my BHG gravships. I can use probe teams to destroy them. It's a pity that almost all of them left the region. Fortunately this one succeeds at its mission, although it dies.
[Limit reached]
I overestimated the endurance of my BHG gravships. They were too wounded to take much of anything.
[Limit reached]
However I was able to blow out the Cyborg homeland, because a fair number of the gravships I upgraded to BHG, were in this region. Also Aki had mostly not made AAA defenders.
[Limit reached]
The Cult has been vanquished from north to south, but one of the land bridges sunk. Obviously I haven't been relying on it, with all the drop troops, nor do I have enough Formers to put a rail in there anyways. The game plays quite differently ever since I made mag tubes more expensive. Previously by this point in the game, I'd have rails touching everything. Now even a single broken rail is highly disruptive.
[Limit reached]
I've moved everything that can shoot well, so now it's time to buy.
[Limit reached]
I forgot all about the Telepathic Matrix. I just want Aki off of my peninsula. I don't have enough money now to complete it. It would cost around 5k.
Post by: bvanevery on September 23, 2021, 03:35:04 AM
MY 2399. One problem with administering a big empire, is you're not likely to have built enough Sensor Arrays while in the middle of conquest. I totally missed a few of these mindworms. In fact I even found another one while typing this up. I don't think they trashed any of my city facilities, but they did trash my defender. It's a good thing I otherwise swept the Cyborgs out of the region, or they might have gotten a walk-in.
[Limit reached]
It's quite unfortunate that 'L' is the preferred command for "wait for my unit is fully healed up before telling me about it again". It's also how you load a transport. Consequently, my big plan to ride a Singularity Infantry up to the side of this base was foiled, because I'd accidentally loaded a wounded unit into it. Nothing to do but park and use it as covering armor I suppose.
[Limit reached]
I took a vast swath of Cultist territory, because it was closest to my gravships. Many of them were wounded and the Cult is really the only one weak enough to kick around. Frequently I'd take a base and then fly in a wounded gravship to heal it up, often successfully using the right click "Activate Unit" trick from the captured base screen, to continue its movement. After taking the base, I'd bring wounded drop hovertanks to clean up mindworms surrounding the base. Sometimes they died, but most of them lived. I think performance when wounded, proved that R-Lasers and Empath are the way to go with the lower cost designs. Also that Empath is too powerful for its price, so in the future in my mod I'll be knocking it down to a +25% bonus.
[Limit reached]
This year I remember to buy the Telepathic Matrix. It costs me less than 1 year's income! The rest of my money, probably will get spent on various facility upgrades. The Cyborgs are down to sea bases, and I don't particularly feel a need to own those. I trashed the Cult so easily this year with understrength units, and even wiped out a lot of their mindworm spam, that I don't feel any need to buy the rest of their bases. I can't buy Morganic bases.
Post by: bvanevery on September 23, 2021, 03:18:43 PM
MY 2400. I sure missed this one last year. Another lack of Sensor Arrays problem. But I'm hardly going to spend my time terraforming the entire map at this point in the game. Geosynchronous Satellites can help with this sort of thing maybe? But there are still a lot of facilities to build, even with the Telepathic Matrix, so I get to it when I get to it.
[Limit reached]
Here's the 'truck' in action. Moves up next to the base and provides armored cover, while unmoved passenger gets ready to fire away.
[Limit reached]
I previously peppered the defenders with some drop artillery, although that piece has actually been sitting around healing up for awhile. Hopefully by weakening the mindworms, they won't be selected as defenders. If they are, then my plan is undone and big weapons won't be worth much. Everything would need to become an Empath unit in that case.
[Limit reached]
My artillery barrage worked! Although I wonder if it would work as well if I didn't have the Dream Twister. Unfortunately this is going to be a suicide mission. But shooting at heavily armored defenders is exactly the task this unit was designed for. Albeit a bit cheaply, as I didn't want to wait around for a Black Hole Gun. I need to take out this base to get to the Citizens' Defense Force, which is at the next base down the road. After that, I'll be able to smash up Perimeter Defenses with probe teams. Of course by then, the game may be over.
[Limit reached]
That was a pretty good blasting. It did all it could without actually winning. I'd say any old gravship should be able to mop up now. I wonder if a 10% Singularity defender would still select against an R-Laser?
[Limit reached]
I had one of the few remaining psi tanks ready to go, so I clear out the mindworms with it. Even with only 2/3rds moves remaining, it also takes out the nearly dead AAA unit.
[Limit reached]
I heal a BHG gravship and continue its movement with the right click Activate Unit exploit. Well, is it an exploit? Who says I should have to terminate my movement just because I landed in a base anyways? I think I'll call it a workaround.
Post by: bvanevery on September 23, 2021, 04:12:25 PM
A fully healed BHG Empath Wave gravship can make short work of 1 AAA Singularity defender, even if that's all it's gonna be able to do. Actually I only took 30% wounds from that.
[Limit reached]
Once again I'm able to heal a BHG gravship, although this time for whatever reason, it fails to continue its movement. With the ability to destroy a Perimeter Defense, Morgan will have a much more difficult time resisting me.
[Limit reached]
I continue the debacle of last year's bad Drop Transport movement. It did actually do its job as covering armor though, taking 70% wounds against a mindworm assault. Surprisingly, the Singularity Infantry prevails in its battle, although the defender was only a Quantum unit. I heal another BHG gravship but again can't continue it's movement. I'm starting to suspect that if I enter the base using a mouse drag command, the unit gets a 'G' designation on it and that stops the right click trick from working. So I might have to enter the base with a keystroke.
[Limit reached]
I switch theaters as it's becoming difficult to find drop hovertanks for the mindworm cleanups. I take 1 more Cultist base but this might be the limit of what I can manage this year. I'm able to successfully heal a BHG gravship and continue its movement by approaching the base using a cursor key instead of a mouse drag, then immediately when the captured base screen pops up, right clicking to Activate Unit. I don't need BHG gravships to wipe out Cha Dawn, so they will fly north without engaging with anything, to go deal with Morgan.
Post by: bvanevery on September 23, 2021, 04:21:22 PM
Just because I could knock out a Perimeter Defense or Aerospace Complex with a probe team, doesn't mean I actually have one in theater available to do it. Probe teams don't count as combat units when doing orbital insertion, they just stop their movement. Thus, I've never bothered to build drop probe teams, as they aren't really any better than ground teams anyways. Constantly repositioning probe teams for possible ground assaults is a chore, so I haven't done it. I certainly had no incentive to do it before I took the Citizens' Defense Force, and that only happened this year. This is a very long AAR with multiple days put into it, so it's not like I remember "prepare to take the CDF" as an imperative when I start playing again.
This base had an Aerospace Complex, preventing me from dropping various ground troops on it to heal it. I also made the mistake of trying to drop a badly wounded hovertank nearby and drive it in, forgetting that badly wounded means only 1 movement left. So, I brought this gravship up from pretty far to the south, to get some healing. Along the way various impediments distorted its movement. By the time it arrived, it had to approach on a diagonal with a mouse click drag in order to complete the mission. When arriving in base, this is why you see a 'G' displayed on the unit.
I predict that right click to get the menu, and then Activate Unit, is not gonna work this time. Yep, didn't work. I think that 'G' has gotta get set to blank '-' no order, for it to work. And that may not be possible.
Post by: Vidsek on September 24, 2021, 03:58:42 AM
Tedious as it might be for you, the end-game play is particularly interesting since so few games last that long or are continued once that reach that point.
Post by: bvanevery on September 24, 2021, 05:01:03 AM
Yeah I don't remember actually having to try to do anything, this late in the game. Granted, I roleplayed to arrive at this circumstance. And granted, I categorically refuse to Transcend in this game, except for roleplaying someone who's lost their mind. Planet should die. If I were ever to rewrite this game, and that's unlikely, I'd have the option to kil dis ting ded. Morgan would do it, Zhakarov would do it, Santiago would do it....
Well, the fact that I actually had to try in some respects, says that I did more or less balance a lot of the weapons and armor. 12-Res is pretty tough armor. I'm not sure the AI is ever realistically going to get the chance to use anything more powerful than that though. I wonder what the AIs do if actually allowed to continue? They've proven that they're capable of finishing the tech tree by MY 2400, and I've seen that demonstrated in other games as well. Less clear to me, how long it takes them to Transcend, and if they are capable of advanced warfare. I could turn off Transcend victory, extend the year limit, and run an AI vs. AI game. See what happens.
Post by: bvanevery on September 24, 2021, 05:34:03 AM
Singularity Infantry work well against a 12-Res Singularity defender. There used to be one standing on that patch of empty ground. The heavy drop hovertank transport worked great, just rolled my unit right out to where it could shoot. But putting it back onto the truck was a bit more of a challenge. Clicking on the unit itself doesn't get you anywhere, you can't give it any commands after it's moved.
[Limit reached]
Here's the exploit or workaround, whatever you want to call it. You can give commands to a unit from its home base. You just right click on its image in the SUPPORT window and give it orders. I told it to Load. Hey presto, it's on the ground transport now. Hmm, I wonder if this could be exploited for air transport? You're only supposed to be able to do that in cities.
[Limit reached]
Note that a hovertank transport gets a movement penalty compared to a regular hovertank, so it only gets 2 moves. That's still enough to step 1 square out of a base, unload unarmored infantry, attack with infantry, use the base command workaround to Load the infantry, and retreat with it back into the base. This preserves drop capability for next turn.
Is it overpowered? I'm not sure. I'd have to try to make use of it earlier in the game, and see if it's a big advantage compared to its cost. It does avoid ECM penalties, and the survivability should be better if the transport is armored.
Post by: bvanevery on September 24, 2021, 06:56:51 AM
I drove overland to get to this base, only to realize it had a probe team defender. I brought in another probe team through a Psi Gate, only to realize it wasn't on the rail system and it arrived with 2/3rds movement. I attacked anyways, and the Nethack Terminus and Telepathic Matrix are awesome enough, to blow up an enemy probe team anyways. And thus I was able to take out the Perimeter Defense.
[Limit reached]
The irony of all these drop ships is I've already vanquished all the Morganic stuff that matters. The most immediate Morganic objectives are adjacent by rail. I'm lacking artillery to beat up mindworm defenders with. So I pick on an easier target. The University got uppity with me this year, who knows why. Easily conquered, he signs my Truce. I wonder if they'll be just like everyone else and never make peace?
[Limit reached]
I have almost no unwounded anti-mindworm units left, so it's time for money. I had 1 hovertank probe team in the area, but it did not have enough moves to get to this base without assistance. I had to wastefully use a gravship to blow up a Former that was in the way. I could have just wiped out the AAA defense with that, if only I had anti-mindworm units. I don't think I even have another gravship with sufficient health at this point. Then the probe team had to take out 2 cruiser probe teams in the base. Its movement expended, I'll have to bring another team in.
[Limit reached]
I'll pay it this time, but I could probably upgrade to some absurdly spiffy units for that kind of money.
[Limit reached]
Ha ha! Who knew that would be the threshold? I sure hope they can't betray me for this. I'm going to assume they can't, that the game isn't that malevolent. I suppose our ideological compatibility allows for the surrender, although I'm not sure that's required. If it helps though, then it would be good to go after Zhakarov next. Assuming he's the same kind of backstabber as everyone else.
Post by: bvanevery on September 24, 2021, 08:10:09 AM
If Zhakarov betrays me, then I'm going to lift his bases onto land so they're easier for my existing forces to conquer. I can't see bothering to make a navy or Marines at this point. They would be slow, and I've only got 1 more year to play before my Supreme Leader vote. I've prepositioned my existing Singularity Tectonic Missile to hit somewhere in Zak's core territory, and I've got 2 more coming next year from my biggest whoppingest cities.
[Limit reached]
I can get these 3 cities out of the water with 1 missile. 2 of my cities would no longer be coastal bases, but 2 of Zhakarov's cities would become coastal bases. I position my overpowered drop troops in 3 nearby cities. They were meant to fight Morgan, but getting Zhakarov to surrender is slightly more valuable, or at least entertaining.
[Limit reached]
OMG! :o When I gated my Singularity Hovertank Probe Team into this base, it was the only unit displayed. I freaked! Where did my expensive new units go?? Well scrolling around and coming back to it, it started displaying correctly again. I was worried that I'd found some kind of nasty Psi Gate bug. It's a bug, for sure, but I hope it's harmless.
Post by: bvanevery on September 24, 2021, 04:34:17 PM
MY 2401. What's the woolly headed scientist doing? Nobody else can win an election...
[Limit reached]
The people have spoken. There are a lot of people. A minority of which have been recently conquered. Most of them were living in police states and now see the benefit of the new world system.
[Limit reached]
The one time I lost an election, you didn't see me getting bellicose about it. January 6th, a day that will live in infamy.
Post by: bvanevery on September 24, 2021, 04:36:13 PM
Otkrietia-Discovery is a legacy base that just hasn't managed to get the bureaucratic attention it needs for a healthy, sustainable ecosystem. An anomaly was detected during the election. (Election!) The scouting team found only one Locust, which we thought suspicious and unusual.
[Limit reached]
After destroying it, we found another resting in the fungus nearby. And... more of them, so many as to be beyond count.
[Limit reached]
We wasted no time appropriating the small amount of funds necessary to complete a proper ecological facility by next year, never wanting to see one of these things again.
[Limit reached]
A gung-ho local rushed to assistance, tiring themselves greatly to eliminate but one of the horde in front of us. We thanked them for their heroism using an appropriate medal. While our war planners fretted that much stronger measures must be taken.
[Limit reached]
Long ago, our leading climatologists had us build guns for this contingency. So long ago, that we never found any real use for them, and abandoned their production. One of them still exists somewhere. We cannot for the life of us, determine where.
[Limit reached]
We put out an All Points Bulletin to the citizenry of Planet. Have you seen this gun? It is big, it is round, it is bright red, unlike most service units you've seen. Any leads you have, please video your local authorities. We get many small, low quality images from our dedicated populace, which merely occupy our bureaucrats in fruitless act of sorting.
[Limit reached]
Stymied, we reason that it may have been inadvertently deployed in the field. We also have no memory or record of losing a battle with the 2nd piece. Perhaps it was ravaged in a planetary flood? Those are ongoing, and cause us consternation, as to whether we should summon the Planetary Council to increase our solar shade. I can't understand why that has to be an international effort at this point, but people are clamoring.
[Limit reached]
I don't understand why one of our brilliant bureaucrats declared this weapons platform to be obsolete. No we haven't used it in a long time, but these pieces were on standby for a reason! Where is the last one? You'd think our planners could have provided an inventory tag and a tracking beacon.
[Limit reached]
We eventually reason that this tank crew on the lam, clearly drinking beer in some saloon and not replying to a global APB for their immediate duty, must have a home somewhere. And furthermore, given the era in which it was constructed, it must be one of our oldest core cities. We begin searching the manifests of every such city, and sure enough, we find our crew.
[Limit reached]
We find them, and they have a perfect alibi. There can be no court marshal. They were ordered last year to sink an empty civilian transport! We give them a medal for it and so order, Now get to a Psi Gate at once.
Post by: bvanevery on September 24, 2021, 05:36:19 PM
The crew drives up a road, arrives at the gate, takes the system to the site of our trouble, dutifully scouts for additional problems, finds nothing, returns to base, raises their bright red piece to the sky, and blasts an enormous number of rounds at the horde above us. Many, many die. What remains is now countable.
[Limit reached]
We still consider this small horde to be a threat, requiring some measure to mitigate or eliminate it. Our garrisons are stretched thin and have never ending demands of conquest, so it is not feasible to divert them and wait for an assault. We also have wounded units in the field that need protection. A bright person in the junior pool points out we could have sent a competent ground assault unit to begin with, that the air bombardment was totally unnecessary. But others counter that we can't expect these hordes to always be resting on land. They draw up plans for a new interventive device, to be retorfit on some old artillery pieces that have never shown naval efficacy.
[Limit reached]
The existing piece has modest cost, and would clearly be effective at harming Locusts, if only SAM capability was added.
[Limit reached]
Someone trying to make their career, thinks that bigger guns make deader Locusts though. Their design costs ten times the units to be retrofitted.
[Limit reached]
We cannot have SAM and Drop capability at the same time with a land artillery piece. Some smartass questions whether these units can even arrive at their target in time? In this part of the world, only one could make it, and it would arrive out of breath. Also it would tie up a gate that might be needed for humbling the University.
[Limit reached]
This is a job that ships are needed for. We do have an old ship that's pretty much useless on its own. We conscript it to task.
[Limit reached]
This proposal is even sillier than the last. But at least it's far more mobile.
[Limit reached]
A compromise on the "big gun theory" is reached. Maybe it will perform against other targets, although we've only really seen 1 enemy plane flying around.
Post by: bvanevery on September 24, 2021, 06:05:39 PM
The newly retrofitted ship drops, fires, and its performance is... sufficient. We realize it also doubles as a 12-Res garrison. The base is safe. We leave the wounded units in field to fend for themselves, presuming that these mindless creatures will attack the base first.
[Limit reached]
That one plane... if only we had a few more drop ships, we could complete our roads in peace.
[Limit reached]
We have an old Quantum Antimatter cruiser lying around, back from a time when we thought we might be facing conventional ships, instead of Isles and Locusts. Such a threat never materialized. Antimatter armor adds considerable expense to a design, and there's no appetite for further grandiose spending. We only need to blow up a plane anyways, not a Locust horde of doom.
[Limit reached]
The SAM ship drops to the nearest coastal base, sails to the target, and performs its task. It takes no wounds at all.
[Limit reached]
We are so impressed by this performance that we retrofit our other Singularity Antimatter ship, drop it to Otkriekia-Discovery, and fire upon the Locust remnant. It shoots down... one creature. Maybe "big gun theory" is correct. Well it was meant to shoot down planes anyways, and it did that well.
Post by: bvanevery on September 24, 2021, 06:28:27 PM
Time to cow the University. Our Singularity Tectonic Missile does not have the extent of action expected of it. We start with an assault on 2 bases, as we will need another missile to raise the other 2 bases.
[Limit reached]
Now we actually need that R-Bolt artillery, that others talked about converting. Otherwise our expensive infantry would have to attack an Isle, rendering their expense and deployment completely pointless. We gate in the artillery, drive it over some hills, and open fire on the landlocked Oceanographic Lab. Other units receive a light dusting, but the Isle is badly wounded, making it unlikely to defend.
[Limit reached]
Or so we wished. Would we really have to build all of these with Empath capability, to prevent this calamity? Further artillery strikes will not damage this Isle any more. It is already 50% dead, and that's as dead as things get in a base, from an artillery barrage.
[Limit reached]
Regrouping, we remember our probe teams and take down their Perimeter Defense. We are chagrined and will come back to this objective, when we see how our forces are dispositioned elsewhere.
Post by: bvanevery on September 24, 2021, 07:08:32 PM
Monitoring Station is about to become landlocked, and had a drop transport in it. Rather than waiting for land to be raised and then sending probe teams overland, we sail out our ship and destroy Perimeter Defenses first. Now at least we know we won't fail at that task, and our ship is free to wander around and cause more trouble.
[Limit reached]
Our biggest production bases were inherited from Cha Dawn, so our Tectonic missiles are within range. The hovertank transport does its job, and 2 University Base defenders are summarily executed. The base contains some peons that need cleaning up.
[Limit reached]
Our one venerable Quantum Drop R-Bolt artillery piece lands in Monitoring Station and shells The Marine Institute, seriously wounding a Sealurk.
[Limit reached]
The now coastal Marine Biology Lab had a spore launcher, which took an R-Bolt artillery to eliminate. We barely manage to bring in a Graviton gun because there's a rail close to target. The other Graviton gun is stuck in Morganic territory with no more Psi Gates available, and the last R-Bolt is out in the bush fighting mindworms. We have softened 4 University bases as much as we can with artillery, and it will be up to other units to deal with the wounded Isles.
Post by: bvanevery on September 24, 2021, 07:28:08 PM
Many wounded R-Bolt gravships are actually in range of the University bases. They blow apart all sorts of conventional defenders, which doesn't really help with the mission of getting rid of Isles so that Singularity and BHG infantry won't be wasted. The one place where their assault is good, doesn't have any Singularity or BHG units attacking it. This isn't a smooth operation.
[Limit reached]
To add insult to injury, I mis-fly to a base I could have struck, worrying unduly about covering the land. For Marine units that don't even exist.
[Limit reached]
The rest of my R-Bolt gravships are sitting in a base, badly wounded. They have run out of bases to take over and instantly heal with. I'm unwilling to commit the BHG gravships towards the feeble University cities. Their mission is to take out strong Morganite bases, or at least the Cyborgs.
Post by: bvanevery on September 24, 2021, 07:50:45 PM
Since Oceanographic Lab was down to only 2 defenders, I accepted that my expensive infantry was partly wasted, and just opened fire. At least neither of them took a single wound.
[Limit reached]
I drop one of old Photon Skimmer units to heal it, as it's one of the few times I'd like to have abundant movement rather than massive firepower. Zhakarov is not ready to surrender. I kill the spore launcher lurking behind New Arzamas, and with wounds, that's all my movement.
Post by: bvanevery on September 25, 2021, 03:36:10 AM
[Limit reached]
In preparation for an assault next year, which for all I know might be wrongly positioned anyways, I dropped a boatload of stuff at Monitoring Station. Or at least I tried to! That's a ship. The kind that float in the water. I didn't think it was possible to drop them on land and survive the experience. I suspect that ship will vanish at the beginning of next year, but at least I've got the cargo unloaded. It's pretty annoying that it didn't go into the base like it was supposed to, but it looks like only the ship took wounds from the landing.
Post by: bvanevery on September 25, 2021, 03:55:57 AM
In the north I do ok, as many of my BHG Empath gravships are healed and wipe out Morgan's defenders. I'm questioning investment in land guns as I simply don't have the means to move them quickly to target. Psi Gates are good for holding ground already conquered, but they're not good for invading new territory. Perhaps it's time to accept the idea of expensive Drop Empath BHG hovertanks, as I may not even have to fight next year anyways. If the factions don't resist my Supreme Leadership, the game's over.
[Limit reached]
Well here it is. I think I paid this much for the Cyborg Factory! Maybe I'll save my cash and use it for a massive upgrade next year, if I actually have to fight. Beats overpaying for mind control. I can't mind control Zhakarov's bases anyways, as he's gone for Thought Control.
[Limit reached]
New policy: anyone who can build a ship, builds a reasonable one. Anyone who can't, works on my wonder weapon. And I'm not going to bother to rush any facilities being built. It's not like it's actually important to get anything done. Here's to voting!
Post by: bvanevery on September 25, 2021, 05:14:18 AM
[Limit reached]
but I don't believe it.
[Limit reached]
Still don't believe it. It's a trick. One of the factions is going to declare their undying enmity for me any moment now.
[Limit reached]
Well the Peacekeeper banner rolled over Planet, so I really did do it. It's difficult to get a screenshot of that with Snip & Sketch. One must remember to use the PrntScrn method.
So, you can toss 2 nukes, become Infamous, not actually trigger major vengeance by Planet, and eventually settle it with all the factions who think you're so horrible. But you'll have to fight them pretty much all the time, until you conquer them. Pretty steep penalty for a lousy 2 nukes.
[Limit reached]
For all that massiveness, for all those mouseclicks, this didn't even rank in my top 5 scores. Not that I was playing for score.
The replay map is also difficult to capture. I'm sitting in my lonesome home territory for a long time. Then near the end of the replay, I expand suddenly all at once. I guess that's how it went. This huge number of hours into the game, was only 10 years of actual game time. I had that many things to build and units to move.
Here's a weird one: if you continue your game, 3 factions are still at war with you. What's so Supreme Leader about that? I provide it as a saved game anyways.
I've got a few rule changes to make before I release my mod version 1.52. And I'm going to do another AAR. The problem with the narrative of this one, is I didn't have any kind of plan for it. I took pot luck. Next time, I'll pick a main character that I want to tell a specific story about. I'll stack the game with specific opponents who will facilitate the story. So if the Pirates aren't relevant, sorry, no Pirates, aarg aaarg!
It may seem crazy to get on with another AAR so quickly, but I've been waiting for this to end. I definitely know more about late game tactics. I never really thought of Psi Gates as limited before. But they don't really do you any good, when you're trying to conquer new ground rapidly. It's Drop all the way.
Almost forgot to check whether that "Noah's Ark" ship died or not. Yep it did. All the units were fine though, which is an interesting suicidal exploit.
I wonder if the AI can be taught to use Drop units effectively, other than ground units? It's something I thought of while playing, and worth investigating.
Also should provide some Algorithmically Enhanced predefined units. Even though they'd only have fission reactors, at least the AI would have them and do something.
Post by: Vidsek on September 25, 2021, 05:33:53 AM
Thanks for the ride!
Post by: bvanevery on September 26, 2021, 04:18:38 AM