ete's mini AAR thread (or how ete accidentally did an AAR with lots of pictures)

[ete]

One of the few things I prioritized over more tree farms.

At this point I had.. not a crash, but a bad interaction between win 8 and SMAX which made me unable to access the window. I would have lost a huge amount of turns, but thankfully the autosave feature exists. If you don't know about autosave, it saves your last several turns automatically. I've set mine to save 20 turns, knocking the oldest off with each turn I play. Still lost most of one turn, eh.

[ete]

And on replaying that turn, Mirriam surrendered. I accepted, not worth the hassle of chasing her down for a few underdeveloped seabases.

[ete]

May as well make myself governor.

First tree farms finishing up (no rushing, focusing energy on developing seabases since they can't build with mins), moving on to hybrid forests.


Again D:AP is probably strategically a better choice, but air vs AI without air is a universally horrible curbstomp. Fusion is kinda similar, but.. less.

[ete]

Got fusion, going for Xenoempathy Dome next.



Exterminatus MC'd a base when I sent most everything towards antimind, soon to be retaken. This time I'll finish them before leaving.

[ete]

Played a little longer, smashed through Exterminatus. Loads of tree farms are coming online and quite a few Hybrid Forests too. The sea bases are mostly size 16 and have every research/energy facil up to Fusion Labs. I've been more than holding my own for the past 10 turns or so despite building hardly any military units, and although AntiMind will probably take some smashing, once I start making empath chaos rovers from everything they are just going to die.

On the other hand, each turn takes way too long right now, and I'd rather play something which requires more thought than cleanup.



I'm calling this as won. AI don't come back from that. gg, monsters.



I'd like some feedback. Any and all kinds.

My current plan for next game is to play Pilgrims on a big builder low native map against some serious builder factions (mostly jarl's) and give each opponent a SP which helps them a lot in their HQ (e.g. Uni gets VW, CCs get CN) plus the usual forest seeding. Then see if I can keep pace. Suggestions and ideas appreciated, especially which factions to put in and how much water to have on the map.

I like the idea of not having too many aliens this time since it leads to more interesting politics, but may include one or two. Most likely choice currently is Procyon. They'd do well with the MTC from the start.

[JarlWolf]

Builder factions huh?

Here is my suggestion. Sigma's Genome Syndicate and Leviathian, my Imperium, Sons of Oceanus, and if you want a good militarist or two in there, try my Fascists.

Storywise the Genome syndicate is probably at odds with the Sons of Oceanus for the fact the Genome Syndicate is all about perfecting the human code and using genetics to benefit humanity, while the Sons of Oceanus are basically Brave New World with a genetic slave system in a sense.

Leviathian and Imperium would definitely be at odds because they are two conceptual opposites of the mob- one is for the benefit of the mob and trying to be egalitarian to all of it, while the other is only the hardest and strongest of the mob rise to the top to rule the rest.

And as for the Fascists? Always good to have a hardcore conqueror in there to boot down the others...

[ete]

Mostly seems good, though I'd prefer all foes to be at least very competent builders+not rushers, having one guy smashing the others will slow them down which is not my aim. Maybe Machine Mandate, they're pretty awesome when they start making SPs and I could give them something like The Bulk Matter Transporter for bonus minerals at every base?

I did think Leviathan are a bit low level for this, but The Telepathic Matrix really would compliment them brilliantly. GS could have The Cloning Vats? It's maybe a bit much, but very fitting. I'm also not sure about Oceanus vs Procyon, will have to think about which would be more fun..

Any ideas for SPs to start the others with?

[Green1]

Congrats on your victory. I wish I could have done better, but ran into horrible luck. Plus, Morgan would not have been my first choice for that.

However, I have a suggestion for both YOU and Jarlwolf. We need a FINAL AAR before Civ BE. We need FINAL DOOM!!! jarlwolf and I have been talking a concept for an AAR that would be done via saved games in scenario editor. I think it would work best if we did X number of turns then turned over to the next person. It is almost MP, but none of the hassle. Kind of like succession games, but multiple factions.

Thoughts?

[JarlWolf]

I like your idea, but it won't be the last AAR hopefully for Alpha Centauri... at least for me. I still have plans for this game.

[Green1]

I hear you guys. For me, it will not be like I erase AC from the hard drive. But, I would enjoy digging my teeth into something a bit more modern and wisecracking about it for a bit.

I do love though with AC I can add monsters. Although sometimes I wish for a more modern AI.

[Buster's Uncle]

I've seen Ukrainian IPs twice this morning that Who's Online claims are moderating in this thread - I wonder if attempted hacking, or bug, or what?

[Metaliturtle]

Just read through this good stuff.  Interesting to see how someone plays on a non-newb difficulty.

[Buster's Uncle]

No doubt of that.  Everyone loves a good AAR.

Another Ukrainian (or bot?) "moderating" right now.

[Geo]

Another Ukrainian (or bot?) "moderating" right now.

Does it do anything with the profiles of the Russia-based members?

[Buster's Uncle]

I have no way to know unless Jarlwolf's profile changes -but Who's Online would indicate it was looking at the profile, not moderating here, so not that - and he's hardly the only Russian here and this is hardly the only thread posted in.  Weird bot stuff, no doubt.  I used to ban IPs I noticed fooling around too much in suspicious way, but I dunno that even the server burden justifies, no hack attempt has ever seemed anything to worry about, and I once banned Google bot for a few weeks that way, so not a great idea.