Continental Consciousness - 256x128 map

[bvanevery]

Details expensive tech

expensive tech

1st yield of The Planetary Datalinks.  Other factions wanted 250..375 credits for this.

[bvanevery]

Details pusilanimous wimp

pusilanimous wimp

Lal declares war.     I suppose it's time to put Trance 3-Pulse garrisons behind my coastal walls.

Details found deirdre

found deirdre

I make my 1st mindworm and affectionately name it "Red".     I steal the Believers' map and now know where Deirdre is.  Charm offensive coming soon.

[bvanevery]

Details you can buy trees

you can buy trees

Roze sold me this.  250 credits worth of trees.  The turn before I get a new tech.

[bvanevery]

Details deluxe apartment

deluxe apartment

The turn before I was to get a new tech, Roze wanted too much for Adaptive Economics.  Next turn I got it, I guess from the Planetary Datalinks, because I also got Industrial Automation.  Deirdre already built The Planetary Transit System but I sorely need Hab Complexes.  I see Democratic Planned Knowledge in my future.

[bvanevery]

Details monkishness

monkishness

A few turns ago Deirdre completed the Xenoempathy Dome.  This turn she completed the Maritime Control Center.  I began The Ascetic Virtues, in a city that unfortunately didn't have my remaining contingent of excess Probe Teams in it.  They will arrive next turn, so I fully expect to have this completed in 2 turns.  I'm switching to Discover focus to try to pick up the Hunter-Seeker Algorithm.

3 AM and I'm going to sleep!

[Buster's Uncle]

<- yawn emoticon

[bvanevery]

Looks more like a "hit in the head with a bat" emoticon, but I'll use it.

Details deirdre cheating pest

deirdre cheating pest

Next turn Deirdre is hot on my heels.  Seems a little convenient of her.  Frustratingly, my pile of Probe Teams moves one square short of their destination city, losing me another turn.  I didn't think the city was that far away.  Deirdre didn't have any Secret Projects in progress on the board, so I hope she isn't somehow gonna generate some kind of insta-complete.  I would consider that cheating on her part.  I will try not to sweat this, but I'm going to be awfully annoyed if I have to play 2 turns over again, as I'm not going to let her cheat her way through this.  I will be really careful about picking which city I start building in from now on though.  Really surprised that even 1 turn can make all the difference.

Details cha capitol crushed

cha capitol crushed

Looks like my "buffer state" against the Caretakers has an expiry date on it.  I should probably hurry up with Democratic Planned Knowledge, if I want politics to buy me some time.  The Caretakers still only have The Empath Guild, and I'd have to invade a whole pile of cities to get to it.  Not so bad at some future time when I've got rails, but painful now.  I'd rather keep Building.

I've started to raise small amounts of land near my coastal cities so that they won't have any deep ocean squares.

[bvanevery]

Details poor mans crawler

poor mans crawler

Deirdre did not insta-complete anything.  Maybe I stressed for nothing.  I didn't have quite the excess of Probe Teams that I thought.  I must have 32 cities, because I have 65 teams remaining.  They're doubled up in all my cities except one that has 3 in them.  To complete this project this turn, I will remove a few more teams from interior cities that are never going to face any threats anyways.  If I get The Hunter-Seeker Algorithm, then I can use teams to complete it, because I won't need them after that project is finished!  And then I may finally reduce the number of these pitiful teams to something sane.

Now I have 59 Disciplined Probe Teams.  Still a horde.

[bvanevery]

I completed The Ascetic Virtues without incident.  My cities can grow bigger and I can now use 2 police, so it's time to abandon the Free Market.  Switching to Democratic to keep my Efficiency up, and I will go Planned next turn.

Details long distance contact

long distance contact

I've been pushing this Skimship Probe Team a long time!  It has survived Miriam's gauntlet, it seems she just hasn't put any ships in the water.  Soon I get to find out how Deirdre and I feel about each other.   

[bvanevery]

Details expensive data

expensive data

Couple turns later, Roze contacts me out of the blue.  Wants to kill the Caretakers.  I decline.  I offer her a Pact anyways since we're both Democrats, but she won't do it without her war.  I ask her for a tech but her price is too high.  Not like I'm in a speeder war with someone and desperately need ECM.  Not like I make so much money that 300 credits is meaningless to me.

Details not one red cent

not one red cent

Weaning from a Free Market does cost some.  4 credits/turn ain't much!  Fortunately I happened to have 610 credits when I made the switch.

[bvanevery]

Details nature looney

nature looney

Deirdre, I'm so glad I came all this way to have this conversation with you.  My only regret is it's too tedious to push more teams out this way to steal your tech.  I infiltrated her.  The Planetary Datalinks should give me her techs soon enough anyways.

I'm starting to disband my vast horde of Formers as I really don't need them for much anymore.  A small complement could gradually make more Mines.  I don't want to go crazy on eco-damage.  I've already put roads on top of all the Rocky terrain to make access easier.

[bvanevery]

Details delicious algorithms

delicious algorithms

YeeEEESs!!  Onwards to Orbital Spaceflight.  My interest in disbanding Formers is well timed.  It's a way of proceeding that doesn't cost money.  Again I have the problem that no city was ready to start production immediately.  That will be rectified at the start of the next turn.  In addition to a contingent of Formers, I've moved piles of Probe Teams towards the designated city as well.  I expect to have the HSA in 2 turns.  I've left 1 Probe Team in all of my cities for now, as now they're Hardened and it's somewhat amusing to use them to bribe enemy units.  In the real world, at some point I'll probably recognize the complete lack of threats to most of my cities, and only keep some teams on my front line with Cha Dawn.

I'm finding this game vaguely amusing.  It's strange not to worry about invading anyone, simply because it can't be done, in any profitable sense.  Instead we do these Secret Project races, and I'm definitely doing better now than earlier in the game.

[Buster's Uncle]

Looks more like a "hit in the head with a bat" emoticon, but I'll use it.

A smilie doesn't give you a lot of pixels to work with to draw an expression - which is why mine are a little bigger than optimal for line-spacing, and I don't think that one's my best work, either.  You're a very impressively quick study w/ GIMP, and there's a thread on page one in Rec Commons where I've done some wildly successful tutoring on smilie-making -heavily screenshotted lessons and all early on- if you fancy you'd like to try to draw a better bored face, have a look and a go, and I'll replace what I drew if it's good enough.

[bvanevery]

Hmm I might take you up on that.  One thing I've noticed is that animated icons are a lot more clear than non-animated ones.  I'd make something where the dude actually yawns.  But, priorities, priorities.  The icon I really felt more need for, is some kind of TREATY icon.  I also haven't designed a "badge maker" badge yet.  Maybe I can find some of these somewhere, instead of needing to create them.

I complete The Hunter-Seeker Algorithm without incident.

Details so well spoken

so well spoken

Cha Dawn offers a Truce.  I will accept it, because all this is for me is a small number of pointless skirmishing mouseclicks every turn.  I have nothing to gain by taking even 1 of Cha Dawn's cities.  He really should be trying to resist the Caretakers, even if he'll ultimately fail.  Making good with the Cultists may tick off the Caretakers, but they are already Seething at me and I don't expect anything to change that.  War will come; when it comes, it comes.

Details you mean you really love me

you mean you really love me

Now this next overture, really surprised me.  I've never really seen factions do this.  Maybe I haven't fought quite so static a war against someone.  Maybe his survival instinct is making him bite his tongue about my economics.  That, to be honest, is shocking.  Usually other factions are rabid to the death.  Well, the Caretakers are totally exterminating him, so... whatever.  Die on, m'brutha!   

I've positioned my Scouts to escort him off the property.  I will refrain from immediately bothering him about withdrawl, but I will if I must.

Details angry redhead

angry redhead

Miriam finally landed on my shore.  I never did get around to garrisoning anything up there, so I'm facing her troops with Recon Rovers.  What can I say, there's just so much great stuff to build somewhere else.  A lot of my big Command Center cities are building Hybrid Forests right now.  I do have Probe Teams, and luckily she's only got Frontier politics.  Never learned Secrets of the Human Brain; Miriam, you're weird.  If I can get her to separate her units, then perhaps I can buy her off.  I've got a bunch of expendable Formers that can redirect her in various ways.  I will bring up all my Recon Rovers to destroy her by wasteful brute force, just in case.  I've also rushed an R-Laser Artillery prototype, disbanding some Formers and Probe Teams to get it done.  I got the tech ages ago from the Planetary Datalinks, but I've had no need.  I only ever built 1 Impact unit actually.  Next turn I can rush an R-Laser speeder.  So... Miriam is not really a problem, she's just annoying.  I'm not even going to change my city production where she's landed.

Details bloated floater

bloated floater

Deirdre killed one of my ancient Sea Former units.  In retalliation, I'm hunting her down with 2 Trance Impact Skimships, shelling her from afar.  She's about to expire.

[bvanevery]

Details pillagers die

pillagers die

The AI isn't too bright about pillaging.  You really shouldn't do it when it's providing you cover against retalliation.  In forest, maybe my Recon Rovers couldn't kill her units.  On open ground after she's pillaged my forest and sensor array: dogmeat!  Although I was a bit surprised that my Recon Rovers took her out.  I expected them to wound, not kill.  Just another cautionary tale that open ground is not your friend.  She should have moved onto the rock next to my city and then attacked it.  That's why I stuffed it with Formers, so that she couldn't do that.  She should have tried to do it on successive turns.  She would never have taken it, but she would have used up a lot more of my units in the process.

What kind of value proposition is it to the average disciple of a religious cult? "Hey acolytes!  Get on this boat, sail forever, and throw your lives away bothering the enemy!"  Should I nuke her for it someday?  Just to put all those acolytes at ease.

Deirdre's Isle of course died too.  Not even worth a screenshot.  These rubes.

Cha Dawn has moved out of my lands.  She has several of her units on my border.  To put him more at ease, I've removed my Scouts from the border and disbanded them.  They never had effective sentry positions anyways, just the way the terrain was.