Continental Consciousness - 256x128 map

[bvanevery]

Details lal dresses funny

lal dresses funny

One of my Skimship Probe Teams has been feeling around in the western ocean for quite a long time.  Not trying to probe deeply, but feeling around for Lal.  I've been able to infer that he's somewhere in that direction, because of the warships he occasionally sends at me.  Must be due west of my southwesternmost city, or else he's sailing around a land mass that causes him to always arrive there.  I've run into one of his Sea Formers, which means I'm getting pretty close.  Is this guy ready to bury the hatchet?  Yes, he signs a Truce and signs off.

I dialed up Miriam to see if she wanted a Truce.  Nope.  Deirdre won't even speak to me.

Mystery: my net income is supposedly 5 credits/turn.  Why do my credit reserves keep rising?  I'm up to 756 and there haven't been enough turns for that, I don't think.  I wonder if the reported net income is bugged.  I don't think anyone gets money for disbanding units...

It's 4:30 PM and I need a nap.  Too much late night SMAC!

[Buster's Uncle]

Go here for all my formal internet/forum art tutorials http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?action=articles in one place w/o the searching, then let's take smilie talk to the OT thread, and so-on.  I like the idea of a treaty smilie for this here gaming forum a lot.

[bvanevery]

Details meet the ugly

meet the ugly

I've had a fairly long period of uninterrupted growth and am now cash positive.  Miriam has landed on my upper corner again, but I will dispatch her soon enough.  I never managed to get any proper defensive units up there, but I did leave Scouts to keep her off the rocks, and I managed to get an artillery piece up that way.  I doubled up my Recon Rovers in the region, so now I've moved 7 peons into my base in preparation for a counterstrike.  If she attacks now, she might kill 3 units.  If she pillages like last time, she's dogmeat.

More importantly, the Caretakers have been chewing up the Cultists and getting closer and closer to my own borders.  Now H'minee wants to talk.  Wonder how well this is going to go?  Her current attitude is Noncommittal so maybe my switch to Planned worked and this will go ok.  The best result I could get, would be for her to sign a Truce with the Cultists so I can retain them as a buffer state.

Details bravado bug

bravado bug

I got the "bravado bug".  That's when I don't say a darned thing, and she says this, as though I had said something to her.  Well the bravado bug isn't a bad thing, it means we're not immediately going to war.  Of course she likes my orderly distribution of goods and compliments me on it.  She's irritated at my collaboration with Roze and expresses minimal toleration.  Since I will be Democratic for a long time, I will try to get the Caretakers to lay off Roze, after I get them to lay off the Cultists.  She concedes to my request to sign a Truce with the Cultists.  We're still talking, so let's get her to stop bothering the Democrats that I'm friends with.  She says Roze started it and I'll have to talk to her, which I will try to do.  She signs off.

Roze agrees to a cease-fire.  I ask her what her tech price is, and as usual it's too high.  I don't talk about anything else, such as the Pact she wants, because I've never infiltrated her or even found her on the map.  I sign off.  After I do, I get an announcement that she's signed a Treaty with the Caretakers.  Maybe now I could do a Pact and not have any consequences from it?  Let's see, I've infiltrated everyone else, so I actually do know all her political relationships.  I just have to read through all the factions manually to find out what they are.  Ok, she's not at war with anybody.  Let's see what she has to say.

Details sweet lies

sweet lies

She's interested in Deirdre's comm frequency.  Many factions still aren't in contact with each other, and the power to control that, is worth a lot more than 80 credits.  So that's not happening.  In this game I feel a lot more like I'm doing diplomacy with countries, rather than idiots.  I think that's because I can't just walk over and stop anyone who disagrees with me.  I have to neogiate, and there's a lot riding on whether they say yay or nay.

As I suspected, having gotten the Caretakers out of the way for her, she's no longer interested in an alliance.  And I'm not interested in bribing her into one either.  I never do that.  Rubs my human ego the wrong way; ally if you want to ally.  I don't know if the long distance dynamics of this game will ever change my mind about such bribes, but certainly it won't in this instance.  She's Feeble, has no known strategic value on the map, and I will eventually get her tech through The Planetary Datalinks anyways.  I'm worth far more than she is, whether she realizes that or not.  Although the graph, strictly speaking, only says I'm Potent.  I'll take this kind of potency for now, I'm in pretty much an unassailable position and growing like gangbusters.

My only real enemy at this point is the potential for boredom.  Clearly, I decided against building a land bridge to anybody.  I only kept 11 Formers for all my land.  I am building Sea Formers now, but one doesn't build a land bridge with those.  My capitol is producing supply crawlers for lack of anything better to do.  I'm sending them to patches of forest that aren't being worked by any city.  They will take in more energy for me.

[bvanevery]

Regarding boredom, at least my turns are going a lot faster now, because I don't have all those Formers to push around.  Hopefully I will soon get to some new stage of the game, like getting Orbital Spaceflight and revealing the map, for instance.

Details cultists and caretakers

cultists and caretakers

I didn't expect the Cultists to actually team up with the faction that's been grossly slaughtering them.  So they think they're going after the Believers together.  Ok, whatever floats your boat!  At least I'm also at war with the Believers, so I have the right enemies, even if these 2 don't really like me.  Decent as H'minee was in our last tete-a-tete, she's currently listed as Seething at me again.  I don't know what to believe about that claim.  Meanwhile, Dierdre and Miriam are recently allied, so I guess this is the shape of things.  Lal has been at war with Deirdre for quite some time and I get missives about this 1 city changing hands a lot.  Lotta probe team work on both sides.

[bvanevery]

Details caretaker pest

caretaker pest

<sigh>  H'minee, you need to leave.  I hope this is just exploration and not the prelude to a surprise attack.  If it's benign, I'll be using Probe Teams to escort her off the property.  Lord knows I've got enough of them.

I just got Fusion Power so she'd better behave herself.  I want to sit around and build labs, but there are other uses for fusion.

[bvanevery]

Details not shocked

not shocked

Doesn't a surprise have to be surprising, to be a surprise?  Now the only question will be the extent of mobilization.  Also what Cha Dawn chooses to do.  At a minimum, I need to design a fusion AAA unit.

[bvanevery]

Details the means of destruction

the means of destruction

Timely.  Courtesy of the Planetary Datalinks, I think.  No air movement from H'minee yet.  Maybe she's busy fighting somewhere else.  Hopefully by the time she does get here, I'll be ready with Interceptors.

[bvanevery]

Details little creep

little creep

What's this little creep got to say for himself??  I've tried to be nice, but he's been marching his wimpy troops on my borders nonstop the whole time we've been at peace.  I think he's come knocking to ask me to take him over.  "Hey,  !   "  "   "  75 credits while you stay in a Pact with H'minee.  Tempting offer.  How about you get mad at me and I just summarily knock you out of the way?  " "  The next screen is priceless:

Details you and what army

you and what army

What have you done to anyone, let alone me, the entire game?  Deulsional much?  Stark raving mad much?  It's time to depose this ridiculous worm lover, I have no basic reason to be patient anymore.  Although... maybe it's better to contain him, and cut like a hot knife through butter, to destroy the Caretakers.

Tried contacting Lal since we're Democracies and have got the same enemies, but he's Seething and won't respond.

[Buster's Uncle]

That there's Transcend difficulty for you - I consistently can only swing one pact a game, sans submission.

[bvanevery]

Details should you die

should you die

He wants to talk.  Using the paltry units I've always been fighting him with, he's taken substantial losses trying to advance into my lands.  He also lost a newly founded city when he foolishly settled it right next to mine.  Should I do a Truce?  I've realized that under a Truce, I can still fly my planes over his land, and thereby escort Probe Teams unhindered down to H'minee's nearby cities.  Or I could take a boat and air cover it, I don't really need access to his lands.  This feels like the modern USA negotiating with Mexico, but I'll hear him out.

"Hey,  !        !"  " " I DON'T CARE.  WE'RE AT WAR.  You know what?  I'm going to take the Truce just because it's play mechanically different than things I usually do.  I'll put some Probe Teams out in front of her to escort him off the property.  If he attacks them, he loses reputation and I lose nothing.  Now the following screen is proof that she's stark raving mad:

Details amnesia

amnesia

Yeah, bite the planet and all that.  At least Deirdre is a nature loony.

For some reason we're still talking after signing the Treaty.  I thought to look at his faction profile to see if I should end any of his feuds.  Like so he'll stop bugging me about Lal, GIVE IT A REST ALREADY.  HE'S THOUSANDS OF MILES AWAY.  Then I noticed something really odd:

Details squeezed

squeezed

He's at war with the Caretakers.  Boy that alliance sure didn't last long.  And he's not insane, he's desperate!  Dude it was not your lot in life to be sane this game.  You got a crummy start and I feel deeply sorry for you.  Now if you can refrain from pissing me off for another 5 minutes....  He calls off his war with the Peacekeepers.  That will make it easier for me to improve my relations with them.  We're still talking.  Wanna ally?  It'll make my life slightly easier going after the Caretakers.  Obstinately not interested.  He signs off.  I get word that they signed a Treaty.

My 1st plane goes into service and sinks one of Miriam's annoying ships off my northeast coast.  I've decided that inland bases that are "finished" and don't have Command Centers, shall build Aerospace Complexes and planes.  I'm gonna stack this place with Interceptors.  When that's done, in due course I'll grow me some sky food.

[bvanevery]

Details drown this clown

drown this clown

Met this sourpuss in open water.  He's still Seething at me.  How much will I enjoy this?  "Hey,  !    !"  No, I'm not going to give you Roze's comm frequency.  You'll still win the election, even with all my population.  I need either The Empath Guild, or to grow disturbingly larger than I already am.  I offered him a Treaty and of course he blew me off.  Jerk.

Details circumnavigation

circumnavigation

One of my Skimship Probe Teams has made it all the way around the world and is in sight of Deirdre's territory.  Note the dotted green border at the left side of the screen.  I've found a curious site, that I imagine was once a faction's starting point.  But they must have gotten on a boat and left, possibly getting the other colonist killed while they were at it.  I wonder who it was?

My economy is going gangbusters.  I'm making roughly 100 credits/turn now.  Pretty good for Planned.

Roze and Lal have both started The Neural Amplifier recently.  If 1 other faction would do me the favor of discovering or stealing that tech, I could insta-build it.  But as it stands, I'm still Discover focused and H'minee doesn't have that tech.

[bvanevery]

Details engineers

engineers

I never ever spend time allocating workers any particular way, but this 1 city in the Jungle had absurd numbers of Medics in it.  So I switched a few of them to Engineers, keeping half my people as Talents so as to keep getting Golden Age bonuses.  I think the whole concept of messing with these guys, is way to micromanagerial, and simply a holdover from Civ II.  They should be deciding this stuff automatically.

I stole Superstring Theory and Doctrine:Initiative from the Caretakers.  Still need to get Centauri Meditation and Synthetic Fossil Fuels.  This is being made easier by the nearly complete collapse of the Cultist state.  The Caretakers have taken many of their cities and are at my doorstep.

[bvanevery]

Details crashing

crashing

I'm suffering technical difficulty.  The game keeps crashing after I end my turn.  I suspect it's because I'm launching my 1st Sky Hydroponics Lab.  I'm a little too tired to deal with it right now as it's almost 3 AM.  This is the state of the known world before the crash.  My Skimship Probe Team that was in sight of Deirdre's territory, never found a sea facing city to steal from.  There's some kind of big land mass between us that makes it difficult for her to come eastward towards me.  Fortunately I've stolen from the Caretakers or gotten techs from the Planetary Datalinks so I'm not missing much.  Only Neural Grafting which 2 factions have.

Roze is Manganimous towards me, so let's see if I can get an alliance, or a non-egregious price on Neural Grafting.  Maybe if more of the map is revealed before launching my satellite, it will help with the bug.

Details pact

pact

Hey, she's into it!  We're a thing.  How about tech?  225 credits, yeah I can do that.  Well here's the world now:

Details more map

more map

Did some Workshop housekeeping to incorporate a 2nd ability into my unit designs.  Does any of this help with the bug?  Nope.  Well it's after 3 AM now, so I'm going to bed.

Update: couldn't sleep, woke up after 1 hour.  Tried changing from Sky Hydroponics Lab to Conventional Missile.  Still got the bug.

[bvanevery]

Details plane crash

plane crash

It may always be crashing at this point.  I'm not sure because I haven't paid perfect attention to earlier runs.  I have an Interceptor in that sea base.  It could be that H'minee is coming to strafe my Sea Former, then my Interceptor is supposed to come out, and that triggers the bug.  I will try removing the units from the area and see if that gets me past the bug.  Turned out yes, it's an Interceptor bug.  The only solution was to remove the Interceptor from my city and let the Sea Former die.  I have a vague memory of encountering Interceptor bugs in other games.

Details whole world

whole world

Well, I've worked a long time to learn what's really going on.  Now I have to absorb the implications.  The Manifold Nexus is deep in Gaian territory.  At least it's out of H'minee's hands.  Most of us are on 3 continents that are separated from each other by water channels only 1 square wide.  Bridging, thus, is trivial.  It's only a question of fighting the fight long enough, or choosing not to, case may be.

Roze is up north on her own supercontinent, and she didn't do well for herself, I think because she spread herself too thin.  Maybe giant land masses aren't the best thing for the AI, because it will be too greedy and dispersed about it.  Smaller continents that can still hold a substantial civilization, would be better.  On the other hand, the AI factions did give me stiff competition for Secret Projects until midgame, and Roze did complete The Neural Amplifier recently, so I can't "count them out" yet.

Details dead aliens

dead aliens

I have started to exterminate the Caretakers using X Chaos Needlejets.  I destroyed their 1st city this turn.  It used to be a Cultist city, like so many of their cities now.  My intent is to preserve the Cultists in a pocket all by themselves and completely denude the rest.  I'm not ready to commit ground troops yet.  I'm still garrisoning outlying cities.  Monopole Magnets would be nice right about now, but I'm keeping my Discover focus to try to get The Supercollider.

[bvanevery]

Details research power

research power

It occurs to me that Morgan's quote about reseachers being impractical, is completely subverted by the attainment of this tech. Doubling one's research output with The Supercollider is a concrete and profitable application.  Although, I suppose I could be impractical and build it on a tiny island somewhere, instead of instantly in my capitol.  I up the last of my surplus probe teams to rush it, and a supply crawler, and 400 credits.  I now have 1 probe team per city and a few extras on the front line.  Far more than I will ever need, so perhaps I'll strip them in the age of rails.

I've switched my research focus to Conquer as I don't want the Mind / Machine Interface secret projects to go by.