ET Phone Home - SMACX AI Growth mod 1.19

[bvanevery]

Details eat your heart out Morgan

eat your heart out Morgan

MY 2304.  I complete the Empath Guild, demonstrating just how late it can come in my mod.  It is somewhat expensive at 400 and requires Homo Superior, a C6 tech that also gives Thought Control.  It has little practical value to me, merely giving infiltration to the weak Cyborgs that I otherwise didn't have.  I did it to block Morgan from obtaining the Governorship.  Yes the Pirates are a threat too, but they haven't tried to make a nuke.

Details sneaky Morgan

sneaky Morgan

Maybe I've erred though.  I meant to block him from getting the Pholus Mutagen, which we are both working on.  Previously, I didn't think he had a chance.  But suddenly he's 2 turns from completion, and he didn't spend his 1200 credit reserve to do it.  He must be using supply crawlers.  I think I can block it next turn if I switch my production of the Theory of Everything in my capitol over to the Pholus Mutagen.  That's slightly annoying as I wanted to minimize the number of Secret Projects I put in 1 city, but it's still the primary target for a nuke and what's done is done I suppose.  I could play the turn over but I'll live with my mistake.  I don't like having to babysit my enemies though.

[bvanevery]

Details mutating Morgans brain

mutating Morgans brain

MY 2305.  I complete the Pholus Mutagen and the Universal Translator on the same turn, kicking Morgan off the Secret Project charts.

Details send in the clones

send in the clones

I had been reseraching Biomachinery myself, but this speeds it up by 10 turns.  The Cloning Vats are rather valuable to me because I'm using both Power and Thought Control.

Details geek squad

geek squad

Of course so is the Network Backbone, as my goal is to research Subspace Generators for the win.  So many Secret Projects, so little time!

Details space food tastes like nothing

space food tastes like nothing

I forgot that in version 1.19 I made Biomachinery the way you get Sky Hydroponics Lab.  This and Nanometallurgy lead to Super Tensile Solids, which gives Habitation Dome and the Space Elevator.  I'm not trying to win on votes, so I don't deeply regret this mistake, but a Space Elevator could have been useful sooner.  Oh well, I'll just keep wiping out the Usurpers the old fashioned way.

[bvanevery]

Details workers unite to make money

workers unite to make money

MY 2309.  I complete the Cloning Vats, thereby increasing my industry, efficiency, and credits per turn.  I consider changing to a Planned economy but decide against it.  It would not matter to my ECONOMY, but my EFFICIENCY is currently +1 and it would drop to -1.  I am expecting quite a bit of unhappiness in the near future due to the permanent population boom, and I don't need Bureaucracy adding to the problems.  Nor am I going to choose anything which lowers my +3 POLICE rating, as single Police Scouts are proving to be extremely useful as garrisons.  Their 4X enforcement power brings distant conquests under control quickly, just building them on-site.  They get attacked by planes and missiles, but then I just build them again!  As such, they are good distractions in the absence of real industry.  I have not bothered with any kind of factories in this game at all.  Why risk the eco-damage when I'm meeting my goals?

[bvanevery]

MY 2311.  I complete the Self-Aware Colony, improving my economy yet again, and making all cities have at least a nominal police force.  Of course this project is actually disadvantageous if you're using the maximum of 3 police in a city, because you could have them all using non-lethal methods.  The AI takes over and uses, um, lethal methods.  There's even video of this!  Makes you wonder if it was a bug, or intended and not very well explained.  But the cash is worth it, as well as blocking other factions from ever building any Secret Project.

Details heeere Morgan Morgan Morgan

heeere Morgan Morgan Morgan

I launch my 1st Orbital Defense Pod, finally allowing me to see the interior of Morgan's empire.  I've simply been too busy to try to get a probe team over to him.

Details weenie Morgan feeblenuke

weenie Morgan feeblenuke

Well that's a relief.  His capitol is starving, he's nearly out of minerals, and even now it will take him 33 years to complete.  Not a threat!  Not before I do something about it at least.  I've got time.  The Usurpers are actually farther along, but I'm right next to the city where they're building it.  I just need to reinforce, which admittedly, I can't get around to.  Gotta finish blocking off all these Secret Projects.

Details securing the east

securing the east

Except for 2 sea bases, the eastern half of the Usurper empire is mine now.  I have started to build AAA ECM Probability garrisons in conquered cities.  In my mod, that's strength 10 armor, same as a strength 10 Phaser!  They might hold up to the Conventional Missiles and Copters that Morgan occasionally lobs at me.

Details doubtful

doubtful

Svensgaard is attempting to use a Locust of Chiron against me for the 1st time.  I think with my +3 PLANET rating, mostly Elite troops, and an R-Laser Interceptor on defense, he has little chance of doing anything to me.  I haven't gotten around to making my own Pholus Mutagen toys.

[bvanevery]

Details getting a backbone

getting a backbone

MY 2313.  I complete the Network Backbone, making me ever so much more research worthy, and also the Nano Factory.  Onwards to the Theory of Everything, which I will complete next turn!  I'm ending supply crawler production and starting on Conventional Missiles.

Details reinforcements appreciated any day now

reinforcements appreciated any day now

My original missile hovertanks are down to the last dregs, and I'm in danger of losing the Manifold Nexus.  I'm bringing in the last few hovertanks from the eastern conquest.  This leaves eastern cities vulnerable to Morganic takeover, but I don't think he even wants them, and they're not valuable to me.  I just needed to get rid of the Usurpers.

Details better deal with this

better deal with this

Ironically, I've slacked so long on taking out Marr's nuke, that I'm now in danger of him finishing it.  But I will intervene with orbital bombardment before he can do so.

[bvanevery]

Details shall we play a game

shall we play a game

MY 2314.  Morgan joins the space race with his own Orbital Defense Pod.

Details you lose

you lose

I have ended the Usurper's Planet Buster program.  It took 3 Conventional Missiles to change their mind.

Details you loser

you loser

Morgan gave up his previous nuke due to mass starvation.

Details you creep

you creep

However he started building a new nuke in a city that can actually complete the job, so I'll need to build more CMs to take it out.

Details you sea slug you

you sea slug you

The Pirates have started builing one as well, off my very coast.  When too many factions are building these things, it becomes a boring game of whack-a-mole.  I'm not sure how I will handle these threats.  This one, I could just send Marines, but he will build somewhere else.  Wouldn't it be great if I could frame other factions for atrocities, so that they nuke each other instead of me?

Details you hacker

you hacker

Roze actually finished a Planet Buster when I wasn't looking.  But we've had a Truce for a long time, which is likely to remain because of my Thought Control society.  That's Roze's fixation in my mod: hacking people sorta went to her head. 

[bvanevery]

Details like I care

like I care

MY 2319.  The Consciousness gets snippy with me!  Maybe Roze will finally ally with me now, or at least sign a Treaty.  If she would only talk to me.  Guess I need to build a Cruiser Probe Team to get her attention.

[bvanevery]

Details subverting the feeble

subverting the feeble

MY 2320.  The Cloning Vats have made me a lot of money.  My production in conquered Usurper territory is terrible, so I am trying out mind control as a tactic.  Yes I can do it, but his units fight so poorly that I can't even use them to kill each other!  I just spent 600 credits, in essence killing 2 units by suicide and wounding 2 more of his units.  Not terribly cost effective.  Watch, I bet he strafes my probe team next turn anyways.

[bvanevery]

Details I am twisted

I am twisted

MY 2322.  My big Locusts of Chiron finally enter combat.  I have built Genejack Factories in 3 cities.  2 of them needed Centauri Preserves and Temples of Planet to stop the resulting eco-damage.  With Biology Labs already in place, the Xenoempathy Dome, and the Pholus Mutagen, that's a +5 lifecycle bonus!  They come out of the test tubes as Demon Boils and they attack with the Dream Twister.  Let's see how they do against Svensgaard's locusts!  Well that was a slaughter.  Hopefully I'll clear out his infinite Transport spam too.

[bvanevery]

Details space pest

space pest

MY 2323.  Morgan has spammed enough ODPs that he's starting to try to shoot mine down.  I've been through this kind of nonsense in another game and it's not fun to try to keep up with the infinitely tireless AI.  I'm getting really bored with the various kinds of spam, the other one being Svensgaard's infinite supply of Transport cannon fodder.  He just keeps plastering the seas with them, making me take yet another mouseclick to get rid of them.  Their production rates due to Transcend are so high that I can't actually stop this unless I take over a city in 1 turn.  I don't presently have enough units to do it.  Priority has gone to building Flechette Defense Systems, as that can reduce or eliminate yet another kind of spam, the plastering of Conventional Missiles.

[bvanevery]

Details AI pests

AI pests

MY 2324.  Roze has allied with Marr and is attacking me.  So much for trying to please anyone with my social engineering choices!  Even Miriam is allied with Svensgaard.

[bvanevery]

Details peace from the pest

peace from the pest

MY 2326.  Feeling totally worn out from the constant spamming, I changed my Values to Wealth last year.  This year I took the last important Pirate city off my east coast.  My plan worked: Svensgaard signed a Truce with me.  Now I need to do the same to Roze and Morgan.  If I am sufficiently a sycophant, I should be able to slide into the end of the game with a minimal number of mouseclicks and no further challenge.  I obtained Mind / Machine Interface this year, which gives the Cyborg Factory, so soon I won't be in much need of MORALE bonuses.

[bvanevery]

Details cheating game

cheating game

MY 2331.  I keep having to play this turn over and over again, because a bug keeps causing Morgan to declare Vendetta on me after he's agreed to a Truce.  Then the Pirates join in, further ruining what I've been carefully working towards.  Something is wrong with the way probe teams take over a base.  Perhaps because the humans escape in sea pods, triggering immediate conversation before other game variables are updated?

Details hacking reality

hacking reality

I was able to work around the bug by using Total Thought Control.  I save scummed until it succeeded, since it's not my fault I needed to do it.  I suffered another weird bug when I took over one of Roze's bases using troops.  She tried to talk to me 3 times in a row and then fell silent.  I was unable to get her to talk again, let alone get a Truce out of her.

[bvanevery]

Details sniveling to our doom

sniveling to our doom

MY 2332.  My sycophancy has its price.  Appeasing Morgan with Free Market lowers my PLANET rating to 0.  I do some eco-damage and trigger global warming.  I only have a couple cities that really chuck out a lot of minerals though.  I'm not planning on making any more industry, so hopefully the seas won't rise much.  I can't count on the humans to behave with restraint; hopefully they aren't much industrialized yet.

Details she hacked herself

she hacked herself

Looks like I've got the same stupid bug with Roze trying to talk to me.  What gives?

Details tapping the capitol

tapping the capitol

I switch to Democratic to slightly improve my RESEARCH.  I dropped a CM on Marr's capitol this turn.  I expect Morgan to take it next turn, and thus end the Usurper nuke program.  The Usurpers are looking pretty feeble right about now.

[bvanevery]

Details walk ins welcome

walk ins welcome

MY 2333.  Morgan empties the Usurper capitol, seizing an Artifact, but declines to take it.  I happen to have subverted some of Marr's drop pod units once upon a time, so I take it.  I don't want Morgan marching towards the Manifold Nexus.  With luck, Morgan's troops will make their way towards the next Usurper city to the south.