Mind Controlling Worms - SMACX AI Growth mod version 1.37

[bvanevery]

Details sure!

sure!

MY 2185.  I run into the Gaians at sea near the Manifold Nexus.  They want to borrow money.  I decline, because I expect everyone to hate me before long.  They want a Pact, and I agree on that for now.  How soon until they become squeamish about my atrocities?

[bvanevery]

Details land bridging

land bridging

MY 2186.  Using 5 Artifacts and some cash, I complete the Weather Paradigm.  It's expensive in my mod.  I will be able to make a causeway to the Manifold Nexus, although that will likely sink once Planet gets outraged enough.

Details shifting priorities

shifting priorities

I've decided to stop producing my current generation of X ships.  Plasma armor is available to some factions now.  I haven't even found Svensgaard's home waters yet, and I might exhaust myself sending too many feeble ships his way.  I just killed another one of his ships and committed my 2nd atrocity.  I will make Clean Formers and raise land to try to prepare myself for future problems.

I still don't know how to make probe teams, which is a bit odd.

[bvanevery]

Details local gas dealer

local gas dealer

MY 2187.  The Cyborgs demand war with the Morganites, and I oblige.  There goes my Clean Former production though.

Details the Ruins hold Wonders

the Ruins hold Wonders

I need to take Morgan Interstellar conventionally, as it holds the Merchant Exchange and the Planetary Transit system.  I can trash the rest.

[bvanevery]

Details yeah sure trade yeah right

yeah sure trade yeah right

MY 2191.  It didn't take a revelation to know he'd declare war.  I only attacked his Transport conventionally though, since I wasn't facing any armor.  No need to spread hatred farther than necessary too quickly.  Going after the Pirates with X ships may have been a mistake.  I haven't even gotten into their home waters so far.  Their capacity for ship spam may be higher than mine.

[bvanevery]

Details got plasma

got plasma

MY 2193.  I made the right call on cutting ship production.  I'm currently building X Recon Rovers and Children's Creches.  I forgot that the latter only provides a defensive combat bonus, something I won't actually need right now.  Still, if Planet's vengeance comes faster than expected, it will be good to have those already done.

Details watch this

watch this

The Morganites have left a ship in their port for me to gas!  This will be good.

Details shrunk

shrunk

I didn't expect my ships to be useful against them.  One run with an X Recon Rover and this city will be gone.

[bvanevery]

Details need Polymorphic Software

need Polymorphic Software

MY 2194.  The Morganites know how to make probe teams and I don't.  I'm still using my 1 starting probe team!  It survived the mission.

Details probe teams galore

probe teams galore

MY 2197.  I steal it!

[bvanevery]

Details I love this project

I love this project

MY 2203.  I was just getting ready to rush the Citizens' Defense Force with a big pile of cash, but I'd rather have the Ascetic Virtues!  It would give me +3 POLICE and I'd be quasi-Hive-like.

Details give the fist

give the fist

MY 2204.  You can call me The Brain.  Sounds better than Chairwoman.

[bvanevery]

Details Deirdre blows me off

Deirdre blows me off

MY 2205.  The love that we shared, was precious while it lasted.  Why no more??

[bvanevery]

Details unexpected guests

unexpected guests

MY 2206.  It's a strange place to land.  How far did they go to get here?  I don't have any armor, and my best units against mere Scouts are only coming sporadically.  I'm mostly making Tree Farms.  Well, Scouts in cities should hold, right???

MY 2207.  My defenders held.  The attackers foolishly split their forces, allowing me to kill the mindworm easily.

It's 5:30 AM.  I'm going to bed.

[bvanevery]

MY 2208.  Although I did kill a city or two, the Morganites have repelled my initial flurry of units.  I did not land them in an organized fashion, and terrain was disfavorably arranged in horizontal bands along my line of advance from the beach.  Morganite Rovers spammed me and picked me off.  I will either need to operate much more amphibiously to not have to deal with this, or I'll have to make a more armored incursion inland.  I suppose I should be glad that my mod is capable of putting up some resistance.

Details well that doesn't work

well that doesn't work

I currently have a bunch of probe teams and not much else.  I was trying to go down Morganic roads to sabotage stuff, but there's a Former in the way.  What's with its godawful expense level?  Yes I know this is my mod, but this is pretty ridiculous.  Ok, yes, a stone's throw from the Morganic capitol.  Still that price is insane.  Morganic government is a Capitalist Police State so they do have +1 PROBE.  Well I suppose I meant to test the playability of all of this.  I can't go back to the bad old days of the AI taking over invader hordes for next to nothing though.

Details unionized work crews

unionized work crews

The cost of subverting a Recon Rover is not nearly so outrageous, although it's still bad and not worth doing.  Those must be some awfully happy highway workers in the Morganic Empire!

[bvanevery]

Details saved by the competition

saved by the competition

MY 2211.  This is actually helpful to me.  The Morganites were threatening to finish it in their capitol.  I've run 4 sabotage missions against their capitol, none specifically focused on the Secret Project.  I've destroyed all kinds of stuff, but I couldn't manage to take out the SP.  Now I'm saved the bother.  The CDF is very annoying from a saboteur's standpoint, because you cannot take down the Perimeter Defense created by it.

[bvanevery]

Details a walk in

a walk in

MY 2212.  The Morganic possession of the Planetary Transit System is proving to be annoying.  Whenever I spend my "atrocity budget" to destroy a base, they just pop a new one back up again at size 3.  Morganic spam is even sufficient to regarrison them in many cases.  I suppose that's a consequence of giving them +1 SUPPORT.  In this case though, they just gave the base to me.  I'm going to need a bit "slower and steadier" base of operations than just trying to blitz them.  It does solve my "wrong terrain on the beachhead" problem.

Details such a rep

such a rep

Interestingly, I notice that I'm already Infamous for my chemical attacks.  It hasn't caused me any diplomatic grief though, and Planet hasn't become outraged yet.  Does my +2 PLANET rating have something to do with this?

Details money can't buy happiness

money can't buy happiness

820 years of Sanctions have been imposed.  This must be close to a maximum limit, as I've not seen higher than 840.  Granted, I wasn't meticulously looking over and over again, but the point is academic anyways.  I will never trade!

[bvanevery]

Details thin causeway

thin causeway

MY 2215.  I complete a land bridge to the mainland and the Manifold Nexus.  It will last about 5 seconds if Planet floods.  Thickening the bridge would seem to be a priority.  However, wiping out the Morganites is a higher priority.

I am feeling dumb that I went after the Pirates with chemical weapons.  It was imprudent to do so without first probing their location and disposition.  I had no military effect on them at all, and I made them mad enough to throw a nuke at me.  Nukes in my mod can hit anywhere on Planet, they stay aloft indefinitely and don't use fuel, so that's no small matter.  Hopefully I get nukes first and destroy the Pirates before they can trouble me, but putting a ticking timer on this wasn't smart.  In a previous game it actually cost me my existence, but I wanted to believe that I know much more now about how to deal with Planet, than I did then.  Do I?

[bvanevery]

Details irritation of reinforcement

irritation of reinforcement

MY 2216.  They can't mind control my base, but they can sure damage it.  I have piles of probe teams to defend with... they're just not where they need to be!  I've been cheap and doing my sealift with only 1 Transport this whole time.  I also forgot that they started working on the Hunter-Seeker Algorithm and I need to steal C4 Advanced Military Algorithms from them.  It's difficult to remember everything one needs to do, when a game is split across a day.

[bvanevery]

Details crowded thoroughfares

crowded thoroughfares

MY 2218.  I've reinforced with probe teams, so my covert defenses are secure.  However now I'm going to lose a team, due to unjustified optimism that I'd find a clear road to a theftable city.  I think the AI has some intelligence for blocking routes of approach, but I doubt this instance is actually deliberate.  Rather, the AI is spamming and there's just too much of it in the way.  Of course everything is too expensive to consider subverting it.

Details or is it

or is it

I try to spend my last move to hide in some fungus, only to find there's an enemy unit in it.  I'm surprised the price is more reasonable than before.  What gives?  Is the falloff from distance to the capitol that dramatic?  180 credits is still better spent on the Xenoempathy Dome than trying to rescue my unit, so I accept my fate.