The Scoutmaster - SMACX AI Growth mod version 1.46

[bvanevery]

Details is it safe

is it safe

MY 2158.  With no formal diplomatic relationship to the Peacekeepers, I don't think they can kick my probe team out of their territory.  Maybe they can kill it with a conventional unit, at the expense of starting a war with me.  They don't have any probe team of their own in the city, only 2 Scouts.  It looks like Deidre is the only one with the probe teams.

MY 2159.  I was correct.  They did absolutely nothing.  I infiltrate, and see that Lal has a number of pacifist techs I don't care about.  My team survives and is promoted to Commando.  Lal is indeed in a Vendetta with the Gaians!  He hasn't met anyone else.

[bvanevery]

Details mind your betters

mind your betters

MY 2162.  I use the same trick on the Gaians.  Unlike Lal, they have the temerity to attack my Commando probe team.  Theirs is merely Disciplined, so of course it just dies.  I take 40% wounds.  Don't mess with the Police State!  I infiltrate.  Actually she's Police State too, she just hasn't built Command Centers like I have.  She doesn't even know the tech.  I guess that's what an Explore Discover focus buys you.  She's got the usual civilian rubbish I don't care about.  My team got promoted to Elite.  I'll send a different team to the Hive, for training, and keep this one on border duty.

[bvanevery]

Details can I get it

can I get it

MY 2164.  With substantial fungal barriers still in my way, I turn north and approach a Spore Launcher to kill it.  I find an Alien Artifact owned by the Cyborgs.  Who to attack first?  Well I guess I can do both.  Or maybe I grab the Artifact and back off.  Maybe I'm in Cyborg territory now.  No border lines are drawn though.

Details cleaning up my act

cleaning up my act

MY 2167.  I've now got a lot of normal Formers that cost support.  I don't need more of those, so I start making Clean Formers in my cities that don't have a Command Center.  That's just because I don't have much else worth building.  That's one of the benefits of having Clean Reactors available from the beginning of the game.  If you don't have the tech to make something of use, you can always just reinvest in your empire by making another Clean unit.  I've got plenty of Clean Scouts now, almost don't need any more.  I'm working on C3 Polymorphic Software, which will make the Command Nexus possible.  My further ambition is to get C3 Monopole Magnets and build rails with all these Formers.  Then I can really stick it to my neighbors!

[bvanevery]

Details Yang blunders

Yang blunders

MY 2171.  Yang kills my approaching probe team while it's still on my own territory.  That's not very smart of him.  I only wanted to infiltrate, although he didn't know that.  Now he's going to become an object lesson in Scout smothering tactics.  I also recently completed a Recon Rover prototype if I have to do any more than that.

Details rockfight

rockfight

MY 2172.  I've lost like 4 Scouts to this nearly dead, certifiably unkillable Unity Mining Drill.  It's sitting on top of my Sensor Array, about to destroy it.  I need that next year when his Battle Ogre comes for my base, so this thing must be gone.  Quite annoying that my Recon Rover is up north merely holding my citizenry in abeyance.  Even more annoying that Yang is at war with me at all.  This is stupid, all 3 of us in the region are Police States and likely to stay that way.  The real enemy is Lal.

[bvanevery]

Details not a purist

not a purist

MY 2174.  I'm fine with putting some strength 2 armor in the way of a strength 3 R-Laser.  With my base bonus and Sensor Array bonus, he should not be able to get through.  Clean Scouts are being used to garrison my rear cities to size 4.  Then I'll start pouring on plain Scouts for the smothering.

[bvanevery]

Details blunderer

blunderer

MY 2176.  The Caretakers present their Ogre on open ground for me to kill.  I can't take out the Hive Ogre because the fungus protects it too well.  But if it shoots at my base, it's probably gonna die, so it's a stalemate for now.  I'm still not making a horde of Scouts yet.  I'm feeling a little paranoid about enemy probe team possibilities, so I'm garrisoning all my cities with unarmored infantry probe teams.  I've begun the Command Nexus and will have Monopole Magnets in 10 years.  When I have my empire fully connected, that's when the party will really start.

[bvanevery]

Details buildup

buildup

MY 2180.  Yang has brought up a Recon Rover to add to the threat to my base.  I counter with another Clean Synthmetal upgrade.  It bears remembering that Scouts are an offensive idea, not a defensive one.  I'm making ordinary Synthmetal Garrisons to bring my unarmored probe teams next to Yang's bases.  This is a slow process.  Yang's got Lasers, he's spammy, and he's not making rules about using only Scouts.  One could argue that I have done my communications blackout with the humans for too long.  But, I can't very well talk until I learn E1 Social Psych somehow, and my research is going into C3 Monopole Magnets.  The fastest way to talking is still to steal E1 Social Psych from Yang, assuming he has it by now.

[bvanevery]

Details showtime

showtime

MY 2185.  I've been moving all my plain Formers that cost SUPPORT, to my front with the Hive.  They didn't have much to do, but I thought they could rip up some fungus while waiting for rails to drop.  Now they've dropped, and I won't have that problem for several years.

Details don't want to talk

don't want to talk

I opt for better armor.  I think I can just steal Social Psych.  Why bother to research it?  Famous last words!

Details massive construction

massive construction

I have a lot of Formers.  This will all be done within 10 years.  By which time, I'll probably have the Citizens' Defense Force done too.  Command Nexus is done next year.

[bvanevery]

Details look out humans

look out humans

MY 2186.  This is a good start on spamming my enemies into oblivion.  Thing is, I never wanted Yang as an enemy.

Details dumbass

dumbass

MY 2187.  Yang finally makes his play with the Ogre.  He dies.  Many Recon Rovers are coming up, but they will die too.  The AI is not very bright this way.  It's unfortunate that much of the game, consists of finding these "kill zones", where in practice the AI will squander lots of its units.  That's how you achieve "combat profit" and clean up.  Someday I swear I'll write a game with better tactical AI, so that I don't feel like I'm playing against such a dummy.  It's not the worst game AI I've seen by any means, but it definitely could be better.

The 3 Recon Rovers that Yang parked next to my base, I destroy easily.  3 more are coming to strike next year.  I put another Synthmetal Garrison into base to defend it.  They won't be getting through.

[bvanevery]

Details send in a parade!

send in a parade!

MY 2188.  Honored guest.  Deirdre has figured out how to speak Progenitor.  Surely she will have the most wonderful propositions for us!  Hmm, she's signed a Treaty with Lal.  That's not what I wanted to hear.  She must have gotten E3 Progenitor Psych from the Planetary Datalinks she built.  Only 1 other faction would have had to research it.  Maybe she figured it out herself.  Maybe the Caretakers learned E1 Social Psych, talked to some humans, and traded it to them. Yeah, that's probably how it went down.

I sign her Treaty.  I don't buy or trade tech from her.  I want to see what I can steal from Yang first.  She doesn't want an Alliance.  She's got a map of Caretaker territory, but I'm not trading anything to get it.

Details battlefront

battlefront

I have a really big chunk of rail completed.

[bvanevery]

Details nautical harassment

nautical harassment

MY 2190.  I was trying to sneak my Transport carrying an Artifact around a Caretaker ship.  But a 2nd ship suddenly appeared and sank it.  That's annoying.  I need a navy.  I've not had much coastal presence, but I do have 2 Colonists in the works.  They are no longer happy in their size 5 cities.

Details backdoor

backdoor

Belatedly I realize the land front is not the only place I can infiltrate and steal tech.  Previously my Transport was focused on popping pods at sea.  With none left in the bay, I was about to head out to sea, when I turned around and got on with the infiltration job.  If Yang doesn't bring up a Recon Rover to kill my delegation, I've got this.

[bvanevery]

Details the antisocial tyrant

the antisocial tyrant

MY 2191.  I infiltrate the Hive.  Yang has never learned E1 Social Psych, which meas I can keep stealing his techs until I want to finally talk to him.  He's not learned C2 Planetary Networks, so he has not initiated his Police State.  But has learned C3 Advanced Subatomic Theory, which I am currently researching.  I've got 5 years to steal it from him before I learn it myself.

[bvanevery]

Details mission accomplished

mission accomplished

MY 2193.  I steal it!  I change my research to C4 Single-Sided Surfaces to get some 3-Pulse armor.  That will play havoc with the Cloaked Recon Rovers he's building.  My garrisoned road also completes on the main front, giving me access to 2 more cities and I steal Yang's remaining techs.  Only thing left now is his map.

Details hi Cha

hi Cha

At sea, I run into this guy.  Seems that others are figuring out E3 Progenitor Psych.

Details wat

wat

That was confusing.  I didn't even get a word in edgewise.  The way the screens went by, it felt like a bug.  Well, whatever.  I'm not losing sleep over it, considering I don't even know where they are.

Details my proxy

my proxy

I look at other factions to see what's up with the Cult.  The Peacekeepers are at war with them.  The Gaians haven't even met them.  I notice they're Magnanimous towards me, so I pick up the Alliance I was expecting to happen.  I try to plead poor so that Deirdre will give me free tech, but she wants to charge me for it.  No thanks, I've got a Citizens' Defense Force to build.  And in principle, I've got everything I need to kick someone's butt.

Details ouch

ouch

Deidre has more of a map to look at.  The Cyborgs have had a truly hard time.  Couldn't even prosper with access to the Monsoon Jungle.  That spore launcher south of Alpha Prime, that's where I stole an Artifact from them.  It's been shelling that city forever!  An odd thing is, I've had a Truce with them for a long time.  Can we actually speak?  Nope.  So I don't know how we got a Truce.  Maybe a bug from when I took the Artifact.

Details Marr banker

Marr banker

I contact Deirdre again to sell her comm frequencies.  She comes back with the Caretaker map.  I loan her money because I haven't saved up that much, and I could use a little extra cash flow in the future.  I don't think she'll be messing with me, as I intend to go Green when I can.

Details bigger than Yang

bigger than Yang

I'd like to get Yang's cooperation for destroying the Caretakers.  Problem is, they have a Treaty.  Well, give it time.

The graph says the Cult is beating everybody.  Just how big have they gotten?  Deidre doesn't offer to buy their comm frequency, so it's a mystery for now.

Details unassailable

unassailable

I blow 4 Artifacts to rush the Citizens' Defense Force.  Since Yang and I both know the tech, I'm a little nervous about Deirdre getting it through the Planetary Datalinks.  I have 2 other Secret Projects in progress, that are actually farther along than this city was.  I couldn't get away with using just 3 Artifacts so I used this base instead.  That choice probably did not matter.

[bvanevery]

Details bad for diplomacy

bad for diplomacy

MY 2194.  Roughly 20 more years of war with Yang.  Great.  Sunspots doesn't give me any atrocity benefit either.  I could already use them on whoever I wanted, long as I wasn't worried about them living long enough to take revenge.

Hmm, if I just take Lal's techs during sunspots, can he do anything about it?  In practice, no he can't, as Deirdre is in the way.  But I mean, can he even declare Vendetta on me?  We don't have any diplomatic relationship, so there is no diplomatic violation, I think.  And if he did go to war with me, I don't care.  I don't expect to be able to remain at peace with him.  I think I'm going to go tech shopping!

I pick up the rest of Yang's map.  I already knew most of it, so that was not exciting.  Perhaps I should just smother the cities I've stolen from and call it a day.

[bvanevery]

Details space cadet

space cadet

MY 2195.  I totally forgot to work on a Plasma unit prototype.  So it's just as well that C4 Single-Sided Surfaces makes one available to me.  Now to upgrade these to 3-Pulse and I'm good.  The next prompting screen offered me exactly that, so I'm double good.  I start researching E2 Centauri Empathy because my people are getting unhappy as my empire expands.  I need more JUSTICE, and keeping the peace with Deirdre is useful.  She's got it, but we're in sunspots.  Lal's got it too, so maybe I'll be able to steal it from him.