The Tree Hugger - SMACX AI Growth mod version 1.52

[bvanevery]

Details sure we know you don't want a war

sure we know you don't want a war

MY 2142.  We arrive at Domai's battered front.  He wastes no time signing a Treaty immediately.  However he won't sign a Pact and has no tech to offer.  Perhaps he thinks he's doing ok.  He doesn't look it.

[bvanevery]

Details the sneering strip miner

the sneering strip miner

MY 2143.  My most hated adversary.  Is it knives out now, or later?

Details sure, talk to the socialist

sure, talk to the socialist

We're going to hold elections in another month.  I'll sell you any comm frequency you please.  One less credit you won't have.

Details my good friend Morgan

my good friend Morgan

By the time we're ready to deal with you, I'm sure we can find a way for you to break the peace with us.

Details remarkable bit of research

remarkable bit of research

We begin selling all our comm frequencies in preparation for the election.  Aki buys, and she also has tech to sell.  This Field Modulation does absolutely nothing.  We're not sure why she researched it, or if she traded for it, who she obtained it from.  But we want every advantage we can find, however tenuous, so we trade.

Details bank of Gaia

bank of Gaia

Cha Dawn also wants comms.  We agree to a long term loan, hoping that strengthens his hand against the Usurpers.  He comes up with a map of Free Drone territory.

Details with allies comes victory

with allies comes victory

Now I can spy on Morgan as much as I desire.

Details he's sad

he's sad

He's not at war though.  Much as I might like him to be.

[bvanevery]

Details worm breeder

worm breeder

MY 2155.  Many years of informal peace have allowed us to complete numerous research stations.  We can now breed mindworms in captivity.  The genetic controls have implications for human medicine and well being as well.  Agriculture has undergone a genetically modified renaissance and our crops flourish.  This gives rise to a new internal division, the plowers.  People who would plow up any land they can get their hands on, to make more food.  Back on Earth these people would have been an anti-GMO lobby, but we are all ecological scientists and know what we're doing.  When 90% of your society is capable of writing an environmental impact statement, even in the 6th grade, it has implications.

Details fertile land

fertile land

We cannot reasonably argue against the conversion of rainy, minerals-rich land to open farm.  The extra food production saves impacts elsewhere.  We can argue about rainy lands devoid of minerals, which we tree peoples feel are better served with forest.  It is important for land to serve multiple uses, if practices are to be sustainable. 

We have disallowed the construction of any mine whatsoever, even on natural outcroppings our geologists would kill to have developed.  Instead we have zoned them for farming and solar collection, telling our geologists to Be Happy the rock strata are preserved for their study.  This is not to become another Earth!

A hot button issue, is what to do with the one mine that was set up by a malfunctioning robot pod.  Some want to keep it as a tourist curiosity.  Most demand its removal, but we have other projects to tend to right now.  Our fleet of earth moving equipment is not infinite, and with mindworm production beginning, it is doubtful it will grow.

Details the good neighbor

the good neighbor

Although our primary interest in laboratory mindworms is exploration and "peace through strength", a few of the hardcore militants among us do note their potential as a decisive weapon of war.  Which brings pressure and scrutiny upon the behavior of other factions on Planet.  We are now the biological superpower, both with extant capabilities in the bush, and home capacity.  We are pleased to report that our next door neighbor, has seen the logic and efficiency of our sustainable practices and has gone fully Green.

Details why you chip brained ninny goat

why you chip brained ninny goat

We offer Aki a formal alliance.  She rebuffs us, criticizing us as a global hegemon.  We fear that her Green policies are a production convenience and not a long term ideological commitment.  But so long as she's Green in practice, we will take it.

Maybe she needs an enemy to convince her of the value of an ally.  But realistically, she will never have enemies.  We are her only neighbor and she's geographically sheltered from interaction with anyone else.

In fact, the geopolitical landscape is all very much arrayed in the manner of "foreign wars".  Were it not for our hatred of Morgan, and the strategic necessity of reducing him to a rump state, we'd have no interest abroad either.

[bvanevery]

Details the first secret project

the first secret project

Quite secure in our maritime force projection, we begin a complete mapping and refinement of the human genome.  Some would call it a eugenics program, but we don't think anyone really needs cavities, for instance.  The number of artifacts we've brought back from the oceans and foreign shores is endless.  We could use them to instantly complete this work, but there is no need.  The other factions are mostly backwards compared to us, except our ally Cha Dawn, did provide us with nice blueprints for a command post.  We set up one, and it will gradually phase out our scout garrisons, freeing them to do actual scouting.

Details to the labs

to the labs

We have research supremacy, a clear lead on all manner of scientific insight, and no one who can realistically challenge us in this capacity.  We can amplify this lead by making concerted study of our many artifacts.  Our own research, although supreme, also seems a bit slow to us.  If we did not have the Human Genome Project to invest our abundant salvage in, we'd have precious little to build.

In fairness, we have no real insight into the minds of the Caretakers.  But they are in stalemate with the Free Drones, who have nothing, and we see no Caretaker hordes outside Domai's cities.  So the Caretakers, simply cannot amount to much.  In fact, we should try to make peace with them, if they will speak.  There is simply no strategic value in moving any troop in their direction.  We have in fact had a single rover, wandering around their backyard, unchallenged for quite some time.

Details the caretaker sees sense

the caretaker sees sense

A long time has passed.  We are far stronger than we ever were before.  The practicalities of invasion, in either direction, are unchanged.  Caretaker intelligence gathering is surely quite limited, but even they must be able to realize, that they have more important local concerns.

Details it's not easy being green

it's not easy being green

These aliens express a surprising antipathy to basic environmental stewardship.  That could be a problem.  For now, it is a quirk.

Details so it's his fault you took his city

so it's his fault you took his city

We politely ask the Caretakers to knock off their war with the humans.  They say, talk to Domai.  We do not pursue any Treaty negotiation as in the absence of this point, we don't expect much luck.

Details the human capacity for reason

the human capacity for reason

Domai, having a brain that works more or less like our own, calls off the war.  Given his backwards state, we have nothing further to discuss.  Perhaps he can now build himself into some kind of civilian buffer state against these Caretakers.

Details the unenlightened self interest

the unenlightened self interest

We contact the Caretakers again and offer a formal Treaty.  They refuse.  They seem to think their race is up to something.  I can't imagine what.

[bvanevery]

Details defense against ourselves

defense against ourselves

MY 2156.  Again, no faction has anything of technical interest.  We begin a campaign of futuristic advancement.  We determine that by sticking wires into brains, we can increase people's skills, and also partly block the terror a mindworm induces.  These procedures were strictly against the campaign promises I ran on, but mostly we worked from schematics stored in an artifact.  We also got a few crackpot volunteers for human trials, possibly having played one too many rounds of pinochle with the cyborgs.

Details bored researchers

bored researchers

We didn't find these discoveries terribly compelling, so we plugged in more artifacts.

Details disconcerting options

disconcerting options

We already have an abundance of peace through strength.  Peace through nerve gas?  Some amoralist, perhaps a cybernetic immigrant, noted  it would work well on aliens.  No one would care if they're gone.  We had the rogue suitably disciplined.

[bvanevery]

Details what are friends for

what are friends for

MY 2157.  Our ally Cha Dawn, who is not in fact making war upon the Usurpers anymore, has come up with some technology.

Details making babies

making babies

We are most happy for this technology, as our cities have the infrastructure to sustain many more people, than we currently do.  More people in fewer cities means more land untouched.  We also need a larger population to retain control of the Governorship.  This doesn't please the zero population growth interests among us, but for now, a cosmopolitan Planet has its necessities.

Details fertility rites

fertility rites

We are less pleased about the idea of prattling on about God.  We see that our good little charlatan has already latched onto it as a cultural pattern, to gain more followers.  Maybe even make some followers personally, as he might be what, 13 now?

[bvanevery]

Details getting around

getting around

MY 2158.  The campaign to study artifacts brings one useful insight, the ability to move rapidly within our empire.  Such rails are rather time consuming to produce though.   We would need a lot more formers.  We don't find larger starting cities to be attractive as we haven't filled up our current ones.  Still, we will probably begin the project to keep others from doing so.

[bvanevery]

Details impenetrable

impenetrable

MY 2162.  The campaign of artifact study continues.  We have no special need of defense, but a Citizens' Defense Force could keep our bases safe from conventional forces forever.  We are nearing the end of what we can learn with our present labs.  New cities with new labs would be required to learn more.

[bvanevery]

Details eschewing nature

eschewing nature

MY 2163.  We have fairly happy citizens.  It seems they may be happy forever.  Perhaps we are too much scientists, with our toys.

Details on high

on high

Disciplines of asceticism, at least can be conducted from a mountaintop.

Details last insight

last insight

We have finally used up the last collection of wires and plugs in our various labs.  We would need new labs to study more.  Although the pace of discovering new artifacts continues unabated, we are advised to hold some in reserve.  Also as a practical matter, we simply don't need new cities.  By the time we complete these projects, our population could double within its existing bounds.

Details anti mindworm

anti mindworm

If we ever need to fight someone as powerful as us, well, we're ready.  I would have preferred a more civilian insight.

Details efforts

efforts

We are the world model of self-sufficiency and safety.  We have a nominal war with the Usurpers, mainly a matter of them being too peevish to answer our hails and sign a Truce.  As our major projects complete, we may actually get our rail system after all, for complete lack of anything urgent to do.  We continue our effort to salvage every last piece of space junk on Planet.

Details down payment

down payment

To prevent the possibility of our economy overheating, we invest credits in excess of 1000 into our leading secret project.  One of our finance ministers inadvertently invests our entire cash reserve into the project, which would be a rather different intent.  He claims he accidentally typed an extra "1".  We think he was embezzling but we have no proof.  Fortunately we had a backup of all our bank records and were able to rescind the transaction.

[bvanevery]

Details strategic asset

strategic asset

MY 2164.  In the distance our scouts have spotted an immense structure of unusual architecture.  Our scientists are calling it a 'Nexus', as it reverberates with fungal pulses.  If Planet were a nervous or circulatory system, this could be some kind of pacemaker or valve.  We think permanent possession and study of it, would greatly aid our ability to manipulate indigenous life.

Details shipping out

shipping out

Our one base doing nothing particularly important, indeed our most recently settled base of the newest and greenest colonists, is ordered to pack up and move again.  Well at least they didn't complain and saw it as a good career research opportunity.  We will accompany them with quite a bit of other materials, as this Nexus site is important and far flung.  We can rely on Cultist protection in the short term, but we must ensure that is not a political necessity over the long haul.

[bvanevery]

Details controllers

controllers

MY 2165.  An irritating settlement by the cyborgs, has blocked our strategic access to the Manifold Nexus site.  We can still do it overland, but it will take longer.

Details yeah you're just cutting us off

yeah you're just cutting us off

To save time, we shamelessly offer the cyborgs an alliance, offering nothing but our bright smiles and sunny dispositions as compensation.  After all, being the world hegemon, a place at our side is fairly valuable.  But the cyborgs have a self-sufficiency ethic and rebuff us.  Overland it is.

Details can we have a canal

can we have a canal

It is strategically difficult to move from one side of the world to the other.  In fact, we don't think it's possible.  Those early seismic disturbances really cut off our strategic access.  It's almost as though someone blocked it off deliberately.  We have trouble fathoming a motive for such an act though.  Surely, no faction could have done it deliberately.  Not in those early days.

Details long way by water

long way by water

An eastward passage does exist, that we've barely begun to explore, and certainly haven't moved any transports or Isles into.  We will simply have to hold some awkward land.

[bvanevery]

Details wandering threat

wandering threat

MY 2166.  The Usurpers gave us a curious spectacle in the bush.  At first we thought they had attained advanced weaponry.  All they really did, was salvage the USS Unity.  Wandering the wilderness, attempting to get closer and closer to the Cult, did not seem to us a viable military plan.  We showed them why.

[bvanevery]

Details long voyage

long voyage

MY 2168.  We have permanent infiltration of the Morganites.  This is insurance against losing the Governorship, however unlikely that may be.  We would have preferred to have infiltrated the Usurpers, who are not part of the Planetary Council and a mystery to us, but they are landlocked.

Details can they reason

can they reason

Why the Usurpers would choose to speak to us now, rather than before we trashed their presumably best field unit, is a mystery.

Details we cry for your weakness

we cry for your weakness

We will nevertheless, avail ourselves of any opportunity, to avoid pointless concerns.

Details your lands are boring

your lands are boring

Maybe someday you will fight the Morganites?

[bvanevery]

Details immorality of the silent

immorality of the silent

MY 2169.  Fell deeds are possible during sunspots.  We could, for instance, try to gas the Morganites.  But they are still a sad little people, struggling so much with their frontier ways, that they haven't even set up the capital markets they are so fond of.  We could at least afford them the dignity, of living up to their reputation.

[bvanevery]

Details alien intelligence

alien intelligence

MY 2171.  We infiltrate the Caretakers.  Both of our probe teams have now died.  They have a surprising lack of endurance, for such a simple operation.