Thinking about Pirates

[bvanevery]

Details I so scummy

I so scummy

MY 2105.  It occurs to me that I didn't have any base with this many minerals last game.

Details build build build

build build build

I already dragged B1 Industrial Base out of the water, so I'm already making a Sea Formers, which I had to design.  This time I will concentrate on minerals first.

[bvanevery]

Details cutting off SUPPORT

cutting off SUPPORT

MY 2107.  Clean Scouts have a special dispensation in my mod.  They only cost 20 minerals.  They're a good early game garrison to avoid SUPPORT penalties.  I sort of forgot about them last game.  I also didn't have a pile of early minerals cranking things out quite so fast.  In this case, they make more sense.

[bvanevery]

Details scummed again

scummed again

MY 2113.  Ta da!

[bvanevery]

Details who's counting

who's counting

MY 2115.  I'm counting.  On it.

[bvanevery]

Details love this guy

love this guy

MY 2117.  Do you ever just want to wrap your dextrous fingers around someone's throat?

Details price code

price code

But instead I sign a Treaty.  I won't be buying anything from him anytime soon.

[bvanevery]

Details some Believers

some Believers

MY 2119.  The Unity Lifter is my mod's version of the Unity Chopper.  Typically found at the USS Unity crash site, but also attainable occasionally from supply pods.  This is the only Chopper unit in the game.  It is an exceptionally long range air transport that can hold 2 units.  You can well ask, technologically, why there can't be dozens of such things in the game.  And the answers are simple.  The stock binary doesn't know how to use them, and if I offered any producible variant, players could reverse engineer all Chopper units!  I haven't changed my opinion that with its attack every move, the Chopper is overpowered.  I've tried Choppers with less movement and I find them terribly boring.  So, they're out.  This is the only remnant.

[bvanevery]

Details who's the scummiest of them all

who's the scummiest of them all

MY 2121.  Mirror, Mirror, on the ocean...

[bvanevery]

Details drone at sea

drone at sea

MY 2122.  The jerk declares war.

Details near enemy

near enemy

I guess I'm fighting him?  I guess if we're using my world generator, we're not using Thinker's faction placement algorithm.  This is like in my mod, where someone could start fairly near you, even if it doesn't usually happen.  Zhakarov isn't exactly far away either.

Details scum the feeble navy

scum the feeble navy

I switched over production to a bunch of Gun Foils, because that's all I've got.  Then I figured, if I'm about to pop pods, better keep it clean!

Details adjustment

adjustment

I'll try to get square with the realities of fighting.  At least this time I know I'm really in a shooting war.

[bvanevery]

Details lucky rabbit armor

lucky rabbit armor

MY 2123.  Fished it out of the sea.  Now we have parity. 

[bvanevery]

Details utility of a cult

utility of a cult

MY 2127.  I can't argue with a Rec Commons.

Details worm vials

worm vials

Biology Labs is a Tier 1 tech in my mod.  It makes far more sense for early factions to build it, because it's a small constant bonus rather than a multiplicative bonus.  The former is proportionately much greater for small cities.  Biology Labs are easy to get.  D2 Information Networks and Network Nodes actually take a more deliberate focus on Discover to obtain.  It's possible for factions to go a long time without learning them, i.e. my last game.

Details the runt of the litter

the runt of the litter

On the power graph, right now they're showing as extremely bad.  Like worse than me bad.  I wonder if that's going to stay true?  In my mod, they're far more usually a powerhouse.  Reducing the number of available supply pods, if that actually happened, would tend to cut down on their early game advantage somewhat.

Details sign off sign on

sign off sign on

He comes through with a map of my enemy.  I'm not going to ask him to fight Domai though.  He's probably not within range to do any good.

Details wet lather

wet lather

Let's see if he can pull a map from Zhakarov.

Details rinse repeat

rinse repeat

Yep.  Now I have full intelligence.

[bvanevery]

Details bad spread

bad spread

I know they start late, but this looks like some serious underperformance.

Details units look normal

units look normal

The Thinker AI is using the special predefined Clean Colony Pod units available to everyone in my mod, so it's not making any basic productive mistake.  It's got the expected complement of captured native units, and has clearly been popping pods, because it has a Unity Rover and an Artifact.  If cities aren't being built, the fault lies elsewhere.

Details we meet at last

we meet at last

What does Jesus have to say this year?

Details talk to my aide

talk to my aide

My countryman says Jesus is a mindworm.

Details I like tech

I like tech

Hey, wanna go beat up Domai?

Details so sorry

so sorry

Well, a Treaty is a start.  You'll probably hate me later, for your usual reasons.

Details more intelligence

more intelligence

Cha Dawn picks up the map for me.

[bvanevery]

Details decent spread

decent spread

The Believers have done ok with their spreading.  They do have better land than the Cult started with.  I'm remembering that I disabled Thinker's option to give only the AI some bonus nutrients at their landing site.  If Thinker relies on that boost for earliest game performance, well it would explain why I'm seriously outperforming some of these factions with my completion scumming.

Details drone spread

drone spread

The Free Drones haven't done much better than the Cult.  They have naturally occurring nutrients around them though, so they don't have nutrient deprivation as an excuse.  They've correctly built forests on 2 nutrients that were on Flat terrain, so at least that part of Thinker's terraforming protocol, is correct.  Forests do cost a bit more than stock, 6 instead of 4, but that shouldn't matter.  They're still totally worth planting.

It looks like this isn't going to be some huge early fight after all.  This might be more a case of picking them off at my leisure.  I will press on to C2 Applied Physics though.  Then get back to the Explore Build focus.

Details modest spread

modest spread

The University does a little better, but not as good as I'm doing.

Pity my advantage doesn't last!

[bvanevery]

Details someone popping the pods

someone popping the pods

Over the last 2 turns, the supply pods in the Sargasso Sea have been disappearing.  Maybe that Free Drone ship is still in there and somehow survived.  I'm going in after it.  Whoever popped all of this, managed to do it without triggering a kelp explosion.  I'd like to believe that meant they set off some Isles instead, so it's hard to believe a ship could survive in there unwounded.  Maybe the last pop will have finally killed it, and I may find nothing.

[bvanevery]

Details nearly dead drone commits suicide

nearly dead drone commits suicide

MY 2130.  Seems the Thinker AI knows how to perform artillery duels.  In this case that was clearly suicide, so it doesn't know how to perform them well.  But I'll take it.  Saves me the PITA of going over all these fungal squares.  Only question remaining is whether there's more than 1 ship.  I doubt it though.  I only ever saw the 1 ship, and I've been up and down their channel bringing an Artifact home.  That was pretty risky behavior at the time, but I just had an instinct that they really didn't have that much to throw into the ocean.

Details I can kill you

I can kill you

My mod is biased towards defense though.  Unless the Thinker AI has very different priorities than the stock binary, those Free Drone bases are likely to be stacked with piles of Clean Synth Garrisons.  In fact, maybe that's Thinker's "problem".  It may have transitioned from the usual colonization spread to the stockpiling of clean garrisons, thinking that's a "wonderful deal".  Well it kinda is, but it's something to balance.  Thinker may not have any sense of balance in this regard, and may be forgetting to do its usual spreading routine.

This could be a result of my mod not giving Thinker that other "crutch", of always being distant from other factions to start with.  So Thinker doesn't get to just sit back, relax, and do its usual spread like crazy routine.  The Believers are doing it, because they don't look like they have any neighbors.  The University, well I'm not sure of the story there, but they are close to me.  The Cult, there's not really much excuse from what I can see.

I still need probe teams, so I don't change my Explore Conquer research focus.

[bvanevery]

Details there was a 2nd

there was a 2nd

MY 2131.  I've underestimated their persistence.

Details turtle up

turtle up

I sail into defensive fungus, guard my Artifact with my unwounded ship, and wait for them to commit suicide again.