Thinking about Pirates

[bvanevery]

Details so much for discord

so much for discord

MY 2162.  I suppose those enemy foil probe teams were never going to go after each other.

Details Isles are tougher now

Isles are tougher now

Looks like my westernmost base is gone.  My untrained Scouts took a lot of Isle hits earlier in the game, more at the core of my empire.  That's now a thing of the past.  The Command Nexus would actually be a good thing to get, because it saves on the tedium of moving garrison units around.  There is no cheap "cost=10" Trance Scout unit in my mod.  You'll pay 20 for a Trance Synth Garrison.  I've only recently had Trance capability, and I don't believe in leaving bases open when they're first plopped down anyways.  This base was very recently put down, so it's a pity it didn't have time to toughen up.  I guess I did make at least 1 sea colonist too many.

The only possibility for saving it, is if Thinker for some reason has a different turn order for when a rushed unit completes.  In the stock game, if I rush a unit now, I will just lose money.

Details tagged!

tagged!

I didn't expect to sail 3 squares west and find the enemy.  I thought they'd move in a straight line and I wouldn't be able to catch them.  They must have zigzagged for some reason.  Well, die!

[bvanevery]

Details speeder on the rocks

speeder on the rocks

MY 2163.  It would be just my luck to get killed trying to win this.  Rocky Terrain + Elite = annoyingly persistent on defense.

Details ran from an Isle

ran from an Isle

The doomed Cyborg probe team probably did an about face from an Isle last year.  Allowing me to kill it.  Now I need to get away from that ship.

[bvanevery]

Details yet a sealurk doesn't kill

yet a sealurk doesn't kill

MY 2164.  How does a sealurk even get that deep in my home waters?  It must have been spawned there.  It would not have swam in, as there were lots of other targets.

[bvanevery]

Details shelling

shelling

MY 2166.  I started laying down the awesome Lzer firepower, but it didn't scratch.  I wonder if it'll cause the enemy to move off the rock though.  I could pick up my own unit with the Transport but I'd rather get these supply pods.

[bvanevery]

Details joys of the Internationale

joys of the Internationale

MY 2167.  Socialism.  I hear everyone's doin' it.  How 'bout you?

Details hoy, Comrade

hoy, Comrade

First you need a navy.

I need some land units.  I sure am isolated by sea.

Details godlyman

godlyman

Just look at that priest-like face.

Details prepare to infiltrate

prepare to infiltrate

Now I'm realizing Miriam's gonna hate me as well, as the game's lore is "police states are atheist".  Makes no real world sense, but ok whatever.  A religious axis of selection would make more sense, at the expense of more religions, philosophies, and complications.  Wouldn't have fit in the original game.  Could fit into a brand new from scratch title.

I'm surprised Miriam didn't pipe up when I put the foil probe team next to her.  However I recently perused Thinker's Changelog.md and see that at some point, the occurrence of a diplomatic interaction was randomized.  At least, if the faction wasn't ready to surrender to you.  This keeps them from pestering you every single time you take over one of their bases and they want to have a totally useless chin wag about it.  For that circumstance, it's a feature.  But if it also affects the "talk to avoid getting probed" play mechanic, whether it's feature or liability is more ambiguous.

Since Miriam might jolly well follow in the footsteps of her peers, with extortion threats, for now I'll call it a feature!

[bvanevery]

Details I guess it isn't rubber banding

I guess it isn't rubber banding

MY 2168.  Am I really that weak?  Is the game's evaluation of strength or weakness really all that fair, or comprehensive?  Do any of these folks actually have a strategic interest in getting into it with me?  Am I an enemy of convenience, uniting the conversations of very distant factions?  I don't have enough of a map to know.  But I keep pushing out on the water and not finding much.  Yes, they're nearly adjacent by land and I can see some borders.  I don't think they know that they can't easily get to me without coastal cities.  Unless they get Doctrine: Air Power a lot faster than I'd expect them to be able to do.  No reason to believe they'll get Adaptive Doctrine and Marines before I do, as they would have started building the Command Nexus, probably.  I'm the beeliner on that.

[bvanevery]

Details keeping them in line

keeping them in line

MY 2173.  The 1st Clean Synth Police unit gets done this year.  I've got many more to come and I'm not a minerals powerhouse.  I learned C3 Advanced Subatomic Theory this year, which provides Plasma armor.  I need to redesign my police to be tougher.

Details a gouge

a gouge

Unfortunately I completed 2 of the things this year, and the upgrades are 50 credits each.  Considering that in my mod, synth and plasma armor cost the same amount, that's annoying.  But I've got so many of these things in production, the hit is worth it to ensure everyone has better armor.  They're all untrained and I'm going to need as much help as I can get.  I don't know how long enemy ships will take to reach me, but I have seen Cyborg Laser Foils in the water.

Details lotsa police

lotsa police

Gotta defend the inventory.

Details choosing secrets

choosing secrets

The earliest Secret Projects all cost 300 minerals.  I could almost complete the Citizens' Defense Force now if I want, but I'd rather have the Command Nexus.  And I think I'd rather have that than the Human Genome Project.  That's a tough call, but I'm trying to be militant, and police units go a long ways.  Plus if I pull off the Ascetic Virtues later, I can get 2x police benefit.

[bvanevery]

Details good news!

good news!

MY 2174.  So it's not going to be the AIs piling up on the human player after all.  Doesn't mean Deirdre's gonna like me though.

[bvanevery]

Details engage or evade

engage or evade

MY 2175.  +1 PROBE doesn't buy me a whole lot of advantage. 

Details similarity

similarity

Actually he's doing the Police State thing better than I am.  But he hasn't started the Command Nexus, which would seem to indicate he's mostly obeying his pure Discover research priority.

[bvanevery]

Details probe talk

probe talk

MY 2177.  Gotta move Zak out of the way so you can see the context.  I'm about to nail him with all kinds of foil probe teams and now, he wants to have his chin wag.  He's not going to stop me from robbing him blind.  I'm curious what he'll say though.

Details why waste the breath

why waste the breath

It's not like you're bearing down on me with more and better than what I've got.  Even if you were, I'd just quit the game and not play anymore.  You're not, which is why you're here, talking to me.  This game sure makes bullying into a thing.  It's pretty rare that I've ever been willing to buy my way out of someone's extortion.  And I can't remember any time in recent years.  I just don't see it as something to enjoy in these games.  I've also not seen scenarios where I had the money, thought I should hand it over, and thought I was doing well in the game.

Do you really want to play a game about being jacked up against a wall, by a mugger?  Are you going to make a habit of that?  A game where someone tries to jack you, and you cleverly slit their throat in return, I could see that.  "I'm the aggressor and you're the victim" just doesn't seem like a game dynamic that's all that profitable to get players to invest in.

Details my turn

my turn

Bring more probes next time, Zak.  I brought 3.

[bvanevery]

Details minor theft

minor theft

MY 2179.  Now why wouldn't I be given a tech for my trouble?  I've already infiltrated.  Well there might be a lot to see actually.

Details shut up Deirdre

shut up Deirdre

Sailing my probe team around, Deirdre's ship gets in the way and she opens her mouth.  That's a form of bothering me.

Details a strange and unexpected form of pestering

a strange and unexpected form of pestering

"Um, sure, whatever Planet says."  Nature loony.
 

I hope it lasts long enough to do something destructive to factions I don't like.

Since I'm stealing stuff, I refrain from even thinking about opening a sugar mommy conversation with her.  I cut her off and intend to talk again so I can sell her the last comm frequency.  But she won't talk again.  Fine, your loss.

I don't mind the idea of going Green.  I just don't know how.

Details she said she broke her back

she said she broke her back

That had to have been what she meant, because she clearly hasn't broken his back.  Why do the AI factions put on airs like that?  Is this weird pointless vanilla behavior that I just haven't had the pleasure of seeing before really?  Or is this some kind of bug?  What's the basis of proudly reporting you "broke someone's back" when there are all these cities lying about?

Maybe it just means "I'm stronger than Domai."  Which looks like it's true.  Looks like he got pinched between Deirdre and Aki-Zeta5.

On the power graph, the Gaians are actually reported to be much stronger than everyone else.  I'm not sure how factual that is.  It reminds me that I should do an inventory of what kinds of units everyone is producing.  I find that boring right now though.  So far on the water, I've seen nothing I should be worrying about.  Pretty much peons, and I'm a long ways away from everybody by water.  It's a big crinkly ocean.

[bvanevery]

Details you sank my battleship

you sank my battleship

MY 2180.  "Broken back" Domai popped my foil probe team with a laser foil.  And Aki-Zeta5 seemed to sink another one with an artillery barrage near one of her cities.  Hadn't even seen the city yet.  Well, still got some teams to go.  And plenty of exposed University cities.  I won't bother with that very long distance ocean hiking again.  Way too tedious.

[bvanevery]

Details policework completed

policework completed

MY 2181.  Here I will start building what will become the Command Nexus.  My 3 Artifacts are stored elsewhere.  I've built a Clean Transport to bring them to where they need to be.

Details first tech theft

first tech theft

Not that exciting.  I could choose Knowledge, but that would be -2 POLICE.  I'm going for full crowd control.

[bvanevery]

Details and she wants

and she wants

MY 2182.  Inviting me to a war?

Details Truce talk

Truce talk

No, just carping about my Unity Rover wandering around.  I forgot we were in a Truce.  It's still holding.

[bvanevery]

Details second probe theft

second probe theft

MY 2183.  This is the other fork in the road, the more typical way I'd do the Pirates.  Democratic is worth money in my mod.  That's not exciting to me anymore, as I still need my Command Nexus and still have lots of factions that want to fight me.  But what is interesting, is I can propose chemical weapons now!  Yes, people can agree to slaughter each other early and often in my mod.  Doesn't mean they will agree, just means I can try.  I mean, why should planetary governance be some deep overthought human development centuries later?  There's no point, it's very silly.  It doesn't make much sense from a game pacing standpoint either.  Now's just as time as any for everyone to start slaughtering each other.

The stock AI does not make good use of legal chemical weapons if they become available.  I wonder if Thinker is any more ruthless in that regard?

Details third probe theft

third probe theft

This one's sorta boring.  I'm not interested in becoming a Theocratic yahoo.  Oh, but the Children's Creche is not boring.  Forgot about that one.  Yes, you gain loyalty by breeding children close to their parents.  Santiago said so!