Dathon's Incomplete

[dathon]

Herein lies my report for Imperium 11. August has been a rather busy month, both at work and at home, so I'm only getting to this with less than a week to go. Hopefully, I should still have time to finish this one off. This Imperium is unique in two aspects. First, I believe it is the first scored MOO Imperium. I've never participated in a CIV or Civ3 scored tournament, but found them fun to read. Well, to put an even finer point on it, I've never directly participated in ANY Civ tournaments, but did play some of them after-the-fact. Second, this is the first Imperium with the events turned off! Anybody who's known me around MOO for more than five minutes probably knows of my extreme dislike of the events. But I digress...

So the first thing to do, obviously, is look at the scoring system and develop a gameplan. And, obviously, the first thing I'm looking at is that quadruple bonus for scoring 150 points in any category. Sullla asks, "is that even possible." After mulling some numbers for a few minutes, I'd have to say it's going to be darn near IMPOSSIBLE to do so. Let's look at the categories one at a time, shall we?

Colonist

To claim 150 points here, player is going to have to expand with the best of the Impossible AI. Looking at my own ridiculous growth in RBO 10, that wouldn't have even made it. I had 16 planets and 6 votes in 2381, so let's assume that's what I had in 2375. And let's assume that I was actually playing, rather than coasting, so had my 2500 results in 2450, where I had 27 planets and 53 votes. Even given those results, that would STILL be only 146 points. Probably could have picked up another planet or two in the late game to push it over, but keep in mind that was on Average. The AI will be moving a lot faster on Hard, probably curtailing early expansion. The map itself will be a further limiting factor, as there is a huge gulf between our little corner and the rest of the galaxy. If there's an opponent at that yellow in the middle of the map, the only way to expand fast is going to be to the East, and that's likely to be taken by somebody (or somebodies!) in that cluster over there. So I think scoring high in this category is going to involve a lot of luck (poorly positioned and/or performing AI and lots of habitables), or basically owning the entire map in the late game. But that brings another problem, which I'll come back to in a moment.

Researcher

Probably the easiest category to master. The Klackon's bonus will see fast, productive mature worlds fairly early, and as long as they're not all little dirt balls, research shouldn't be a problem.

Diplomat

This one is the killer, in my view. With bribes off the table, the only ways to improve relations are through trade, NAP's, gifted council votes, and war with enemies. Trade and NAP's will, in general, only get you to around amiable/calm, and gifted council votes can push that up to the affable/peaceful range. However, 2375 is too early to get a lot of that going. There's only going to be at most one election before 2375, so that's not going to help much. Most races, unless they are peaceful, won't NAP with you until amiable, and getting there with trade takes time. There's sure to be a race in that Northern cluster, and maybe one in the NE, and contact with them is going to come too late to get stellar relations going there. So that leaves enemy-of-my-enemy. While that boosts things dramtically, it comes at the cost of souring relations with the target race. Looking at 2475, the best-case scenario is going to be alliance with three races, war with one. Even assuming harmony with those 3, and 90 points, you'd still need 60 in 2375. That's amiable with two races, calm with two others. And I just don't see that happening. I also don't see enemy-of-my-enemy coming in to play by 2375 either; heck, there's no guarantee that the galaxy will be in complete contact with itself by then, especially if player boxes in the Eastern cluster with early expansion. Plus, unless player lands early fusion bombs and pursues a large fleet of those, technology limits the amount of "impressive" damage you can do to earn this bonus.

Another big problem with diplomacy is that it is 100% at odds with the Colonist points. The only way to win there is to be completely dominant in planets and population, and if there's anything that pisses off the AI, it's when the player is much bigger than it. I just don't see how anybody can get enough planets/population to meet the 150 criteria for Colonist, and still maintain sufficient relations to land 150 in Diplomat.

With this in mind, I'm setting a personal goal for myself to get over 100 in every category. My gameplan will be to expand fast and hard, ala RBO 10, pushing for as many planets and contacts as possible by 2375. I'll be running max trade to boost relations, and re-upping peace deals more often than is economically wise to try and boost relations. Technology I'm not too worried about, unless we end up with a plethora of small planets, and even that can probably be fixed by terraforming. After 2375, I'll be looking to start an intergalactic dogpile on the strongest AI, everybody vs them. If tech levels are lacking, I may need to delay that to steal/pointy-stick some tech, but as I said before, the ideal would be alliance with 3 races against the fourth. If the AI expands like a jack-rabbit, I may be able to start this early, but I doubt it.

Alright, let's get this show on the road! The first decision, where to send the first colony ship, is an easy one this time. It goes to the yellow. My scouts are sent to the blue-green binary star system NE of Kholdan; that could be my only gateway to the center of the map. I actually wanted to send those scouts due E, but those stars are both 7 parsec away. Three turns later, and what do we find? A size 50 ultra rich Well, well. This will make things interesting. Maybe early warfare will be an option. That world will also be invaluable in getting my colonies up and running faster. A round of scouts heads out, and ...



Annnnnnd the one thing I was really hoping not to see on this map: an artifacts world. This planet is going to throw the scoring for this event WAY out of whack. I already know that I won't be in the top scores because I've just suffered a major blow to my growth curve. And no doubt others will get techs that will set them far in front of everybody else. Range tech, Controlled Dead/Tundra, Improved Eco, IIT8, even Fusion Bombs could significantly improve somebody's score. And all down to a dice roll. Clicking next turn, and Kholdan is down to 4.7 factories per year; it had been up to nearly 7, meaning my bonus as the Klackons has effectively been negated. Argh! What is it with this game!? Even with random events turned off, I STILL get hammered by a random event :wall:

Extremely disheartened, I turned the game off for the day; I knew that I wasn't going to play well after a psychological setback like that. As I said at the beginning, August has been busy, and I actually never got around to the game again. But now it's reporting day, and I just don't want to leave the game like this. Part of competing is playing the hand you're dealt, even if it's only Queen-High. So I'm going to get as much done as I can today before reading the reports, and see what I can do.

I waited to see what the rest of the scouts revealed before opening the tech fields. Based on their findings, I definitely wanted both Range 5 and Controlled Barren in the tree. And turns out, they both were! I actually took +10 first, though. I think that growth curve is going to have a big impact on the scoring, so I'm going to grow my economy as much and as fast as possible. I think those Northern planets are safe for now; if there had been an AI at the yellow in the center, there would have been scouts at those worlds. So I'm going to push economy over expansion early, and hope I'm not beaten out to too many worlds as a result.

So I trickle-researched +10 out of Maalor; being Ultra Rich, that planet will max factories WAY before population catches up anyways, so might as well divert a few points towards making both planets larger. 65 RP from Kholdan to start, and then 3 clicks to research at Maalor brought the tech in by 2319. I took Improved Eco next. After pausing for a turn to terraform Kholdan and Maalor, I trickle-researched 3/4 of Improved Eco until Maalor maxed out, then it went full-bore on the tech. Kholdan stayed on factory duty; the only way I was going to make up the growth-curve deficit would be to push Kholdan PAST 200 factories, and use the extra production to play catch-up.

Improved Eco popped in 2331. Range 5 was about 20% done, as I'd devoted some funds when Eco hit the percentages. I debated on my next Planetology choice, but ultimately took Controlled Barren. Yes I could have gotten the same effect from Controlled Dead, but Barren could be my only way out to the East, especially with the propulsion-challenged Klackons. I swapped Kholdan over to 151 RP research, rest to factories (10/y). It had 285 at this point, so that would max me at about the same time Barren came in, and Kholdan could go full-bore into research to pick up technology points. Maalor started cranking colony ships. I needed to get that going, as I was almost halfway to 2375 at this point.

Kholdan maxed in 2337, coming fully online with 330 factories. I took Deep Space Scanner and Hand Lasers for my Computer/Weapons choices. Scanners would provide valuable intel, and Hand Lasers would let me climb the tech rung faster. Range 5 popped the next turn, and I founded Omicron that year as well. I had four extra col ships at this time, so I sent them all to Artemis, intending to send them out to any available worlds in the core ASAP.

I took Controlled Dead over +20 when Barren popped in 2341. I would need +20 on 5 worlds to equal the points I could get from colonizing the Dead near me. Primodius was founded on the next turn, and Artemis the turn after that. I shipped lots of colonists from Kholdan to both worlds to serve as seeds. That would be very important to land colonist points by 2375, as every 100 pop was another 3 points. It set Kholdan back a bit, but if I could get a lot of worlds in the core growing faster sooner, it would be worth it.

Hand Lasers popped in 2344, and I took the cheap NPG's as my next option. Ooooh, Herculis is a size 125 Fertile. Well, guess it's good that I already have a colony ship enroute that will arrive in 3 turns to claim it RW80% arrived in 2346, further boosting my economy. I chose BCIV in 2347 when DSS came in. That might prove to be a mistake, but I hopefully I can land it in the next 30 turns for a big boost in tech points.

Berel was founded in 2348, Imra and Crius in 2349, and Anraq, Gion, and Vox each in successive turns. Maalor provided a bankroll to boost those growth of those colonies. Founding Imra and Crius brought me my first contact, with the Silicoids:



Hmmm, they already had 7 planets. Of course, we are at Unease with the Rocks, but they are Aggressive, and I immediately signed them to a 75/y trade pact, so that should pick up nicely in no time. I had also seen a Psilon scout at Klystron in the SE, so they were likely in the cluster over there. I picked up my research on Controlled Dead, to get relations there quicker.

Found out in 2356 that the Psilons owned Paranar, but still didn't have Nyarl to the N. Dead was in the percentages, asx was Nuke Engines, so that was certainly a possibility. I had sent a col ship blind to the red star at the 2 o'clock position of the nebula in the center. Well, that turned out to be a great move, as I landed Kailis, a size 90 jungle, and contact with the Humans in 2357. Once again, I established maximum trade; I'd love to get them to amiable, or even calm.

Of course, my rapid expansion is putting me in the same situation as RBO 10. I have zero military right now, though GNN reported about 5 turns ago that I had the biggest fleet I'm not too worried yet, though. The Rocks and Humans still have room to expand, and the Psilon's and Bulrathi have to be together in the SE, largely out of range for the moment. I can't let it get to the point I did in RBO 10, but I'm not there yet.

Controlled Dead finally landed in 2359, after several turns in percentages. I went for +20; no way I'd land Toxic in 11 turns. I probably won't land +20 in 11 turns for that matter, but 10 more pop at each of my worlds will be a substantial boost, and there's only 1 planet in range that Toxic could land, so I think the delay is worth it. I held off on col ships for the moment, however. Maalor is building a placeholder, and I want those Nuke engines on my ships, but caught a bad break when the tech didn't pop for 3 more turns at over 25%.

The first council vote happened on the same turn, us vs the Humans. However, the Bears voted for the Humans? Did I miss a yellow up North? That gave them 5/15 votes, and I unfortunately had to abstain, as I had 5/15 myself Another bad break there, missing the chance for a relations boost with the Humans. That also doesn't bode well for the 2375 elections, as I can only get points for votes CAST, if I interpret the rules correctly. I would have to vote for myself, potentially worsening relations with the apes. Turns out, I didn't miss a yellow up north; the Humans had all of them The Bulrathi must have a world up there that they got through an early alliance with the Silicoids. Bet that doesn't happen in every game!

Ok, 2365, 10 turns to go, time to take stock. I have 12 planets, and will have 3 more by 2370. I now have 608 pop, so that's another vote in the council, and I should be able to make at least 92 more for another one. Tech-wise, NPG's and IIT8 are in percentages, and +20 and BCIV are about half-done, so that should come in by then. If I don't like what I see by 2370, I can switch over my artifacts world for another boost there. I'm not researching shields or propulsion at all, deeming them not likely to hit in time.

Disaster strikes in 2368 when the Silicoids decide that Kailis is THEIR world, and send troops to take it. That's actually the first time I've seen the AI send troops unescorted at a planet. So I lose the planet, and worse, contact with the Humans. +20 came in time for me to use it in 2369, with NPG's the next turn. BCIV popped in 2372. Let's see, is there anything I can research in 3 turns? Well, maybe Class III. All planets that are maxed on pop go research in an attempt to land it.

Annnnnd another bad break; the Bulrathi declare war in 2373. Two years, just two more freakin years! You just couldn't hold off until then!? And they're allied with the Psilons. At least the Brains declared war when I asked.

Well, Class III is at 37% in 2374. Will it pop between turns? Nope. It's now at 66%. Un-freaking-believable. I just cannot catch any sort of break in this game. It was at this point that I decided to retire. More on that in a moment, but first, my 2375 score.

Colonist





Planets: 15
Council votes: 11
Total: 3*(15 + 11) = 68

Technology



Total: 15 + 8 + 4 + 12 + 6 + 7 = 52

Diplomat

Neutral with the Psilons and Silicoids, Hate with the Bulrathi

Total: 10 + 10 + 0 + 0 = 20

Now, as I said a moment ago, I decided to retire the game at 2375. I played from the discovery of IRC3 to here this morning. But to finish the game would put a serious crimp on real life. Lot of things going on, and I've already stolen enough time from my employer for this venture I've also been extremely disheartened by all of the bad breaks. Most of them weren't that bad, actually. But taken together, I feel like I've been fighting against some unseen demon the whole time. Like Sirian and his can't-pop-a-leader from Civ3 days, I feel like every time I play MOO, I keep rolling snake eyes.

Of course, the game isn't under threat. I have over a quarter of the galaxy, and all of my planets are coming online at full strength. My closest rival in terms of power is the Silicoids, and their planets are probably pretty immature still, so victory really isn't in doubt. My scoring for colonist is good, technology is acceptable. Diplomatic scoring is just abysmal. Once again, I probably pushed expansion too close to the limit in terms of running no military, but this event was designed for that. I'm sure others will push it just as far, and won't be punished for it. If I hadn't pushed so hard i.e. side-tracked to build military, I probably would have kept Kailis, but at the expense of my tech score. It was truly a bad break that the Bulrathi declared hot war, instead of going into Cold War mode. I'm also amazed that the Silicoids were so aggressive as to take Kailis without sending ships, especially since there are 3 stars within their reach near the Humans, and I doubt all of them are empty.

I haven't read the reports yet, but I'll bet that the scoring is all over the map, and largely dependent on luck factors. The artifacts planet is the worst offender. I'm betting that the high scorers pulled Improved Eco, IIT8, Controlled Dead, or Range tech. The AI reaction will also play a major luck factor. As I said, I'll bet lots of players go very light or no military, and somebody will come up not being punished for it with AI aggression. So while I think this Imperium was an interesting concept, too much of the scoring is dependent on luck to make for valid comparisons.

One final curiosity for me is why the Bulrathi voted for the Humans in both elections. They couldn't have had contact in either election (look at my map). The only thing I can think of is they used to have contact via an early colony, courtesy of an early alliance with the Silicoid. That colony then got eaten, but the "relationship" variables stayed in play.

[dathon]

I wanted to clarify something, based on re-reading my own report:

The main reason I didn't finish was time, not the bad luck. I didn't start the event until mid-last week, and didn't do most of it until today! Just too much RL going on. Rather, the bad luck removed any motivation to seriously re-arrange my schedule to try and squeeze it in. I will (hopefully) be playing Imperium 12, and the rest of the games down the line.

I also don't want to take away from anybody who did get lucky with diplomatic/artifacts-world breaks. No sour grapes here! This isn't chess. Luck IS a factor in this game, and I recognize that. I'm just getting a little frustrated at it going against me so often. But hey, them's the breaks.

dathon

[sargon0]

Bad luck with the artefacts pull Dathon. You still managed to establish a winning position quickly, especially in RL time. Sullla will have to turn off events and artefacts planets next!

By the way, regarding NAP's, I did some tests when Sullla announced this imperium. I could always get a NAP at Relaxed and even at the last point of Neutral.

[dathon]

By the way, regarding NAP's, I did some tests when Sullla announced this imperium. I could always get a NAP at Relaxed and even at the last point of Neutral.

Well, that fits with the MOO guide. It's always been my experience that the races have to like you a bit more, but then I don't ask for NAP's all that often.

dathon

[sargon0]

Well the MOO guide says NAP possible at +15 with Relaxed covering +7 to +18. However I find that Relaxed is +12 to +23 and NAPs are available at +11. I didn't even get a single refusal but that could be luck I suppose. I just tried it with Mrrshan asking an aggressive Alkari at +11 (edited) and was successful.

[RefSteel]

I definitely understand this one - the biggest issue with this game was the amount of real time it took to finish (if you wanted a decent score; an experienced player could probably have finished in a couple of hours if all he wanted was a victory). I do have one point of disagreement though: For this particular map, I don't think pulling RC3 from Artemis was a bad thing! Maalor could still churn factories out at a dizzying rate, and would be able to add 150 more BC of extra shipbuilding or 75 of reserves every turn after it maxed with RC3, which wasn't in our tree! That means the tech pays for itself on Maalor after just 5 turns of colship production! As for the rest of our planets, we'd have so many worlds to fill so fast, thanks to Maalor's colship-building speed, it would make all the sense in the world to grow people instead of factories for a while - prior to cleanup tech, a Klackon yields as much net production (and costs the same amount - less, since you have RC3) as two factories. With construction excellence to boot, it wouldn't be long before some decent IIT came in. Your game would have played out differently from most of the others, but I think you'd have been competitive, and even perhaps had a chance at uniting the triad if you'd followed this route.

Of course, that would require having time to think over how to deal with the thing and play it out (you wouldn't have the luxury of looking at it in hindsight like me) so it wasn't going to make a difference here. Besides, there are lemons with which you can make lemonade, and there are lemons filled with mold and maggots: OUCH on the Bulrathi declaring in 2373 - pretty much the worst possible timing. Here's hoping our next no-events game falls at a better time for you, and that the pRNG doesn't continue to hate you!

[dathon]

it would make all the sense in the world to grow people instead of factories for a while

Actually, I DID do this, quite a bit. I went from 608 pop in 2365 to over 1100 in just 10 turns, solely by growing pop. Heck, I even offloaded pop from my poor planet to some of the bigger worlds on the front lines so they would max out sooner. After the colony ships, Maalor went to pumping the planetary reserves, which in turn went to my colonies so they could grow faster. So when 2375 hit, I had full population at almost all of my planets, and another 10-15 turns would have seen full factories at most of them as well.

The problem with RCIII isn't paying for the tech itself; it's that it makes ALL factories more expensive, across the board. That means each and every planet must pay more for EACH factory. Normally, you only pay that premium on the last 100 or so, and maybe more on a few new worlds. Worse, you're not only paying more outright, you're slowing the growth curve of each world. Even a few turns of slow-down can mean hundreds of BC in opportunity cost lost. And yes, I could use Maalor to balance that out somewhat, by pumping reserves. However, because I had to do that, I never got a military fleet going, and thus lost Kailis. If I could have grown normally, I could have had defenses on the outer rim, and probably held that planet, as the Silicoids oddly had no military fleet AT ALL, only scouts and col ships.

Actually, at several points I considered letting growth languish a bit to build some military, and probably should have. The lack of a Silicoid fleet prompted me to try the farmer's gambit again, and once again, I got bit. My my tech/colonist scores probably would have been lower, but I still would have had 13 points I lost, which would have been worth it.

As for uniting the triad, that was easily still possible. Colonist and tech were givens, as I could not do a thing more and still pull over 75 points. The tough part would be getting 55 points in diplomacy, but I think I could have pulled that off with enemy-of-my-enemy. Mastering the triad was out the door with my paltry 20 in diplomacy.

dathon