Imperium 13: Link to RefSteel's Star Wing Clan

[RefSteel]

My report is posted here!

(At http://meklongambit.blogspot.com/ along with my Imperium 12 reports.)

I hope you enjoy it!

[kjn]

Hey! Quit writing these reports! It makes the rest of us look bad!

(Backhanded compliments'R'US)

[sargon0]

Gripping stuff! I thought this map had good planets but poor tech and a dominant AI could be trouble. The Sakkra are not the strongest race but with a good planet grab can quickly have a huge population. Nicely handled on hanging in, diplo, trading and revenge.

Thanks for the update on the early Derelict event - noted.

[dathon]

I'm well aware that he will gleefully go to war with us, pact or no, if he finds the wrong letters in his alphabet soup.

I don't know why, but that line had me laughing out loud for quite awhile.

Excellent report and game! Unfortunately I don't have the time to invest for a thorough read, but even the skim was entertaining.

(OOC: Here's an interesting trick I discovered accidentally: It's actually possible to complete a stack's move after firing all its weapons, if you act quickly. Notice in the screenshot that the bases are being blown up by my Divebombs, but that my cursor - in "move stack" form - is visible three spaces south. By clicking there before the bomb animation was finished, I caused the bombers to move down there with their weapons already used up. This would be particularly effective for a large ship with four different slots of weapons, all of which have to go through their animations before the ship's turn ends, but it worked here too, obviously. Somehow, this seemed kind of appropriate for the Alkari, and I tried it intentionally a few times in this game - sometimes to good effect, sometimes resulting in a misclick, sometimes clicking too late - but in the end, it seems too reflex-based to really plan for and use in a strategy game, at least to me. Still, I thought I'd put it out there, to add to the store of knowledge in the community.)

This is almost certainly a bug, and I think an exploit. When (if?) we ever re-visit the exploit list, my vote is that this goes on it as banned.

Excellent game and report!

dathon

[Megafrost]

Owww! That assassination event was a nasty one! I can't think of anything that could've possibly hurt more than that. Yeowch! Excellent turn-around, and you even managed to grab victory as early as 2450!

Also, I loved your report. Loved it.

[TheArchduke]

What a report, thanks a lot for it.

I had to miss that Imperium, I played till turn 40-50 but I somehow didn´t find the time to play the whole game.

[RefSteel]

@kjn: Heh - thanks. I really enjoy reading all the other reports, and don't intend mine to be models so much as just fun things to create. If I inspire others, that's great - I'm eagerly awaiting KnTenshi's next installment! - but I'm delighted just to see people read and enjoy my stories!

@Sargon: Many thanks! In fact, I'm pretty sure there's no minimum date for the derelict, though it might be a low-probability early event or something. Vaguely remembering something from Sirian's tutorial, I just checked it out again, and ... yep: The Darloks got the derelict in 2354 ! (Scroll to near the bottom of the page....)

@dathon: Thanks for the compliments even without time to read the full report. As for the tactical move trick I discovered, I agree it shouldn't be used - even with four auto-fire weapons, it's too much of a twitch-skill effect for a strat game like MoO - but I wouldn't really put it in the exploit class; it could probably be used to better effect than I used it for here (I tried it only occasionally, and with inconsistent results; I think playing around with it hurt me as much as it helped me in this game) but still isn't all that powerful, and as with adding a 2-rack of nukes on a larger hull, it could be argued that it's a fix for a bug rather than exploitation of one (i.e. if you think ships should always be allowed to both fire their weapons and complete their full move in a turn). Regardless, I do agree it's not appropriate for the game. I brought it up because I'd rather see it known, acknowledged, and avoided than as a unknown option skulking around.

@Megafrost: Yeah, the diplo event was nasty; had it happened much sooner than it did ... well, it was just twenty or thirty turns earlier that I said it would mean a quick loss instead of a slow one. It turned out, with the Sakkra ship designs and various other factors, to make the game a terrific but winnable challenge though; I couldn't believe it at the time - I told my computer screen out loud, "You have got to be kidding me!" - but looking back, I'm glad it happened! And of course, thanks very much for the compliment! I think this is my favorite story thus far (though Imperium 11 was great in its own way) as well as the most challenging game.

@TheArchduke: You're welcome, and thank you! I hope you can find time to play Imperium 14!

[sargon0]

You may be right about the Derelict event although it stubbornly refuses to appear in my tests before 2425, even though you achieved 2416. Sirian's tutorial was, of course, average difficulty which may have a bearing. Maybe lower difficulties remove barriers or improve chances for this (& other) helpful event(s).

[KnTenshi]

Wow, cool story. You've gotten the market on in-character reports cornered. And you came back from such a low. And though I believe someone else has used this, I kept on waiting for a Veep-neep clan to show up.

And thanks for mention of my own, sorry I made you wait so long.

[RefSteel]

I kept on waiting for a Veep-neep clan to show up.

Yeah; if not for all the nebulas, and/or if the Sakkra I faced were using big stacks of fighters, I'd definitely have built a shielded design and called it a Terminator. If everyone had infinite bandwidth, I also would have had the Yehat theme music playing over parts (maybe all!) of my report. With or without the music though, having since gone back and re-read my Imperium 11 report, I've changed my mind from my comment above: 11 is still my favorite story of all the reports I've posted thus far.

And thanks for mention of my own, sorry I made you wait so long.

For what it's worth, I thought your report was worth the wait!