imp27 w/ embyonic patch report

[ignatius]

II've tried imp27 with kyrub's embryonic18 patch. Because of that and as I missed the deadline, this is an unranked result but might still be interesting as my game played out somewhat differently than most reported here.

My general game-plan was to keep NAPs with all races and rake in the peace dividend - in fact, an initial scout blockade (an an occasional spy ship with scanners) was my only fleet action until the final offensive. I would focus research on Computers, Propulsion and Planetology (in that order) relying mostly on espionage for the other fields after having secured some key defensive techs (like planetary shields and scatter pack vs).

When I made 1st contact 2364 with the Mrrshan at Paranar, I was researching 3rd tier tech in all field except FF and Weapons. 80 years later I had contact and lucrative trade agreements (most of the game, trade constituted more than 1/3 of my income) with all races. At this time I was already behind on all counts but technology where I managed to keep my lead throughout the game.

On the diplomacy front, it was bears v/s birds with changing affiliations for the other two and the vote was always neatly split between the two blocks.

Owing to the patch with its saner AI behaviour, apart from some minor skirmishes among the AIs (by which the Darlock dropped out of contact for some time) the game went entirely peaceful (no declared wars) until 2582 when the Bears chose unwisely and made a move for Meklon (the only attack in the whole game) after dissolving our NAP. While I managed to fight off the attack (losing half of my MBs in the process), the collateral damage of 6 Mio. innocent Meklars (and the fact that it was an unranked game) made me call the Birds for help who (as the cats which were allied with both Burathi and Darlocks) ended up in a 3-way war against the other AIs while I was busy researching AM drives with RC7 about to pop.

In 2597, the Birds also declared on me (most probably as a reaction to my very succesful espionage efforts). I then made my first experiments with an AM-bomber design but decided to wait when the Alkari got SP-vii. I stole sub space transporters and in 2632, Thorium cells finally popped. Not having built placeholders and just to play it save, I decided to wait for the next vote to make my final move. By then, I could fit Omega-V bombs + SS-transporters into a small hull.



18 years later in 2668, all was over. My final tech screen:


cu

ignatius

[Horist]

Exploiter! Just kidding, I hate how the AI's can attack your homeworld without declaring war, but heaven forbid I ever attack an AI's homeworld!

[RefSteel]

Thanks for the report! I'd be interested in seeing more details - e.g. of relations between the various AIs under the patch. Are you still in touch with kyrub much?

[ignatius]

Thanks for the report! I'd be interested in seeing more details - e.g. of relations between the various AIs under the patch.

Unfortunaltely, I'va already deleted the yearly save-files (an excellent feature btw. and by itself reason enough to get the patch), so most info will come from memory:

During most of the game, the cats were allied with the bears and the Darloks. The latter switched alliance sometimes during the war to the birds.

Generally, it seems that as usual most alliances have been forged during the initial expansion, but contrary to the unpatched MOO this alliances profed very stable, in fact almost until the very end. Neither did I notice any "fluctuations" (i.e. resolving and re-allying) as is often the case in the original game. This is not surprising as most of the erratic AI behaviour could be traced back to a bug kyrub fixed in embry18.

Also, as I said, the game was extremely peaceful - while there are still those occasional brush war moves, they are much rarer than in unpatched MOO (only one attack on Meklon in 200+ years) - but quite dangerous as the fleets are bigger often of unknown designs.

Are you still in touch with kyrub much?

Not really - all my talk with keryb ran over the forum. In fact, I'm also waiting for the next patch just like everyone else.

While I made some limited reverse engineering attempts, I see no point in duplicating keryb's effort. In case he lost interest, maybe he can be persuaded to release his documentation after all ...