Okay! I've played, and don't want to hold up the game until I can get the images up, so I'll just post the save and some general notes:
I made some decent progress but still feel like I could have played these turns a lot better. Some of it is still rust, some of it is hindsight, some of it is real-life distraction, but some of it is self-compounding: I should have traded for Nuclear Engines, heavily prioritized Prop research, or both, realizing how difficult it is to run a far-flung empire with warp-1 ships and transports, especially as the rocks. Just trading nuclear engines for R6 on the inherited turn (which I considered and foolishly rejected) would have made this a much nicer set, but by the time I realized this mid-way through my set, the price for nuclear engines had gone up to IT+30. No idea what they're charging now.
Notes for the next emperor:
- Apart from some minor leftovers from last turn (mainly at Paranar) I haven't spent any reserves yet this turn, even at Paranar! - as I'd like to leave irrevocable decisions like that for you. We have 668 BC in reserves for you to use. Were it still my turn, I'd spend most or all of this, starting with Paranar, Stalaz, and Imra.
- We have a Longrock 1 (LR colship) due at UR Drakka in "9 turns" (could be more or less due to nebula interference). I suggest sending transports to Stalaz to ensure it has max pop by the time the colship arrives, and additional transports behind them to restock Stalaz after it immediately sends 20+ transports to Drakka, followed by more in anticipation of terraforming.
- I haven't spoken to any of the AIs in several turns, so they should be as willing as they're likely to ever be to chat if you want to try to swing any deals.
- There's a standard colship sitting in orbit at Stalaz, waiting longingly to see if we manage to steal R7 from somebody so it can go to Drakka. I guess it could try to colonize something else past Drakka after the LR ship gets there, but at this point, it's probably worth more to us as scrap.
- Orion is at the purple star in the far north.
- All our spy reports are current, but I have Espionage turned on for the Humans only. Might be worth spying on the Sakkra too, but not on the brains or the 'chines, both of whom have much higher computer tech than we do.
- All our planets are fully terraformed except for Imra in the far north, which hasn't yet gotten started.
- There's only one missile base in the entire empire (at Tyr). I've set Stalaz to start one too, but it has nothing invested yet (to my knowledge). I'm not sure this is a problem (yet at least) - just a fact.
- Most of our techs are coming along, but only F-Bombs are in the percentages. We have only a tiny token investment in Planetology, with research set to Bio Toxin Antidote in case we run up against a lot of sporers. Note our computer research was set to BC2 prior to my turns. I wasn't sure what to do with that, and should probably have spent more on it to clear it out of the way and go for something better, but it's close to maturing now at least.
- Paranar and Artemis are fully maxed, but no other colony is really close to maxing except maybe Tyr.
- The Psilons and Sakkra (and no one else we know) have Controlled Dead, but we're still the only ones who can land on infernos or worse so far. The Humans and Meklar are still on Controlled Minimal for now. There are plenty of spores, bombs, and shields around the galaxy, but the only real beams belong to the Humans (Ion Cannons) and Sakkra (Neutron Blasters), and no one has decent missiles yet except the Meklar (Scatters). The best engines extant that we know of are the Humans' nuclears, on which they have a monopoly for now.
- Paranar has put a couple of boosted turns into the placeholder huge in its build queue. I don't like any of the ships we can build right now though, which is why I left it on reserves for the time being, but it can still pour a couple more turns into the placeholder for future use (or build a fleet for an early conquest gambit) if desired.
The save is attached.
I made some decent progress but still feel like I could have played these turns a lot better. Some of it is still rust, some of it is hindsight, some of it is real-life distraction, but some of it is self-compounding: I should have traded for Nuclear Engines, heavily prioritized Prop research, or both, realizing how difficult it is to run a far-flung empire with warp-1 ships and transports, especially as the rocks. Just trading nuclear engines for R6 on the inherited turn (which I considered and foolishly rejected) would have made this a much nicer set, but by the time I realized this mid-way through my set, the price for nuclear engines had gone up to IT+30. No idea what they're charging now.
Notes for the next emperor:
- Apart from some minor leftovers from last turn (mainly at Paranar) I haven't spent any reserves yet this turn, even at Paranar! - as I'd like to leave irrevocable decisions like that for you. We have 668 BC in reserves for you to use. Were it still my turn, I'd spend most or all of this, starting with Paranar, Stalaz, and Imra.
- We have a Longrock 1 (LR colship) due at UR Drakka in "9 turns" (could be more or less due to nebula interference). I suggest sending transports to Stalaz to ensure it has max pop by the time the colship arrives, and additional transports behind them to restock Stalaz after it immediately sends 20+ transports to Drakka, followed by more in anticipation of terraforming.
- I haven't spoken to any of the AIs in several turns, so they should be as willing as they're likely to ever be to chat if you want to try to swing any deals.
- There's a standard colship sitting in orbit at Stalaz, waiting longingly to see if we manage to steal R7 from somebody so it can go to Drakka. I guess it could try to colonize something else past Drakka after the LR ship gets there, but at this point, it's probably worth more to us as scrap.
- Orion is at the purple star in the far north.
- All our spy reports are current, but I have Espionage turned on for the Humans only. Might be worth spying on the Sakkra too, but not on the brains or the 'chines, both of whom have much higher computer tech than we do.
- All our planets are fully terraformed except for Imra in the far north, which hasn't yet gotten started.
- There's only one missile base in the entire empire (at Tyr). I've set Stalaz to start one too, but it has nothing invested yet (to my knowledge). I'm not sure this is a problem (yet at least) - just a fact.
- Most of our techs are coming along, but only F-Bombs are in the percentages. We have only a tiny token investment in Planetology, with research set to Bio Toxin Antidote in case we run up against a lot of sporers. Note our computer research was set to BC2 prior to my turns. I wasn't sure what to do with that, and should probably have spent more on it to clear it out of the way and go for something better, but it's close to maturing now at least.
- Paranar and Artemis are fully maxed, but no other colony is really close to maxing except maybe Tyr.
- The Psilons and Sakkra (and no one else we know) have Controlled Dead, but we're still the only ones who can land on infernos or worse so far. The Humans and Meklar are still on Controlled Minimal for now. There are plenty of spores, bombs, and shields around the galaxy, but the only real beams belong to the Humans (Ion Cannons) and Sakkra (Neutron Blasters), and no one has decent missiles yet except the Meklar (Scatters). The best engines extant that we know of are the Humans' nuclears, on which they have a monopoly for now.
- Paranar has put a couple of boosted turns into the placeholder huge in its build queue. I don't like any of the ships we can build right now though, which is why I left it on reserves for the time being, but it can still pour a couple more turns into the placeholder for future use (or build a fleet for an early conquest gambit) if desired.
The save is attached.