RBSotS1 SG2

[Zed-F]

Honestly - until we have projectors, or teleporters, or whatever they're called, I think we can count on a lot of the fighting being at home.

I wouldn't quite say that; Farcasters is a long way off. But you're right that we're not quite at the point where I generally like to go on the offense with Hivers just yet.

What will getting fusion power do for us? Is it basically about making us more maneuverable in battle and putting open technology options? What do you think we'll be able to get from that other then better missiles?

Directly, some races get a better advantage from Fusion itself than others. Specifically, Tarka and Liir tend to prioritize Fusion a bit more highly than other races because of direct benefits to strategic speed and range, as well as the more general opening up of techs that require Fusion that every race benefits from. Races other than Tarka or Liir don't see a big strategic speed jump from Fusion (Hivers) or have other ways to get a strategic speed jump before Fusion (Morrigi, Human) or have better things to do than pursue expensive techs in general (Zuul.)

The tactical speed boost can be handy if you can get a maneuverability advantage out of it, but against the AI it's generally a secondary consideration to the strategic level benefits. It can be more important in MP play though.

As for what we can get from it other than better missiles? Lots. Gate Amplifiers, Megafreighters, Police ships, Stations, Dreadnoughts, all sorts of fusion-era weapons.... the list goes on.

[Zed-F]

Inherited turn (T120):

• Micro population manager on worlds with an even number of hundreds of millions of civilians to get +1 trade route for -1 resource/turn.
  
• Activate Noshu's trade routes. Send 10 freighters from Isketot's routes to ply them.
  
• Recall fleets at Peten, Knossai, Xha'chak for reorganization.
  
• Move coltrap busting fleet to Ozoris for next colonization attempt.
  
• Reduce research budget to afford more biomes. Building 7-8 biomes a turn should get our colonization push done in relatively short order; we can claim a new world every other turn.
  

Observing combat with the Tarka, we are getting quite a few deflections even off their older ships. They certainly have at least Polysilicate and Tarka Living Steel, and possibly Magnetoceramics as well. They may not have reflective coat, however, as our swarm DD lasers are not bouncing.

We are now starting to get punished by those DF racks, however. A quick check of the race overview page reveals why, and increases the probability that the Tarka now have fusion, even though we haven't yet seen any ships with fusion engines to confirm it:

[haphazard1]

Ouch!

I checked the warhead info on the diplomacy screen last turn, and it was still shaped fission. So this is a very recent development, and not a good one for us.

Without PD in our tree (unless we can get it from salvage), what should we do for defense? Deflectors, maybe? Or just push directly for PSA to toughen our hulls?

Edit: With Fusion but (hopefully) not yet Shaped Hyperfields, the Tarka should be moving at 3.5 LY/turn if I am recalling correctly. Faster than before but not yet enough to go from system to system in a single turn. But I am sure they will have that soon.

[Zed-F]

T121:
Salvage tech comes in, start Translate Morrigi.
Build more biomes, land a few on Ke'Pranum, send last turn's to Ozoris.
Deploy gate at Shononu, I think we can take 1 damaged cruiser.

T122:

Colonize Ozoris, part 1. More biomes enroute and under construction.
Translate Morrigi comes in, begin Translate Liir.

Diplomatic actions for this turn follow. If I wanted to be extra-cool about tailoring my gifts I would give the Morrigi more bling and the Liir more tech, as that's what each of those races likes more. (5000 savings is about the same cost right now as 1% research.) However, it's difficult to tell with such small gifts how much of an impact it makes. Still, any upward trending diplo bonus multiplied over many turns adds up; at least, so the theory goes. Big diplo jumps are reserved for helping another race out in combat -- just don't keep big fleets over their colonies when combat is not imminent, or they worry about itchy trigger fingers.

[Mardoc]

I know hardly anything about diplomacy in this game. We can buy their friendship - will they reciprocate?

I see the #4 Xenotech says something about 'incorporate smaller empires without firing a shot' - I take it this is the peaceful victory option?

[Zed-F]

Turn 113:

Much the same, get Translate Liir and start Translate Tarka.

Decide to colonize Peten before Ko'Rorkor because it's the world most likely to be colonizable by someone other than us. Since we now have ceasefires, knowing who can colonize what is significant.

[Zed-F]

I know hardly anything about diplomacy in this game. We can buy their friendship - will they reciprocate?

Well not unless you ask for gifts; if you do and your relations are good enough, you can get some help but it could cost you in diplo relations. Sometimes the other races will offer to share a technology with you if your relations and xenotech are both good enough, though.

We can't really buy the friendship of someone who isn't more-or-less inclined to be friendly in the first place; gifts to someone who doesn't like you don't tend to help much. But gifts to someone who is on the fence never hurt!

I see the #4 Xenotech says something about 'incorporate smaller empires without firing a shot' - I take it this is the peaceful victory option?

It's one of them -- like I mentioned before, there is an alliance victory, and there is the 'convince another empire to join you' option. Xenotech #4 is for the latter.

[ssmagus]

Here's something that may help.
http://sots.rorschach.net/images/9/90/So...chTree.png
http://sots.rorschach.net/Main_Page

When it comes to it.. I'll join for number 3!

[Zed-F]

I've also reorganized our ships into 2 fleets of about 30 DDs, led by a Strikeforce CnC. That's not a ton of ships for defense, but I don't really want to build more until we get new weapons & armour. Hopefully it will be enough for the short term.

Turn 124:
We lose 2 of our cease fire agreements immediately, with white Morrigi and pink Liir, although diplomatic relations remain at neutral levels. They probably feel squeezed for space, but they may dislike one another and so not like our mutual cease fire agreements, and there is also the matter of incoming an incoming fleet at Mitrou which could be complicating matters.

Translate Tarka comes in, I start Polysilicate since it's relatively inexpensive and I still need a lot of cash for Biomes.

Turn 125:
Morrigis ally with one another.
Peten is now colonized, with part 2 landing this turn; Iridan is up next. Polysilicate at 50%.

Interturn: Fleet arrives at Mitrou, I auto-peace and we explore it.

Turn 126:
Polysilicate overbudget. I try to re-establish cease fire with White Morrigi and they accept; we will see if that holds. Deploy the gate at Mitrou; not sure how long it will last, but there's always a chance we might be able to keep it for awhile. Colonize Ir'idan, part 1.

Turn 127:
The cease-fire doesn't hold, but it lasts long enough for us to gate our Mitro exploration force out of there. Colonize Ir'idan, part 2, Eretria is next. Polysilicate completes, start working on AP Drivers. Also start freighter construction for our newly secured trade sector.

Interturn:
Guess what this means!

[haphazard1]

Here they come again.

I don't recall how big Chozanti was -- can we support medium sats there? The extra missiles could be helpful if we can get them.

The #4 xenotech in each tree allows you to intimidate a rival into surrender, if you are sufficiently powerful. If you aren't, relations will probably plummet for making the demand. But I have used it successfully to wrap up a game where I was clearly the dominant power, but could not win by alliances because two of the remaining AIs hated each other and would never agree to a 3-way alliance.

I have not done much with gifts/bribery of the AIs. But this is only my third game of SotS (and that includes my Human game which is only about 55 turns in). Hopefully I can learn something in this area as we continue.

Do we have salvage/repair cruisers with each of our main fleets yet? Might as well start rolling the dice for possible special projects. And the repair capability is always helpful, although with a developed planet around it would not be likely to be used.

Looks pretty good so far, Zed. I guess that fleet will arrive just in time to welcome Mardoc back to the game. At least we also have strikeforce CnC now, so we can bring a lot more ships into battle. With Fusion DF this may just mean more targets for the Tarka, though.