RBSotS1 SG2

[Mardoc]

Ok, Zed, I've got a really important question about SoTS2. Will it have a real manual/*pedia/etc? One in which I could, say, look up neutronium rounds even though the wiki is down?

I like this game a lot, but that particular choice drives me up a wall.

[Zed-F]

How do I tell what deals we have with other empires? Trade, research, etc.? We get thanked by the far Hivers frequently, but I am not sure if we have similar deals in place with the far Tarka. Or does that require xenotech #3? That probably explains it, which is all the more reason to grab that first and maybe get a flow of cash and research going to them to boost relations.

You don't require any xenotech to give gifts. You can check what gifts we are giving by looking at the main race summary/diplo screen and selecting the circular icon that looks like a hand offering something.

Mardoc, yes there will be an integrated SotSapedia in SotS2. And it's very easily explained why there wasn't one in SotS1 -- the team was all of about 7 people, they simply didn't have time to put one in, other things always seemed more important. But you can always look in the PDF manual that comes with the game.

[spellman]

One in which I could, say, look up neutronium rounds even though the wiki is down?

Yeah, this has been particularly annoying. I want to see stats of stuff! DENIED!

[Zed-F]

If you are really keen to look you can examine the game files...
They won't tell you everything, mind.

[haphazard1]

Played 7 more turns to get us to T220, a nice even number again.

Turn 213 (continued)

- As per discussion I shift research to Incorporate Tarka (xenotech #3).
- Shuffle assault fleet assignments to form 2 fleets, rather than 1.

- IBT at Ke'Thalt I drive directly for the planet, and we wipe out the entire population. We also kill 8 Tarka DEs while losing one Deflector CR which lost its engines just as we approached the planet. It drifted into the planet and was lost.



- IBT at Shononu I auto-resolve and the 2 remaining Tarka CRs are wiped out, while we lose two DEs.

Turn 214

- Dump more ore at Isketot. I send miners to Ke'Sothrum (the far Tarka have ships incoming there) and one to Ibibu to check for traps. The far Tarka are also incoming to Ekkep, so we need to finish stripping these worlds.
- Drop 11 biomes on Ke'Lolum.
- The Ulol Assault fleet departs from Liiruuma to wipe out the last Liir world in the galaxy. (14 turns travel time)
- Add a trade route at Kuo'Dai as the civilian pop continues natural growth.

- IBT at Ke'Thalt we smash 36 Tarka ships while losing only 1 PD DE.



A very odd mix of combat ships, freighters, tankers, etc. Apparently the Tarka have no CnC here, so we sat on their spawn point and smashed away. Occasionally a combat ship or even a CR would appear and there would be some brief combat, but most of it was a slaughter. We also pick up 250K cash for 10 freighters killed.

Turn 215

- The far Tarka ask us to attack Dzaxhab. The Morrigi imperial pop appears to have been wiped out, so I am not sure just what they want our help for. It would take 12 turns to travel there in any case.
- Ke'Lolum joins our empire. I drop another 11 biomes. I save the remaining 6 for Ke'Thalt once we finish clearing the Tarka [STRIKE]targets[/STRIKE] ships there.
- Shuu'nam Assault fleet departs Etos'Che to attack the Tarka. (11 turns travel time)
- Incorporate Tarka goes over budget.
- I build 4 more mining ships to accelerate our planet stripping activities. Lots of mega-freighters are also being built, of course. Just assume that unless I indicate otherwise.

- IBT at Ke'Thalt we kill 19 more Tarka ships, only 1 a freighter, for zero losses.



- IBT at Ibibu, there is indeed a mining trap. We lose our miner, and the system loses over 1400 resources. All Morrigi should be exterminated for their ancestors' crimes!

Turn 216

- Incorporate Tarka completes. I set up cash and research gifts to the far Tarka, same amounts as we have been giving the other Hivers.
- While setting those deals up, I note that the far Tarka and other Hivers are no longer allied.
- I start Heavy Drivers research.
- Recently conquered Liiruuma completes terraforming and infrastructure, with 97 million imperials -- pretty good timing. It has no trade routes, but this sector contains Ulol and Shuu'nam -- our assault fleets just happen to be going to conquer those planets. I love it when a plan comes together.

- IBT at Ke'Thalt another Tarka CR has arrived, but it is not CnC so we continue shooting a mixed barrel of fish. 19 more Tarka ships go boom, including 5 freighters for a nice 125K cash bonus.



I note that the latest Tarka CRs are using pulsar torpedoes.

- IBT at Ketozyz (a far Hiver world we have just arrived at) Raiders attack. Unfortunately for them the other Hivers have the world solidly defended.





Dreadnoughts are pretty impressive sights. That first one waded into the raider force and very quickly there weren't any raiders left. Our gate and tanker managed to run for the planet and escaped harm.

Turn 217

- We deploy gates at quite a few planets, as our slowly inching fleets finally start arriving:

-- Awaru (size 1 far Hiver, fully developed)
-- Keu'Paak (size 7 far Tarka, fully developed with a station of some kind)
-- Ketozyz (size 6 far Hiver, fully developed with a station of some kind)
-- Oluusha (mined out dustball)
-- Tainos (size 5 far Tarka, fully developed)
-- Ku'Valt (size 5 far Tarka, fully developed)

- I build a propaganda ship for the far Hivers, now that we will have a gate over one of their planets. We need all the diplo boosts we can get, however small.
- The far Morrigi have a CR inbound to Oluusha, so I will shuffle some defenders here to avoid losing our nice shiny new gate.

- IBT at Ke'Thalt we finish off the rest of the Tarka for no losses, and another 250K in freighter bounty cash.



Turn 218

- Ke'Sothrum is mined down to 15 resources. They can have what's left, if they really want it.
- Deploy a gate at Ozak'tor (mined out dustball)
- Deploy a gate at Ke'Thalt now that there is no Tarka threat.
- I begin gathering forces at Ke'Sothrum to attack the local Tarka home world of Ku'Van. Taking it will (just coincidentally, of course ) secure another trade sector for us with Ku'Van being the fourth world we will control. That ought to soak up some of our excess DE freighters, of which we are starting to accumulate quite a few.

- IBT nothing happens. Random events, incoming....

Turn 219

- Build some biomes for Ke'Thalt to follow up the 6 left over from Ke'Lolum.
- Build a few specialty ships for the Ku'Van force assembling at Ke'Sothrum, especially some extra gates.

- IBT at Oluusha there is a 4-way combat where the far Tarka smash 1 far Morrigi DE. We sit on the sidelines, gossiping with the far Hivers.
- IBT Raiders hit our freighters at Ir'idan. I knew a turn with no combats was asking for trouble. We have some ships present, but it does no good. Raiders apparently get a special 2 minute combat round, which is not long enough to get our combat ships out to the freighters that start all by themselves right next to the raiders.



We lose 2 mega-freighters. They do take out the command section of one raider, so maybe we will see 1 less next time? The next player needs to shuffle some defenders to planets in this trade sector until the raiders are destroyed.

Turn 220

- The far Tarka offer us an alliance. I agree, although I am not sure how long it will last.
- More ore dumped on the home world. Isketot is starting to be a very rich planet indeed. Pretty good IO, as well, even with 11 trade routes.
- I send single miners to Miirio and Ekkep to clean up the remaining resources there. The rest of our miners should continue stripping Ibibu and then Argos, to keep them out of the hands of the far Hivers and far Tarka.
- Heavy Drivers goes over budget.
- Deploy a gate at Koa'Tuun (far Hiver size 6, fully developed). Our gate capacity is up to 336 and continues to climb.
- I reconfigure the Ku'Van Assault fleet to use additional PD DEs since it will be going against the local Tarka home world and lots of missiles. It departs for a 13 turn journey.
- Ke'Lolum is fully terraformed and infrastructured. Amazing how quick that can happen with 22 biomes.
- Move a couple old DEs and a jammer to Ke'Thalt for a garrison.
- Be aware that I have some mega-freighters building on worlds with no trade routes. They need to be manually shifted to trade sectors, preferably those which are short on CRs. Some sectors are starting to get close to being fully mega-freighters, others still have quite a ways to go.
- Speaking of our trade income, here is our budget:



Over 7.3 million! With almost 5 million from trade!

And I am still spending it all every turn building ever more mega-freighters....

- I meant to check our planets for those which can be set to minimal overharvesting to get an extra trade route, but I forgot. Now that most have fully grown into their arcology-boosted sizes, we should check this. We certainly have the excess DE freighters to fill any extra routes we can get.
- The diplo situation:



Note the far Morrigi are down to just one world -- they won't last much longer. And we are already on the way to finish the local Liir. The galaxy is being consolidated. Mostly by the far Tarka, but we are starting to get moving as well with 3 assault fleets on their way.

Good luck to the next player! (Zed-F?)

[Zed-F]

Looks good so far! Though if the Morrigi are starting to run out of worlds then we need to step up our campaign against the near Tarka; we'd like to finish them before the Morrigi are wiped out so that we can maybe engineer an alliance victory.

I have the save and will take a look when I get a chance. Hopefully I'll be able to take some turns tonight, but if not then on the weekend; I'm likely to be busy tomorrow night.

[Mardoc]

Mardoc, yes there will be an integrated SotSapedia in SotS2. And it's very easily explained why there wasn't one in SotS1 -- the team was all of about 7 people, they simply didn't have time to put one in, other things always seemed more important. But you can always look in the PDF manual that comes with the game.

7 people were enough to make SoTS? That's quite impressive.

The trouble is, the manual that came with my game isn't really all that detailed - it pretty much explains the interface and changes from one version to the next, but for the most part it leaves things a mystery.

[Mardoc]

Haphazard - that looks like a solid turnset indeed. My only quibble is that it doesn't look like you built much fleet - but then what you accomplished with the fleet we have already makes it appear that much building would have been unnecessary anyway.

I look forward to the day when we can declare the Megafreighter project done except for filling routes on new worlds . I figure we'll be able to have explosive teching and/or fleet construction when that happens. Any estimate on how far away that day is?

[Zed-F]

Completely filling up on megafreighters usually takes me the better part of half a century on normal economy games. But if we are finding that we can use all our I/O on freighters and not run out of money, it usually means the end is in sight.

[haphazard1]

Looks good so far! Though if the Morrigi are starting to run out of worlds then we need to step up our campaign against the near Tarka; we'd like to finish them before the Morrigi are wiped out so that we can maybe engineer an alliance victory.

An alliance victory is probably our "obvious" path to victory, with the far Tarka, far Hivers, and us splitting the galaxy. We do need to grab some more worlds to make sure we remain #1 overall.

Or we could have a massive war with our top opponents....

I have the save and will take a look when I get a chance. Hopefully I'll be able to take some turns tonight, but if not then on the weekend; I'm likely to be busy tomorrow night.

I don't think there is any huge rush. Play when you can.

Haphazard - that looks like a solid turnset indeed. My only quibble is that it doesn't look like you built much fleet - but then what you accomplished with the fleet we have already makes it appear that much building would have been unnecessary anyway.

I did not really build any fleet at all. Mega freighters, mega freighters, and more mega freighters. With occasional biomes, gates, and a propaganda ship for the far Hivers.

We can start building more fleet any time we decide to, but with tech advancing (if slowly) waiting seemed like the better option while we continued building our income.

I look forward to the day when we can declare the Megafreighter project done except for filling routes on new worlds . I figure we'll be able to have explosive teching and/or fleet construction when that happens. Any estimate on how far away that day is?

We are starting to get there, with several sectors nearing all mega-freighters. But as we keep adding more trade routes, there are always more sectors to fill. If our current three assault fleets succeed we will get two new trade sectors opened up, with 7 worlds' worth of TRs to fill....

At some point we will have to load the current saves from the far Tarka and far Hivers POV and find out how they are really doing. We keep building and building and building our trade income (vertical growth) while the far Tarka are grabbing new worlds (horizontal growth). They should have less income and more development expenses...and yet seemingly they are ahead in tech as well with DNs and stations, etc.

We have put immense amounts of IO and money into our trade network, and our income has soared as a result, but it just continues to get absorbed by still more trade network. My 4X gaming experience tells me this kind of cascading growth loop should pay off and put us ahead of the AIs, but my limited SotS experience means I am not sure how well it is really working. The temptation to just start cranking out fleet is sizable. But of course those ships would just end up crawling slowly across space, while the far Tarka could move very rapidly and hit our planets.

Maybe Zed-F can offer us some perspective from his greater experience?