RBO 12
Abstract: Diplomatic victory in 2474.
Introduction: there was only a single constraint, but that one hurt. No planetology techs meant fewer settled planets and more expensive colony ships. It also means less population on the worlds you do own. So you will have fewer votes in the galactic council and lower production. A nice hole to be in.
Given the problem of pollution cleanup, I decided to initially focus on construction until I at least had RIW 60%. All the RPs that usually went towards planetology were to be spent there instead. I'd probably also need good range tech - with fewer possible planets to settle I'd need the range to reach new planets I could settle, and more range in order to reach the other races. Especially the latter turned out to be very true.
Given the yellow stars, I guess I had one race to the south of me, one to the west (next to the nebula), one at the three-star yellow cluster and the last two at the three singletons along the map borders. I hoped I could flank around the two closest rivals to reach contact with the other races.
Discussion: I decided to send the colony ship to the southern red, with scouts to the west green and the red 2 parsecs north. I wanted to expand south primarily, and I would get the report from the other star within settling range before I settled my second colony.
Paranar turned out to be a Jungle 80, and Jinga an Ocean 75, so I settled Jinga at once and sent 17 pop there from Meklon. A cheaper scout was designed and many were built and sent out.
Research of construction and propulsion were opened when Meklon and Jinga could muster about 120 RP in one turn, using the open (using 2-4 RP per tech) - seed (max RPs from both worlds) - trickle (8-10 RP) cycle. When Meklon could build a colony ship in three turns, Jinga took over research duties. Paranar, Kakata, Zhordan and Berel were settled in short order, while I cursed at the hostile planets and empty space that stopped further expansion. I concentrated on peaceful expansion, having little else to do.
Tech paths were:
ECM 1 - IRC 3 - ISS
IIT 9 - IIT 8 - RIW 60%
Shield 2 - PDS - Class 5
Range 4 - Warp 2 - Range 7
Hyper-V - NPG - Ion Rifle
I had prioritised construction, but still somehow managed to nab IRC 3 before IIT 8. They joys of being excellent at computers, and the RNG. Also, selecting Ion Rifle was weedy, given that I was unlikely to invade anyone. SP-V would've been a better choice, and cause for a "Duh!" as soon as I had made it.
Sometime here I get a notice that the Alkari embassador had tried to kill one of the other emperors - I think the Human. Given that I didn't have any contact with any other race than the Klackons (who only opened trade after several tries) this didn't affect me. I considered opening war on the Klackons, but decided against it until I got a better diplomatic picture.
Meklon became fertile in 2407, which marked the year when the game began in earnest. In the 2409 tech report, I was in the lead before the Psilons, and I managed to scout out Aurora, Tyr, Whynil and Gion. I whipped up a basic NPG cruiser to help me claim the latter three worlds. The Klackons beat me to Tyr, but I could settle the other three. Settling Aurora in 2414, however, triggered the council vote of 2415, me against the Psilons. Everyone but the Psilons (of course) and the Bulrathi (abstain) voted for me, and I could cast my six votes (of 19) for the Psilons. Given this, I saw a path for diplomatic victory. It certainly validated my decision not to confront the Klackons in the opening game.
After another deadlocked senate vote in 2424 - only difference was that the Bulrathi voted for the Psilons - not much happened. I simply built up my worlds and teched towards Range 10, knowing that it'd enable me to contact most of the other races and attack the Psilon colony of Imra, where they had pushed through my scout blockade. The Klackon colony of Herculis got hit by the supernova event, and the colony was destroyed by it.
In 2447 the Psilons pushed through my next scout blockade and settled Stalaz, and Human and Bulrathi colony ships were spotted going for the other stars north of the nebula. This finally let me in touch with the Psilons, who decidedly were on their way to runaway Psilons.
The 2449 council vote was similar to the earlier ones. I managed to steal IS from the Klackons, framing the Psilons. In 2451 the Psilons reached 12 planets, and two years later Herculis went super nova. I researched range 10 in 2464, finally gaining contact with the Bulrathi and Alkari, and could trade IS to the Bulrathi for Duralloy. That the Psilons were in the runaway category was further confirmed in 2474, as they were the leaders in production.
However, the election in 2474 went exactly as I had worked for: the Klackons (4 votes) voted for me, as did the Humans (1 vote), Bulrathi (3 votes) and Alkari (3 votes). The Psilons had 8 votes, and I 7, giving me 18 out of 26 votes and a diplomatic victory by the narrowest margin possible.
Postscriptum: one fewer votes were cast in 2474 than in 2449 - the Psilons gained two votes but at the expense of the Klackons, Humans and Bulrathi, who all lost one vote each. Their runaway character was further reinforced when I opened up the save later on and continued playing - I steadily lost contact with the other races as they lost planets or were exterminated by the Psilons. I could probably win the game, but it'd be a late-game high-tech win. This because I could easily organise an anti-Psilon alliance and bomb out the hostiles they had settled north of the nebula, but at the same time they were destroying the other races left and right while I had no way to reach their core.
That is, unless I turned on the Klackons and used their worlds as a springboard into the center of the galaxy. Given the variant, I expect the submitted games to go into two heaps: diplomatic wins without attacking the Klackons, and domination wins or better where the Klackons were attacked, especially since Atmospheric Terraforming hadn't been researched by any race in 2475.
As for those who are curious: the first impossible RBO 12 ended up with a diplomatic loss for me, when the Humans got the votes of everyone else in the galaxy, I only had contact with the Darloks and the Bulrathi, and the Bulrathi contact was quite recent. Somehow, I still managed to be #2 in population after the Humans for the entire game, despite the constraints of the variant.
Abstract: Diplomatic victory in 2474.
Introduction: there was only a single constraint, but that one hurt. No planetology techs meant fewer settled planets and more expensive colony ships. It also means less population on the worlds you do own. So you will have fewer votes in the galactic council and lower production. A nice hole to be in.
Given the problem of pollution cleanup, I decided to initially focus on construction until I at least had RIW 60%. All the RPs that usually went towards planetology were to be spent there instead. I'd probably also need good range tech - with fewer possible planets to settle I'd need the range to reach new planets I could settle, and more range in order to reach the other races. Especially the latter turned out to be very true.
Given the yellow stars, I guess I had one race to the south of me, one to the west (next to the nebula), one at the three-star yellow cluster and the last two at the three singletons along the map borders. I hoped I could flank around the two closest rivals to reach contact with the other races.
Discussion: I decided to send the colony ship to the southern red, with scouts to the west green and the red 2 parsecs north. I wanted to expand south primarily, and I would get the report from the other star within settling range before I settled my second colony.
Paranar turned out to be a Jungle 80, and Jinga an Ocean 75, so I settled Jinga at once and sent 17 pop there from Meklon. A cheaper scout was designed and many were built and sent out.
Research of construction and propulsion were opened when Meklon and Jinga could muster about 120 RP in one turn, using the open (using 2-4 RP per tech) - seed (max RPs from both worlds) - trickle (8-10 RP) cycle. When Meklon could build a colony ship in three turns, Jinga took over research duties. Paranar, Kakata, Zhordan and Berel were settled in short order, while I cursed at the hostile planets and empty space that stopped further expansion. I concentrated on peaceful expansion, having little else to do.
Tech paths were:
ECM 1 - IRC 3 - ISS
IIT 9 - IIT 8 - RIW 60%
Shield 2 - PDS - Class 5
Range 4 - Warp 2 - Range 7
Hyper-V - NPG - Ion Rifle
I had prioritised construction, but still somehow managed to nab IRC 3 before IIT 8. They joys of being excellent at computers, and the RNG. Also, selecting Ion Rifle was weedy, given that I was unlikely to invade anyone. SP-V would've been a better choice, and cause for a "Duh!" as soon as I had made it.
Sometime here I get a notice that the Alkari embassador had tried to kill one of the other emperors - I think the Human. Given that I didn't have any contact with any other race than the Klackons (who only opened trade after several tries) this didn't affect me. I considered opening war on the Klackons, but decided against it until I got a better diplomatic picture.
Meklon became fertile in 2407, which marked the year when the game began in earnest. In the 2409 tech report, I was in the lead before the Psilons, and I managed to scout out Aurora, Tyr, Whynil and Gion. I whipped up a basic NPG cruiser to help me claim the latter three worlds. The Klackons beat me to Tyr, but I could settle the other three. Settling Aurora in 2414, however, triggered the council vote of 2415, me against the Psilons. Everyone but the Psilons (of course) and the Bulrathi (abstain) voted for me, and I could cast my six votes (of 19) for the Psilons. Given this, I saw a path for diplomatic victory. It certainly validated my decision not to confront the Klackons in the opening game.
After another deadlocked senate vote in 2424 - only difference was that the Bulrathi voted for the Psilons - not much happened. I simply built up my worlds and teched towards Range 10, knowing that it'd enable me to contact most of the other races and attack the Psilon colony of Imra, where they had pushed through my scout blockade. The Klackon colony of Herculis got hit by the supernova event, and the colony was destroyed by it.
In 2447 the Psilons pushed through my next scout blockade and settled Stalaz, and Human and Bulrathi colony ships were spotted going for the other stars north of the nebula. This finally let me in touch with the Psilons, who decidedly were on their way to runaway Psilons.
The 2449 council vote was similar to the earlier ones. I managed to steal IS from the Klackons, framing the Psilons. In 2451 the Psilons reached 12 planets, and two years later Herculis went super nova. I researched range 10 in 2464, finally gaining contact with the Bulrathi and Alkari, and could trade IS to the Bulrathi for Duralloy. That the Psilons were in the runaway category was further confirmed in 2474, as they were the leaders in production.
However, the election in 2474 went exactly as I had worked for: the Klackons (4 votes) voted for me, as did the Humans (1 vote), Bulrathi (3 votes) and Alkari (3 votes). The Psilons had 8 votes, and I 7, giving me 18 out of 26 votes and a diplomatic victory by the narrowest margin possible.
Postscriptum: one fewer votes were cast in 2474 than in 2449 - the Psilons gained two votes but at the expense of the Klackons, Humans and Bulrathi, who all lost one vote each. Their runaway character was further reinforced when I opened up the save later on and continued playing - I steadily lost contact with the other races as they lost planets or were exterminated by the Psilons. I could probably win the game, but it'd be a late-game high-tech win. This because I could easily organise an anti-Psilon alliance and bomb out the hostiles they had settled north of the nebula, but at the same time they were destroying the other races left and right while I had no way to reach their core.
That is, unless I turned on the Klackons and used their worlds as a springboard into the center of the galaxy. Given the variant, I expect the submitted games to go into two heaps: diplomatic wins without attacking the Klackons, and domination wins or better where the Klackons were attacked, especially since Atmospheric Terraforming hadn't been researched by any race in 2475.
As for those who are curious: the first impossible RBO 12 ended up with a diplomatic loss for me, when the Humans got the votes of everyone else in the galaxy, I only had contact with the Darloks and the Bulrathi, and the Bulrathi contact was quite recent. Somehow, I still managed to be #2 in population after the Humans for the entire game, despite the constraints of the variant.
Your galaxy looked nothing like mine then, where the Klackons were a runaway and the apes and lizards ended up stunted. Losing on the first vote to the Humans is one of the weakest aspects of balance in this game. Nothing you can do about it sometimes, especially with a corner start.