Those Warbear larges were pretty pitiful. Good news for us, at least for now. But I expect the Bulrathi will come up with a more dangerous design soon.
I like the terraforming tech choice over soil enrichment, although we will want to go back for soil if advanced soil is not available later. Basic soil does give a max pop size boost to non-hostile worlds, but it is a percentage based on the base planet size. With a lot of small worlds in our empire, the straight boost of better terraforming should be better for us.
Planetary Shield V will be nice, and IRC3 is about to come in and give us lots more factories on all our strong planets. Good stuff. We are still looking for a better eco restoration tech to cut clean up costs; maybe we will be able to grab at least the first uprade from one of the AIs in trade?
(March 29th, 2022, 16:30)DaveV Wrote: I had some time today, so I played, hoping it won't disrupt the story.
No disruption at all; I posted the save before my report was complete exactly so you'd be able to play if you had a window before I had time to add part 2! And the second part of my report is now added to the same post as part 1, to keep everything in order in the thread. I also notice my "notes to the Sixth Speaker" were incomplete: I had intended to mention the prebuild I had going at Obaca for Laan's toxic colship and the fact that I equalized tech spending not because I felt that was the best move, but because I felt it was okay with our techs where they were at this point, and that I expected you to adjust them according to your own priorities in any case - as you did!
Good turns and report as usual, except for one thing: It looks like Range 6 came in during your set, but I can't tell from your report what our options were in the next tier, or what you chose! I'm very much hoping, of course, for Sublight Drives, but the tech tree may not have cooperated!
[EDIT: Also:
(March 29th, 2022, 07:43)DaveV Wrote: Yes, that is very confusing terminology. All of the missiles/rockets are offensive, except for level 6 Anti Missile Rockets. I have never spent a weapons slot on those and am very disappointed when they are the only option in the second tier. Of course, one of Ref's opinions is worth at least ten of mine, so take that with an asteroid-sized chunk of salt.
Thanks for the kind words, but the only sentence in this post that's incorrect is the last one! I love this old game, and I've picked up a lot of tips and trivia about it over the years, but I can still be wrong and make mistakes, especially if I'm disagreeing with another veteran of Impossible gameplay like you!
(Getting AMRs alone in that tier is indeed very disappointing, too! Fortunately, it's also quite rare: I think about one game in either 25 or 31 for non-Psilons, though I don't remember which - and for the Psilons it's even closer to zero.)]
Annnnnd...
Roster:
- RefSteel (finally posted that report
- DaveV (just played) - jez9999 (UP!)
- haphazard1 (on deck)
(March 30th, 2022, 01:12)RefSteel Wrote: Good turns and report as usual, except for one thing: It looks like Range 6 came in during your set, but I can't tell from your report what our options were in the next tier, or what you chose! I'm very much hoping, of course, for Sublight Drives, but the tech tree may not have cooperated!
Oh yeah. I took a screenshot and then overwrote the clipboard with another one, meaning it was probably the turn when the Bulrathi invaded Kulthos.
Bad news: the only choice was range 7. We should arrange a trade for better engines, if possible (and maybe improved eco too, as haphazard mentioned).
Only range 7? Ouch. Our propulsion tree has not been good this game. Does range 6 bring any additional systems into range? Anything habitable has probably been grabbed by the AIs by this point in the game, but if the cats' planetology tree is still poor we might be able to find a dead or toxic world they have not been able to settle.
No, the Inferno planets on the other side of the Mrrshans are 7-8 parsecs away; thus my hope that we can build long range colony ships after researching Duralloy armor. It would be nice if we could put better engines on them to avoid a very long flight time, but there might not be enough room for all that stuff.
Also worth noting: Radiated Landing didn't show up in the ecology tree, so we may have to trade for or steal that tech at some point.
(March 29th, 2022, 16:30)DaveV Wrote: Sigh of relief. Five nuclear missiles can do at most 20 damage to our missile bases, and the gatling lasers can't scratch the bases' shields. On the other hand, those weapons would tear our Pop1 ships into tiny pieces, so I retreated them immediately. The Warbear ships fired their missiles and then retreated; crisis averted (I did ~75/150 damage with my planetary missiles).
Could someone clarify quite what planetary shields do, as opposed to deflector shields? The manual says that "Planet shields are the only defense that populations and factories have from space attacks". Does this mean that if they fire missiles at you and you have class 2 deflectors but NOT planet shields (ie. our current situation), the bases will be covered by class 2 shield defence but you'll still lose a bunch of factories and population? Or does this advice not apply to the battle screen, but rather only to the "orbital bombardment" thing?
Planetary shields and deflector shields are additive. So after we research Planetary V and spend the money to build them, our planets will have 5+2=7 total shields. This will make us immune to beam weapons for a while, but still vulnerable to missiles (Merculites will do 3 damage if they hit), bombs, and bio weapons.
Edit: right now, with the starting armor, our missile bases have 50 hitpoints. So invaders have to do 50 damage to remove one base, and 50*(number of bases) to clear our defenses entirely. Once we research Duralloy, the hitpoints increase from 50 to 75.
So, nosy traveller, you decided to look anyway. Well, this is my - the seventh speaker - personal diary, where I have catalogued the various happenings, decisions, and ponderances I had during my time in office.
Oh, and yes, I speak normal English, just like every alien in this galaxy. The hissing sounds are an affectation, usually used with poetic licence or to confuse gullible aliens. Many decades ago, we learned to overcome that particular speech impediment. Many of us wish, in fact, that we could travel back in time and get our home planet to be named something far less stupid. Maybe in time, our tech people will invent a time machine for this very purpose. So now you know. Luckily, I've posted this diary in a bottle that is to be launched into deep space, so these secrets will presumably never be leaked.
2380:
Have decided to scale back computers tech to minimal; 1/3 chance of getting each turn so may as well invest more in other things.
Spent the day looking around the existing spending for various planets in our empire. I find myself sympathizing with one of our former speakers... the Third, I believe... who publicly expressed his sentiment that he never really felt sure what to prioritize where. I mean, some things were pretty clear cut even for him, as they are for me. Dedicated tech spending (given clean eco) at Rayden, given that its population and factories are already maxed out, is a no-brainer. This, at least, confirms that these decisions CAN sometimes be clear-cut, and suggests that with further experience, many more of them may become clear-cut. But for now, they are generally so unclear-cut as to not really be cut at all. *ahem* Anyway... I wonder why previous administrators set defence spending in order to build a new missile base at Kronos in 14 years' time?
My lizard brain can kind of think several years ahead - maybe 5 - but 14 years just trails off into the distance, and the investment feels more like a rounding error. My instinct would be to either remove all spending on defence until such time as we want to build bases in earnest, or increase spending to get them done in a timeframe that feels meaningful. However, as I don't really know what I'm doing, I'll just leave it alone.
Likewise, I have noticed that Obaca and Celtsi are putting money into the reserve. Why? Why not put them straight into tech? Perhaps there is a rule of thumb which one can use to decide how much to keep in the reserve per new planet, or something, but it's a rule I'm not familiar with. So, I guess I'll just leave 'em alone again.
And there are too many questions here. So I'll ponder another. I'm sure the manual stated that the amount of money put into the reserve was only 1 BC per 2 BC collected from a planet. Isn't this going to be very wasteful compared to spending it immediately?
2381:
Colony ships landed at Misha and Laan. Both promising prospects, both to have their populations boosted immediately to capacity, especially as a hostile environment makes it harder for them to grow naturally.
Upon landing on Laan and setting up communications, were contacted by some honorable, expansionist bird people.
Have started spying on them to determine their technology. Also set up a basic trade agreement on the usual assumption that it's always a good idea (is it ever not?)
Offered non-aggression pact to Bulrathis. They accepted.
When it comes to filling up our two new worlds, would prefer to send all population from Kulthos as it's mineral poor, but have decided to fill up Laan from Xengara because Kulthos is too far away and colony ships would take forever to arrive. Misha still getting boosted from Kulthos to the tune of 39 million colonists. Will start immediate terraforming on both planets.
Galactic cartographers have furnished me with an updated map now that the Alkari bird positions have been ascertained.
2382:
Have obtained latest racial stats:
2383:
Scientists make computer tech breakthrough for Improved Robotic Controls 3. Next tech chosen is Improved Space Scanner as I've heard people saying that ECM Jammer isn't much use. Is it ever a good idea to research it, I wonder?
Not really knowing what I'm doing in relation to planetary spending, I'm unsure whether to focus on upgrading the robotic controls or to carry on with tech spending. So for most planets, I just went 50/50 on both, like so:
Have probably made a mistake on this. It's lonely at the top, so lonely...
2384:
The Bulrathi broke our Trade Agreement. Expecting incoming ships from them. They seemed to be moving fleets to Kulthos, so am redirecting our Gecko 1.0 ships there.
Intelligence has also reported back on Alkari technology.
The Mrrshans are now allied with the Bulrathis and Alkaris. Have signed a larger 200BC trade pact with them in the hopes that it makes them less likely to attack us at the behest of the Bulrathis.
2385:
Spotted a Psilon colony ship heading for Proxima. Presume no threat, as we suspect that even their technological wizards have not yet invented a technology to create planets from nothing.
2386:
Misha's population has now been boosted and stands at 42 billion. Bulrathi fleet continues very slowly to approach Kulthos. Our ships will be there to meet them. They're very small, however, and so some will be destroyed by a basic missile attack. One wonders whether building larger ships would be a better approach for ship-to-ship combat, reserving large numbers of smaller ships for bombardments. Not at all sure.
The Bulrathi alliance with the Mrrshans has been terminated.
2387:
Bulrathi fleet engages ours at Kulthos.
Two of their missiles are fired, and neither can be avoided, destroying 6 Gecko 1.0 ships. Their ship flees before we can engage and retaliate. Have reprimanded our captains for behaving like total noobs. It's almost like they don't know what they're doing!
2389:
So much for 200BC trade preventing them from being aggressive.
2390:
Whew! The homeworld is in one piece and my term is over! I note that the Mrrshans are now allied with, well, everyone. And they're all pretty hostile towards us.
Who is the next speaker, anyway? Glad I'm not him. Time for me to enjoy my retirement in Rayden retirement mud spa pools. At least I'll probably be dead by the time they hit that. Maybe I'll keep an eye on the galactic news from time to time. I'm sure we'll possibly survive...
We are still looking for a better eco restoration tech to cut clean up costs; maybe we will be able to grab at least the first uprade from one of the AIs in trade?
Our propulsion tree has not been good this game. Does range 6 bring any additional systems into range? Anything habitable has probably been grabbed by the AIs by this point in the game, but if the cats' planetology tree is still poor we might be able to find a dead or toxic world they have not been able to settle.