I hate to miss the festivities - the annual REF-5T337 Can't Track Dragons Day celebrations are the highlights of every year here at the Friction colony - but this is just too important: The terrible Eleven-Year Reactor Plague ended half a decade ago when we finally managed simultaneous colony-wide deployment of a working vaccine and software update, but our rich colony there is still underpopulated after all this time, as if people are afraid to go now that the danger is passed and there's no more heroic need. Well, I say the need is critical: It's less immediate, maybe, but if anyone believes the aliens around us are going to let us live in peace forever, they need to take a better look at their history! When they casually send attacks our way as they inevitably will, that's when we're going to need an emergency defensive fleet, and it's going to be too late by then unless we get started on it early - or on another kind of combat fleet to give us the best defense! Our Reactor colony's one of the best places for us to do that, and I'm heading out there to help out, voting with my wheels and climbing appendages: Me and seven million other Meklar, with four million more coming our way from the Poverty colony to help make up for our departure - and get off of their world's cold steppes to warm themselves at the hearth our planet offers! We've all got to pull together like this if we're going to survive: The hypothetical pan-network sentience knows our diplomats aren't going to make us safe anyway!
Checking in with the aliens we know, to see if they were willing to exchange knowledge, we found they were demanding deals we weren't willing to make for anything we wanted even slightly. Even when we gave up on remotely-useful technology and just asked about the ancient technology, long superseded by our own planetologists, that let Kaxal claim Gorra for herself decades ago, she insisted on our advancing her state of the art in exchange; we did accept since we couldn't see much harm in teaching her people to survive on frigid tundra worlds, but it really highlighted the lopsided nature of the trade: We gave her a superior version of exactly what she was teaching us to use. I don't mind, since every little smidgen of planetology knowledge helps us to improve our lives on our worlds and boost our productivity. True, a little extra knowledge of that kind helps the Klackons too - helps them even more, actually - but first of all, we need it more, since we're bad at planetology, and second of all, I'm not too worried about the bugs: Their population is so small that even a big increase in their per-capita productivity, which this emphatically won't provide, is all but insignificant on an empire scale in comparison with one of ours. No, the Alkari are the ones I'm worried about, and that seems to go for all of us Meklar: Their population roughly matches ours, they're sure to oppose us in the upcoming High Council election, and they just reverse-engineered a trove immensely-powerful Ancient weapons of war from a derelict they happened across with their fleet. We've got an agent in their space trying to learn their secrets for us, but there's no telling how that's going to go; all we can do is try to help out where we can.
Most of our efforts across Meklar space are going into research right now - though you wouldn't know it here around the nebula! The Frictionese people I'm leaving behind are getting their first missile base ready and the Reactorians I'm going to join, thanks to their far-richer resources, are doing the same thing while they also build more factories and get their shipyards going - with the Selians and and Shieldlessites turning to the latter full-time. That still leaves a lot of research going on elsewhere though, focused on computer science to give us a better shot at lifting better things from the Alkari - and to see if by any chance we'll be able to research a scanner finally. In case we can't, I suppose it'll be on to yet another battle computer, but I'm holding out hope we won't be half-blind to enemy fleets permanently! Construction, by contrast, is barely funded at all: Only the most-experienced heads of the project are still on payroll, putting the finishing touches on the Zortium armor manufacturing process that's nearly finished already. When it is, the popular opinion is that we should go for the best ground combat enhancement we can see: More factory production is always great, but it's no good if all our factories have to sit idle while waves of troops try to overcome the huge advantages of the Alkari. Forcefield and planetology research is humming along too, with most Meklar hoping we can follow up our current projects with planetary shields and atmospheric terraforming, but the big question is in weapons: How long will it take for anti-matter bombs to be ready for deployment? And when they are, will the speculation about what our science fiction writers have taken to calling Megabolt Cannons turn out to be real possibilities? We can only hope so: If the physics works the way we think, they would be the best method we have of taking on the Alkari. (Yes, we're working on advanced range too, hoping for contact and Ion engines, but it's early days on that project; I doubt if it'll be finished in the next ten years!)
My transport's boarding; I'm heading out, thrilled to have a look at the molten metal surface of my new home-to-be. Behind me, others are moving too: Most of the ships in our fleet are heading this way in case they're needed here before they hit the scrap heap. The old ships have some sentimental value, and played a role in their prime, but any new ships we build from now on are going to be flying at warp 4 ... at least!
Or in other words: Got it! I agree that fighting the Alkari isn't going to be easy, but rgp151 is correct that we are still slightly ahead of the Alkari in computer technology for now (we're actually way behind the Klackons, whom we don't want to upset before the Council anyway, but the Alkari should be nominated against us, so it's not like they'll vote for us no matter what they think of our spying) and I'm making an effort to push further ahead with our strong production base - and after all, the birds are the ones with the cool newAncient toys to steal. They're at war with practically everybody too, so fighting them might go really well if we can do it before they start deploying Repulsor Beams, Omega Bombs, and High Energy Focus Phasors on their fleets. I don't know if I can manage that, but I'll see if I can do something!
SpaceOWL: Good events supposedly (according to the OSG) are more likely to affect less-productive empires, and vice versa, and the difference grows quickly as their power levels diverge ... but there's always a chance of them affecting any empire ... with the exception, also according to the OSG, of empires with fewer than five planets, which - again, supposedly - never get random events of any kind unless and until they expand more! In practice, when that event occurred, I think it's very possible that there were four empires (us, the Alkari, the Klackons, and the Bulrathi) who had similar-enough production numbers that it was practically just a four-sided die roll. It wouldn't surprise me if the Darloks and Sakkra were at four planets - or fewer - apiece.
Thanks for the discussion, everybody! I probably won't try to invade anything without at least Zortium and AMBs, and maybe not even then, depending on what I can build and what I see from them. (I'm paying attention to their current known designs and watching out for new ones, for instance.) All this means nothing is likely to come together before the election if at all, but I'll keep my eyes on the diplomatic situation and the enemy fleets....
* - Unless someone not yet on the roster wants to (and has a chance to) step in first! Please just say so if you'd like to - it's always great to have more players on the team!
(August 26th, 2023, 22:23)RefSteel Wrote: [Regarding Ancient Derelict event,] I think it's very possible that there were four empires (us, the Alkari, the Klackons, and the Bulrathi) who had similar-enough production numbers that it was practically just a four-sided die roll. It wouldn't surprise me if the Darloks and Sakkra were at four planets - or fewer - apiece.
I would change that to a three-sided die roll. In all the games of MOO I've played, I have never, ever, seen the Ancient Derelict event trigger for me, the non-AI player.
I agree with DaveV. In all my games of MOO, I have never had some of the positive events (ancient derelict, wealthy merchant) happen to me. Those events only occur for AIs, and often to the strongest AIs. All of the negative events have happened to me, often when I am far behind the leading powers. I usually turn events off for personal games as a result.
You know, it never struck me before, but I think that's right: I've definitely seen all the other "good" events (Merchant, Rich, Fertile ... I think that's it?) hit the player, but never the derelict!
And:
Report, part 1: 2421-2425
- Friction Colony, 2421 -
The nebula is up to its usual tricks, apparently: The transports that left here last year were expected to spend two years in transit - but in fact they've already landed and are contributing to the Reactor colony! That being the case, two more transports are setting up now on the tarmac outside; we've got two million more volunteers ready to cross the nebula and get up there! As for the rest of us here on Friction, we have our first defensive base in place now, and we're switching over to research: We could build factories, yes, but we're all of us hoping a lot of our factory workforce will be shipping off soon to learn about Alkari factories - and hopefully the secrets of the derelict Ancient ship they discovered not long ago!
- Rigel Technology Complex, 2422 -
Meklon, do you read? This is agent 14MP-P057 at the Alkari research complex, and I've broken their security grid! It looks like a deep penetration: I can break into any of their six labs from here! I know the right thing to do is to get their battle computer and help ensure better future prizes, but think what this could mean! I know, I'm leery of getting my hopes up and ending up with anti-missile rockets or outdated deflectors, but it's got to be worth the risk - especially in planetology!
Or ... not. Attached, please find the specs for Death Spore construction, which should be very useful for file recognition purposes so future agents won't make the same mistake I did of accidentally stealing them instead of something we might ever actually use. I should definitely have gone with that battle computer. I suppose examining the specifications on these things and understanding in detail exactly how horrible they would be if the Alkari used them on us will make our people very, very slightly more productive, but the fact is we knew all that already, if in slightly less specific detail.
Oh, I guess I should mention too, obviously that was a big disappointment, but I thought I'd try to make up for it, so I was going to go in and try to steal something else while I was here, but it didn't work for some reason. I don't know, there was some kind of alarm going off or whatever, probably just a drill; I'm sure they couldn't have noticed I'd stolen their death spore plans or anything, I was so clever and sneaky and a very effective agent who should definitely get a raise. I'm so good, I can even tap into their official diplomatic network. Check it out! They're sending a big-time high-level message to somebody!
Whuff, sounds like their Farseer bird is angry! Don't worry, I'm sure his complaints about our espionage attempts have nothing to do with my spying! He has no idea about that, believe me - doesn't even know I'm here! It's all just bluster! You notice how he said "attempts," right? Not "success" or anything? See, you might think that's just diplomatic language, and him not wanting to admit that I got out with something, but that would be if he knew, which he clearly doesn't, there's no way! So we're absolutely in the clear here; there's no way it was a mistake to send me spying on these birdies. It's not like we're going to be picking up cool new advanced technology any other way!
Like, come on, what are we going to do, research? The Alkari think we're doing that, and I even heard a rumor in their intelligence circles earlier this year that Meklar back home are fielding Zortium armor at our bases now, and protecting our ground troops with it, and ready to install it on ships, but obviously they don't know what they're talking about. They're just dumb Alkari; they aren't super-spies who figure everything out like me! And their public debates where they worry about us - things like, "What if new industrial technology is the Meklars' only way forward, with their factories practically all finished already? Might they not go back to quickly finish off an old project like battle suit designs to strengthen their ground forces in preparation for invasion?" What kind of drivel is that? It's like they're worried about the research our people are choosing for ourselves intentionally! What they fail to realize is that I'm the one who's doing everything important for us Meklar; the researchers can't do anything like me! Oh, but listen to me yammering on during a top-secret live espionage transmission that would have grave diplomatic consequences and give away my position if the Alkari noticed it! Haha! Well, I guess I'll be going now then. Don't worry, everything's under control here, absolutely! Oh, and did I tell you about this one time when one of the Alkari scientists I was spying on got marker dye splashed on her crownfeathers? See, this other scientist, who was her clutchmate, which is sort of like when two of us have carapaces from the same production run and......"
- Canopy Weapons Lab, 2423 -
The first piece of good news is that 14MP-P057 did remember to send an up-to-date report on the Alkari in the middle of yet another aside about Farseer's grandnephew's schoolfriend's mom meeting an audacious hatmaker at the Spica Shop & Drop. The bad news is practically everything on the report, especially including the new alliance with the Sakkra. Their latest planetology breakthrough will even let them survive on radiated worlds, which means they can invade our Shieldless colony if they get a fleet up there, while we can't reinforce except in space. The other good news though? That's our department!
Earlier this year, we successfully assembled a prototype anti-matter containment apparatus that permits the annihilation of a macroscopic mass of antiparticles with ordinary matter - such as, for instance, the containment housing - upon actively dropping containment, without also doing so when, for instance, the container is shaken vigorously or the vehicle carrying it makes an unusually sharp turn. While the resulting containment structure is larger than an entire fighter-class spacecraft, and has no direct application for defense against Alkari death-spore-wielding fleets, new physics discoveries made along the way should help with the miniaturization of more-defensive systems, and we hope and believe that these new Anti-Matter Bombs will be useful in themselves, if not as deterrents to attack, then at least as means of transforming forward attack bases from which would-be enemies might launch attacks into large quantities of eletromagnetic radiation. For strictly defensive measures, we submit the possibility of devising the energy-field-transfer devices popularly known as Megabolt Cannons to overcome the maneuverability of Alkari fleets. Ion Stream Projectors might have better served us against fighters in incalculably large numbers, but the real threats at present, even from the Alkari, are the horrifying Warbird death spore cruisers, against which a projector would be close to useless.
Here, in the meantime, is our humble first effort at a delivery vehicle for our new technology. What it lacks in beauty, we feel it makes up in speed - which, I am told, kills - and in its twin bomb bays filled with triggered matter-antimatter annihilation reaction devices. Those, I am prepared to say, do kill, with certainty.
- Ajax Field Mechanics Laboratory, Visitors' Suite, 2424 -
I know, I'm just an olllld field mechanics researcher after all, my electromechanical parts all getting rusted since I won't replace them until I have to, no sirree, and maybe this is all anybody could think of to do with me. It's just that I feel sort of foolish, you know, coming all the way out here from Friction, just to learn about some fiddly kind of bug technology. I'd have to imagine these cute little buggies in their laboratory are feeling just as foolish too, you know, for maybe slightly different reasons - or maybe the same ones, if you look at them through the other side of the tube.
If you ask me, I don't see any reason why we should ever put their little class-3 shields on anything, and if understanding the way they jerry-rigged the poor things together helps us make our real shields a tiny bit cheaper and easier to build in a littler space, well, that can't make too much of a difference now, can it really? And I do suppose that nobody did get around to asking me, it's only to say that if they did, I'd have maybe said something about how the teeny-tiny little upgrade we're giving them can cut the damage our missile bases do to the ships that equip 'em by a third, but after all it isn't up to me. I must say I'm most surprised of all that the bugs didn't turn red right inside their chitin when they found out we were trading our class-4 shields for their class 3s. I guess all there is to it after all is that nobody back on Meklon or Friction or anywhere else is afraid of the buggies. They've got other things to be afraid of, I dare suppose, if the news from away back at the start of the year is anything to go on.
I dare say that chirping young Farseer fellow didn't take kindly to all the spying we'd been doing - the thing with the death spores, you know, just a couple years back, and then the trying ever since, and then the whole thing where a couple of our ships did fly-bys of some of his worlds just to see what we might be up against on them. A real shame he didn't want to be peaceful anymore, I do say, but what can you do when a pacifist like that goes off to war so quickly? I guess they just don't make pacifists like they used to do. Or hatch them? Why, yes, I daresay it's hatched with him.
- Central Furnace Computer Lab, 2425 -
Following the spectacular success of our research on counter-measures against missiles, bombs, and bioweapon attacks, I would like to tender my resignation. I'm well aware of what the Meklar people need, and I've searched under all the cabinets and closets for any notes that might pertain to a scanner of any kind, and there's nothing. Besides, if I have to spend another day working on yet another jammer, I'm probably going to shut down involuntarily.
We got through the High Council with no resolution; with Farseer's Sakkra allies voting for him and everyone else apparently at war with him, that was never in question, but it's interesting to see we've caught up to the Alkari in population. If we're careful and conscientious, we should be able to get a veto by 2450. You don't need me in the computer labs here; I'll be happy to do some other kind of research, say on Canopy - or build starships at our Reactor colony, say.
There's nothing wrong with this Furnace world - not at all! - I'd just like, if possible, to forget about what happened in the lab, and you know, my electromechanical appendages aren't as well-suited to the rush and hurry of building missile bases with the maximum assistance of the reserve like everybody else here is about to be doing. I'm sure those nine death sporer cruisers and the nearly two thousand other Alkari ships that look like they're coming this way just want to have a friendly visit in the middle of the war. Of course I'm not trying to run away!
That's as far as I was able to get with the report today; sorry about that! I'll hopefully post the second half tomorrow.
Thanks for the entertaining report, RefSteel. An inconclusive coucil meeing, some new techs, and the birds declaring war. Hopefully we can stop their spore ships from damaging our worlds. There are a lot of ships in that fleet, but maybe their designs are not too dangerous? We will have to see.
I'm still a little baffled about the missile bases. By this point in a game all of my planets typically have 40+ bases and I've come up with some way to get Class V Planetary Shields. At a point, trading just about anything for them is worth it if you can't research them. And you know they have death spores, so Bio-Toxin Antidote is another priority. This is all the more the case since the Alkari are difficult to hit and have superior propulsion tech, so there is little chance you'll be able to use fleets to chase them away from your planets, especially if they target multiple planets at once. I'd consider planetary defense priority #1 at this point. Shields, Missiles, Antidote, Repulsor Beams, Warp Dissipator.
(August 28th, 2023, 05:54)rgp151 Wrote: I'm still a little baffled about the missile bases. By this point in a game all of my planets typically have 40+ bases and I've come up with some way to get Class V Planetary Shields. At a point, trading just about anything for them is worth it if you can't research them. And you know they have death spores, so Bio-Toxin Antidote is another priority. This is all the more the case since the Alkari are difficult to hit and have superior propulsion tech, so there is little chance you'll be able to use fleets to chase them away from your planets, especially if they target multiple planets at once. I'd consider planetary defense priority #1 at this point. Shields, Missiles, Antidote, Repulsor Beams, Warp Dissipator.
Don't get me wrong - my instincts are always to turtle and secure first, but I don't think that's going to work here.
First, we have two valuable border worlds in a nebula, so we can't just hunker down behind shields. Second, the Alkari have Omega Bombs, so planetary V is little better than paper, and Antidote does little when they have other weapons that can simply blow us up. It's not my natural style, but we may be better in the short term accepting that we can't defend everything effectively, and look to instead spend our resources on hitting them, hoping to be more efficient at picking targets than the AI is, particularly while they have multiple fronts to worry about. If we can get them onto the back foot, the AI will often spend a lot of time and effort scrapping over spud worlds while we can look to move on real targets. I'm also hoping that we can use whatever tech we can get from them better than they can tech from us ... it's by no means guaranteed, but we'll see.
Could be an interesting turnset .
It may have looked easy, but that is because it was done correctly - Brian Moore
I agree with shallow_thought. Given the tech situation, we can't turtle behind bases and shields. We don't have good enough shield tech, and the enemy has too good of bombs plus death spores.
Repulsor beams are at least out there, and could in theory be obtained. But have we seen any AI with Antidote (or the improved versions)?
An inconclusive coucil meeing, some new techs, and the birds declaring war. Hopefully we can stop their spore ships from damaging our worlds. There are a lot of ships in that fleet, but maybe their designs are not too dangerous? We will have to see.
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