Bitten by the MoO bug again

[haphazard1]

haphazard, I don't have the numbers here but the effect is large. I recall it being a 20-25% cut. If you have IT+10, Barren colony tech and IER in your starting tech tree along with only Death Spores on the next rung, I'd definitely research all 3 (in that order) before Death Spores. The miniaturization and the production bonus (Planetology tech makes your colonists more productive) will be well worth it.

You may see a significant improvement (but I think it will be less than 15%) in colony ship build times, but most of that would be because IER cuts your clean up costs from 25% of industrial output to about 16.6% of industrial output. So you jump from 75% of factory output being useful to 83.x% being useful, which is a bit more than an 11% gain. And IER gives a small boost to per citizen production as well. But I just do not believe that it cuts the colony ship cost by anywhere near that much. I doubt it even cuts the colony base module cost by more than 10%, and the large hull has significant cost by itself that is unaffected by IER.

IT+10 is certainly worth it on its own merits if you have it (grumble, grumble). Barren depends on what systems you have nearby. But cost reductions and miniaturization depend on overall tech level in a field, so jumping to the second rung -- even if it is Death Spores -- is going to give a larger effect than researching three rung 1 techs. Death Spores is level 10, though, so it would be quite expensive at that stage of the game.

As for research plans, I think you're at a disadvantage haphazard. Not only from lack of research optimization, but more so from equalizing the tech sliders. Imagine doing that in Civilization! "I'll put 20% of my beakers in Iron Working, 20% in Currency, 20% in Monarchy, 20% in Organized Religion and 20% in Metal Casting". That'd be an absolute disaster! Technologies do not have the same value to you, and getting tech A in 10t and tech B in another 10t rather than getting both of them in 20t means you get the benefit of tech A for 10t for free!! Yes, I just added another exclamation mark there

Unless I have an urgent need for something (such as the early game need for range and settling capability, plus waste clean up) I tend to go with equalized research. Smaller steadier investments into all fields allow me to gain a lot of the benefit of trickle research without actually having to calculate anything with a spreadsheet or table. And equalized research also means I am making progress towards a number of cheaper techs rather than pumping everything into one field for a much more expensive tech a rung up. I also recall reading something about steady research providing better results, although that may have been a reference to trickle research effects.

Concerning trickle research, it's really not a whole lot of effort and it has big effects early on. You can make an Excel spreadsheet to whip out a range of numbers in no time, or you can use the above table for a starting investment of 40 RP. You can easily get a 10% bonus over what you would with semi random allocation, requires minimal effort. I always do it for my first 2-3 techs, then usually get bored and sloppy but still do it halfway.

I am just not willing to play with a spreadsheet open to adjust research spending every turn. It breaks immersion in the game for me, which means playing becomes a lot less fun.

[haphazard1]

It's a good thing I decided to start with a "warm up" game on Normal. I had forgotten the kinds of things this game can throw at you, and how important it is to stay prepared and not let my builder tendencies run away with things too much. The AI will test you and make you pay if you screw up. This game is almost 19 years old and it is still a blast to play...which is why I find myself staring at the clock and wondering how it got to be almost 6 AM.

Write up will have to wait until I have had some sleep. Victory was not a surprise -- this is Average after all, and I had a near paradise of a start. But let's just say the AI decided I needed to include some combat in my "shake the rust off" game.

[Catwalk]

My estimate was a little too high, cost goes from 570 to 486. I still consider that major savings, well worth waiting for. Adding IT+10 on top takes the cost down to 469. I do agree that optimal trickle research is a pain to do, although it gets a lot easier with practice. And I do understand about not enjoying playing that way, I consider it a flawed implementation of a great idea. Still, for us spreadsheet nerds it's possible to get a few thrills out of it

[haphazard1]

[Paul Harvey voice]And now, for the REST of the story![/Paul Harvey voice]

When I started the third session of this game, I was feeling pretty confident. I had more than twice as many worlds as my largest rival, most of them were large high quality worlds as well, my tech was superior, and my diplomatic relations with the races I had met were good. It had been a pleasant warm up, getting back into the MoO groove, and it was time to wrap things up and move on to Hard difficulty.

Sure, there were a few areas of concern. My newly claimed tundra worlds of Rha and Crius needed to be stood up, wedged between the Sakkra and Meklar as they were. But I had this one in the bag, right? What could go wrong?

It really has been too long since I last played MoO. I was thinking too much like this was Civ, and that my size and power would intimidate my rivals and make them leave me alone, that claims would be respected. Um, oops?

Things started off well enough, with scouts finding another Psilon planet next to Mentar. And my latest round of research started coming in, with Planetary Shield V, Enhanced Eco, and Ion Cannon all popping in 2388. I selected Class V Deflectors (over Repulsor Beam), Merculite missiles (over Mass Driver and Neutron Blaster), and Terraforming +40 -- at last, a Terraforming tech! -- over Soil Enrichment and Bio Toxin Antidote. I planned to come back for Soil once I had Terraforming +40. We'll see how the votes stack up in 2400 once all my worlds have added a bunch more people.

All developed frontier worlds began construction of the new planetary shields, which would go a long way towards securing my worlds from attack.

The next year saw Sub Light Drives complete for a major increase in mobility. Range 8 was missing (as range 6 and 7 had been). I should have long since had contact with the Darloks and Psilons. I chose Warp Dissipator over Fusion Drives.

Clicking end turn saw another tech pop, this time RW80% which I probably should have taken much earlier. This was not an advancement obviously, so I still had the same choices as last time: IIT7 or ARS. I went with ARS with thoughts of self-repairing huge ships dominating the galaxy.

Life proceeded quietly for a few years as planetary shields started to complete around the empire. In 2395 BC IV completed, revealing the next rung again had only one choice: ECM IV. No IRC IV, after also missing IRC III? My economy was only moderately ahead of my rivals, despite having many more and much larger worlds.

The next year cheered me up a bit:

I will be getting Soil Enrichment in the not too distant future, but a good event is a good event. And much, much nicer than a bad event, which as the largest empire was more likely to happen.

In 2397 Terraforming +40 popped -- I had shifted the majority of my research to Planetology. (I do change priorities away from equalized research when it is worthwhile.) New choices are Cloning and Advanced Eco, both quite nice. As planned I will go back for Soil Enrichment first. I am sad to not see Atmospheric Terraforming, but I have only three hostile worlds in this game out of 15 planets so it is not as big a gap as it might have been.

There is not much time until the 2400 elections -- let's see how quickly I can add some more population. :D Massive increases in Ecology spending are pushed throughout the empire. My tree was missing all the earlier Terraforming techs so this is 40 more pop on every world. 2398 sees mostly the terraforming itself but also about 75 new pop, followed by 166 new pop in 2399. :D

I am not sure if the growth from 2399 to 2400 gets registered in time for the High Council vote, but that would be another 150 or so for almost 400 pop added in three turns. Ka-BOOM! Here are the graphs for 2397 and 2399:

Pretty nice little move there, from the left of the 'o' in Population to the right.

Also note the production bars, and how unusually equal the Alkari, Meklar, and Sakkra are. Also note my advantage, which will shortly be growing as I build factories for all my new pop. Now imagine if I had IRC IV in my tree and I could add another 65-70% onto my production.

So the High Council meets for 2400, and what is this? Zygot of the Psilons will be my opponent, not the Sakkra. I guess the brainiacs must have piled on some serious Planetology tech to grow their population past the lizards. 32 votes total this time, so 22 will be needed.

Alkari have 2 votes, abstain. Bad birdie, bad! At least they did not vote for Zygot, although I am guessing they don't have contact.
Meklar have 3 votes, cast them for me. Good cyborgs! Looks like that NAP was a good idea.
Psilons have 5 votes, obviously theirs.
Sakkra have 5 votes (must be close between them and Psilons), cast them for Zygot. Stupid lizards! Our relations are all the way up to Peaceful, why are you voting for the brainiacs?!?
Darloks have 2 votes, cast them for Zygot. Shapeshifters...you just can't trust them. Although since they do not have contact with me this is not really surprising. Lack of range tech strikes again.

I have 15 votes -- not quite half the total -- and must abstain. This was very disappointing, especially the Sakkra. The game could be over if the lizards had been a bit more sensible.

I start up some passive spying to see what my rivals have for tech, and realize I have not been paying attention to the alliances/wars report info. Ummm, oops again? A quick look reveals that a Sakkra/Psilon/Darlok alliance is in effect. No wonder they all voted for Zygot. And as usual, the alliance dissolves the very next turn. Just my poor luck to have them temporarily allied just as the council vote came due.

A couple years later I get my first spies, and check out the competition:

The birds are pretty backward, although they do have Duralloy. And Death Spores. The AI does love itself some biowpeaons.

The cyborgs are doing better, especially in Computer tech. Including IRC III, which is really V for them.

The lizards are doing OK, but have a lot less Planetology tech than I expected. No wonder the Psilons passed them in pop for second place.

I instruct all my spies to hide. I don't see any need to start a war just now. With some more growth (including Soil Enrichment) and a little better luck with alliances, I should be able to win a council vote in 2425.

The very next turn that plan is blown to smithereens as the Alkari lose what little sanity their tiny birdie brains previously contained.

The Alkari have just finally gotten a third planet, up in the northwest corner beyond Orion. The pressure on them to expand must have been enormous. So they are coming for my border worlds. And I have...ummm, well, not much to stand in their way.

[haphazard1]

I had gotten over-confident. And then I got distracted with growing my worlds for the 2400 council vote, and building new factories. So despite having the technological edge, I had not actually gotten around to building much in the way of a fleet. (I expect some of you have been chuckling all along, seeing the status graphs where I was talking about pop and production and noticing the alien civs' huge edge in ship strength.) All I had available was old, slow laser ships which were meant to discourage minor probes from rivals back when I was settling new worlds. And most of those were parked over Rha and Crius, the tundra pair wedged between Sakkra and Meklon space -- far, far away from my northwest frontier.

Fortunately I had recently popped a number of useful techs, including the very important Sub Light Drives. With speed 3 ships, I had a chance to actually get them where I needed them in time. So I designed the Ion3 (name not yet changed in the shot):

A medium hull with three ion cannon, class II shields, speed 3, and a couple extras. I started cranking these out of my developed worlds and RELOCing them to the border. Oh yes, the border. You may remember that I had gone ahead and settled Firma, the Ultra Poor world there, even though it was pretty worthless except for pop growth? Well, that was the world the Alkari were targetting. I had never built any factories there (no point to it, really) so risk was minimal -- they could not loot any tech. But I had owned the place long enough that it was firmly established as part of Human space -- my people would resist the invaders!

In 2405 the first 15 Ion3's RELOC towards Firma, and scanners pick up the incoming Alkari force.

My first batch of Ion3's should be in place when they arrive.

2407 - the first battle of Firma. I don't have any ships with scanners, so I have to guess what I am dealing with. Lasers on the Pelicans, heavy lasers on the Warhawk and colony, and yep -- Death Spores on the Warhawk. I kill the large and 14 of the 26 smalls before they retreat, but the planet gets spored. Millions of Human citizens perish!

The Human Empire is horrified and angered by this terrible atrocity. The populace demands justice! Total war is declared, and no mercy will be shown to the vile avians!

More Ion3's are on their way to Firma. I design a small bomber to deal with missile bases, but my tree has lacked any bomb techs so far. So I am stuck with the rather unimpressive Nuker3.

With Sub Light Drives I can not get to combat speed 4 for a truly devastating bomber design. But this will pack a pretty solid punch against the backwards Alkari.

The following year I get an espionage penetration on the birds:

Not a major hit, so I take Computers to improve my spying. As expected, this nets BC II.

Some of you are probably chuckling again after that last shot and what was being built at Zhardan. Yes, I had gotten over-confident again and was already thinking ahead to my counter-invasion. But the birds were coming back to Firma, with a lot more this time.

This is not good. Scramble, more Ion3's needed, bombers can wait until later! I did want more information on what I was facing, especially since there were new types in the incoming force. So I ran out a quick design and built one at Zhardan (the only place that could get it done and to Firma in time, thanks to RELOC) the "Scanboy". Just about the most pathetic ship you will ever see, a hull with a scanner and that's it. But the information was valuable.

2411 - Second Battle of Firma. My Scanboy reveals what the birds have:

More death spores, plus plenty of heavy lasers. With only class II shields on my Ion3's this was not going to go well. I smashed the weaker WarEagle larges and 2 of the death spore ships along with some smalls, but I just did not have enough Ion3's. I was forced to retreat, and the planet was spored and bombed.

Millions dead. And worse, the Alkari would now be sending transports.

The following year saw another very similar defeat, with more of Firma's population dying. ARS and Class V deflectors popped, bringing hope for the future. My only new choice in Construction was IIT6 -- no Zortrium. I took it anyway to advance. FF had only Class VI deflectors -- no Absorbtion Shield or Planetary X. Well, take it to advance. I was in percentages on Planetology, Propulsion, and Weapons so I waited on creating a new design. (This was another mistake, I should have started pumping out Shield V ships immediately. )

In 2413 I got another spy hit on the birds, Propulsion only, and picked up Nuclear Engines as expected. Every tech helps a little. Scanners also picked up 37 incoming Alkari transports. I had an edge in gropo tech and would be defending, but with the orbiting bird fleet killing 10-12 million colonists each year this was going to be tight.

Another year, another 10 million dead colonists, and another spy hit: Weapons this time. I picked up Anti-Missile Rockets, which the birds had not had the previous year (I checked). Interesting. My research on Merculites also popped, and from several new choices I took Anti-Matter bombs. Finally a bomb option better than starting nukes!

The Meklar come calling, unhappy about something:

I am not sure quite what triggered this. I guess it was general unhappiness with my large empire and general nearness to their worlds?

The next year the Alkari invade Firma:

I had +20 gropo tech including the defender bonus and held the planet, but the steady bombardment and combat losses had killed most of the planet's population. There were over 100 million colonists when the war started.

Wait, what now?

This must be the result of unstable mutations in the birds' vile bioweapons. The Alkari will be held to account for the death and suffering of the people of Firma.

I need to act before the Alkari fleet and the plague finish off the last of my people on Firma. I have been accumulating Ion3's at Zhardan, after an earlier attempt with too few ships just got my too-small stack blasted without doing much damage. I will attack next turn and hope I have enough ships.

Soil Enrichment pops, and I select BioToxin Antidote for the next tech. At least I can render the Death Spores useless for future battles. Eco spending is boosted across the empire to improve worlds and grow more pop. There will be an election in 2425....

In 2417 we finally clear the Alkari fleet out of Firma's orbit, destroying all but one of their larges. Medical supplies and fresh colonists are rushed to the stricken world, where less than 5% of the pre-war population remains alive.

Warp Dissipator pops, and the only new choice is Impulse Drives. Still no range tech. I had range 5, with 4 missing when it would have been useful. Since then range 6, 7, 8, and 9 have all been missing. I still don't have contact with the Darlok or Psilons.

In other depressing news, GNN reports that pirate activity is still depressing trade.

24 more Alkari transports are incoming to Firma, but with space superiority over the planet they will not make it through.

The next year, GNN reports the plague needs 579 RP to cure. How does this get scaled? Firma is a zero factory planet with about 6 million pop. Ouchie.

2419 sees the second Alkari invasion force shot down. Bye bye birdie. I send 2/3 of my Ion3's and all my Nuker3's to Altair -- time for some payback!

11 missile bases firing Hyper-Vs with shields 3, plus some ships. Our forces take some losses from planet missiles, but the defenses are smashed and the remaining enemy ships retreat. Zholdan immediately sends the max of 60 million. Firma is quarantined with the plague and can not contribute. :mad: I will have to send a second wave from Zholdan, gutting the planet's productivity for some time to come.

ECM IV pops, and I take BC VI to advance. I finally make some new designs, including a huge ARS special loaded with heavy ion cannons. But it will take years to build it even at my best planets. For now the Ion3's and Nuker3's will have to do the job. The birds' second system of Aquilae is only 3 parsecs from Altair, so my fleet has time to pay a visit before hopping back to escort the invasion force. Public anger is partially satisfied by the result:

The plague on Firma is finally cured with heavy reserve spending. And a spy reports back on the Alkari -- somehow they have acquired Controlled Toxic tech! Want want want! I could grab 5 more planets with that tech, including a rich and an ultra-rich. Hopefully the troops hitting Altair will be able to "liberate" this important technology, if there are enough of them. I have the gropo edge but the birds will be defending this time and they have more people.

Here we go:

Come on, you can do it!

Yes, it IS good to research those gropo techs. What did we find?

Score! We also cleaned out the rest of their tree, Class III Deflectors and Death Spores. Every tech helps a little. But getting Toxic will help a lot.

The following year is 2425 and the High Council convenes. Psilons as opponents again, 36 votes total, 24 needed.

Alkari have 1 vote, cast it for the Psilons. Well, I did just conquer their homeworld and glass their second world.
Meklar have 3 votes, cast them for me. Good cyborgs!
Psilons have 6 votes, obviously theirs.
Sakkra have 5 votes, abstain. Bad lizards, bad! No brainiac/lizard alliance this time, though.
Darlok have 2 votes, cast them for me. Good shapeshifters, good!

And with 19 votes (just over half the total), I have exactly enough to elect myself ruler of the galaxy. I could not have done it without the support of the Meklar (despite their odd complaint recently) and the Darloks (even if I have never officially met them).

Final stat graph:

I love how the Alkari population has disappeared. We will be merciful after all, and keep a few of the birds in cages for public display in our new galactic empire.

I will post some summary thoughts later. But this game became a little more exciting there at the end, and reminded me of how MoO is different from most 4X games. A very enjoyable game, and a good reintroduction to MoO.

[haphazard1]

OK, a few thoughts on the game.

Average difficulty with a start that lush is just too easy. The Alkari added a little excitement at the end but I was never in any real danger. In fact, none of the AI ever really even contested a world. I grabbed everything I could reach that I had tech to settle. Definitely stepping up to Hard for the next game. Of course I will probably get a truly terrible start, like the one the Alkari drew this game, and die horribly after a long, drawn out period of suffering on my 2PE.

This was a very good learning -- or actually re-learning -- game. Handling population growth, moving colonists, using the reserve, working the tech fields, and even some light combat towards the end. On the easy side as already noted, but the game served its purpose for getting back into MoO.

The randomized tech tree -- it really is a key feature that makes the game the classic it is. Looking back at my tree:

- Computers was missing IRC III and IV, plus Improved and Advanced Scanners. Those are some serious holes. With those missing I of course had a nice selection of BC and ECM techs.
- Construction was pretty decent. Plenty of stuff missing, but not all of the same type. And I did have the important early RW80%, even if I foolishly did not prioritize it as much as I should have.
- Force Fields was pretty good, but I was playing the Humans.
- Planetology had some serious holes, with Terraforming +10/20/30 all missing and no Toxic or Radiated tech. But I had the crucial clean up techs, plus useful techs like Soil Enrichment, BioToxin Antidote, and Cloning. Overall about what I would expect.
- Propulsion had one humongous hole with range tech. Out of the first 6 range techs (4 - 9), I had only one. And that was likely only because you have to get one of range 4 or range 5. I got range 5 when range 4 would have been cheaper and more useful. This had a big impact on the game as it meant I never had official contact with the Darloks or Psilons.
- Weapons was very good. I had guns, I had missiles, I even eventually got a bomb (Anti-Matter). Partly this is because Weapons is the "fullest" field with the most techs in each rung. But even so I got a good tree here.

I think overall the ridiculously lush start in the SW quadrant of the galaxy was the single biggest factor in making this game so easy. But that is beyond the player's control -- sometimes the RNG gives you lots of candy.

Next game will be Hard difficulty for a bit more challenge. Or a lot more, maybe, compared to this start. I plan to stick with a medium galaxy for one more game before trying bigger or smaller ones, and five opponents seems OK if one player doesn't grab so many planets so quickly. But who to play as? I often find it interesting to play whichever race gave me the most trouble in my previous game, so it looks like I will be trying to lead the birds to galactic domination.

[Catwalk]

For sake of pure domination, I'm very partial to the Meklar and Psilons. On that note, Meklar are less vulnerable to early obstacles (not enough good planets in range to continue your expansion). Maybe do an Impossible game with one of them afterwards? Alkari can be a lot of fun if you want to be a warmonger, the defense bonus is huge against non-Mrrshan enemies.

Btw did you know that ECM tech affects missile base defense against bombs? I learned that just recently. I think I would have built NPG boats instead, I recall them being far more cost efficient than Ion Cannons. And against small ships you risk the Ion damage being wasted. Inertial stabilizer tends to be a good option for small and medium ships, it often does more for your survival than shields.

While I don't have time right now, would you be interested in having a go at an SG where we alternate playing 10t at a time and do secret reporting? Meaning we cannot coordinate plans at all Maybe we can get one more player on board for it, would be funny to read the reports after the game.

[haphazard1]

I had not known about ECM helping missile bases against bombs. It makes sense that it would help against missiles, but bombs?

Inertial Stabilizer is an interesting special, if you can afford the cost/space. The defense bonus is very helpful -- make the enemy miss rather than absorbing damage with shields. Although having both can be nice, again if you can afford the cost/space.

An SG sounds like it could be fun. I have followed a couple of the FFH secret reporting games and they are very amusing to read. At least one more player would be helpful, just to keep the pace reasonable so you don't seem to be up every time you turn around.

[Catwalk]

Yeah, makes no sense at all. I found out when facing horrible results on a bombing campaign against an Alkari planet with very high ECM. I need to check, but I think the Alkari defense bonus applies as well. For this reason, BC on bomber ships need not be a waste (I never used to put any on bombers).

I tend to prefer small ships or large ships early on, switching to small and huge once the economy is big enough that a single huge ship won't focus too much of your BC to a single priority. I can't remember for sure, but I believe that large and huge ships have the best missile cost efficiency. Small NPG ships with IS and SL drives can be an extremely effective fighting force early on, although you need BC mk I or II for them to truly shine. Against high damage non-streaming weapons they're perfect, as you effectively reduce their damage massively because of your low HP. When facing ships with big defensive bonuses (mainly Alkari), they can be completely worthless as they just can't hit.

I tend to shy away from shields, I usually only put them on Huge ships and only if I know that the enemy has low damage weapons. Small fighters just seem to do better if you can fit everything you need on them (sufficient BC, NPG, nuclear or sublight drives, IS). If I have NPG, IS and either nuclear or sublight drives in my tech tree I make this design my research priority after the initial expansion spree.

[Zed-F]

Why shouldn't ECM affect bombs? Do we use unguided bombs any more? Not so much, they tend to be far less effective at damaging small or hardened targets than the guided variety. So spoofing the guidance should result in a similar drop in effectiveness.