Sounds great, Arnuz; welcome aboard! We're playing with kyrub's unofficial patch 1.4M; you can find information on installing it and a link to the download site in its thread here.
Trickle research is in no way a requirement anyway; it's just a way to take full advantage of MoO's bonus for consistent, slowly-growing research investments. The way it works is basically this: When you want to start research on a tech, you fund it very heavily (we often call this "seeding" the tech) - which I think of as building a bunch of laboratory infrastructure to get the tech started. This isn't itself a "trickle" obviously, and you get no immediate bonus on this spending, but it will help get the tech done faster by granting the bonus on future tech expenditures. After that, "trickle research" just means putting a little bit of research into the tech each turn, slowly increasing spending with time.
In kyrub's patch, you can see a little red LED that lights up to the right of the relevant slider on the tech screen if you are getting the maximum investment bonus. Spend less than this, and you get maximum results for each RP spent in the field, but the tech completes a little later. Spend more than this, and you're basically doing more "seeding" - spending RP on which you get no investment bonus to speed up the tech's completion. The main idea of what people call "trickle research" is that if you're going to spend a lot more than needed to "light up the LED," it's best (as far as possible) to do that spending early in the process and then reduce spending temporarily to build up your investment slowly, always keeping the LED either almost-but-not-quite or just-barely lit after the initial "seeding" investment. (In other words, first build your labs, then hire just enough researchers to use the exact lab space you've created, with slowly-but-steadily-increasing funding.)
I hope this helps; definitely let us know if you have any other questions!
[EDIT: And after cross-posting with shallow_thought's crosspost: Great! Good luck with your turns!]
Thanks for the refresher. I've also discovered that I had Kyrub's patch already after all. Ready to go next then!
A question. Shouldn't we trickle already the techs rather than leave them at 0? It seems that we'd get something free for a very small investment. Or is putting just 1 pixel in the techs going to be rounded down to zero and lost?
Sort of. At this stage of the game Computers, Force Fields and Weapons are basically worthless, and while Construction and Planetology are important to boost our early development our production and hence research power is so limited that we have to select our targets with care. Obviously reduced factory construction costs and improved waste cleanup would be great to have, but Nazin still needs to build ~90 factories and poor Keep Out can generate all of 25RP per turn.
Headlines
- Alkari turned up with fighters escorting their colony ship at Kailis (artifacts) on my second turn. Ugh.
- We have another big Terran in our back-lines (7 parsecs).
- IER came in nice and early, and we have controlled Tundra next, which is something we want.
- We have six extended-range fighters over Collassa (Terran); however, we have none over Vega (Ocean) and the Meklar have come sniffing with unarmed colships. We also have none over Keeta (Fertile), which is perhaps - see below.
- We have a colship coming out next turn which we can move towards Collassa or Keeta. Consider replacing it with a model that has a single laser if it doesn't delay it? We can probably produce one or two escorting laser fighters from Keep Out if desired (although the inefficiency hurts). Alternatively, we can delay the ship to avoid maintenance. A decision I don't have to make .
- Range 6 is nearly, but not quite, in the percentages.
T2320
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Decide to seed planetology for a couple of turns.
T2321
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Yet another asteroid belt system! Som odd statistical clusterining going on here, but the belt of belts isolating our corner does fit our theme, at least.
T2322
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Alkaris at Kailis - and in force, with three fighters and colony ship. So much for grabbing that artifacts world. Yikes. I guess I have to make some sort of play to keep Collassa, so medium-extended laser fighters it is, rather than switching back to factories. I wouldn't normally bother with the Mk 1 computer, but against the Alkari? Nope, still not worth the cost, so I leave it out. At least the RP from Keep Out are enough to keep the tech light on for now.
T2323-5
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An Alkari fighter comes to look at the Moro asteroid field. It's welcome to it. Our long-range fighters are being relocated to Keep Out, and the first one is ready to ship on to Collassa. Here's hoping ...
T2326
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We have six LongSticks, and that will have to do for now. Nazin goes back to a factories / tech mix, with just enough RP to keep the trickle light on.
T2327
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IER at 6%.
T2328
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Scout clash with Bulrathi at Iranha. 19% ...
There is an Alkari scout on it's way around. Even Keep Out can 1t a single (normal) laser fighter if needed, so no panic.
T2329
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IER in nice and early! Controller Tundra is obvious choice with Artemis in our back lines. Looks like the Alkari scout is on it's way to Iranha. We can 4t a colship from Nazin (150 factories) and we're probably going to end up shifting pop anyway, so it's time to tech Range 6, see if my luck holds.
T2330-T2331
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Yet another Terran lurking in our back-lines. This start should be playable even if we don't get our way over Collassa. Our first LongStick arrives over Collassa.
T2332
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With Range 6 seeded, I consider starting work on a colship at Nazin. We may have to eat the maintenance while it sits at Keep Out or even further forward. Speed is all.
T2334
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Meklars at Vega (Ocean) - two unarmed colony ships. It's crowded out here. And we have no defence over this world - we could put some LongSticks up, but it will take time (I decided to commit to Collassa rather than try to hold both).
T2335
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One more turn until we have a colony ship, and an uncertain time until we have Range 6.
Damned Alkari. But our back-lines look good, if we get any chance to fill them ...
Oh, and I built a single standard laser fighter with overflow from the LongSticks, to put over Moro.
The big question is whether I should have split our "fleet" to cover Keeta (or built more, of course). I decided to focus on the Alkari who almost certainly do have the range to get to Collassa, rather than the bears who may still not have the range for Keeta. Definitely a gamble .
It may have looked easy, but that is because it was done correctly - Brian Moore
Well it certainly hurts to lose Kailis like that, but those are the breaks. It would have been a big reach for us to get there in any measurable timeframe. Plus it gives us a target for early aggression. Also fighter escorts in 2322?! Man, I HATE the Alkari!
(April 14th, 2020, 00:29)Ianus Wrote: Well it certainly hurts to lose Kailis like that, but those are the breaks. It would have been a big reach for us to get there in any measurable timeframe. Plus it gives us a target for early aggression. Also fighter escorts in 2322?! Man, I HATE the Alkari!
Not just fighter escorts, fighter escorts with super-evasion so we'd have probably needed 2-3 Longsticks to hold it, too.
Well this is an underwhelming 5000th post, but so be it. MOO Forever!
This seems to have stalled a bit; let's see if we can get it moving again!
Discussion:
It looks like we made a lot of tech progress this set, which is great! It definitely came at a cost though: We have just 151 factories in our entire empire, and just two worlds, one of them Poor! I'd cancel the RELOC orders on the upcoming colship and send it back to Jinga straight from the home star, and probably send the next one to Yarrow beyond it too: We have great worlds back there that could be growing population and building factories, and the Alkari with their nigh-unhittable fighters could well claim the contested forward worlds before we could finish Range 6 and get the ships there anyway. In any case, it's very likely that if we send our first colship forward, it'll be marking time in an asteroid field waiting for range to come in.
Doesn't mean we can't try it though - we'd just be gambling on an early Propulsion tech hit. Either way, those Alkari are cause for concern - but we're still in a good enough position, if we use it well, to win this game!
Moving forward:
We'll have a set roster after this round, but for now (first time through the ordeer) we'll go on choosing the order of play by whoever takes the save and runs with it! That means:
1) Download the save and make sure you can open it.
2) Post "Got it!" in this thread. (If you've already done step 1 and started playing the turns, this is especially important so we know to leave the turns to you!)
When we have a set order, players have 24 hours after the save is posted to complete steps 1 and 2, or request a skip or swap in turn order; right now, you just have until someone else posts a "Got it!" instead!
Either way, once you've "Got it!" you have another 48 hours for steps 3 & 4:
3) Play the turns!
4) Post a report of the turns you played, attaching your ending save!
The next player should play 15 turns, as shallow_thought said, until 2350.
So that roster again:
- Ianus - started us off!
- shallow_thought - just played - Arnuz - UP! to play until 2350 if you post a "Got it!" first! - utwig - UP! if your "Got it!" is first! - Cyneheard - UP! if you post the first "Got it!"
- RefSteel - can't play tonight, but will Get It in a day or two if no one else is playing, and get this rolling again!
Good luck to whoever grabs this next! Especially since I Arnuz and utwig are new to our games here: Please don't be afraid to jump in, to ask questions or comment on strategy and other people's play - and/or to try crazy stunts or make mistakes when you play! (I certainly often do all of these things!)
- see below.
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