(June 18th, 2023, 07:12)SpaceOWL Wrote: Fusion Bomb and Controlled Dead were good choices IMO, but both are in tier 2 and will not advance the tech trees.
Whoops! Thanks for the correction. If it was a sound choice, I was a bit lucky there. Grief I'm rusty.
It may have looked easy, but that is because it was done correctly - Brian Moore
A galaxy not in balance, indeed. Great comprehensive report, and well-played turns! I may be too late to comment usefully for haphazard, but just in case:
- Definitely a good call getting a NAP with Alexander. Our current spy report still shows him a minimum of two techs away from Controlled Inferno; the Silicoids are going to be the real threat to Laan and places like it, and the last thing we need is another enemy who can go after our best world while we can't reach any of his.
- We can fit a single Ion Cannon on a small hull with nuclear engines - but not with class-2 maneuverability. So if we were up against ships with good shielding, it might be worth building those - but so far, we've seen the opposite, basically. For example:
- Great job holding the 'coids off of Zoctan! 16 Doubts destroying an unescorted Silicoid colship (of the design you and I encountered) without casualties is actually the likeliest outcome - by almost two to one! Their maneuverability, its few and ill-aimed weapons, and its lack of shielding all combine to make it almost incapable of hitting them while it's a sitting duck for their beams. I wasn't kidding when I said Laan's six(!) Doubts should be able to take out an unescorted Silicoid colship unless they get really unlucky. Of course, the rocks will eventually upgrade their colships to something much scarier, so we can't get too complacent. Good thing we have better tech on the way! For instance:
- When Sublights come in, we'll be able to build Warp-3 Ion Cannon smalls with 2 maneuverability, and then when we tech Fusion Bombs, we should be able to upgrade maneuverability class to 3 (still just two moves, but better evasion). Getting Fusion Bombs on a small will need a bit more tech for miniaturization though - ARS will do the trick, definitely.
- That planetology choice you faced was a tough one indeed. The hardest thing about it is basically that it's dictating our strategy: I think taking Dead commits us to a (comparatively) early war against the Silicoids - hopefully before they can consolidate their galaxy-wide landgrab! I suspect that's the best strategic choice, and therefore the best tech choice that was available - and I'm certainly looking forward to executing my part in the plan as it develops!
- Looks like we've almost gotten a spy into Sili space; excellent. And the Humans are looking (as expected) Not Scary. They have some techs I wouldn't mind stealing, but trying probably isn't worth the diplomatic risk when we're (almost certainly) not going to have a veto in the next election, will be out of contact with everyone else but the rocks, and might even be at war with them!
- Great industrial development! Notice Paradise is already approaching two thirds of Mentar's production; it's going to eclipse our homeworld eventually!
- Beyond Propulsion and Weapons, it looks like it'll be a while before many other techs come in - though that will change as planets start transitioning from factories to research. For the options coming up, my wishlist would probably be Fusion Drives If Available > Going Back for Stabilizers If Not, and then Merculites in the weapons tree, but those are just my preferences. We should probably discuss techs more often: If I'd known the team was in favor of fighting the Silicoids (relatively) soon (like me!) I'd probably have gone for Battle Suits ahead of ARS - though the latter will still be great when it comes in! I'm just glad I didn't take II7!
- Good luck with the turns, haphazard! (Perhaps - in whole or in part - retroactively...)
Also, thanks for dropping in and commenting, Thrawn and SpaceOWL, even if you don't have time to play! I do sometimes go for months between games, but every time I come back to Orion, even at its age - I believe in a few months, the game turns thirty! - I fall in love with its simplicity and subtle depth, goofy but effective graphics, variety and humor and unintrusive framework for storytelling all over again.
The newest leader of the Psilon people surveys the state of the galaxy upon taking office. The Silicoids have claimed a huge chunk of the galaxy and contol 17 (!!) worlds. But the slow-growing rocks have less pop than we do on our 5 worlds. They must be spread very thinly indeed at the moment. But time is on their side, as they will continue to grow for many years to come while our worlds are near their recently-terraformed capacity.
We do not know much about the Mrrshan, Klackons, or Meklar at the moment, but the Mrrshan being nominated in the recent council vote and prior GNN reports indicate they have (or had) at least a handful of worlds. The Klackon and Meklar can not have more than perhaps two or three worlds each, if that.
Examining our worlds, the previous leader of the council has done an excellent job of applying our latest terraforming +20 technology. Factories are also much increased with our newest generation of robotic controls. Mentar and Backwards should finish maxing their industry in a couple years, while Stepstone will take a bit longer. Paradise still has a long ways to go, but will be an amazing powerhouse with time.
We have recently had several tech breakthroughs, so the only advance likely to occur in the near future is our propulsion research into faster drives for our ships. We will continue researching all fields of knowledge, of course -- we are Psilons! But the payoff will be a ways into the future, and no immediate help from new technology can be counted upon for our current situation.
Our spies among the Humans indicate that they have several useful technologies we would love to acquire: Personal Deflectors and stronger shields in general, more advanced range technology, some weapons, and tech to reduce the waste produced by factories. We might be able to steal this tech, but it would be very risky. An open war with the humans would be a serious distraction from focusing on the far more dangerous rocks. Also, it could have diplomatic repercussions. The next council vote is 20 years away, but caution still seems prudent.
For now we will continue developing our worlds. Once Mentar and Backwards complete their industry we can decide what to do -- increase research, spend on military to keep the rocks from claiming Zoctan, or perhaps other things.
2381
GNN reports that the Humans have cleaned up the radioactive waste still at Maalor. Having one of only three worlds get radiated was a tough breaak for them.
2382
Mentar maxes factories and begins spending on research.
2383
Backwards maxes factories and begins spending on research.
2384
An armed Silicoid col ship appears at Denubius (size 10 rich inferno north of Zoctan) and drives off our scout. GNN reports that the rocks now control 18 systems -- half the galaxy.
Our spies in the Silicoid empire report on their tech:
The rocks have lots of computer tech, so spying on them is unlikely to go well. Along with better range tech (although not as good as the Humans), they also have Personal Deflectors and Hand Lasers giving their ground troops a solid advantage. They have only Hyper-V missiles and Gatling Lasers to arm their ships.
Also worth noting is that last turn the rocks had an alliance with the Meklar. This turn they are allied with the Humans. AI cheese alliances in full effect! The rocks' population has passed ours, though, which is not a good sign.
Propulsion research enters the percentages.
2385
Not much.
2386
The Silicoids show up at Zoctan with another col ship. We lose a pair of Doubts, but destroy it. It has missiles and also a range-2 beam weapon, presumably a heavy laser from their tech and the minimal damage.
Mentar takes a turn from research spending and builds a round of Doubts to reinforce Zoctan.
We also spot a rock col ship south of Tao, possibly on its way to Laan. We only have 6 Doubts there, so Stepstone will take a turn to build some Doubts (reloc through Paradise) to reinforce.
Also, the rock/Human alliance has dissolved. Those crazy AIs.
2387
The Silicoid col ship is out of scanner range, but now two Human cold ships appear in the same area. Most likely they are heaaded to Nature, but we have a solid force of Doubts there. The Humans may have stronger weapons on their col ship, though, so Mentar builds some more and relocs them.
2388
The rock col ship is definitely headed to Laan, but our new Doubts will get there in time. The Human col ship is headed to Nature.
Weapons research enter the percentages.
2389
Our reinforced Doubts at Laan destroy the rock col ship, losing two of ours in the exchange.
The rocks are now allied with the Humans and the Meklar. Cheese alliances all over the place.
2390
The Human col ships heading to Nature vanish. Maybe they were going past the planet and are out of range? Or perhaps the Humans scrapped them? No idea.
Planetology research enters the percentages. Force Fields and Construction are almost full light bulbs, Computers is maybe 70% full. Our next leader should have some new tech to play with during their turn set.
Overall I built a lot of factories, poured a ton of BC into research, and destroyed a few rock col ships. Paradise still has more factories to build, but all our other non-Nature planets are maxed out. We may want to consider building a defense base at each planet, although with Plantary Shield V coming up we may end up building those first. We have a fair numbers of Doubts available and for now they are still effective. Not sure how much longer that will be true.
Turns look pretty positive! The rocks tech doesn't yet look too scary, so perhaps we do look to go all in on an early(ish) offensive once Controlled Dead is in and we've grabbed Zoctan (fingers crossed)? Take what we can, bomb what we can't - deny the rocks the rich worlds. In our corner of the galaxy it's close to a zero-sum game between us and the Silicoid juggernaut.
I don't like the alliances though. We need to keep the Humans onside if possible. I doubt we'll have the resources to fight them as well.
It may have looked easy, but that is because it was done correctly - Brian Moore
More great progress, following up on shallow_thought's! Paradise has already eclipsed Mentar as our most-productive star system, and still has to finish its factory infrastructure - due in the next two years - with all our other colonies finished already! We may well get techs in all three fields during DaveV's turns! The scariest thing is definitely the council vote at the end of the set, especially with the Silicoids' Human and Mrrshan alliances, as shallow_thought says. Hopefully they'll fall apart naturally over the next ten turns, but we may have to make our own efforts. We'll have six votes by 2400 unless something changes, the Silicoids look like they likely have six already (and might even get more) so we should expect to be up against them - the Mrrshans might have six votes for all we know, but surely not seven - and the Humans are most likely still stuck on two. That leaves probably six to eight votes between the Klackons and Meklar, so ... call it 25 to 29 votes total, probably, which means us plus the Humans won't be enough to block an election, but abstentions from any two AI races would, even if it's the Humans and whoever else has the least. Not a lot we can do about that right now, unfortunately, though some last-minute electioneering might get a breach of alliance or two at least. (I mean, or if we start our war early, we can reduce Silicoid population and maybe even replace it with more of our own; that would be a rather risky strategy!)
One good thing: 18 stars isn't half the galaxy (yet) - it's "only" 3/8ths. There's one more growth warning after that - which hopefully won't happen until GNN reports the Psilons getting there! (And on that note: Great job taking out Silicoid ships where you could! We'll claim those worlds (I hope...) eventually!
I do notice we have no spies in place anymore; I think it would be a good idea to spend enough to keep up-to-date reports on the Silicoids at least if we plan to fight them.
And since planetary shields are close to the percentages and the Silicoids are everywhere, we should probably get a base up on worlds that can afford one. (Even Nature can build a base in five turns, it looks like, though I don't know if that's worth the hundreds of RP, especially as it would take something like ten turns to put up the shield...)
What does everyone think about our tech choices going forward? My thoughts in likely-timing order:
Propulsion: I like Fusion Drives if they're available, but Stabilizer would come a lot quicker, which might be important if we want to carry the war past Uxmai, Proteus, and Zoctan before we get Controlled Toxic (in other words, either on glassing runs or - if we can, depending on how far it is from Proteus - going straight for Cryslon).
Weapons: I think I would go for Mercs; since we're going to get bases (nearly) everywhere behind shields, we might as well give them real teeth, and neither of the available beams excites me since we have Ion Cannons and the rocks seem to have almost no shield technology.
Planetology: Oof. It has to be Controlled Toxic, right? Or do we go with the cheaper and alternately-useful IT+30 (or even Enhanced Eco??) and gamble on being able to afford more delays before we can invade inferno and toxic worlds and the ~75% chance that Radiated is in our tree?
Force Fields: I think I'd go with Repulsor Beam if it's available since it's cheaper and always has good utility.
Construction: Believe it or not, I think I'd take II6 if we have both new choices and this comes in before the new Scanner. (Or if we get the Scanner first and have RC4, which is basically the reason.) If we already know the new robotic controls aren't in our tree though, then yeah, I'd go for Zortrium.
Computers: Obviously we want IRC4 if we can get it, but our Mark 2 battle computers will start to look pretty long in the tooth by the time that comes in. (That was one reason I picked them though: Hoping to go RC3->Improved Scanner, I at least wanted something better available by this time than BC1!) Definitely if the controls aren't available, I'd want Battle Computer Mark 5 - but if neither is available, I'd be tempted to go back for BC4, even though it wouldn't advance the tree.
I actually think we've got a lot of tough decisions here. Good luck with them and with the turns in general, DaveV!
Some tough tech choices ahead, I agree. But advancing tech is a good problem to have.
I am a bit worried that we do not have much to assist our ground troops, other than Durralloy. Zortrium would help if we end up going that path, but the rocks having both hand lasers and personal deflector could make invasions rather costly. I suppose we could go back for battle suits, but that would not advance the tree. Maybe we just have to live with it and hope that we can capture some ground tech?
The upcoming council vote is a big worry. If the AIs have a couple of cheese alliances we could lose the vote. Without contact with the Mrrshan, Klackons, and Meklar there is not a whole lot we can do about it.
The die is cast, although we don't know yet whether it will come up sevens or snake eyes. But first, the obligatory background/flashback/setup screens.
I dug out my OSG, since I wanted exact numbers rather than hazy memories and seat of the pants feelings. It said that I could ask the humans to break alliance at Amiable, which was the exact level of our friendship.
They declined. I meant to go back to them every 3 years, which is how long it takes their annoyance to dissipate, but forgot .
I set the sliders for 2-turn missile bases on Backwards and Stepstone. Paradise was still building factories.
I started a placeholder Huge design on Mentar, allocating the full slider. With Auto repair and facing only Hyper-Vs, I think we can run the gauntlet.
2391:
Paradise was nearly maxed out on factories. I could complete them, build a 1-turn missile base, and have a little left over for the tech slider.
2392:
Excepting Nature, all our planets were now protected by a single missile base. I put half of the sliders of those planets into Reserve, which would be funneled into Mentar's shipyards. It's an inefficient transfer, but faster is better.
2393:
Steady as she goes.
2394:
It's an expensive tech, but I think we need to take some of the Silicoids' worlds away from them.
2396:
And, to that end of taking some planets from their rocky occupiers, I think better ground combat techs would be helpful.
2397:
Oops, messed up the screenshot. I actually took repulsors, which are a great pairing with auto repair.
I started launching transports against Uxmai from our furthest planets.
2398:
Weapons also came in, I picked Merculites.
More transports launched.
2399:
I finally remembered to ask the humans to break alliance with the Silicoids. They asked for Robotic Controls III. A hard no from me.
2400:
Silicoids and Meklars voted for the rocks, everyone else abstained.
Sigh. At least they can't declare war with their diplomat on vacation (I think).
Here we are with 70 transports, all two turns away from Uxmai.
Our huge ship finished and relocated to Nature. Here's its blueprint:
Edit: THIS IS WRONG! This was a comparison build to check missiles vs. bombs. The actual ship has 17 (edit edit: 16) Fusion Bombs in the last slot.
Notes for next player:
I forgot to build planetary shields; I consider those a much more important investment than replacing transported population, but I forgot to invest in them in my production shuffling.
As I said, the transports are two turns away from Uxmai. The OSG says we will lose 1.8 transports for every defender at -15 combat bonus, so we need a total of (33*1.8=60)+35 to have a full planet after conquest, plus or minus RNG variance. I was planning to take the balance from Nature. And I guess I shouldn't have stripped as many from our worlds where the population is actually productive.
Sorry for my inattention to diplomacy with the humans and planetary shield construction. I hope my tech choices and ship design don't hamstring us too badly in the future.
Looks like pretty good turns, DaveV. We survived the council vote and now have 25 turns to try to take some planets from the rocks. The tech choices look good; I like Battle Suits for some more ground power.
At some point we will need to deal with the Humans, since the need to expand is going to have them attacking us anyway. But getting some planets from the rocks is more urgent. We should try to get planetary shields up; combined with our normal deflectors it should take at least fusion bombs to break through them.
![[Image: Rock-tech-2384.png]](https://i.postimg.cc/jdKQqG2p/Rock-tech-2384.png)
![[Image: osg38-2390.jpg]](https://dl.dropbox.com/s/he5rgcsnpy3a4qa/osg38-2390.jpg)
.![[Image: osg38-2392.jpg]](https://dl.dropbox.com/s/tn9s65nlus93s4x/osg38-2392.jpg)
![[Image: osg38-2394.jpg]](https://dl.dropbox.com/s/ez8g92437xv2r12/osg38-2394.jpg)
![[Image: osg38-2396.jpg]](https://dl.dropbox.com/s/n0e9croh471d676/osg38-2396.jpg)
![[Image: osg38-2397.jpg]](https://dl.dropbox.com/s/z9ut0excwitkuuz/osg38-2397.jpg)
![[Image: osg38-2398.jpg]](https://dl.dropbox.com/s/xv0xoak1qqr1m07/osg38-2398.jpg)
![[Image: osg38-2400.jpg]](https://dl.dropbox.com/s/7uz6rmtq40zmybi/osg38-2400.jpg)
![[Image: osg38-2400a.jpg]](https://dl.dropbox.com/s/jn5rzzuqooganux/osg38-2400a.jpg)
![[Image: osg38-2400b.jpg]](https://dl.dropbox.com/s/887db755ui9u4vs/osg38-2400b.jpg)
![[Image: osg38-2400c.jpg]](https://dl.dropbox.com/s/k8rz75r55kj2m5c/osg38-2400c.jpg)
We survived the council vote and now have 25 turns to try to take some planets from the rocks. The tech choices look good; I like Battle Suits for some more ground power.