Right, so, rejigging stuff. Not going to pass any judgement as to what was done/not done before, but will make some changes in line with general thoughts in the thread:
At Sssla (starting state: 100 pop 80 factories, investment split evenly between ships/research/cleanup), I shift everything from shipbuilding and research into factories - improved eco would be nice, but it'll have to sit there at 31% odds for a bit, and it's not unlikely that it'll pop in the next few turns at that percent anyway. I don't want to wind up sitting here researching and watching it tick up 30%, 35%, 40% without popping while being aware of how much potential production from more factories is being lost each turn.
Heralth (89 pop, 100 factories, all non-cleanup spending in shipbuilding): Switch to building fighters, just 4 of them, and everything else to industry - a pair of fighters over each contested world in the north will (or should, at least) secure them as well as a colony ship would, and at a fraction of the price (and thus also way sooner). Once these fighters complete everything will be put into industry.
Rinnenth (41 pop/25 factories, building factories): No changes, looks lovely, just needs time to get those factories up.
Other than that, some minor shuffling of scouts occurs to prepare for the range increase Valstrath will offer once the colony ship arrives there in 4 turns. I hit end turn.
Fighters complete at Heralth, back to industry. Its pop grows to max the following turn as well.
Colonising Valstrath T38 brings us into contact with the Meklonar, who ask for 100BCs in trade, I take them up on it, dial up espionage enough to get the one spy. Heralth starts sending pop, 3 at a time, will send 9 in total, may well use eco slider to regrow since it's so slow when almost maxed but for now putting the slider into factories instead will have better payoff.
Improved eco restoration pops turn 39, with the only following option being... Death Spores. I know being Excellent in planetology doesn't affect the chances of techs showing up, but I feel the need to complain regardless that this sure doesn't feel excellent lol. Spy report comes in, and, well:
I don't think I've seen an AI with zero techs of any kind before! Usually they'd have *something*, but I guess all those additional factories slow down research starting up. The fighters also go out this turn:
Still so far so good. Given that there was only a Meklonar scout over one of the two worlds, I'm assuming that this is at the very extent of their range. The full contact currently makes no sense to me though, unless they somehow took Jeruth in the 2 turns since I had a scout over it. The suspicions about where the bots are coming from lines up with spy info, as Meklon turns out to be at the red star almost directly NW of Valstrath. The blue star closer to us has a single Transistor fighter, which forces our scout to retreat, while the southern orange star holds an inferno world:
I take the time to look up what's necessary for diplomatic contact, and apparently reserve tanks are included when taking into account contact range, so that explains why we can talk. I uh, also realise this turn that I forgot to keep sending transports, but Heralth is maxing factories this turn so I take some of the spare production capacity and put it into eco to send 4 pop this time, and 5 pop the next, with the remainder going into restarting colony ships on turn 42. The automatic slider setting would really rather it builds its base first, but there's zero threat right now so it makes more sense to push out.
Turn 43 has the Kholdan saying hi for 150BC, which basically confirms they have longer range tech than we do, as nowhere that our scouts can reach is colonised by them. I take this opportunity to revise trade with the Meklonar to 125BC, and get spies up on the bugs, as much to see their planets moreso than their techs. And the need for that becomes pretty clear the following turn, with a news broadcast helpfully telling us they have 6 planets. They have range 5, as do the bots, which makes Garuga just barely unsafe, but it'll be ours in 7 turns. Sssla also gets to max its factories T45 and starts research again, though relative field spending feels a bit uncertain atm - usually I'd push planetology to get hostile worlds sooner, but with death spores as the only immediate reward for that it feels not great. In the end I equalise fields and take 2 ticks from each one to be split between planetology and propulsion, trusting in the excellent rating to make death spores less of a brick wall to get through, and badly craving nuclear engines.
Rinnenth maxes pop the following turn and will start helping with research, with a bit left over currently from what it will take to finish factories for next turn. And we see the bug colony that got us in range, the yellow star NE of Sssla.
A few turns of just hitting end turn follow, with the next item of note on T49 being a new colony ship destined for Jeruth, and an armed meklonar ship forcing a retreat at the inferno planet to the west. It's only size 10 so I won't be broken up over losing it, though their ship also goes elsewhere immediately after forcing the retreat so it seems safe to say they won't be grabbing it anytime soon.
Nothing much of note happens on the last turn, so a few notes: Firstly, the bugs have a NAP with the rocks, presumably they're somewhere in the horrific nebulas beyond the bugs. They're also willing to trade any of terraforming +10/ECM1/hyper Vs, but only in exchange for improved eco, which seems like a poor trade but I wanted to note it anyway. Currently all our worlds are maxed and researching, besides Valstrath which is still establishing itself, and hopefully we'll get 2 more colonies shortly. Other than that, not much to say. An overview, showing off the currently known extent of the bugs (bearing in mind we know they have at least 1 more system since they triggered the expansion warning):
The orange flag indicates where the bots pushed us back. Anyways, basically, my confidence in this position is directly proportional to the quality of upcoming planetology tech lol. Let's hope for good stuff on the horizon, and by that I mean literally any tech with the prefix "controlled". If somehow we don't see any at the next tier of planetology, and we also don't have range 7, then I'd suggest going back for range 6 just to grab the worlds that are just out of our reach. If only anyone would trade us their fuel cells! I'd even consider giving them improved eco for them! But of course, the AI would much rather us be kept in our cage.
Who is up next?
Being excellent in the field does not help much when there are no useful choices.
