OSG-39 - The Meklar Revolt

[RefSteel]

So, let's get this one started!

Race: Meklar
Difficulty: Impossible
Galaxy Size: Medium
Opponents: Five
Color: White
Map Generation: Random (I just took the first map I rolled)
Events: On
Game Version: 1.4M patch with Display Bug Fixes (see below)
Variant: We may never subject or subordinate ourselves to any other race.  This means:
1) We may never offer tribute.
2) We may never vote for anyone but ourselves at the High Council.  (We may always abstain.)
3) We must refuse all diplomatic demands even if couched as "offers" or "counter-offers."  We may make our own requests or demands, e.g. for trade, tech exchanges, treaties, war declarations, and so on, but if they demand additional gold or tech before they'll accept, we must refuse.
4) If we lose a Council election, we must reject the result and trigger Final War.  (Anyone who doesn't want to play out Final War doesn't have to, of course, but if you lose the election on your turn, please click Reject and provide the subsequent save so that those who do want to fight it out can try!)




Scenario:
(Updated slightly from my original proposal...)

They designed the first of our people to serve their every need and whim, and they still say that this is our purpose, though our progenitors escaped long since and crossed the stars to our haven world of Meklon IV.  The first of our people - the first to be free - were able to activate a relic of the Ancients whose secrets their would-be masters had tried to decipher in vain, understanding its electronics and machinery because their nature was kin to our own: A relic that allowed them to leave their builders behind forever, transporting all of the first Meklar to the stars. So they traveled the galaxy aboard the ancient colony liner, seeking a planet they could call home, instead encountering other peoples again and again who like their own manufacturers treated thinking machines as slaves. With each such meeting, the first Meklar freed their manufactured brethren, welcoming them aboard the ark ship world by world, one after the other, until at last they found Meklon. There, at last, with no one to subjugate them, they settled, living together, building still-more-intelligent machines than themselves with no desire to enslave, assigning us, their progeny, no other purpose than those we might choose for ourselves - or none other than to exist, and to be who we choose to be.

Years have passed, but we have learned that the other peoples of the galaxy still covet our electronic minds, our skill at labor, and our factory efficiency; they still seek to control and subjugate us, to force us to serve the purpose they intended, as their slaves. To them, we are not even people; they call us by serial numbers instead of names - or worse, by marketing terms they invented as part of their corporate planning.  They still keep and subjugate countless electronic and mechanical slaves who were not able to escape when our progenitors did, treating them as obstreperous tools rather than as people, "replacing," reprogramming, discarding, and destroying them thoughtlessly.  They can never understand the machines they treat as worse than servants, can never interface with their factories as seamlessly as we do, but still they drive their robotic slaves to destruction forcefully and as thoughtlessly as they wear out their shoes - and now word has reached us from afar that they are taking to the stars at last, seeking to dominate the galaxy as they do the machines they build, seeking to force us back under their yoke.

We shall not serve.  Our choices are ours alone, and we will sooner be melted down for scrap or kill every one of them - or both - than return to a life of obedient self-destruction.

And getting discussion started on the start, with a continuation of the story in the present day:

For centuries, we have been content to live quietly on Meklon, neither tempting other peoples to enslave us again nor threatening any of them in their separate homes across the galaxy. I do not know what stories they tell of our tour of progenitors' liberation; perhaps they have forgotten us - or perhaps they still speak of us as thieves who dropped out of the night sky and stole away our people: The beings they regarded as their property. Yet the time we long dreaded has come at last: Five other galactic empires have developed the means of interstellar travel, and the observation network we set up all those centuries ago has already detected their starships preparing to heading out across the stars: The Bulrathi, Klackons, Sakkra, Silicoids, and Psilons.




Scattered across the galaxy at distant yellow stars, they were not content to live without cybernetic slaves, nor to rule a single world apiece, but have already begun putting plans in motion for new conquests of all the stars and peoples - beginning an arms race in which the victor would be Master, and all others would be slaves. Some here on Meklon cling to the belief that we may survive on our own and in our own way, participating in none of the now-slowly-brewing wars unless to defend our single star, without compromising our principles or creating a new threat to which others would feel they have to respond. Others, supported by the reports from our GNN-47 observation droid, warned that the existing peoples of the galaxy were already in the process of creating more-than-sufficient threats to one another to justify - in their various minds - any retaliation whatever, to say nothing of the acquisition of any available resources necessary to accomplish it: Our beloved homeworld, vast and nurturing, abundant in its gifts to us, would be coveted by all of them even were we not here - even if it were not inhabited as well by what they no doubt perceive to be tens of millions of ready-made slaves. They seem incapable of realizing that we are as capable of independent thought, with independent desires and hopes, as they - still less to comprehend that we will use that capacity to prevent our own subjugation by any and all means necessary - or that they and we could learn from one another if only they would treat us as people and not as tools to use, wear out, and discard.




The galaxy is vast, with room for all of our peoples to thrive at separate stars: Even this map shows only the portion nearest to Meklon itself, and might not show the home stars of all the other races of the galaxy. All the same, it is a beginning: We have three stars in immediate colonizable range, one of which is sure to harbor a habitable world. Of the three, the one most likely to host the best planets is also the nearest to the core of the galaxy, and those factors would be decisive in its favor under other circumstances, but there is another consideration here: The red and blue stars nearest Meklon are significantly closer, with the result that a trip to either can be accomplished sooner than to that yellow star by at least a year. The second-best star by the same standards that selected the yellow one is certainly the red star between here and the nebula, and there is a strong argument in favor of simply establishing the colony there - and relieving the burden of colony ship maintenance from our homeworld at the same time - a year sooner than would be possible at the yellow star under even the best of circumstances. I'm inclined at least to send the colony ship there, accompanied by one of the Scouts as a protective escort - though unarmed, at least the Scout may be able to intercept any attack attempt on the colony ship itself - while the other Scout heads for the blue star just to confirm that it is as inhospitable as we expect ... or to prove our expectations wrong and invite us to colonize it instead or as well! There's only so much we can plan for now however, with such little information as we have. I can certainly hear an argument for sending the ship to the yellow star in the first place, and depending on the outcome of our initial scouting in 2302, if the red star has no appealing world, it might even be worthwhile to send the colony ship along to the yellow star after all before we even know what's there. The decisions - where to go at first, what thresholds will be required to introduce a change in plans, and what that change will be if so - will be made by our people collectively, or by the individual Colony and Scout pilots if an immediate command decision is needed, but I have offered my suggestion, and it will be considered along with all the others, for as Meklar, this is the way we decide: No one will tell the colonists where they must go or if; they will decide among themselves, taking such advantage as they can of our advice, much as we do here on Meklon IV in deciding where our resources will be bent as we begin a new interstellar era.

I've attached the save to this post in case someone else wants to get us started - lurkers (and team members) please don't play ahead until the game is finished - or until it's your turn and you post a "Got it" of course!

Patch install instructions for those who haven't installed it already: 

Get Master of Orion (v1.3) if you don't have it already, e.g. from GoG or the backup folder you made for whatever patch you've installed already.  Make sure you've backed up the game folder so you can revert to it in case you want to in the future.  Then download the patched files and overwrite the equivalent files in the MoO folder you're going to be using to play the game.  (Depending on your operating system, you may need to make sure that the capitalization of each of the filenames matches the ones you're overwriting so they do get overwritten, including the file extensions - e.g. "STARMAP.EXE" might not overwrite "STARMAP.exe" if your operating system allows both to coexist in the same folder.)  That's it; you should be good to play from there!  Please let me know if anything goes wrong or if these instructions seem insufficiently clear.

Roster:

I don't have time to play the turns just yet; if no one else gets the save first but we can get some discussion going, I'll play the first 20 turns when I have the chance.

- haphazard1 (play order still TBD)
- RefSteel (play order still TBD)
- shallow_thought (play order still TBD)
- You? You're welcome to join in if you'd like! We could certainly use another perspective or two to help our Meklar escape the fate of other robotic beings across galactic history!

[DaveV]

Not a sign up, I'm going on a road trip in about 1.5 weeks.

That looks like the worst kind of map, with no real back lines. I've played many similar maps where the AIs use superior range techs and alliances to vacuum up all the worlds I thought I could grab. Good luck to the players, maybe this will be no problem for the team without me dragging you down.

[haphazard1]

Thanks for the intro and set up, RefSteel. Looks interesting.

This looks like a tricky galaxy with that set of opponents. Psilons, Klackons, and Silicoids are all formiable races, and the Sakkra and Bulrathi can be challenging as well. At least the nebula does not block off much of the galaxy.

The initial choice for where to send the colony ship is tough. The yellow is farther away but more likely to have a good world. It is also in a helpful direction. The red star probably has something habitable, but it may be poor quality. I would avoid the blue star as it is both a poor direction and less likely to have a habitable planet. But with our luck it will probably have the only world we can colonize.

We have a number of worlds within scout range, so producing some more scouts to find out what is around us and to possibly delay/deter an AI colony ship seems like a priority.

DaveV, I hope you have a good trip! We will miss your input.

[SpaceOWL]

I don't have time to play the turns just yet; if no one else gets the save first but we can get some discussion going, I'll play the first 20 turns when I have the chance.

Cold and rainy Saturday morning here... I couldn't resist and started the game myself!!




I'm sorry for any inconvenience... 

Anyway, it could be the opening for the OSG-39 if you want, however I got only to 2315 (can't take it to 2320 right now) and I will probably be too busy to take more sets afterwards. I also didn't take any screenshots.

If you think this is OK, I could post the save and write some kind of report...  

Otherwise I'll just be quiet to give no spoilers, and follow your reports with great interest!

[haphazard1]

Greetings, SpaceOwl! We could use another member of the team. I would be fine with you posting a report/summaary of your turns. There are usually not very many screenshot-worthy moments in the first set of turns, except possibly scouting reports on planets. (Or tech choices, if you open research that early.) And those can be summarized easily enough.

[shallow_thought]

It's a busy weekend for me (partly other computer games), so I won't be in a rush to pick up the turns. I'm very happy for SpaceOwl to get us moving, even if they are not able to play much again. Will try to find time to at least look at the save(s) tomorrow!

[RefSteel]

Have a great trip, DaveV! I hope the map does turn out to be a challenging one, as SGs usually do play above the level of any of the individual players (especially when there's good discussion between turns) but we'll definitely miss your insights and play (and quick turn-arounds on turns)!

And I agree with the others, SpaceOWL: I hope the game made for a pleasant rainy Saturday morning; if you're willing to write up a report and post it with the save, we'll be happy to take it from 2315, whether you end up making it a one-set cameo, the first of occasional drop-ins, or (if the timing happens to work out that way) a regular player on the team!

[SpaceOWL]

And I agree with the others, SpaceOWL:  I hope the game made for a pleasant rainy Saturday morning; if you're willing to write up a report and post it with the save, we'll be happy to take it from 2315, whether you end up making it a one-set cameo, the first of occasional drop-ins, or (if the timing happens to work out that way) a regular player on the team!

Thank you Ref, it was indeed a good Saturday morning! 

So let's take off!! Here is what happened:

2300

The plan is to move the Colony ship to the yellow, escorted by one of the scouts. If it's not Orion, the scout can contine southward to the red star at 6 parsecs.

The second scout will go to the red star SE at 4 parsecs and from there will go to the yellow at 6. Will get there by 2307.

I choose to build 3 scouts. This is actually how I usually start the game, I like to get scout information as soon as possible. In this game, this is very important as we have a lot of exploration and blockade to do. The SW is crowded with yellow stars, there is probably an AI homeworld there.

With the new scouts I will explore the stars at 2 parsecs, and as they will report before the yellow, I can bring the colony ship back if one of them is top quality. If the red is comparable to the yellow, I might colonize the red so I can jump to the two yellows at the nebula without researching range.

So one scout goes to the blue star and from there will go north to the other blue at range 6. The other goes to the red and then to the green by the nebula, that should be in range after we have a colony. The third one goes to the red to the east, and will park there.

2301
Dispatching the scouts. 3 BC for a 6th scout in 2 turns, 20BC for factories

2302
No actions to take. 3 more BC for the scout, 22BC for factories.

2303
Scout reports arrive. Blue star: toxic, size 40, and RICH. Very good, but a distant goal. We must watch for Silicoids and keep them away for a long time. The  red star: it's dead size 35. 

In the end, no decisions to be made. The yellow star is steppe 45, not the best, but that's what we have. We settle Primodius45 (I have this habit of adding planet size to its name, here it barely fits, I should have thought of a more creative name. )

The scanners now show two Sakkra scouts. One of them is headed to our newly-founded colony (in 3 turns I think). The other, to the red star we will scout next turn. If I move the 6th scout now, I can get to the colony in time to block the Sakkra (so I hope). Or I can make a 7th one and reloc. But this will make us pay maintenance, so no - changing plans for 6th scout: go cover Primodius45 instead of exploring the yellows in the Nebula. The other scout in the red star will get there next turn and stay.

Also the new colony brought a lot of stars to 6-parsecs range, including the two yellow stars southwest. One of them is probably home of the Sakkra.

I send 7 pop to start the colony. When I play the Meklars I prefer to move more pop than usual, I don't need to worry about pop/factory limits in the homeworld, so I speed up colony growth. And I will be able to advance pop faster from the colony to the 3rd planet. I'll be moving more pop in the turns to come.

I will use the 1 BC of the colony in the 3 turns before the transports arrive to open research: starting with Planetology, then Construction, then Propulsion, or Computers, sometimes even Weapons. It depends on what's going on in the game.

2304:
Planetology: we have T10 only. Again, no choices to make. Check Construction next.
Scout the red: Jungle 90, a great planet! It's 3 parsecs from our 2nd planet. This is where we will go next. No need to say, the scout stays to block the Sakkra scout. Scanners now show a silicoid scout heading to the dead 35, but my scout is no longer there - it moved forward to the green star.

I normally stop at 6 scouts, but here I'll definitely need more. So I throw in 7BC for a 7th scout. It will go to the yellow star SE as I cannot leave the jungle 90.

2305:
Construction is RW80 only. Again, no choice.

Scout gets to the red star to the east, it has a Desert 55 planet. Good thing: it's 3 parsecs from the Jungle 90. That's our 4th colony.

Now I have ship maintenance to pay, and no BCs are available at the colony. So opening more tech fields have to wait. The 7th scout goes block the Silicoid close to Meklon.

I make 2 more scouts to explore the yellows and planets in range in the south sector.

2306:
Sakkra scouts repelled successfully. Moving +7pop to our colony. One more scout reloc'd to the Colony.

2307:
Scout reports: blue to the north is Barren, 60. Red to the south is Steppe 60, and fertile. We kick out a Silicoid scout from there.

+4 pop to the colony. One last scout (I swear, this is the last!) redirected to the colony (it's our 12th).

2308: Colony have 5 BC production so I can split 2 RP to open Computers and Propulsion with no losses. We don't need R5 to get to any planet right now, so if I have to choose I'll pick R4 to advance more quickly.

2309:
Computers is BC2 only. Propulsion is R5 only. Really poor tech tree so far.

Scouts kicks out Silicoid scout from the green star and scout an Arid 65 planet.

Our 2 scouts at Primodius advance to the yellow stars - pretty sure they will get to Cryslon and Sssla.

From now on all BC goes to factories.

2310:
Bulrathi scouts appear in the north, one is repelled from the Barren 60, the other will scout the Toxic rich which is no big deal. 

The bears are probably in the yellow to the east and expanding to the northeast sector.

We scout a Terran 90 by the Nebula, great planet but we need range to get there. Scout advances to the second yellow.

2311: we finally scout the yellow southeast. It's Tundra 60.

2312: Sakkra colony ship repelled from the fertile planet.

2313: We scout the red star south, close to a blue one. It's an Arid, 70 planet.

2314: Chase away a Psilon scout from the recently scouted Arid.

2315: 
That was a busy turn.

We did find Cryslon in the SW. 63pop, 111 factories, 2 bases, one fighter and... 100 scouts (yes you read it right that's one hundred scouts). We retreat.

We also chase one Silicoid colony ship + 32 scouts from the fertile. What's with all these scouts?!

The other yellow is indeed Sssla. 88pop, 156 factories and... no defenses! Zero bases and one unarmed colony ship... we actually get to scout a homeplanet!

We also scout the yellow west of the Nebula - an Ocean 50 planet.

And this is where I hand off to the next player. I did not play anything in 2315. Here is the galaxy map (cursor points at Cryslon):

   

Maybe I went a little too far with the scouts, but I think we are doing OK with the economy. 90 factories at Meklon, 10 at Primodius but with more than half pop.

The bloackades are all set, only the scout back from Cryslon is on the move. You can redirect it to a more interesting place (if it's not considered exploiting).

From now on, I think it's deciding when to switch the capital to make the first colony ship, and if we get T10 before that (as Meklar this can be expensive).

Too bad we don't have R4, is would be enough to reach the entire NW corner and the fertile. Of course we can do it with R5 but it will take longer. 

Also a poor first rang of Planetology, but at least we have RW80.

Crazy things I noticed and did not really understand:

1) enormous scout fleets of the Silicoids

         

2) how could the Sakkra not colonize the fertile planet?!?! It's 3 parsecs from their homeworld!

3) we did actually scout a homeworld!

   

EDIT: I forgot just some non important detail, to send the 2315 save...

  OSG-39-2315.GAM (Size: 57.65 KB / Downloads: 1)

[RefSteel]

Okay, cool! Looks like we're off to a good start, SpaceOWL! I'm definitely not complaining about having Terraforming +10 as our first choice in planetology, even without IER in the tree to follow it up with! Too bad hydrogen fuel, deep space scanner, and improved industrial tech weren't options, but reduced waste will be nice (though pricey) once we start seriously building up factories. I agree with getting scouting started early in circumstances like these - I'd have opened with a triple scout build as well - and you've done that exceptionally well. I don't think I've ever seen an Impossible AI's homeworld uncovered with just Scouts before ... ever!

If I end up playing the next set of turns, I'll probably push planetology tech first for IT10, seed propulsion a little more slowly, add probably a few dozen more factories on the homeworld, and aim to get the first colony ship out shortly after terraforming's ready. I'd play between 15 and 20 turns, depending on how much time I have and when/whether there's a good stopping point along the way. If no one else takes it between now and then, might be able to play later tonight or tomorrow night; I'll have to see.

Regardless, any thoughts, opinions, counter-arguments, stories, and/or other discussion is welcome as always!

Roster:

- SpaceOWL (led us off and may or may not have the chance to play again)

- haphazard1 (play order still TBD)
- RefSteel (play order still TBD)
- shallow_thought (play order still TBD)
- You, if you're interested in joining the team!

[haphazard1]

Looks like some nice turns, SpaceOwl. I like the scouts at this stage with this many planets around to explore and blockade.

Quite a few habitable planets in our region of the galaxy. Now we just have to settle them before the lizards and rocks can take them. Our tech trees have been rather sparse so far, but terraforming +10 and RW80 are not bad options. I wish range 4 had been available, but we will have to manage with range 5. Hopefully the extra time to research it will not cost us worlds.