Let's Play: Sword of the Stars Prime

[Kane]

It is time for that age-old internet pastime-

No, not porn.

No, not trolling, either. What the hell is wrong with you people?

Okay, maybe not all that old or broadly done, but certainly no stranger here; Let's Play! In this case, “Let's Play: Sword of the Stars Prime” (With expansions “Born of Blood”, “A Murder of Crows”, and “Argos Naval Yards”- Basically all of them.)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/32/SwordOfTheStarsBox.jpg
(It says Lighthouse, but they're now working with Paradox.)



At this point, if you've heard of it before, but never played it, or looked into it seriously, you might be asking something along the lines of: “This got a sixty eight on Metacritic, a rather generous-sounding seven point four on Gamespot, and- Hey, you aren't trying to inflict terrible games on us, are you?” My response is thus: “Shut up, I'm talking.”



http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/651002022717448964/022E626C56D5343D53B20A615B1F764437546839/
Sword of the Stars is a 4x strategy game with turn based 'strategic' play (A view of your empire, managing research, designing ships, building fleets, moving fleets, colonizing worlds, etc. Your generic 4x stuff, perhaps with a little less micromanaging,) and a real-time 2.5-D 'tactical' combat between ships. A Something Awful Let's Play I read described it as "The worst best game ever." I can't quite disagree.

That's a bit obtuse. What you should be hearing is “Who wants to conquer the galaxy and watch fleets of starships blast each other to smithereens?”. If I don't hear some kind of affirmative from you, you're probably in the wrong thread.


Now, beyond that obtuse stuff, what separates this from, for instance, Galactic Civilizations (1&2), Sins of a Solar Empire, Space Empires IV, or what have you? Well. My favorite aspects are twofold; first of all, they've got themselves a Tame Sci-fi Author on a leash, and as a result, the setting is more detailed than some RPGs- Which provides backdrop for the game, but you don't have to pay attention to it if you don't want to. As this is a let's play, I'll probably be narrating from in-setting, as much as I can.

Second, with a pleasantly and surprising aversion of the “Gameplay and Story Segregation”, the races all play significantly differently, and these differences are based on the previously mentioned setting and lore. This may not sound like much, (and, in fact, you may disagree with me and not be terribly enthused, but that's just how these things go,) but I'll probably be touching on this frequently, so I might be able to illustrate this better than I can explain it.

There are lots of other features that make this a pretty unique game, but those will be covered as we get to them. A more minor but still significant feature I like is the randomized tech tree- About a third of the techs on it are 'core' and always possible to get, but the rest each race has their own percentage specific to each tech that determines whether it's unlocked each game. So the game does not consist of “Rush Improved Cloaking and Assimilation Plague and win at everything forever.”. Yes, it's possible to have all techs available to you, or none beyond the core, but both of those are fantastically unlikely. There are a few race-specific techs, but most of the (hundreds of) techs are possible for any race- If the random number generator favors you.

(Oh, side note and minor warning; being this studio's first major game, it was produced on a shoe-string budget, by five people in a cardboard box. Or something like that; at any rate, the quality of the in-game art has been described as 'Deviant Art, at best', and the Voice Acting is questionable. Both are an acquired taste. The Human voice acting is terrible, in my opinion. The Hiver voice acting is so bad it's wonderful, and the rest are adequate, with the exception of Zuul, who are actually pretty decent. These are just my opinions, though, and I doubt I will be involving actual sound in the LP.)

(As an additional note, I was not lying when I said this has more backstory and lore than some RPGs. Literally, pages. Per species. With more being released weekly on the Kerberos Forums. I don't have time, probably don't have space, and probably don't have your attention for long enough to list it all here, so I'm giving a highly condensed and dumbed-down version. Rest assured, you will almost certainly learn more about whatever race ends up being chosen, and I will tend to answer questions as best I can.)



Now, we're beginning to phase out of the 'about the game' section and into the 'let's play' section. The distinction is fuzzy, though, so bear with me. Species description and splash art (of the warned questionable quality) incoming.

http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/300/humanfrontload.jpg
First of the races we shall discuss is HUMAN (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H91qZSfYLoU). You know, like most of you blokes. Humans in this setting are not the peace-loving federation, nor the evil galactic empire. (They could be, though. Closer to that than to the Federation, at any rate.) They are, in fact, relatively new to the galactic scene, have pretty decent research, adequate armor, and adequate or pretty decent just about everything else. They don't specialize too much, so playing them does not mean we're probably going to be using primarily, say, beam weapons. Pretty good chances to get all techs. Their method of Faster Than Light (FTL) travel is the 'Node Drive'- Those big rings you may see on the back of their spaceships. Very similar to Sins of a Solar Empire, if you've played that- There are random pre-generated 'Node Lines' between stars, and Humans can move down those corridors at very high speeds- But only down those corridors. It can be possible that there are stars with no nodelines to them (or even whole sectors of space- players of humans loathe this), and in that case you are forced to 'slow boat' it slower-than-light (STL) across the rift, and hope you can establish yourself on the other side. Needless to say, that's unpleasant. As you tech up your drive, you can get stupendously fast, particularly late game.

Summary: Humans, Fast, decent ships, decent research, technologically generalists. I'm pretty experienced with them.


http://img851.imageshack.us/img851/2410/hiverfrontload.jpg
Second race: HIVERS. Your generic insectoid race. Except not quite; The sub-species of 'Princess', 'Prince', 'Warrior', and 'Worker' exist. They are ruled by their Princesses (think ant-colony- Their mothers, basically.) and their princesses are often (but not always) loyal to their Queens (Head princess, the one who can create more princesses.). There is no hive-mind. Hivers are all individually sentient, and tend to be fanatically loyal to their mothers, at all times. Generally organized into separate Hives or Clans. It should be noted that, in setting, the first proof Humans had that there were other races in the galaxy was when a rogue Hiver queen decided to colonize Earth, which was naturally preceeded by attempting to wipe out the indigenous population. Needless to say, Humans weren't too amused, and the first forty years of Human presence as a spacefaring power were occupied with exploration, colonization, and destroying every Hiver ship, world, or station they came across. Hivers weren't too amused by this.

The Hivers have the most interesting form of FTL, in that they don't actually have any. Instead, they're forced to slowboat it, but when they finally do get somewhere, they can deploy [teleport] Gates. This makes them rather slow on offense, and instantaneous on defense, essentially. Their ships have exceptionally thick armor, and excellent top speeds, though remarkably poor acceleration. They are towards the weaker end in terms of research, but make up for it with rather excellent industry. A penchant for ballistic weapons. Due to not needing room for both a FTL drive and a STL drive, they tend to have a staggering amount of weapons on their engines, not to mention the rest of their ships. Also, as a race, tend not to care too much about planetary conditions- They've got pretty good tolerance.
Summary: Hivers, insectoid, slower-than-light, but with deploy-able teleport gates, poor research speed, excellent industry, heavy armor, lots of guns, and fond of bullets, in their various forms. Good colonization, population growth. I'm pretty competent with them.


http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/1365/tarkafrontload.jpg
Third: Tarkas. The second/third race Humanity encountered, and possibly the most human-like. Arguably. Arboreal lizards of their homeworld, in space, they are your generic Proud Warrior Race Guys- Militaristic and interested in honor. “Honor”, in their case, generally meaning “Killing as many of the other guy as efficiently as possible.” They tend to think that might makes right, and if they just happen to have the most might, well, sucks to be you; It's nothing personal. Along with the Hivers, they fight amongst themselves even more than humans did (or do). Middle of the road for research, fond of armor almost as much as the Hivers, and fond of projectile weaponry too, as much, if not more so. Not as limited, though, and quite capable of getting some nifty energy weapons along the way. Also tricky things like cloaking, jammers, etc. Their method of FTL is the classic 'hyperdrive', or 'warpdrive'; Start at Point A, choose Point B, engage hyperdrive, and go there. The same speed no matter what (though obviously upgradable with better drive techs,), and, while slower than, say, the Human Node Drive, it is not limited to Node-lines. They are free to go wherever they want, whenever. They're often described as 'boring', but I tend to disagree, and they do have a few tricks up their sleeves.

Summary: Tarkas, reptillian arboreals, human-like, tend to favor armor, projectiles, and various tricksy techs and weapons. FTL is generic hyperdrive. Mediocre research speed. Pretty decent otherwise, though are almost as poor with direct-energy weapons as the Hivers. I'm pretty competent with these guys.


http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/3829/liirfrontload.jpg
Fourth and last of the original races: The Liir. Third/Second race humanity encountered. Basically, highly psychic and telekinetic aquatic mammal-equivalents. 'psychic dolphins and space whales' if you want to be really simplistic. Peaceful, enigmatic, relatively friendly, and usually pacifistic. Note 'usually'. As a species, they were enslaved by sinister beings they refer to as 'Suul'ka' a few thousand years ago. You'll note there's no playable race that seems likely to be that- that's because they got fed up and killed them all with a bioweapon. Yeah. Incidentally, they posess only the vaguest concept of “proportional retribution”. Heavy predilection to direct-energy weaponry, bioweapons, and the best research speed in the game bar none. Tin-foil and rather expensive ships, but tend to get access to some very nice weapons, not to mention shields and other high-tech tricks. Very low population growth, but excellent terraforming rates, and can research improvements rather quickly. Their method of FTL is 'stutterwarp', which functions by teleporting a starship a few millimeters a few thousand times a second. (My numbers are probably off, but you get the idea.) This is slowed down significantly when they are near gravity wells (stars), but much faster out in deep space. (Presumably, where it takes less calculation per teleport.) Basically, slow in the beginning and end, but fast in the middle. Travel time increases somewhat less than proportionally to distance.

Summary: Liir, psychic aquatic creatures, nice, friendly, god help you if they decide you need to go. Expensive tin-foil ships, fond of shields, bioweapons, and high-yield energy weaponry. FTL is a micro-teleport drive, that is slower near stars, and faster the further it is from them. I'm... theoretically competent with these guys. Well, better than that, but I'm somewhat less experienced with these. Still think I could manage a game, though.


http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/7348/zuulfrontload.jpg
Fifth race: Introduced in the first expansion pack, Born of Blood, (BoB,) the Zuul (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijAYZimvpww) are fairly unpleasant customers, and the newest after Humans. (They spent half a century or so hiding and sporadically raiding, though, rather than being an empire.). Literally created as a bioweapon (By the Suul'ka the Liir don't like. They're responsible for a lot of crap in this setting, but by no means all.), and went horribly right, for their creators, at least. Instead of exterminating the foe they were unleashed on, and dying, they managed to keep the last of their first 'prey' alive long enough to mindrape the secrets of space form them, and fled the world they had rendered uninhabitable on their first spaceships. For them, 'research' is more 'mindraping information out of prisoners', and they have the single worst research rate in the game. They're remarkably good early game, though; they have very cheap tinfoil ships, with lots of guns. How many? So many. Their ships literally look like scrapheaps with engines, and guns bolted to every available surface. They have no civilian population, and instead raid other empires for slaves, who are far more unfortunate than those they outright kill. Their FTL drive was partially stolen from the humans; it's a similar, slightly slower node-drive. They, however, said “To hell with naturally-occuring Node-Lines” and bore holes in the fabric of the universe to create their own. The universe, on it's part, slowly heals itself, so they have to keep drilling their nodelines, which slowly decay. Difficult, but Awesome, in the right hands. Sadly, mine are not; I kind of suck with them.

Further note: Just by existing on worlds, they slowly deplete them of resources. This boosts their production, but means that, when playing them, you have to be attacking all the freakin' time. Being on the defensive for too long is a death-sentence. One of the reasons I'm not too good with them.

Summary: Incredibly evil psychic space-marsupiods. Slavers and pirates. Cheap, tin-foil ships, with so many guns. So many. FTL is a node-drive similar to the Humans, but it's slightly slower, and 'make your own nodeline', meaning you'll never be screwed by the disposition of the naturally occuring ones. Horrible research. Must be constantly on the offensive, terrifying if played right. I'm pretty crappy with these guys.


http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/3484/morrigifrontload.jpg
Finally, from the A Murder Of Crows, (AMOC,) we have the Morrigi (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYgti3MKCDg), undoubtedly my favorite race, but don't let that sway you. These are a set of precursors who's empire reached it's peak around 15,000 years ago, then began a slow decay and decline. ~300 years ago, I believe, it began a resurgence and 'renaissance', if you will, but this was shortly snuffed out when they attracted the attention of the Suul'ka. (They were the race the Zuul were created as a throw-away bioweapon to use against.) Over the course of a rather one-sided war, their fleets were smashed, their colonies were razed, and they generally got torn apart. They only barely won, if losing 90% of your male population and a fair fraction of your female population can be described as 'winning'. Now they return to reclaim the empire that was theirs, and have found half a dozen upstart races contaminating what was once their space. They have research speed equal to the humans, (second/third best,) and in my opinion, the best research inclinations (that is, probability to have technologies unlocked on the tech tree) of any of the races, bar none. They start with some free technologies, as befits their 'precursor' status. Very expensive, cardboard ships, but, like the liir, tend to get shields, and lots of excellent weaponry. Bonuses to robotic-drone technology, both mechanically and research-wise. Bonuses to trade, which their expensive ships necessitate. Their FTL drive is a gravatic 'flock' drive, which for technobabble reasons, a fleet moves faster the more ships are in it. They are the only ones who can rival (or even exceed!) Human speed, and can do so in any direction they choose, like the Tarkas. (Or Liir, or Hivers.) Relatively slow on their own, though. Being precursors, they are immune to some of the nasty random encounters you can find in the galaxy, (being the creators of them, after all,) or have bonuses to dealing with some.

Summary: Trading ancient bird/dragon creatures. Good research, favor drone tech and energy weapons, with good chances to get a lot of nifty stuff. Bonuses to trade, which they need, because their ships are rather expensive and on the flimsy side. Can become terrifying, late-game. I'm pretty competent with them, but by no means good.




Now we're fully in the “Let's Play” section. As mentioned, I'm going to be doing a Let's Play, playing a game and narrating to you. Obviously, the game lends itself to militaristic space-opera. I may even take admirals, like in the excellent Space Empires IV LP a ways back.

The Mechanics: I play the game, I post updates. Generally, I will ask you guys for advice, and allow you to point me in a particular direction, for good or ill. That doesn't mean I won't do anything without asking, as that would just be obnoxious and stupidly slow. I will try and play as you LP-players tell me to do so, though.

Sadly, we can'ts start blasting starfleets apart yet; before the game starts, there are a few things that must be sorted out:

1. Obviously, which of the above six races am I to play as? My votes are for Human or Morrigi; They're probably what I'm best at, Humans moreso. (Morrigi are a bit trickier, but I'm usually competent.) Feel free to cast your votes; Do I play as Director of SolForce, Queen of the Hiver Imperium, Supreme Commander of the Tarkasian Empire, Eldest of the Liir, Dominus of the Zuul, or Morru'Quan of the Morrigi Tribes?. Note: Know that if Zuul win the vote, I'm unlikely to win the game. Not saying you shouldn't vote for them, I'm just saying you should be aware.

2. Choose a map time. Again, I'd cast my vote for 2-D, or Disc, both of which mildly gimp a few races, but will be far easier to report to you on than most of the rest. Voting against Sphere, as that's probably the hardest to convey through screenshots. (Oh, yes. The strategic map is fully 3-D, for the rest of them.) Maps: http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/651002022718787115/DDF9CD7E87F52AF441B737AEB661BD20B0161D7B/

3. Do we do this on Normal or Hard? On Normal, the computer and I am on equal footing. On Hard, the computer gets all of the advantages that I might have had on Easy- Namely, better research, better economy, and possibly a few other advantages. I can't promise a victory on Hard. (Hell, I can't promise one on Normal, either, but I can promise at least a struggle as opposed to a curb-stomp.) On the other hand, more hard-fought struggles could make for a better experience for you people.

4. Oh, and how many stars? I'm generally advised that 20 per player is good, and I myself would advise 51-200, as more makes it less likely I'll be able to finish this, and less means that there will be no VN Homeworld or Grand Menace. Shhhhhh. We'll get to those in due time. Just trying to assure that we live in interesting times.

Other details: There are a few other options, but I'm planning to leave them on the normal settings. One of each race, random events on 100%, ordinary planet sizes and resources, that kind of thing. If you have experience with this game- Or if you don't, but are enthusiastic- Feel free to recommend alternate settings. Oh, and this will be my first real LP, so please be a bit forgiving.

Oh, and minor apology and disclaimer, I started writing this up in the evening, but by the time I finished and was ready to edit, it was one AM where I am, and a quarter past two by the time I am/was ready to post.
Okay, you can talk now.

[Vitruviansquid]

Ooo, I bought this game on a Steam sale a long time ago, but never really felt like I was playing it right.

1. Go L-L-L-Liir.

2. Throw my vote in for whatever you want, OP.

3. Go hard mode and sell your lives dearly.

4. Casting my vote for 20 stars per player. While I am interested in seeing the more exotic random events, I'm also interested in seeing more horrible bloodshed over less land/sea.

[Icedaemon]

Liir or Morrigi (http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/2582/morrigi1.jpg), currently voting for the latter but will switch to voting for Liir if it becomes a contest between Liir and some third species. The rest are too human-shaped. When I saw the human ships, I had hoped that we did not have a handwave-artificial-gravity, but if those rings are part of the FTL, no humans please.

Arm-shaped region is fighting on a portion of one of the Milky Way's spiral arms, correct? I'd go for that.

Difficulty - let the others vote.

111 stars (per player, I understand?) sounds nice.

As we get more info, I will most probably roleplay an advisor and/or possibly a governor of a colony or (later) section of space.

What are the victory conditions?

[Grif]

Humans. We better be playing humans. I do not fancy the space dolphins, space apes or space birds. Or space reptiles for that matter. I want to smash those critters under the boot of my Impactornaught.

Also, yes. Hard mode all the way baby. :smallbiggrin: (Along with an average sized map. Say, 20~25 stars per player?)

[Gaius Marius]

Bugs bugs bugs.
Bugs!!!

Bugs? Bugs!!!!

BUGS!!!


We are the Bugs. You will be assimilated.

Let's send the Hive Fleet to the core of Ultramar! Let's annihilate Tarsonis, conquer Earth! Let's take revenge upon the puny human Johnny Rico!! Reap the Predators, feast upon Ripley Scott!! We will turn the tide against the Krogans!

Bugs!!!!

[Copper8642]

I only ever played this game with the first expansion, which means I've never seen Morrigi played, so.... I vote Morrigi! Also Arm shaped galaxy.

[ShellBullet]

Humans, because other races don't seem to be that interesting.
Hard mode baby, hard mode. Also 20 star per player

[HerbieRAI]

1) Human, I'd like Hive, but it takes so long to get anywhere the game can be a bit slow.

2) 2-D, just for the ease of posting. Disable the "Gimped *" races so the Comps wont be affected.

3) Hard. With Human and 2-D, you'll be on good footing already

4) whatever you want Kane

* What races get "Gimped" on a 2-D map, and how?

[Mistral]

1. I'll vote human for fun and ease. Repensum Est Canicula. *bludgeoned by dozens of Latin-textbook-wielding professors*

2. Disc or Spiral, since they still have a third dimension, but not so much so as to make viewing our empire difficult for those of us who can't move the map around. Spiral will also make things really interesting for humans who have to go up and down the arms due to how nodes are usually pathed, while the others can basically jump the gulf.

3. Hard mode.

4. Twenty stars per player, minimum, and we definitely want the VN Homeworld to be eligible to spawn, for the "surprise" if nothing else. :smallwink:

[Kzickas]

Hivers because they're coolest. And if you do you have to make the tech advicer an important character, because he's so adorable (and oh so enthusiastic).

Difficulty normal. 80 stars and 3 AI I'd say, keeps the game small enough that readers can follow what's going on.

[Leecros]

ZUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU UUUUUUL




I was thinking of doing a SotS Lets Play...but i wasn't really sure if there'd be enough interest on either side to keep it going. So, good luck, i'll be watching

[Kane]

Ooo, I bought this game on a Steam sale a long time ago, but never really felt like I was playing it right.

That's actually my biggest problem with a new 4x game too. Never know if I'm doing well, or even competently.


3. Go hard mode and sell your lives dearly.
As always, that's the plan.:smallbiggrin:


Arm-shaped region is fighting on a portion of one of the Milky Way's spiral arms, correct? I'd go for that.

Correct.


Difficulty - let the others vote.

111 stars (per player, I understand?) sounds nice.

111 is a bit much- I can only do that if we have, say, less than three players total. Or if I go find some super-vast map to download.


As we get more info, I will most probably roleplay an advisor and/or possibly a governor of a colony or (later) section of space.

What are the victory conditions?
Excellent! Victory conditions seem to universally be 'grind your opponents down a carbon-flavored dark spot on their last colony', though there are allied victories, and some rudimentary diplomacy factors in there too.


I only ever played this game with the first expansion, which means I've never seen Morrigi played, so.... I vote Morrigi! Also Arm shaped galaxy.
Having only played with Argos Naval Yards, I don't' actually know what the difference between BoB and AMOC is, but I do have a friend who tried to pirate it and got a pre-ANY version. The difference was startling. As I understand it, the expansions are major improvements over the previous 'edition'.



2) 2-D, just for the ease of posting. Disable the "Gimped *" races so the Comps wont be affected.

* What races get "Gimped" on a 2-D map, and how?
Humans and Liir, oddly enough- Humans because the lack of 3d space means something like a node-line gulf is more likely, (since you can't go over or under) and Liir because there are no huge rifts or gulfs for them to strut their flicker drive- Playing them on clusters or what have you is more their thing.


Seeing as this has been up for less than eight hours (oh, and I'm busy, and look to have fickle connection for a few more days,) I'll be delaying the final census for at least twelve hours. Happy to see you all here, though.


EDIT: Oh, and moderately important corrollary, if you see this thread and think, "Hey, there's a new one out, I'll try that." let me advise you, DON'T. At the moment, it's effectivley in beta, and still being assembled- Kerberos do have a record of supporting SotS Prime for years after launch, well past ANY's release, and they're fixing Lords of Winter as fast as they can, but it can only be called a finished product at this point if you are phenomenally generous or mentally ill- It will almost certainly get finished, but just be aware of it's current state before you even consider buying it.

[Grif]

Excellent! Victory conditions seem to universally be 'grind your opponents down a carbon-flavored dark spot on their last colony', though there are allied victories, and some rudimentary diplomacy factors in there too.


Damn right it is. Or you could be nice and make them surrender their worlds/empires to you. But I prefer the extermination option. Much cleaner.

The solution to every pesky colonies? Mass driver their colonies to a radioactive wasteland. :smalltongue:

[Gaius Marius]

Or assimilation. Develop a bioplague that will convert their citizens into your specie. Now THATs biogenic horror for ya!!

[Kane]

My count of the standing so far-

Morrigi and Human tied with three votes each. (Not counting mine.)
Second 'set' place has Liir and Hiver tied, Zuul with one vote, Tarkas with zero. (Somehow I suspected that would happen.)

If it matters, Humans will be Blue, Morrigi Purple. (Hivers yellow, Tarkas red, Liir light blue, Zuul pink.)

2D and Arm tied with three votes each.

'Difficult' winning by a landslide. As they say, 'May you live in interesting times.'. I'm certain we will. Leaving the Random Encounter slider at 100% positively guarantees it.


Despite the picture, probably going to go with somewhere between 120 and 140 stars, and one of each race. (Vote seems to be mostly '120', with a few up or down.)

Since you already have a view of the 2D map that's tied for our galaxy, here's a couple views of the Arm galaxy, for better or worse. Decide what you think of it.
http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/5485/1314585014569.jpg


But let's try and proceed while we're at it. Since it seems it's been narrowed down to one of two races, I'll zero in on some more game-setup nick-knacks, and minor details of simply setting up a game.

http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/9113/2012010900007.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/407/2012010900007.jpg/)

Above you see the 'game lobby'. I can use the setup buttons to swap races or detail empires. I can click and drag on my square to swap with another player or slot- In this case, slot two, which is highlighted in green. I have already changed mine to purple; that's why it is, otherwise it would be blue like the rest. You'll also notice the 'all races' silhouettes in the upper left. Again, that's because I haven't selected who I'm playing as. I could start the game right now and what I would get would be a eight player game, on the map and size previously determined, and with eight random races, random colors, badges, avatars, etc.

This is almost exaclty the same setup used for multiplayer. (Indeed, you can even trim down the number of players, AI or human, with that little 'kick' boot.) The game is heavily geared towards MP, and designed so that people can drop in or out of the game as it is going, through the multiplayer 'lobby screen- They can even swap races, should they so desire this way. The game is set up for multiplayer, and I have recently found, is quite entertaining when played that way. The End of Flesh scenario, for instance, is brutally sadistic if you try it in singleplayer, but remarkably fun if done with some buddies.

Naturally, the first order of business; choosing our empire. Then the denominations, setting tweaks, etc. Oh, and the emblem and avatar.

http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/1116/2012010900008.jpg
Human has been selected for race in this example.

You'll notice there're the options to either cheat or set up special conditions- depending on what you call it. For example, I could set humans to start with one world and no tech, but maximum money, Zuul with ten worlds and adequate money, and, Morrigi to start with three worlds and ten techs, but minimal money. Ordinary settings, though, this time.

Currently, in terms of starting a game, we are here:
http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/2629/2012010900011.jpg
Yes, that's a Liir in it's equivalent of power armor.

I've given a couple of the Empires suitable names. (But could be persuaded to alter them up until the game starts.) The ones with 'Computer' will choose a name from lists of race-appropriate defaults. Again, recommend something better, and I'll be happy to go with it.

Continuing on, each empire is identified with a color (I'm going with the generics for each race in that regard,) and Avatar- representing anything from your leader to your adjutant- and a badge- Basically your flag-equivalent. The symbol on your starships.

Humans
http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/3360/humanbadgesavatars.jpg
Badges are odd on the y-axis, Avatars are even.


Morrigi
http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/5853/morrigibadgesavatars.jpg
I'm going to reserve the right to pick Avatar. Feel free to vote anyway, though.


If five people wander in and all want to play a race other than these two, I could be persuaded to change, but at the moment, Morrigi or Hunams seem most likely. Warning: Ties will be broken with "What I like best." That goes for race, badges and galaxy type.

[xp194]

I say Morrigi. Bird-dragons be better than humans, yo, and they have great percentages on the tech tree.

As for symbol... I tend to use 1/1 for them, with 6/4 as the avatar

As for Galaxy type... Real Space. You /know/ you want to :-p

[Icedaemon]

Humans, because other races don't seem to be that interesting.
Hard mode baby, hard mode. Also 20 star per player

Because the other races seem to be less interesting than they could be, you think we should go with the by far least interesting one? In 4x space let's plays, use of humans is far too common.

After looking at the art some more, the Morrigi have the most interesting body structure, with eight limbs and long serpentine bodies, so I am glad XP went that way in terms of deal-breaker. They could do with more eyes and such, mind.

[Kane]

I say Morrigi. Bird-dragons be better than humans, yo, and they have great percentages on the tech tree.

As for symbol... I tend to use 1/1 for them, with 6/4 as the avatar

As for Galaxy type... Real Space. You /know/ you want to :-p

I'm partial to 3x2, myself. (Apologies for cruddy 'graph', by the way.)


And regarding Realspace, while I can manage it, and have previously, I feel I could not manage conveying it to you guys, and would need two or three screenshots from different perspectives to show you guys most things.

That's my reasoning against it, at any rate.

[Icedaemon]

Going with the Morrigi (link for more information) (http://sots.rorschach.net/Category:Morrigi), I would prefer 1-9, 3-6 or 3-7 as symbol, as those are alien yet aesthetically pleasing enough for me. Of the avatars, I rather like 2-3, but if you go for something else, I would just use that one to indicate my in-character posts.

I would definitely go for keeping the diplomatic victory option open. Once you have crushed the foes who actually pose a threat and become the ruler of the mightiest empire in your region of space, those who supplicate themselves may live in their own small enclaves. The endgame consisting of wiping out previous allies and foes who are already broken and retreating with no hope of recovery is unnecessary if it can be avoided.

[Byrnbot08]

If we are voting for race of choice, I vote Human, with 1-5 and 2-2 avatar choices.

If we are voting on initial technology choice, I say go for Waldo Units; the early boost to industrial capacity and reduction in ship building cost will be invaluable early game. Also, crank that research slider up to 3/4s of the way. Don't waste that money and let it lie around without doing anything.

Do not research any other weapons before researching VRF Technology and Point Defence Tracking (if you get it.) You will need PD-Tracking if you hope to survive against Silicoid Hives and missile spam.

[Vauron]

Morrigi 3-2

I find the 'all the non-human races are bland' argument to be bizarre and self-defeating, as the humans are the blandest race of all.

[Byrnbot08]

Morrigi 3-2

I find the 'all the non-human races are bland' argument to be bizarre and self-defeating, as the humans are the blandest race of all.

I kinda agree with the bland thing, but I go Human primarily for their drive system. Serious early game speed, with nigh-uninterceptable fleets, and one of the highest base speeds and fuel economy late-game.

It has nothing to do with backstory, mate.

[Grif]

Morrigi 3-2

I find the 'all the non-human races are bland' argument to be bizarre and self-defeating, as the humans are the blandest race of all.

Isn't the backstory more on how you write it, rather than anything to do with the races itself? No one said we had to stick to the game's story.

If anything we should play Human and play a wacky empire of some sort. Like Xykon's future empire. Or something.

[Icedaemon]

Unlike what seems to be the standard for most space 4X games, this one actually has a good and coherent backstory, one which surprisingly is not really all that focused on humans. There is enough storyline tied to most of the races for an RPG being valid (though unbalanced, as the individuals are markedly different in their capabilities).

[Gaius Marius]

Wait a minute. You acually mean that the Liir are psychic dolphins in power armors?

Holy crap!!! I wanna start a sect! Please give a good reason why a Psychic Dolphin in Powered Armor isn't worthy of worship! The bigger and more psychic the Dolphin, the better!!

I, for one, welcome our Delphinidae Overlords.
I really hope some people here know the Sword of the Stars II lore

[Icedaemon]

Psychic mostly pacifistic hermaphrodite dolphins with face tentacles who keep growing bigger and more powerful as they age, in fact. They dwarf all earthly whales before natural death.

Given how they themselves revere their most massive elders, they are probably not adverse to a few worshippers.

[Gaius Marius]

I suggest you check out Suul'Ka, the Abhorred Ones who conquered and oppressed the Liirs in distant past, created (and are revered as Gods by) the Zuul, and destroyed the Morrigi Empire.

Actually, check their entry in SotS2 :smallbiggrin:

[houlio]

Psychic mostly pacifistic hermaphrodite dolphins with face tentacles who keep growing bigger and more powerful as they age, in fact. They dwarf all earthly whales before natural death.

Given how they themselves revere their most massive elders, they are probably not adverse to a few worshippers.

Liir Elders also have a penchant for mindraping dissidents like Black Swimmers, the Liir military forces, or Prester Zuul.

Also, I vote for Morrigi. Avatar and symbol won't be bothering me.
2-D works for too.

[Weezer]

I'll vote for Morrigi, they seem quite interesting, I have a soft spot for the very advanced, numerically small races. (Yes, I do play protoss in SC2, why do you ask? :smalltongue:)
I don't really care about symbol/avatar, but think 2D would be best, simply for ease of viewing.

[Kane]

Thanks for reminding me, Icedaemon- Should have posted the links to each of their lore pages. You've got Morrigi, but the 'human/SolForce' category on the wiki is Here. (http://sots.rorschach.net/Category:Humans)

As a side note, I personally would not describe any of the races as particularly boring. Keep in mind that the most frequent method of promotion to 'Director of SolForce' is by assassinating your predecessor. (Playing Morrigi will mean that I don't have to worry about you blokes trying to off me as frequently. :smallamused:)

At any rate, it seems relatively clear that A, the Travellers have won, and B, I should have been providing more in-depth species descriptions.

Morrigi Societal Characteristics (http://sots.rorschach.net/Category:Societal_Characteristics_--_Morrigi).

The Suuligi War (http://sots.rorschach.net/Suuligi_War,_The) -- I mentioned how they were very nearly exterminated?

The Traditional Morrigi Trader (http://sots.rorschach.net/Traditional_Morrigi_Trader,_The) -- Descriptions of their spacers and whatnot.


Another excellent perk of having this backstory is the way they're trying to bring it forward- Sword of the Stars II: The Lords of Winter is not most other 4x games in terms of "We're doing the whole thing all over again, but with more detail." No- Well, only partial Bag of Spilling (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BagOfSpilling)- LoW starts in the Fusion era, with most of the Fission-era techs researched. Further, new mechanics underlying gameplay are portrayed as the result of a century of space combat and exploration. The 'destroyer' class of warship we'll be starting out with shortly has been deemed inefficient for FTL exploration and warfare on it's own, and 'cruiser' is the smallest class of warships equipped with an FTL drive in Lords of Winter. Destroyers can still be acquired in the form of 'battleriders', up-gunned STL warships that are brought to combat on carrier equivalents. (More parasite warships than fighters, as these are still thirty meters long, give or take, and three DE's to the cruiser carrier, if I'm correct.)

Also, Human starships look less like cargo containers strapped to a starship frame, and begin to look more refined. As if humans are getting used to spaceflight. But I concede, that's just aesthetic appeal.


Anyway, if you'll forgive that tangent, a rough draft of some narration- Oh, and give some feedback on what kind you want to see. I've currently got "All written", "Avatars" and "written scene, avatar dialogue" bouncing around in my mind. This would be an example of the latter.

The blood pooled silently on the marble floor, and there was a moments' pause to ensure that the wound was, in fact, fatal. The silence could have been described as 'deathly'. As blood continued to flow out onto the stone, a susurrus passed around the chamber, and the faint blue emanations of holographic recording devices peaked several times. A medical technician stepped forward, and, encountering no objection, moved to examine the fallen leader.

http://img641.imageshack.us/img641/2916/generica.jpg“He lives, though not for long. Six minutes at best... ...Morru'quan.”

http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/5215/xhodysseos.jpg“So passes Menghkos the Wise. Congratulations, Morru'quan. It is rare that a Challenge results in victory for any but the Quan. Do you have any commands regarding Menghkos' body?”


http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/6708/armoredq.jpg“No. Return it to his tribe. They may do with him as they see fit.”

http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/5215/xhodysseos.jpg“Might I advise, Morru'quan, that poses a certain... insult to them. They would almost certainly be happier if you felt... emphatically, one way or another. You may yet rescind some of the insult, should you appear to change your mind.”

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/6708/armoredq.jpg“I do not care.”

http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/5215/xhodysseos.jpg“Again, if I might advise you, offending and insulting a Tribe as your first act as Morru'quan, with the entire system watching seems... without point, and foolish.”

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/6708/armoredq.jpg“A Tribe? A Tribe?! Have you no idea what this- that- was about? They are not a Tribe! We have no Tribes! We posses no starfleets, no ships! We huddle in one system, we fear a war we abandoned long ago, and we know nothing of our kin among the stars! We have become children of the dust- planet-bound, living and dying in but a single system, too terrified to consider what we have lost. For all we know, our kin are victorious, or worse, yet fight the Suuligi, while still we huddle, like hatchlings in the cold! And 'the Wise' wanted us to continue to do so, oblivious to the passing years, to our own past, to our Ancestors! He..! He...”

http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/5215/xhodysseos.jpg“Ah... My apologies, Morru'quan. Perhaps you should get your wounds seen to, now that the Challenge is over.”

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/6708/armoredq.jpg“I..?!"

The armoured and bloody Morru'quan attempted to draw himself up, but his swaying made him look dizzy rather than intimidating. A tense silence ensued for a few moments, before the Morru'quan managed to collect himself, and apparently changed his mind.

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/6708/armoredq.jpg "..."

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/6708/armoredq.jpg"You may be correct, Xhodysseos. Thank you for your advice."


A flood of question, congratulations, and cheers followed, though many were still unsettled by the Morru'quan's unseemly tirade. Still, fighting seven duels in a day is strenuous at the best of times, and much can be forgiven for such spectacle. Only through the efforts of Xhodysseos the Cunning and one of the new Morru'quan's kinsmen was the battered chieftan escorted from the room safely. A day of celebration was to follow, shortly after which the Morru'quan would officially assume control of the system...


As I final note, given what I have to go on, I believe I will be choosing 'Disc' map- It's close enough to 2D it ought to be simple, and should I get curb-stomped on Hard (A possible outcome, though I hope not too likely,) it will leave '2D' and 'Human' to try again on.

Oh, and in case it wasn't clear, we're starting out as a single system, lost and isolated and not knowing the fate of the rest of the Morrigi. Obviously exploration, (that first 'X',) will be our first concern.

And unless significant opposition appears, order of research will be "Waldo Units" for the reduction in ship costs, Orbital Foundries, (again, price reduction) then "Genetic Modification" --> "Suspended Animation" (for our colonizers). After that, Expert Systems if available. Then I'm much more open to suggestion. I will also have a fairly comprehensive first-turn post that shows what we start out with, so don't worry too much.


EDIT: And should prospective admirals/characters wish to look at some Morrigi (http://sots.rorschach.net/Language,_Morrigi) Names (http://sots.rorschach.net/Morrigi_leader_names) for themselves, feel free to do so. It is not at all mandatory.

[Gaius Marius]

Going for cruisers/biospheres early or trade tech would be nice. Are birdies better at lasers or guns?

[Kane]

Going for cruisers/biospheres early or trade tech would be nice. Are birdies better at lasers or guns?

Strategy is a good question for you lot. You're my advisors, right? And the Morrigi own Phasers. Just wait until we can put them on drones... (Or, if we want to be funny, Dumbfire racks. We'll probably be too busy fighting for our lives, though.)


Morrigi are especially awesome with blazers, as they have good chances to get up to Cutting Beams, and their blazer section has five (5!) heavy beam mounts on it.

Anyway, Energy Weapons Good.

[Gaius Marius]

N that case, we do need a mighty Drone Flock Nest as standard ship on every fleet. At least 1/3 of the ships of any battleflock should be so equipped.

Giving these drones some Phaser Claws do please me. But I'd still think we need to focus first and foremost on exploration and colonization. Our civilization is only as mighty as it's population number. We need trader, workers, farmers. We need world buzzing with life! We shall need to send frozen eggs to settle these worlds!

I personally volunteer to fertilize as many as I can. It's the least I can do.

[Kzickas]

One tip. The best way to deal with a swarm if your exploratory ships happen across one is to send the ship(s) towards the hive. The swarm has horrible accurasy and if you get close enough they'll destroy the hive with friendly fire.

[Gaius Marius]

One tip. The best way to deal with a swarm if your exploratory ships happen across one is to send the ship(s) towards the hive. The swarm has horrible accurasy and if you get close enough they'll destroy the hive with friendly fire.

My ships never lasted that long against the swarm. It always have been kill or be killed within a minutes.

[Icedaemon]

If we meet anyone but the Zuul first, trade should be one of our early-game focuses.

The current storyline format is fine. I am going for a name with shades of both mayan and ancient greek language, hopefully.
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/2582/morrigi1.jpg

Tikalos too is nursing a wound. Having received a loss in the fourth round to a rival too old, patient and cunning to fall for his clever feints, he could only watch the new Morru'quan have his very first argument with an advisor. He does not approve of this leader too much. The numbers of worthy Morrigi are far too low for combat between potential Qu'aan to be to the death. Most participants thought the same. Quarter was given when possible, potentially lethal strikes were generally avoided. Younger Morrigi such as himself had concerned themselves with flair and spectacle almost as much as the practical side of things, possibly the reason Tikalos lost in the first place.

Despite being young, forty eight if he would have reason to bother calculating his age by the calendar of the homeworld of some mad apes nearly lost to the least significant history books, he has no illusions about their species' remaining greatness. With all the better-armed craft thrown at the screamers, the Morrigi could not hope to field anything more than kzoproliths. Still, there is truth in that continuing along Menghkos route would lead to naught. Whatever initial impressions he might have of this new Morru'quan, courtesy and eagerness will be Tikalos' face. Even a kzoprolith can be serviceable craft in a pinch and certain to bring more prestige than any amount of empty strutting about.

[Grif]

Strategy is a good question for you lot. You're my advisors, right? And the Morrigi own Phasers. Just wait until we can put them on drones... (Or, if we want to be funny, Dumbfire racks. We'll probably be too busy fighting for our lives, though.)


Morrigi are especially awesome with blazers, as they have good chances to get up to Cutting Beams, and their blazer section has five (5!) heavy beam mounts on it.

Anyway, Energy Weapons Good.

I don't know. I always liked the Human Blazer section. :smallbiggrin: But yeah, I'm biased towards them so... :smalltongue: (That and human ships are generally pretty sturdy. Even with level 2 armour they can already take quite a beating. I never had the need to use shields or deflectors. Then again, humans will almost always luck out on the ballistic tree and you can almost always find VRF/Point Defense. Impactors are just cherry on top.)

[Kane]

N that case, we do need a mighty Drone Flock Nest as standard ship on every fleet. At least 1/3 of the ships of any battleflock should be so equipped.

Giving these drones some Phaser Claws do please me. But I'd still think we need to focus first and foremost on exploration and colonization. Our civilization is only as mighty as it's population number. We need trader, workers, farmers. We need world buzzing with life! We shall need to send frozen eggs to settle these worlds!

I personally volunteer to fertilize as many as I can. It's the least I can do.
All I can say is that I think you'll be pretty pleased with Morrigi drones (at least until mid/late game. They aren't too long-lasting. But, hey, the more small weapon slots not carrying pulsed phasers, the happier we'll be!)


One tip. The best way to deal with a swarm if your exploratory ships happen across one is to send the ship(s) towards the hive. The swarm has horrible accurasy and if you get close enough they'll destroy the hive with friendly fire.

That sounds like an excellent tactic, though I've never heard of it before. I do assume, though, that it works best with destroyers as I doubt cruisers can get as close, or are missed as often.

Incidentally, Morrigi DEs are, in my opinion, a bit lackluster. Their cruisers however... Aren't, and still pall compared to their dreadnoughts. But that's for later, should we survive long enough.





If we meet anyone but the Zuul first, trade should be one of our early-game focuses.

The current storyline format is fine. I am going for a name with shades of both mayan and ancient greek language, hopefully.
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/2582/morrigi1.jpg

Tikalos too is nursing a wound. Having received a loss in the fourth round to a rival too old, patient and cunning to fall for his clever feints, he could only watch the new Morru'quan have his very first argument with an advisor. He does not approve of this leader too much. The numbers of worthy Morrigi are far too low for combat between potential Qu'aan to be to the death. Most participants thought the same. Quarter was given when possible, potentially lethal strikes were generally avoided. Younger Morrigi such as himself had concerned themselves with flair and spectacle almost as much as the practical side of things, possibly the reason Tikalos lost in the first place.

Despite being young, forty eight if he would have reason to bother calculating his age by the calendar of the homeworld of some mad apes nearly lost to the least significant history books, he has no illusions about their species' remaining greatness. With all the better-armed craft thrown at the screamers, the Morrigi could not hope to field anything more than kzoproliths. Still, there is truth in that continuing along Menghkos route would lead to naught. Whatever initial impressions he might have of this new Morru'quan, courtesy and eagerness will be Tikalos' face. Even a kzoprolith can be serviceable craft in a pinch and certain to bring more prestige than any amount of empty strutting about.

A few things here, I'm afraid;
1., the Trial or Challenge or whatever the technical term is, is a cannon Morrigi ceremony according to some of the Lore of Lords of Winter- If anyone who has the game has noticed the discrepancy between the 'The Gathering' custom scenario for the Morrigi (which is supposed to represent the formation of the Morrigi Federation) and their attitudes in the opening A Murder of Crows trailer, that's because Tohkta the Just challenged Atreus the Bloody, defeated Atreus' six champions, and then slew Atreus himself. While in itself a rare event, I'm inclined to believe that duels among other Morrigi are even less so. (Though I can't actually cite that part.)

2.I like your character and am happy to use him, but...

3.The first wave of ships we produce may not have survivors; all prospective admirals may want to wait for a real fleet to be assembled, whatever the kind. The first ships are usually one-way scouts, with either a high mortality rate or a high 'stranded, out of fuel' rate. (Bolded so other people might catch this point.)

4. Last of all, I'm afraid I was planning to use that Avatar for the Morru'quan once he's out of his armor. (As a note of trivia, that's the SotS 1 image for Tohkta the Just whom I mentioned above.)



I don't know. I always liked the Human Blazer section. :smallbiggrin: But yeah, I'm biased towards them so... :smalltongue: (That and human ships are generally pretty sturdy. Even with level 2 armour they can already take quite a beating. I never had the need to use shields or deflectors. Then again, humans will almost always luck out on the ballistic tree and you can almost always find VRF/Point Defense. Impactors are just cherry on top.)

Morrigi tend to get Impactors too, actually, but without the Neutronium rounds, they tend to be a bit less fabulous. Still, seven per dread- It ain't the Liir's ten, but it's something. Oh, and Morrigi always get PD tracking.



Update on the LP: I started a map under the decided upon settings last night. Saved on turn one, then played through twenty turns to make sure it was a functional map. This was a good thing- By turn twenty one, I had explored twenty worlds. One of which was the homeworld. One of which had been an Independent Morrigi colony, which surrendered. One of which (the most recent one, I think,) had a climate hazard of 1??.?? (One hundred-ish, basically.). The next lowest of which had CH of 4??.??. The next two had CH of 5??.??. ALL of the rest- All fourteen- were 'Prohibitive' and uninhabitable. Oh, and we would have started out right next to the Zuul.

Naturally, I restarted, as that sounded like it would have been challenging, even on normal or easy.

I've got a new map up and moderately-tested, and while our available tech tree isn't quite as awesome as that first time, there actually are worlds we can colonize. I'll try to get the first in-game post done today.

[Kzickas]

That sounds like an excellent tactic, though I've never heard of it before. I do assume, though, that it works best with destroyers as I doubt cruisers can get as close, or are missed as often.

I usually play on small maps so I've done most of the exploring by the time I get cruisers. For exporation I use tanker destroyers (not much fuel issues), or tanker gate ship combos with hivers. I think I usually manage to destroy something like a quarter of the swarm hives I come across, but the ship of course is lost anyway

[Icedaemon]

I assumed that this was a one-planet-no-fleet variation of the Honing (http://sots.rorschach.net/Honing,_The), in which most eligible males in good standing are said to participate.

Tikalos is unlikely to be an admiral from the very start. He will likely be a second- or third-in-command at the start by virtue of the many more experienced males desiring to fly among the stars and relocate from one ship to another, or even to planets and old Morrigi stations. He will always try to transfer to something better, at least until his tribe gets a trade ship or until he has enough aanigi'dha to command a serious vessel. He is not yet the tribe's leader, though he is currently the worthiest possible successor.

If you insist, I'll take another avatar, probably that orange one in 2-6.

[Kane]

I assumed that this was a one-planet-no-fleet variation of the Honing (http://sots.rorschach.net/Honing,_The), in which most eligible males in good standing are said to participate.
Oh, I'm sorry. My bad. I was aware of that, but it never occurred to me that that might be what you were referring to. (I think I know most of the Morrigi lore, but whether I can remember it...) As it is, it's perfectly alright, then. If an isolated world is going to keep things like a Rite of Challenge or whatever, it'll almost certainly keep the Honing too. Again, my bad, sorry.



Tikalos is unlikely to be an admiral from the very start. He will likely be a second- or third-in-command at the start by virtue of the many more experienced males desiring to fly among the stars and relocate from one ship to another, or even to planets and old Morrigi stations. He will always try to transfer to something better, at least until his tribe gets a trade ship or until he has enough aanigi'dha to command a serious vessel. He is not yet the tribe's leader, though he is currently the worthiest possible successor.
On the other hand, if he wants the fast-track to advancement, and happens to volunteer for those initial high-risk, high-reward missions... Well, at any rate, I'll wait to start the narration until I've got a first turn post ready.



If you insist, I'll take another avatar, probably that orange one in 2-6.
Sorry- Just seems like it would get confusing, and I do not have the artistic talent to edit my own. 2-6 is yours.

[Icedaemon]

Eh, no reason to apologize several times for one thing.

[Gaius Marius]

Eh, no reason to apologize several times for one thing.

Yes he does. Or we shall censure him!!! :smallbiggrin:

[Kane]

Eh, no reason to apologize several times for one thing.

Sorry. Habit of mine. It doesn't cost me anything, afterall. :smallwink: And I did jack the avatar you wanted without much in the way of warning.


But enough of that; let us begin:

Initializing System...

http://img851.imageshack.us/img851/2582/morrigi1.jpg


Our loading splash art;
http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/2599/hiverhumansplash.jpg


And our starting galaxy:
http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/4645/2012011100008.jpg

Perhaps that disc is just an elegant compression that mathematically preserves the distances between stars and is used to make the star charts more readable, or maybe this galaxy/sector just formed this way. I'm sure there's nothing to be gained by lingering on it, though. (Fun fact; the devs call this the 'skittle-verse' due to the colors of the stars.)

http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/5517/2012011100006.jpg

There's our homeworld. No research projects yet, and that grey bubble around it is our sensor-radius. I usually play with it on, but I can turn it off for screenshots, if you guys want.

http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/3694/2012011100007.jpg
And this is sort-of the same thing, but a political map, instead. Our color is obviously purple, and as you might have guessed, we haven't met anyone else yet.

The first things we want- both out of game, and according to the Morru'quan's orders- is to build some exploration ships. We need to know where we are, where anyone else is, and who knows, there might even be other Morrigi out there to find.
http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/5348/2012011100009.jpg

As you can see, tankers don't cost much relevant to what we have, but they do cost more than other races tankers, and more than, say, an Extended Range ship, which is halfway between a combat and tanker ship. (They're most useful for humans for reasons relating to their drives.) While I could go for ERs, nobody seemed to care one way or the other, and we can afford tankers, which have longer range. Who knows? Some of them might even come home again.

http://img834.imageshack.us/img834/6406/2012011100010w.jpg
Our standing in the game. To begin with, we're a mildly crappier version of the Liir, though we do start with one or two extra techs. Which is why our industry/output and technology is ranked first. We kind of need it, though, as our ships cost more both money- and construction effort- wise. Tech we will be bypassed on almost instantly, as we're playing against hard AIs, one of whom is a Lirr. [shudder]

Now, on to tech-
http://img808.imageshack.us/img808/3534/2012011100005.jpg
FTL broadband will lead to FTL economics, which leads to freighters, which lead to money, all of which we excel at. Besides, we need some Tribes! On the other branch of C3 tech, Battle Computers will allow us to field squadron C&C, the DE-sized C&C unit. Better battle organization and allows larger numbers in combat at once. A Must-have for serious combats.

http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/8462/2012011100004.jpg
Sadly, we didn't receive emitters (the Liir specialty), which you can determine by the fact that there isn't a branch labeled 'emitters' coming up between Green Lasers and the branch for Plasma Cannons. Maybe we can reverse engineer them from some wreckage along the way, though. Likewise, we didn't get sniper cannons, which can also be extremely useful (Derelicts, Von Neumanns, I'm looking at you,), but we were less likely to get them anyway. We can also rush UV-lasers, which are better (but more expensive) than green lasers, should we so decide.

http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/6884/2012011100003.jpg
We got everything we could expect to get here- Overthrusting generates Pursuit- class Mission Sections, which can in specific instances be very useful. Recombinant Fissonables can allow us to boost the range of specific ship's fission drives in exchange for being more expensive. And on the right, we got the two torpedoes we could have gotten; Disruptors, which are direct-fire and resent enemy's weapon's cooldown times, and Photonic Torpedoes, which are direct-fire too, and more concerned with just doing damage. Disruptors can lead to one or two more types of EMP torps, Photonics can lead to either tracking or more direct-fire torps, most of which concentrate on 'damage'.

Fusion, which I neglected to mention so far, is an 'era' tech- Stupendously expensive, but when we finally get it, it means we've advanced into a new era, it will unlock many things, and will allow us to get further into all of the tech trees. Dreadnoughts, for instance, require Fusion. The three 'Eras' are Fission, Fusion, and Antimatter. We aren't going for it immediately because it will take forty something turns at the moment.

http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/3426/2012011100002.jpg
Here we have our shield tech- limited to Deflector Shields, which project a semi-sphere around the front of equipped ships that has pretty good chances to deflect or disarm solid projectile weaponry (mines, missiles, bullets). Leads to either real shield or Disruptor Shields, which is the energy-weapon equivalent of Deflectors.

In the middle we have a variety of warhead weaponry. DF racks are rather inaccurate, but seem passable and look cool, nuclear mines will unlock minelayers for us (can't be used outside of combat, sadly,) and nuclear warheads will increase the damage of all missile weapons, and possibly allow us to get Heavy Planetary Missiles. Both nuclear mines and nuclear warheads will (probably) allow us to get even better warheads for their respective types.

On the far left is our FTL drive, though we can't improve that until we enter the Fusion era (by researching Fusion).

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/4628/2012011100001k.jpg
My favorite section of the core tree! The Industrial branch leads us to bigger ships, cheaper ships, stations, armors, more section types, and a few miscellaneous benefits that fall under this category. Waldo Units and Orbital Foundries, the core tech right after it, will both reduce our ship's money-costs, and are good to get.

The one in the center is Biotech. Currently all we can do is research Gene Modification, which will make our population grow faster, something the Morrigi and Liir always need. It will also unlock Suspended Animation for us, which gives us slightly more expensive colonizers that can carry around five times the people.

On the right- Drone Tech! As you can see, we have a few techs already here, Combat Drones, which lets us build DE-class drone ships, Advanced Robotics, which slightly decreases the construction costs of our ships (5%, I think,) and Cybernetic Interface, the reason we started out #1 in Ouptup up above. All nice techs to have early game. And happily, we rolled Expert Systems, which is a bit expensive, but gives us significant boosts to industry and reductions to construction costs. Oh, and will probably unlock some Good Stuff*. Predictive Gunnery is a command section that sacrifices command-section weaponry for a boost to overall ship-accuracy. Think of it as the Poor Morrigi's Targeting AI. Autonomous Drones, off to the right, is a Morrigi-only tech. If researched, it can be used to set either Colony or Asteroid traps. Excellent for trolling people, possibly a poor investment of our early-game resources.

My plan is to research Waldo Units; then either Orbital Foundries or Gene Modification/Suspended Animation. Then whichever of those I haven't done yet. After those four, Expert Systems. With those five researched, that will leave us with an adequate industrial base to start working either on more bio/terraforming techs, to start looking into things to turn enemy starships into pretty explosions (that's what you guys are here for, right?) or Trade. I advise we don't leave Trade too long, but it could, in fact, be too early by then. (What I listed should only take us around twenty turns. Probably less.)At any rate, it's up to you lot. In-Character post later today if I can make it, but more likely tomorrow.


*Sentient computers are always good, even if they're named SHODAN or CABAL.

[Maxymiuk]

How did I miss this LP?

The Morrigi are awesome and you are awesome for playing them.

As I am a total data hog, I vote that we spend the first 10 turns building 2 tankers per turn and sending them out to explore nearby stars. Once we pick up the Deep Scan command section, we'll want to stick it on the tankers and shotgun another 20 or so of them across the galaxy in order to map out hostile empires. And ignore ER ships. Unless you're playing humans, tankers make for superior scouts, as long as you don't mind losing them in droves.

For research, I'd suggest Waldos first, and then focusing on the Biological tree for awhile. Morrigi have an abysmal population growth rate, so they want every bonus that they can get.

[Icedaemon]

I would advise having the first few ships we produce written as the stripped-down remains of surviving Morrigi craft from the war.

Given the sheer size of the real galaxy, this region could easily just be a section thereof. What are the interstellar distances like?

Story-wise, trade after rebuilding our industrial base makes the most sense.

[Gaius Marius]

I strongly recommend going first with pop and colonization techs. Terraform and 5x colonists are a must for any strategies

[Kzickas]

I would advise having the first few ships we produce written as the stripped-down remains of surviving Morrigi craft from the war.

Given the sheer size of the real galaxy, this region could easily just be a section thereof. What are the interstellar distances like?

Story-wise, trade after rebuilding our industrial base makes the most sense.

Average distance between stars is actually an option during setup. By default it's 7 light years. Don't think Kane mentioned what he set it to though

[Gaius Marius]

I usually like to play in Cluster maps. Cluster conflicts makes for interesting tactical situations.

Playing as a Hiver with them was a bitch to cross clusters, however. But otherwise, they can really wreck anybody's military situation if you have a proper network of Sensor Stations deployed. You only need 1 turn of warning and reaction fleets stationned anywhere, and you can crush any incursions.

[Kane]

Clusters were actually my first non-2D-ish choice, as they seem like they'd be capable to convey through screenshots. And yeah, average distance, resources, world size, random events, research, economy... All at 100%.

Also, nice to have you onboard, Maxymiuk. I quite agree with regards to the Morrigi.

System Update...

The white disk of the habitat spun gently, intended not so much to provide gravity as to provide a common orientation. The males and those experienced in minimal gravity adhered or ignored it as they pleased. The Morru'quan, however, was content to obey the gentle pull as he left his shuttle, his injuries having proved treatable, but slow to heal.

http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/7021/quan.jpg“You communicated with Klotho? What has she said regarding the shipyards?”

http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/5215/xhodysseos.jpg“She was and is reluctant to cooperate, but I have persuaded her, Quan.”

http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/7021/quan.jpg“Oh?”

http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/5215/xhodysseos.jpg“She was a sometime mate of Mengkhos. She was less than pleased by your victory.”

http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/7021/quan.jpg“Persuading her must have been a challenge.”

http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/5215/xhodysseos.jpg“Less, perhaps, than you might think. She agrees with your sentiments, I think, and I managed to convince her that being leader of the capital of our new empire was more valuable than being the chieftan of a single world. And, of course, I had remarkable leverage.”

http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/7021/quan.jpg“Again, you leave out the explanation.”

http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/5215/xhodysseos.jpg“Your... speech... at the conclusion of the duel was apparently better received than I thought. You chose your timing well. Many evidently feel the same way. At any rate, a few rather enthusiastic young scholars and shipwrights sent designs for prospective starships, or methods for overhauling some of our existing system ships with gravatic wings. Klotho could hardly tell me it can't be done when I have already received some rudimentary designs.”

http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/7021/quan.jpg"…."

http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/5215/xhodysseos.jpg“You know, most would be a bit more pleased to be receiving gifts from half the system.”

http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/7021/quan.jpg“...I still can't remember saying any of that. I watched the recordings, but I didn't remember anything between the technician's verdict and waking up in a medical ward.”

http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/5215/xhodysseos.jpg“Most disturbing. Did you at least mean it?”

The Morru'quan was silent. Xhodysseos allowed the Morru'quan to take the lead when they reached a shaft, in case he needed assistance. Columns to either side allowed climbing, though this was mostly for visitors to the station- Experienced spacers simply jumped. Xhodysseos and the Morru'quan did so, drifted upwards and guided themselves out of the shaft, onto the third ring of the station. The Morru'quan's answer came shortly after they completed their ascent.

http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/7021/quan.jpg“...Mean, yes, but I never intended to say that. Watching the recordings was... mildly horrifying. You are serious in how it.. went over, though?”

http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/5215/xhodysseos.jpg“I generally find it unwise to lie to the Morru'quan, particularly about things so easy to verify. In any case, the report is that we can have two ships by the end of the year, and the frame for a third laid. Only mild penalty to the treasury is necessary, and we could keep such expenditures up for a while, if not forever.”

http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/7021/quan.jpg“Of course. And volunteers?”

http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/5215/xhodysseos.jpg“Beyond all my expectations certainly, but then, perhaps I am merely old. The lure of exploration, and the promise of a starship, not to mention recognition as a Tribe, is remarkably attractive. 'Glamourous', even. Or perhaps many simply wish to server the Morru'quan, though you must forgive me if I find that less likely.”

http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/7021/quan.jpg“We are travellers at heart, whatever we are now. And the scholars?”

http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/5215/xhodysseos.jpg“Are perhaps your most heartfelt supporters, after some of the travellers. They and the shipwrights collaborate to refine the shipyards and decrease the cost of the flock. I guess they care not at all about travellers or dustlings, but as always, they hunger for more to study. Some even think we might find relics of the Golden Age, though most are far more realistic.”

The Morru'quan and his adviser enter the command center, sensor and communications hub for the system. Those not otherwise occupied bow their heads momentarily, acknowledging the Morru'quan's presence. He returns the gesture absently, and, with Xhodysseos, moves to the central display. What had, until recently, been a display of the system, satellites, ships, and orbits has been converted to a display of the galactic sector.

http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/4962/2012011200001t.jpg

http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/9440/generic2.jpg“As you can see, we're already plotting courses for the first scouts, Morruquan, and will be adding more as they are assembled..."

http://img836.imageshack.us/img836/505/2012011200002.jpg

http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/9440/generic2.jpg"Excellent news, my Quan! The women report a conclusion to their studies."
http://img830.imageshack.us/img830/6710/2012011200003.jpg

http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/9440/generic2.jpg"They have brought significant refinements to the shipwrights, and claim to have concepts for more efficient factories, as well..."

http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/3715/2012011200014.jpg

http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/7021/quan.jpg“I think it best that they turn to the subject of colonization. If we are to claim more worlds for the Empire when we find them, that will be necessary."

http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/9440/generic2.jpg "As you say, Morru'quan..."
http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/9100/2012011200004.jpg


http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/9440/generic2.jpg "The first of the explorers is reporting back; he claims to have found a habitable world, Quan..."

http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/8715/2012011200007.jpg

http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/7021/quan.jpg "Barely. I doubt the women would be pleased to be sent there- But who knows, their efforts may yet hatch."

http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/5051/2012011200009.jpg

http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/7021/quan.jpg"Three more worlds for us... One of them actually pleasant-looking..."

http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/548/2012011200008.jpg

1000-something, 276, and 94. Low is good. You can actually tell the ballpark Climate Hazard for a world just from it's appearance- The 1000-one is an iceball, the 276 is the dirt-and-green one, and the 94 is the green one with clouds. Each race has a different 'look' to their desirable worlds, and it appears in combat, as we may see in the next update. Oh, and they have different 'looks' to their inhabited worlds, too. I like the Morrigi and Human ones the best. The Morrigi ones really look snazzy.

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/4207/2012011200010.jpg


Say, what's our research like? It's a basic tech, it shouldn't be too expensive...

http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/8083/2012011200011.jpg


No, you aren't allowed to get upset at our scientists yet. I'm sure the ladies are working as hard as they c-

http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/4407/2012011200013.jpg


Alright, now we can get upset. Mechanically, when researching a tech, it has a set cost- (and each race has a set money-to-research-points conversion rate) And it's possible to get a tech up to 50% early, or 50% late- Basically, once you pass 50% in research progress, at the end of every researching-turn, it pauses and checks the probability that you get it early. The probability is whatever your progress percentage is -50. (68%=18% chance.) If it checks out, you get the tech early. No money-back, or anything, you just get it. Which is really nice, especially when you get fusion with only 55% researched. At times like that, all is forgiven. Times like this, however... :smallmad: On the bright side, though, we auto-get the tech at 150% progress, and we get back all money in excess of 150%- So we'll probably get a lot of credits next turn. (Our whatever our space-money is called.)

Hey, at least we're Morrigi- Our women are genuinely apologetic when they go over-budget. The human event banner involves one researcher making excuses to a government inspector while the other stuffs cash into a briefcase.

(And if anyone's wondering why I keep referring to our scientists as 'ladies' or 'women', that's because, as previously mentioned, ground-based jobs- Farming, engineering, architecture, research- are generally the purview of mostly the female Morrigi. Likewise, anything in space- Exploration, for instance- is that of the males.)


http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/4764/2012011200012.jpg

And you'll notice we dropped to #2 in tech- Sorry, forgot to check on turn six. You'll also notice we've got quite a sizable exploration fleet- every one of those purple lines is a single ship. And I haven't yet built colony ships- Was hoping to wait for Suspended Animation, which lets us build much more efficient colonizers. (Five times the people per ship- Gets colonies started out a bit faster for the same amount of colonizers. Well worth the slight increase in cost.) On the other hand, we have a world worth colonizing, and Sus. An. is at least two turns away- So, shall we keep building tankers, or start on our first generation of colonizers. Oh, and how many colonizers for Nibiru? My understanding is that eight is an optimal number, but I'm not terribly certain about that, or whether that's pre- or post- Sus. An.

Oh, and as a final note, each of these turns is a year, theoretically. I suppose I could claim otherwise for the sake of the LP, but on the other hand, Morrigi do live a long time... And we'll probably have a few combats next update!

And as a really-final note, I thought this resolution was fine, but it being a bit difficult to read things on the screenshots. I may try larger images next time.

[Gaius Marius]

I lay claim to the Governorship of Tzentiel, it's future colony, it's people and resources, in the name of our mighty Empire!

What is really important about planets is twofold: credit income and industrial output.

The first is a function based on the civilian population and the amount of industrial output dedicated to trade. The maximum population a planet can host is based on the planet size, and population growth is based upon terraforming level (climate hazard).

Industrial output is generated by two factors: imperial population level (also based on planet size) and a function based on a multiple of the planet's resource level and developed infrastructure. You can use the industrial output for 4 things: 1) Trade 2) Shipbuilding 3) Terraforming 4) Building infrastructure

When colonizing a world, you have a choice between developing infrastructure to tap into the planet's resources or you can terraform (or split your IO between both factors). A large planet with low climate hazard would be more optimal to terraform, while a small planet with high resource would be better off with infrastructure. Either way, it's a costly and long process, because initial IO is risible.

Colonial development has kind of a exponential progress. The farther you are of full world development (CH 0 and Infra 100), the more progress you will make. This is why it is recommended to colonize a single world with a hundred ships than colonize a hundred worlds with a single ship.

Each colonial ship carry an amount of population, infrastructure and (for biosphere cruisers) a Climate Hazard reduction. So concentrating them often proves to be the optimal strategy.

Anyway. I called dibs on the somewhat large and rich world. Nya Nya Nya!!!

[Maxymiuk]

Colonial development has kind of a exponential progress. The farther you are of full world development (CH 0 and Infra 100), the more progress you will make. This is why it is recommended to colonize a single world with a hundred ships than colonize a hundred worlds with a single ship.


Additionally, since population growth is exponential, establishing a higher baseline population has a huge impact on the rate of planetary development. That why I'd recommend waiting for Suspended Animation before sending off any colony ships - the initial population boost will shave 5-10 turns off the time that colony spends as dead weight in our budget.

[Icedaemon]

Gaius, you know that this means you have to be a female, and that there appeared to be no female avatars?
As fortune would have it, Tikalos was a crew member of Peck, the vessel which found Nibiru. While the craft is called a destroyer and several were given ostentatious names, even the youngest Morrigi knew that they were all merely either rusted old short-range craft given limited ability to fold space and a new coat of paint, or what amounted to replicas thereof. Instead of advanced systems or weapons, they had a few compartments sealed and filled with extra fuel. Not destroyers, but kzoproliths. Flammable ones, at that.

Tikalos was not the only crew member eager to pay a visit to this world's surface. Several of the younger males felt that they could find something interesting. Some even thought that, as perhaps the first males to properly descend in centuries, they could get away with merely bringing a nice enough rock from beyond the stars as a token. Tikalos' plan is more ambitious, however.

Smaller than Knossai, Nibiru's lower gravity allows even the heaviest males to walk on their hind legs and fly under their own power. The atmosphere seems servicable, but breathing masks were worn regardless. While the photos taken from orbit would allow for a rudimentary planetary map to be made, even the cameras on the craft were less than perfect. The first two of the void-cutting-capable kzoproliths got the best scanner equipment, with the rest having to do with rushed-out copies which were deemed sufficient. Consequentially, the maps are serviceable, but could do with more clarity. This is the exact plan Tikalos has, flying to what sites seem interesting or could hold indicators of prior Morrigi colonies and adding more detailed pictures and reports. Again, however, he might have been a little too ambitious.

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/2582/morrigi1.jpg
...Just this one more!

The reply from the radio is no less agitated than Tikalos himself.
~Damn it, we are under orders to leave this week. You can't get back to us in less than a day even with the booster.~

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/2582/morrigi1.jpg
'Us'? you are already at the lander?

~I am not the only one! Nearly half of us are here, the rest will be back soon. You are the furthest one out.~

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/2582/morrigi1.jpg
There is what might be a ruined building here and I think I can see copper at the bottom of this pit! It does not look natural. This could be a world our people have been at before.

~That's great, but we don't have time for archeology. Leave it to the girls, this planet will be one to flock to.~

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/2582/morrigi1.jpg
I am coming!

Still taking a few pictures of the presumed old copper mine, Tikalos lands by his booster and picks it up, priming the jet engines.

[Kane]

Gaius, you know that this means you have to be a female, and that there appeared to be no female avatars?


Actually, I believe that any of the avatars with the tri-beak (where it splits on the bottom as well as the sides,) are female. I could be misremembering, though, but I thought it was mentioned somewhere in the physiology section of their race description.


Without further ado, let's resume at turn seven, in slightly larger format;

System Update...


Research over budget.
http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/4764/2012011200012.jpg
Maybe they prefer working on spaceship construction. Maybe they think it will get them all the guys, or something. Come to think of it, I can actually see it being the more obviously glamorous job. After all, ships are a very obvious good to be traded to visiting Tribes- Abstract knowledge, or even practical, regarding terraforming?

Though really, the benefit Gene Modification gives is +10% population growth rate. Not sure quite what to make of it, aside from "It'll be useful when we get it."

In any case, ship production has certainly picked up- Fifteen or sixteen ships outbound and exploring, four or five hanging out on the homeworld, as we'll need a ferrying fleet for colonizers when we get them.

http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/2751/2012011300002r.jpg
Just designed them. If you were expecting fusion canons, well...

To this end, Gravboats. The particulars of the Morrigi drive is descibed as using some fairly complex gravity manipulation to fold space, allowing them to 'fall' forward at faster than light via regular movement within a bubble of warped-gravity space. Any ship with an FTL drive can create this effect.

However, with more ships in a fleet, the rest of the ships can 'piggyback' in one ships' bubble, and instead contribute their drive power to velocity, rather than cutting the path. A bunch of technobabble to explain that Morrigi ships travel faster in a group. With our fission tech and maximum 'flock' bonuses, as they're called, we can get up to 4 LY a turn, double a single ships speed. We start out tied with the Tarka, but with longer range. With max flock bonus, we end up as fast as the rather-speedy earthlings, except we aren't bound to the nodelines.

Which is a long way around to get to the point of "Those grav boats up there? They make us go faster." Indeed, they do, more than a single ship would contribute to a fleet, as well as, in combat, slowing down enemy ships nearby an speeding up friendlies. At the moment, just to make sure that our ferries can get back at a reasonable pace.

http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/695/2012011300001t.jpg
And queuing up a pair at Knossai.


But since the design screen was brought up relatively recently, let's take a look at our weapons.

http://img846.imageshack.us/img846/1537/2012011300003u.jpg

To paraphrase someone or the other, we ain't got... crap. Red laser (basic energy weapon, a bit more accurate) Gauss cannon (basic ballistic weapon, better firing rate and damage, boosted with VRF tech, over in the ballistic tree) and for medium mounts, Missiles. Plain ol' nukes. (That's what we start out with). Fun fact; if you put a weapon into a mount a size too large for it, you get a double-barreled weapon. If we put our medium missiles into a large slot (our cruisers will have them,) we'd get two missile launchers on that single weapons hardpoint.

Missiles are actually fairly cheap tech-wise, unerringly accurate, and can be pretty powerful. They are, however, countered by point defense. Unless our enemy completely fails to get it, that nullifies a lot of their bite. Gauss cannons are the cheapest money-wise. As our colonizers should never be in combat, I'm down for giving them nothing but gauss cannons, as A, the alternative is red lasers, and B, they should never see combat anyway. (As Morrigi, we're immune to the damnably unpleasant Colony Trap random encounter, which is nifty.)

At any rate, keep that in mind with regards to our combat-readiness.



http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/2962/2012011300004.jpg
Ideally they won't need to patch it for eight to sixteen weeks, Kerbero Okay, that's just petty, I'll shut up.

At any rate, next turn, our researchers finally get their project finished.

In addition to the desired Suspended Animation, we also have Atmospheric Adaptation. If for some reason one of you abhors reading white-on-purple text, "Allows you to genetically modify the respiration systems of your colonists to improve population growth and optimize terraforming on alien worlds. The result is a 75 point increase in Enviro Hazard tolerance and a 6% overall increase in population growth. The resulting greater understanding of atmospheric components also results in a 25% increase in terraforming efficiency."

The first means that a planet can have seventy five more points of climate hazard- I assume, in either direction, meaning 150 total range increase unless we're all the way to one side of the scale- before it becomes 'prohibitive' and uncolonizable as either a ball of magma or a ball of ice. Sadly, we cannot combine those into one large habitable world.

At any rate, it's something to consider for later- A good tech. The other, Plague, is the start of the bioweapons tree. (Liir specialty.) Plague is the most basic, there are a few niftier or more complex ones, and all but one of them are hidden in that tree. Plague, obviously, is the prerequisite, and also core for non-Zuul races. (Zuul are a bioweapon themselves, and being an artificial lifeform, therefore have limited comprehension of disease. Immune to bioweapons and can't research any, something we're all thankful for.)


http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/9458/2012011300006.jpg
Just because you get a bioweapon on the tech tree doesn't mean you'll get the cure to it...

Here's our disposition as the turn ends...

http://img830.imageshack.us/img830/6183/2012011300007.jpg
Hello... That hasn't happened before....

[Note: My attempt to screenshot the pre-combat loading screen netted me a black rectangle. And I can't find one anywhere else, either.]


Emerging in high orbit over Kankuen...
http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/1346/2012011300009.jpg

The ship deactivated it's void cutter drive, and dropped into normal space with negligible momentum relative to the target world. The pilot of the vessel was skilled, but young, and least in the hierarchy as well. Not to mention excitable.

http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/6868/aionline.jpg "..."

http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/9440/generic2.jpg "Zo'Quan! An ancient monitor! Emissions indicate it retains some power!"

http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/9953/quanf.jpg "I see it. Reactivate the drive with all haste."

http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/6868/aionline.jpg "..."

http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/9440/generic2.jpg "But... Zo'quaan! The treasures of the Resurgence- Surely we should attempt to board it?"

http://img577.imageshack.us/img577/2557/2012011300010.jpg

http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/9953/quanf.jpg "I am aware. Are you of the weapon housings it is covered in? Reactivate the drive, pilot."

http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/6868/aionline.jpg "Sensor anomaly noted."

http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/1491/2012011300011.jpg

Reluctantly the pilot obeyed his orders, but could not entirely shut out the visions of wealth, glory, and treasures to display and enjoy upon his return to Knossai.

http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/9440/generic2.jpg "In flight, Zo'quan... Surely, though, if it was decayed enough to target us, such damages would show, my Quan?"

http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/9953/quanf.jpg "There have been times in the past where one tribe brought battle to another. It could also have been left behind during the Suuligi War, instructed to target all intruders."

http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/6868/aionline.jpg "..."

http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/9440/generic2.jpg "We are Travelers, though- It's creators! Surely one of our old monitors would not-"

http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/9953/quanf.jpg "Have you heard nothing of what I have said!? Finding it is honor enough- Let us survive to enjoy it!"

http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/9440/generic2.jpg "Zo'- Power spike! Detecting LIDAR hits! It's targeting us, Zo'quan!"

http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/904/aioffline.jpg "Anomaly confirmed. Arming systems."

The scoutship continued to make the best possible speed around the planet, attempting to hide within the atmosphere for what protection it offered from sensors or weapons. The Asteroid Monitor continued to power up, revivify it's rudimentary intelligence, and bring it's ancient weapons systems back online. It was a very near race, but...


http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/5881/2012011300013.jpg
I accepted manual combat and attempted to take screenshots of the loading screen- By the time I'd finished fiddling with Steam's screenshot interface, combat had already started. Having wasted time like that, I was pretty certain it was going to end the other way. And according to the view of the fleeing ship up there, I had a pretty healthy window- I'm going to blame it on the canny old bird in charge of the ship.


http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/7219/2012011300014.jpg

Eretria is even more habitable than Nuuni, with 34 CH. A bit further away though.

As for the other worlds, Kankuen is on the nearer edge of 'prohibitive' (690 CH), but Size 7 and high resource. (With asteroid belt and Monitor!) Perhaps enough biotech will lets us colonize it. The other, Xhubasos, is a bit nearer on the 'prohibitive' (621) but less appetizing. And, of course, our scientists leave us hanging with 97% on Suspended Animation. I'm not prophet, but I'm making the prediction this will be a recurring theme... On the other hand;

http://img809.imageshack.us/img809/6573/2012011300019.jpg

Success! We can start building S.A. colonizers! Also, we can choose a new research project;

1. Weapons!- Probably VRF or UV lasers, if we choose this. Blowing stuff up is awesome, of course.(Boosted ballistic rate of fire, or quite nice small lasers.)
2. Ships! (Orbital Foundries, 5% cheaper (money-wise) ships, something the Morrigi dearly need. Cheaper colony ships is good, right? Six turns. Leads to cruisers!)
3. Colonizing! (Atmospheric Adaptation, mentioned above, seven turns. Something else the Morrigi quite need. Leads to more terraforming techs in two branches, one which rapidly start getting expensive, but all have 'group' bonuses like AA (Increase CH tolerance, increase population growth, increase terraforming.) and the other that are cheaper and may lead to some nanotechs, but only boost terraforming rates. Better colonies is good, too...)
4. Drone Tech! Expert Systems, in this case; construction costs of all ships lowered by 10%, 15% boost to all system's industrial output. More ships a turn is also good, though... (May unlock Artificial Intelligence! We won't be researching that for quite a while, though.)
5. Other- I may have forgotten a few things, or simply not be going in the right (or most fun) direction. Feel free to suggest amendments to research priority or other priority.

Note: I didn't get a good screenshot of it, (Or I thought I did, but my computer disagreed with me,) but of course I have started the 'Asteroid Monitor Control at Kankuen' project.


EDIT: Oh, and which of our explored, non-prohibitive worlds should we colonize?
http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/7452/2012011300023.jpg

[Cogwheel]

Expert Systems is, in my limited experience, a good bet. Maybe follow up with UV lasers?

I envy your speed, by the way. Possibly because I play Hivers exclusively.

[Maxymiuk]

And, of course, our scientists leave us hanging with 97% on Suspended Animation. I'm not prophet, but I'm making the prediction this will be a recurring theme...

My best guess for why this happened is that you've started the Monitor Control special project when SA was 1 turn away from completion. The chunk of budget now devoted to the project took away enough money from your main research to bump it down to 2 turns.

The way to avoid this is to exit the research screen after approving the special project, then reenter it and fiddle with the budget slider as necessary. In fact, it's best to get into the habit of checking your research screen every turn for any unexpected changes, and especially after: 1) colonizing a new planet; 2) spending a large amount of credits at once (more than your per-turn income); 3) starting special projects, as is the case here; 4) after any event that grants a research boost (disabling a derelict, defeating von neumanns, disarming old Morrigi installations, etc.).

The first of the above reasons is especially important due to the order in which the game resolves budget expenses. Planetary development has priority over research, so the planet you've colonized the previous turn will reduce your research spending for that same turn, which often leads to the infurianting "95-99% complete" scenario.


EDIT: For research, I'd suggest Atmospheric Adaptation, then UV lasers, then Battle Computers. By the time those three are done, there's a good chance we'll have run into at least one Swarm planet and it will be high time to start assembling a proper fleet to deal with the silicoid menace.

As for colonization, the only proper answer is: all three of the low cost ones.

[Grif]

I would personally go for VRF and then straight to Point Defense first. PD makes a hell lot of difference when dealing with swarm planets and I never go in without PD. If PD isn't available then UV lasers make an acceptable substitute.

And yes, Expert Systems should be next.

EDIT: Yes, I play the Ballistic tree alot. Why do you ask? :smalltongue:

/hides all his Gauss Cannon/Stormers ship.

[Silfir]

"Which of..." - All of them, from lowest CH to highest, at the very least the ones in your screenshot.

[Icedaemon]

As before, I would like to see trade researched as soon as we are able, though as we have not met an alien species, I should guess that priority goes to colonization. If we can take Eretria and Nibiru already, maybe drones.

Also, three-division beak is definitely male, or a child (http://sots.rorschach.net/Physiology,_Morrigi).

Finally, I strongly recommend less straightforward ship class names.
Xenios is a nice name for a class of trade ship, naming a class of relatively excrement-ish early-game warships after Menghkos makes for both a stealth insult and a good political move ect. Conversely, the eventual supreme warships could do with being called 'Yzhe'.

[Maxymiuk]

Actually, I find that it's generally a good idea to wait with trade research until turn 40-ish, as by then your oldest colonies will have both the population and the planetary budget to support multiple trade routes. Starting up trade too early means you have only your homeworld to rely on for routes and you end up tanking its production capability in exchange for a relatively modest income boost.

[Kane]

Alright, been poking ahead of you guys, and I have determined that, minor spoiler, we'll run into more active unpleasantness before we meet the swarm.

And my apologies for flawed communication; I meant to ask 'which do we want to settle first', but in retrospect, since we'll be doing all of them as fast as possible, and more besides, it's bit pointless to quibble over the order.

At any rate, the tech progressions you guys are tossing around seems wiser to me than what I usually go for; I'm definitely a turtle-and-research type. Given the option, I'd wait until we all had Pulsed Graviton Beams and Anti-matter cannons before fighting anyone.

Mind, I find I enjoy desperately fighting for my life far more, but I don't generally do that unless forced to.

Re: The beaks, I stand corrected, Icedaemon. That certainly makes the elusive combat-loading screens make more sense. Point of order, though, any of the ones that don't obviously have the tri-beak can represent a female; the bottom split is apparently only obvious when the 'mouth' is open to it's widest extent.

Oh, and, uh, assuming we don't get to research UV lasers before we start needing picket fleets, does anyone object to parking a few gauss cannon/missile armor-destroyers on certain colonies?

[Grif]

Alright, been poking ahead of you guys, and I have determined that, minor spoiler, we'll run into more active unpleasantness before we meet the swarm.

And my apologies for flawed communication; I meant to ask 'which do we want to settle first', but in retrospect, since we'll be doing all of them as fast as possible, and more besides, it's bit pointless to quibble over the order.

At any rate, the tech progressions you guys are tossing around seems wiser to me than what I usually go for; I'm definitely a turtle-and-research type. Given the option, I'd wait until we all had Pulsed Graviton Beams and Anti-matter cannons before fighting anyone.

Mind, I find I enjoy desperately fighting for my life far more, but I don't generally do that unless forced to.

Re: The beaks, I stand corrected, Icedaemon. That certainly makes the elusive combat-loading screens make more sense. Point of order, though, any of the ones that don't obviously have the tri-beak can represent a female; the bottom split is apparently only obvious when the 'mouth' is open to it's widest extent.

Oh, and, uh, assuming we don't get to research UV lasers before we start needing picket fleets, does anyone object to parking a few gauss cannon/missile armor-destroyers on certain colonies?

Do it. It's a bummer we missed out on emitters, since I find them to be highly effective against swarms of DEs that Hard AI and sometimes even Normal AI might throw against you in the early game. And those are no joke either. If you're massively outnumbered, be prepared to lose a colony or two to orbital bombardment.

[Silfir]

I usually delay all weapon-tech except higher C&C and ship classes, which come with access to economy tech. They can send a destroyer fleet with fancy weaponry, you respond with cruisers led by Strikeforce CnC full of old-timey gauss/missile dakka.

Cruiser tech allows access to Asteroid Mining, which I find gives a decent economic boost. After FTL Economics at the latest, I'd start gunning for AI. (Actually, I tend to go directly for AI after Expert Systems if I can, but you need to get pretty lucky with colony income for that to work.)



With tech, I try to leave the slider at full all the way to 50%. At 50%, there is a chance for an early breakthrough every turn. I still don't fully understand how early breakthroughs work though; I know I get them even with very low research rates. For instance, I generally start AI research at something like 40 turns to finish, do nothing for the 15 turns it takes to reach 50% (colonies and income grow in the meantime), then dial down to very low for quite a few turns, to get money for the colonization and trade route ventures I've been neglecting). Sometimes I get the early breakthrough even as I'm still running low research, with like 54% finished. Would someone tell me if that way of going about research is suboptimal?

[Grif]

I usually delay all weapon-tech except higher C&C and ship classes, which come with access to economy tech. They can send a destroyer fleet with fancy weaponry, you respond with cruisers led by Strikeforce CnC full of old-timey gauss/missile dakka.

Cruiser tech allows access to Asteroid Mining, which I find gives a decent economic boost. After FTL Economics at the latest, I'd start gunning for AI. (Actually, I tend to go directly for AI after Expert Systems if I can, but you need to get pretty lucky with colony income for that to work.)



With tech, I try to leave the slider at full all the way to 50%. At 50%, there is a chance for an early breakthrough every turn. I still don't fully understand how early breakthroughs work though; I know I get them even with very low research rates. For instance, I generally start AI research at something like 40 turns to finish, do nothing for the 15 turns it takes to reach 50% (colonies and income grow in the meantime), then dial down to very low for quite a few turns, to get money for the colonization and trade route ventures I've been neglecting). Sometimes I get the early breakthrough even as I'm still running low research, with like 54% finished. Would someone tell me if that way of going about research is suboptimal?

It's not suboptimal, but you're playing with Lady Luck here for the chance of an early breakthrough. Each turn, the game rolls for the chance for an early breakthrough. The chance for such increases the closer you get to 100%. If you're unlucky, you won't get the tech until 150%. For key techs like Command and Control, weaponry and Trade, I'll just run through the tech on full steam ahead.

[Kane]

I usually delay all weapon-tech except higher C&C and ship classes, which come with access to economy tech. They can send a destroyer fleet with fancy weaponry, you respond with cruisers led by Strikeforce CnC full of old-timey gauss/missile dakka.

Cruiser tech allows access to Asteroid Mining, which I find gives a decent economic boost. After FTL Economics at the latest, I'd start gunning for AI. (Actually, I tend to go directly for AI after Expert Systems if I can, but you need to get pretty lucky with colony income for that to work.)



With tech, I try to leave the slider at full all the way to 50%. At 50%, there is a chance for an early breakthrough every turn. I still don't fully understand how early breakthroughs work though; I know I get them even with very low research rates. For instance, I generally start AI research at something like 40 turns to finish, do nothing for the 15 turns it takes to reach 50% (colonies and income grow in the meantime), then dial down to very low for quite a few turns, to get money for the colonization and trade route ventures I've been neglecting). Sometimes I get the early breakthrough even as I'm still running low research, with like 54% finished. Would someone tell me if that way of going about research is suboptimal?

I think I went over it earlier, (though I have been wrong about other stuff, so who knows,) but I believe it works like this; once you're over fifty percent, every turn it converts your research money into research points and that into research progress, it looks at where that leaves you. (Say, from 48% you get 13%) Then it takes your progress, subtracts fifty percent (so 48%+13%=61%; 61%-50%=11%) and rolls against that for whether you 'discover' something. This continues right up to 150%, where you get the tech automatically.

So assuming I'm correct, you've got a fairly efficient method of getting it, though I might suggest waiting for 60% before cutting down to minimum greater-than-zero research expenditure.

[ShellBullet]

Is there still time to vote? I vote for colonazion. More population and planets can't go wrong....Right?

[Kane]

Unless I'm busy writing up the update when you vote, or have already acted based on the vote, I don't think it can be too late.

Figuring out my update format; put up with the fluctuations for a bit longer. Where we left off...

System Update...



http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/5907/2012011600001p.jpg

An all-tribes bulletin was sent out, and warnings about the dangers of the ancient Monitors were reluctantly taken to hearts. Many lives were assuredly saved, as the Ancestors built to last; all of the monitors that were encountered remained functional and lethally operational.

http://img853.imageshack.us/img853/6783/2012011600005.jpg

While the warning prevented the Ancestor's derelicts from causing harm, nothing could have done the same for the foul children of the dust...

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/3830/2012011600011.jpg


http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/3433/2012011600012.jpg

Detecting no life-signs on the barren and icy world, our brothers turned their attention to those they detected in orbit. Explorers like themselves, they assumed, while they attempted to make sense of the primitive vessels and radiant emissions. Aware that despite their superior vessel, they were outnumbered, our brothers moved to retreat to the interstellar void.

http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/7841/2012011600014.jpg

The dustlings, however, were not content to let them go and only too late our brothers became acutely aware of just which dustlings these were...

http://img859.imageshack.us/img859/2752/2012011600013.jpg

Zuuligi!* The pestilential creatures, weapons, used against us in the Suuligi War! Tools of the Suuligi! A bioweapon dropped on worlds, who slaughtered our sisters and wives!

But these were not the vile tools we remembered. These were a breed apart, 'evolved', as such a word can be applied to beasts. These were not a bioweapon to destroy a world and then starve themselves out- These had been here for decades. And worse; these had spaceflight.

http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/4076/2012011600015.jpg

And so our brothers fled- Even in their flight, though, they were Travellers, the Star-born. They did not panic, though they knew their end was close. The entirety of their battle was transmitted, as well as all they could read of the Vile One's emissions and drives.

http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/80/2012011600016.jpg



http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/2236/2012011600017.jpg

Sadly, the battle proved all too short, and our kin were unable to escape. They were not captured, at least; their lives ended with merciful speed when the Zuul weapons detonated their fuel tanks- Merciful for all, as they offered no information to their murderers, and they were spared becoming captives of the Vile Ones.



Though their bodies and vessel were consigned to the dark of the void, they were not lost to memory; Knossai raised a tholos in memory of the dead. But though we did not forget them, we could not halt- our explorers continued, and plans to settle worlds anew continued.....

http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/6070/2012011600018.jpg

Another Monitor was discovered, a small string of colonizable worlds, and our explorers continued, now taking care to avoid the Vile One's domain. In time, we would come to cast them down, to purify their infestation with fire... But we were not yet ready.

They were not the only ones, though...

http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/9333/2012011600020.jpg



http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/5529/2012011600021.jpg
Somehow we remain first in population....

http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/5443/2012011600022.jpg
Changing courses to avoid getting our explorers blown up...


http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/2595/2012011600024.jpg
Discovering new worlds for the Tribes, and more of these dustlings with the strangely dense ships...

We got a Expert Systems a few turns early, and have one or two colonies at this point, I believe. What next, Council? I would lean towards terraforming techs, though as seen, we have some rather barbaric and aggressive neighbors. (No, nothing else was acquired, sadly.)

On the other hand, we have THREE Asteroid Monitors I'm fairly certain will end up ours,
http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/6940/2012011600025.jpgWorlds with the blue arrows/markings around them.

and there's a chain of excellent habitable worlds just past the Monitors
http://img809.imageshack.us/img809/1491/2012011600026.jpgShamballa has less than ten CH, Henja has less than two CH, Zhadum has 190-ish CH, and is size nine with over five thousand resources. (AND an asteroid belt!) Also, if you've got a good eye, you can see some of our non-Zuul dustlings in the back, though we haven't done much to determine what we think of them yet.


*'-igi' is the Morrigi 'tribe' suffix. 'Suuligi' is the tribe of the Suul('ka), 'Zuuligi' is the tribe of the 'Zuul'.

[Icedaemon]

Perhaps you are leaping forward a bit too quickly. What world(s) were colonized? Where are colony ships heading to? Have non-tanker-ships been produced and, if so, what was their type and name? The more information we have, the more we can comment and work on our characters.

[Silfir]

Two worlds lower than 10 CH? Dang, that's tasty. I hope the colonizers are already on their way.

[Kane]

Perhaps you are leaping forward a bit too quickly. What world(s) were colonized? Where are colony ships heading to? Have non-tanker-ships been produced and, if so, what was their type and name? The more information we have, the more we can comment and work on our characters.

Very good questions. I'm learning, remember.


http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/8459/2012011800001.jpg
First colony, visible on the political map. We've run into Zuul, but not their worlds, so they don't show up as a region, only as an entity. Same with the Liir.

http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/8576/2012011800005.jpg
A colony about to become... (Colonizer fleet with 'colonize' order activated. Will be colony next turn.)

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/103/2012011800006.jpg
Our main fleet heading out- eight S.A. colonizers, (I'll take suggestions on a better name,) and eight-ish tankers along with a gravboat for max speed. Two excess gravboats remain at the homeworld (I'm not terribly experienced with using them.) Target is Teoxhcas, and Knossai is busy building up the fleet for the frontier chain I mentioned.


Speaking of that frontier chain... Colonizable worlds;

http://img843.imageshack.us/img843/2894/2012011800002.jpg
I've attempted to highlight them with the 'attack' marker. It doesn't seem to be sufficiently visible. Shamballa, currently selected, is the start of that chain I mentioned, and it does look delectable. All identified worlds are ~300 or less.

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/6163/2012011800003.jpg
These two are too near the Zuul for me to want to colonize them- Perpetually at risk, I'd think, though I may be thinking wrong. As always, feel free to correct me if I need it. Oh, there's also one less-than-300-CH world way out near the Liir, but that may be hard to take and hold as well.

Finally, the Zuul themselves. (Seriously, these guys aren't remotely nice.)
http://img641.imageshack.us/img641/1452/2012011800004.jpg
These 'rally' markers seem much more effective. At any rate, our scouts have detected zuul ships on each of those worlds and altered course to avoid them. Mogo, selected, is probably not a colony or even colonizable, but was where our first-contact combat played out.



Anyway, hope this helps; if you want any other information, feel free to ask. (Oh, and with regards to research, the Liir and Zuul languages are now available to research, as we have encountered their respective species. Both will take two turns at this point. May wish to get one of them, since we have Expert Systems now. Or not, Zuul are terrible people, and Liir are rather fickle allies.)

And sorry about the oh-god-what quadruple post. My browser was behaving most erratically.

[Maxymiuk]

Researching the first level of Zuul xenotech is always a good idea due to the awesome War mission (disclaimer: some races may find it more awesome than others).

I'd suggest getting the first level of Liir xenotech as well and trying to get an NAP with them. If that works, grab the colony near them, grab the colonies near the Zuul, and start teching for conflict.

You'll definitely want point defense before tangling with them, otherwise you'll get buried under missles. Other than that, early Zuul ships are made of paper, so they shouldn't be too much trouble against a moderately well armed fleet.

[Kane]

Researching the first level of Zuul xenotech is always a good idea due to the awesome War mission (disclaimer: some races may find it more awesome than others).

I'd suggest getting the first level of Liir xenotech as well and trying to get an NAP with them. If that works, grab the colony near them, grab the colonies near the Zuul, and start teching for conflict.

You'll definitely want point defense before tangling with them, otherwise you'll get buried under missles. Other than that, early Zuul ships are made of paper, so they shouldn't be too much trouble against a moderately well armed fleet.

Can you give me a rundown on which races those are awesome for? I haven't really used them too often, I'm afraid.

[Grif]

I never really liked the War mission section myself. (IIRC it has medium mounts at the expense of armour and number of turrets. I'm certain it sucks on humans at least.)

[Maxymiuk]

Can you give me a rundown on which races those are awesome for? I haven't really used them too often, I'm afraid.

Partially depends on which ship size you use it for, but overall War is absolutely awesome for Hivers and Tarkas and pretty terrible for Humans and Liir. Morrigi are roughly in the middle - their War sections tend to be the most expensive and with the least health compared to other races, but they give you 1 small/3 medium mounts on destroyers and 2 small/3 heavy on cruisers. With the right choice of weapons, this makes for a massive damage output in early to mid game.

I usually play on far larger maps, so I rarely end up in serious fights before getting cruisers - so take this from a grain of salt - but if we get a solid medium mount weapon researched, I can see the War section helping us tear apart early game Zuul.

[Silfir]

Shamballa looks way too good to pass up, proximity to the Zuul be damned. You could colonize it with a single ship and it would grow fast enough to be able to defend itself very quick. Even if it does get murderated, you lose almost nothing: only the colonizers you spent (you don't have to use twelve) and a criminally low 1000 spacebucks starting cost. Worlds this good (<10 CH is paradise in itself, combined with an enormous size and resources count...) cannot be left alone.

Personally, my eyes glaze over at the sheer size of the colonizer fleets you send out combined with the gravboats and tankers. I know that you don't want to send just one, but there's such a thing as too many as well, isn't there? At some point, waiting for extra colonizers to be built and paid for exceeds the headstart in planetary development you get, especially if there are several other very delectable targets at risk of getting snatched up and turned into another 500 CH "meh" target by some meddlesome alien freeloaders.

I remember playing the Morrigi precisely once, though, and I don't think I built a single gravboat (are those expensive or what). So chances are excellent I just suck. But seriously, colonieeeeees.

EDIT: I mean, I get that starting close to the Zuul is a terrifying prospect, but how much more terrifying is it if you're going to be down in research and spacebirdpower because you don't take the opportunities you get?

[Kane]

Shamballa looks way too good to pass up, proximity to the Zuul be damned. You could colonize it with a single ship and it would grow fast enough to be able to defend itself very quick. Even if it does get murderated, you lose almost nothing: only the colonizers you spent (you don't have to use twelve) and a criminally low 1000 spacebucks starting cost. Worlds this good (<10 CH is paradise in itself, combined with an enormous size and resources count...) cannot be left alone.

Personally, my eyes glaze over at the sheer size of the colonizer fleets you send out combined with the gravboats and tankers. I know that you don't want to send just one, but there's such a thing as too many as well, isn't there? At some point, waiting for extra colonizers to be built and paid for exceeds the headstart in planetary development you get, especially if there are several other very delectable targets at risk of getting snatched up and turned into another 500 CH "meh" target by some meddlesome alien freeloaders.



I remember playing the Morrigi precisely once, though, and I don't think I built a single gravboat (are those expensive or what). So chances are excellent I just suck. But seriously, colonieeeeees.

EDIT: I mean, I get that starting close to the Zuul is a terrifying prospect, but how much more terrifying is it if you're going to be down in research and spacebirdpower because you don't take the opportunities you get?
First of all, that was a typo, eight, not twelve colonizers for one world. Second, the reason it's sixteen ships is because I've built a fleet of tankers/gravboats so that A, fleets get there at higher speeds, and B, the tankers get back at higher speeds. 'Eight' I'm using just because I've been told that's the best number for getting a colony on it's feet.

I am also going to be assembling a god-awful-huge colonizer fleet shortly, but that will be to go colonize Shamballa (which is thankfully nowhere near the Zuul, relatively speaking. Further than our homeworld, at any rate.), Zhadun, and Henja, plus whatever has been discovered nearby at that point.

As always, feel free to persuade me if you think I'm wrong; I was just told "One colonizer per ten CH up to a maximum of eight" was a good rule of thumb.

Edit: Just to be clear, Shamballa and what not are my next target. The ones I was worried about being too close to Zuul space were the ones past Eretria.

[Silfir]

I must have misread your report then, I thought Shamballa was the one too close to the Zuul.

I didn't even know the rule of thumb (I think I read about it and forgot at some point). I usually go with "as many as I can build in one turn plus the tanker", since I also usually go with just one tanker (if the system is really far away, I either build a second tanker or keep some colonizers behind). That usually comes out to four, five with cybernetic interfaces, six with expert systems, as human. If I end up with even more than that, I tend to distribute them and colonize yet another planet.

Out of curiosity, just how fast is an eight ship colonizer fleet a) with gravboats and extra ships b) just enough tankers to get them to their destination?

One humble request; at the end of a report, you could include a screencap of the Fleets screen, sorted by ETA. That way we know just how many ships you have flying around and how many colonizer fleets (the ones with multiple DE in it, presumably) are underway and where.

[xp194]

Given the Morrigi 'group photo' one page two, Purple Armour Morrigi is much larger than Green Staff Morrigi. This has always lead me to assume that Purple is a female.

An interesting note on the Morrigi is their rather extreme sexual dimorphism, both cuturally and biologically. Females, living primarily on planets, can get as long as six metres, beak to tail, and as mentioned, primarily work on the things that happen groundside, though space stations later on blur the distinction a little.

Males are a lot smaller, generally, with a length of around 3 metres and capable of some degree of flight, unlike the females. Notably, the Females tend to exhibit the more 'reptilian' traits, whereas the males tend to be more birdlike.

Anyway... I tend to pursue point defence this early on in a game. It's a life saver against some of the things the galaxy throws against you.

[Icedaemon]

Can we eventually make these (http://sots.rorschach.net/Propaganda)?
Have there been other battles? If all the original tankers which ran into Zuul territory were lost, I might be taking some liberties, but, then, do you really count tankers?
How many turns do you go between posts? Seems like more than one.
As for colony ships names, I would suggest that you base it on the cryogenic suspension a bit. Also since those are currently made by womens' groups who until reasonably recently were part of disparate tribes, that they have a somewhat commercial-ish class names, making it seem more of a product. Something like 'Sweet Dreams' or 'Dreamwing'.

Tikalos is content, happy even. Despite the horrifying implications of the exploratory fleet's first contact with the Zuuligi, there was some silver lining to the whole encounter - a few of the kzoproliths made it back to safe space. As their route back was not too dissimilar from their original path, Tikalos had asked for leave to venture back onto Nibiru in hopes of completing his more detailed map. He was hardly the only lad on the pretend-destroyer who wanted to go - many were hoping to impress the new colonists with their tales and what trinkets they had acquired. However, most importantly to him, among those who did end up taking the shuttle down Tikalos was clearly the one with the highest aanigi'dha.

Not one to let an opportunity go by, Tikalos put several of the more timid crew members to work on his project, doing his best to make his being the zo'qu'aan of the shuttle seem like something that just plainly should be set in stone.

All the while exploring the ruins he had been called away from not too long ago, he had established a temporary base nearby and played mission control to his little peons.

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/2582/morrigi1.jpg
They will be here soon. Anything new?

[Silfir]

Once I fit them with the Suspended Animation upgrade, I usually rename them "HardColonizer", and upgrade that model to Mk 5 or somesuch over time. Because I can't come up with names for crap. If I'm especially lazy, they just end up being "Colonizer Mk2" (since there is no reason to build SuspA-less colonizers anyway if you can get it).

I think it's more important to have recognizable names as opposed to fancy names anyway.

[Icedaemon]

Recognizable might be more practical and easy, but this is a lets play, one that could from the looks of things end up a good one. Any character and flourish we can pile onto the already established story should be at least considered.

[Tome]

Quite enjoying this LP by the way. :smallbiggrin:

[Kane]

Out of curiosity, just how fast is an eight ship colonizer fleet a) with gravboats and extra ships b) just enough tankers to get them to their destination? Base speed is one. A gravboat counts as a Destroyer and will add the 'gravboat' LY/T, and I think an additional destroyer increases it by 1/9 LY. (So an anything and a gravboat would be 2+1 for gravboat + 1/9 for an extra destroyer.) The maximum speed at this level is four, I believe, which is a gravboat and nine other destroyers. (Pulsed fission might change this, but we don't have it and I don't know.)



One humble request; at the end of a report, you could include a screencap of the Fleets screen, sorted by ETA. That way we know just how many ships you have flying around and how many colonizer fleets (the ones with multiple DE in it, presumably) are underway and where.I'll be happy to try and do that in the future (remind me if I forget,) but I'm not sure it will be entirely clear; currently, we've got ten-odd one-tanker scout fleets flying around, and they'd probably confuse the issue somewhat.

[/qUOTE=Icedaemon;12559048]Can we eventually make these (http://sots.rorschach.net/Propaganda)?
Have there been other battles? If all the original tankers which ran into Zuul territory were lost, I might be taking some liberties, but, then, do you really count tankers? [/quote]
So far we've had three asteroid monitor encounters, none of which proved lethal, one encounter with the zuul, and are about to have one encounter with the liir, though I think I can make that non-lethal as well, should it be necessary. (Run away around the planet. The Liir are slow near planets.)

There was one encounter with the Zuul, and the tanker was destroyed. Other ships that have detected Zuul at their destination have altered course to avoid them, leading to a cluster of unexplored stars within our 'explored' radius.



How many turns do you go between posts? Seems like more than one.

So far, about one tech, which has been 6-9 turns depending on the tech. It is more than one, though stopping and demanding input every or even every other turns seems like it would be a poor idea. I have been trying to resolve 'obvious' things without input, such as trying not to get killed by asteroid monitors, beginning their special projects, and exploring as fast/efficiently as possible.



As for colony ships names, I would suggest that you base it on the cryogenic suspension a bit. Also since those are currently made by womens' groups who until reasonably recently were part of disparate tribes, that they have a somewhat commercial-ish class names, making it seem more of a product. Something like 'Sweet Dreams' or 'Dreamwing'.


Hmm. I like it. "Founding Dreams", perhaps, or something of the sort. Will be changing them to something more interesting shortly.


Regarding concerns about being able to make sense of names; I'm inclined to think that some liberties can be taken with the names, and would probably be worth it; I'll try and get a screenshot of every 'designed' ship, and we can probably use, for instance, [same name] Mk. I, II, III, and so on for colonizer designs. Seems like it would keep it reasonably intelligable but still with some flavor.

Note: One of the awesome things we start out with is the basic-level drone tech. Meaning we can build drone-destroyers, which would be excellent against Zuul; Drones are too fast to be hit by missiles, and probably can't be hit by their gauss cannons either. Meanwhile our host ships would be running away at full speed. Obviously not fully exploitable* until we get Battle Computers, but still, anyone want to name our first DE Drone design?


Oh, and glad people are enjoying this. That's what it's here for. :smallbiggrin:


*This is due to the arbitrary headcount system; Something like one dreadnought, or two cruisers, or four or five destroyers is what you're normally allowed to field in a battle. Battle Computers is the tech that gives you destroyer-sized C&C ships, that will allow you to field up to twenty command points worth of ship, including the C&C ship- (A DE is 2 CP, a CR is 6, a DN is 18.)

With Battle computers, our theoretical max-size drone host would go from 8-10 (two per DE) to 36, a nice progression, I think.

[MLai]

are about to have one encounter with the liir, though I think I can make that non-lethal as well, should it be necessary.
Just sit there on ceasefire mode. The dolphins will flit around you for a while, take some readings, and 4 minutes will be up. Then take a few turns to research dolphin-speak and they'll quickly sign NAP with you. I never go to war with them; plenty of Zuul and Tarka in the galaxy who'll be glad to help in that regard.


Because I can't come up with names for crap... I think it's more important to have recognizable names as opposed to fancy names anyway.
It's a good habit to come up with your own set of fancy names for ship classes that you'll always use for that species. Practical names may seem like a good idea at first... until you play MP.

Opposing player: "Oh he's sending a fleet against me... what's this, he didn't edit the ship names at all... 10 CR Blazers? 20 CR Drones? 30 DE Torpedoes? Oh I guess I'll just start massing gauss point defence ships and disruptor shield sections MWAHAHAHAHA.":smallbiggrin:

(Or you could be sneaky and name your dedicated mass driver cruisers as Blazers. But that's more of an one-off trick.)

I recommend naming ship classes after:Mesoamerican pantheon. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aztec_religion)
or: Terror birds and other ancient dino-birds. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phorusrhacidae)

[Icedaemon]

The space dolphins actually do start out peaceful? Excellent.

In the beginning, this pace of updates is fine, but I do believe transitioning to every 2-3 turns soonish could be applicable. For one, we are effectively at war.

As for the drone ships, since they are to be sent against an old enemy, revenge-themed names would make sense. Vendetta's Flock, for instance, could fit a series of drone cruisers designed specifically to hurt Zuul. The Mesoamerican pantheon does also sound like a good idea though.

Also, can I get more information on Nibiru once it has been colonized?

[xp194]

Dealing with Liir 101:

Liir are peace loving dolphin/whale things for the most part. Of all the races, they are most inclined to be, well, friendly and reasonable.

However, if you piss them off sufficiently, they declare you basically an anathema to all living things and will /not/ stop until you or them are wiped out. Given that they often have a fairly large tech advantage due to their research bonus... Well, it's not a nice sight.

I would also encourage caution about any immediate plans for attacking the Zuul. Early game, they out gun and out number anyone. However, they need to keep attacking and getting slaves and stuff, otherwise eventually their economy will stall hard. Additionally, Salvage is their primary way of researching new things. A Zuul horde left alone and simply fended off, in SotS Prime, at least, is one that is a complete joke to wipe out later on. We'd be better off looking for Humans or Tarka, because they can easily be /very/ nasty.

[MLai]

Yes I took out a couple of dolphin worlds early on in my SOTS1 gaming career... totally NOT worth doing. It was ridiculous how singleminded they became towards facilitating my extinction. Srsly not even the Zuul are that singleminded (Zuul actually do get distracted with other targets of opportunity, at least).:smallfrown:

The only time I act against the dolphins is when I ask them to surrender to me when they only have a couple of worlds left, due to fighting someone else. Just me helping out a friend, is all.:smallwink:

And yeah, unless you mean to utterly win, don't go invading a Zuul world only to retreat after a few wounds. When you do that, chances are the next time you see them, they'll be sporting your favorite state-of-the-art weapon. You did just hand it over to them a few turns ago, after all. :smalltongue:

[Grif]

On colonisation.

You know you're not colonising fast enough when one of your worlds isn't being invaded and nuked to a radioactive wasteland. :smalltongue::smallbiggrin:

[MLai]

Anyone has any luck with this ship setup?

Midsection = Point Defence.
All the small weapon mounts meant for PD lasers = Sniper cannon.

When I first heard this ship design, I thought it sounded like a wonderful exploit. 18-ish sniper cannons on 1 cruiser ship!

But the actual ship in combat seems lackluster. Maybe I'm not using it right? Maybe the only things I should be aiming for are enemy weapon turrets, and not actually trying to destroy ships with it?

So far, the only use I have found for sniper cannons are as small turret mounts for my missile boats and CnCs, since those tend to stay far away from the general furball. Hmm... maybe I'll have more success massing Destroyers with Strafe fore-sections armed with sniper cannons? Because Destroyers don't live long inside a Cruiser furball, this way I can have Destroyers that actually contribute and still survive battles?

[Kane]

Anyone has any luck with this ship setup?

Midsection = Point Defence.
All the small weapon mounts meant for PD lasers = Sniper cannon.

When I first heard this ship design, I thought it sounded like a wonderful exploit. 18-ish sniper cannons on 1 cruiser ship!

But the actual ship in combat seems lackluster. Maybe I'm not using it right? Maybe the only things I should be aiming for are enemy weapon turrets, and not actually trying to destroy ships with it?

So far, the only use I have found for sniper cannons are as small turret mounts for my missile boats and CnCs, since those tend to stay far away from the general furball. Hmm... maybe I'll have more success massing Destroyers with Strafe fore-sections armed with sniper cannons? Because Destroyers don't live long inside a Cruiser furball, this way I can have Destroyers that actually contribute and still survive battles?

On first consideration, I thought the same thing. I quickly came to the conclusion, however, that the medium and large turrets your forgo for the point defense mission section are probably worth more. Don't know if that's right,- Certainly would be interesting to spam destroyers armed with nothing but as many pulsed phasers as possible- but that's the conclusion I came to.


System Update...

Those dolphins do not play nice. I'll admit I didn't check it this time, but when I was puttering on ahead, they were not content to peaceful resolve. Jerks.
http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/9656/2012012000001.jpg
So naturally, we make like Sir Robin.

http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/8714/2012012000002z.jpg
We arrive....

http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/5619/2012012000004a.jpg
The unpleasant dolphins...

http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/8708/2012012000005.jpg


http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/585/2012012000007.jpg
Running...

http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/9247/2012012000011.jpg
More running... Liir are slow near planets. Conversely, we don't want to run into them in deep space. At any rate, peaceful resolution...

http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/1289/2012012000012.jpg
Peaceful Liir my tail-feathers. These guys are jerks...



Overall update:


http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/2910/2012012000013.jpg
Our little galactic disc...

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/8593/2012012000014.jpg
Knossai, Eretria, and, of course, Nibiru, our latest jewel in the empire...

http://img861.imageshack.us/img861/3589/2012012000015.jpg
Hehe. Somehow we're first in population...

http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/4456/2012012000016.jpg
Two turns worth of research gets us the language, and while I still don't trust these fish, perhaps we can work with them for a bit.

http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/3042/2012012000017.jpg
Xenotech section of the research screen. Zuul first language on left, Liir second language available on right, and the four Morrigi languages we started with in the center. Also, the Liir's 'ceasefire' dialogue... Every race in the game has their own way of phrasing the stock diplomacy messages, as well as their own scrambler for impeding communication without the techs researched...

http://img838.imageshack.us/img838/347/2012012000018.jpg
Oh, and look, a Zuul fleet and one of our scouts heading for the same world. Maybe we can get there before them.

http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/6621/2012012000019.jpg
Ceasefires are peace between ships and in deep space. Not colonies. And with thirty eight ships there, that looks like their capital, and a very good way to get our poor scout murdered. Altering bearing.

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/6374/2012012000020e.jpg
End of turn rankings...

http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/8556/2012012000021.jpg
Turn twenty two. Overview of the empire...

http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/4247/2012012000022.jpg
Teoxhacos being colonized. Ferry fleet making it's way back to the capital... And guess what?

http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/567/2012012000023.jpg
A Morrigi independent colony! Which, of course, immediately surrenders and becomes part of our empire! Free planet, basically, with zero CH and quite a lot of civilian population. Low production for a few turns, but we're already getting money from it.

http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/2458/2012012000024.jpg
Our slightly larger empire, Teoxhacos and whatnot added. Five worlds, now.

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/8663/2012012000026.jpg
And, lo and behold, we are #1 for colonies. Don't expect that to stick. Also, if you notice the event banner in the upper right, we just acquired control of an Asteroid Monitor. Yay for ancient battlestation! +15% to research for five turns.

http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/5111/2012012000027.jpg
As previously mentioned, we ended up racing some Zuul to an unexplored world. Zuul are slow (1.54 LY/turn, I think,) when drilling their node lines, but faster once they actually exist. (3.00 LY/turn, at this tech level.) We explore it first, then shove off before they arrive.

http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/9646/2012012000029.jpg
Minor problem...

http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/5931/2012012000030.jpg
A liir world. Our tanker here would normally be doomed. But look; asteroids!

http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/8893/2012012000031.jpg
Asteroids on the sensor-view. You notice how the sensor view doesn't extend near the asteroids? What we're going to do is fly into the sensor shadow of one of those, then just hang out there. The planet won't be able to see it, and therefore won't be able to target it with missiles. And so we merely wait for the combat timer to run out. No casualties, Liir mildly displeased, system surveyed.

http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/700/2012012000034.jpg And our other neighbors- The Tarkas. Zuul on the right, Liir in the center, and Tarkas on the left. Tarka seem to be far to the left, though, and are slightly slower than we are to expand.

http://img651.imageshack.us/img651/9533/2012012000035.jpg
And thus we reach the end of turn twenty four, and will shortly acquire orbital foundries, reducing ship's monetary cost. After that, what, Battle Computers, VRF, and PD? Better missile warheads? The second-tier Liir language? Please, tell me.

And as a side note; the fleet for Henja/Shamballa/Zhadun will be leaving T24 or 25, and I will be adding more narration when I get a chance. This weekend was somewhat hectic for me.



Oh, and, someone requested it, and I remembered to take the screenshot, but forgot to upload it.:smallannoyed:
http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/3903/2012012000038.jpg
Our fleets. The bottom one should be our shiny, brand-new (ancient) asteroid monitor.

[MLai]

I'd say VRF then PD. At Random Encounter 100%, PD is absolutely critical in handling expanding Swarms and everybody's missile spam (especially Zuul).

Alliances are important especially for Morrigi; you need the trade profits. Unlike other empires, war is not good for your coffers.

I'm surprised you've explored SO MUCH. I guess tanker-scouts really work. :smallsmile:

[xp194]

Uh... Yeh.

You ran into one of their Extended Range scouts from the looks of things.

Then... entered combat? You probably could have resolved peacefully.

Whelp. Enjoy the Genocidal War that they'll probably launch now. :-p

[Grif]

Uh... Yeh.

You ran into one of their Extended Range scouts from the looks of things.

Then... entered combat? You probably could have resolved peacefully.

Whelp. Enjoy the Genocidal War that they'll probably launch now. :-p

Fishies aren't really picky about losing a ship or two. It's when you start burning their worlds that you get all the genocidal rage.

[MLai]

Yes, in background terms, that's because they consider the Black Swimmers to be already dead. They're treated kind of like Kamikaze pilots.

Planets, otoh, not only contain "living" dolphins, but also Elders. The life of one Elder is worth 10 of your worlds.

I love how the AI roleplays in this game. :smallsmile:

[Kane]

Hey, hey, nobody lost any ships there. Based on my previous experience, I manually resolved and ran the hell away. The dolphins were upset because (I assume,) they did not achieve their desired objective in combat, re: killing our poor scout ship. Nobody died, despite their best efforts. Likewise, when I showed up at their world with the asteroid belt, nobody died then either.

It may be that Liir make good allies, but they've always been rather fickle for me. Maybe I don't research their languages early enough.:smallconfused:

Random Encounters have yet to deal any tremendous amounts of ********, too. We are not only not hemmed in by Swarm Infestations, but all the Alien Derelicts seem to have given us a wide berth. I'm sure there are dozens of colony and asteroid traps lying all over the place, but we don't actually care much about that, being Morrigi. :smallcool:

[Grif]

In my experience, the Liir will always give you a NAP as soon as you got their language and made it clear you aren't interesting in conquering them. They're certainly easier to reason with (slightly) than humans or Tarkans.

[xp194]

Hey, hey, nobody lost any ships there. Based on my previous experience, I manually resolved and ran the hell away. The dolphins were upset because (I assume,) they did not achieve their desired objective in combat, re: killing our poor scout ship. Nobody died, despite their best efforts. Likewise, when I showed up at their world with the asteroid belt, nobody died then either.


Not to berate, but if you'd autoresolved peacefully, in my experience at least, the same thing would have happened if you'd manually resolved and held fire. Both ships would have poked at each other a bit curiously and then moved on.

[Grif]

In my experience, the Liir will always give you a NAP as soon as you got their language and made it clear you aren't interested in conquering them. They're certainly easier to reason with (slightly) than humans or Tarkans.

[Silfir]

3.5 million spacebucks? I usually spend it all on research and colonizers at such an early stage. Am I doing something seriously wrong?

I guess with that kind of trust fund at home you immediately jacked research up to the max to make the most of the bonus?

[Kane]

3.5 million spacebucks? I usually spend it all on research and colonizers at such an early stage. Am I doing something seriously wrong?

I guess with that kind of trust fund at home you immediately jacked research up to the max to make the most of the bonus?

I generally put the research slider at 80% and never touch it. (Little white lie; overall I don't touch it, but will occasionally meddle with it for a specific project or special circumstances.)

Now, between that, and building only one turn in advance- (I queue up projects right over the one turn line, so as not to waste interest on my money or industrial output/construction. Requires micro-managing, but with the loading-of-autosaves I'm doing when I forget to take screenshots, this isn't much more.) - I'm actually losing money, but not at a tremendous rate. 80% research and max building every turn, but with only one planet building stuff, and not terribly adventurous colonization. Also, I started with 5,000,000 spacebucks. (Starting with 5,000 is just masochistic.)

Though, I'll remind you, I only claimed to be functionally competent, not 'good'. As they say, Losing is Fun.

[MLai]

the Liir will always give you a NAP as soon as you got their language and made it clear you aren't interesting in conquering them.
So not only do you intend to conquer them, you're also uninteresting while doing so.
I like this version of your interspecies diplomacy better.

That does bring up the Liir's enigmatic (and ominous) diplomatic communiques. "We would reclaim you from the Black." WTH does that mean?! Reclaim as in conquer? As in recycle?? Are you declaring Exterminatus on me?!

Only after reading up on Liir did I understand they actually mean that they like me enough to want to "save" me from the "death-exile" of space.

[Grif]

I generally put the research slider at 80% and never touch it. (Little white lie; overall I don't touch it, but will occasionally meddle with it for a specific project or special circumstances.)

Now, between that, and building only one turn in advance- (I queue up projects right over the one turn line, so as not to waste interest on my money or industrial output/construction. Requires micro-managing, but with the loading-of-autosaves I'm doing when I forget to take screenshots, this isn't much more.) - I'm actually losing money, but not at a tremendous rate. 80% research and max building every turn, but with only one planet building stuff, and not terribly adventurous colonization. Also, I started with 5,000,000 spacebucks. (Starting with 5,000 is just masochistic.)

Though, I'll remind you, I only claimed to be functionally competent, not 'good'. As they say, Losing is Fun.

Aw. I usually start with 50k credits and ONE planet. :smallbiggrin:

Makes for a refreshing change of pace. Also,

@MLai
Guess my correction didn't go through. I meant, *interested. :smallbiggrin:

[Icedaemon]

May I also take in-character control of the orange diplomat? He would be Tikalos' in-family rival, an older, more cautious cousin. I would also hope that making Nibiru the site of what was once a tiny Morrigi colony, albeit one too short-lived to actually be permanently terraformed, would not be out of bounds.

By the time the women arrived, Peck was gone. A worse kzoprolith than it had refueled the ship, the Morrigi still lacking the fusion technologies the oldest among them still remember using, though which none remember how to reproduce.

Other than bare minimal rations, a modular shelter with some interstellar communication capability and some rudimentary equipment to grow Morrigi-friendly crops on the planet, they had only ten air filters and three jet boosters for the eight of them. Even the lander had departed, the Zo'qu'aan of the tanker hoping to stumble onto one other world that might be worthy of colonization. The greatest treasure the archeological exploration of the site Tikalos had spotted years ago had finally paid off. The buildings were indubitably of Morrigi origin and contained a faded star chart, with a line connecting Nibiru's sun to the distant star Ze'dmore. Many hoped that this world was the original home of the group which tried to colonize Nibiru, probably during the great war. Even with so few resources, there was relatively little jockeying for position among the eight youths. Relying on one another and anticipation for the colonists' arrival lead to camradiere. While everyone was still a rival, they were a team first and far more likely to see the crews of the gravboats as rivals rather than fight among themselves.

The arrival of the colony ship and its fleet switched the communications device from choppy and unclear messages to relatively clear and exited chatter. For the time being, all the new voices were male - the crews of the great colony ship and its light escorts. The massive vessel descended soon enough, its underside and strong wings treated to withstand atmospheric entry. Nibiru is the second world colonized during the renaissance of the Morrigi and while the world might be larger and contain a slightly more hostile environment than the previously colonized Eretria, the vessel ought not be in trouble. Still, designing vessels which can utilize the space-time bow-waves of its escorts, enter a potentially caustic atmosphere as a shuttle, have enough space for thousands of safely frozen colonists and still be light enough to perform a water landing was probably not easy for the engineers. For one thing, unlike the exploratory tankers and such, these starships are largely built from the ground-up, with only some parts salvaged from old kzoproliths.

The gulf the explorers had chosen for the landing worked fine. The waters were deep and most of the coast sandy. By the time the massive ship even got near some rocks, the admittedly masterful pilot had virtually slowed it down to a halt.

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/2582/morrigi1.jpg Welcome!

... Will continue soon...

[Kane]

That update I promised on, like, Monday...

System Update...


Children of the Dust... Spacefaring... Rumors flew across the decks of the Morru'quan, the ships of the Tribes, fledgling colonies, and the capital itself. Ill news always seems to travel faster than all expectation. It was not, though, as bad as it could have been.

http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/6265/spareavatarxhbele.jpg We have found records of these dustlings, Morru'quan. Records of traveler's encounters with them prior to the Suuligi War, stretching back very sporadically over several hundred years. Not thorough by any means, of course- We only have what travelers passed on to us- but enough to establish rudimentary communications.The reports coming in suggest that a fragile truce has already been constructed, at the very least, to avoid confrontation in the void. I would not wish to test it with one of our- or their- worlds.

Thank you, Xhibele. You and your sisters work quickly, as usual. Speaking of which; did I tell you of the traveler's latest discovery?

http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/6265/spareavatarxhbele.jpg I am listening, Morru'quan.

http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/7021/quan.jpg Another enclave of our own; Biibri. The explorers who found it were overjoyed to find another remnant of the empire, and an inhabited one at that. Those who live there have requested permission to rejoin us, and I have allowed it. A new world to the empire, already fully developed, even.

http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/2739/2012012500004.jpg

http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/6265/spareavatarxhbele.jpg That... is fortunate news, Morru'quan, but the name... Isn't that near the dustling's space? If the ocean-dwellers do turn hostile, it will be difficult to protect the world...

http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/7021/quan.jpg I do not believe it will come to that. And provided we can hold such eventualities off for a decade, I believe we will be positioned well enough to defend it. We are delaying announcement of the discovery until tomorrow, but considering how fast news of the dustlings spread, I doubt news of a new colony has been kept any more secret. Speaking of which, how fare your sisters?

http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/4647/2012012500001.jpg

http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/6265/spareavatarxhbele.jpg Our closest colony does well; the planet is mostly tolerable, though many... variables need to be adjusted. I won't bore you with the environmental engineering. Some of the ruins found on the world prove it was a colony of old, and some has even been brought back into service. Teoxhacos is undergoing an identical process, but an earlier stage. Both were well chosen by your explorers, Quan.

http://img804.imageshack.us/img804/2592/2012012500003f.jpg

http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/7021/quan.jpg And Eretria?

http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/2188/2012012500002e.jpg

http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/6265/spareavatarxhbele.jpg We are not terraforming it yet, as it's almost as hospitable as Knossai itself. Instead, we are attempting to increase our resources and industrial capability there- it will make terraforming far easiers, once we decide to do so. The cost is relatively minor, enough to make it seem worthwile.

http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/7021/quan.jpg I can't say I'm pleased at it costing more, but neither can I say that it costs much in the first place. Very well. Oh, ah, if you would indulge me, I desire your opinion of the current colonization strategy.

http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/6265/spareavatarxhbele.jpg It seems adequately thought out. These three worlds-


http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/2778/2012012500007.jpghttp://img18.imageshack.us/img18/1331/2012012500008s.jpg
[img]http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/7120/2012012500006e.jpg
off to the left there is Biibri and the Liir; on the edge of the right, that purple star is Knossai.


http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/6265/spareavatarxhbele.jpg -seem like the best targets for the next wave of colonization. When developed, they'd probably form a wealthy cluster on their own, and two of them will require only the most minimal of terraforming. Hmm... Ixion, out near Biibri, seems a valid target as well. I am not sure I trust the dustlings enough to actually advise it- Personally, I think Biibri and Ixion would both need too much in the way of protection, and I would not know if it is possible.

http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/817/2012012500005.jpg

http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/7021/quan.jpg Thank you. That is in accordance with what I have been told. I occasionally try to verify that the people telling me things are correct... And that I am coming to the proper conclusions. I assume, then, something like Tzentel should be left until after that prospective 'second wave'?

http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/6265/spareavatarxhbele.jpg I see nothing wrong with that, Quan. Tzentel is probably the most hazardous world we have considered settling on, but it should be possible, and would be near to Knossai. Additionally, if Teoxhocas and Nibiru are finished developing by then, they may even be able to assist in it's support and development.

http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/8536/2012012500010.jpg

http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/7021/quan.jpg Again, the conclusions of the one I currently have examining the matter as well- I'm glad to hear my advisors agree. Ah, and as I final word- I have heard talk about colonizing Shaggai.

http://img839.imageshack.us/img839/769/2012012500009.jpg

http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/7021/quan.jpg I haven't issued a direct answer on the matter, but I am coming to the conclusion that it is too close to Zuuligi space- It would not be easily protected, and protection would be necessary, so near to the... beasts. Please, disseminate that, if you would, among your sisters.

http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/6265/spareavatarxhbele.jpg Of course, Morru'quan.

http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/7021/quan.jpg Thank you. And... Thank you for you time, Xhibele; this conversation has proven most enlightening...

Also, what should be researched after Orbital Foundries? I believe one option was 'Battle Computers'?


Edit: Oh, and, That's fine, Icedaemon.

[Silfir]

No reason to research any combat tech before Battle Computers, so I'd go for that.

[MLai]

1. Your name shall be Morokweng the Lucky. I have never seen so many empty paradise planets in all my campaigns. :smallconfused:

2. Considering your first enemy will probably be the neighboring Zuuls... yeah, need that CnC mission section asap. And point defence if you don't have it already; they love their missile spam.

[Kane]

I have no idea. The galaxy-generation or climate-hazard RNG smiled upon us this day. Perhaps in apology for the god-awful "4 out of 25 planets colonizable, one below two hundred" game I started then abandoned prior to this one. At any rate, it is pretty nifty.


I figure, barring any upsets, the progression will be Battle Computers [destroyer CNC section] >> VRF Tech [boosted projectiles rate of fire, unlocks PD tracking] >> PD Tracking [Laser/Gauss PD].

Which, honestly, looks like it ought to take us another twenty turns, though maybe some of our worlds will start making money in the interim and bring that down.

Any advice on drone weaponry, people? I'm thinking of leaving our drones with Gauss cannons as the inaccuracy seems like it will be somewhat mitigated by the drone's ability to actually close or make a strafing run, and VRF Technology will boost their firing rates. Not too experienced with light-weapon drone mounts, though.

[DaedalusMkV]

1. Your name shall be Morokweng the Lucky. I have never seen so many empty paradise planets in all my campaigns. :smallconfused:

2. Considering your first enemy will probably be the neighboring Zuuls... yeah, need that CnC mission section asap. And point defence if you don't have it already; they love their missile spam.
*Delurk*
I've seen better, in one of my games. Not in the sense of multiple CH<50, large, decent Resources planets ripe for colonization, but in the sense of the first 12 planets explored all being CH<200, and most of them being CH<150. All of them! I had 15 colonies by turn 50. My research took a dive-bomb until then, but by turn 75 I was first in all areas, because I had three times as many colonies as anyone else and a similar income disparity. Humans, BTW.


I figure, barring any upsets, the progression will be Battle Computers [destroyer CNC section] >> VRF Tech [boosted projectiles rate of fire, unlocks PD tracking] >> PD Tracking [Laser/Gauss PD].

Which, honestly, looks like it ought to take us another twenty turns, though maybe some of our worlds will start making money in the interim and bring that down.

Any advice on drone weaponry, people? I'm thinking of leaving our drones with Gauss cannons as the inaccuracy seems like it will be somewhat mitigated by the drone's ability to actually close or make a strafing run, and VRF Technology will boost their firing rates. Not too experienced with light-weapon drone mounts, though.
Definitely a good idea to go that way with Hard Zuul knocking on your door. They do love their missile spam, and you simply can't hope to win a fleet engagement without C&C ships. Your income will pick up very quickly, given the awesome planets you have to work with (and have already colonized). I expect you'll probably find that research time go down to 12-15 turns or so before the end. After that, you'll be wanting to aim for UV lasers. They are the god-kings of early-game Drone weapons tech along with Emmiters, and you didn't roll Emmiters. Hell, I wouldn't bother with Drones at all until you get UV Lasers or Emmiters; Gauss Drones seem to be even less accurate than a proper starship, sadly, and if the Zuul have access to Gauss PD the whole exercise is futile to begin with. Of course, I main Humans and Hivers, so my experience with Drones tends towards "Oh, we've been at Antimatter for a while now and I was lucky enough to roll Pulse Phasers/Antimatter Cannons. I should really research Drone tech to supplement my Destroyer Swarm/Invinvible Dreadnaughts I guess. Not like the enemy uses much Point Defense, given how I abandoned Missiles half the game ago." after the initial "Ooh, shiny!" phase wore off.

[MLai]

I've currently started a Morrigi campaign and I've had to fight beak n' talon against Swarms and Zuul for my measly CH 300 planets. Oh, and an asteroid event which wiped out a colony. Gee, thanks universe. My only chance in hell is if the #1-ranked Tarkan empire decides I'm worth NAP'ing with. Then I can hold out until he rolls in and wipes the floor with the Zuul, hopefully not glassing too many of the habitable planets in the process.

I'm using a mod which nerfs the phaser PD damage down to 30% of its original, and gives VN machines normal phaser PD instead of the haxx-PPD that Kerberos gave them. Unmodded, phaser PD is just too broken. Invalidates the end-game rock-paper-scissors dynamic.

[Silfir]

You could also lower the research time by jacking the research slider to full. It's not like 3,5 million in the bank do anything meaningful.

[Icedaemon]

I found a picture where there are certainly silhouettes of a male and a female here (http://sots2.rorschach.net/Morrigi), which I will use as 'generic female'.

Since we have several colonies with low protection and a potentially massive Liir force to the 'north', I would advise working on improving our relations further and, if feasible, going for trade.

The highly habitable worlds are probably best explained in that, instead of the Morrigi fleeing to a distant corner of the galaxy, they retreated to a few worlds of their empire which the Suuligi did not detect. Many of these worlds might have once had Morrigi colonies, but some have slightly hazardous climates due to pollution or chemical warfare. Shamballa in particular might have once been the crown jewel of the Morrigi Federation.

What happens to colony ships' gravboat escorts?

...
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/2582/morrigi1.jpgWelcome! Have our dear sisters woken already?

The first few off the vessel shake their heads, but while they might well go for what they believe is true, the doctors are already waking the sleepers. While most are disoriented from the stasis, some are already looking for the great vessel's exit. Within mere minutes, the first few females are outside.

Several of the other males show their findings to the first females they spot, or at least find attractive enough to try and court. Some of the pieces are admittedly rather fine. The largest remaining piece of the old star map is one Tikalos himself would not mind presenting. A close-up picture of the assumed apex predator of the planet is also rather fine, one young but proud Henkaris hopes to upgrade to a trophy once the Morrigi get their hands on some actual weaponry, as opposed to having to resort to flight and glamour. Others bring lesser gifts, stones with undeciphered snippets of text and stones containing the fossils of long-dead sea creatures. Tikalos holds back and watches, for the time being. He might be as young as the rest, but he is still the leader.

http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/8108/morrigi3.jpg Oh, wonderful. Are we descending for the boys from now on?

This new one might be a leader. Her garb is finer and her demenour harder than those of the first few off the ship, though she is not all that old. While she acts superior, there is enough of a hint of jesting in her voice. She would do indeed. While Tikalos is by no means one who would eschew the pleasures of the flesh, he sees this opportunity more as a chance for long-term gain, especially politically, rather than a simple bout of pleasure. Of the men of his family, he is the first on this world and at least until the highest officers of the colony ship leave the vessel the leader of the males.

Swiftly and unobtrusively, he is walking alongside her. Focusing on his glamour, he tries to look bigger, more respectable and more resplendent.

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/2582/morrigi1.jpg We were a bit too early, I must admit. Still, it gave us an opportunity to handle a thing or two.

http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/8108/morrigi3.jpg Really? There were warning lights throughout the ship, reminding me to grab an air filter. That was just a paranoid precaution, I take it? By the by, why are you trying to draw a scar on your neck?

The glamour recedes to something less faked, though Tikalos' finer aspects are still emphasized while flaws either are hidden or receive a positive spin.

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/2582/morrigi1.jpg Performance art. Are you not a fan?

http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/8108/morrigi3.jpg Is this droll trick your idea of a token? It is a unique idea, I'd suppose...

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/2582/morrigi1.jpg Just a game, what I would like to show you is our map.

http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/8108/morrigi3.jpg Is it anything like the map we received during transit? It does serve well enough.

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/2582/morrigi1.jpg An upgrade on it, more like. Far more detailed, with several archeological sites among the many places of interest and a collection of all the data we have obtained insofar.

http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/8108/morrigi3.jpg Mhmm. Could be worth a look. Tell me, how many things have you given your own name to already?

Tikalos is taken aback for a moment, but takes the opportunity to return to jests.

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/2582/morrigi1.jpg
Why, you wound me madam! Only three. I'll have you know I've mostly used my dearest relatives' names.

-------
Meanwhile, lightyears away:
-------

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/7866/morrigi2.jpg Those kzoprophages did fire upon our last vessel they came into contact with.

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8295/morrigi4.jpg
That was a first generation tanker-ship, nothing more than a junkheap with some basic engines and a lot of fuel, which suddenly flew into their space. We actually have a decent translation of their language available.

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/7866/morrigi2.jpg What we have is a very literal translation of their language, one which lacks hundreds of words and phrases by virtue of being based on what few hails we received and some partially corrupted old texts.

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8295/morrigi4.jpg It was enough though. They did understand our request for parley.

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/7866/morrigi2.jpg 'Sing the dead swimmers will yours at' was the best our translator could do with their answer. That could have meant anything, including 'oh, we would be happy to die if only we can take you bastards with us'.

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8295/morrigi4.jpg All right, the translator still does need a lot of work. That won't be a problem though, if you actually read the dossier...

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/7866/morrigi2.jpg I would have noticed that their ancestors were psychic, yes. Face-to-face communications should not be difficult, but I did also notice that the big ones were stronger in fact than most of us. They are spacefaring now, possibly smart enough to try and dominate our own minds.

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8295/morrigi4.jpg Their ancestors were also said to be the most peaceful and friendly creatures in known space.

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/7866/morrigi2.jpg And now their ships have weapons. Ah well, they will be near soon. They get to board our ship, isn't that safe? Think happy thoughts now. Children and rainbows and big pretty gardens full of pretty flowers from all over the galaxy.

...

The other diplomat is currently just used as a foil and not a character I would claim. Still on turn 20-21's material. Will try and finish the rest tomorrow.

[MLai]

Update on my own Morrigi campaign in "The Arm (of the galaxy)" that I mentioned above...

The expected Tarka assault on Zuul space never came to pass, even after I NAP'ed and then spammed them with intel on Zuul planets. Those scaly politicians lied to me just to keep my tributes flowing. :smallannoyed: In fact the Tarkan empire dropped drastically in rank. They must be having trouble in some other sector that I don't know of. But at least I don't have to worry about my flank, so I concentrated on the Zuul myself...

But after dying horribly in frontal assaults on their fortified positions (and reloading the game), I changed tactics. I can't match Zuul raw power. I realized that my strength is my strategic mobility. I can literally park scouts right next to their planets (on star map) to spy on them in plain sight. What are they gonna do, slowboat a fleet over to destroy my scout? They tried that a few times. My scouts simply flew around a tad (on star map), as birds do. I have complete intel dominance; I started posting notes on every scouted planet.

With intel, comes superiority thru guerrilla warfare. My warflocks flew around looking for lone bore-ships and straggling Zuul squadrons to pounce on. Whatever Zuul asset that's less than 50-ship strong, becomes easy prey. That includes Zuul colonies; with my new guerrilla tactics the Zuul could not keep any colonies they didn't park an armada on.

I did lose 2 planets when the Zuul just went all-out and sent an armada. But I simply sacrificed the colonies by emptying it of military assets, and continued guerrilla retribution elsewhere. As long as the motto is "The warflock is more important than any colony," then the Zuul should never be able to force a battle you don't want. I even managed to strand a Zuul armada over my destroyed colony by picking off its straggling bore-ship.

It's working. Now, by early fusion era, I've put the Zuul on the back foot. I intend to start massing X-ray laser drones with reflective coating. Should be fun against the Zuul which is still depending on green lasers (and blazers, but that's no concern for drones). :smallwink:

[Icedaemon]

How quickly do the colonies grow? How long until Nibiru starts producing spaceships?

...
http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/7866/morrigi2.jpg I must confess, the negotiations went better than i would have expected.

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8295/morrigi4.jpg Indeed. What are the chances that the people who are supposed to be nice and kind according to most records actually are reasonable?

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/7866/morrigi2.jpg Miniscule. At any rate, this is not really a full peace treaty. The only agreement we got was that their ships will not fire at ours first. That, only as long as we do not pay unexpected visits to worlds they have laid claim to.

---------

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/2582/morrigi1.jpg Another colony survived the Suuligi war? Really?

http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/8108/morrigi3.jpg Biibiri is a tiny world, the smallest habitable place I have heard of. The records we have thus far received suggest that it was not the primary inhabited world in its system, but the moon of a nearby planet which was deemed fit for colonization. When the main world was blasted into a lifeless orb of glass and rock, the survivors fled but later circled around and moved to Biibiri.

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/2582/morrigi1.jpg Any interesting technology they could send our way?

http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/8108/morrigi3.jpg Other than some advanced terraforming gear, I would doubt they have all that much. We are likely to see more people migrate here on civilian vessels, perhaps, but that's it. Even Knossai is still severely overpopulated, so growth should be fast, as long as construction goes well.

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/2582/morrigi1.jpg What of my map? Me and the boys have been exploring the rest of the world these days, but spotting ruins from the air requires keen eyes. The buildings I found first were too small to be the centre of a colony.

http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/8108/morrigi3.jpg
An incomplete gift? Tsk. In all honesty, it has been useful, though not all that much to me. I am second zo'qu'aan of the builders. Which reminds me, my break is almost over. Fashioning our vessels' wings into a ring wall is a vital task.

Tikalos agrees on this matter, though perhaps his feelings on the matter are a tad too smug. A youthful member of the suspended animator's crew did try and prove his superiority to the explorers by hunting one of the giant beasts Tikalos' group had dubbed Feu'oa Krezphaga. The creature was hardier than expected and able to fight and even kill Morrigi all the while suffering from a wound that was assumed to be fatal.

The other six colony ships have also landed by now and while not all of them were as graceful as the lead vessel, there were no crashes. A further two landed in the great gulf Tikalos' group had prepared, with the rest landing in nearby gulfs to form the central points of smaller cities. To begin with, the shape of the colony's capitol will be simple - the six wings composed into a semi-circular wall, with an opening to the sea. The rest of the ships were beached, currently simply side by side. In time, this city shall have a beautiful geometric shape like the traditional cities of the capitol, possibly one designed by Tikalos' new flame. As long as the first new cities are built alongside gulfs and up wide rivers, roadwork will be unnecessary - the sort of cargo too heavy to be moved by air cheaply can be transported via sea. Mountaintop homes, while more prestigious in Morrigi society, would require more infrastructure than a virgin colony of the shrunken confederation can afford in the beginning. There are people everywhere now, even the original archeological site is bustling with experts and mining drones. It will not be long until Nibiru launches its first spacecraft, one which Tikalos intends to try and become Qu'aan of. He is under no illusions that this would be easy - the captains and pilots of the colony ships were not the least skilled men of Knossai.

---------

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/7866/morrigi2.jpg They are still alive?

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8295/morrigi4.jpg For the time being. Didn't they get our message to leave Liir worlds alone? Those living on planets are of very high value to their navy.

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/7866/morrigi2.jpg As our women are to us. Granted, those wannabe-adventurers might not be completely to blame. It's not as if we have a map of the locations of the Liir worlds.

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8295/morrigi4.jpg A reasonable, understanding reply, from you? Have the screamers apologized?

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/7866/morrigi2.jpg I am glad you can make fun of all that. I am hardly ever contrary for its own sake.

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8295/morrigi4.jpg I suppose you're right. Keeping away from Liir worlds without knowing where exactly they are is not something we can guarantee.

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/7866/morrigi2.jpg They obviously would not just give us a map, not that we showed them around on our planets. We had only a few old records of them, they probably only had legends of us, at the most. The only guarantee that we would not go for their homeworld and wipe them out in a blitz was our word. Space is vast and full of rocks and stars. Us stumbling on one they have claimed is hardly likely. Mind you, staying in orbit long enough to take numerous pictures of the planet and its asteroid belt was rather cheeky.

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8295/morrigi4.jpg I don't think our vessels can just restart their void cutters without some cooldown.

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/7866/morrigi2.jpg Wasn't there some method of venting overheated coolant that was big news a few years back?

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8295/morrigi4.jpg One chance to instantly flee, but with the danger of being stuck whereever the ship needs to stop next? Too dangerous until we have a real peace treaty.

MLai, why not go for a warship captain here, since you are clearly someone who visits this topic often and has specific experience and views?

[Grif]

How quickly do the colonies grow? How long until Nibiru starts producing spaceships?


It's dependent on CH and your current population, which means colonies tend to grow exponentially. A CH 400 with only 500 colonists will potentially spend tens... if not hundreds of turn before becoming viable. A colony with 100m colonists and 0 CH will grow to it's max in a few turn.

Given the favourable climes Kane seemed to have found, it would be ten, maybe twenty turns for any colony to turn into a fully productive world. (Since you don't need to terraform, only infrastructure building is needed. Once that is done, you set the slider to ship building all the way.)

[Icedaemon]

Found an artist who has done some sword of the stars commissions. (http://0-duredhel-0.deviantart.com/gallery/26824919) There are only two Morrigi, but both are very reptilian in appearance, suggesting females. The left one especially looks like a cranky boss-lady.

[Cikomyr]

(been reading for a while, decided to join up to comment!)

It's been my experience that it's usually much better to develop terraforming quickly on your developing worlds. The worst drain on your resources is climate-base colony support. Even for CH50 world, it will be much better to spend the 3 turns to reduce it to 0. Your population growth will only be faster.

Infrastructure is nice, but you don't even need to spend any time developing it if you send enough colony ships and keep adding colonists to the world.

If you research Biological Transfer, your Colony Cruisers will be able to transplant some Terraforming effort themselves. With a fleet of 6-8 of such cruisers, I could reduce the CH of any world by 150-180. And that was with a Hiver ships. Morrigi ships are much better in that matter, AFAIK.

Look for yourself: Biome Colonizer (http://sots.rorschach.net/Biome_Colonizer_Section)

[MLai]

Those are some very beard-endowed females. I wonder if it's a sign of feminine beauty...
http://www.dtawanbooks.com/webboard/dtawanbooks_20080206135741.jpg
Probably.

But damn his Hiver portraits are exquisite! I feel like stealing them for modding into my game.


MLai, why not go for a warship captain here, since you are clearly someone who visits this topic often and has specific experience and views?
How does "joining" work? Wouldn't I have to "collaborate" with the thread author if I wanted to write any type of plot/story/plan?

[Kane]

Those are some very beard-endowed females. I wonder if it's a sign of feminine beauty...
-snip-
Probably.

But damn his Hiver portraits are exquisite! I feel like stealing them for modding into my game.


How does "joining" work? Wouldn't I have to "collaborate" with the thread author if I wanted to write any type of plot/story/plan?

Actually, I think some of those were commissions for SotS II: Lords of Winter. The Hiver ones are the hiver avatars for #2, and I bet the Morrigi appear in the encyclopedia somewhere (or will, when it's fixed.)


And yes, Morrigi #1 does look like a crotchety old bureaucrat.


With regards to admirals, Gimme an admiral name, a desired fleet name, and any writing directions you want; I'll try to follow them if I can.

I'll start writing about your 'admiral' when I finally get a fleet I can put you in command of.(Or, if you make a request, when I finally get the kind of fleet you want.) You can write if you wish, but don't have to. I will attempt to follow your wishes, though obviously will have to adhere to what the game dictates. (If I have to send your fleet out to desperately hold off Zuul hordes, well, either come up with a reason to relinquish command, otherwise, Half a league, half a league, half a league onward...)

My writing will probably focus on your admiral in relation to what happens in the game. (Narrating a battle, issuing him orders, that kind of thing.)

[Icedaemon]

How does "joining" work? Wouldn't I have to "collaborate" with the thread author if I wanted to write any type of plot/story/plan?

Traditionally, in these community games where in practice only one player is actually playing, the rest go for reactions to what has happened, in-character suggestions and diaries and filling out some background. As long as you do not go for a completely out of line bit of text and ask for Kane's permission if you intend to do something you might think toes the line, all should be fine.

[xp194]

I personally am wanting to be a captain/admiral at some point, but I'm waiting till we hit cruisers and our ships maybe aren't made out of tinfoil. :smallamused:

[Grif]

I personally am wanting to be a captain/admiral at some point, but I'm waiting till we hit cruisers and our ships maybe aren't made out of tinfoil. :smallamused:

I know next to nothing about Morrigi and thus is unable to play anything. :smalltongue:

[Icedaemon]

I've been going on what I've read on the wiki and other supplied materials, to be honest.

[MLai]

I know next to nothing about Morrigi and thus is unable to play anything. :smalltongue:
This. If I just joined now, my Morrigi will be like a white man trying to pass off as a Native American in 1 of those B&W films.

I've read some stunning SotS AARs and honestly I don't know where they get all their trivia from. I guess much is from general sci-fi technobabble, but there were some SotS-specific stuff. I guess I'd have to go read up Morrigi on Rorshache's site.

[Kane]

A rather belated
System Update...
Sorry. I've been busy living in interesting times...

On an interesting and daunting note, over a hundred screenshots were taken for this update. Having realized that, I will assure you that this update shouldn't include anywhere near that many if only because I don't have commentary or patience for all of them. Also, partially due to this, I've broken up this update into two portions. The next may come Wednesday-ish, provided I remember how to sleep.

Ah, yes, and since I meant to throw this up with the post detailing how we found Biibri, I missed that, and therefore;

http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/766/morrigiworldsplash.jpg
One of the crew member's renditions of Descent and Contact at Biibri.




http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/114/2012020100002j.jpg
The woman surprised us with an unexpected breakthrough, saving years of research. Celebrations were had and money was saved.

http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/1444/2012020100003.jpg
Here we see the new research opportunities. Reflective Coating/Polysilicate Alloys are armor techs, vs. energy weapons or ballistics/missiles, respectively. In the middle we have the xenology techs, our own languages, the one language of the Liir we've researched, and on the far left, Battle Computers, the primary branch of the C3 tech tree, which we're researching now.

http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/2043/2012020100004.jpg
Along with the breakthroughs in ship manufacturing, we finally managed to take control of a second of the ancient Monitors. Not only are they fortresses quite nearly invincible, at this time, but they are also sensor platforms without peer. The two we have captured have more powerful arrays than any of our systems.
http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/416/2012020100006.jpg


http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/7940/2012020100007.jpgYes, I realize in hindsight that's a typo.
With advancements in shipbuilding, the first warship in over sixty years was commissioned of the shipwrights of Knossai. Many did think it odd that the Morru'quan would request it be named in honor of his defeated foe, of course. For his part, the Morru'quan merely claimed that Mengkhos' wisdom had protected them during the war, but was simply no longer wise- He described the name as a homage to an outdated protector. Most were at least quieted by such explanations, though probably far less were convinced. Several did speculate that this was some kind of mockery on the part of the Morru'quan, but most who did so, did so quietly.

http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/5257/2012020100014.jpg
A few combats; Might have lost a scoutship or conceivably two, don't think so, though. Liir are not terribly trustworthy, by the way. Oooh, and is that another color in the bottom right?

http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/8793/2012020100015.jpg
Signs of a new race were discovered- Questionably technic. They seemed to posses no speed, no means of surpassing light. Our slowest ships moved four times their speed, but move they did, however slow, and their ships were numerous and dense, according to our readings. On the Morru'quan's order, they were not contacted, and they were left wingspace of their own. They would, of course, not be exempt from the Morru'quan's judgement- It was merely impossible to truly reach their distant space with the current capabilities of the empire, and mere scoutships were not equipped to assault fleets or systems, even as primitive as these appeared to be.


http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/5011/2012020100016.jpg
Tzentel, long known, was finally setteled in the thirtieth year of the resurgence. Advances in technology and resources of the empire, not to mention experience colonizing other hazardous worlds, and, not the least, the network of developed or nearly-developed worlds around Tzentel gave enough security to risk colonizing and terraforming the most hazardous world deemed suitable of colonization to date.
http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/6956/2012020100017.jpg

http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/9250/2012020100018.jpg
More research, at reasonable rates. [Any suggested names for our squadron C&C ships?]

http://img839.imageshack.us/img839/7792/2012020100019.jpg
[i]The breakthrough in data transmission and processing was left the researchers unsatisfied; as they put it, it opened up whole new possibilities in the realm of electronic warfare or surveillance. It was deemed that more traditional warfare was important, as the projectile cannons making up the mainstay of flock armaments were somewhat... inadequate in the face of the many and hated enemies we faced.

http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/6170/2012020100021.jpg
Some progression, encounter a Tarkas ship that goes to town on ours. We leave it missing a section, but it got us. In the upper right, VRF Technology is kind-of visible in the research slot. (Was on the far left of the previous tech-tree screenshot.)
http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/1986/2012020100022.jpg


http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/6757/2012020100023.jpg
I like this view of the empire. Shows our expansion up the left side of the disc, and the 'frontiers' of exploration. (Those are those sensor fields way the hell out there.) There's that central region of worlds we've avoided, believing it too difficult to defend against the Zuul, and the bottom cluster of 'unexplored' stars (still look like stars as opposed to worlds) are where the Zuul started. If we're lucky, maybe they'll go and raid the Hivers instead. We've been lucky so far...

http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/2182/2012020100026.jpg
Case in point. We'll lose this ship, but we're so glad these are not near us. Off in Liir, Tarkas, Human, and Hiver space, but not near us.

http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/5298/2012020100029.jpg
Vicious creations, automated mining machines. These we had record of- They had been an irritation to our ancestors, but held in check by the might of the empire. Like any self-replicating pest, though, they were difficult to wipe out completely, and apparently in our fall and absence, they had begun to spread again.

http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/7758/2012020100033.jpg

http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/7871/2012020100030.jpg
Drones hosted from a central hive, they were targets too elusive for the scout's tracking mechanisms. Sadly, our scoutship perished with all hands. They shall not be forgotten.[i]


http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/1739/2012020200001.jpg
[i]As our second wave of colonizers reaches it's destination, the Empire prepares to receive a new cluster to the fold... Given the distance of the region, the first objective of the new colony is to manufacture enough fissionables to refuel the fleet as it disperses to other target worlds.

http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/6060/2012020200002q.jpg
Political map with our new world. IIRC, 'Tunguska' is just beyond the string of colonies we're founding parallel to our frontier with the Tarka. If we want to engage in some take-and-hold, there are some pretty nice worlds across the gap (<200, Size 8, asteroid belt, for instance,) but I would hate to overreach myself here...


http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/9717/2012020200003j.jpg
The second world, Zhadum, was added to the fold. The remaining targets were Ixion, near Biibri and Liir space, and Henja, a verdant paradise world in the opposite direction. Both were deemed high-priority targets for colonization, though in Henja's case, that was probably only because of how little effort it would take to do so.


http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/7546/2012020200004.jpg
Another scoutship is lost to the predatory Tarkas....

http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/6824/2012020200005.jpg
And another view of the galaxy (sector?) as a whole.

http://img546.imageshack.us/img546/7798/2012020200006.jpg
Colony fleet arrives at Ixion. Slightly right and above is Biibri, those to the bottom left are our latest acquisitions. (Aside from Tzentel, which is back near the capital, of course.)

http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/5030/2012020300001v.jpg
And here I got careless and failed to direct a fleet away from Hiver world. Naturally, our scout vanishes without a trace...


http://img803.imageshack.us/img803/1294/2012020300002z.jpg
And the empire getting some healthy density to it.


http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/916/2012020300004.jpg
And update on Nibiru, since someone was interested in it. Completely terraformed, and now topping off infrastructure. As you can see in the upper left, VRF Technology has given way to Point Defense Tracking. (Morrigi have a 100% chance to get it.) Eight turns to research, but still better than the fifteen for UV lasers.

http://img545.imageshack.us/img545/3273/2012020300005y.jpg
Ixion, final world of the chain being colonized. A Liir scout is inbound, but it's one ship, and if they get upset at finding one of our colonies, the amount of tankers and gravboats present will keep the colony safe.

http://img807.imageshack.us/img807/5460/2012020300006.jpg
Diplomacy screen at this point, even though we haven't been doing much with the other empires.

http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/3320/2012020300007.jpg
Ooh... Another world fully developed and profitable. Such a beautiful sight.


And.. Combat!
http://img861.imageshack.us/img861/931/2012020300009.jpg
Oh dear. What's this?

Well, I don't actually get a chance to show you because I didn't snag a screenshot of it before fleeing out of sight of it. But essentially, this is an alien derelict, relic of some ancient war, and still somewhat lethally functional. In this case, I believe our dear scout just barely evaded an antimatter torpedo, probably only due to my attempts to GTFO at first opportunity. (AM torps oneshot fission-era destroyers, particularly at long range.)

The Liir attempted to attack it, and therefore, were annihilated. (These have some fairly snappy weapons, in case you didn't pick that up.)

Finally, though I suppose it's cruel to end on a cliffhangar;


http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/3557/2012020300012.jpg
I can promise lost of exploding spaceships in next update.

[MLai]

The Zuuli'gi are coming! The Zuuli'gi are coming! :smallbiggrin:

P.S. I never understood why the Swarm are classified as artificial organisms. They look quite organic to me. Maybe silicon-based but nevertheless naturally evolved. It's not as if we don't have enough other self-replicating mechanical swarms (Von Neumanns, Locusts).

[Kane]

The Zuuli'gi are coming! The Zuuli'gi are coming! :smallbiggrin:

P.S. I never understood why the Swarm are classified as artificial organisms. They look quite organic to me. Maybe silicon-based but nevertheless naturally evolved. It's not as if we don't have enough other self-replicating mechanical swarms (Von Neumanns, Locusts).

I believe I read somewhere official-ish that they were an automated self-replicating mining machine that was left on it's own for a few thousand or possibly million years. The reason they attack people is because they're tripping their 'ore defense' protocols, or whatever. Also, I think they were specified to have had an off-switch, at some point.

I'll grant that they do look pretty. The Hivers, I think, consider them to be quite beautiful, just wish they weren't so dangerous.

[Kane]

System Update...


http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/5012/2012020300013h.jpg
Foes of the Starborn did exist, and few, if any, were more hated than the foul Zuuligi. Beasts, monsters, pretenders to technology, these creatures were deployed as bioweapons against Morrigi women and children during the Suuligi wars. They were loathed without exception, killed without remorse, and a crude and terrible mockery of all held dear by the Starborn.... And they were coming.

http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/7877/2012020300014.jpg
Despite this, they only threatened one world of the Empire, and all the fear or hate they inspired could not make them close any faster. Keen planetary sensor arrays had picked them out literally years away from their destination, and the warflock the Morru'quan stationed at Eretria was prepared to defend their sisters and wives below- Indeed, to be a part of the first Morrigi fleet action in nearly a century was an honor to be sought...

http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/7011/2012020300015.jpg
Every twenty turns, possibly only starting after turn 2, a Silicoid hive will send out a Silicoid Queen to contaminate the nearest asteroid-belt system they detect. If you've got an asteroid monitor sitting there, that's a few hundred thousand every twenty turns, and a decent trade. You can see what the 'Silicoid Queen' looks like there- As far as I can tell, this world was infested, and sent out it's Queen the same turn I arrived, so I didn't really have warning. Alternately, I simply wasn't paying attention.

http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/1970/2012020300016.jpg
Liir getting a bit adventurous, and stuff. This is fine- One of their scouts versus eight odd tankers is heavily slanted in our favor, and I doubt they could take on the whole colony anyway with one DE.

http://img804.imageshack.us/img804/3095/2012020300017.jpg

http://img846.imageshack.us/img846/8150/2012020300018.jpg
More exploring. (Remember, those Zuul were three turns out. Plenty of time for us to build up a fleet to meet them at a reasonable fully-developed world.)

http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/8379/2012020300019.jpg
Xanthu here is a delightful world, but beyond what we might call the Tarka Border- Definitely in their sphere of influence rather than ours. I'll go for it and a few nearby worlds if you want, but it might be a bit costly.

http://img838.imageshack.us/img838/1458/2012020300020.jpg
And the turn before the Zuuligi come, the ladies are busy not showing results.

And here we go. The time has come... Here we go. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHmNYkbGFlc&feature=related)

http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/7061/2012020300021.jpg
You tread the skies, Dustlings... You crawl where you are not welcome. Your crude, ugly ships leak and sputter in the void. You wander blind, trespassing in our domain- to ignorant to know what your crime, to foolish to repent, if you knew...

http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/6268/2012020300023.jpg
You enter our domain, you threaten our women and children; this, Dustlings, we will not allow. Should you force us to, we will teach you the error of your ways...

http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/1594/2012020300026.jpg
And there will be little of you left, once we are through with you.
Missile launch detected. Multiple missile launch detected.

http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/9476/2012020300027.jpg
The first true engagement of the Travellers in nearly a century. True warships flew in the skies of Eretria, trading blows with the hated enemy.

http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/6443/2012020300028.jpg
In all truth, none of the flock had been in battle with a true foe before. This baptism of fire proved remarkably successful.

http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/8627/2012020300029.jpg
Their feeble ships crumpled and shattered under the hail of gauss rounds our warships put out, and despite the weight of their initial missile salvos, few survived to launch a second.
http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/5329/2012020300030.jpg


http://img810.imageshack.us/img810/8841/2012020300031.jpg
Our flock danced among them, spinning and pirouetting as their barbaric ships and oversized engines shuddered and died, pounded apart under storms of gauss rounds and volleys of missile fire.
http://img641.imageshack.us/img641/9358/2012020300032.jpg

http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/7662/2012020300033.jpg
The battle's outcome was never in doubt. Soon, the zuuligi broke and fled, scattering like the animals they were. In pairs and trios, the flock pursued.
http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/7545/2012020300034.jpg


http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/4954/2012020300035.jpg
All but a single vessel had endured the combat, though in varying stages of battle-scarring. While escape pods did eject from the single destroyed ship, the battle was not without casualties.

http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/9015/2012020300036.jpg
In the end, of course, the vast majority belonged to the Zuuligi.
http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/5390/2012020300037.jpg

http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/200/2012020300038.jpg
The Travellers were triumphant, unquestionably supreme.
http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/5290/2012020300039.jpg

http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/6199/2012020300043.jpg
Our first real battle. Thorough victory. (Don't worry about that surviving boreship. Combat finished before planetary missiles could finish it off, but it got blown up in the next turn's combat. No casualties, naturally.)

http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/5592/2012020300042.jpg
Sure enough....

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/720/2012020300045.jpg
Repairing battle damage. "This ship has seen fierce battle, my 'Quan."

http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/7210/2012020300044.jpg


http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/3995/2012020300046.jpg

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/8184/2012020300047.jpg
Surviving boreship is waxed.

http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/868/2012020300048.jpg
And another view of the political map.


http://img839.imageshack.us/img839/720/2012020300049.jpg
And here's one of the potential random encounters- The ruins of a Morrigi Thollos, a sort of technic Pyramid, if you will. It's a trio of dreadnought-sized station wreckage, unarmed, with a pretty decent swarm of high-powered drones. Phasers, emitters, pulsed phasers, x-ray lasers, all that unpleasant stuff. Pretty deadly at low levels.

But! If you have the fourth level of Morrigi xenotech, it's automatically disabled when you encounter it, and you get some money and a research boost from it. And being Morrigi, we start with that, so....

http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/9148/2012020300050.jpg
And here's the diplmatic screen. Apparently the Zuul are totally okay with us annihilating their bore-fleet. (Annihilate. Nice word, there. Rolls off the tongue. Annihilate...)

http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/2043/2012020300051.jpg
Another encounter with the Swarm, I think...

http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/9616/2012020300052.jpg
And... Well, ****. Speaking of annihilate...

Thirty six Liir ships. Some of them cruisers. What the hell do we do with that? I'm pretty sure they aren't dropping in for space-tea.

Freakin' dolphins. I warned you all they couldn't be trusted.

[Icedaemon]

What are the warships armed with?

---------

http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/8108/morrigi3.jpg Ha! It's all working perfectly.

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/2582/morrigi1.jpg What are we talking about here?

http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/8108/morrigi3.jpgRemember that story about one woman figuring out how to convert the junkheaps orbiting Knossai into a cheap orbital factory?

Tikalos nods. This was hailed as one of the greatest achievements of any single Morrigi during the last three years. To not remember this is disgraceful.

http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/8108/morrigi3.jpg The girls turned those few of the gravboats that stuck around and one of the more ferrous asteroids of our belt into a facsimile. The real engineers are transferring there tomorrow, but the automated assembly line seems to work.

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/2582/morrigi1.jpg Exquisite! isn't such a thing less than comfortable though?

http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/8108/morrigi3.jpg Most of the people who agreed to be permanently stationed there were the ship mechanics of the colony ships. Not all of the boys are as keen on sitting on a rock as you.

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/2582/morrigi1.jpg That is still only a smaller rock. I am content to wait until we have some proper vessels. This world is big enough that exploring it within one generation is a feat unto itself.

His initial irritation over, Tikalos ponders the implied suggestion.

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/2582/morrigi1.jpg Still, there is something to be said for being unbound. Such a satellite would need a fleet of shuttles to ferry materials back and forth, at least until we regain the material technologies required to maintain space elevators.

The lady is only amused by the suggestion.

http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/8108/morrigi3.jpg Not all the colonizer pilots absconded to the fleet of Knossai's new vessels. There were not enough interstellar craft to fit all of them. We have two pilots who have proven their abilities with shuttles far more advanced than the tiny craft we need to reach orbit.

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/2582/morrigi1.jpg I am better at gunnery and spotting than at piloting regardless. Surely there are a few cannons on that thing, cribbed off the asteroid monitors.

http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/8108/morrigi3.jpg Do as you will. I have my own tasks to consider.

Tikalos exits the structure and flies off. He has grown used to Nibiru, perhaps moreso than he ever had been to Knossai. The smaller planet makes flight easy - as he has heard even women fly on Biibiri.

---------

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/7866/morrigi2.jpg All I am saying is, dustlings are expected to be slow. Faster-than-light travel is a puzzle too complex for all too many species. I am still unsure how exactly the Liir figured it out.

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8295/morrigi4.jpg It seemed to me like their methods actually differ from ours. That destabilizes your theory - two or more methods of exceeding the speed of light lead to more than two chances to come up with one. These new aliens should be contacted sooner rather than later, before the Zuuligi devour them.

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/7866/morrigi2.jpg Are you still reliant on mail and sublight snippets? We have faster than light communications, finally. We know those ships hulls were thick as a planet's crust. These aliens will not be extreme pushovers. The Zuuligi will be distracted for some time.

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8295/morrigi4.jpg You seem oddly sure of this?

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/7866/morrigi2.jpg If the Zuuligi fight these creatures for long enough, doubtless they will eventually consume this alien species, but we do have warships now. The Zuuligi are the obvious target.

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8295/morrigi4.jpg Why are we still over here then?

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/7866/morrigi2.jpg We are diplomats, not soldiers, apparently. The Morru'quan probably wants to make peace with the Tarka.

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8295/morrigi4.jpg We do have some records on them from Biibiri. This is not an overly far-fetched idea, though I would have expected improving our relations with the Liir first.

---------

Nibiru is now fully habitable. The caustic elements found in the oceans were isolated and dissolved. Documentation regarding both the edible and the poisonous species native to the world is complete, excluding perhaps only a few isolated and small groups of lifeforms. The numbers of dangerous apex predators have been diminished. In time, those beasts who survived will fear the Morrigi too much to even consider assaulting.

While the infrastructure is still imperfect, the world is capable of self-sustaining production. Tikalos has been working in the asteroid field for the last few years, remote controlling mining drones. While not the most glorious work, being spaceborne is still respectable. If he had found something of great value among the rocks orbiting the planet, he might even descended again, but that was not to be.

As it happened, when the warfleet headed for Eretria docked at Nibiru to top off their fuel supplies, one vessel was hit by a small comet. The warship survived and was repaired, but the zo'quaan determined that the pilot should have been able to avoid the impact. Thus, the pilot's aanigi'dha dropped severely, with another crewmember taking the pilot's seat. This left an opening within the leadership of the destroyer, which Tikalos managed to grab. Highly skilled at determining where to shoot to hit moving targets and now able to competently remote control drones up to five light-seconds away, Tikalos took the position of fire control.

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/2582/morrigi1.jpgWeapons primed.

I would probably name the C&C ship 'Seer', 'Foresight' or somesuch. Alternatively, why not go with the famous leaders (http://sots.rorschach.net/Morrigi_leader_names) theme?

I am just a bit late, was hoping to finish this yesterday evening...

[MLai]

If you wish, my Quan, by pressing "0" you can get rid of the green and red circles and yellow arrows in combat. For close-up photo ops.


Don't worry about that surviving boreship. Combat finished before planetary missiles could finish it off, but it got blown up in the next turn's combat.
What it has done, is transmit to the Zuuli'gi hordefront all of the intel gathered on the planet and the colony. That world just changed from a red X to a... 5700 resource planet with 400 million slaves... :smalleek:

There is now an invisible boreline connecting the colony on Eretria to... whatever is there on Shaggai. My Quan may need to send a courageous Scout into that area of space, in case Eretria needs advance warning. It doesn't need to go into range of any enemy planetary defenses. Just park it close enough in deep space. Stealth armour is recommended for this important mission.


Apparently the Zuul are totally okay with us annihilating their bore-fleet.
Ha ha, they can be funny like that. However, the arrow may just be their evaluation of my Quan's tastiness.


Thirty six Liir ships. Some of them cruisers. What the hell do we do with that? I'm pretty sure they aren't dropping in for space-tea.
Whoa. My experience with the Liir is either they turn out to be the greatest power of the sector, or they're dead last. I guess their research/econ dynamic is what accentuates their own slippery slope to either end.
36-ships fleet, with cruisers, at turn 46... So it seems in this case, the Liir are destined to be the Princes Of The Universe.
It'll be a few turns before they're planetside. Biibiri has one chance, IMO. Well 2 chances if you consider abandoning the colony an option. Anyways, 1 chance -- research Steelsong in all haste, then negotiate a NAP while offering a sizeable tribute. I think that's their true goal with this exaggerated show of force.
Their answer will either make the rest of your reign very boring, or very interesting.:smallwink:

[Cogwheel]

Any suggested names for our squadron C&C ships?

Leadership.

You know it needs to be done.

[Kzickas]

Fight!

Most of those ships probably aren't cruisers, build a couple of cnc ships and as many other ships as you can be before they arrive. Fight far from the reinforce point and concentrate fire on their C&C ship(s) so that you can defeat them in detail. Good chance you'll lose, but it makes for a more exiting story than running with your tail between your legs

[Kane]

What are the warships armed with?

I would probably name the C&C ship 'Seer', 'Foresight' or somesuch. Alternatively, why not go with the famous leaders (http://sots.rorschach.net/Morrigi_leader_names) theme?
We've been using Gauss Cannon small mounts and Missile medium. Same with the Zuul, as far as I can tell, but they classically have less small and more medium mounts on their destroyers. (Basically, they have lots of bigger guns.) Good suggestion for names.


If you wish, my Quan, by pressing "0" you can get rid of the green and red circles and yellow arrows in combat. For close-up photo ops.

Definitely. Thank you so much.



What it has done, is transmit to the Zuuli'gi hordefront all of the intel gathered on the planet and the colony. That world just changed from a red X to a... 5700 resource planet with 400 million slaves... :smalleek:
That it has- Either I'm too much of a n00b to think of that, or I need to stop living in the nineties and have some faith that they can program ignorance into a game where applicable. I'm used to assuming the computer can see everything.



There is now an invisible boreline connecting the colony on Eretria to... whatever is there on Shaggai. My Quan may need to send a courageous Scout into that area of space, in case Eretria needs advance warning. It doesn't need to go into range of any enemy planetary defenses. Just park it close enough in deep space. Stealth armour is recommended for this important mission.


Ha ha, they can be funny like that. However, the arrow may just be their evaluation of my Quan's tastiness.

Excellent idea. (Though I confess, I don't know how effective stealth armor is.) I admit to toying with the idea of trying to take Shaggai back, ideally before they drain the CH too much, but I have reason to fear the Zuul ship-building capacity.



Whoa. My experience with the Liir is either they turn out to be the greatest power of the sector, or they're dead last. I guess their research/econ dynamic is what accentuates their own slippery slope to either end.
36-ships fleet, with cruisers, at turn 46... So it seems in this case, the Liir are destined to be the Princes Of The Universe.
It'll be a few turns before they're planetside. Biibiri has one chance, IMO. Well 2 chances if you consider abandoning the colony an option. Anyways, 1 chance -- research Steelsong in all haste, then negotiate a NAP while offering a sizeable tribute. I think that's their true goal with this exaggerated show of force.
Their answer will either make the rest of your reign very boring, or very interesting.:smallwink:
Oh definitely. Not to mention very, very short. Also, I'm worried I won't be able to get that done in time. On the other hand, Biibri is only a Size 2 planet, and maybe we can get it done before they take Ixion, so... :smallsigh:


Leadership.

You know it needs to be done.
...I'm embarrassed to admit I've never thought of that one before.

Fight!

Most of those ships probably aren't cruisers, build a couple of cnc ships and as many other ships as you can be before they arrive. Fight far from the reinforce point and concentrate fire on their C&C ship(s) so that you can defeat them in detail. Good chance you'll lose, but it makes for a more exiting story than running with your tail between your legs.

True, that. Exciting, certainly...

[Cogwheel]

...I'm embarrassed to admit I've never thought of that one before.


It's a mark in your favour, really.

[MLai]

Fight! Most of those ships probably aren't cruisers, build a couple of cnc ships and as many other ships as you can be before they arrive.
Though not a good idea to continue a 2-front war (Liir + Zuul) in the long term, this is certainly doable for the defense of Biibri. Even if you don't end up winning, an honest defense effort can forestall colony destruction long enough for Steelsong research, and for the Liir to tire of fireworks and agree to a NAP.
For the Liir to have cruisers already, they probably skipped all weapons research and rushed straight to cruisers. Those boats are purely for show. We can win this battle. Put Biibri on 100% overharvest and produce as many ships as time allows.


Biibri is only a Size 2 planet, and maybe we can get it done before they take Ixion,
It's up to the Quan if he wishes to defend Biibri, or cede Biibri and concentrate on the easier defense of Ixion. There probably isn't enough in the treasury for 2 defense fleets?


have some faith that they can program ignorance into a game where applicable. I'm used to assuming the computer can see everything.
SotS1 AI is not all-seeing. However, they do respond to new information they obtain.


I don't know how effective stealth armor is
It only works on the strategic starmap to hide the vessel. In combat mode it doesn't do anything.

[Icedaemon]

From a storytelling perspective, Biibiri is not just another size 2 colony, it is the only other known world besides Knossos where the Morrigi survived. Even if you somehow evacuate the populace, irreplaceable cultural treasures will be lost.

I agree on the 'try to get a NAP post haste' stratagem, though Biibiri should not be given up on without a fight.

[MLai]

Ha, I can imagine the Quan thinking out loud about forsaking Biibri, and then a gaggle of advisors (you at the front) becoming indignant at the very idea and threatening to commit seppuku in protest right there in the court.
:smalltongue:

After some consideration, I think the number of the Liir fleet sounds scarier than it actually is. I predict they're mostly tin-foil destroyers with red lasers. The current Morrigi warflock in addition to whatever can be made in the next 2-3 turns should definitely be enough to either defeat them or hold them off in time for a NAP. :smallamused:

[Grif]

Ha, I can imagine the Quan thinking out loud about forsaking Biibri, and then a gaggle of advisors (you at the front) becoming indignant at the very idea and threatening to commit seppuku in protest right there in the court.
:smalltongue:

After some consideration, I think the number of the Liir fleet sounds scarier than it actually is. I predict they're mostly tin-foil destroyers with red lasers. The current Morrigi warflock in addition to whatever can be made in the next 2-3 turns should definitely be enough to either defeat them or hold them off in time for a NAP. :smallamused:

Considering Kane just said we're only armed with Gauss cannons, Red lasers are plenty enough to slice and dice your fleets to bits. Just saying.

Even with VRF tech, Gauss cannons only have a slight edge over Red lasers, and are comparable or slightly worse to Green. UV just plain outclasses it. Good news is I don't think them space dolphins have armour yet, so you can at least expect most of the shots to hit.

[MLai]

Well I am expecting the warflock to have significant backup in the form of planet missiles and 10 small defense satellites. AFAIK, Biibri is a fully-developed colony by now. That means it's not a bad idea to bring the fight close to the planet, just so that the 10 def sats will be in range and can chip in.

Doing so will mean some planetside casualties.

[Grif]

Well I am expecting the warflock to have significant backup in the form of planet missiles and 10 small defense satellites. AFAIK, Biibri is a fully-developed colony by now. That means it's not a bad idea to bring the fight close to the planet, just so that the 10 def sats will be in range and can chip in.

Doing so will mean some planetside casualties.

For a size 2 colony, planet missiles are negligible. (Only 2 missile . 1 missile per 100m population IIRC.) Same goes to small DefSats. I have never found a game where they actually actively contributed to the battle, since at any point of the battle, only two (at most, three) will be in position to fire on your enemies. (Caveat: I usually arm my DefSats with PD to reduce oncoming missiles. This may not apply to Kane's situation.) This even more true when you get to the cruiser/DN stage, since missiles will decrease in both importance and damage as the game wears on.

[houlio]

For a size 2 colony, planet missiles are negligible. (Only 2 missile . 1 missile per 100m population IIRC.) Same goes to small DefSats. I have never found a game where they actually actively contributed to the battle, since at any point of the battle, only two (at most, three) will be in position to fire on your enemies. (Caveat: I usually arm my DefSats with PD to reduce oncoming missiles. This may not apply to Kane's situation.) This even more true when you get to the cruiser/DN stage, since missiles will decrease in both importance and damage as the game wears on.

It's doubtful that the Liir have PD yet, especially if they have cruisers right now. Getting those couple extra missiles to occasionally shoot can be really helpful at this point. Although, if building satellites prevents making more ships right now (and given the limited time frame I imagine this is true), you shouldn't do it. Ships are the better investment instead.

Another thing I haven't seen brought up is that the Liir will be pretty sluggish right now, since I imagine their still using the first version of the drive tech (which for those who don't know, is slower near planets than in deep space). While it might not have a big effect on their high accuracy weapons, it should be plenty helpful for your noticeably less accurate mass driver weapons.

[Icedaemon]

Not to bothe your yet more on a relatively insignificant matter, but has Nibiru started producing warships as well?

Also, it seems to me that a compromise could be naming the C&C ships, say 'Rhaghab's Leadership'? It would fir Menghos' Wisdom well enough and probably be fitting for all future C&C destroyers. The cruisers might later be named for other leaders with more grandiose names.

The waiting was perhaps the more tense part. Eretria was one of the first worlds colonized by the Morrigi during the re-emergence. It has a large civilian population. While a handful of crewmembers fresh from Knossai did joke about descending before the battle, most people were carefully looking towards where the zuuligi were to allegedly arrive from. Their exact time of arrival was a mystery due to their strange form of faster-than-light travel. As a result, weapons were kept near combat-ready at all times. The gauss cannons would require a moment or two to power up before the shooting starts, but unless the enemy warps right on top of the flock, this should not be a problem.

In the end, the warflock waited for over a year. Tikalos did have opportunities to get to know his peers, qu’aan and subordinates and to explore the vessel, but that, plus sleep, was the extent of his being away from the fire control centre. The new vessels, while still inferior to what his grandfather described as the old federation’s ships of the line, are no kzoproliths. The interior might be utilitarian, but it is not uncomfortable. The armour and weapons are new and freshly painted, on some of the later ships even slightly off as they moved to join the flock before it dried. Tikalos, in control of the anterior weapons battery, is honoured to be a part of this. Though fear is not uncommon, most people believe the battle will be won in the end – the enemy might have been horrors on the ground, but what species develops a strong starflock so swiftly?

Finally, the alarm goes off, the starship’s lights turning bright pink for a few moments.

http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/2305/morrigi5.jpg They are here!

As the warflock moved to meet the enemy, Tikalos gazed at the flock’s formation and the noted enemy composition. The morrigi vessels more than twice outnumber those of the zuuligi, but their weapons are unknown.

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/2582/morrigi1.jpg Fire missiles in three... two... one! Gauss guns ready for firing, wings confirm.

The scanner officer practically drowns out whatever the crewmates tasked with controlling the wing-mounted cannons replied.

http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/2305/morrigi5.jpg Missiles incoming! They’ve returned fire!

The new pilot is better than the one demoted at Nibiru, luckily enough. The gauss guns do not traverse quickly enough to shoot missiles apart, but the craft was agile enough to evade a direct hit, only being scuffed by shrapnel from the proximity explosion.

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/2582/morrigi1.jpg Firing!

In the end, Tikalos can be proud. His shooting is among the most accurate among the fleet, finishing off one zuuligi vessel and noticeably damaging another, which was soon shredded by concentrated fire by three Menghos’ Wisdoms. The battle was swift, as decisive ones often are. Only one enemy vessel, a poorly armed but fearsome looking craft suspected to be some form of support vessel survived the engagement, but that only managed to break away from the battle for a few days, until the warflock caught up with it. Even as the Qu’aan of the warflock wished the assembled crews a fortuitous new year, Tikalos was squeezing off shots at this foe. Granted, by the time the gauss rounds arrived, they only tore through a wreckage for other ships had been closer to the foe, but his shots at least were on target.

Elated, many Morrigi donned vacuum suits and scoured the wreckages for trophies. Tikalos was too late to find anything too noticeable, but he did manage to get a hold of what appeared to be half a keyboard of some strange command console. Not perhaps as obviously respectable as a preserved head or as valuable as an intact computer, but hopefully of some use at least in deciphering whatever written texts the zuuligi might have.

---------

A year later, two morrigi are orbiting Biibiri. Originally simply the most sophisticated crewmembers of an exploratory ship, they had become a part of the diplomatic corps of the new empire, with a mission to contact the Liir and make peace with them once all data regarding the odd space-whales has been collected, analyzed and used to its fullest, or so they have been told.

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/7866/morrigi2.jpg A Tholos orbiting a totally uninhabitable world? Are you sure?

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8295/morrigi4.jpg That’s what they are telling us. Why would it be there?

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/7866/morrigi2.jpg For one thing, that might once have been one of our worlds, one which was so torn apart in the wars that Morrigi life on it now is inconceivable.

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8295/morrigi4.jpg Wouldn’t there be ruins?

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/7866/morrigi2.jpg Not if the atmosphere is corrosive.

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8295/morrigi4.jpg A pity we are now resorting to looting our ancestors tombs.

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/7866/morrigi2.jpg There are four alien races out there, of which two are openly hostile and the Liir barely cordial.

---------

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8295/morrigi4.jpg But... We made a treaty! They told us that they only want peace and safety!

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/7866/morrigi2.jpg So? They can lie, apparently.

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8295/morrigi4.jpg This has to be a mistake! They are coming here in large numbers, but what makes everyone so sure that is a warflock? Perhaps those are unarmed traders.

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/7866/morrigi2.jpg Thirty six trade ships? To establish a trade route before prior contact? Are you insane? At best, they intend to strong-arm us into a treaty that will favour them.

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8295/morrigi4.jpg We can still flee, Biibiri does have a defense fleet, we can load up the people and move them to Ixion.

Khubilai sighs and lowers his head.

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/7866/morrigi2.jpg Try it then. I don’t think I will.

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8295/morrigi4.jpg Why? They outnumber us more than two to one and reportedly have larger ships than any we can insofar build, you can’t stay.

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/7866/morrigi2.jpg We were in a false sense of security because of the treaty I am a signatory of. If we are attacked, it is my fault.

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8295/morrigi4.jpg No more than mine.

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/7866/morrigi2.jpg Point being? I need to fix this, or at least help to fix this... If we can get through to them and engage them in parley, we can avoid losing everything yet again. The Liirigi might be reasoned with. At the least, parley could buy our factories and fleets time.

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8295/morrigi4.jpg You are wagering your life on them being reasonable?

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/7866/morrigi2.jpg One ought to pay for one's mistakes, it's only reasonable.

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8295/morrigi4.jpg Fine. Let's do this. First we must convince the Qu'aans of our worlds to fund cultural research post-haste, we still can't read the Liirigi script...

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/7866/morrigi2.jpg You are under no obligation to make the same stupid gesture I will.

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8295/morrigi4.jpg I'm the optimist, remember? Any hope to get the best result is preferable in situations as potentially deadly as this. I'd rather not force my entire family to aiskos.

[Grif]

It's doubtful that the Liir have PD yet, especially if they have cruisers right now. Getting those couple extra missiles to occasionally shoot can be really helpful at this point. Although, if building satellites prevents making more ships right now (and given the limited time frame I imagine this is true), you shouldn't do it. Ships are the better investment instead.

Another thing I haven't seen brought up is that the Liir will be pretty sluggish right now, since I imagine their still using the first version of the drive tech (which for those who don't know, is slower near planets than in deep space). While it might not have a big effect on their high accuracy weapons, it should be plenty helpful for your noticeably less accurate mass driver weapons.

You'll be surprised on how good the laser weapons can be as makeshift PD. I have seen red/green/UV lasers consistently shoot down at least half of the planetary missiles and 1/3-1/2 of your own missile swarm.

Gauss cannons on the other hand, cannot shoot missiles worth a damn.

(All this from my own experience mind, but I have read forums where veterans recommend red lasers for PD as well if you didn't roll it. Also, I have developed a healthy respect for what lasers can do, even if I usually adopt the ballistics tree as my first weapon.)

[MLai]

Although, if building satellites prevents making more ships right now (and given the limited time frame I imagine this is true), you shouldn't do it. Ships are the better investment instead.
However, def sats are fast to construct. If we're short on time but comfortable in funds, it may become a choice between 10 def sats or 2 destroyers. In which case I'd take the 10 def sats. Invading ships normally take a couple of turns destroying orbiting sats before they comfortably settle into shelling the planet. So even if nothing else, 10 sats buy a little more time than 2 destroyers.

@ Icedaemon:
I hope Laurel and Hardy survive.

@ Grif:
My point is, I've faced worse odds than this and come out the victor. Using early era Morrigi destroyers. They're good ships if the tactics are sound. Liirian ships without tech is not scary. :smallamused:
Ofc, if their ships start firing emitters on us instead of red lasers, we're doomed. :smalleek:

[houlio]

Ofc, if their ships start firing emitters on us instead of red lasers, we're doomed. :smalleek:

This happened to me once, I was really worried when they destroyed my fleet pretty handily, but laughed as they couldn't manage to scratch my colony.:smallbiggrin:

Of course they brought in the bioweapons the next turn anyways.:smalleek:

[Kane]

Alright, detail update and corrections;

A, the Liir do not have cruisers. That said, they're all the more terrifying because they do have UV lasers.

B, we do have nearly thirty combat ships in the vicinity- twelve or fourteen on station, and twelve or fourteen at Ixion, who can make it in two turns.

C; We simply cannot research Steelsong in time, barring research boosting of significant degree, as it appears to take seven turns to do so at max research rate. The Liir fleet ETA is 3 turns.

D, should we decide to research Steelsong, we'd be dropping out of UV lasers, which we're four turns from.


Still assuming 'fight' to be the choice, unless otherwise stated, and will attempt to have it updated on time this week. (As in, actually this week.)

[houlio]

Alright, detail update and corrections;

A, the Liir do not have cruisers. That said, they're all the more terrifying because they do have UV lasers.

B, we do have nearly thirty combat ships in the vicinity- twelve or fourteen on station, and twelve or fourteen at Ixion, who can make it in two turns.

C; We simply cannot research Steelsong in time, barring research boosting of significant degree, as it appears to take seven turns to do so at max research rate. The Liir fleet ETA is 3 turns.

D, should we decide to research Steelsong, we'd be dropping out of UV lasers, which we're four turns from.


Still assuming 'fight' to be the choice, unless otherwise stated, and will attempt to have it updated on time this week. (As in, actually this week.)

Go for UV's, and once you get them begin pumping out properly equipped ships (and updated drones) from Ixion to push out the Liir, I'm willing to bet that you won't run through all those destroyers in just one turn of combat.

Teach these trumped up space fish what small mount energy weapons are all about.

[MLai]

THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph! :smallmad:

I guess Laurel and Hardy won't get the chance to die for the cause. They'll be told to go home by the brass. The time for diplomacy is over (for now).

[Icedaemon]

Better weapons now obviously trump diplomacy not soon enough.

I actually had to look up Laurel and Hardy - their antics had not apparently crossed the pond, or at least not the pond and then a bit. Not a bad comparison, though I should point out that Khubilai's friend is not exactly stupid, just hopelessly optimistic and all too likely to believe in some sort of silly inherent goodness of (non-Zuul) sapient beings. Also, Khubilai would most likely still try to join the fleet if victory were probable and most likely gravitate towards the position of comms officer.

[MLai]

Speaking of Zuul, I'm doing a Zuul game right now - balls to the wall overharvesting starting from turn 1! It's turn 100 now and I'm burninating through 1 ball of a barbell galaxy, and I'm currently #1 of 8 in everything, except tech where I'm #5 of 8 (LOL). Starting to spread the joy into the handle region now.

I purposely made 2 other AIs as Zuul, so that I had a chance to ally with somebody. But dang, these guys even hate each other!

Any tips on diplomacy as Zuul? I mean with other Zuul, as I just don't even try with the other species out there. I usually start off in diplomacy with monetary tributes, but I read online that Zuul see such gifts as weakness to be exploited? How else do I convince my brothers of my righteousness? I tried conversion through conquest, but it seems other Zuul would fight to the last rather than accept my alpha status and join my Zuulmass.

[Grif]

Speaking of Zuul, I'm doing a Zuul game right now - balls to the wall overharvesting starting from turn 1! It's turn 100 now and I'm burninating through 1 ball of a barbell galaxy, and I'm currently #1 of 8 in everything, except tech where I'm #5 of 8 (LOL). Starting to spread the joy into the handle region now.

I purposely made 2 other AIs as Zuul, so that I had a chance to ally with somebody. But dang, these guys even hate each other!

Any tips on diplomacy as Zuul? I mean with other Zuul, as I just don't even try with the other species out there. I usually start off in diplomacy with monetary tributes, but I read online that Zuul see such gifts as weakness to be exploited? How else do I convince my brothers of my righteousness? I tried conversion through conquest, but it seems other Zuul would fight to the last rather than accept my alpha status and join my Zuulmass.

Remember AI might change their minds once you send them info on your colonies. To drive the point home, nuke a few more worlds. They usually crumble afterwards.

[MLai]

There is one positive for Zuul conquering other Zuul planets. When you take enemy Zuul imperial populations as slaves in your slave ships, and drop them on your own colonies, they instantly become your own imperial population.

Drop off some captured Zuul on a fresh outpost of 1000 colonists and watch it become 100 million the very next turn. It's the shiznit. :smallcool:

[Icedaemon]

Obviously, the other Zuul deathpopes believe you have lost your way and are a dangerous heretic, while the masses couldn't care less/do not understand that part of the scriptures where your views diverge from that of your peers.

[MLai]

I'm gonna check to see if it's possible to mod the avatar pic in this game. I totally want him for my Zuul avatar! :smallbiggrin:
http://jamesandhisdadsreviews.webs.com/photos/best-villiansmostly-animated-by-James-Eagan-pt-2/jenner.jpg

[Grif]

I'm gonna check to see if it's possible to mod the avatar pic in this game. I totally want him for my Zuul avatar! :smallbiggrin:
http://jamesandhisdadsreviews.webs.com/photos/best-villiansmostly-animated-by-James-Eagan-pt-2/jenner.jpg

It's possible.

http://sots.rorschach.net/Category:Modding_SotS

If you like, I can give you a step-by-step on how to mod them in. (Pretty much modded in pony avatars in for lulz.)

[Silfir]

... That's pony avatars and badges, right?

...

Can I have them?

[Grif]

... That's pony avatars and badges, right?

...

Can I have them?

Uh. Sure. Let me just upload the files and link them here later okay?

(Only for humans though, sorry. I suppose I could do a set for each of the six races, but that would be a hassle.)

[Kane]

Final result: Stand and fight, attempt to finish UV lasers.

System Update...

Warning: A hell of a lot of images in this chunk of update alone.


Loading...
http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/6531/2012021600001.jpg

http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/2896/2012021600003.jpg
Where we left off....

http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/3350/2012021600004m.jpg
A nice little world, but perhaps a bit too close to the Liir, given the imminent hostilities.

http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/4616/2012021600005h.jpg
Our imminent hostiles...

http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/364/2012021600006.jpg
On a tangential note, theres a small high-hazard and high-resource world very near to our central worlds. Should the Morru'quan order some colonizers for it?

http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/2826/2012021600007.jpg
Oh so close... Say, let's check up on our defenses here.

http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/5172/2012021600008h.jpg
Here's our formation for when the fish enter our system. This is what the fleet will deploy as.

http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/133/2012021600009v.jpg
Speaking of which....

http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/1784/2012021600011.jpg
Deployment in defense of our world...

http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/8733/2012021600012.jpg
Same in the tac-scans...

http://img826.imageshack.us/img826/4328/2012021800004.jpg
And now we tactically retreat towards the planet. Not cowardice, I assure you.

http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/807/2012021800005.jpg
Reason being, the Liir drive moves faster in deep space. The closer to a gravity well- like a planet- the slower and more sluggish their ships are, though they still tend to bob and dance a bit.


http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/589/2012021800006.jpg
And, of course, our defense platforms can add their weight in missile-tubes to our salvos and defense.

http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/3089/2012021800007.jpg
Contact. Contact. Contact. Hostile missile launch detected. Multiple missile launches detected.


http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/4907/2012021800009.jpg
First salvo away. All ships, cycle and reload.

http://img542.imageshack.us/img542/2998/2012021800010.jpg
http://img571.imageshack.us/img571/4508/2012021800011.jpg

http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/3530/2012021800012.jpg
Our opening salvo comes under fire from their superior weapons. Those are what the ladies are currently researching; even matches our ships, people.

http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/6016/2012021800013.jpg
Hostiles entering visual range...

http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/266/2012021800014.jpg
Second salvo launched, Zo'quan. Rearming...

http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/5435/2012021800015.jpg
Hits! Multiple hits, Quan! Their point-ship is bleeding atmosphere!

http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/7176/2012021800018.jpg
Closing to gauss-cannon range proves highly hazardous. Our point-ship boils away under a hail of Ultraviolet laser fire.

http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/7887/2012021800019.jpg
They attack, my Quan!

http://img836.imageshack.us/img836/4866/2012021800021.jpg
As I may have explained beforehand, combat interface. Selected units target the identified ship on the identified spot- I can literally tell them to aim for a specific turret mounting. They wouldn't hit it, 'cause were all using Gauss cannons (which are horribly inaccurate) or missiles, which always hit, but don't control where, but they'd try.

http://img816.imageshack.us/img816/9144/2012021800022.jpg

http://img580.imageshack.us/img580/3867/2012021800024.jpg
The glorious mêlée.

http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/3141/2012021800025.jpg

http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/1586/2012021800029.jpg
Left to right, C&C DE, damaged Liir armor DE, drifting Morrigi drive-section, and another Liir armor DE.

http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/1363/2012021800030.jpg
Both flocks thin, Zo'quan...

http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/9305/2012021800031.jpg
Their flock-leader finally makes an appearance, Zo'quan! Perhaps we should greet him...

http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/3851/2012021800032.jpg
Denied, tribesman. They are attempting to lure as away from the planet. Our fleet is taking enough fire as it is- We will not distance ourselves from support until they are further thinned.

Further combat does reach that lofty goal, though...
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/3998/2012021800034.jpg

Though battling through the alien fleet, crippled as it is, still proves costly.

http://img821.imageshack.us/img821/749/2012021800035.jpg

http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/5035/2012021800036.jpg
CNC ship taken out, the flock desperately falls back to close Biibri orbit...

http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/1277/2012021800037.jpg
Leaving wreckage behind them, but still fleeing for their lives and hulls.

http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/4732/2012021800039.jpg
We are depleting our reserves, Zo'quan- We die faster than they do.

http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/2790/2012021800040.jpg
Not excessively. We may have the battle yet.

http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/2581/2012021800042.jpg
If you've been wondering what those small blue orbs are, like in the bottom right corner, those are Gauss-driver rounds.


http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/8782/2012021800044.jpg
A neat view of what we're fighting for. Though our list of reserves is getting perilously short...

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/3504/2012021800045.jpg
A ship of the flock breaking up- to the left, a Liir hammerhead command section has been blasted off its ship, and spirals in the void, spewing atmospherics.

http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/8559/2012021800046.jpg
Should we win this, Zo'quan, the sheer amount of debris will be as great a hazard as the aquatics themselves.

http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/5238/2012021800048.jpg
I very much doubt that, tribesman.

http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/6360/2012021800049.jpg
A lull in the assault! All vessels, return to planetary orbit!

http://img862.imageshack.us/img862/7774/2012021800050.jpg
All ships, provide damage reports.

http://img849.imageshack.us/img849/3779/2012021800051.jpg
Gleaming Wing, Blade of Honor, and and Starburst- fall back from the battle. Your damage is too severe to risk you further.

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/5899/2012021800053.jpg
We hear and obey, Zo'quan, but reluctantly.

(You'll notice they appear at the bottom of our reserve list. Instead of outright destruction, damaged ships are available for repair at the end of the battle. Provided we win, of course.)

http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/5021/2012021800054.jpg
Holding position, Zo'quan.

http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/7936/2012021800057.jpg
Our peace ends- Missiles inbound, Zo'quan!

http://img821.imageshack.us/img821/2609/2012021800058.jpg
We are taking fire, chieftan!

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/4504/2012021800059.jpg
Hold fast and return fire; We have no more reserves.

http://img577.imageshack.us/img577/1572/2012021800061.jpg
At least the orbital platforms contribute to our salvo-strength...

http://img577.imageshack.us/img577/1572/2012021800061.jpg

http://img853.imageshack.us/img853/3500/2012021800062.jpg

http://img811.imageshack.us/img811/8783/2012021800063.jpg

http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/7540/2012021800064.jpg
They are breaking off, Morru'quan. We have held Biibri as you commanded.


Battle Summary:
http://img641.imageshack.us/img641/1469/2012021800066.jpg

[Silfir]

You didn't lose a single spacebird on Biibiri, excellent news! You should be able to do a whole lot of repairing. That, and some overharvest-produced extra warships, should ensure your victory!


Uh. Sure. Let me just upload the files and link them here later okay?

(Only for humans though, sorry. I suppose I could do a set for each of the six races, but that would be a hassle.)

That would be great! I think I'd be able to work out the files if I ever wanted to play Hiverponies.

I think I also need to look into making audio mods. "I just don't know what went wrong" for research accidents or "Yaaay" for victorious battles would make me consider playing the game with sound turned on again.

[Icedaemon]

Those are some great screenshots.

This is just a short post.

Shaking, Khubilai half-stumbles half-falls out of his seat. They had done it. Their long-lost cousins and sisters were safe, for the time being. Khubilai had been fortunate enough to be selected to control the communications channels of one of the command and control ships, their class still yet unnamed officially. He was obviously not of sufficient aanigi'dha or skill to be relied on by the fleet Qu'aan, but even transmitting the reports sent by nearby ships to one of the zo'quaans reporting to him was a significant duty. He is happy he was in a vessel held in reserve for a time - even two command vessels were lost. From what he heard, his cousin serving in Delta Fleet had a far lesser foe.

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/7866/morrigi2.jpg
Damage reports coming in from all vessels. Appears only a handful were untouched.

Even their own vessel was not one of those. While better off than many, it had still taken several energy rays, one of which nearly depressurized the bridge and one which punched a hole through one of the wings.

Many Morrigi lives were lost in this action. Why the Liirigi had attacked, Khubilai could not guess. Had they been deceptive as his instinct suggests? Had they been offended or provoked somehow, as his friend first assumed? Either way, he was due part of the blame. Despite his historian mother naming him for Khubilai the Peacemaker, a Qu'aan from a period when there was no Morru'qu'aan he is doubtful he could even aspire to follow his ancient namesake's flightpath.

[MLai]

Ha ha, audio mods would be great. I wonder if there's Star Trek audio mods out there.


Why the Liirigi had attacked, Khubilai could not guess.
Meh, one little blot of genocide and oppression in their history, and they feel self-justified in any pre-emptive strike and forcible colonization against neighboring nations seeking to achieve technological parity. Self-righteous geopolitical hedgemony.

"We're the victims here! Never again never again!" *Scrubs your ecosphere clean of all non-Liir sentient life, while crying you a river.

Usually, the conquerors believe (or disseminates the propaganda) that they are the supreme people/species/civilization, chosen by the deities, by genetics, and by manifest destiny. The ingrained Liir belief is the polar inverse of this common ideology.

As for the timing and location of the actual attack... we currently know too little of their geopolitical situation to ascertain the reasons. They may be engaged in conflict with neighboring powers, and thought we would be a threat (especially with our active expansion and industrialization) eventually forcing them into a multi-fronted war, or they felt that our holdings contain greater strategic or resource value for their current endeavors than for us. The invasion may not have been against our entire empire, but merely to knock our influence out of the immediate region until it is too late for us to ever act against them.

The overwhelming show of force was certainly intended to dishearten us and drive any thought of resistance out of our leaders. Perhaps they hoped we would simply abandon the colony, sparing them of any conqueror's guilt. However, in their decision not to adopt stealth armor for a true sneak attack, they underestimated our capacity for rapid mobilization, and for our collective resolve to hold onto what they felt was a fringe colony for us. Perhaps, as a telepathic aquatic people whose existence is spent floating in expanses of liquid emptiness, and whose societal nexuses are placed in living individuals rather than inanimate objects, they did not understand the extreme cultural and sentimental value that many civilizations held for the seemingly useless material heirlooms of their precursors.

[Grif]

That would be great! I think I'd be able to work out the files if I ever wanted to play Hiverponies.

I think I also need to look into making audio mods. "I just don't know what went wrong" for research accidents or "Yaaay" for victorious battles would make me consider playing the game with sound turned on again.

I'm looking into them myself. I roughly know the file structures of Sword of the Stars at this point and I have rudimentary audio editing skills. (Much like my photo manipulation skill.)

What I do need is suggestions on what kind of audio clips be used for what. I really have no time to go through each of the episodes to see which might fit which.

EDIT: Here's the promised mods.
Use the first two if you want to listen to pony songs in addition to the normal human ones in the tactical battle.
MLP Mod (http://www.mediafire.com/?r113j4be873umik)
MLP Music (http://www.mediafire.com/?eje7z6r4z7n5fuz)

Otherwise, use these.
MLP Mod without Music (http://www.mediafire.com/?2bfwnk1z33vvdnz)

The process is pretty simple, just zip them into your SotS folder. Remember to back up your sots.ini if you wish to revert later.

Forgive my crude work. Especially the splash art during the battle scene. It was mainly as a test to see how each GUI elements interacted with each other.

(Sorry Kane for hijacking your thread, but heh, as you can see, we don't really have a SotS Prime thread.)

On-topic:
I am suitably impressed by UV lasers.

[Kane]

You didn't lose a single spacebird on Biibiri, excellent news! You should be able to do a whole lot of repairing. That, and some overharvest-produced extra warships, should ensure your victory!



That would be great! I think I'd be able to work out the files if I ever wanted to play Hiverponies.

I think I also need to look into making audio mods. "I just don't know what went wrong" for research accidents or "Yaaay" for victorious battles would make me consider playing the game with sound turned on again.
...Ponies?

..."Orbital bombardment is magic!"?


Those are some great screenshots.
~snip~
Thank you. Half the time I'm not sure what I should be watching or using, but I seem to get mostly-there due to sheer weight of screenshots. If only Imageshack would allow me to upload in batches larger than a hundred.




~snip~

The overwhelming show of force was certainly intended to dishearten us and drive any thought of resistance out of our leaders. Perhaps they hoped we would simply abandon the colony, sparing them of any conqueror's guilt. However, in their decision not to adopt stealth armor for a true sneak attack, they underestimated our capacity for rapid mobilization, and for our collective resolve to hold onto what they felt was a fringe colony for us. Perhaps, as a telepathic aquatic people whose existence is spent floating in expanses of liquid emptiness, and whose societal nexuses are placed in living individuals rather than inanimate objects, they did not understand the extreme cultural and sentimental value that many civilizations held for the seemingly useless material heirlooms of their precursors.

That actually seems like pretty excellent reasoning for their attack, particularly your last paragraph. I may respect the Liir AI a bit more; until now, I've always assumed it was bugged or mildly retarded, considering how fickle it was.


I'm looking into them myself. I roughly know the file structures of Sword of the Stars at this point and I have rudimentary audio editing skills. (Much like my photo manipulation skill.)

What I do need is suggestions on what kind of audio clips be used for what. I really have no time to go through each of the episodes to see which might fit which.

(Sorry Kane for hijacking your thread, but heh, as you can see, we don't really have a SotS Prime thread.)

On-topic:
I am suitably impressed by UV lasers.

No worries. My updates are anything but frequent and reliable; I'll try to keep an average of 1/week, but feel free to take advantage of the thread while I'm busy being slow. (or, you know, whenever.)

And just wait until you see X-ray lasers. Pulsed phasers might be better, but X-rays are my favorite. Hail of high-tech, long-ranged blue death. (We'll have UV ones soon, though.)

[Silfir]

Installed the mod, it actually looks awesome. Had a good laugh at the combat screen. Humans have never looked more ready for battle.

One thing, though, your sots.ini comes with your profile settings file set as the current profile; I edited it back to my own before I tested the mod, so I don't know exactly if a new profile with your name would be created or if the game would crash (the former, I'd say). So yeah, keep your old sots.ini and change that line unless you want to find out for me.

[Grif]

Installed the mod, it actually looks awesome. Had a good laugh at the combat screen. Humans have never looked more ready for battle.

One thing, though, your sots.ini comes with your profile settings file set as the current profile; I edited it back to my own before I tested the mod, so I don't know exactly if a new profile with your name would be created or if the game would crash (the former, I'd say). So yeah, keep your old sots.ini and change that line unless you want to find out for me.

Ahaha. Now you reminded me why I shouldn't ever copy the .ini file from my own HDD. Glad to see you liked it.

I'll probably add more and more avatars/badges once I pick up the time to do it again. (Probably by adding all the various background ponies.) I should probably get started on the audio side as well, but I do appreciate suggestions.

[Silfir]

I'm going by kyrospawn's soundboard:

"I'm sorry I wasted your time" - Research goes overbudget
Trying to find a suitable replacement for "System Update" is kinda hard. I'd use Trixie's fanfare right now. Or Rainbow's "Pause for Dramatic Effect"?
"Enough chitchat! Time is Candy!" replaces some sort of diplomacy-related message?
"Get off there and put em up!" for a war declaration? Or "Try it, punk!"
"Let us never speak of this again" - Overbudget Research finally done?
"I'm just about to be BRILLIANT!" - Early breakthrough. Not on the soundboard though (why??), you'd have to extract it from another source.
"I'm on it!" could replace "Aye sir. We'll have those ships out in no time." as well as a thousand other cases of orders being acknowledged. Don't forget "Get my rope." or other short quotes of that kind.
"I know it's gonna be so! Awesome!" - New colony. Kind of a stretch?

I wish I knew off the top of my head just how many different messages there are. Kyrospawn's soundboard on deviantart (http://kyrospawn.deviantart.com/art/MLP-FIM-Soundboard-V8-2-244757196) does come with mp3s ready for conversion. I'd make a list of audio messages to replace and go through the soundboard to start with.

[Grif]

I'm going by kyrospawn's soundboard:

"I'm sorry I wasted your time" - Research goes overbudget
Trying to find a suitable replacement for "System Update" is kinda hard. I'd use Trixie's fanfare right now. Or Rainbow's "Pause for Dramatic Effect"?
"Enough chitchat! Time is Candy!" replaces some sort of diplomacy-related message?
"Get off there and put em up!" for a war declaration? Or "Try it, punk!"
"Let us never speak of this again" - Overbudget Research finally done?
"I'm just about to be BRILLIANT!" - Early breakthrough. Not on the soundboard though (why??), you'd have to extract it from another source.
"I'm on it!" could replace "Aye sir. We'll have those ships out in no time." as well as a thousand other cases of orders being acknowledged. Don't forget "Get my rope." or other short quotes of that kind.
"I know it's gonna be so! Awesome!" - New colony. Kind of a stretch?

I wish I knew off the top of my head just how many different messages there are. Kyrospawn's soundboard on deviantart (http://kyrospawn.deviantart.com/art/MLP-FIM-Soundboard-V8-2-244757196) does come with mp3s ready for conversion. I'd make a list of audio messages to replace and go through the soundboard to start with.

Excellent find! I'm going through them myself as we speak.

[Kane]

The gripping conclusion!

System Update...



http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/3910/2012021800065.jpg
So close.

http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/3497/2012021800067.jpg
What few remain...

http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/784/2012021800069.jpg
Rankings... But really, just putting off the important thing.

http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/2820/2012021800071.jpg
A new formation is set up, given the decimation of our previous one. I think there's a bug, but whenever I try to place ships, they sometimes drift a few squares in random directions on the formation grid- That's why these are probably never going to look symmetrical.

http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/4255/2012021800072.jpg
You'll notice the 'Mk. 6' and 'Mk. 7' designs there? (I can't see it myself, but take my word for it in this case.)

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/5331/2012021800073.jpg
The reason those are there is because we thoroughly annihilated the fifteen Mk. 5 Blood Tides (which we can presume to be their main-line combat ships,) that they sent with the fleet.

http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/8568/2012021800074.jpg
That's very nice, and all, but it does mean we're up against an improved design- Or at least, what the Liir AI thinks is an improved design. (Our planet is pretty nifty, it is. I love the Morrigi worlds from orbit.)

http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/9109/2012021800075.jpg
The AI has none of the human compunctions about "I don't want to make a whole new design for this one little tweak...". Which means we may well see Mk. 124s and Mk. 136s before the end of the LP.

http://img585.imageshack.us/img585/5269/2012021800076.jpg
Retreating back to the planet here. Anyway, the AI will change things for new weapons, new sections, or maybe just because it wanted to switch that one small mount weapon to Gauss PD mount instead- really piddling things. We'll see what the difference is...

http://img821.imageshack.us/img821/3420/2012021800077.jpg
The same opening exchange from their last wave, Zo'quan. Do they learn nothing?

http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/2572/2012021800078.jpg
They cost us more than we cost them, tribesman. In lives, especially- Debris and wreckage suggest their crews are far smaller than ours. As few as three per ship.

http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/7003/2012021800079.jpg
But they are far from support, Zo'quan. The foundries and shipyards of Biibri remain intact- They have no such recourse.

http://img577.imageshack.us/img577/4972/2012021800080.jpg
Certainly true, tribesman- Aha! Our salvos broke through!

http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/372/2012021800081.jpg
Signal my compliments to the flock. Let's see if we can fire another before they close to engage.

http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/4206/2012021800082.jpg
I'm not sure why, but they veer to the side, as if trying to engage the weapon platforms rather than our ships. Our ships can move, though, so that isn't too effective. At any rate, it does give us more time to batter them with missiles, and bring them into range of more of our OWPs.

http://img718.imageshack.us/img718/9484/2012021800083.jpg
And they continue. The reason they appear but don't seem to be in our sensor radius is because I'm not selecting our fleet at the moment, who's sensor radius extends somewhat further than the planet's. Therefore, their radius isn't showing, but what they see is still visible.

http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/8119/2012021800084.jpg
They close to engage, my Quan.

http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/2129/2012021800085.jpg
Not fast enough. Second salvo away.

http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/8507/2012021800086.jpg
They return fire...

http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/592/2012021800087.jpg
Not nearly enough of it. I believe the flock has a sound advantage at missile-range.


http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/4876/2012021800088.jpg
They come for us. I fear the women may suffer, Quan.

http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/43/2012021800089.jpg
We shall mitigate what we can. Move to support the defense platforms- They were not meant to take on ships on their own.

http://img651.imageshack.us/img651/7766/2012021800091.jpg
Casualty! Creeping Darkness is gone! All hands lost- It looks like a reactor breach, my Quan.

http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/8295/2012021800094.jpg
They shall be remembered. All ships, engage at best speed.

http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/6/2012021800097.jpg
They seem a bit broken up here. Possibly, reinforcements coming in after the thinning our missiles did.

http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/4230/2012021800099.jpg
And I can't tell the difference on this design- Actually, it might be that they use missiles for the medium mount, rather than a double-barreled UV Laser.

http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/6096/2012021800100.jpg
Targeting damaged vessel off the port wing. Commencing firing...

http://img571.imageshack.us/img571/8696/2012021800101.jpg
Multiple direct hits! Target crip- Target destroyed!

http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/8334/2012021800102.jpg
Dustling vessels blown open to the void- A sight to warm any Traveler's hearts...

http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/4035/2012021800104.jpg
Their reinforcements straggle in. Planetfire and our weight of salvo is beginning to show.

http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/1818/2012021800105.jpg
Not nearly enough for all too many of us. Silent Ascension; break off and withdraw- Any more fire and you'll completely disintegrate.

http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/6185/2012021800106.jpg
Our thanks, Quan. Withdrawing as ordered.

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/6431/2012021800108.jpg


http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/9990/2012021800109.jpg
And here we see another of the Liir armor designs. Missile tube, but a Strafe command section- Heavier weight in weaponry, but fixed-facing, forward only. Narrow arcs of fire. Personally, I tend to consider the extra weapons not worth the lack of firing arcs. There're more guns, but there's less time that they can fire.

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/5335/2012021800110.jpg
A crippled vessel of ours being chased down by a Liir missile...

http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/7091/2012021800111.jpg

http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/5916/2012021800112.jpg
They attempt to use the world as a hostage...

http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/7342/2012021800113.jpg
Which doesn't work out too well. Our gunners are accurate.

http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/7532/2012021800115.jpg
And our missiles, despite the name...

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/9381/2012021800116.jpg
Do not miss.

http://img846.imageshack.us/img846/6517/2012021800117.jpg
A sight to warm any Traveler's hearts indeed.


http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/5549/2012021800119.jpg
A Liir hammerhead command section, liquid atmosphere boiling away, as it spirals off of its late vessel.

http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/6848/2012021800120.jpg
A pretty sight. Also, our glowy vessel there is our gravboat; some guns on it, and it provides a movement bonus/penalty to ships near it depending on whether we like them.

http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/5532/2012021800122.jpg
I may have taken too many screenshots...

http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/6237/2012021800123.jpg
And a more close-up version;
http://img851.imageshack.us/img851/8607/2012021800124.jpg
A Liir DE with crippled mission section, and that vessel with the yellow fan-looking things is one of our Squadron CNCs, head on.

http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/8584/2012021800125.jpg
A moment later...

http://img600.imageshack.us/img600/9621/2012021800126.jpg
...an expanding cloud of debris.

Their ships warp in near their CNC ship. Or maybe we destroyed their CNC ship, and they warped in at the default 'reinforcement' points. At any rate, we finish off their progressively more outnumbered force, then rally and come about to face the next wave, which heads in once all their ships already in combat are finished off.
http://img594.imageshack.us/img594/7701/2012021800127.jpg
Zo'quan! New ships inbound!

http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/3864/2012021800128.jpg
I can see that, technician.

http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/2893/2012021800129.jpg
No, Quan! New designs! These don't seem to be warships.

http://img826.imageshack.us/img826/6779/2012021800130.jpg
Hmm. And they are breaking off from the rest- perhaps support ships of some kind. It seems we truly are thinning their numbers. Let them run- If they don't flee, we can ask the Morru'quan his orders regarding their auxiliary vessels.

http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/5951/2012021800132.jpg

http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/7645/2012021800133.jpg

http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/6695/2012021800136.jpg
As the battle extends, with no chance to repair, and diminishing reinforcements, the flock begins to show signs of their ordeals...

http://img826.imageshack.us/img826/463/2012021800137.jpg

http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/6665/2012021800138.jpg

http://img577.imageshack.us/img577/4381/2012021800142.jpg

http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/5978/2012021800143.jpg
Not a pretty sight...

http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/9215/2012021800144.jpg
Not a pretty sight at all.

http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/3090/2012021800147.jpg

http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/7193/2012021800151.jpg
I'm skipping over a dozen shots of just 'the battle continues'- I suppose I can post them in future updates if people want them, but it seems like it just get repetitive.

http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/5331/2012021800156.jpg
The vessels of the Starborn prove themselves superior.

http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/7470/2012021800158.jpg
And while kinetics may not be quite as accurate as coherent light, they certainly are effective enough, in abundance.

http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/1551/2012021800161.jpg

http://img813.imageshack.us/img813/4104/2012021800164.jpg

http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/8876/2012021800165.jpg
Most of the flock destroyed, half of what's left crippled, and some of the remaining portions composed of our own auxiliary vessels, the order is given to withdraw to close orbit, rather than pursue remaining enemy ships.


The result:

http://img585.imageshack.us/img585/3254/2012021800167.jpg
Looky here...

http://img848.imageshack.us/img848/9315/2012021800168.jpg
...and here!

http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/2442/2012021800169.jpg
I'm going to express some interest in warhead tech- better damage, plus Heavy Planetary Missiles, if we're lucky.

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/1944/2012021800170.jpg
http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/4955/2012021800171.jpg
And other potential options. I vote for cruisers, FTL economics, Atmospheric Adaptation, Integrated Sensors or Jammers, or Steelsong, if you actually think it will get us lasting peace with these fish. As there's one more turn to go before the end of this update, I'm going to go ahead and research FTL broadband, which is one turn at this point. The next is up to you people, though.

http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/1498/2012021800172.jpg
And the potential new warship design- A laser PD slot on the ventral and dorsal hull that provide almost complete coverage, (a thin slot directly aft of the ship is not covered,) UV-lasers in all other small slots, and a missile rack. What do you think, should we switch our missile racks out for twin-linked Ultraviolet lasers? Or even replace the PD with some?

http://img851.imageshack.us/img851/5043/2012021800174.jpg
And, of course, our battle report. Looking up for us, and we traded tonnage on a much more equivalent ratio. I think all they have left is a CNC DE, and two colonizers. I'm pretty confident the Morru'quan is going to order them eliminated, though I might be persuaded.

http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/7500/2012021800175.jpg
And lastly, the Tarkas are getting a bit nosy...

[Grif]

Good show.

A few comments. The strafe section works on Liir ships because of their incredible mobility and turning speed. Unlike say... the clumsy human ships, they can actually keep the strafe section on their target with ease. I wouldn't underestimate their power, though the AI may not be the best user for these. (Mounting lasers on those are just deadly.)

As for tech, I'd personally go for cruisers and Atmospheric Adapation. Shaped Nukes are a stopgap at best, and we would be better off going straight for fusion. Instead I'd recommend you get Polysillicate Alloys instead. Having sturdier ships are much better imo.

No comment on the ship design, although I personally recommend an all UV laser destroyer just for close-range brawling. I do prefer specialised ships as opposed to generalists.

[houlio]

We are the Morrigi, so I vote for FTL Economics, which will make it significantly easier for us to everything else.

The Strafe sections are also amazing on Tarkan Cruisers. There's nothing like 8 Fusion Cannons blasting away the opposition.

[MLai]

Nicely done! And now I have respect for the UV lasers. Even with just the last remnants of a tattered outnumbered fleet, the UV lasers alone took quite a few birds down with them.


I'm going to express some interest in warhead tech- better damage, plus Heavy Planetary Missiles, if we're lucky.
Since you haven't yet invested in any missile tech, I'd recommend not to. Without balancing mods, IMHO the missiles tree is generally too much expenditure and ends up completely obsolete if anyone gets phaser PD. Which the Liir most likely will. Missiles lower your armour rating, and are really expensive.


I vote for cruisers, FTL economics, Atmospheric Adaptation, Integrated Sensors or Jammers, or Steelsong, if you actually think it will get us lasting peace with these fish. As there's one more turn to go before the end of this update, I'm going to go ahead and research FTL broadband, which is one turn at this point.
I say cruisers. Morri destroyers are mediocre but their cruisers are great. If the Tarka (or Zuul) set their eyes on you, you're going to need them.
Trade/colonization technology will only be useful if your borders are secure.
Jammers are more useful when you're ready to get aggressive.
Steelsong can wait. Liir will be off your back for a few years after such a sound beating. Now you can seek a treaty as the victor. But don't invade the Liir unless you're ready for them to get psychotic on you.


And the potential new warship design- A laser PD slot on the ventral and dorsal hull that provide almost complete coverage, (a thin slot directly aft of the ship is not covered,) UV-lasers in all other small slots, and a missile rack. What do you think, should we switch our missile racks out for twin-linked Ultraviolet lasers? Or even replace the PD with some?
Keep the PD. Fission age will see lots of missiles against you. Also useful for swarms.
Ditch the missile mount, replace with twin-linked UV laser turret. UV laser is a fairly advanced tech, much better than your default missile. Also raises your armor rating, *and* is cheaper cost.


I think all they have left is a CNC DE, and two colonizers. I'm pretty confident the Morru'quan is going to order them eliminated, though I might be persuaded.
Considering that over a million of the Starborn lost their lives due to their aggression, I think the remaining Liir are usually obligated to dive into the sun as recompense. The sun's kinda far.

Are those My Little Pony voice clips???
I don't watch the show, but that would be F-ing awesome LOL! Please make it a complete package together with your pony avatars and badges. I'd totally use this mod LOLOLOL. :smallbiggrin:

[Grif]

Are those My Little Pony voice clips???
I don't watch the show, but that would be F-ing awesome LOL! Please make it a complete package together with your pony avatars and badges. I'd totally use this mod LOLOLOL. :smallbiggrin:

I'll try not to disappoint. :smallwink:

[Icedaemon]

I would keep ship design names for specific weapon sets. Menghos' Memory is the kinetic/missile armed destroyer. Why not keep those as is (save for adding point defense, obviously) for the now and make the laserboats Hrihor's Revenge, Atreus' Light (http://sots.rorschach.net/Morrigi_leader_names) or somesuch. Alternatively, name it after something significant to Biibiri. Perhaps a command ship lost in the battle, or just the planet itself. Biibiri's Vigil would fit nicely.

Also, it seems you still haven't named the command ships. I would suggest again either a leader-based name or a clearly commercial one. 'Uzbequa Great in Council' seems like the right ancestral leader to name a command ship that will likely come in significant numbers after.

FTL Economics does fit the Morrigi and making peace so soon after an unprovoked attack would seem almost like surrendering to the populace.

I'll probably post my in-character reply on Saturday, maybe tomorrow.

Is it possible to try and capture the unarmed enemy ships intact?

[Grif]

Is it possible to try and capture the unarmed enemy ships intact?

There's no such mechanism in SotS, unfortunately.

[Kane]

Is it possible to try and capture the unarmed enemy ships intact?


There's no such mechanism in SotS, unfortunately.

Not quite true. It's possible to get Boarding Pods tech off of cruisers, which can be nifty as hell. (Usually when the computer uses 'em on me. :smallfrown:) Basically, if your boarding crew wins out, you get their ship as a stationary weapons platform (or at least, a drifting one,) and there might even be a bonus to repair and salvage afterwards, though I'm not sure.

[MLai]

Actually, after a successful boarding, while you can't manually control the hijacked ship it's anything but "drifting." It will turn and fly around towards targets on its own.
At least that's my experience with Zuul boarding.

P.S. Zuul rant:
I gotta say, the Zuul takes the prize for having the most useless tech/ ship parts. Which is kind of character-consistent...

1. The Extended Range mission segment. Like, when would I ever use this? I got sick of never seeing it in action, so I modded a Tarka engine on it. Now it flies around ahead of my bore ships, scouting out the destination. My Zuulian expansion suddenly became a lot less stuttered.

2. The cruiser Point Defense segment. Wow, talk about nonsensical and useless. I think the Zuul scientists completely missed the point of Point Defense, back when they were extracting the knowledge from some hapless Hiver. "The insects love this ship design, it must be good. But let's make it better! Get rid of all these wimpy small mounts and add some manly medium mounts! Yeah we's made an innovation!"

Any good/fun ideas on how I can mod it (easily) to make it see some service? I'm thinking dramatically increasing its armour rating. It'd be the ship segment that doesn't have any large turret mounts because all the armour plating took up the space. Either that or I'll look into increasing the small turret mount numbers on the ship itself... shouldn't be too hard?

[Icedaemon]

Since I am already pestering you about names, why not name significant fleets as well? Biibiri's defense fleet and the anti-zuul fleet at Eretria at the least deserve noting. Perhaps Savior Flock and Avenger Flock, respectively?

During the second battle, Khubilai was more composed, more in control of his own self. He knew and felt that Biibiri was going to be safe from attack even as the vessel he was with entered the fray.

During the battle, the reports of the warbirds under his zo'quan's control were intercepted and relayed clearly, the most urgent and significant ones with their clarity boosted as far as the comm units could allow to separate them from the cheers and chatter of the other crews, the majority still green as air compared to the few rare surviving veterans of the Suuligi war who generally were seen as the rightful qu'aans and zo'quans of any flock.

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/7866/morrigi2.jpg
Gleaming Wing! Confirm attack vector.

As the battle progressed and the enemy force was depleted to just what could arrive as reinforcements, some of the one-warbird zo'quans got cocky and sped to the enemy arrival point, but most either obeyed orders or had already chosen an angle from which to fire at the Liir reinforcements.

Eventually...

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/7866/morrigi2.jpg My zo'quan! New contacts multi-confirmed as unarmed in appearance! Orders?

http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/8343/morrigi6.jpg Enemy support craft? Fleet-qu'aan will determine. Hold for now. All warbirds hunt stragglers.

Not long thereafter, the zo'quan prepared for the discussion on what these unknown vessels fate would be. As Khubilai had first-person contact with the space-fish, he was consulted with.

http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/8343/morrigi6.jpg What would they ferry into battle like this?

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/7866/morrigi2.jpg I haven't the slightest idea, my zo'quan. The enemy, when I convened with them, put on a benevolent face. It was not external as our glamour, but to and from the inside, a feeling of calm and peace if you will. They claimed to be peaceful and told us that they were only spacefaring to protect their brethren and elders. This does appear to be a lie. They have probably had an eye on Biibiri for a while.

http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/8343/morrigi6.jpg The best lies are often spiced with little truths. What seemed to be the truest points of their demands and questions?

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/7866/morrigi2.jpg They were very emotional about protecting their own and retaliation for any aggression, repeating such themes several times. Odd that they expected us to not feel the same way about our own sisters. Taking prisoners and hostages would likely be more effective at deterring further attacks than simply blowing those craft apart.

http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/8343/morrigi6.jpg If these were Zuuligi, letting them go would make us look weak and hostages would be laughed at, if the old texts still ring true. How would Liirigi react to releasing those vessels unharmed?

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/7866/morrigi2.jpg I can't give a clear answer.

http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/8343/morrigi6.jpg I never expected more than an educated guess.

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/7866/morrigi2.jpg They would probably see it as mercy and act accordingly. However, their derision at spacefaring, if not a total fabrication, implies that returning from a trip to the stars with anything less than success would not be looked on kindly. Release would be of questionable worth and would doubtless infuriate the civilians.

http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/8343/morrigi6.jpg I did not consider them. The matrons of Biibiri would want blood. Thus, capture would be best, kill second, release third. Makes sense. At the very least, capture can aid research into their texts, maybe even reverse-engineering their weapons.

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/7866/morrigi2.jpg Yes, my qu'aan I believe so.

[Kane]

Somewhat belated
System Update...

Resumption. (Sorry, I was spending last week panicking.)

http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/2183/2012030500001h.jpg
And now I'm going to spend this update panicking. Because if I'm not mistaken, the numbers on each race's profile indicate their relative spot in the game. And it looks like we've succeeded in knocking the Liir out of first to be replaced by the Zuul.

Oh dear.

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/4765/2012030500002.jpg
On the other hand, we finally got them yoo-vees. I went for thorough PD coverage on our CNC ships, slightly sparser on our drone ships, and adequate on our actual armor ships. (which have the proper name this time, if proper design. I catch myself before any are made, but the visible design has missiles instead of dual-laser turrets.)

At any rate; where we last left off:
http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/6893/2012030500003.jpg
The Tarka were getting a tad adventurous. This will not stand, particularly given what happened when our last neighbor became adventurous.

http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/5868/2012030500004.jpg
Luckily, or perhaps thanks to the foresight of the Morru'quan, we have shiny new ships to debate the issue with. A few are queued up, the beginings of a second fleet for the borderworlds.

http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/4656/2012030500006.jpg
Status update...

http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/7808/2012030500007.jpg
Given the casualties incurred in mopping up the Liirigi, those vessels remaining in system were destroyed without mercy when they refused to surrender. The move was met with little to no Morrigi opposition.

http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/3329/2012030500008.jpg
Somehow, though, the Liir took offense to this. (I actually received dissolution of our ceasefire immediately upon loading. Was not immediately reproducible, though, and I missed the screenshot for it. Therefore, reload, retry, return-with-evidence.

http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/8944/2012030500010.jpg
Each race, as mentioned, has faction-specific generic diplomacy messages- "War", "We don't hate you", "Ceasefire", "Peace", "Alliance", "Yes", "No", "Here are some research scientists, make sure we get 'em back". Those kinds of things. Here, we witness the Liir ones.

http://img859.imageshack.us/img859/1779/2012030500009.jpg
Oh, hey, FTL Broadband. I can see FTL-Skype being used between vessels, fleets, and worlds. I'm sure people enjoy it. You know what I'd enjoy more?

Embarrassing amounts of cash. As Morru'quan, I want an entire space station I can have built out of money. Possibly with Scrooge-McDuck-style pools of cash for my personal recreation. FTL Economics will go a long way towards realizing that goal, something which I'm sure you can all see the importance in.

http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/143/2012030500011.jpg
Here we still have our diplomacy screen. Apparently, the Liir do not like having their fleets blasted to scrap metal by less-advanced but evidently undeniably effective kinetic and atomic-explosive weaponry. What a shame. I bet they dislike it almost as much as our Tribes enjoyed watching their kinsmen and wives bombarded from orbit. Their ships where destroyed; for this we will refuse to apologize.

http://img821.imageshack.us/img821/1993/2012030500012.jpg
Unsurprisingly, their last few ships- A depleted tanker and maybe a few colonizers- did not fare terribly well against the patched-up fleet we had to greet them with.

http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/839/2012030500014.jpg
Some Tarka embark on a journey they will almost certainly regret- That's one of our Asteroid Monitors waiting on them there.

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/6372/2012030500015.jpg
But there's still that Tarka ship heading for one of our (developing) paradise worlds.That won't do. Our second borderline fleet is being assembled, and I make the mistake of thinking the flock effect of five more ships will shave a turn off the trip. Luckily, nobody dies as a result of the mistake.

http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/6015/2012030500016.jpg
Allowing that Zuul ship to survive, twenty odd turns ago? So many people are going to die as a result of that. They have cruisers. For real this time. Not the cruisers I thought the Liir had.

Paaaaaaain.....



New combat!

http://img837.imageshack.us/img837/3377/2012030500018.jpg
Minor confession here: I figured we were completely screwed. I went through the entirety of this combat at full speed intending to load an autosave at the end of the turn, and autoresolve. But hey, since I ended up watching it, a few screenshots wouldn't hurt, right?

http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/6044/2012030500019.jpg
Oh dear Ancestors. That looks big.

http://img534.imageshack.us/img534/6849/2012030500020.jpg
And has entirely too many guns on it.

http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/2541/2012030500021.jpg
And there are entirely too many of them.

http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/6867/2012030500022.jpg
...All in the valley of Death,
Rode the brave six hundred...

http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/4552/2012030500023.jpg
Remember, I was continuing at 8x combat speed. It's a miracle I remembered to take screenshots; I didn't remember to deselect things.

http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/4983/2012030500024.jpg
And more annoyingly-crowded views.

http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/6518/2012030500025.jpg
You might make the mistake of thinking those-there missiles are the planet's contribution to the battle. The ones on the left, yeah. The ones on the right? Nope. Those are a brand new Zuul toy; Dumb-fire rockets! Basically, space-katyushas (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/63/Katjuscha_1938_Moscow.jpg/800px-Katjuscha_1938_Moscow.jpg).
Say, a few layers of them, in external racks on a ship. Quantity over accuracy, they say. Rather distinctive and fun. Not terribly effective, luckily, except against massive (slow-moving) targets.

Certainly not useful against our brand-new and delightfully effective Radiant-class Drones. Those are real hard to hit.

http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/7299/2012030500026.jpg
Look at that. Twenty seven of our ships, twelve of theirs. That's...

Pretty impressive, when you think about it.

Y'see, eight of their ships are cruisers. Tonnage- (and command-points-, not to mention allegedly weapons-) -wise, those are equivalent to three destroyers. And then four more of their destroyers. To twenty seven of our own destroyers, and none of our shiny new UV-Defense platforms.

We just got equivalent exchange. (Technically, one DE in our favor.) That isn't good, in fact, that's really, really bad against Zuul, but they were using both cruiser ships and Cruiser CNC sections. They outnumbered us by a hell of a lot, in combat, because Cruiser's Strikeforce CNC allows them to field a lot more ships than a destroyer's Squadron CNC, in addition to the usual Zuul bonus Command Points.


We are the Starborn. Fear us, Zuuligi. Tremble.


http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/2113/2012030500028.jpg
Alright, before we start preening too much, let's see about those last two cruisers.

http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/2247/2012030500029.jpg
Our newest warship, if you discount my hasty correction to the updated-again Mengkhos' Memory schematics. Akhilleos' Flight. Here, berthing two Radiance-class drones, as mentioned. Three UV-Lasers mounted on each one. The actual DE has sacrificed several slots for 360* PD coverage, but is still armed with a few UV lasers. Ideally, though, it will sit nicely back from combat and never have to expose itself.

http://img560.imageshack.us/img560/7130/2012030500030.jpg
Here, the undocking, as enemy contact is first made.

http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/5310/2012030500031.jpg
And the other. Our total fleet consists of ten 'Required Vigil' light defense platforms, 1 'Uzbequa Great In Council' Squadron CNC vessels, and 2 'Akhelleos' Flight' Drone ships, each with two Radiant drones. Versus two Zuul cruisers.

Technically, assuming that defense platforms count for about a third of a ship each, and not counting the planet, we've got a very slight tonnage advantage.

http://img607.imageshack.us/img607/9296/2012030500032.jpg

http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/2484/2012030500033.jpg
Wait... is that... damage?

http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/4296/2012030500034.jpg
I can identify that as a Zuul Strikeforce CNC, by that little greek-ish temple on it. That's their CNC section.

http://img848.imageshack.us/img848/9479/2012030500035.jpg
And yes, they're definitely damaged. Never underestimate the purifying power of coherent light.

http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/7458/2012030500036.jpg
Definitely damaged.

http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/2923/2012030500037.jpg
More damaged...

http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/8342/2012030500038.jpg
That is not at all untoward...
Results and a few skirmishes:

http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/7651/2012030500039.jpg
The Ancestors were with us.

http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/4429/2012030500040.jpg
Adding defensive rings to a few other systems...

http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/6414/2012030500042.jpg
Namely, here. I did mention I miss-predicted the resultant fleet speed. I also mentioned it did not end up costing lives.

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/9145/2012030500043.jpg
Overall...

http://img834.imageshack.us/img834/9494/2012030500045.jpg
Here we have that scout's arrival. Our fleet is one turn away. Peaceful resolution, just in case, and because we have minimal reason to object to the Tarka as this point, as well as minimal information about them. Besides, our fleet will arrive momentarily to sort out any, ah, 'disputes'. The combat at Aichi, however, is an asteroid monitor. Autoresolve; don't want to give them info they don't have to have.

http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/7329/2012030500046.jpg
While we could have tried to kill the scout with the planet here, and probably even succeeded, it seems too risky to, well, risk our colonist's lives over.

http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/6862/2012030500047.jpg
The Monitor, of course, does exactly what it was built to do. Kill stuff with extreme prejudice, kinetics, and missiles. (The particular icon that has done damage is known as 'planetary missiles', and basically is just a particularly tough and heavy-damage missile. Certain ships/stations/platforms can mount them. Our planets get them if we research the 'Heavy Planetary Missiles' tech.)

http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/3126/2012030500048.jpg
More poor news. Luckily, our new-model fleet has been building up at the developed worlds in our home cluster. Everyone should be there in time, and this time with suitably modern weapons and PD.

http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/75/2012030500049.jpg
A more zoomed-out view. That other Zuul fleet doesn't have a projected flight path, but it is moving. I believe that's because it's in my sensor-range, but isn't targeting one of my worlds or sensor-sources. They're heading for another world.

http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/7878/2012030500051.jpg
Coming from Xhubasos... They seem to be using that as another leaping-off point towards us. A cluster for their barbaric node-drive. We may have to think about taking that from them, or something to curtail their incursion.

Random Encounter + Incoming:

http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/3899/2012030500052.jpg
Now for some bad news.

http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/52/2012030500053.jpg
John von Neumann (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_von_Neumann) was a german mathematician of the twentieth century. Recent bloke. Polymath of sorts, lots of significant contribution to lots of fields.

http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/4430/2012030500055.jpg
He also (as far as I understand,) came up with the idea of self-replicating machines.

http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/7223/2012030500056.jpg
Machines that have instructions along the lines of:

Find Materials
Harvest
Replicate
Find more materials


http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/4444/2012030500057.jpg
Seeing as these are called 'Von Neumanns', it would be a safe extrapolation to assume that that's what these do. The mothership seeks out random worlds, (inhabited or uninhabited,) replicates a few harvesters, and the harvesters proceed to extract resources from the target world. They'll 'extract' resources from anything in orbit, too. Meaning that our poor little CNC ship in orbit here is about to be harvested.

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/1323/2012030500058.jpg
The VN Motherships is equipped with a trio of plasma torpedo tubes, and one or two Phaser PD mounts- Basically, a wall of ******* lasers. Demolishes drones, boarding pods, missiles, and torpedoes. Anything tracking, basically. Between that and the torps, they're well equipped to defend themselves against fledgling space empires.

http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/4668/2012030500059.jpg
Ouch. Harvesting. They really are one of the incredibly obnoxious random encounters, though happily are not enabled until turn 25. As a random encounter, a science station can predict them, but that's about it.

http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/8686/2012030500060.jpg
More pain. More harvesting. At least that will be detracted from how much they loot from the planet.
Anyway, one strategy is to put a ring of sniper-cannon light defense platforms around every planet. Sniper cannons are long-ranged and accurate enough that they can usually peg those harvesters before the harvesters can actually, well, harvest. That's nice.

http://img718.imageshack.us/img718/9712/2012030500061.jpg
Anyway, that's nice because it prevents us from losing resources without actually destroying the motherships. Not that that's terribly hard to do or a bad thing- quite the contrary. There's a one-turn 25% boost to research for nailing a VN Mothership.

http://img839.imageshack.us/img839/2546/2012030500063.jpg
But they don't actually do damage to the planet- No terraforming, infrastructure, or population damage. Just... steal 500 resources. And you know how I described them as 'well designed to defend themselves from fledgling star-empires'?

http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/3676/2012030500065.jpg
They have similarly well-thought-out defenses against 'thriving' star-empires. They don't steal resources, they just... defend. Not 'preemptive'; they wait until you kill a mothership or two before sending one 'round, but... Well, let's just avoid that until Fusion, shall we? Maybe late fusion. Or antimatter.

For those of you interested in the lore for the setting, (and our Let's Play, at that,) the Morrigi have encountered them before. Indeed, where a human player would hear exclamations of "Black six! Black six!", I got "The ancient machines have come again, Zo'quan!". They also express familiarity with the 'next step' I hinted at, should it come to that.

Actually, what the hell. Here's a nice little video of Morrigi/Von Neumann combat. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oCCovhlAvU) Of course, they're more successful, and I'd ask that you avoid looking at some of those 'related' links, but that's Morrigi voices and real-time combat for you.

Following that, we have some excellent news:
http://img857.imageshack.us/img857/5784/2012030500066.jpg
Embarrassing bagloads of money are within sight, if still completely out of reach. We can get [i]freighters now.

If only we had some secure and developed words that were not in the middle of cranking out fleets as fast as our shipyards can make 'em. Still, it's nice to have.


What next? + Fleets

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/4665/2012030500067.jpg
http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/8090/2012030500068.jpg
http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/8891/2012030500069.jpg
http://img580.imageshack.us/img580/1456/2012030500070.jpg
(This last one is the 'Xenotech' branch.)

And, as someone requested, Fleets:
http://img836.imageshack.us/img836/7434/2012030500071.jpg


What should we research next, and how many freighters should we be cranking out? "All of them.", right?

[Grif]

In my entirely biased opinion, I would hold off cranking freighters till we get Mega-freighters. That way, you don't need to replace those DE freighters later. But since Morringi is more reliant on Trade than either humans or hivers (which I'm currently obsessing about), I suppose you should crank it up to half of your maximum trade route and fill the gaps with CR Freighters later.

Weapon tech should only come after Trade is done. In that case, I would go for Particle Beams > Fusion > Phasers.

[MLai]

http://synchromysticismforum.com/download/file.php?avatar=1345_1276892057.jpgMy Qu'aan.
Our implementation of FTL communications has allowed us to receive a message originating from a neighboring dumbbell galaxy in our galaxy cluster. It was calibrated specifically for our new instruments to intercept, and was precise in its use of the Trade Language:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v52/MiLai/ratgiant.jpgThe Zuulmass of Sandboxhead is gradually consolidating its Apostolic See at dumbbell galaxy NGC 1128. Rapture of all lesser species stands at 75% completion. Only 2 battered empires of apes and fish, and a scattered enclave of Our Mother continue to resist.

We see the events of your sector, Kin of Our Mother. Rejoice, and do not fear, for your place in the Holy Writ has always been secure. Our small brothers --your Glorious Children-- had been far afield, but they now see your dwelling places, and they shall return to you soon.

And then you will live forever.

@ FTL Trade Logistics:
http://synchromysticismforum.com/download/file.php?avatar=1345_1276892057.jpgMy Qu'aan.
While wealth is the lifeblood of the empire, her body must first mature and grow large in order to accomodate such infusions.
May I recommend establishing trade routes first with the Pioneer-class DE freighters, but delaying trade maximization until we are capable of launching merchant flocks of CR vessels?
This means mapping out all available routes by sending 1 Pioneer freighter along each. Then when you are ready for transition to CR freighters, there will be no delay in actuating profits on all lanes.

[Icedaemon]

During the pitched battles near Biibiri, Tikalos felt sullen and useless. The vessels guarding Eretria were still needed to face the Zuuligi. Whatever the Liirigi might be, they were not the actual born and bred foes of the Travellers.

Menkghos' Memory, while at least a new ship design, was lacklustre. While the vessel had good utility given its simple equipment, there was no consideration for luxury in the earliest warbirds of the renascent Morrigi. Even with chances to occasionally visit Eretria, the weeks and months spent on board the destroyer were dull and uncomfortable.

He was most probably not the only youngster among the fleet who desired action. He was likely one of the few who lived to regret his wish.

--------------

http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/2305/morrigi5.jpgEretria reports multiple contacts! The Zuuligi have returned!

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/2582/morrigi1.jpg The beasts did not learn their lesson last time! They were once less than dust. They shall be so again!

This bravado was premature. The new and large enemy craft could take plenty of gauss cannon hits, where before one volley could be relied on to shred a zuuligi craft. Even worse, they carried what seemed to be endless amounts of missiles. Unguided and likely to miss, but fearsome by virtue of sheer bulk alone.

The pilot might have been a master at strafing runs and fine all-around, but evading the vast amount of missiles and projectiles coming their way was beyond the capabilities of any Memory. Things seemed to be moving with impossible speed at one moment, only to appear still the next.

Tikalos was lucky and swift enough to get to the escape pods, enter one and actually launch from the craft before the reactor blew. Another tribesman had made it to the same pod, but had passed out from his wounds. Tikalos himself was hurt, with his upper left arm badly maimed and right wing torn and bloody.

He could only watch as the rest of the fight unfolded. The blind fire of the Zuuligi craft tore open many an escape pod, but his was among the ones unscathed. Their pilot had lasted long enough to survive longer than most of the Zuul vessels, at least. Tikalos was nevertheless tense even as the drones of the surviving Akhilleos' Flights, the blessed new-model relief ships, tore open the last Zuuligi attacker. Was another wave coming? Did some enemies survive?

When he was finally recovered, he too had passed out. The air supply of the pod had nearly ran out and the other crewmate was beyond medical help, but Tikalos was resuscitated. Recovery would take a while. A cybernetic arm would likely be necessary, reconstructive surgery on his wing mandatory.

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8295/morrigi4.jpg Good evening!

Khubilai fiddled with the new device a bit. Picture and sound quality was still distorted, but the faster than light transmitters were finally reliable and capable of constant long-distance transmission without utterly draining the batteries of even a destroyer. Even so, the machines were bulky, prone to mistakes and far too expensive for the mass market. That aside, he was pleasantly surprised by the call.

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/7866/morrigi2.jpg Are you calling me from Biibiri or have you hid on a safer planet yet?

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8295/morrigi4.jpg What? Hide? I'm not going to hide!

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/7866/morrigi2.jpg That's daft of you. Didn't you hear about the mess our kinsmen fell into at Eretria? If the Zuuligi can field craft that can fight us on equal ground, the Liirigi could well outpace our sisters and hit us with something unexpectedly effective by next year.

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8295/morrigi4.jpg If you think the situation is hopeless, why are you up there?

To that, Khubilai could not give a sufficient answer to.

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/7866/morrigi2.jpg Why are you calling me?

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8295/morrigi4.jpg I've heard rumours they have decided to put one of those old cargo freighter designs back into production. I've been talking to one of the zo'quans of the colony ships which settled Ixion. He believes he can be among the prime candidates for qu'aan of a freighter. I've convinced him that he needs a trained trader and that I am entirely suitable.

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/7866/morrigi2.jpg That's good for you. The colonies have infrastructure enough to trade with Biibiri and even Knossai by now.

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8295/morrigi4.jpgYou are not interested?

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/7866/morrigi2.jpgMe? what would I do?

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8295/morrigi4.jpgYou're at least as good a trader as I am...

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/7866/morrigi2.jpgIf you think you are so bad at it, why volunteer?

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8295/morrigi4.jpgI'm serious. Besides, we need someone who can keep these FTL transmitters active and might know his way around a weapons battery. You'd be perfect!

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/7866/morrigi2.jpgWeapons? Are you expecting piracy?

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8295/morrigi4.jpgWe could trade with other species! Our treaty with the Liir failed because we know nothing about them, but trade could be a perfect opportunity to find out more about the dustlings.

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/7866/morrigi2.jpgYou want me to end my military career for something less safe?Some light freighters now, large ones later would make sense. I'd suggest trying to trade with the Tarka, possibly befriend them. Do we have the Tarka language researched yet?

[MLai]

http://synchromysticismforum.com/download/file.php?avatar=1345_1276892057.jpgMy Qu'aan.
While the Liirigi did behave extremely poorly towards us, prudence would suggest that we forgive and forget.
Though not without some expression of righteous indignation, of course. We wouldn't want to appear too forgiving.
My point is, the Zuuligi has shown themselves to be much more formidable than we had surmised. It is apparent that they have selected our worlds as priority targets. With them, we know there can be no negotiation. More warships will come, of that we can be certain.
We simply cannot fight both the Zuuligi and the Liirigi simultaneously. We must make peace with the latter.
Have you scanned the proposals by the trade coalitions? They recommend that we open up trade with the Liirigi colonies. This would give both sides a reason to again pursue peace treaties without appearing submissive. Financial incentives could also change hands at that point, without the appearance of being tribute. Preen the wings --well, fins-- and their planetary governments should become more inclined to rein in their fickle spacefaring military.
I certainly hope that only their travellers are half-mad.

[Silfir]

You have to consider the potentially exponential effect of having more money sooner compared to even more money, but much later. Mega-Freighters require Fusion, and you don't have that kind of time. Even if you abandon everything else for Fusion into Mega-Freighters, and you probably don't want to, it's probably still much better financially to build regular traders and scuttle them for the big ones much, much later. More realistically, you'll simply switch to building the big ones once you've got them and spend your money getting things to wage war with.

It's that kind of thinking that causes me physical pain whenever I see your three million trust fund and think about how long you've maintained it. To me, that's money you have failed to invest in a multitude of things that could have earned you more money than that joke of an interest rate. Same for your apparent refusal to crank tech to max even during periods of boosted research (such as after the asteroid monitor) - I really hope you did and I just missed it. I'll be the first to agree that I sometimes suffer from not having a trust fund in war time, having to fund emergency defense fleets on credit; and sometimes I get morale problems, which are effectively shut down with even a one million reserve (which is the highest I'll end a turn with unless I'm completey raking in the money late game).

At the very least, use that trust fund to get as many freighters as is reasonable (in safe trading sectors, using planets you don't need to build warships or defense) as fast as possible.

But yes, combat tech is next. But not shiny new guns - you need Cruisers and most especially Strikeforce CnC right now.

After that? My personal preference would be Combat Algorithms for additional combat superiority and potential entry into Artificial Intelligence. Salvage tech into Asteroid Mining for an industrial and economic boost is something I usually throw in, too. I typically research AI before I go Fusion - simply because AI+Admin+Factories provides such as humongous economic and research boost, and the more things you research before AI, the more you potentially waste the research bonus from it.

[Grif]

You have to consider the potentially exponential effect of having more money sooner compared to even more money, but much later. Mega-Freighters require Fusion, and you don't have that kind of time. Even if you abandon everything else for Fusion into Mega-Freighters, and you probably don't want to, it's probably still much better financially to build regular traders and scuttle them for the big ones much, much later. More realistically, you'll simply switch to building the big ones once you've got them and spend your money getting things to wage war with.

It's that kind of thinking that causes me physical pain whenever I see your three million trust fund and think about how long you've maintained it. To me, that's money you have failed to invest in a multitude of things that could have earned you more money than that joke of an interest rate. Same for your apparent refusal to crank tech to max even during periods of boosted research (such as after the asteroid monitor) - I really hope you did and I just missed it. I'll be the first to agree that I sometimes suffer from not having a trust fund in war time, having to fund emergency defense fleets on credit; and sometimes I get morale problems, which are effectively shut down with even a one million reserve (which is the highest I'll end a turn with unless I'm completey raking in the money late game).

At the very least, use that trust fund to get as many freighters as is reasonable (in safe trading sectors, using planets you don't need to build warships or defense) as fast as possible.

But yes, combat tech is next. But not shiny new guns - you need Cruisers and most especially Strikeforce CnC right now.

After that? My personal preference would be Combat Algorithms for additional combat superiority and potential entry into Artificial Intelligence. Salvage tech into Asteroid Mining for an industrial and economic boost is something I usually throw in, too. I typically research AI before I go Fusion - simply because AI+Admin+Factories provides such as humongous economic and research boost, and the more things you research before AI, the more you potentially waste the research bonus from it.

Maintaining a slush fund of above 1 million is understandable, since morale is something you want to keep up. But yes, three million might be overkill, since you're probably not investing in research as much as you should.

I'll caution against researching into AI unless you're really finding yourself falling behind a lot. Dealing with AI rebellions is more trouble that its worth, and will just sap your strength. Or at the very least, drawing out a game that you might have in the bag. Of course, if you're the type who loves big risks vs big gains, then by all means, go for it. Just be aware of how the game can end for you right there and then if you drew the short end of the stick.

(It is worth noting that I tend not to get trade until I'm sure I can shoot straight for Mega-Freighters, since I really do not like dealing with the micromanagement of replacing the DE freighters. Plus I usually don't have the savings before turn 100 to churn out a respectable freighter fleet, since I get myself embroiled in various border skirmishes.)

[MLai]

(1) If his planets invest too heavily in freighter fleets right now, they won't have maximum ship-production capacity. I don't think Kane's empire is strong enough to buffer that production shortfall yet. More Zuul will come and he's going to have to periodically scrounge for shipyards for emergency production spikes.
And if he dials up all the lanes and then later have to dial them down in order to make an emergency defense fleet, his entire investment goes kaput for quite a few turns.
The clicks required on the Production VS Trade slider is usually 1-2, for each planet to fill up only 1-2 DE freighters on each lane. That would open up the lanes, but also keep production capacity up.

(2) Cruisers -> Strikeforce CnC -> Then, a good medium mount weapon rather than missiles or twin-linked lasers. Then I would go Combat Alg.

(3) AI research... I'm not worried about revolt; I'm more worried about how long the research would tie up the ladies (no, you perverts). His fledgeling empire would take a LONG time to research AI-anything at this point. I would research AI-anything right before researching Fusion; by then the empire should be ready to tackle it in a reasonable number of turns.
Salvage Tech? That comes way before AI or fusion. I would even get it before Combat Alg.

[Grif]

(3) AI research... I'm not worried about revolt; I'm more worried about how long the research would tie up the ladies (no, you perverts). His fledgeling empire would take a LONG time to research AI-anything at this point. I would research AI-anything right before researching Fusion; by then the empire should be ready to tackle it in a reasonable number of turns.
Salvage Tech? That comes way before AI or fusion. I would even get it before Combat Alg.

There's that.

Though I am curious. Why would you invest in Salvage so early? I don't find repair tech to be all that useful if you're going to fight a defensive war. There are definitely better things to go for, as you said, Strikeforce CnC and a good medium mount is handy. (I'll retract my previous suggestion of phasers. They're damn high up the tech tree, and needs an ungodly amount of time to research. Either go for Fusion Cannons or AP-MDs.)

[Silfir]

My modus operandi for researching AI is to research full-speed up to 50%, and dial it way back. The bad news is that Combat Algorithms is the worst possible link for it (if the link even exists, we might even have to frontload Holographic Tactics - it's also useful combat tech and barely more expensive than Algorithms but still). I don't know exactly how fast our research is right now, but Cruiser Construction apparently takes three turns to finish. It's 16000 research points, which puts our research at anywhere between 5334 and 7999 points per round. By these numbers AI would take 18 to 27 turns to research, following the link from Combat Algorithms. Take into account, however, that colonies will grow in the meantime of researching Cruiser Construction, Strikeforce CnC, Combat Algorithms, Salvage tech and Asteroid Mining, freeing up development costs and income, and that Kane isn't using full research. Asteroid Mining itself gives a decent boost. All that taken into account, we're looking at a 16-22 turn research duration, improved to 15-20 at least if research is cranked to full. Meaning AI is going to take like eight, nine turns to half-research. Once it's half-researched, you have some flexibility; you can dial it back down to near-nothing and still get a chance of an early breakthrough. (Provided I finally understand the blasted math.)

In any case, I'd minimize research that doesn't advance either military or economic power. Trade or friendly relations with the Tarka seem a lofty goal - but doesn't Trade require the big freighters, and don't the Tarka seem to largely leave us alone already? Even the simplest xenotech sets us back two, potentially more turns. And we've seen just how useful diplomacy is with the space dolphins.

What is a decent medium hull weapon to research at this point? I think we've got Mass Drivers and Plasma Cannons on the menu. I can't tell which one is better from experience. Research cost is the same 10000 points, which is about two turns. But the numbers for Mass Drivers certainly look much better; it's 500 vs 3000 on cost per mounted bank, 60 vs 20 on HP, 5 vs 6 on recharge, 170 vs 90/150/75 (depending on range) on damage. Plasma Cannons are more accurate by one degree, and point-blank starts on 150 vs 280 for Mass Drivers (which I assume means their minimum range is lower).

Large hulls, we've got the option of Particle Beams, which apparently deal 400 damage (200 per second and duration is two) per hit, but take twice as long to recharge as Mass Drivers, of which you could have two on the mount. That's 40 dps for mounting Particle Beams and 68 dps for mounting two Mass Drivers (which are also cheaper). There's interaction with armor to take into account, I assume, but I'm not impressed. One Heavy Driver bank does outdamage two Mass Driver banks quite handily. Either way, Large mounts come one per Armor Cruiser. We're going to build quite a number, but large enough to justify researching weapon tech to replace dual Mass Drivers?

ALSO: We've already researched VRF Technology for our ballistic weapons, which makes the numbers for Mass Drivers and Heavy Drivers even better.

[Grif]

My modus operandi for researching AI is to research full-speed up to 50%, and dial it way back. The bad news is that Combat Algorithms is the worst possible link for it (if the link even exists, we might even have to frontload Holographic Tactics - it's also useful combat tech and barely more expensive than Algorithms but still). I don't know exactly how fast our research is right now, but Cruiser Construction apparently takes three turns to finish. It's 16000 research points, which puts our research at anywhere between 5334 and 7999 points per round. By these numbers AI would take 18 to 27 turns to research, following the link from Combat Algorithms. Take into account, however, that colonies will grow in the meantime of researching Cruiser Construction, Strikeforce CnC, Combat Algorithms, Salvage tech and Asteroid Mining, freeing up development costs and income, and that Kane isn't using full research. Asteroid Mining itself gives a decent boost. All that taken into account, we're looking at a 16-22 turn research duration, improved to 15-20 at least if research is cranked to full. Meaning AI is going to take like eight, nine turns to half-research. Once it's half-researched, you have some flexibility; you can dial it back down to near-nothing and still get a chance of an early breakthrough. (Provided I finally understand the blasted math.)

In any case, I'd minimize research that doesn't advance either military or economic power. Trade or friendly relations with the Tarka seem a lofty goal - but doesn't Trade require the big freighters, and don't the Tarka seem to largely leave us alone already? Even the simplest xenotech sets us back two, potentially more turns. And we've seen just how useful diplomacy is with the space dolphins.

What is a decent medium hull weapon to research at this point? I think we've got Mass Drivers and Plasma Cannons on the menu. I can't tell which one is better from experience. Research cost is the same 10000 points, which is about two turns. But the numbers for Mass Drivers certainly look much better; it's 500 vs 3000 on cost per mounted bank, 60 vs 20 on HP, 5 vs 6 on recharge, 170 vs 90/150/75 (depending on range) on damage. Plasma Cannons are more accurate by one degree, and point-blank starts on 150 vs 280 for Mass Drivers (which I assume means their minimum range is lower).

Large hulls, we've got the option of Particle Beams, which apparently deal 400 damage (200 per second and duration is two) per hit, but take twice as long to recharge as Mass Drivers, of which you could have two on the mount. That's 40 dps for mounting Particle Beams and 68 dps for mounting two Mass Drivers (which are also cheaper). There's interaction with armor to take into account, I assume, but I'm not impressed. One Heavy Driver bank does outdamage two Mass Driver banks quite handily. Either way, Large mounts come one per Armor Cruiser. We're going to build quite a number, but large enough to justify researching weapon tech to replace dual Mass Drivers?

ALSO: We've already researched VRF Technology for our ballistic weapons, which makes the numbers for Mass Drivers and Heavy Drivers even better.

Unless you're shooting for AP on the way, Mass Drivers are average to mediocre weapons from experience. Plasma Cannons are hardly better, with pitiable damage output and the same accuracy as MDs.

I still don't get the recommendation of researching AI. Why should we be risking AI rebellion when we can more or less keep up with the tech of the other races with conventional means?

[Silfir]

It's not just tech rates; AI Factories and Administration usually come after and provide astronomical benefits of their own. You can "more or less keep up" using conventional means, or you can race ahead (and potentially crash and burn) using AI. When facing two very much hostile and three potentially hostile factions, I don't want to be more or less keeping up.

My experience is about one rebellion in ten games in which I go for AI. (I always go for AI, pretty much.) That's including that I always research Administration and Factories right after and stop. Also including that I get AI itself on an early breakthrough more often than not. I admit - when I do get the rebellion, I usually start a new game, or reload. I haven't tried playing through a rebellion yet, but it shouldn't be impossible. The AI rebellion is hostile, yes; but it's hostile to everyone. It'd be chaotic, but that's just another word for "interesting".

If you ask me, the risk is worth taking unless you are very, very clearly already winning. (Otherwise the AI tree would be pointless.) I don't think we are.

In the end, it's a decision for our Qu'aan to make. After all, we're talking about the risks knowing from our own experience from outside the game; the real question is: How would the Morrigi leader react to conflicting reports from scientists, most of which sing the praises of the potential key to Morrigi domination and victory, and the dissenters warning against the dangers of giving machines the ability to think? It's a conflicting decision if there ever was one.

For now, the Qu'aan isn't even aware the option exists. We're still two techs away from knowing if we even get Combat Algorithms. (Interestingly, what I said about possibly needing Holographic Tactics is moot. Morrigi have a guaranteed link to AI from Combat Algorithms; but Combat Algorithms itself is 95% from Data Synergy.) Story-wise, the question of whether to pursue AI only arises once Combat Algorithms are researched. Until then, there's a lot of time for the Zuuligi and Liirigi threats to show further development.

EDIT: About Mass Drivers: Mass Drivers is what we can get with minimal research investment. With VRF already researched, it's pretty damn good for only 10000 research points. Of course, if we get Artificial Intelligence, we can eventually afford gunning for the more expensive even shinier guns. Spending two turns researching Mass Drivers now doesn't commit us to the ballistic weapon tree forever.

[Grif]

It's not just tech rates; AI Factories and Administration usually come after and provide astronomical benefits of their own. You can "more or less keep up" using conventional means, or you can race ahead (and potentially crash and burn) using AI. When facing two very much hostile and three potentially hostile factions, I don't want to be more or less keeping up.

My experience is about one rebellion in ten games in which I go for AI. (I always go for AI, pretty much.) That's including that I always research Administration and Factories right after and stop. Also including that I get AI itself on an early breakthrough more often than not. I admit - when I do get the rebellion, I usually start a new game, or reload. I haven't tried playing through a rebellion yet, but it shouldn't be impossible. The AI rebellion is hostile, yes; but it's hostile to everyone. It'd be chaotic, but that's just another word for "interesting".

If you ask me, the risk is worth taking unless you are very, very clearly already winning. (Otherwise the AI tree would be pointless.) I don't think we are.

Oh, I'm not disputing the benefits. But rather the risk of getting them. It's rather more than 1 in 10 games in my experience. And yes, I tried playing through an AI rebellion. Believe me, it really screws you over because a) they usually take up to 1/3 of your existing colonies and b) since the nearest colonies to theirs is most often yours, you'll be attacked constantly and forced to be on the defensive.



In the end, it's a decision for our Qu'aan to make. After all, we're talking about the risks knowing from our own experience from outside the game; the real question is: How would the Morrigi leader react to conflicting reports from scientists, most of which sing the praises of the potential key to Morrigi domination and victory, and the dissenters warning against the dangers of giving machines the ability to think? It's a conflicting decision if there ever was one.

For now, the Qu'aan isn't even aware the option exists. We're still two techs away from knowing if we even get Combat Algorithms. (Interestingly, what I said about possibly needing Holographic Tactics is moot. Morrigi have a guaranteed link to AI from Combat Algorithms; but Combat Algorithms itself is 95% from Data Synergy.) Story-wise, the question of whether to pursue AI only arises once Combat Algorithms are researched. Until then, there's a lot of time for the Zuuligi and Liirigi threats to show further development.

Of course. The game is ultimately Kane's to decide.



EDIT: About Mass Drivers: Mass Drivers is what we can get with minimal research investment. With VRF already researched, it's pretty damn good for only 10000 research points. Of course, if we get Artificial Intelligence, we can eventually afford gunning for the more expensive even shinier guns. Spending two turns researching Mass Drivers now doesn't commit us to the ballistic weapon tree forever.

Again, Mass Drivers are excellent weapons, but space dragons have rather bad rolls for anything in the Ballistics tree. It is quite possible we might cap out at MDs and end up having to scramble for Cannons instead. Just a thought. (Only 40% chance to roll for Armour-Piercing. Oh dear, that is quite bad. VRF alone does not make MDs superior to Plasma Cannons.)

[Silfir]

Im curious now, in what way are Plasma Cannons superior to Mass Drivers? Is it the lack of ricochet?

To reinforce, I'm not even talking about going up the ballistics tree for any length of time; I'm talking quick return on investment, because we should be researching economy tech, including Fusion. If Plasma Cannons beat Mass Drivers, since both cost the same in research of course we pick Plasma Cannons.

[Grif]

Im curious now, in what way are Plasma Cannons superior to Mass Drivers?

They're a steady stream of DPS (despite being only slightly more accurate than MDs) and are immune to armour/reflective coatings. They also open the tech up to Fusion Cannons/Heavy Plasma Cannons/Projectors. (Torpedoes too if I'm not mistaken.) I have played around with both, and Plasma Cannon does starts to outperform pure MD (no AP) once the enemy gains Polysillicate/Magnoceramics.

[Kane]

A few things, skipping direct quoting;


No, I haven't been cranking up research much. i've actually intended to, but it usually takes me a load or two to actually get proper screenshot coverage of what I mean to do, and a few things (Like temporarily cranking up research, or doing a design right) are sometimes left out. Cranking up research happens to be that more than others.

It's damn pretty to watch UV lasers cut through Zuul ships. Seriously, without par. Is Beautiful.

I didn't know Plascannons were immune to the alloys/reflective coating techs. Nifty. (Also, fusion cannons are a bit more accurate/longer range/higher damage, and come straight out of plascannons. Being Morrigi, we'll almost certainly get Plas/Fus/AM cannons. AM cannons are downright sexy.

Voted list seems to be Cruiser Construction-->Strikeforce CNC -->Either [Repair & Salvage --> Asteroid Mining] or [Medium Weapon] (Probably Plascannon or AP medium driver, if available.) Correct me if I'm wrong, and do tell if we want other stuff- Integrated Sensors, jammers, Terraforming Bacteria,(2-3 turns for each of those.) whatever.

Some trade, don't compromise production much. (I'm okay with having to micromanage freighter replacement.)

Unless I start hearing some really impassioned attacks on AI, I'm probably going to want to research it at some point, especially since it's a Morrigi specialty.

The Tarka scout is still nosing around. Should I allow it to visit each planet and get a reading on it, or just destroy it? (can do so without casualties, it's an issue of whether we want to piss off the Tarka, or allow them further exploration)

At this point, fusion would be 16 turns. Right after Fusion, we have our new drive tech, (probably half again as much time) and then delicious phasers. Lovely, lovely phasers. So wonderful. If I'm not mistaken, they are a good enough weapon that they can last us right up until endgame, provide we don't run into meson shields or what have you. They may be worth rushing.

[MLai]

Why would you invest in Salvage so early? I don't find repair tech to be all that useful if you're going to fight a defensive war.
I don't like losing ships. I especially don't like losing the most expensive ships in the game.
In my experience, loss of ships due to attrition is significant when fielding fleets without Salvage support. Without Salvage, pretty much no expeditions can be made unless you're comfortable with losing all frontline ships (as Zuul), or you intend to lose time shuffling ships back and forth to be repaired at home planets.
Assaulting any planet will cause you to lose lots of ships without Salvage, but only minimally with Salvage. Wear n' tear from planet/satellite missiles really add up.


Take into account, however, that colonies will grow in the meantime of researching Cruiser Construction, Strikeforce CnC, Combat Algorithms, Salvage tech and Asteroid Mining,
Well if you're going to do all that before considering AI research, then by all means. My only point was that AI research is too early at this point. Do it right before Fusion.


Trade or friendly relations with the Tarka seem a lofty goal -
When Kane fires up the game again, we need to take a look at the Tarka's current rank. If it's high, then it would be wise foresight to start warming up to them now. The Tarka takes a looong time to get friendly with (unless you're strong).


don't the Tarka seem to largely leave us alone already?
If they're high in rank, that situation may not last long.
If they're weak, then yes we won't need to bother with them.


And we've seen just how useful diplomacy is with the space dolphins.
IIRC, Liir is currently ranked #1. With the Liirian slippery slope as it is (if they're strong, 99.9% chance they'll only get stronger unless screwed over by a Grand Menace or AI rebellion), it is imperative Kane keeps trying.


Med MD vs Plasma Cannon
In the short-term (as in "right now"), MDs are vastly superior to PCs: Cheaper, more armour, knockback, and comparable damage.
However as Grif explained in the long term of weapons development, PCs would be better for Morrigi. Plasma projectors simply kick way too much butt to not be planned for.
Biggest problem with MDs is practically everyone will get armour tech very quickly, and then you'll cry at just how many marbles bounce right off of enemy hulls. MDs without AP has a brief window of effectiveness, even given your condition of short term med mount placeholder.


At this point, fusion would be 16 turns... They may be worth rushing.
If situation appears favorable after you have gotten:
Cruiser Const ->
Strikeforce CNC ->
Repair or Med Mount ->
Asteroid Mining.

Then yeah you can "rush" for phasers. I hope you don't mean rushing for phasers now.

[Grif]

I don't like losing ships. I especially don't like losing the most expensive ships in the game.
In my experience, loss of ships due to attrition is significant when fielding fleets without Salvage support. Without Salvage, pretty much no expeditions can be made unless you're comfortable with losing all frontline ships (as Zuul), or you intend to lose time shuffling ships back and forth to be repaired at home planets.
Assaulting any planet will cause you to lose lots of ships without Salvage, but only minimally with Salvage. Wear n' tear from planet/satellite missiles really add up.

True. I was referring to whether he would need it now rather than later. I myself have no trouble fielding fleets without Salvage, since I tend to micromanage my battles to minimise losses.

Kane, are you planning to go on planet hunting expeditions anytime soon?


Biggest problem with MDs is practically everyone will get armour tech very quickly, and then you'll cry at just how many marbles bounce right off of enemy hulls. MDs without AP has a brief window of effectiveness, even given your condition of short term med mount placeholder.

Marbles. *snerk* Yes, marbles. They're pretty to watch as they bounce off. Your ships may not like it though.

On a side note, instead of phasers, why not HC Lasers once they become available? Those blazers are just OP on Morringi. Expensive, but very OP.

[houlio]

I too am a fan of Morrigi HC Lasers. Five of 'em on a cruiser is just too good not to use.

[Silfir]

Plasma Cannons aren't immune to Armor tech - they're neither lasers nor ballistics, so they don't suffer from the ricochet penalty of either reflective coating or polysilicate alloys. That's at least how I understand it, and I'm all but convinced now that you should indeed research Plasma Cannons for your medium mounts.

Incidentally, if you really want weapons that ignore armor plating, that's Polarized Plasmatics, which you need Plasma Cannons to research. But with just Fission, you only get the small-mounted War Quoit, and you already got something for the small mounts.

My Qu'aan, I find an appeasement strategy to be dangerously misguided and naive. We must not waste precious time researching piddly xenotech when we are already precariously behind. The Liirigi have proven their untrustworthiness, the Zuuligi will not be reasoned with either way, and the Tarka only respect the strong to begin with. We must be strong if we are to matter. And we must not waver from the path to strength.



Incidentally, how exactly is rank calculated to begin with? I have the suspicion that our abysmal Technologies rating might be the reason we are placed four, and it's skewed by the fact that the AI researched loads of essentially useless tech, where humans can identify the most valuable targets. What does worry me is that we're placed fifth in income (though two in colonies!). Is that because we still have colonies making negatives, or because the other factions have already built sizeable trade fleets?

[Grif]

Plasma Cannons aren't immune to Armor tech - they're neither lasers nor ballistics, so they don't suffer from the ricochet penalty of either reflective coating or polysilicate alloys. That's at least how I understand it, and I'm all but convinced now that you should indeed research Plasma Cannons for your medium mounts.

Yes, that is what I meant. Sorry for the unclear wording. But ricochet penalty here is a big deal, considering polysillicates alone will make non-AP Mass Drivers bounce off armour at least 20% of the time. That's 20% DPS loss off the bat, not counting the angle deflection thing.

EDIT: War Quiots/Chakkar/Chakram are not worth it until they get Quarks or Adamantite, so stay clear for now.



Incidentally, how exactly is rank calculated to begin with? I have the suspicion that our abysmal Technologies rating might be the reason we are placed four, and it's skewed by the fact that the AI researched loads of essentially useless tech, where humans can identify the most valuable targets. What does worry me is that we're placed fifth in income (though two in colonies!). Is that because we still have colonies making negatives, or because the other factions have already built sizeable trade fleets?

The number of tech researched counts in the rank, not the type. So yes, it is skewed towards AI. (I'm usually 3rd or 4th in Tech even when I'm winning handily.) Based on experience, non-Morringi AI doesn't really prioritise Trade, so I'm guessing it is their profitable colonies speaking for them.