By the way, from the analysis in the strategy guide it appears that the Graviton Beam would have been more effective for most levels of shielding that we are likely to see on enemy ships, than the Mass Driver. That's okay, but I wanted to point it out.
Now on with the report:
Ssakkra Posst-Intelligensser said:
At lasst, Jmas III hass come to free the Sakkra from the military-indusstrial complekkssssss of Maniac II. No longer will our brethren toil to build misssile sshipss for the purposse of enriching a corrupt emperor! Now they sshall sstrive to build huge sshipss of no actual value whatssoever, ssimply becausse it buildss character!
As I mentioned, I boosted spy funding. Please let's try to keep spy reports a little bit more current. At the end of my turnset there are a couple of reports a few years old, which we should maybe update.
Taking into account the discussion, I did set both Beta Ceti and Dolz to building a huge placeholder hull. Behold, the costliest ship I could design without obsessing any further about how to make it more expensive!
I tweaked tech allocations to maximize interest in all fields and then seeded Weapons, with the plan to seed Propulsion and then put more money in Planetology in succeeding turns. But as it says in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (great game), "it was then that fate intervened."
I also did pump Beta Ceti to double production every turn during this turnset (unless if you count 2430).
2421: Beta Ceti maxes factories. As Ref suggested, I didn't let my blood pressure get to high about the few Meklar Nexuses approaching Antares. But this got my attention:
We get a spy into the Silicoid empire.
They are strong in computer tech. And of course we would love to have RC 4.
I forgot to make a note of our net trade income in 2420, but this turn it is +164 BC.
In view of the 21 Meklar larges in the neighborhood of Trax, I thought it would be negligent of me not to 1) build a bunch of bases there and 2) finish doubling our
puny shielding (i.e. finish Class 4 Shields) as quickly as possible. So I boosted the FF allocation.
IT: nothing
2422: We get a spy into the Meklar empire.
That's a lot of propulsion tech! But probably not the most fearsome area in which they could've focused their research. They do have IT+40, class V planetary and class 5 ship shields (the last being primarily important to be aware of in case they actually put them on ships).
On the plus side, neither the Silicoids nor the Meklar have better missiles than we do, and the Meklar have no bombs and no Improved Robotic Controls.
I designed a medium ship with a battle scanner (and a laser) and arrange for one to be built per turn at Endoria, RELOCing first to Maalor, next turn to Kailis, then to Jinga, the only planets that might not have bases before alien ships show up. I figured the rich planets had probably already invested too much money in the placeholder to bother with making just three medium ships, although I suppose I may have been mistaken.
IT: nothing
2423: the Meklar now have Advanced Eco.
But they still don't have any improved robot controls.
I see what the Meklar and Sili will offer us for trade. The Sili offer Neutron Blaster, range 6, class III shield, and BC 2. What do they want for the Neutron Blaster? BC 5. No deal.
The Meklar offer Ion Cannon, Duralloy, class V planetary, and ECM 2. What do they want for class V planetary? RC 3. No deal.
Over this turn and the next I moved 9 Misssssssssssssssssssssssss ships to Maalor and the other 9 to Kailis.
IT: class IV Shields come in; class V (16,000 RP) is the only next option, so no Repulsor.
Production rankings according to GNN are 1) Mek 2) Klack 3) Sili 4) Us 5) Bul 6) Humans.
2424: I seed Propulsion and Force Fields. I restart factory building on Dolz as it has nearly enough population to work all of its factories.
and prepare to put more money into Planetology .
Since it's not Maniac's turn, I'll say it: VOTE TIME!!
50 total votes. And the nominees are...
The Meklar and the Silicoids.
The Meklar have 11 votes, and the Klackons (10 votes) vote for them.
The Silicoids have 10 votes, and the Bulrathi (6 votes) and the Humans.(4 votes) vote for them. Which is a little bit silly since both the Buls and Humans are at war with the Silicoids as apparent on the Silicoids racial screen in both 2424 and 2425. (Of course those races are also at war with the Meklar). But that's MOO for you.
We abstain with our 9 votes.
We meet the Klackons, who settled Toxic Paranar.
2425: The Klackons leader is an Aggressive Expansionist. They control 13 planets and are initially at Unease with us. They are allied to the Meklar and, like the Meklar and the Silicoids, are at war with the Buls and Humans.
I decide to open trade with them at the maximum amount currently possible--850 BC/turn-- reasoning that it will improve relations the most and the fastest, and the Klacks are poor targets for us given their range from us currently. This does have the effect of lowering net trade income from +181 to -71. But hang on, it starts coming up nicely by the end of my turnset.
They are willing to trade Zortrium Armor for the Bio Toxin Antidote--done!
IT: we finally get the Improved Space Scanner, at somewhere around 20% displayed odds (with the real odds being twice what is displayed, if I remember correctly). I had been tapering the funding down, but had been beginning to get a little frustrated. Our options now, including those from previous boxes (which, by the way, I think is a handy thing to have in a report, at least for some techs/tech areas... not that it's necessary, but reduces the, "gee, did we have Range 7 in the tree? Let's go back 3-4 pages and see" factor) are: ECM 3, ECM 4, ECM 5, Advanced Space Scanner, and Battle Computer 6. So, no RC 4. I go with Advanced Space Scanner (21160 RP) since we have BC 5 and the ability to scout planets remotely is very valuable IMO. We only have ECM 1 by the way, so it might be worth picking up a more advanced one at some point, especially for bases if the Sili come at us with Antimatter Bombs or someone else (besides us
) ever gets a dangerous missile or bomb (besides the one we traded for, of course).
2426: One year after instituting the trade agreement, relations with the Klackons have already claimed to Neutral--nice!
We get a spy into the Klackon empire.
They have some nice things like RC 4, Radiated, Repulsor, Class V Planetary Shield, and Neutron Blaster, but they don't have any bombs or missiles.
So here I was thinking about where we want to go from here. Steal techs from someone? Sure.
From the Klackons, we could steal RC 4, Class V Planetary, or Weapons.
From the Silicoids, we could steal RC 4 or ECM, or Weapons.
From the Meklar, we could steal IT+40, one of the eco-restorations (Enhanced or Advanced), Range tech, or Weapons. But, they are Xenophobic and likely to be pretty mad if they catch us, plus they are allied to the Klackons and Silicoids.
I ask both the Meklar and Klackons to break their alliance with each other, but they both decline.
I seed Comps & keep up with maximizing interest on Planetology.
2427: We are now at "Calm" with the Silicoids. I was continuing to ponder in what direction we should take this game, and I realize that, besides the fact that the human fleets we can now see with the ISS look pretty weak (especially compared to those of our other neighbors), Sol is just 6 parsecs away from Trax. Hmm, what if someone were willing to trade us some Range tech?
For the Mass Driver. The Sili already have better guns than that. Thank you, Mr. Rock Monster!
Seeing that Trax has not been attacked so far-- perhaps the Meklar are just seeking to protect their nebula planet-- I start decreasing base funding there. I seed Comps & FF.
IT: Dolz maxes factories. Contact is restored with the humans-- we are still at Feud (andI still have no idea why). Their leader is an Honorable Ecologist (I don't remember if that was already mentioned). They are allied to the Bulrathi and at war with ALL other races except us.
Now, if we were playing on Kyrub's patch... I'd worry that they wouldn't declare if asked, but in standard moo, 95+% they'll declare as much as they like us.I actually agree with BC mk5 over Planetary Shield V. It helps our missiles a lot and vastly improves our defensive ships. And it lets us try our hand at spying, if we decide to man up for it
to do what he suggests.
Ignore the idea.
Did you do research on Dolz? 
