MOO2 Psilons

Harv · Aug 17, 2012

Here is the game I just rolled up for the Psilons.

The settings are:

Impossible is nothing!
Huge Galaxy makes all things possible!
Average Age
8 Players means maybe a nice juicy one to conquer.
Pre Warp gives us more time to leave everybody in the Cosmic Dust.

We are leading the Psilon Race to the end - bitter or otherwise. The Psilon get a big research bonus, but more importantly they are Creative and that means they get to research and build everthing.

Although we do get to build everything, financing it is another issue. The Scientific Dictatorship focuses on studying everything that makes the world go round, which would be BC's by the billions, instead of making more of them.

Every colony will need a Marine Barracks and that takes up BC's which are available in lesser quantities. We are more dependent on production, which is more difficult to come by because Psilons are accustomed to low-G, low mineral environments.

Also, great leaders are harder to come by and relatively more expensive to maintain.

Of course all problems are solved by technology!

Honestly, I only rolled once for a start like this. Here is a peek at our home system.

Oh my - a Tiny Toxic Ultra Rich!

On the positive side we can focus our resources on our home world! In the later term, when we have tons of money, I suppose we can colonize it and build Factories and a Biospheres and build more Colonists.

After that, well lets see what the rest of the galaxy has to offer.

We are in a corner and sheltered by two black holes. I suppose Isolation is good for the Psilons. On top of that if we choose to be conquereors, Scientific Overlords of the Galaxy, then we get to focus on one race. Two systems are in range of our Scout Ships, when we build them.

So far we are basically restricted to our home system until we can find what colonization prospects those two systems hold. At least the Home World holds lots of colonists. We can have a population of 18 with Biospheres.

I am thinking of using the same research path we used for the Humans:

1. Electronic Computer
2. Research Laboratory (and Optronic Computer and Dauntless Guidance System)
3. Hydroponic Farms (and Biospheres)
4. Reinforced Hull (and Fighter Bays and Anti Missile Rockets)
5. Automated Factories (and Heavy Armor and Missile Bases)
6. Nuculear Fission
7. Chemistry
8. Physics
9. Cold Fusion
10. Soil Enrichment (and Cloning Center and Death Spores)

I am not certain if the Hydroponic Farms breaks my economy, however, but one more Scientist is always helpful!

scratchthepitch · Aug 17, 2012

Looks like a "safe" start, being isolated like that in a corner. You should have a lot of time to build up a decent empire base.

Harv · Aug 17, 2012

Here we go! I played out 45 Turns - Using the same convention I used in the last game, this brings us to the year 2345. We have built Interstellar Space Probe One and explored the closest star systems in search of a new home among the stars.

Research is as follows:
2305 Electronics
2316 Optronics
2322 Astro Biology
2327 Advanced Engineering
2332 Advanced Construction
2335 Nuculear Fission
2337 Chemistry
2339 Physics
2342 Cold Fusion

Currently researching Advanced Biology 123/400

Production on Mentar is as follows:
2319 Research Laboratory
2327 Hydroponic Farm
2336 Automated Factory
2341 ISP 1 (Scout Ship)

Currently producing Colony Ship 24/500

Offers from Leaders have been as follows:

2316 Administrator Crassis - We have not hired him because I cannot make any value out of 10% Production for 1BC. The best we can do is turn 1.5 :hammers:

into 1.65

if we are making a run at a Colony Ship, but this is unlikely in the plan.

2336 Commander Aquasarrious - We simply cannot afford him. My bankrupt economy is producing 4BC and we are going to need all of them for the next projects.

The traits I am looking for right now are:
1. Megawealth (instant fix to our economic problems)
2. Famous (easier and cheaper hires down the road)
3. Researcher (Cheap conversion of :gold:

into

)
4. Special One-Field Technology such as Terraforming

Would we do better to simply dismiss them instead of rejecting to keep more empty slots open?

Systems explored are as follows:

2343 Steinbok - Medium Barren Ultra Rich Heavy Gravity

2345 Tur - Huge Tundra Poor Normal Gravity

Both systems feature Gas Giants.

Eventually I am planning to colonize Steinbok first because it does have resources. Eventually with a Gravity Generator it will become the production center for further colonization efforts. Extensive Terraforming will make it even bigger.

Tur will be colonized second. It suffers from lack of resources, but with Terraforming we can turn it into a Bread Basket and feed our little empire.

Tur will produce :food:

. Steinbok will produce :hammers:

. Mentar will produce :science:

.

Harv · Aug 18, 2012

I played out another 41 Turns, to the year 2386. We have First Contact!

Research is as follows:
2357 Advanced Biology
2364 Capsule Construction
2372 Astro Engineering
2386 Robotics

Production on Mentar is as follows:
2358 Soil Enrichment
2373 Space Port

Elsewhere in the Galaxy, there is a Population Boom on Fieras II, lasting from 2357 to 2364.

We got one more offer in the year 2369, this time from Commander Sparky.

In the year 2386, we have First Contact with......

....the Darloks! Their stats for this game are.....

....Yucky! It looks like they have 3 extra picks.
Like normal Darlok, they have Stealthy Ships and +20 Espionage, and run a Dictatorship government. They are also Subterranean and Repulsive, and their ships sport +25 Defense.

Here is a look at their current technology.

They have Class 1 Shields and Deuterium Fuel Cells over us and that is about it. They have a population edge because they have been building colonies. We are out building an out teching them.

Here is a map of the situation.

It looks like they colonized a beeline towards us! They want our Technology and they shall not have it!

This completely changes our plans. The Colony on Steinbok can wait. We have work to do.

Definately the Darlok have to go. The question is how to direct research and production.

If we research Advanced Metallurgy, then we can build an Outpost on Steinbok and reach Thok with a Troop Transport. With Advanced Chemistry we can build Destroyers with Mirv Nukes.

Assuming they do not steal Heavy Armor and Reinforced Hull and Tritanium Armor, this should be all the technology we need to defeat them.

The question is if we should research Artifical Intelligence first to even up our odds against their spies. I am inclined to think the quicker we can take the Darlok out, the better off we are and the best defense is good offense.

Production wise, we are 70/150 on the Robo Miner Plant. For 175BC we can buy it, then move one or two workers over. This will give us a pretty good production rate.

Harv · Aug 18, 2012

Darloks and Psilons do not play well together. This can be settled only be war. So we gear up.

Research is as follows:
2393 Advanced Metallurgy
2412 Advanced Chemistry
2416 Fusion Physics

Production on Mentar is as follows:
2387 Robo Miner Plant
2391 Agent 001
2393 Biospheres
2396 Outpost Ship
2399 Transport Ship
2413 BOOM N5
2414 BOOM N5
2418 Agent 002

Meanwhile, the Darlok spies are working as fast as they can.
2389 Darloks steal Cloning Center
2417 Agent 001 is killed.

We have some more offers:

Spoiler :

Elsewhere in the Galaxy, noteworthy events have been as follows:

Spoiler :

With the discovery of Deuterium Fuel Cells and the extended range they bring, the ISP 1 continues its mission.

Spoiler :

Gearing up for War and the Battle of Thok:

Spoiler :

Meanwhile, ISP 1 explored the Taben System and found a Worm Hole.

On the other side of the Worm Hole are.....

...The Bulrathi!

They are like the normal Bulrathi, but they also have 25 Ship Defense and +1 Food Production. They are also Repulsive.

2419 Captain Grak from the Bulrathi Empire was apparently impressed by our quick capure of the Thok System and wants to join us. We need him, but do not have the money right now so will save up.

Here is a map of our situation.

Some Darloks are going to starve for a turn while we get a Merchant Marine up and running. The build order I am thinking of is Automated Factory - Robo Miner Plant - Marine Barracks. With 3 suriviving Marines, assimilating the Darloks should not be too much of a problem. This should be done in 24 more turns, is that correct?

For research, I am picking stuff that is going to help in the war against the Darloks. We are currently working on Tachyon Physics and that will get us one extra Command Point. I am thinking about switching this to Advanced Fusion for one more point of ship speed, but otherwise it is next. Then I can either go towards the Planetary Supercomputer or the Alien Control Center.

ISP 1 will scout out the Barv System and see how well developed it is. We do not need to send a scout across the Worm Hole. We can do that later with a full fleet.

The plan I have is to build an Outpost Ship and send it to the Ocean World in the Taben System. This will serve as a base to launch an attack on Barv. With Fusion Engines, it will take 4 Turns for the Outpost Ship to arrive at Taben, then 5 more Turns for the Transport to arrive. So it should be 13 or 14 Turns by the time we get to Taben.

Meanwhile, we are also supposed to be raising money for Captain Grak's Bulrathi Renegades.

scratchthepitch · Aug 18, 2012

Harv

You've done pretty good.

You have advanced the game past the point where most of the questions you asked would still be relevant, but answer any I think are still open.

"Would we do better to simply dismiss them instead of rejecting to keep more empty slots open?"

As long as there is always one slot open in each leader category (planet and ship), you should still have new leaders show up for hire. Extra open slots I don't think make any difference.

"This should be done in 24 more turns, is that correct?"

Could take less time, or longer. It's a 1 in 8 chance per turn for a dictatorship government, and rolled randomly by the program.

I'm surprised the 2 destroyers were enough to knock out the star base and survived. By the time you get to Barv, the Darlok may have some ships there. Have you checked the timeline in the info section to see how strong their fleet is? You may also need more than 1 transport, since Barv will have had more time to amass defending troops.

Bad news about the Bulrathi being repulsive, they may be within attack range of Nazin by the time you take it

Harv · Aug 18, 2012

Another 28 years have passed, and the Psilons have carved themselves a Galactic Empire.

The pace of Research is slowing. This is a consequence of delaying Positronics.
2421 Advanced Fusion
2428 Tachyon Physics
2437 Artificial Intelligence

Production on Mentar:
2420 Freighter Fleet 5
2423 Outpost Ship
2427 Troop Transport
2431 Freighter Fleet 10
2437 Freighter Fleet 15
2442 Freighter Fleet 20
2444 Agent 003

Production on Thok: (Captured in 2419)
2426 Automated Factory
2433 Robo Miner Plant
2435 Marine Barracks
2438 Troop Transport
2441 ISP 2
2442 Space Port
2444 Pollution Processor
2446 Research Laboratory

Spies continue their dirty work:
2424 The Darloks steal Fusion Bomb
2431 The Bulrathi steal Troop Pods

Our Dealings with leaders are as follows:

Spoiler :

The ISP 1 continues on its exploration mission.

Spoiler :

Elsewhere in the Galaxy....

Spoiler :

The war with the Darloks rages on:

Spoiler :

We encountered the Gnolam in the year 2440. However we could not negotiate any deals with them.

On top of normal traits, the Gnolam have a Democracy and +1 Research

Their technology has the same critical holes as the Bulrathi and the Darlok. However their survival odds look good as long as the neutral planet of Tur is not colonized.

Again, here is a map of our situation.

Basically the Darlok have been defeated, but we cannot finish them off unless we send an outpost ship and follow up with troops and take the system, or we defeat the Space Dragon and colonize there, or we build a Destroyer with Extended Fuel Cells and a mission to nuke the planet.

We will consolodate for a few years and build up all those Darlok holdings. Thok is coming along very nicely. It is likely to become the Ship Yard since we do not have any Rich worlds.

The Research path is Positronics - Military Tactics - Xeno Relations and then probably Advanced Magnetism and Molecular Compression. Research should take off as soon as we get some Supercomputers up and running.

Harv · Aug 19, 2012

We took advantage of a lull in the action to build up our conquests.

Research:
2456 Positronics
2458 Space Academy
2461 Advanced Magnetism
2468 Xeno Relations
2476 Molecular Compression (Irridium Fuel Cells and all)

Production:

Spoiler :

Colony Leaders:

Spoiler :

Elsewhere in the Galaxy:

2464 The Bulrathi stumbled upon an Ancient Derelict Ship.

2476 The Gnolam are threatening. :lol:

2477 Agent 002 is killed.

We finished our war with the Darlok in the year 2480, when our fleet finally reached the Malus System. So this war is over just in time for us to start another one! :mwaha:

Ironically....

The Bulrathi should have their hands full fighting the Klackon, so I think this is a good time to go after the Gnolam.

Here is our Galaxy Map.

Here is a look at our colonies.

The Gnolams have Neutron Blasters and Pulson Missiles, but no defenses. So if we are able to out run the Pulson Missiles, our two Destroyers can take out their Star Bases. They also have nothing better than Nuculear Drives and Electronic Computers and Battle Scanners. The Neutron Blaster might be enough to do some damage so I might play cautious and update my Destroyer designs and give them a bigger ship to shoot at.

scratchthepitch · Aug 19, 2012

"Ironically....Darlok spy steals Pulson Missile"

I've never seen that happen on their last turn. :lol:

I'm curious why you call the year 2480 while in the game it says 3518.0?

One way I deal with missiles is to pack some destroyers with regular size mass drivers or fusion beams with all the mods. With battle scanner and at least a +50% computer, these can easily knock out 2-4 missiles per individual beam shot. Giving them augmented engines makes sure they can get close to the incoming missiles and gives them some defense against enemy beams. With a few of these, AI missiles rarely reach my ships.

Once I've gotten a combined hitting % of 100% or better, I usually switch over to mass drivers and fusion beams. With all the mods, these are quite deadly in the first half of the game. The fusion, with enveloping, are good for peeling off the shields, while armor piercing, autofire mass drivers can really do a number in wiping out the vitals of ships.

I usually make separate types for these fusion and mass driver ships. The fusion, being short range beams, I give the ships aug engines so they can close. Then pack the ships with heavy fusion with all the mods (enveloping is the most important). Usually I will leave room for 1 regular fusion or mass driver for self defense against incoming missiles, assault shuttles and fighters. The mass drivers on the mass driver ships don't need to close for max damage, so I'll skip the aug. engines and pack them with heavy mass drivers. Since they hang back, it's not so important they have their own defense against missiles, so I'll arm them with a regular beam only if the space works out. I prefer building cruisers for these ships, since they can carry more heavies than destroyers.

The Gnolams may be on the way to attacking you. Sometimes the attack comes after the first threat, sometimes after the 2nd.

Sleestak · Aug 19, 2012

Great gameplay. Thanks.

I would research up shields to get AP mass drivers at a reasonable size. You are the creative one. Other players will not have Heavy Armor, so shred them with AP mass drivers.

I am interested in how this turns out.

Harv · Aug 20, 2012

scratchthepitch said:
"Ironically....Darlok spy steals Pulson Missile"

I've never seen that happen on their last turn.

I'm curious why you call the year 2480 while in the game it says 3518.0?

The Gnolams may be on the way to attacking you. Sometimes the attack comes after the first threat, sometimes after the 2nd.

The Gnolams do have the Pulson Missile so it is possible that they stole it and framed the Darloks. But still I thought it was funny.

They must have researched Irridium Fuel Cells when they issued their ultamatum. I suppose I could have just given them Death Spores - It is not a very important technology. Then I might have had a shot of opening trade agreements with them and play nice. :evil:

If they are coming I will have a good bit of time to prepare. Heavy Neutron Blasters shred Tritanium Armor, so my plan so far is to update the design of our BOOMships, send my fleet back to Nazin for refit, then launch an attack. This should take a total of 9 Turns.

Regarding the dating system, I reverted to the MOO1 dating convention because it made more sense at the time I was playing the Humans. Growth rates tend to be about 1% per turn so it makes more sense that each turn equals one year and then this reflects rapid population growth. Next time, I will change back to the normal game year and drop the decimal point and start the game at 35,000.

Great gameplay. Thanks.

I would research up shields to get AP mass drivers at a reasonable size. You are the creative one. Other players will not have Heavy Armor, so shred them with AP mass drivers.

I am interested in how this turns out.

Thanks!

I like the AFAP Mass Driver Design with Class 3 Shields.

The updated BOOM design will include heavy armor. The concept is to survive long enough to launch 2 Volleys and escape for another day at the field.

ADDIT: I have played out another 26 Turns and will try to get an update in. It might take a day or so.

Harv · Aug 21, 2012

Another 26 years have passed and the Psilon strike again! :mwahaha:

Research:
2481 Gravitic Fields
2487 Magneto Gravitics (Class 3 Shields)
2492 Neutrino Physics
2498 Artifical Gravity (Hindsight questions why I chose this route.)
2501 Genetic Engineering (Microbiotics)
2504 Servo Mechanics (For some reason I still think I am playing a Building Game.)

There is quite a bit of a production list here. For some reason, this game has morphed into a stompfest instead of a building game.

On the other side, even if we are starting to look sloppy, this does help keep my micromanagement disciplined.

Spoiler :

The Exploration Mission of the ISP continues, although instructions are coming through more intermittendly.

2483 Kyosho System
2487 Ayil System
2490 Juka System
2497 Ursa System
2498 Celox System
2502 Phoenix System
2506 Ishtar System

Of course here is the main action of our story:

Spoiler :

So here we are in the year 2506 (Orion Year 35206) and we have crushed the Gnolam and are ready to strike at the Klackon.

Here are some of our colonies:

Our core holdings are absolutely safe. We can continue to build while slipping in the occasional Troop Transport at the Klackons. I do not see anything they have to stand up to our fleet. The Bulrathi are probably next, but overruning the Klackons will probably put us into contact with another empire. The Meklar might stab us while we are not looking.

The Gnolam holdings do not have enough to be worth defending yet so I will leave them wide open. Granted we lost an Auto Factory, 2 Colonists, and 3 Marines, but the campaign only took 18 Years. If anybody comes knocking we will exact revenge.

We are not far at all from building Titans. However we do not have the budget for it at the moment.

Uh, where is Orion?

scratchthepitch · Aug 21, 2012

For some reason, this game has morphed into a stompfest instead of a building game.

Looks that way. :lol:

I have a question. Do you sign non-aggression packs with the AI? I usually get that first, then try for the trade and research treaties.

I also noticed you had a lot of your population farming. Are you building all the food enhancement improvements or have you not reached such techs as subterranean farms and weather control?

neilkaz · Aug 21, 2012

scratchthepitch said:
Looks that way.

I have a question. Do you sign non-aggression packs with the AI? I usually get that first, then try for the trade and research treaties.

I also noticed you had a lot of your population farming. Are you building all the food enhancement improvements or have you not reached such techs as subterranean farms and weather control?

Yes, this game is a massacre. You were very correct to quickly eliminate the Darloks. Repulsive Darloks nearby can't be tolerated as they'll steal your tech, steal others' techs and frame you (often resulting in an instant war with the Humans their tech is stolen and you're framed) and will also sneak attack you to try to make use of their stealthy ships.

As so often, all it takes is to conquer a couple races by taking all their planets to have an easily won game.

As for finding Orion, make a couple of scouts and check some unexplored center systems.

I find it MUCH easier playing Impossible to get a research or trade treaty first and improve relations and then get a N.A.P.

Soil enrichment on a few of those good farming planets should alleviate your food issues.

Since I expect you to play Psilon and Impos I played three games myself (Cluster map for quicker contact) and while the first was a bit of a struggle meeting an early and aggressive Klackon who also was stealing my techs, once I conquered him around turn 250, it was smooth sailing. 2nd game, almost everyone liked me, but as usual I got framed for spying on the humans and it was wartime. 3rd game was rather unusual in that I was in the center and quickly at war with Klacks and Elerians and with a 3 planet Mentar system, I could easily defend and fought them off. On Stardate 3519.9 I defeated the Guardian and Orion became my first colony. 74 turns of romping later it was all over as I had over 2/3 of the GC voted myself and had wiped out (took all planets) 4 enemies and was almost finished with the 5th.

Once Psilon gets going it is very strong. I much harder game will be had by playing a weaker race and I think Harv is ready for that :goodjob:

Harv · Aug 23, 2012

scratchthepitch said:
Looks that way.

I have a question. Do you sign non-aggression packs with the AI? I usually get that first, then try for the trade and research treaties.

I also noticed you had a lot of your population farming. Are you building all the food enhancement improvements or have you not reached such techs as subterranean farms and weather control?

Non Aggression Pact? Hmm, maybe that would be a good idea right about now given that we just blitzed the Gnolam and have access to some great planets.

Lots of farming? Given that we blitzed the Darloks and then blitzed the Gnolam, we have been a bit slow on technology. All we have is Soil Enrichment and Hydroponic Farms.

Also, it looks like we have morphed into a Middle / Low G Subterranean Race with some +2 Scientists and a lot of Creativity. Production is not a problem.

I played another 26 Turns but have to call it a night. I will post tomorrow evening. Eventually I decided it was best to consolodate our gains in Gnolam Space and play Defensive against the Klackons.

The round ends a single turn before building our first Titan and I am looking for some insight on how to design it. Right now I have it with Class 3 Shields and Heavy Armor. I might also go with Reinforced Hull because Graviton Beams are popular. Then I will load up with AF Mass Drivers and Enveloping Fusion Beams. I am leaning towards the Fusion Beams because we have advanced Physics Technology more.

For Specials, I am thinking Battle Pods, Battle Scanner, Augmented Engines, Heavy Armor, Reinforced Hull, Automated Repair Unit. The idea is to be nearly indestructable.

If we need to take out Missile Bases, are we better off with Heavy Mass Drivers and Point Defense Fusion Beams?

neilkaz · Aug 23, 2012

It looks like you're in fine shape and there's nothing wrong with consolidating for a while if you aren't seriously threatened.

Note that if you still have multi-racial colonies, they suffer a 20% moral penalty unless you have an alien management center.

For your Titan, by all means use reinforced hull as well, since you want it to stand up several+ turns in battle.

If they have missiles bases and shields, they will block a lot of beam damage and that could mean that even heavy MD's can't hurt them. You'll need missiles or a beam with more powerful base damage. Graviton beams really shread ships, so that is another idea and you can research a couple more physics techs and miniturize further.

You may want to kill the Guardian soon, but make sure to have at least one more spy tech so that you don't get wonderful techs like X-armor stolen.

Harv · Aug 23, 2012

We played Defense and consolodated our gains in the Gnolam Empire.

Research:
2508 Astro Construction (Titan Class Warships)
2511 Ion Fission
2514 Planetary Stock Exchange
2519 Advanced Manufacturing (Artifical Planet)
2524 Nano Technology (Microlite Constrution and Nano Dissassemblers)
2528 Macro Genetics (Weather Controller)
2531 Subspace Physics

Production:

Spoiler :

History:

Spoiler :

We are one turn before building our first Titan-Class ship at the Nazin System. I am planning to use it to take out Mr Space Dragon right next door. I will take another look at the weaponry and load up on enough Heavy Autofire Mass Drivers to knock down a Battleship's Class 3 Shields and then load up on enough Graviton Beams to shred it.

Consolidating has been working out well. Here is our map.

Here are our colonies.

neilkaz · Aug 23, 2012

OK good, so next kill the dragon and colonize Thesbia, but also make 2 scouts and explore the central planets. It is time to take out the Guardian...either using missiles or something to knock down a shield and then sending in some EMG missiles or having a couple tough ships (your TT's) loaded with Grav beams. Get some defensive spies so AI's don't steal things like X-armor (should u luck into it) or death rays.

You have an easy win here, and Locknar's ship and some Antaran techs will make it nearly effortless.

Tristan_C · Aug 24, 2012

Inspiring game. You make me want to roll a creative race again! The last one had neighbor troubles; namely Klackons who pulled off a battleship at t99. Just stupid. I always thought that creative needed a bit more time to settle in, but your war was early and got you huge momentum. I'll try to change my ways and lean harder on the mirv nukes.

neilkaz · Aug 24, 2012

Tristan_C said:
Inspiring game. You make me want to roll a creative race again! The last one had neighbor troubles; namely Klackons who pulled off a battleship at t99. Just stupid. I always thought that creative needed a bit more time to settle in, but your war was early and got you huge momentum. I'll try to change my ways and lean harder on the mirv nukes.

At least as Creative you'll have Trit armor to help those early MIRV Nuke ships survive.

Once when playing a garbage stock race I had Klacks roll into my home system with a battleship, a cruiser and two destroyers on turn 84 and it was enough to kill a couple rushed defensive ships and my starbase. I got to hear "your insulence has cost you your empire" really quickly that game :lol:

MOO2 Psilons

Emperor

Attachments

King

Emperor

Attachments

Emperor

Attachments

Emperor

Attachments

King

Emperor

Attachments

Emperor

Attachments

King

Chieftain

Emperor

Emperor

Attachments

King

King

Emperor

Attachments

King

Emperor

King

Emperor

King

Similar threads