OSG-25 with kyrub's patch (1.40m)

[Catwalk]

Copied from RefSteel's post on the RB forums:

Okay, let's get some plans and/or sign-ups going for another SG! The time I have available to play computer games and go online is currently limited and dropping (the Real Life things taking the time are the good kind fortunately, but the fact remains) but I'm hoping to fit some OSG turns in anyway. (If one of you wants to take over as the active RB Orion moderator though, let me know, as time limitations will likely make me a poor choice for that role before long.)

So let's give kyrub's patch a spin with our next Succession Game!

Settings are To Be Decided by the group, but I suggest using this as an opportunity to showcase the patch, using few or no variant rules (until the next game). So, for instance:

Honorable Boids
Race: Alkari
Difficulty: Impossible
Galaxy: Medium
Opponents: Five; reroll map if needed to avoid Mrrshans*
Color: White
Events: On
Game Version: kyrub's unofficial patch 1.40m

Variant Rules:
1) No attacking anyone's planets unless either we or someone allied to us is at war with the target.
2) Unarmed ships must always retreat from combat ASAP (the Mrrshans would still retreat faster than us though, which is why we should keep them out of the galaxy in spite of being the Alkari.
3) Research initially set to 50% Planetology, 50% Propulsion; following discovery of one tech in each of these fields, research is equalized across all fields (using the = key).

Participants:
RaidinnRZ
Catwalk
Maniac Marshall (sleeping)
RefSteel (on deck)
The ArchDuke

If anyone wants to hop on, let us know! Hope you'll have fun reading the reports, I'm sure we'll have a blast playing.

 

[Catwalk]

First 40 turns were played by RaidinnRZ, report as follows:

Spoiler :

Turn 2301, sent out colony ship to gold planet. Sent out scouts to two red planets. Enemies are Sakkra, Klackon, Meklar, Psilon, Darlok.

Turn 2302, Nothing.

Turn 2303, Discovered Zoctan - Ocean 75 with Colony Ship, colonized it right away.

Turn 2304, North West Red is Toxic 40. Southeast Red is Steppe 45.

Turn 2305, Scouts going to North East Red and South East Blue.

Turn 2306, Nothing.

Turn 2307, South East Blue is Inferno 10. Sending to South West Gold next.

Turn 2308, Nothing

Turn 2309, Nothing

Turn 2310, Nothing.

Turn 2311, Nothing.

Turn 2312, North East Red is Arid Fertile 65. Scout going to blue planet right nearby.

Turn 2313, Blue planet right nearby is not inhabitable. Gold planet Jinga is Terran 80 to the South West. Sent scout from gold planet back to the blue one it used to be on.

Turn 2314, Nothing.

Turn 2315, Changed Homeworld to +7.5 Industry/turn and +18 RP/Turn (3 clicks on research) to get research unlocks.

Turn 2316, Techs are Jammer 1 (only), Waste 80% (only), Class 2 deflector shields (only), Improved Eco Restoration (3 waste per 1, only), Range 4 (only), and Hyper V Rockets (only). There were no choices to make.

Turn 2317, Nothing.

Turn 2318, Nothing.

Turn 2319, Nothing.

Turn 2320, Sakkras scouts visit North East Blue (asteroids), I run asap (no weapons) and Sakkra scouts this world successfully. I tell my scout to stay in this system instead of going back to one of my planets.

Turn 2321, Same encounter, same results.

Turn 2322, Sakkra ship left the system. Nothing else of note.

Turn 2323, Nothing.

Turn 2324, Change to 100% research outside of ecology spending. Propulsion 4% likely to succeed.

Turn 2325, Nothing. Propulsion 17% likely to succeed.

Turn 2326, Range 4 Tech Succeeds. Switch 100% of research to Planetology to get the second initial tech. Take Nuclear Engines over Inertial Stabilizer. Start producing Colony Ship so it is done in 6 years. 49 RP/turn in research currently.

Turn 2327, Nothing.

Turn 2328, Nothing.

Turn 2329, Nothing.

Turn 2330, Nothing.

Turn 2331, Nothing. Planetology 3% likely to complete.

Turn 2332, Colony Ship completes. Sent to Steppe 45. Tech doesn't complete. 7% likely next turn.

Turn 2333, Improved Eco Restoration completes. Eco Spending reduced when prompted. Chose Terraforming + 20 over Death Spores. Setting all techs equal with equals sign. Added one tick to second planet industry to put its new 2 RP/turn research spending from freed up ecology to better use. Home world researching at 69/turn currently after reduced eco spending transferred to Research. Will end my turn at the next multiple of 10 turns.

Turn 2334, Nothing.

Turn 2335, Looks like Sakkra scouted the planet we are sending colony ship to. Orange ship appeared on galaxy map between turns and disappeared.

Turn 2336, It left or it was going somewhere else. I colonized the planet.

Turn 2337, New colony ship created, sent to North West Red Star. The orange ship appears to be heading that direction. Scouts sent to nearby red and white stars, I should have remembered to do this last turn, but I didnt.

Turn 2338, Nothing.

Turn 2339, The ship looks like it is going past the red star to the stars far north of it. Maybe the Sakkra base is up there, or a Sakkra ally.

Turn 2340, After turn 2339 and before turn 2340 is submitted, nothing happened. New colony ship nearly done and there is a gold planet to the south west available for it to go to. Computers light bulb is pretty much filled.

 

[Catwalk]

I played the next 10 turns after that, and here is my report:

Spoiler :

Pre-game analysis:

1) Sakkra are up north somewhere, and will likely start putting pressure on us soon.
2) We have a decent initial land grab, with one or two habitable systems to the east we should be set.
3) Moro is of critical tactical importance, strongly considering building a fleet of fighters to protect it.
4) Research options look great, but the variant rules mean that we can't really take advantage of it. Unsure if this means we should research less (because payoff is lower) or more (in order to spend what it takes to get the crucial techs).

Decisions: Invest heavily in research in order to get FF2, Nuclear Engines and Hyper-V. With those 3 techs our early game defense should hold up easily, and our initial fleet will benefit a lot from Nuclear Engines. Hopefully we'll have that long, I estimate it'll take 12-15 turns for Nuclear Engines.

2340:

- Sending 15m colonists from Zoctan to Phyco
- Raising research at Homeworld and Zoctan to 176 points total.

2341: Phantos (Steppe 45) and Ryoun (Steppe 25) discovered. Colony ship produced. Darlok scout appears near Phyco, they must have the yellow system to the south east. We'll probably lose Ryoun to them.

- Sending colony ship to Phantos.
- Ordering another to be produced right away for Jinga.

2342: Moro colonized, bringing us in contact with the Sakkra.

Our space is crawling with alien scouts.


- 5m colonists sent to Moro.
- Ordering 1 spy to be trained against the Sakkra, he'll try getting us some much needed tech and give us info on their capabilities.

2343: Darloks repel our scout over to the east. Psilons contact us, offering their friendship.

They have an impressive 7 systems, including the red star to the south (Rana), far away from their main territory.

- 3m colonists sent to Moro.
- 75BC trade agreement negotiated with Psilons.
- Our spy is active against the Sakkra, and they have some nice range techs that'd be nice to have. More importantly, they have zero computer tech. With ECM1 about to land, we might be able to help ourselves to some of their knowledge.

2344: Drakka (Barren 45) and Laan (Desert 10) explored, both uninhabited. One of the Darlok scouts is about to explore Phyco, I realize I made a mistake in not having a fighter sent there to prevent this. Colony ship produced at Homeworld.

- 10m colonists sent to Moro.
- Colony ship sent to Jinga.
- Raising research to 219 points per turn, wanting those Nuclear Engines in a hurry so we can start cranking out an efficient fleet.
- Training a spy against the psilons.

2345: ECM1 hits at 50%. ECM2 only option, so we won't get IRC3. Darlok scout arrives at Phyco, but it vanishes in thin air! Is this a bug?

2346: Succesfully identified the Condor! Psilons have a colony ship approaching from the north, don't know where it's headed. Our Sakkra spy is dead already, and our Psilon spy is now active.

2347: Psilon colony ship seems to be heading for the asteroid system.

2348: Psilon spy killed, we aren't getting our money's worth out of these. Another psilon colony ship approaching.

2349: Meklar arrive at Phantos with a colony ship same turn we do, and we have to retreat

Guradas (Desert 35) discovered east of Moro. Construction, Force Fields, Propulsion and Weapons are all in the percentages or about to be.

- Sending the colony ship to Guradas instead, although it might be hard to hold.
- Funding a Meklar spy.

2350: Jinga colonized, and Sakkra declare war.


Post-game analysis:
1) I made a horrible mistake to not send a single fighter to every system in range. This was pure laziness, and it cost us a system. We probably won't get Guradas either, just got pushed away by a Meklar destroyer. My successor may want to scrap the colony ship, we won't be able to colonize anything anytime soon.
2) I feel my research priority was sound, we're well set for a quick defensive war with the Sakkra now. Hopefully those techs will pop fast, we need them.
3) I like the research rule. Means you can't really optimize the annoying interest system and makes it harder to prioritize. Maybe we could change it to a minimum of 10% in each field, leaving you 40% to play with so there's still some decision making to be done.
4) Our position should be fairly solid, although in the long run we risk serious trouble with a runaway Psilon who already possesses 7 systems. We might want to go after the Sakkra, but we don't have the range needed to take them on. I suggest constant spying on most of our enemies.
5) Our economy is sound, but we'll be in trouble without IRC3 in 20 years or so. High priority to try to steal some IRC somewhere.

 

[RaiddinnRZ]

3) I like the research rule. Means you can't really optimize the annoying interest system and makes it harder to prioritize. Maybe we could change it to a minimum of 10% in each field, leaving you 40% to play with so there's still some decision making to be done.

I would rather stick to the rule we already have, especially since it could have already affected a lot of the game up to this point.

Raid

 

[RefSteel]

Great job, both of you; thanks for getting this started!

I think that makes our roster look like this:

RaiddinnRZ - Got the ball rolling
Catwalk - Just Played
Maniac Marshall (ToddMarshall) - UP!
RefSteel - On Deck

2345: Darlok scout arrives at Phyco, but it vanishes in thin air! Is this a bug?

I suspect otherwise, though if you keep the before-and-after autosaves, someone can check on it after the game. My guess is that the 'Loks just happened to choose this year to scrap their Scouts in favor of a new combat design.

Post-game analysis:
1) I made a horrible mistake to not send a single fighter to every system in range. This was pure laziness, and it cost us a system. We probably won't get Guradas either, just got pushed away by a Meklar destroyer. My successor may want to scrap the colony ship, we won't be able to colonize anything anytime soon.

I'd prefer to gamble on getting Guradas (but send a defense fleet after the colony) but you're probably correct overall.

2) I feel my research priority was sound, we're well set for a quick defensive war with the Sakkra now. Hopefully those techs will pop fast, we need them.
3) I like the research rule. Means you can't really optimize the annoying interest system and makes it harder to prioritize.

Agreed.

Maybe we could change it to a minimum of 10% in each field, leaving you 40% to play with so there's still some decision making to be done.

This is actually quite close to the way I normally play (personal house/variant rule) and it doesn't necessarily play out much differently from optimizing interest altogether. I wouldn't mind this for another game, but I agree with Raiddinn that we should continue this one with equalized research only.

4) Our position should be fairly solid, although in the long run we risk serious trouble with a runaway Psilon who already possesses 7 systems. We might want to go after the Sakkra, but we don't have the range needed to take them on. I suggest constant spying on most of our enemies.
5) Our economy is sound, but we'll be in trouble without IRC3 in 20 years or so.

Indeed. This one is looking like a fun (but not completely insane) challenge - I'm looking forward to my turns!

 

[Catwalk]

There was another scout still nearby that same turn, so it wasn't because of scrapping. I think there are still some small bugs in the patch, this one didn't have any impact.

 

[ToddMarshall]

I'm aware that I'm up, however I have a headache that is so bad I'm having trouble seeing tonite, so the turns will be played and reported tomorrow.

 

[RaiddinnRZ]

I'm aware that I'm up, however I have a headache that is so bad I'm having trouble seeing tonite, so the turns will be played and reported tomorrow.

Same thing happens to me if I drink a lot of tea or coke. One and a half to two and a half days later I get withdrawal symptoms so bad I just want someone to put me out of my misery.

I have to either drink the stuff every single day or none at all. Anything else and I risk losing a whole day's worth of productivity from a day long migraine.

Raid

 

[ToddMarshall]

Uhhh, catwalk, that's Raiddinn's 2340 save you've got attached there. Need the 2350 save. Depending on when it gets loaded, I might still be able to play later tonite.

I'll see if I can't get something done on that other project while I wait...

You still have the save of that particular project somewhere, right Ref?

 

[Catwalk]

Whoops! Correct save uploaded now, sorry.

 

[ToddMarshall]

No problem. I won't get to it till tomorrow or Sat now however

 

[Catwalk]

No worries, take your time. I hope you feel better.

 

[ToddMarshall]

Has some problems with my laptop today, and was more concerned with getting it working properly than I was getting the turns in. Laptop is now functioning properly again after chasing down issues and getting some new drivers. I have a game of power grid in the morning, but should be able to get it in tomorrow afternoon,

 

[ToddMarshall]

Apologies, but a family issue is going to prevent me from playing tonite. Ref, if you can play tonite and want to pick it up, go ahead, otherwise, I should be able to play tomorrow night without fail. Really sorry for holding things up.

 

[Catwalk]

I was sitting here waiting for another delay post The Civ2 guys are also shaking their heads at my lethargy in their SG, delays are the name of the game in SGs. Hope everything is alright.

 

[ToddMarshall]

I'm playing, but not sure if I will get it posted till tomorrow. I had more issues crop up unexpectedly tonite, and this turn is... complicated. I'm unwilling to risk a dud turneset because at this point, that might kill us.

Finished, but its 5am local so I now and report after work tomorrow

 

[Catwalk]

Sounds interesting, looking forward to finding out if we got killed or not!

 

[ToddMarshall]

Sounds interesting, looking forward to finding out if we got killed or not!

OK, my post seems to have sounded more dramatic that it was intended. Translation of "I had more issues crop up" meant life issues, not in game ones. It just meant I didn't get started on actually clicking next turn till like 12:45, so I knew I probably couldn't get the report done and posted in short order.

The turn was complicated because we're the Alkari (no production bonus), we're looking at 5ish planets on medium/impossible, and I wanted to do everything I could think of to make sure we didn't lose any planets (losing a planet would "kill us" pretty much. It's already dicey with the ones we have!), and, well, maybe get a few more... I had a half plan to do that... you'll have to see how it worked out in a couple hours.

I'll be home in a little ove an hour, then I got 20ish pictures to upload, then a report to post

 

[ToddMarshall]

Preturn analysis - I look around and... it looks like we're going to lose, frankly. We've got, uhh, 5 planets in a medium galaxy with the Alkari. They are Size 100 (home world), size 80 (just settled, still needs pop), size 75, size 65 fertile (small for a fertile and the pop growth probably wont help us much. It's on the edge and won't be throwing population bombs anywhere), and size 45.

Apparently. we're going to lose the size 35 planet that has a colony ship en route. The only other habitable planets we know about are size 25 and size 10 (OMG what's up with the tiny tiny habitables?!), and we don't even have the range to grab those,and aren't researching it either, so they are as good as gone too. I briefly considered making a LR laser dud to guard them, but I decided it was both unlikely to work, and too costly in terms of production at the moment. Other planets we've scouted are a size 45 barren and a couple of midsized inferno/toxics we won't likely get with both Sakkras and Psilon's near.

On top of this, we're already at war with the Sakkras. We'll have a very hard time defending planets against them. Moro, the planet currently exposed to them can build a base in. uhh. 17 years. I'd send the mighty fleet to defend it but, uhhh.



Well, uhhh... Yeah, did I mention that I think we're going to lose?

There's no sense building fighters now, because I'm going to HOPE warp 2 pops in the next 2-3 turns. If I shift off research to ships, it'll just delay the research.

I'm not going to scrap the colony ship... yet. We'll wait till we're sure we've lost the world it's headed to.

I send 25 million pop from Zoctan to Jinga, and I send our 1 little Sparrowhawk to Moro. I turn the scout at Guradas around so I can tell who colonizes it if not us. I set spying to 4% total, a single hide click on all races except the Sakkra, and the rest to espionage on the Sakkra, who are BEHIND us in CPU tech... We can't afford more than one enemy right now, especially not a Meklar or Psilon one. so I'm not stealing off them. I also dial up the Psilons and do this:


Shot at 2011-07-19

Why? Because the AI now takes it's treaties into account when deciding who to declare war on when asked. While the brainiacs are not allied with the Lizards YET, that could happen at any time. We need to build up as much goodwill as possible. The Psilons joining the war against us would be really bad... I then ask them to help us out in the war, and as expected, they decline.

Last, I dial up the Meklars...



They're erratic, so they're probably going to declare war on us eventually, which means they aren't worth making a big agreement with. However, if we can get them up to Relaxed, we can get a NAP, which might stop them from declaring on us by invitation of the Sakkra. Right now, we're going to need every angle we can get.

OK, that's all I've got here... I click next turn

IT - A Klackon medium runs our scout off Guradas (again)

Hyper-V Rockets hit, our new choices are:



Yea for pellet guns!

2351 - Guradas is now owned, but not by the Klackons... Gotta love runaway Psilons... Nothing to do this turn soooo...

IT -

2352 - I decide to go fishing for techs...

First the Meklar... Hmmm, you know, oddly enough, in this particular game, range 5 DOES interest me.



Yeah, I know, never trade cleanup techs, especially to the Meklar. Pure right? Except... The Meklar have two planets, and are the LEAST of my worries right now. If they come for us immediately, this might be bad, but otherwise, I think it's sound. But wait, there's more! Let's put those Hyper-V(apoware) rockets to good use!



If those are the best missiles the Meklar have by the time we're ready to bomb them, then they're doomed anyhow...

Now, Psilons...



Well, we're too invested in the Engines and Shields to trade for those, but hey, Controlled Barren MIGHT net us a planet... And for Hyper-V rockets, it's worth a shot... so I pull the trigger. They would have also taken Improved Eco, but there is NO way I'm trading that to a runaway Psilon.

IT - We get some much needed tech.







Their hit chances were 25 and 20 respectively, so that's about a 2% chance we'd get both on that turn... I'll take it.

For new research projects, we selected Personal Deflector (forced, but we'd want that anyhow) and sub-light drives, Stabilizer being the only other choice. While I expect we will want stabilizer soonish, I feel like warp 2 transports + finding out if Warp 4 is in our tree outweighs that concern for now, so I select the warp 3 engines.

2353 - Colony Ship redirected from Guradas to Ryoun. Cross your fingers time. Speaking of cross your fingers time



Yeah, looks Like warp 2 hit JUST IN TIME to get a batch of fighters in orbit there to meet those ships... So much for terraforming the homeworld this turn... Instead, we have to whip up some of this design and reloc it to Moro...



We can get 9 of them in orbit in time to meet the Sakkra.

IT-

2354 - Two more Spirits are inbound for Moro. I figure (hope) my 9 fighters can handle both waves, so I swap off that to a new warp 2 barren colony ship design, and set it to complete in 6 years, which is just the amount of time needed to see if our redirected colony ship can settle a planet to bring the barren world in range. I set the spare clicks into teraforming. I also set 1 click into teraforming the other worlds, with the exception of the large corner world, which is just now getting its first pop.

IT -

 

[ToddMarshall]

2355 - OK, what's wrong with this picture?



If you said everything, up to and including the fact that the Psilons got yet another world, then you're correct... I now scrap the colony ship, as there is no longer ANY hope of it being useful Not defending Phantos may end up costing us FOUR worlds OK, yeah, they are size 45/45/25/10, but when you're as small as we are, that's a big deal.

On the plus side, that does free up the home world's ship building to make more fighters to combat this...



Yeah, fun times!

So, uhh, Kelvan, it's been 5 years since the last time I asked this. A lot has changed... we're pretty tight now right?



So, us, would you help us out against these unprovoked warmongering lizards?



Wow, looks like making nice with the Brainiacs was a good move after all. It might even lead to chaos, look at this.




The Darloks will likely soon pick a side, and there is a good chance the Psilons might pull the Meklars in as well. Of course, there's also the possibility that it could wind round to a full dog-pile vs the Sakkra, which wouldn't be optimal, but there's risks involved with waiting for the Sakkra to ally with and pull in the Psilons too.

IT - Combat!



So, what's on those ships... turns out just nuclear missiles! No base, so no piccies, you'll just take my word for it.

Their ships decide to shoot at the lone Sparrowhawk... It dances around using the asteroids for cover and... All 4 ships destroyed, no losses for our side!

2356 - Being the sneaky little bastids that they are, the Darloks are no longer allied with either Psilons or Sakkra. They also declined to enter the war on either side. The Meklar, however...



IT - Our 9 Arrow's and 1 Sparrowhawk (Also known as decoy MK I) Dance around with 2 of their missile boats that, because of their fixation on the sparrowhawk, never even get a shot off...

2357 - Psilons now allied with Klackons. Sakkra now AT WAR with Klackons. Hmm, dogpile vs the Sakkra was not my aim, but at least they'll be busy with someone other than us. Nothing else of note...

IT - A little larger battle...



Our losses 3 Arrows and the Sparrowhawk, their losses, 22 Missile Boats

2358 -

IT - More tech (about time, this one had been dragging its talons)



Improved IT8 is forced.

2359 -

IT -

2360 - I've done nothing. The Meklars have Hand Lasers and will trade them for warp 2 if you're interested.

Considering a full dogpile has developed vs the Sakkra, I'm now beginning to wonder if bringing in the Psilons might not have been a mistake. Looking at the pop lines, it doesn't look like we're going to be nominated any time soon, but the Sakkra might... Hopefully we have veto between us.

EDIT: Save uploaded.