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

RaiddinnRZ · Jul 19, 2011

I feel bad playing 40 turns when people are seriously talking about game loss before turn 60.

Maybe I should have let one of you guys start instead.

Raid

ToddMarshall · Jul 19, 2011

Nah, don't worry about it at all. I'm always pessimistic, and we usually win anyway

I thought we were in serious trouble LAST game and we cake walked after surviving the first 100ish years.

If we can avoid diplomatic loss, or being steamrollered by runaway Psilons (neither of those being anything that could have been helped), we'll probably win.

RefSteel · Jul 20, 2011

RaiddinnRZ said:
I feel bad playing 40 turns when people are seriously talking about game loss before turn 60.

Maybe I should have let one of you guys start instead.

Raid

Definitely don't feel bad; talking about a potential loss just means we're facing a bigger challenge -- that's way better than talking about an already-won game at this stage. And the dangerous situation definitely isn't your fault; runaway Psilons are just inevitably scary -- and our tech variant does NOT really count as a "minor" variant for our first SG on the new patch.

Also: Great turns, Maniac! Holding Moro in the face of Saurian attack was critical, and your diplomacy was very well played. Now we just have to hope those Psilons don't manage to eat the Sakkra before we can break out of this corner! (Eep!)

Which brings us to our roster:

RaiddinnRZ - On Deck unless TheArchduke turns up to join in
Catwalk - Waiting in the Wings
Maniac Marshall (ToddMarshall) - Just Played
RefSteel - UP!
TheArchduke - On Deck if he wants

And therefore:

GOT IT!

I'll hopefully play my turns tomorrow evening.

Catwalk · Jul 20, 2011

Many compliments to the brave marshall for once again succesfully saving the chosen race from all the evil aliens. I say we're going to whoop them np

The honourability variant will be highly problematic against the psilons, though. What should we do in the long run? Spy on them to piss them off, then get everybody to pile on them when they declare on us? We should keep a close eye on enemy tech this game. Any race without good BC tech will be weak against our awesome bird fighters.

ToddMarshall · Jul 20, 2011

We'll worry about the Psilons later... I just hope we avoid diplomatic loss at this point. If we do, we've got a chance.

EDIT: It might be worth our while to try to make peace with the Sakkra's after they decide to talk with us... unless you want to bomb them with nuclear bombs and warp 2 engines. I wouldn't try that even with the Alkari... Maybe I should have done stabilizer instead of warp 3...

RefSteel · Jul 21, 2011

Turns played, report nearly complete, but it's too late (almost 1 AM where I am) and I'm too tired to finish and upload the report - so you'll have to wait until tomorrow.

Teaser 1: Those who followed our last SG will recall that I like to joke about Maniac always being right all the time. Wellllll....

Maniac Marshall on Realms Beyond said:
I don't think the next 10 turns would be very exciting ones to play

For once, he was definitely wrong.

Teaser 2: Yes, there's a save to upload. Yes, there's a next turn set to play. That's all I'm going to say for now. (Well, except that these turns were lots of fun....)

RefSteel · Jul 21, 2011

All right, this will be a full in-character report. I've put the really extraneous stuff in spoiler tags, but in case you can't stand reading this sort of thing at all, you can skip to [EDIT: this post[/EDIT], where I've included an executive summary.

Also note: I normally edit images pretty heavily to make them look cooler and/or include more information at once, but since we're showcasing kyrub's patch here, I thought it would be best to show what it actually looks like. As such, only two of the pictures below are composites (both should be obvious, since they have "faded afterimages" to show the locations of ships from previous rounds/turns) and the rest (though sometimes cropped or resized) were left entirely alone.

Spoiler Moro Colony spaceport, 2360 :

2360: "I see Wing Commander Maniac has iced all the incoming Sakkra, except a few that managed to flee. Excellent work. Raiddinn, how soon can you crash up a missile base for a need?"

The planetary governor made a quick calculation. "Five years with our own resources, sir. With assistance from the planetary reserves, call it two or three."

"Excellent." Ref nodded. "I think you'll be able to hold then. I see you're working on infrastructure, but have finished a small degree of incidental terraforming. How soon do you think you can terraform up to Alkari Standard?

Raiddinn didn't even have to consult his charts. "Within the year. We'd even have production left over for factory infrastructure."

"Perfect; make it so. I'm hoping to have all our worlds fully terraformed within two years." He turned to Commander Marshall. "Maniac, I believe there's an unarmed scout ship training with your fleet above Moro. Your brilliant trade for deuterium fuel has opened up new star systems for exploration with no known alien colonies. I want that Scout heading out to the yellow star between Kulthos and Mentar; I'll have a few warp-2 scouts sent down to Phyco from the homeworld to speed things up shortly." His eyes surveyed the room. "You're my most trusted advisors - plus, you'll be taking over the empire later on if I don't get us slaughtered. Any questions?"

Catwalk raised a brow. "Science budget?"

"I fiddled things to get it just a smidge above 200 RP. Hopefully that will increase in the years ahead."

"I hope so," Catwalk agreed. "You know better than anyone, those beakers don't clean themselves!"

Spoiler Imperial City, Alkari homeworld, 2361 :

2361: The enormous white-blue hologram sprang into life, and the cyborg said something unintelligible. "I'm just going to assume that's machine language," Ref answered charitably.

"Very snorf. Gremping bubblies are snorkeling on the freem," answered the bionic powerhouse to whose judgment the Meklar people had entrusted their entire civilization.

"Indeed, indeed," Ref murmured. "Greetings, QX-537. I think I heard some actual words in there someplace, so this must be one of your better days. Perhaps we can discuss some business! My predecessesor suggested that if relations between our peoples improved..."

Interrupting smoothly, QX-537 finished the thought for him: "Gimlets are tasty!"

"My goodness, an actual sentence! You really are doing well today! Well, in that case, could you see your way clear to a non-aggression agreement? Something modeled after the one we have with the Psilons, perhaps?"

The Meklar leader uttered a series of clicks and beeps. In desperation, Emperor Ref activated his binary translation console ... and to his surprise and delight, found that the machine-being had agreed!

"Well, this is a cause for celebration!" Ref enthused. "Surely this agreement shall benefit both our peoples!"

"Mondays feature sublimated moose vectors," the mechanical marvel agreed.

2362: Wing Commander Todd "Maniac" Marshall disappeared from the holodisplay as he shifted the image to a Phyco sector command screen.

"As you can see from this time-delay exposure, a Meklar colony ship is heading south between Primodius and Ryoun. Its only possible destination is the Laan star system. Our local Scout would have no chance against that cruiser-class vessel, and would just have been forced to retreat if we hadn't established a non-aggression pact with the robots. A long-range combat fleet might have held the system if we'd built it during my reign and hadn't pursued the NAP, but I didn't think it worth wasting our energy on long-rage combat destroyers to hold a tiny desert dustball."

Emperor Ref nodded. "I'd say you were right. Besides, who knows how long it will be before we landed the necessary range tech? I think I'll just scrap the old warp-1 scouts shortly before the thing arrives."

Commander Marshall nodded and switched the display image once more. "You might also find this interesting: Our latest reports on the Sakkra fiends."

The chief of state smiled. "I love these new 1.40m readouts. The color scheme is more attractive than the old version's, and it's good to see Saurak's name displayed up there; it's always embarassing to try talking to an alien whose name you've forgotten."

Patiently, the Commander prompted, "And the information in the display?"

Frowning, Ref examined it. "There's all their tech, but I was familiar with that already, and ... oh. I see. We already know our Psilon friends are at war with them, so it appears the poor reptiles are at war with virtually every other race in the galaxy. The only possible exception is the Darloks, but since the 'shifters and Psilons are allies...."

Maniac nodded. "Exactly. We're looking at a full-on dogpile against them, just as I feared. Let's just hope the Psilons aren't the chief beneficiaries."

2363: Deep in Sakkra space, beyond the range of military reinforcements, Special Agent McCaaaaaw slipped into a Sakkra research facility. He searched in vain for a propulsion lab, but every other field of research in which the Sakkra exceeded Alkari knowledge was present. Planetology was tempting, but with no tundra worlds near Alkari space and the chance of nabbing toxic environmental controls looking slim, he elected instead to target the computer science lab to improve on his hacking abilities.

Alkari Strategic Command mobbed the map chamber as soon as the new Scanners were complete. Generals were shouldered aside by admirals of the fleet, sector auditors were trampled by eager astromechanics students, and only Temporary Emperor Ref himself (on account of the smell; he'd had two fried skunks for breakfast in anticipation of exactly this situation) had a space clear for himself with a good view of the screen.

The results were stunning. Against all odds, it appeared that the Sakkra had managed to establish a small fleet in orbit above Psilon Centauri, with a fleet of 24 assault transports about to arrive. More troubling however - though not exactly unexpected - was the news that a Psilon colony ship, escorted by a Star Blazer destroyer, was already en route to Drakka, the large barren world whose distance still kept it out of Alkari reach.

Emperor Ref looked over the results with undisguised pleasure, then called up his chief of espionage on the holophone. "Hey. I'm loving what happens when your department succeeds. We need spy reports on our rivals anyway, and that QX-whatsisnumber is crazy. He'll declare on us at some point no matter what we do. Let's put some more effort into getting another spy ring up in Meklar space, and let them actually do some spying this time, okay?"

2364: General Visssscioussss roared in pain as a four-handed boarding axe crushed his leg. His Sakkra troops had fought bravely, and had left untold millions of Psilons dead, but in the end, they had been forced back to their transports, and the battle was coming to an end. The reinforcements he had requested for the three Spirit destroyers in orbit were on their way, in the shape of the the self-same colony ship that Commander Maniac had chased from Moro years before, to be followed a year later, when they could finally be mustered, by 22 more assault transports, but Centauri remained in Psilon hands, and he could do nothing to prevent it. His death was mercifully swift.

2365: Emperor Ref of the Alkari was struggling with a toothbrush, trying to use it on the cutting edges of his beak, his mouth covered in a foam of toothpaste, when the holotransmitter buzzed. "Wrnn't yr jrst knr rt?" he asked himself rhetorically, and stepped out of the washroom to flip on the display. "Erm..." he said, intelligently.

"Congratulations," said a galaxy-pervading voice, as the faces of all the galaxy's rulers lit up the holodisplay. "You have been nominated for the post of High Master of the New Republic!"

"Wait, you mean me?" Ref asked incredulously, dripping toothpaste all over his bathrobe in his haste to speak. "I'm not even permanent emperor of the Alkari! Our emperors chage often, just to keep new blood in the..."

The resounding voice continued, "Emperor ChangeOften, you have been nominated opposite Emperor Kelvan! Place your votes, oh people of the galaxy!"

"Wha...?" said Emperor Ref, intelligently.

Kelvan stood forth in full imperial regalia, and Saurak, cowed by the defeat of General Visssscioussss, cast four votes for him immediately. Ref tried to scuttle out of picture in his toothpaste-splattered bathrobe covered in little pictures of rubber duckies. "Ulp," he said, perhaps still more intelligently. The Psilons had a lot of allies, and they'd just gotten the votes of their bitter enemies.

Who knows what motivations drove the Klackon queen? Perhaps she felt sorry for the Alkari, or perhaps she actually realized that - between Kelvan, his allies, and his war rival - her vote would hand the Psilons the galaxy. Whatever the reason, she abstained - the only being to do so apart from Ref himself - and so gave the galaxy a new lease on life. Kelvan wound up with 13 votes of 21, exactly one vote shy of victory. Ref garnered exactly zero votes ... which was to be expected, really. Shutting down the holocom in shame, he hurried back to his washroom, muttering to himself, "I need another bath. This time with more rubber duckies."

Fourteen hours later, Commander Maniac was on the line with the latest intelligence. "Just got the report from one of your warp-2 Scouts, and it's a doozy. Remember how you thought the Psilons were going to colonize Drakka? Well, apparently they had some company."

Governor Raiddinn, from his holo-extension, added, "You might also want to pay attention to that incoming fleet. I'm not too worried with all the Arrows up here, especially since we can put up a missile base in three years without assistance, but we ought to find out what's on that Valkyrie."

Ref was still staring at Drakka. "Since when is that a Klackon colony?"

"Since a little while, I'm guessing," Maniac answered. It looks like it has 14 million people. Although it's not likely to be one long, with 23 Meklar assault transports incoming. All they've got in orbit is a colony ship, but that Psilon colony fleet you noticed is sitting up there too. Our pilot's getting out of there before things get ugly."

"And before we find ourselves in violation of a NAP without even moving," Ref agreed. "Let's just see how this goes then, shall we?"

2366: In the deeps of space, near the heart of the galaxy, a lone scout ship pilot eased into orbit around the blazing white star of Gienah, a star further to the galactic east than any previous Alkari had ever traveled.

Gas giants and asteroids dominated the system, but a Klackon colony, housing 21 million insects, rested on the one habitable world: The most distant true planet from the star itself. Moments later, he would depart the system, but not until he'd made a complete survey of icy Gienah XIII.

2367: Emperor Ref watched the holovid while he ate his usual breakfast of Yummy Rainbow Fruit Rings, then rested his head in his wings. "I just wanted to build up some infrastructure and do some technological research. Why me?"

The sabotage of six factory-cities on Jinga II had set the world back by almost a full year, according to the governor's report. Bracing up with a glass of flat orange soda, Ref reminded himself, "Could be worse though. They could have tried sabotaging something that was actually on the front where they're fighting a war!"

2368: Emperor Ref frowned, drumming his wingtips on the smooth glass tabletop as he watched the holodisplay. "Well, I guess that makes it official," he muttered.

"But all the same, GNN, I already knew Kelvan was a runaway."

2369: It had taken six years of probing, testing, and seeking; several agents in Sakkra and Meklar space had already died for the cause, their names forgotten by time. Special Agent McCaaaaaw had one chance to make it all worthwhile. He'd found the central lab on Meklon itself, where rumor whispered of technologies the Alkari desperately needed in every field but construction. Planetology was too great a risk, with Professor Catwalk's next terraforming project already testing prototypes: If he failed to hit the jackpot, he might gain next to nothing from the steal. Weapons seemed a waste; though useful, hand lasers were such a simple design, it could surely be acquired by other means somewhere down the road. Class III shields would be useful, especially since Professor Catwalk had no true quality researchers in the field, but the upgrade would be small. So, propulsion after all. Irridium fuel cells were guaranteed, allowing the Alkari to at last bring the battle to the Sakkra ... except ... the Alkari weren't ready for an offensive war. MacCaaaaaw paused with his wingtips on the computerized controls ... and almost tripped an electronic alarm he'd missed his first time through. He cursed under his breath. Irridium could wait; Catwalk might even be able to research dotomite cells. The espionage teams themselves needed better computer knowledge, even if it came from only a battle computer upgrade. He extended his virtual wingtips, and reached for the first available file in the computer science lab.

He hit the jackpot: Robotic Controls.

Emperor Ref reviewed the specifications for his new-stolen computer technology and grinned. It did remind him of a minor problem with his tenure though. He reached for the holophone and dialed Catwalk's private number.

The professor answered immediately. "Is there a problem?"

Ref answered, pensive, "Maybe. What are people going to think? Here I'm the emperor, straight out of your laboratories, running the entire empire for ten years ... and what kind of scientific progress have we made? Only what our spies have managed to steal!"

Professor Catwalk shrugged. "You can tell them about our prototypes. We're pretty sure the new ECM Jammers will stop cooking their operators in their seats once we have the shielding coefficients worked out properly, and our advanced terraforming techniques will be ready to roll out as soon as we get the terraforming spores to stop turning into feather-eating blob creatures. I'd say there's almost a 20% chance by this time next year that we'll have at least one of those two working."

Catwalk preened a little. "Notice those little red LEDs? They light up when we're beyond our optimal research investment. Notice only Construction's lit up, and that only barely as it turns out. Pretty nice innovation, eh?"

"You bet." But Ref looked pensive. "I don't suppose you're reporting only half chances of success, are you?"

Catwalk scratched his head. "Um, I don't think so. That was just the old-guard way of doing things, wasn't it?"

"I guess." The temporary emperor sighed. "What about the new robotic controls? Our planetary governors are telling me new factories will come at time and a half the old price, even where the new controls aren't needed. Is that right? Or did someone fix that and just neglect to tell the governors?"

Professor Catwalk stroked his chin. "Well ... in the spirit of scientific inquiry?"

Ref raised a brow.

The professor grinned at him. "Let's find out!"

2370: "Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" Wing Commander Maniac roared past a tumbling asteroid field aboard the lead Arrow fighter as the Sakkra approached. "Three destroyers? Are they out of their minds? Why haven't they turned tail and fled already?" His wing of 21 Arrows opened up on the Valkyrie, blasting it into space dust, as the Sakkra Spirits tried to maneuver into firing position for their hapless nuclear missile racks. Maniac closed and fired on them as well, shredding the armor of the first of the pair. He spun his engines to spin away from a missile barrage that never came, chuckled to himself, and wiped out both of the Spirits on the second pass. None of the enemy ships had managed to fire a shot.

"I don't know what those Sakkra are thinking," he laughed. "What've we got coming in from them in three years? A Juggernaut cruiser? 25 Goblin fighters? Another Valkyrie destroyer? That's it? This place can have a missile base by then, easy, and we might not even need it! Better safe than sorry though, if you ask me."

Emperor Ref examined the command display closely. "I'm a bit more concerned about the colony ship the Psilons are sending to our toxic backlines world of Nordia. I realize they don't have the tech needed to land there - not yet - but it means at least their long-range colony ships can go anywhere in the galaxy. Plus, it's probably just a matter of time before the Meklar colonize Primodius ... though what anyone would actually want with that tiny little fireball is a little beyond me. We still have only five worlds, and precious little chance of getting any more ... uh, ever, I think ... peacefully."

"As good a reason as any to stay at war with the lizards, then," Maniac answered with a grin. "Our people are too honorable to attack anyone with whom we're not at war already, and declaring war ourselves just isn't an option once we're at peace. Besides, it's not like those dogpile victims will be able to spare enough ships to threaten us. Not with me piloting our fleet!"

"Twenty-four more Sakkra transports inbound to Centauri too," Ref mused. "Think there's any chance they'll actually conquer it this time? Third time's the charm, isn't it?"

Maniac just chuckled. "I doubt it. The Psilons have probably been dumping reinforcement transports in there from a direction we can't see, and the joke of a fleet the Sakkra have in orbit can't be shooting many down."

Ref nodded and sighed. "Still, we can hope, at least. We've got to catch some kind of break, what with runaway Psilons and our miserable little corner of the galaxy."

He considered a moment. "You know whose advice I'd like right now? Planetary Governor Raiddinn's. Can you patch me through to his comm station?"

There was a sound behind Ref: Raiddinn clearing his throat. "I'm not on Moro anymore, Ref. It's 2370."

The temporary emperor's eyes suddenly lit up. "You mean ... you're here to take over as emperor?!"

"You've got it! If The Archduke of Zoctan takes an interest, we can always slot him in later, you know."

Ref beamed. "Yyyyessssssssss! You know what this means? I can finally get back out to the frontier! I can get back to my beloved research labs! I can go back to my old job ... clean...ing... beakers."

"Cheer up," Raiddinn encouraged him. "With you in the lab making suggestions, maybe we'll at least actually discover something!"

Catwalk · Jul 21, 2011

Fantastic report, I :love:

Professor Catwalk. Will comment more tomorrow, my wife is being needy again.

EDIT: Just read the spoiler part, and I :love:

the characters even more. Damnit, you're inspiring me to have a go at RPing in my next report. And that can only go horribly wrong.

RefSteel · Jul 21, 2011

Well, a real executive summary would go like this:
Diplo: NAP with the Meklar.
New Techs: Deep Space Scanner and Robotic Controls III, both by espionage.
Combat: Destroyed a small Sakkra fleet at Moro; a larger one will arrive in 2373.
Exploration: Scouted Gienah (a Klackon tundra colony at a white star in the east) and discovered the Darlok homeworld (the yellow star by the nebula at range 8, right in between Mentar and Kulthos).
Election: Just scraped by in 2365. Another is coming in five turns!

For those who want a bit more detail, but don't want to wade through the story:

2360: A design a warp-2 scout and build three, just to see what's out there at range 8.

2361: I establish a NAP with the Meks, per Maniac's suggestion (in his turn report) since under kyrub's patch we'll no longer take the blame when they inevitably break the treaty, and they might even look elsewhere for a combat target while the NAP is in effect. Also, if/when we decide we do want to fight them, breaking the NAP later on (if it's still in effect) will be a step in the right direction (toward making them angry enough to declare). The drawback? We can't prevent them from colonizing e.g. tiny inferno Primodius, should they send a colony ship there (unless we do break the NAP and send a fleet).

2363: I nab Deep Space Scanner from the lizards, rejecting options in other fields as likely of minimal value. (Propulsion wasn't an option.) I used espionage liberally on the 'zards throughout my turns, and also (starting about here) on the 'chines (since I don't often worry too much about espionage against erratic races since they'll declare for no reason anyway).

2365: The High Council meets, because these kyrub-style Impossible AIs expand quickly! Bad news: We're nominated against (of course) Kelvan! Good news: The Klackons (only!) abstain with 4 votes, and we just scrape through. Official tally: 13/21 for Kelvan, 0/21 for us. Sakkra (4) for Kelvan; Klackons (4) Abstain; Meklar (2) for Kelvan; Psilons (5) for Kelvan; Darloks (2) for Kelvan; Alkari (Us; 4) Abstain.

2366: Scout Gienah, a Tundra 30 belonging to the bugs, at the range-8 white star between Mentar and Phantos/Drakka.

2367: Sakkra spies sabotage 6 factories at corner-of-the-galaxy backlines Jinga.

2368: A warp-2 scout reaches the range-8 yellow star by the nebula, between Mentar and Kulthos. It turns out to be the 'lok homeworld, with 31 bases and a sizable fleet (which is why it's now the only star within 8 parsecs that's neither been scouted nor showing up as a known enemy colony). I go ahead and scrap all the scouts since they no longer have anything useful to do. Also, GNN reports the brains are out to 12 systems. Uh-oh?

2369: I manage to steal IRC3 from the bots, which should help our spies (and eventually our infrastructure) a lot. It does increase our immediate factory cost (the patch doesn't fix this; I tested it) but our planets all have at least a halfway-decent number of factories already, and we're well on our way toward IIT8 ... so it might be worthwhile to prioritize tech ahead of factories for now. Your call, obviously.

2370: Okay, here's one image I did enhance. I should suggest that kyrub change up the colors on the galactic map, because white and purple are too difficult to tell apart without playing with brightness/saturation.

Yes, we have runaway Psilons. Be aware of the incoming Sakkra fleet (at Moro) which should be due in (the interturn before) 2373, and the Psilon colship headed for Nordia (they shouldn't have the tech to colonize it yet, thankfully.) The war over Centauri should also be interesting - if the Sakkra can take it, we might have a chance to scout it or even attack (thereby hopefully claiming a new system, and bringing more Sakkra targets into range) ... but I wouldn't hold my breath.

The save is attached. Please note that I do not advise leaving the empire set up the way I have it here! I left things this way on the theory that it won't be the end of the world if you basically just hit next-turn until IIT8 comes in, but that certainly wouldn't be optimal; I've been adjusting espionage and various sliders on a turn-by-turn basis, so they may look a little weird. (Of course I left the Tech screen sliders alone.)

RefSteel · Jul 21, 2011

Catwalk said:
Fantastic report, I Professor Catwalk. Will comment more tomorrow, my wife is being needy again.

EDIT: Just read the spoiler part, and I the characters even more. Damnit, you're inspiring me to have a go at RPing in my next report. And that can only go horribly wrong.

Thanks for the compliments, Catwalk! (I love writing these things.) And if you do try roleplaying in your next report, you've got my support at least!

RaiddinnRZ · Jul 21, 2011

I won the election in 2375...

Raid

RaiddinnRZ · Jul 21, 2011

Anyway, I abstained my own votes, leaving us 14 - 5 rather than 19 to 5, so the game could continue on, in case anyone wants to try for a win we actually deserve.

I only took one screenshot, which is hosted here: http://www.lifetimeprogress.net/games/orion/gatlinglaseroffer.jpg

The save game file is here http://www.lifetimeprogress.net/games/orion/SAVE1.GAM

Below is my report of my turns. I am not real good at this RPing a galactic leader
thing, but I gave it a shot.

2370 - Raiddinn assumes leadership of the entire galctic empire. I have no idea why they would
put a planetary infrastructure construction expert in charge of the galactic empire at a time
like this, but they obviously want to get more production out of the planets in our empire and
they are willing to write a blank check for it.

First things first, spying is going to have to get scaled back, we are losing too much
production from gambling on thieves. Oh I will still gamble, just to a lesser extent. I have
been known to be abnormally lucky sometimes, so perhaps we will still see something on that
front during my tenure.

Next on the agenda, getting briefed on up to the minute technological progress. Where did that
scientist run off to? He went to clean beakers? Get him back in here.

Blah Blah Computers Blah Blah Planetology Blah Blah Weapons Blah Blah Blah. What it sounded
like you just told me is "We will have a huge technological breakthrough in the next two years"
that is fine, go make sure that happens.

What was that? Did you use the word maybe in there? Ok good, I didn't think so. I don't care
who you have to kill or how much overtime the scientists have to put in, we need something soon.
Oh, and it better be Terraforming.

Scaling back spying bought us 11 RPs a turn, wohoo. Those science boys better be able to turn
that into guaranteed technological progress.

Next on the agenda, galactic expansion. What do you mean there are limited to no options right
now for galactic expansion??? Why am I ruling right now if there are little to no opportunities
for expansion again? Whatever.

So I have a tiny fleet, a tiny empire, no opportunities for expansion, no technological edge of
note and incoming enemy fleets now? Looks like the prior galactic CEOs all took their golden
parachutes and left me to clean up the mess.

I guess I will have to make the best of it. Here goes nothing...

2371 - The science boys actually did it. They got a fully functional production ready ECM
Jammer Mark 2 defense system built after all. See, all you need is proper motivation and a
bunch of scientists willing to put in 20 hour days that know full well the fate of our entire
civilization rests on their shoulders.

I don't know how any of that is supposed to help me, considering I am not about to order new
ships built that include this technology, but the science boys tell me that this new technology
will help them better hack the computers of the enemy race. However that works...

What is that? Someone is calling? Who? What do the lizards want now? Peace? I can't peace
the lizards right now! How am I supposed to expand if I peace the lizards of all races? The
last thing I need right now is a galaxy wide peace treaty to be signed, virtually ensuring that
the psilons will conquer the entire galaxy. Sorry, but you will have to tell the lizards to
shove their peace treaty up their reptilian yin yangs.

What??? They offered to give us Gatling Lasers if we sign on the dotted line??? You gotta be
kidding me! How am I supposed to turn down free tech??? Not like I can beat them and take it
in this position... For better or worse I am going to have to go ahead and sign. It may bite
me in the ass, but I have a rule of always accepting bribes of tech.

That also means I don't have to worry about their incoming fleet at least. When they show up
I will just project a mural sized FU on their screens and tell them their leader wants them to
return home, post haste.

Next order of business... Scaling back missile base production on Moro. We want 1 base done
next year and not 1 extra cent spent on planetary defense. Take the other 26 factories and
direct them to research more tech. I want that Terraforming technology done this year.

Did you hear that? Not next year or the year after that. I need that tech this year. What
was that about 10% likely? If the scientists know what is good for them they better hope they
accidentally put the decimal in the wrong place when they really meant 100% likely. I did
just free up another 26 RP for them, they better run with that and come back with the tech I
need.

How are the hackers doing? They got nothing substantial but at least they got another name
and password for a random Sakkra computer network? I guess I will let them live, for now.
Inform them that I want something substantial, and soon. I did just break the back of half
the galactic scientists to get them this new computer technology after all. They need to
start being team players and picking up their share around here too.

2372 - Another year has gone by with me in the galactic drivers seat. You know, I try not to
micromanage on the planetary level, I have highly trained middle managers for that. Still, I
get the feeling that we haven't doubled planetary production since last year, and that doesn't
thrill me. Oh well, its time for me to check back in with the science boys again.

It is about time you gave me Terraforming tech. I trust you really did misplace that decimal
point last year after all. I still would have liked to have Terraforming LAST YEAR, but I will
at least agree to let you live a little longer now that you have gotten off your scientific
a@@es and done your galactic homework.

Order all of my planetary middle managers to devote 25% of resources above and beyond the
minimum to building more housing, and after that I want factories for everyone. Get those
people cloned and working. While you are at it, tell the Moro middle manager to scale back
defense spending to nothing now that his cutesy little missile base is completed.

Enhanced Eco Restoration is next on the list? Make it happen. Oh and what did those computer
scientists start working on now that they were done with that newfangled whatchamacallit again?

Improved Space Scanners? What does that mean to me? We will be able to see where their ships
are going with 100% accuracy AND tell how long it will take them to get there? I can handle
that, as long as they get it done soon.

How is it going with the hackers? Somebody locked one of the user accounts they were using to
login to the Sakkra networks? No gains on any other fronts and nothing stolen other than
schematics for a reptilian sewing machine? Didn't I get them some computer system a few years
ago that was set to make them into super spies or something?

They aren't going to live very much longer if they don't start giving me some real results.

2373 - Another year, another tech. This time our scientists have come up with something they
call a Neutron Pellet Gun. I guess that is supposed to be worth something to me. It might
have been if those lizards hadn't bribed me with a free laser into not smashing their tag
teamed empire. Sometimes I wonder if I should go back on my "Say yes to tech bribery policy".

Ok so I think I heard missiles in that ten thousand long list of weapons the weapons R&D people
are working on and that sounds useful. Tell them to focus on that, if indeed they said such a
thing. If they didn't, kill them and tell the next generation of cloned scientists not to
bring me such long lists next time.

How is the housing construction going? Most planets are either nearly done or done with building
new housing? That is fine.

What technology is slated to come into production next year? Nothing??? What am I paying them
for again? Oh well, I guess I will let them have a year off since they gave me 3 techs in 3
years.

How about the hackers, how are they doing? The Sakkra killed their other name/password? So
we have nothing and no further names and passwords and we likely wont have any for at least a
few years? Oh well, I guess that is how it goes sometimes.

2374 - A quiet year it seems, nothing really going on.

2375 - Election - Us vs Saurak... What happened to Psilons being in the elections?

Oops... We accidentally won the election... The Sakkras voted for themselves and everyone
else was at war with them so they all voted for us. We had every non Sakkra vote (19 vs 5).

2375 - I abstained in case anyone else wants to skip a diplomatic victory and play this out.

Starting another year, priorities are going to be different this year than the last few years.

I have been letting the scientists live and the hackers too even though they haven't been
showing me any tangible progress lately, because I have been happy to see factories start
appearing on all of our planets. That isn't going to last much longer. Sooner or later I will
want to see some tangible progress out of the science boys and the computer gurus.

I will give them a little bit longer because I won the election and I feel like being nice.

2376 - Thankfully, I let the scientists live last year. I am uber-lucky again and they got
finished with Improved Industrial Tech 8 this year. They are really starting to make me happy
lately. Aside from a few years that just disappeared into a galactic black hole they gave me
two out of three techs for my own specialty (economics).

The scientists tell me they are working on automated repair now. I thought about killing them
all, but I decided to focus my efforts on getting factories on my planets.

2377 - Klackons come into the picture from somewhere. I am not sure how they got into contact
with us, I need to get somebody to tell me how that happened one of these days.

Apparently, they just called to tell me that they want no contact with us. Good to know.

Other than that, not much going on. I dispatch some spies over there to start trying names
and passwords on their networks and the science boys told me there are Force Fields and
Propulsion techs nearing completion.

We need expansion, seriously, so I am going to need a cassus belli to materialize out of thin
air against these Klackon scum. Did everybody hear that? I need them to declare war on me.
Start spreading rumors about what their hivemothers have been doing or something. Make it
happen. One small problem, though, they seem to have allied themselves with both the Psilons
and the Meklars. That could get in the way of me taking their planets any time soon.

2378 - Sub Light Drives were up near 15% last year, and they came in this year. Took longer
than I would have liked, but I guess I will know for next time that I need to crack the whips
harder on them and start going with 21 on 3 off shifts instead of 20 on 4 off shifts like
I do currently. Do I ask so much? How much sleep do they think their galactic ruler gets?
I haven't slept since I took over command of the galactic empire!

But I digress. Scientists have presented me with three choices for new focus areas for
Propulsion research. They said they could work on Inertial Stabilizers, Range 8 Fuel Cells, or
Warp Dissipators. I like to slow the enemy down and expand my own reach as much as the next
galactic ruler, but the other generals around here seem to like the idea of being a little
more zippy in combat and I hear that technology is quite desirable in the trading marketplace
so I told them to go back to their labs for an hour and then bring me back a working schematic.
If they don't, well... I guess I haven't given them enough incentives.

2379 - Personal Deflector Shields came in this year. Interesting that since I didn't even
know they were working on it. I thought I told everyone that I am economically focused and that
I want them to get me economically oriented technologies. I guess the Force Field people didn't
get the memo. Someone needs to tell them to start attaching cover sheets to their TPS reports
or something. I should have known they were working on this useless technology 9 years ago so
I could have killed them all and cloned some new scientists that would work on techs I care
about.

I threatened to wring their scrawny necks if they didn't get me something with an empire wide
application and they told me they would immediately start work on Class V Planetary Shields
next. I seem to do very well motivating people. Somebody make a note of that.

Alas, my time as galactic slave driver is coming to an end.

I do have some regrets, though, after this long run as ruler of all things Bird.

Firstly, I never could motivate those computer nerds to steal useful enemy technology. Maybe
the next person that comes in here after me (I heard they might be putting Professor Catwalk in the
chair next) will be able to get something out of those slackers. The way things are going,
though, there is no telling I would have had any success even if I had spent 3 times the
resources on spying like we were doing before I took over the helm.

If the inner bird circle is indeed putting a scientist in the chair after me, GL with that. I already
worked them all to death and killed the rest.

Secondly, I think I just didn't push the scientists hard enough. I would have been happier if
they had been completing, say, 3 or 4 techs per year. That is more my pace. I guess the batch
we cloned are defective or something. I mean really, shouldn't we be looking at High Energy
Focus or something right now? What do these scientists do when they are supposed to be working?
Sit there and sing to each other or something?

Thirdly, I didn't get any new planets since I peaced the Sakkras and there were no other enemies
around. I might have continued to fight them if they hadn't been so shady as to offer me a bribe.
They apparently know how to say what I want to hear, or something? Did someone tell them about
my accept all tech bribes policy? If so, they need to be shot.

I am tying off lose ends and getting ready to hand off the galactic reins, but what is this???

It seems as the year is winding down, the Klackons have decided to declare war on us after all!
Look! They are fresh out of allies as well! I guess that leaves the next ruler free to
take over some of their planets with all these newfangled tech gizmos the science boys have
been cranking out.

I am sad not to have been able to deliver the first blow myself, but it seems they have
strategically waited until I am no longer at the helm to declare war on us.

Put it in my report for the next ruler that I was tired of the geniuses not giving me 3-4
completed techs per year so I had them all killed. Thus we are nowhere near any new research
in any field. The next ruler will have to clone some more geniuses or something if he wants
to see new techs any time soon.

I am heading out to take a half century long vacation or something if anyone needs me.

Raiddinn

ToddMarshall · Jul 22, 2011

Considering we'd have to deal with runaway Psilons, and our war declarations are limited, I'd be happy to just take the diplomatic victory and we could start a new game, but I'll let the other two weigh in.

Besides, I find it humorous that getting the Sakkra dog-piled (unintentionally) nearly cost us the game, then 10 years later won it :lol:

Playing it out is also fine, just not my preference.

Catwalk · Jul 22, 2011

Nice speed Raiddinn

Good job extorting the lizards for peace, looks like we weren't planning on invading them anytime soon anyway. The declaration by the bugs may well be an amazing stroke of luck, we'll be expanding our empire soon.

I want to see if ArchDuke shows up, if not I'll play on Monday as I'm busy over the weekend.

EDIT: I'm all for playing this one out, it looks interesting.

RaiddinnRZ · Jul 22, 2011

I am indifferent in terms of playing this out.

I think we won't win, but at least the game conclusion might be more satisfying. I am not a big fan of games that are "accidentally" won by somebody.

I much prefer there to be one clear victor when I play, and I think that will probably be the Psilons if we play this out.

Although, we do have chances, with an opportunity to take lots of planets from the Klackons (possibly) since they are in wars on multiple fronts and we arent, I still think that runaway Psilons is going to be the end of the game.

I don't mind starting over and hoping for a better galactic position and hoping for a worse galactic position for the Psilons.

- Edit - I was kinda waiting for this SG to start for a few months, so it kinda feels disappointing that its over in one full revolution. If people want to end, I would rather start another one again ASAP. I can do that again if necessary NP.

Raid

ToddMarshall · Jul 22, 2011

Well, lets see what Ref thinks. If he's in favor of continuing, then we should. As far as if we'll win or not, right now I'd put our chances at 50/50, although the Psilons are still a major threat to win an election victory.

If we had a better race (ie one with some kind of economic advantage other than propulsion tech), I think we'd win. I guess I'm just inclined to take a victory against runaway Psilons whenever one presents itself. It's a bit unsatisfying, sure, but less than it would have been if I'd purposely tried to win an election by creating a dog-pile. I never expected us to be nominated...

Catwalk · Jul 23, 2011

I think our chances are better than that, and I don't think Alkari are bad at all. We'll shine in all wars we enter from this point on, we just need to make sure there's enough at the right time.

I'm also fine with starting a new one, if RefSteel wants that. Let's get discussions started for a new game, regardless of whether we play this one out or not.

ToddMarshall · Jul 23, 2011

Well, right now we've got 1 much in favor, 1 ambivalent, and 1 slightly against, so I'd say unless Ref is strongly against, we should continue. I suspect, but don't know, that he'll want to continue.

Actually, I've probably moved up to ambivalent anyhow, so lets just continue unless Ref really doesn't want to.

And you may be right, it might be better than 50/50. Depends on when we can declare on the Psilons and what techs we get. If warp 4 and AMB are both in our tree (or acquirable), then I think we do win.

TheArchduke · Jul 23, 2011

I can pull in a turn today or tomorow if I may. I like a game against bad odds.

Catwalk · Jul 23, 2011

Looks like a decisive vote in favour of continuing to me :goodjob:

Have a go at it ArchDuke, I'll play after you.

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

Chieftain

Maniac - Stellar Wingman

Pacifistic Technologist

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Maniac - Stellar Wingman

Pacifistic Technologist

Pacifistic Technologist

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Pacifistic Technologist

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