11-14-2011, 03:58 PM
Reading your post, I just remembered one other aspect of my strategy that I forgot to mention. I chose to put a lot into Life Support tech, because I considered it a double-whammy. It makes colonizing easier AND powers your shield technology. So while I knew I was leaving military tech under-invested, I figured my shields would buy me cover as threats emerged.
But your military tech ended up being 21, and my shield tech was only 18. I don't know the formulas used in running combat, but I guess a 3-point tech spread can be decisive. Even so, there was clearly a difference in our overall tech performance. All totaled, your techs added up to 105, and mine came up to 98. So my focus on building ultimately 2 freighters and some colony equipment ended up costing me roughly 2 turns of scientific progress. Hefty.
If there is ever a next game, I am thinking I would put an early focus on tech and maybe just plant a few huts on nearby systems. Tech advances come rapidly at the beginning, so maybe players can't afford to dilute their investment until they hit higher levels.
I wasn't so worried about not knowing the location of your home world. It was a fairly compact star cluster, and I had 3 scouts flitting about on auto-explore. Your location was evidently near mine, so pinpointing your particular system wouldn't be hard. I was not in a position to counter-attack, in any case.
I agree that my practice of broadcasting much of my strategy each turn greatly weakened my position. But the role-playing was enormously entertaining, and I don't regret it. I didn't use the forum to communicate with you directly, because the forum was technically outside the game itself. It would have spoiled the metaphor. I did send you communications in-game, but never got any response (other than a hail of bullets). I admit my first message was not friendly, but neither was it hostile.
I was more positive with the friendly Tilkatians, and perhaps less icy with the neoHumans and the Mold. But point-taken -- I allowed my race to sense your malevolence in-game, and chose to take a less-than-open-armed stance with you when we met in my colony system as a result. I did so in no small part because I thought my freaking shields would be up to the task of protecting my ships.
This brings up one final complain about FH -- why not share the method by which combat is calculated?
Having said all this -- would anyone like to start up a new game? Our moderator is gone, but the game is open-source, right? Can we get enough people together and have another go at it?
But your military tech ended up being 21, and my shield tech was only 18. I don't know the formulas used in running combat, but I guess a 3-point tech spread can be decisive. Even so, there was clearly a difference in our overall tech performance. All totaled, your techs added up to 105, and mine came up to 98. So my focus on building ultimately 2 freighters and some colony equipment ended up costing me roughly 2 turns of scientific progress. Hefty.
If there is ever a next game, I am thinking I would put an early focus on tech and maybe just plant a few huts on nearby systems. Tech advances come rapidly at the beginning, so maybe players can't afford to dilute their investment until they hit higher levels.
I wasn't so worried about not knowing the location of your home world. It was a fairly compact star cluster, and I had 3 scouts flitting about on auto-explore. Your location was evidently near mine, so pinpointing your particular system wouldn't be hard. I was not in a position to counter-attack, in any case.
I agree that my practice of broadcasting much of my strategy each turn greatly weakened my position. But the role-playing was enormously entertaining, and I don't regret it. I didn't use the forum to communicate with you directly, because the forum was technically outside the game itself. It would have spoiled the metaphor. I did send you communications in-game, but never got any response (other than a hail of bullets). I admit my first message was not friendly, but neither was it hostile.
I was more positive with the friendly Tilkatians, and perhaps less icy with the neoHumans and the Mold. But point-taken -- I allowed my race to sense your malevolence in-game, and chose to take a less-than-open-armed stance with you when we met in my colony system as a result. I did so in no small part because I thought my freaking shields would be up to the task of protecting my ships.
This brings up one final complain about FH -- why not share the method by which combat is calculated?
Having said all this -- would anyone like to start up a new game? Our moderator is gone, but the game is open-source, right? Can we get enough people together and have another go at it?