07-08-2013, 05:44 AM
"Sir, we've locked on to orbit one. Can we begin the Impulse Drive countdown now?" Tulane seemed on edge, particularly after the friendly scolding she received from Captain Jenkins for neglecting to include the customary two olives in his martini.
Jenkins sipped and paused, relishing in her suppressed frustration. "Now just hold on there, Two Lane. We've got a long flight ahead of us, and there's no reason to blast off before we've had a chance to grok things out a bit up here."
"Bob! I mean Captain! We have not one but TWO other Company Ships en route to planet one already! We might not arrive in time to be part of first contact with the alien relics we've detected on the surface! We might be needed in case there are hostilities! We might even (gulp) miss out on the bounty!" Tulane was visibly and uncharacteristically distressed.
Jenkins paused and considered whether other Company captains had set things up such that junior officers were required to serve drinks to senior officers. In the general absence of a strong military tradition, Company culture gave ship captains wide latitude in how they ran things on board their own ships.
"Two Lane, relax. There is no hurry. We already knew we'd have at least one other ship coming with us. Sure, the Company built a new fleet, and one of them new birds is flying high guard over this little operation. But all them others have been dispatched off to other orbits. And these other two captains we're competing with are cupcakes. They ain't likely to jump our claim. And if they do, good for them -- and us. Remember, the early bird might get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese..." Jenkins speared an olive before catching Tulane's eye and winking.
* * *
I submitted my orders yesterday, just under the wire. Thank goodness for those tutorials! I followed their basic gist in that I built the 10 new scout ships (cloned from the 2 existing ones in my fleet), and dispatched one to each orbit in my home system to begin planetary survey duty. However, I sent both my original scouts directly to the "alien ruins" world (along with one of the new ships) just to triple up for safety. The ruins might harbor hostiles, and these scouts carry a fairly moderate marine contingent -- 1k "assault craft" and accompanying soldiers, along with some energy weapons and shields for direct combat. My hope is that the "ruins" are uninhabited repositories of ancient high-tech items, which I will gleefully use as research prototypes. (If you can get your hands on items of a higher tech than you have -- be they a gift from an ally, loot from a conquest, or otherwise -- you can get up to 80% knocked off your research costs to attain that level.)
I figured out how the "space navigator" tool works, and found that of the 40-some systems within 10 light years of home, only one is within single jump distance. So I am sending one scout thataway. At some point I will have to boost my Hyper Engine tech, but my first priority is fleshing out the home system and securing a basic supply chain.
The tutorial alerted me that food supplies have disappeared. This was a surprise to me -- I had done some rough calculations on turn one and thought I was generating slightly more food per turn than my people eat. Clearly I miscalculated! So I almost doubled the number of farms in operation. I also broke with the tutorial in that I kept all 3m Mine units in operation. I believe I have enough professional labor to run everything, but it is just as possible I forgot something and will get a warning of a "pro shortage" in my turn results.
(This is another UI issue I would like to see addressed -- tell me how many professionals, unskilleds, etc, I am currently using, and how many I'd be using with my draft orders in place.)
I also did the doubling-in-size of the orbiting colony described in the tutorial. It's not strictly necessary according to my plans -- the orbiter mainly produces Light Structure, which I have stockpiled in sufficient abundance for the moment. But I'd like to stay relatively close to the tutorial blueprint, in case something in turn 3, 4, or 7 depends on this doubled orbiter thing.
As for tech -- my laboratories produced the basic 2m research points. I could have bumped two technologies up from level 1 to 2, or one from level 2 to 3, but I am stockpiling instead. I want to put an early focus on boosting laboratory and factory tech, to improve the efficiency of my limited population of pros. Next turn I'll have 4m research, which should be enough to bump Factories or Labs up to level 5.
No major changes to my production lines -- just added another 600k factories to the Consumer Goods line. Hopefully I have enough people to run all this...
Jenkins sipped and paused, relishing in her suppressed frustration. "Now just hold on there, Two Lane. We've got a long flight ahead of us, and there's no reason to blast off before we've had a chance to grok things out a bit up here."
"Bob! I mean Captain! We have not one but TWO other Company Ships en route to planet one already! We might not arrive in time to be part of first contact with the alien relics we've detected on the surface! We might be needed in case there are hostilities! We might even (gulp) miss out on the bounty!" Tulane was visibly and uncharacteristically distressed.
Jenkins paused and considered whether other Company captains had set things up such that junior officers were required to serve drinks to senior officers. In the general absence of a strong military tradition, Company culture gave ship captains wide latitude in how they ran things on board their own ships.
"Two Lane, relax. There is no hurry. We already knew we'd have at least one other ship coming with us. Sure, the Company built a new fleet, and one of them new birds is flying high guard over this little operation. But all them others have been dispatched off to other orbits. And these other two captains we're competing with are cupcakes. They ain't likely to jump our claim. And if they do, good for them -- and us. Remember, the early bird might get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese..." Jenkins speared an olive before catching Tulane's eye and winking.
* * *
I submitted my orders yesterday, just under the wire. Thank goodness for those tutorials! I followed their basic gist in that I built the 10 new scout ships (cloned from the 2 existing ones in my fleet), and dispatched one to each orbit in my home system to begin planetary survey duty. However, I sent both my original scouts directly to the "alien ruins" world (along with one of the new ships) just to triple up for safety. The ruins might harbor hostiles, and these scouts carry a fairly moderate marine contingent -- 1k "assault craft" and accompanying soldiers, along with some energy weapons and shields for direct combat. My hope is that the "ruins" are uninhabited repositories of ancient high-tech items, which I will gleefully use as research prototypes. (If you can get your hands on items of a higher tech than you have -- be they a gift from an ally, loot from a conquest, or otherwise -- you can get up to 80% knocked off your research costs to attain that level.)
I figured out how the "space navigator" tool works, and found that of the 40-some systems within 10 light years of home, only one is within single jump distance. So I am sending one scout thataway. At some point I will have to boost my Hyper Engine tech, but my first priority is fleshing out the home system and securing a basic supply chain.
The tutorial alerted me that food supplies have disappeared. This was a surprise to me -- I had done some rough calculations on turn one and thought I was generating slightly more food per turn than my people eat. Clearly I miscalculated! So I almost doubled the number of farms in operation. I also broke with the tutorial in that I kept all 3m Mine units in operation. I believe I have enough professional labor to run everything, but it is just as possible I forgot something and will get a warning of a "pro shortage" in my turn results.
(This is another UI issue I would like to see addressed -- tell me how many professionals, unskilleds, etc, I am currently using, and how many I'd be using with my draft orders in place.)
I also did the doubling-in-size of the orbiting colony described in the tutorial. It's not strictly necessary according to my plans -- the orbiter mainly produces Light Structure, which I have stockpiled in sufficient abundance for the moment. But I'd like to stay relatively close to the tutorial blueprint, in case something in turn 3, 4, or 7 depends on this doubled orbiter thing.
As for tech -- my laboratories produced the basic 2m research points. I could have bumped two technologies up from level 1 to 2, or one from level 2 to 3, but I am stockpiling instead. I want to put an early focus on boosting laboratory and factory tech, to improve the efficiency of my limited population of pros. Next turn I'll have 4m research, which should be enough to bump Factories or Labs up to level 5.
No major changes to my production lines -- just added another 600k factories to the Consumer Goods line. Hopefully I have enough people to run all this...