03-03-2014, 05:31 PM
Getting back up to speed here, folks. I had a torrent of Real Life stuff that sharply curtailed my free time for the past few months. I was just able to squeak out a series of maintenance turns for this game, and finish editing an article for S&D that I had partially drafted earlier.
I will catch things up by writing a post for each turn. A lot has been going on, and there is much to review, even if my order-sets have been short. So here is my next turn in the series. There will be a few more to follow...
* * *
My orders were not fully complete this turn, but getting there. The big news is that I finally set up a large freighter-colonizer to haul people and materiel. I did it the old-school way of running basic calculations on a piece of paper to make sure it had basic integrity. First, I put in all the accumulated Light Structure 2 I had on-hand -- a few hundred million. Each one provides 4 volume-equivalents, but ships require 10 of these to enclose each volume. (Orbiters need 8, enclosed surface colonies need 5, and open colonies just 1.) So each of these structural units would enclose about .4 actual ship volume units.
To this I added basically all the hyper engines (for inter-orbital and interstellar moves), space drives (for tactical moves), and advanced life support I had. I threw in a large batch of Farm-1s and Min-1s, unassembled, for use on my in-system hab world. I loaded up about 15m population and a bunch of fuel. And just for good measure I added all the energy weapons and shields I had accumulated in small production runs these many turns.
Mistakes? You bet. First, I didn't read up on "cargo holds", which designate a portion of ship volume for efficient storage. I didn't use the ship designer tool. I added enough food, but only JUST enough fuel to keep the life support running. (Ships need lots of fuel!) I have a new batch of Mine-4 coming off the line next turn, which will make my Mine-1s look shabby. And I forgot to include constructors, and to carefully calculate the amount of transport units to include. Obviously I'll need enough capacity to set up the whole colony in one turn. So I'm probably going to hang around in home orbit one more turn and get that all straightened out.
I am building a bunch of Lab-8, but not nearly enough to occupy all my professionals. Clearly I am running low on production capacity, so I pumped Factory tech from 4 to 7. Sadly, I have only a bunch of Factory-1 units available to build them, so this was all bad planning. I am retooling production lines where I can to boost production of both Lab-8 and Factory-7, but it's going to be a few turns at least before I'm back in balance.
I stocked my old alien outpost in orbit-1 with loyalists and am bringing the alien people home where I can reeducate them. I'm still just producing food out there, nothing else. Maybe my colonizer needs to make a stop with some mines...
In military news, I launched a test invasion of the alien colony in the next system. You'll recall that last turn I fired wildly at a scout ship in orbit-11 that I believe belongs to a friendly player. (Didn't even penetrate his shields, though!) This taught me some combat fundamentals, so I thought I would probe the alien colony defenses. First, he's got no energy weapons, shields, or missiles -- at least nothing set to auto-fire. Nice. Second, my invaders (a few thousand soldiers armed with assault craft) were overwhelmed by his ground forces -- amounting to about a million combat factors. I can deal with this. My missile-3 production lines are nearly done, which will help me soften them up from space. I built a half-million military robots, each of which is worth 2 CF. And I have a good million actual soldiers ready to go. I think two rounds of missile bombardment (there are 2 per turn) aimed at his military defenses will bring his CF down enough that my invaders will have a solid chance.
The timing is not perfect. I will need a turn or two to get my colony set up, then return home to pick up the troops. But this invasion is probably my best chance at catching up on the old race for habitation.
I will catch things up by writing a post for each turn. A lot has been going on, and there is much to review, even if my order-sets have been short. So here is my next turn in the series. There will be a few more to follow...
* * *
My orders were not fully complete this turn, but getting there. The big news is that I finally set up a large freighter-colonizer to haul people and materiel. I did it the old-school way of running basic calculations on a piece of paper to make sure it had basic integrity. First, I put in all the accumulated Light Structure 2 I had on-hand -- a few hundred million. Each one provides 4 volume-equivalents, but ships require 10 of these to enclose each volume. (Orbiters need 8, enclosed surface colonies need 5, and open colonies just 1.) So each of these structural units would enclose about .4 actual ship volume units.
To this I added basically all the hyper engines (for inter-orbital and interstellar moves), space drives (for tactical moves), and advanced life support I had. I threw in a large batch of Farm-1s and Min-1s, unassembled, for use on my in-system hab world. I loaded up about 15m population and a bunch of fuel. And just for good measure I added all the energy weapons and shields I had accumulated in small production runs these many turns.
Mistakes? You bet. First, I didn't read up on "cargo holds", which designate a portion of ship volume for efficient storage. I didn't use the ship designer tool. I added enough food, but only JUST enough fuel to keep the life support running. (Ships need lots of fuel!) I have a new batch of Mine-4 coming off the line next turn, which will make my Mine-1s look shabby. And I forgot to include constructors, and to carefully calculate the amount of transport units to include. Obviously I'll need enough capacity to set up the whole colony in one turn. So I'm probably going to hang around in home orbit one more turn and get that all straightened out.
I am building a bunch of Lab-8, but not nearly enough to occupy all my professionals. Clearly I am running low on production capacity, so I pumped Factory tech from 4 to 7. Sadly, I have only a bunch of Factory-1 units available to build them, so this was all bad planning. I am retooling production lines where I can to boost production of both Lab-8 and Factory-7, but it's going to be a few turns at least before I'm back in balance.
I stocked my old alien outpost in orbit-1 with loyalists and am bringing the alien people home where I can reeducate them. I'm still just producing food out there, nothing else. Maybe my colonizer needs to make a stop with some mines...
In military news, I launched a test invasion of the alien colony in the next system. You'll recall that last turn I fired wildly at a scout ship in orbit-11 that I believe belongs to a friendly player. (Didn't even penetrate his shields, though!) This taught me some combat fundamentals, so I thought I would probe the alien colony defenses. First, he's got no energy weapons, shields, or missiles -- at least nothing set to auto-fire. Nice. Second, my invaders (a few thousand soldiers armed with assault craft) were overwhelmed by his ground forces -- amounting to about a million combat factors. I can deal with this. My missile-3 production lines are nearly done, which will help me soften them up from space. I built a half-million military robots, each of which is worth 2 CF. And I have a good million actual soldiers ready to go. I think two rounds of missile bombardment (there are 2 per turn) aimed at his military defenses will bring his CF down enough that my invaders will have a solid chance.
The timing is not perfect. I will need a turn or two to get my colony set up, then return home to pick up the troops. But this invasion is probably my best chance at catching up on the old race for habitation.