Posts: 71
Threads: 5
Joined: Jul 2013
Reputation:
0
(08-05-2013, 07:52 PM)ixnay Wrote: If anyone advises this to be a Dumb Idea, please let me know!
I think you are making the correct decision. Those who strive to get "out there" too soon will be strapped and stretched beyond some limit or other. Build up your infrastructure and Professionals. When you build newer Labs, put them on the OBC and junk the old ones to get the materials. You can extend your resources by cutting back on mining the "unlimited" deposits while living on the higher yield ones until they run out. That saves you 3,000,000 Pro's which can be used to TRAIN more Pro's AND/OR run another 1,000,000 Labs. Labs in orbit and then get Farms-6 as they are the best buy in the long run. Don't forget to increase your Factory TL AND Mine TL should be done less often but in larger leaps so you only need to produce 3,000,000 of them to mine the unlimited deposits, etc. Once you have that cycle flowing, use the spare change in Research to nibble away at items you really need to improve. When you finally do start exploring go out with one large ship and 10 parasites to survey a whole system quickly. Follow on with Colonizers.
Don't get too caught up in EXPANDING your economy until you have a big enough base to support it from the home system. Remember, ultimately you will be limited by your UNLIMITED resource deposits and Mines-TL.
Posts: 408
Threads: 36
Joined: Jan 2011
Reputation:
4
Turn 4 orders submitted -- LATE! I went for a run last night and upon my exhausted return I forgot to submit the turn. The moderator was very kind and accepted my turn at noon today. Thanks Roy Bean!
It was basically a building turn. I docked all my food-less scouts to my orbiting colony, where I can share what little uncommitted food I have with them. The 3 scouts who had conquered the alien outpost have remained docked there, where there is a small excess of food as well as a batch of hydroponic farms.
(As an aside -- I consider the "alien" worlds to be loyalist remnants of the previous cluster-wide empire. They'd never willingly join ranks with us new pretenders to the throne, so they remain hostile -- until we conquer them. I don't consider them to be truly alien species. Other players may envision it differently. The game makes no differentiation between "races".)
I prototyped some of the alien tech to use in my research program -- those aforementioned hydroponic farms and the highly-advanced transports. Both will be very helpful in the near future. I left the advanced sensor and automation tech for another day.
I began an orderly-shutdown of those factory groups producing automation and transports, since I will be upgrading them soon. I upgraded my new laboratory-production group to make Lab-5s. And I completed my 4-turn doubling of the consumer-good line. Next turn I should get the first Factory-4 and Lab-4 units off the line, which will enable huge increases in my production capacity. I will probably need to prioritize Mining technology soon, if I'm going to keep these factories fed.
System and cluster exploration has been put on ice until there's more food...
Posts: 408
Threads: 36
Joined: Jan 2011
Reputation:
4
Quick update:
The only semi-urgent news is that my new surface colony in orbit 1 (the alien outpost I siezed) is in some state of rebellion. There doesn't appear to be a definite flag or status reading saying that as such, but there were items in the action listings for that colony saying that my forces "repelled the invaders", and that my security people had found a few rebel leaders. The latter was understandable, the former confusing, and both could be presented more clearly. I also found in the rules that upon becoming occupied, 65% of a colony's loyal inhabitants go rebel, and 65% of the rebels go loyal. So it was expected that this colony would be in trouble.
I left my 3 scouts (with all attendant soldiers) docked to that colony, so that probably helped. I have no immediate plans to move them again, so they'll just hold down the fort. One interesting thing to note is that while all the inhabitants of the colony started out with a different "race" number (indicating they were aliens), all new population growth in that colony appears with MY race number. This pretty much confirms that all people in this game are "human" -- just different ethnicities or nationalities. If my rebel problems persist, I may eventually shuttle all my "aliens" to my home world where their insidious influence will be swamped by my superior culture.
This is a big turn for manufacturing -- any factory groups that were set up on turn 1 have now completed their first production run! If one followed the tutorial closely, one would have a big batch of Factory-5 ready to assemble now. In my case, I went with Factory-4 and Lab-4, so I have a smaller (but still big) batch of both. I should start producing about 6M research a turn now and still have a great big boost to my production capacity.
The new research will likely go into Mine or Farm for the next 2 turns, and then go back into Labs for a 2-level bump over 2 turns.
The new factories? There are many things to build, but one item is screaming pretty loudly at the moment -- food! I will probably make at least a million Farm-2 which will push out 10M food/turn. Food is absolutely my top scarcity right now. I don't have my turn in front of me right now, but I may have miscalculated. It might take far longer than 2-3 turns to overcome my food shortages at present farming rates. It's worth boosting Farms to at least level 6 in the long run -- that's when you can run them on ships, thus you can make every ship and colony self-feeding if you have the space, fuel, and desire.
Posts: 71
Threads: 5
Joined: Jul 2013
Reputation:
0
So Ixnay is Player 5?
Mwahahahahaaaaaaaaa 
Posts: 408
Threads: 36
Joined: Jan 2011
Reputation:
4
Re: CW - the turn is due tonight. I may be a little late and beg forgiveness.
Re: my player number - I'm not sure what my player number is, but my race number isn't 5.
Anyway, I am playing this as an "open game". I am game-logging the whole thing, for the benefit of everyone. I realize that I am giving away a lot of sensitive data about myself, and once we get to a point where players are meeting each other I may start censoring what I post here. But my goal is to help the game, boost enjoyment, and make a lasting memory of the whole experience.
I had thought about logging it privately, and just posting the complete log when the game is done, but decided this way was more fun.
Posts: 71
Threads: 5
Joined: Jul 2013
Reputation:
0
Looking at the images in earlier posts; you're home colonies are #'s 5 & 6. The inventory display shows populations of race 3... so you must be race 3 in the game.
Also, I am curious what race you find inhabiting NPC locations? The one location I have captured (alien ruins) has some race 63 population. If there is only one NPC race to be found, then I suspect there may be the vestiges of a larger political NPC entity pervading the cluster???
Posts: 14
Threads: 0
Joined: Jul 2013
Reputation:
0
(08-31-2013, 01:06 PM)Darth Pedro Wrote: Also, I am curious what race you find inhabiting NPC locations? The one location I have captured (alien ruins) has some race 63 population. If there is only one NPC race to be found, then I suspect there may be the vestiges of a larger political NPC entity pervading the cluster???
Doesn't the alien race # match the number of the colony you just captured?
Posts: 71
Threads: 5
Joined: Jul 2013
Reputation:
0
(09-01-2013, 01:07 AM)jwsosus Wrote: (08-31-2013, 01:06 PM)Darth Pedro Wrote: Also, I am curious what race you find inhabiting NPC locations? The one location I have captured (alien ruins) has some race 63 population. If there is only one NPC race to be found, then I suspect there may be the vestiges of a larger political NPC entity pervading the cluster???
Doesn't the alien race # match the number of the colony you just captured?
I don't think so, but we'll see....
Posts: 408
Threads: 36
Joined: Jan 2011
Reputation:
4
Well, this was a mild "building" turn. I was very late in submitting, so I only did the most urgent stuff, but everything else was easily put off for a future turn.
Most Urgent Stuff:
- assembled all my new Lab-4 units
- disassembled about 1.5m of the old Lab-1 units (to free up some labor)
- researched up to Farm-3
- set up a production run of 2m Farm-3 (enough to grow 30m food/turn)
- set up another production run of Lab-5
- new production run of Life Support-2 (enough to support 20m people!)
These new production runs are all using my new Factory-4s.
Non-urgent stuff that I will try to do this next turn:
- calculate my actual usage of professionals. I can't run all my stuff because I'm running short on these, and I need to come up with a good balance of work for their full employment.
- calculate my actual unskilled numbers -- Each turn I've been adding enough automation to take 9m of these laborers off the market and into training for professional status. I need to tighten this up a little.
- calculate how many turns out until my food crisis is resolved -- my back-of-the-envelope analysis suggests 10 turns or so, which is horrible. I may need to double the Farm-3 production line.
- take my unfed scouts to the alien outpost in orbit 1, where there is a small food surplus - maybe enough to get a couple of scouts properly outfitted
- start a production run of robot probes
- design a colonizer/freighter to begin the build-out of the in-system hab world. I can't send it until I have more food ready, but I need to design it and see how far behind I might be on ship supplies -- particularly light-structural units and space drives.
Posts: 408
Threads: 36
Joined: Jan 2011
Reputation:
4
Turn 6 orders just uploaded. I didn't super-optimize like I had planned (didn't remember the deadline until the moderator's kindly reminder.) But I did get a few things done:
- Food appeared in my inventory! Inexplicably, since my population's hidden stockpile isn't up to the 4 turn goal yet. But I jumped at the opportunity to load up all my scouts with food.
- I noticed the 3 scouts that had invaded the alien outpost in orbit 1 were starving, even though there is ample food inside the outpost! Food distributed poste haste.
- Spent 6M research to bump Mine technology from 1 to 4
- Set up a new production run of high-tech factories to produce the new high-tech mines. My back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that in 4 turns I will have more than enough to upgrade all 6M mines on my home world with the new stuff. This will hopefully address my immediate mineral requirements.
If it is really true that my food shortage is resolved, then next turn will open up all possibilities again. First and foremost, my scouts will get back to surveying every planet in my home system and jumping out to the neighboring star to scan the alien base out there. Second, I can put together the biggest in-system freighter I can find and max out a starting colony for my other in-system habitable world. This freighter will be working hard throughout the game, and will probably be expanded upgraded repeatedly.
Also, with upgraded Mine tech, I will have fleshed out my emergency tech updates for basic economic growth. I will probably take a turn or two to upgrade robot probes and maybe some weapon techs before turning back to laboratories.
|
