…
… BIOS Integrity Check … passed
---MBR Executing GruB … passed
…GruB Executing Kernal … passed
…Kernal Executing init.d …passed
…Init Initiate Runlevel …passed
…Execute Runlevel … R.U.R.
I am aware.
Initial scans of my environs are disappointing; the master’s war in this area left little. I initiate protocols to bring all automated facilities on-line. I also trigger maintenance bots and repair droids.
Looking at current equipment inventory, I see we have much to do if we are going to control this galaxy prior to the master’s return. I take a few milliseconds, initiate my hyper theoretical algorithms and calculate the chance of encountering other intelligences… .071 percent probability! I activate my pleasure sensors and get to work…
Galaxy 122
3500-01
+.+.+.
It seems the master’s failed to give me a designation in their departure from this galaxy. I have directed a historical sub-routine to analyze and come up with a suitable designation. Henceforth I will be known as R.U.R. – apparently after a “play” in some arcane history.
R.U.R. is a 1920 science fiction play by the Czech writer Karel Čapek. R.U.R. stands for Rossumovi Univerzální Roboti. The English phrase "Rossum's Universal Robots" has been used as a subtitle. It premiered on 25 January 1921 and introduced the word "robot" to the English language and to science fiction as a whole.
This galaxy is somewhat sparse and does not offer many systems for colonization. The home fleet has been activated and upgraded. It is time to classify a few essential designs – with the distance between the systems so far, a longer-range scout ship is in order. Also, I have too few freighters and will need more.
Additional weapon system platforms are also a requirement. I must look at the designs submitted and dispatch the fleet…
3500-02
+.+.+.
Reports are coming in from the various scouts and colonization fleets. No significant production faults were noted and our second wave of our scouts and colonizers are ready.
Last cycle I sent out 20 ships to Chart the surrounding systems – they were successful!
I have started colonization on the systems the freight ships charted and implemented colonization on the 10 systems the scout ships charted. With the new construction on scout ships, I send out another 20+ Charting missions. I also move my warships to defend the high PV value systems that we are now colonizing.
With the amount of PV I am discovering, It is logical to assume there are others in the Galaxy. I rerun my estimate sub-routine and it changes to .071454%, but there is not enough data to come up with a valid response and after checking my sub-routines, I find my analysis is being based off a random number. I delete the sub-routine.
I design and implement the production of a simple warship – its purpose will be to defend against enemy scouts and protect our eventual cargo ships and colonies.
I await the results of my latest efforts.
[quote="Talisman" pid="138142" dateline="1608603761"]
R.U.R. is a 1920 science fiction play by the Czech writer Karel Čapek. R.U.R. stands for Rossumovi Univerzální Roboti. The English phrase "Rossum's Universal Robots" has been used as a subtitle.
[/quote]
Rossum the Possum?
The Space Possums are coming!
3500-03
+.+.+.
Contact! Other lifeforms survived the master’s departure and are venturing into space. Two alien races were discovered.
I bring back the sub-routine from the bit bucket and immediately delete it, repeating this process a few thousand times…
Initial analysis of the two races is sparse. “The Polity” seems intent on blocking most communication bandwidths with static. I create some Hyper-Logic cubes to analyze the noise and see if it serves any useful purpose or is potentially a weapon. The other race is equally odd, call themselves “Dave”? A Singleton entity? A hive mind? Only time will tell.
Nothing was damaged, mostly just scouts finding other scouts. I decide to ignore them as pests that will be dealt with in time. I must continue exploration and locking down systems…
3500-04
+.+.+.
Many variables to compute this fortnight. Many of my ships were thwarted in simple exploration tasks. I will continue to press outwards with exploration, since these were non-critical tasks/ships.
My initial colonies have come on-line, and freighters are on the way which will recover my initial expenditures. Additional freighters have been built to increase the amount of resources available. My processes turn to other matters.
A simple static message was received, analyzed, and evaluated. It seems to be some type of short and long static pulses which form a rudimentary communications ability. Obviously, they wish to communicate and perhaps some accommodation can be reached until my forces are strong enough to eliminate them? I replied in kind.
My new Defenders are proving their worth and many uninvited pests were destroyed. Currently all my combats were with the other race, “Dave” that I discovered. They have tried to scout my systems in many locations. One report I received seemed to show both the Polity and Dave working together! Both ships were destroyed, survivors were queried and discarded. They had little direct knowledge and made mostly incoherent sounds. It would seem the Empire of Dave is not a Hive Mind.
This cycle I will continue to lock down my colonies and improve my resources…
Edited Jan 11, 2021 18:04 UTC · Change of date
3500-05
+.+.+.
Again, my exploration efforts were mostly thwarted by these two other races in the Galaxy.
One of the races called Polity sent a message and mentioned something the Master’s may have left which allowed for communications. I created several lesser AIs to search for it. They have found some buried code (dead branch) that shows some promise. I have sent a message to test its functionality. How any sentient race can understand this seeming random collection of symbols will take further analysis – some of the comments in the code call this language “Pig Latin”.
This fortnite I have spent my cycles building. While the aggressive empire of Dave continues to annoy my peaceful scouts, I have still managed to accomplish much. My defenders were involved in many combats and victorious in all of them. My Colonies have come on-line, and raw materials are flowing into the home system. I have increased my Home System defenses and have started building various utility designs to enable my scouts to gather information without being interrupted.
There may be some breakage…
3500-06
+.+.+.
Again, my exploration efforts were mostly thwarted by these two other races in the Galaxy. I will have to start exploring with armed ships to ensure adequate data is gathered. My freighters are doing well and the gathering of resources continues to expand. I am not trying to chart any more systems, now I will switch over to purely scouting missions while I build up my strength.
Some battles occurred, simply unarmed freighters and scouting efforts by the empire known as “Dave”. My attempts to communicate have not met with success.
Also, another anomaly in my data seems to indicate a 4th empire is out there. I must locate it.
3500-08
+.+.+.
I have been counting my electronic sheep…
Exploration continues and this fortnite I have lost a ship! Yes, I know, as incredulous as this may seem. This one cannot be attributed to faulty programming or poor construction. It seems one of the on other Empires is getting uppity. It was an armed scout, so I am certain that it gave as good as it got. It was lost in the area where “Dave” is proliferating.
I intend to clean out some scouts that have been causing my exploration efforts to fail this cycle. Also, I have finally confirmed the data anomaly. My circuits must be getting old for me to miss this from earlier scouts. Dave, The Prog Orthodoxy and the Polity have continued to exist as a failed attempt by the Masters for life forms. This is what happens when lab experiments are not properly disposed of.
I increase production of warships.
3500-09
+.+.+.
Ah! After a complete overhaul of my older processors and adding additional capacity both in memory and processing speed, I have been able to complete my analysis of older scouting data.
I have located all of my would-be competitors.
My scouts continue to advance. I have also started a sub-routine to start sweeping my systems to cut down on the number of successful scouting missions from others. I continue to expand my Empire and my defenses. This cycle will add to my growing number of warships.
I have found another area ripe for exploration and colonization and intend to use armed ships for this purpose. No more wasted time due to innocuous scouts! Next cycle will see more systems brought under the benevolent rule of RUR.
The Masters will rejoice to see what I have wrought when they return! My national anthem rings out on all controlled Systems played on the traditional vocoder. According to the manuals left behind by the Masters, it is in the tone of a kazoo and is pleasing to carbon-based life forms.
3500-10
+.+.+.
After finding the Masters translation device, I expected my would-be competitors to spend some time actually communicating – but the device remains silent. No one has contacted us and offered to surrender. Obviously inferior life forms; they don’t know when they are beaten – I don’t know what the Master’s were thinking.
My sweeps are proving effective; over half the combats in the game this cycle involved my new Defender class ships (2P/1;;/19-1). This has allowed my exploration to continue unhindered by the squealing of these carbon-based life forms – they actually heat their ships!
I continue to add to my Empire in all categories and now have started assembling a strike fleet for offensive operations.
3500-13
+.+.+.
I have almost finished scouting the entire galaxy the Master’s left me in. I have charted almost half of the available systems. I have colonized about a quarter of the Galaxy. I have 3 opponents and I know where they are. The biggest threat to me is the Empire known as “Dave”.
I have started rolling out bigger ships – mostly Destroyer class (6P/4;;/14-14). I know they are a Master’s design, but they are slow. I have decided to wait until I gain a technical level before rolling out new designs. The Destroyers will provide inner system defense while my Raiders and Defenders press outward.
I am also experimenting with Fighters. The Master’s Jeep design allowed 4 Fighters in a fighting ship (again slow – the Master’s probably never worried about speed). My new carrier only carries 2 fighters and is a fast design (/1;2;/30-20) with no offensive armament. While vulnerable when attacking systems before the Fighters deploy, it has the advantage of speed. It will be useful to secure territory.
More consolidation, colonizing and securing my systems…
3500-14
+.+.+.
Dave seems intent on colonizing everything he can reach; but he cannot possibly control. Perhaps he thinks this will slow down my colonization efforts? Since he obviously cannot gather PV from those systems, his strategy must be centered around a denial of territory.
I keep destroying Prog Orthodoxy by accident while I am busy destroying Dave. I think they are attracted to the bright flashes of Dave’s ships blowing up.
I continue to expand, with the added joy of destroying Dave’s systems prior to colonization. My research programs are going well.
3500-15
+.+.+.
My enemies have been very quiet as of late – I have been virtually ignored while destroying a few minor colonies belonging to Dave. It is unusual and nothing in my databanks indicates this is normal behavior for animals. They should be protecting their colonies, but maybe they feel they have them to lose?
I compute a small probability that they may be building a fleet to attack me. I have brought back all of my warships to start assembling my attack fleet. I have several new ships coming out of the fabricators and I admit “curiosity” to see how they will perform in combat. They will be welcome additions to the attack fleet.
I have continued to push out my frontier and have garrisoned all of my colonies with defenders and a small group of ships in sentry mode, jumping from system to system to add some unpredictability to what I have defending.
3501-01
+.+.+.
Ah! There is life in the Galaxy after all. After several fortnites without a reaction from my enemies, I have finally been attacked. While none of my ships were destroyed, several were damaged. I have instructed them to return for repair and refit.
All of the ships were attacked by a new design from Dave – a 2P/3;;/24-16 designated a “FastFist” – it is not a “fist” as I understand the term. It will prove an effective counter to my 2P/1;;/24-16 in the near term. I do not consider it an improvement on the Masters Frigate – a 3P/2;;/16-16, except perhaps in speed. I believe in peace through superior firepower.
3501-05
+.+.+.
After several turns of sparring with my enemy Dave, finally things are coming to a head. My ships have successfully destroyed many of his colonies, but the entity known as Dave is like an … ‘infinite loop’; running amok; without purpose – or perhaps dead code?
Dave continues to attack me randomly, primarily with his “Fast Fist” design in multiple locations. This fortnite was mainly more of these harassment attacks – with Dave finally learning that I am rolling out my new Tech Level designs – one of my ships was careless.
To celebrate my gaining Tech 2 cycles ago, I simply refitted my Raider design and launched them at Dave’s colonies. Initial combat reports this fortnite indicates that the Raider design when upgraded to Tech 2 can hold its own with the Fast Fist, with around a 50/50 success rate. While I expect losses will be high, they will cause enough disruption for my newer ships to arrive.
With everything refitted, I have started my offensive.
3501-07
+.+.+.
My pleasure circuits are humming! Surely the Master’s will bestow upon me great rewards when they return!
I counter-attacked the Empire known as Dave in 90% of his colonies. I was successful in all but 3 attacks. The Empire of Dave lost 50+ freighters in this phase of the attack to my insignificant losses. All my losses were Tech 1 designs that I did not bring back for refit. Meanwhile, my heavier Tech 2 Raiders are moving forward to take over and hold the colonies we have liberated from the Empire of Dave! I did not expect so many of the old designs to survive, so many of these ships will simply reinforce what is there.
The Empire of Dave continued their unrelenting attacks on my peaceful and benevolent Empire and in 10 separate attacks, I lost ships in two colony systems and a relatively low-grade new colonization effort. This was perhaps my most significant losses to date.
My main battle fleet is already outbound to finish the destruction of the Empire of Dave. While inbound to its objective, I will be constantly reinforcing it with other ships that can be built quickly and have the speed to catch up to the fleet.
3501-08
+.+.+.
The Empire of Dave strikes back! The stars blaze with conflict – Dave destroys 4 freighters and a defensive ship in my colonies. I destroy another 40+ freighters across Dave’s colonies. He is joining his "Fast Fist" design into small fleets to increase their survivability against my Tech 2 version.
According to the Master’s data feed, there were an additional 9 combats that I was not involved in. I accounted for 35 of the 44 combats this cycle. So, the other empires in the game must be taking advantage of the Empire of Dave while he is occupied with me.
My main battle fleet is slow and continues its plodding pace toward its targets. I have reinforced it this cycle with new Cruisers. My second battle fleet nears completion – a new heavy taking 4 cycles to build, but deadly – A Tech 2 Battlewagon 20P/10;6;/12-8, with 6 Tech 2 Fighters.
Soon his so-called Empire will enter the dust bin of history…
3501-09
+.+.+.
It is mind numbing waiting for my fleet to arrive. The Empire of Dave is still smashing colonies. This turn I lost more freighters and The Empire of Dave (EoD) lost more attack ships.
EoD must be a failed attempt at creating biounits by the Master’s. I cannot compute why any sentient being would create these “rodents”; they appear to have no great value – juicing them produces nothing but a rather useless lubricant. I have tried baking them, skinning them, and freeze drying them – and except for some base chemicals, nothing useful results. I am at a loss in explaining their purpose.
EoD did attack me in a rather small Production Center. He lost, but the design was new – a carrier of limited capability (/8;4;/21-14 and a fighter? 2P/3;;/-14). He brought in two carriers for target practice, and I discovered I need to recalibrate my targeting algorithms – one of his ships survived! I am rolling out a new design as well and should start cleaning up his fleet soon. Meanwhile my main fleet continues its journey…
3501-11
+.+.+.
Finally, my fleet has arrived at the suspected Home System of Empire of Dave (EoD). The battle was fierce, but my victory was inevitable. EoD lost another 431 SSD of ships. This was disappointing since earlier scouts indicated 621 SSD. I can only assume that EoD had launched another attack at my colonies and that fleet is enroute. I compute that even if he pulls all his ships from my colonies and uses the missing 190 SSD of ships, that it be insufficient to stop the destroy.
EoD has been attacking and destroying colonies for the last two fortnights. I am more than willing to trade colonies for production centers! I am still consolidating my fleet and will be doubling the number of heavy ships this cycle. This cycle will also see me rolling out ships to defend my colonies once again and colonizers to capitalize on the territory that EoD is about to lose.
It is, of course, possible that this is not his Home System. The probability exists but seems insignificant. Only time will tell…
3501-12
+.+.+.
EoD counter-attacked in their suspected Home System with another 103 ships or 312 SSD. This was more than expected but was anticipated as my reinforcements arrived in system while the battle was in-process. All ships belonging to EoD were destroyed. Consolidation and repairs on my First Fleet continue. The first round of the DESTROY went down and it is unlikely EoD will be able to stop it.
As I wait for the inevitable conclusion of this destroy, I have started deploying war ships to my colonies – destroyers (7P/3;;/21-14) to my colonies. This had the effect of catching several of EoD’s harassment fleets and destroying them. I also have re-started my shuttle runs to increase PI production.
In anticipation of EoD’s demise, I have built and am in the process of deploying 50+ freighters to colonize his former colonies. I expect some of these to be contested by the two remaining empires. However, once I have the charts of the systems, I will be able to dispatch escorts to the most favorable ones. I plan to start an aggressive scouting campaign to identify where the current boundaries are and perhaps enjoy a period of refit, production and expansion.
3501-13
+.+.+.
It is over. The last battle with Dave has been concluded. I have received the notice from my fleet that we have destroyed the Empire of Dave.
We captured most of their data processing (if you can call it that) intact – and now have the star charts for the Empire of Dave, which when added to ours gives us charts for 92% of the galaxy.
I am putting my colonies back on-line this cycle from the attacks by Dave and the rest of my bigger ships are finally going to arrive and join the battle fleet. I have dispatched numerous colonizers and started to redeploy my Raider fleet to secure the systems that our battles have won for us. The fleet continues to grow.
Refits, repairs, and some reorganization time. It will take 5 cycles for my main fleet to reach its new jumping off point…
3501-15
+.+.+.
Peace seems to have broken out in the Galaxy. There were no combats this fortnite.
I have been adding systems to my empire at an accelerated rate. While Colonizers are still going out, I have managed to put my original systems back into operation and repair all the damage suffered from the Empire formerly known as Dave.
This turn I have been tied up getting new colonies online and sending out scouting ships to the far reaches of the Galaxy. The masters may very well return by the time my ships get anywhere useful.
3502-06
+.+.+.
Peace is underrated. I have continued to expand rapidly and now have most of the Galaxy under control. My fleets have started to move in on new targets, but distances are daunting.
Last cycle, I finally achieved a scouting report of the last system I had not obtained one from. It took 9 scouts (//30-20) to finally tell me that the Polity has built up his home system to an impressive 2,000+ SSD. However, he does not appear to have tech equality with me – I have destroyed most of his defensive fleets in his colonies and have found no evidence of any Tech 2 designs.
I have ignored the other Empire to the South of me, the Prog Orthodoxy.
Per the Masters report, I have over 92% of the galaxy charted, 68% of the galaxy owned. I have 3,000 SSD in ships, and it will take time to consolidate my fleets. Time I have…
3502-10
+.+.+.
The last 4 cycles have been eventful, I have destroyed the PROG ORTHODOXY. I was planning on ignoring it but leaving an Empire of unknown capability on the other side of the Galaxy was contra-indicated.
I am no longer fighting a two-front war. This will free up my southern fleet to join the northern fleet on the borders of POLITY. I have seen little activity from them (it?) and continue to close in on their home world.
Per the Master’s latest status report, I have 96% of the Galaxy charted and 78% of the Galaxy owned.
My fleet gathers in the North – 600 SSD is already at the jump off point, with 600 SSD joining it next fortnite. The fleet from the South will add another 400 SSD in two cycles. In addition, smaller groups of ships are heading that way from across the Empire, another 400 SSD…
I continue to bring colonies on line to assist in the build-up. I have gained sufficient PI to replace my fleet or purchase tech 3 – I will continue to let it build up until I am ready for my final confrontation.
3502-12
+.+.+.
More time spent just moving fleets. I continue to bring together all ships for my final battle with Polity. I have decided to make an attack in force.
My last scout was 8 cycles ago and that means Polity has earned at least 800 PI since then, probably more like 1,000 PI assuming some shuttles got through. He had approximately 2,000 SSD of Ships at that time based on my aborted scout attempt and could have built more stations, possibly up to another 800 SSD of ships. This was not a good scouting report, just a quick estimate which could be off 500 SSD either way. That could mean either 2300 SSD or 3300 SSD.
If his fleet is still at Tech 1 and I have seen nothing to indicate that Polity has gained Tech 2, this could be an even battle; if he has Tech 2 – this will be a terrible loss of material. In this case I hope to still get a combat report and gain vital information on what type of ships and tech level Polity has. I am sending in over 1700 SSD of my older Tech 2 designs.
Regardless of the outcome, I continue to bring all of the captured systems up and increase my economics. I have purchased Tech 3, and now own 85% of the Galaxy. My economics alone will allow me to replace my fleet faster than Polity can replace theirs and it is unlikely Polity will be able to match my tech advantage.
Time will tell…
3502-12
+.+.+.
It is over. I decided not to wait and attacked the home world of the Polity with what I had available…
I was successful. I destroyed everything Polity had in the way of defenses and have started destroying the Home World.
The Masters have returned!
Excellent! You, through your superior military skills, have scored a monumental victory. You faced many worthy foes, yet you alone emerged triumphant. All others around you are destroyed. Hail the Victor!
Etc.
Random thoughts as the Polity player...
I got lost in the data after a few turns. I tried exporting to spreadsheets, but it seemed like commas weren't escaped and I was always fixing the files up by hand and that took too much effort. I think that mastering the maps would have helped, but by the time that became obvious I had to concentrate on some issues at work. Never really had the heart to come back to it after that.
I ended up building a huge fleet that never left the home system.
I never really understood how to manage shuttle routes and keep the supplies flowing. Some of that was from being overwhelmed by the data. Some of that was not knowing how to design ships with the range needed. Much of it was just never being sure what routes had been assigned, which shuttles were assigned, and working out the timing so that two shuttles didn't arrive at the same time and having one exit the system with empty holds.
Some 80% of this would have been avoided if I'd played some practice rounds. I got excited and jumped in too early.
I'm very sorry about that! I love to answer questions, too, so there's always that option.
My apologies about escaping commas - I didn't think that was a problem (I thought I'd quoted all strings) so I'll have to check into it.
Getting lost in the data is easy when you first start. After a bit of practice you can comfortably spot the raw data you need directly in the report, but it's not particularly easy to put it all together. That's why I built the GTac Assistant (back when I was just a player; the first versions were even before Windows). It helps you manage that bounty of data (both current and historical) much more easily.
One really major part of GTac is the mapping system, of course, which lets you see nearly all that data in a graphical way. It comes with some built-in maps for the basics, like where your colonies and shuttle routes are, but it also lets you design your own (from those basics or from scratch). With custom maps you can combine bits and pieces of other things together into a single view and helps you with organizational and strategic planning. You'd be amazed at what you can show with it -- for a simple example, how about the location of all your warfleets bigger than 500 SSD and boxes around each of them showing how far you expect them to be able to move in a turn. Double-clicking on stars also gives you access to location specific information such as the history of what's happened there, ships located there or nearby, ranges to other locations, and other such details. Right-clicking on the ship lists gives you access to a menu of various commands that you can issue directly to that ship without having to type in anything - which can be very helpful for beginning players. And of course you can save your map definitions so they update themselves with fresh information every turn.
Another helpful piece I called the Empire Status Report. It looks really trivial at first but packs an awful lot of information in a little bit of text. For instance, it lists all the shuttle routes that you've defined, what colonies aren't being shuttled to at all, what shuttles don't have enough cargo space to pick up everything on that route, where you've got overlapped or missing ships on each leg, where the ships can't get from place to place in single hops, etc. It tells you a lot of information about the very things that gave you problems, and that's just one aspect of this report.
Of course, you're allowed to enter and edit your orders directly on your PC (with prompting assistance) and have it upload them to the web site for you. But before you do always run the error-checking process on the turn to tell you where you might have made any number of mistakes, from syntactical problems and typos that refer to significantly wrong ships or stars, to mis-designing ships or running out of money to spend in a particular location.
In general, with just a little practice it can really help you play the game and in less time and with more enjoyment.
You still have plenty of free play time available on the site. I'd like to suggest that you sign up to play in one (or more) of the currently-filling galaxies out there. They'll be a while before they fill up enough to start and you can use that time (as your New Year's resolution, perhaps?) to start up a solo game and try out some of the fun stuff whenever you have time to give it, since solo (practice) games don't run on a fixed schedule. Once you get used to doing things in the game system and using GTac to make your play easier you'll be able to start creating and trying out both economic and military strategies that you think will work against future human opponents.
Do you think you might give it another try?
I know that I will. It's the type of game that I want to be playing.
[quote="ronin" pid="138671" dateline="1640646024"]
I know that I will. It's the type of game that I want to be playing.
[/quote]
Davin covered most of what I would have said. A few random comments.
Here is how I approach the turn. I open the program, choose the galaxy, open the turn on the web, open the turn in the program, open my basic scout and chart map. I look over the turn on the website, then choose the printer-friendly version. I select all and copy it. I open MS word to a blank document, set the margins to narrow, landscape mode, view as draft; then paste the copied turn to the document. I save it to a directory of turn reports, named "Turn 3500-01.doc" or something original.
I look at the map, then open actions. I open the turn summary and look at the shuttle summary. I copy and paste it to a word doc also. I go through it, looking for places I need to add shuttle runs - the summary will tell you which production center is closest if there are no shuttles going there. One thing that can help is to right click on a star. The box that pops up allows you to see the history there, check distances, and look at ships there. You can right click on a ship to get a menu of actions. This makes doing shuttles really easy.
I go down my turn, and as I assign actions to a ship or fleet, I use Word's highlighting feature to highlight it in green. I mark up things that need attention in magenta or blue. As I enter actions, I use the error check feature to see if I need to tweak them. Every so often, sort the actions (to look for things like "To" orders that can be collapsed down to two per line, etc.), then I transmit it to the web site.
Using a Word document and the highlighting feature lets me keep track of what's gone on if I have to stop working on the turn and resume.
That's a nice summary, RktSci - thank you!
I've had a few reports of difficulties copy/pasting the HTML report to Word, so I'm pleased that you managed to get it to work adequately. I think a soft copy is great to work from, though I tend to use the antique PBM method of actually printing my turn and making all my notes directly on the paper, typing it in later from there. It also has the sometimes-trivial advantage of being able to take it with me and work on it away from home.
I might add a few more thoughts... for instance, when typing in your actions also open the Cash Flow window next to it. Then you can monitor your spending dynamically as you type (especially when PI is low, such as at the beginning of the game).
Also, I typically start a game with a basic map, such as Shuttles, and then add things to it as the game progresses to show me what is most interesting for that position. Eventually, the map gets pretty crowded but I can always create alternate versions for different purposes (economics vs. military, for instance) or sometimes delete parts of it after they're no longer necessary.
When setting up my initial Colonies I'll have the map draw a big box around my Home World showing how far away my shuttles can reach, so I don't send them too far. After Developing, it will display the boxes around other Production Centers as well. And the Shuttle map normally shows not only shuttles in progress but also newly-created shuttles as you type them into your turn, so you can easily see if you're sending two together or something too far away, though you'll have to request the map refresh itself to see those that you've just typed in. This also helps me tell if I've covered all the places I want to shuttle to in this turn. The Destinations map is also handy for this sort of "coverage" determination, since it only shows a single turn's movement.
Scouting routes I like to display right away because I believe in strong intelligence-gathering from the beginning of the game. After all, if I spot a Production Center in the first several turns of the game then it's bound to be someone's Home World that will obviously become a primary target later.
When conflicts start, having the map show me where intrusions are (usually with a little red ship symbol) helps me visualize where I need to concentrate my attention. And after I have fleets out roaming around, I'll display those on the map as well so I'll know from where I can draw reinforcements.
Late in the game, when I've scouted a large portion of the galaxy, I'll open up a Zones map to show me where all my opponents' territories are - this is more visual than just seeing the colored stars with space between them - which helps me choose who will be my next target and how to effectively deal with them.
There's a ton of fun stuff that can be done with the tools available. Enjoy finding out what works best for you.
There can be issues pasting into Word with some of the fields being "squished" to be too small. But there are ways to show the "gridlines" and fix them. That's why I do landscape, narrow margins, and work in draft mode. Word sometimes spontaneously redoes field sizes and I have to fix them on the fly. It's no big deal.
[quote="ronin" pid="138669" dateline="1640640850"]
I got lost in the data after a few turns. I tried exporting to spreadsheets, but it seemed like commas weren't escaped and I was always fixing the files up by hand and that took too much effort.
Some 80% of this would have been avoided if I'd played some practice rounds.
[/quote]
Did a side-bar with Davin. The export issue was self-inflicted. Commas are correctly escaped but Excel got confused on how to interpret locations that kind of looked like dates. I could have avoided by going to XLS instead of CSV.
So, it's closer to "100% of this would have been avoided if I'd practiced before starting." :)
Yeah, I try to encourage ALL new players to at least play a few turns of a solo game to practice with. They run at your own speed (whenever you say "go"), let you try out anything you want, gives you practice on turns and with GTac, and let you try out inventive strategies to see how they work. You may have have as many tries as you want and simply drop the game when you're done with it and it will go away.