Turns 2121 through to 2130

[johndmuller]

Misc suggestions for turn 2127

I have a few suggestions regarding the turn itself:

The Farragut (UnityGunship) seems to be getting too far north, at least from the point of view of spreading out any free builds among the core bases. I think it is right now closest to'Rita, whereas if it were to the south (quite a bit) more, it would be closest to Alexandria, and maybe we could get an expensive build or two there for free.

Don't forget to deal with the scheduled Drone riots at Boot, preferably by rushing the rover instead of laying off the worker, but now that our cash down to just over 100, you might watch out so that we still have enought to buy a tech from Roz, if necessary next turn. I bellieve that the pod that the Santiago will pop next turn will track to here, so we should jazz up the build next turn before popping that pod. I'd put Liar's InfFormer (41,65) on board the BootyCheck at Boot, and set off for Bull Island (or 7 Islet, if that is where Liar's CP is going), to start the terraforming there. The other InfFormer I'd send downstream to (38,68) for a Forest (I'm thinking about a base at (36,70) - if we wait until a base is there before popping those pods, they will both be sure to be "good" pops (same with the pod at (47,57)). As to 7 Islet versus Bull Island, I don't think there is time for the BootyCheck to make the former drop and still get back to Liar's before the CP is ready, so you might consider that in you decision about where to go (or whether to send the former first). I suppose you could plant a forest at (46,60), then pick up the CP, and still go to 7 Islet (picking up the Former from Bull on the way).

I would vote for sending the new Party Boat to infiltrate Miriam, perhaps cutting a little south into some of that unexplored territory on the way, say via (53,79); shouldn't be much, if at all out of the way. Assuming you pass through the Borg's Straits on the way, the Party Boat in their harbors there should give them something to think about.

I'd go for a Seaformer at Tripoli (to finally develop that nut special tile at 56,68)and a PartyBoat (or 2) at 'Rita, althouth it could also be done the other way (SF at 'Rita, PB's at Tripoli, just that the last time we sent a SF from 'Rita to (56,68), it got lost on the way). We probably need another transport (to service Tripoli and Alexandria).

[Hercules]

Update on end of 2127

Rushed Rover at HMB
Put Former on the booty boat to Bull Island (46,60)
Tripoli is building Sea former
Former on HMB isalnd? gset on way to 36,68

research changed to Ind Auto.
Pre accepted Doc: Mob to PUT as per agreement.
Nothing to Borg.
Party boat en route to Miriam via 53,79

And of course the moves mentioned previously.

So back to negotiations with the Borg

[Hercules]

Mid 2128 part 1 report

Well interesting things again as you can see if you open the mid turn sav.
First good news, the FMS Santiago popped the pod up north and the Rec Comms at Sea
Lurk was completed. I had put a Network Node at HMB thinking that was the nearest but a
Rec Comm, I am not complaining.

A number of the formers and sea formers completed their production so can be assigned
elsewhere, mostly next turn.

The Revenge travelled further north and revealed some more of the PUT area but may need to
retrace some tiles as next north looks like a cove but I could be wrong.

The Farragut headed southerly and the FMS King Lear continued to explore around Roze
territory.

Meanwhile the party boat continued southerly towards Miriam and Borg.

[Hercules]

Mid turn 2128 part 2 read to the end or your email to the end. Important.

I am not planning to rush anything this turn. sea former production and
Rec Comm production going nicely. That Rec Comm at Sea lurks opens up
options: such a land colony pod, for base at 56, 50?60? north of sealurk
(it's marked) or party boat.

Anyhow we acquired Ind Base (from PUT) as agreed.

I am going to inform the Cycon we have acquired Ind Base.

But here's the interesting extra. The PUT now have Ind Auto. we could
possibly trade with them for Ind Auto direct but it would cost us
heavily, I suspect. They have just got it this turn.

I am in two minds to let the Cycon know of this, it may jolt them
back to reality.

I think I will; its not something you can hide. Also following some
feedback from ye pirate maties here is something I might try.

I could tell the Borg that our expeditionary schooner seems on the outskirts of
another faction. If they put two and two together they will realise that
which ever faction it is, the faction have Ind Auto.

[Makahlua]

Repeating my email a bit : I'm for another land pod for the northern isle and have we given thought to more bases for the boot & that second seabase location seeded with nuts and energy?

*passes you a taser* Try this on those borg circuits

[Hercules]

Yes to the Boot question and there is a land colony pod in production at Liar's Lair. After that it would depend on which base is producing what and whether we would focus for a while on building crawlers and trawlers.

[Hercules]

Hello Cap'n Hercules,

I have to say I find it astounding that in the middle of intense and
crucial negotiations you didn't check all you emails, especially as you use
both email addresses regularly.

Yes well sorry. In the latest few e-mails you were sending your communiqués
both to the skynet and hotmail addy, so I presumed checking one addy would
be sufficient. Also you have to know my computer is divided into a few
partitions, one called "Serious Business" and another "Games". I can play
SMAC on the games section, where I needed to be at that time. However there
isn't a Microsoft Outlook in the "Games" partition; there is in "Serious
Business". So to check skynet mails I have to restart my computer. Then,
when I'm in "SB" I still have to wait yes another minute until some LAN card
starts working and I can finally go online and check mails. After that I
would have to go back to "Games" to continue with the things I was doing
(writing 3D, which involved a few SMAC pictures, so I needed to be in
"Games"). All in all, this procedure involves me turning my thumbs for six
minutes while staring at the computer screen every time I feel the need to
check my e-mails. Call me lazy if you will, but that evening I was willing
to take the gamble you had sent all your mails to hotmail.

A normal courtesy is a response from someone from the Cycon faction
to these replies.

Well I did send you a short unofficial mail, but apparently you didn't
receive it. Anyway, I hereby officially acknowledge to have received your
replies.

In that unofficial mail I sent you I also included a calculation I made. I
counted a tech as worth 150 credits for easiness, though our research costs
are currently lower and yours higher. As you can see, you are making double
the profit out of this deal than we are. Even if you'd put paying 100
credits for IndBase on your list of burdens (which is discussable as that
negates any futures advantages you got from IndBase), you still have more
profit.

You get:
+150 credits by not having to research IndAut
+150 credits by not having to research a future tech
+55 credits
A total of 355 credits profit.

We get:
+150 credits for not having to research IndBase
+100 credits for not having to research IndEco (not 150 because we could buy
it from the Angels for less)
-15 credits because we would still have to spend some labs on researching
IndAut, with the inefficiency and all that
-55 credits being paid to you
A total of 180 credits profit.

And yet, without further discussion/ negotiation ( isn't negotiation/
diplomacy about issues tooing and froing), you post a poll on a non agreed
proposal. Well every faction operates differently!!

Well if we as representatives of our factions both agreed on the proposal,
there no longer needed to be a poll. Anyhow, we've already been tooing
and froing (What does that mean? ) for a whole week, plus this
was the first concrete proposal we received from you after your earlier one
of three techs and 100 ec, so I just put it up for poll to see what the
Collective thought. Currently 33% wants to accept your proposal. 66% rejects
it. We are simultaneously holding a poll what's the maximum amount of
credits we want to offer you. Perhaps another cyborg wants to take over from
me, but I'm tired of these negotations. I don't really care anymore whether
the deal goes on or not. So when that poll is done, I'll just tell you the
results with the message "That's the maximum the Collective wants to give
you. I have no authority to offer you anything more in negotiations. The
choice is entirely up to you whether or not you accept the deal." Currently
the mean of the credits individual cyborgs want to offer you is somewhere
around 40 ec (nicely between your and my latest proposal). Also they are
demanding that the future tech "is mutually agreed upon and preferably early
in the tech tree".

First the good news: We have acquired Ind Base.

Ah that's great. I'll probably see it next turn, but may I ask: how many
credits did you pay for IndBase? This information may influence the amount
of credits the Collective is willing to pay.

Now the latest news: the PUT have joined the Hive and the Drones in
acquiring Ind. Auto.

Yes I already noticed in our turn.

I am going to play a little more, explore a little more and I 'll get
back soon but I thought you our PACT mates might like to know of these
developments, immediately..

Thank you.

Friendly greetings,

Mani Alpha-3

[johndmuller]

2128 move

Well, we seem to have made the deal - it was definitely too much haggling and I don't know that we will be very close pactmates, but they are the only ones we have at the moment, so . . .

------------

I had a few thoughts on the move if it isn't too late - if it is, then &^^%^%$, Cap'n Herc, don't them rush us, there is supposed to be a 48 hour window - and that is not even mentioning the extra allowances for negotiations, which was definitely part of the lengthy discussions in all those endless polls etc about the turn length thing.

Sealurk: I would swiitch one of the workers to the min special so that you will get a 5 carryforward of mins and if you keep it that way, we will get to the magic 10 level in two turns so we can more economically rush additional stuff or just plain get stuff quicker. By then, the energy production will be in and it will be desirable to keep the production that way; it's not that big a drop in nuts anyway. I don't think we should build a colony right away after building a RecComm, kinda makes it seem like we didn't really want the RecComm, I would think we want to let the pop here get up to 3 anyway, to take advantage of all 3 specials. For now, I think another PartyBoat would be a good idea; putting a land former to work on that island would be another idea, but that would require careful booty boat logistics planning or another bootyboat to also service Tripoli (see immediately following & Alexandria). I don't know if you are in a hurry to pop the pod once the policeman isn't needed, but whether or not you spend the turn and a half doing that, I think that when the bootyboat is available, it should go down to Tripoli to offload the crawler I assume is going to be built there next for the mine.

M's Boot: I'm not sure a RecComm would be next on my list there, as we have low nut production and therefore a long time til drone problems and some desire to build some CP's to colonize that island (and I would use a NetNode, EBank or PDome as a temporary standin for pod-popping). If we end up with BioGen in the trade thing, a RecycCntr might be a good idea. I don't know what you're planning with the former (a mine to be crawled?) - You're welcome to do your own thing, but what did you think was wrong with my suggestion to go down the river and forest (38,68) as a preliminary to a new base at (36,70)? There is also the possibility of a farm to-be-crawled at (41,67) to beef up our nut production.

Too bad the scout is being wimpy about getting into that fungus; sometimes those things take entirely too long - If you thought that next turn was going to be futile too, you could move the scout to (40,64) next turn and on the following turn pop the pod with the rover - that way, the scout would be in a position to attack a potential MW or to drone-protect the base as needed; that way it would take 2 turns pretty much for sure instead of maybe 1 turn maybe 4 turns with the scout - of course we could leave the pod alone for a while too; for some reason, that difficulty with moving into fungus seems more pronounced at the beginning of the game.

Alexandria: I don't really like the idea of building a sea former here, cause it will take too long given the paltry production there. I would build the RecComm here instead of at Boot and maybe another BootyBoat and some crawlers for upcoming forestation etc (may need a land former too if you don't bring over one of the others - What are your plans for them?).

I agree with Cap'n Maki that there is a good possibility that the tile at (83,39) is not necessarily the end of the line, but if you have to go back, I think you should visit (80,44) to expose the base at (78,44), just to make sure it is a PUT base and not one of the other factions and also to maybe show the Jolly Roger to those eggheads.

Recommend a turn of rest (try to remember for next turn) for the Farragut to get up to 20% and regain the 4 MPs.

Cap'n Herc, you seem to have named the PMS-005 the 'King Lear' (the ship prefix, btw, is PMS, not FMS); I had registered another name for it, but as you published first, it will be the King Lear; I'll save mine for later. While we're at it, I named our current PartyBoat (PMS-008) the 'TigerShark' and the second BootyBoat (at Sealurk, the PMS-007) 'the Belly of the SeaLurk'.

[Hercules]

Well I did most of the things suggested by Cuspidore but made a little error.

On Boot I moved our rover over to pop the pod (thinking, for some reason, it wouldn't actually happen until the next turn) and it popped before I changed the production in HMB to a temp special facility such as a Network Node.

Also I kinda imagined the pod would reveal a nut. min special or a monolith. I never thought a pod so close would complete the build.

So we've now got a completed colony pod earlier than expected. It will unfortunately lengthen our expansion at HMB as the pop size reduces to 1. Damn

So the colony pod will head for the base site at 36.70. I ask that I name the base 'Little Accident'.

Ind Base and Ind Econ now en route pre accepted to Cycon.

[johndmuller]

You do have a way, Mr. Calico, of making hash out of the Cuspidore's Beef Wellington. Perhaps the base should be called 'Morgan Boots Calico's Butt'.

[Hercules]

Got the turn from Mani - Alpha 3 via email as 'poly was down.

And Borg haven't posted that they have sent it on yet. So we have a chance of appearing very quick.

Cycon one turn now from Ind Auto, all went well.

Miriam wanted Doc. Flex and Roze would talk.

So have a look around. All of the PMS craft have moved. and PB ( from
LL) continues southerly

PMS King Lear reveals more of Data Tech Roze land and another base.
PMS Farragut heads south and will now rest one turn
PMS Revenge discovers PUT cove
PMS Santiago travels further north to reveal pod and signs of new land.

Three tempting rushes available at
Triploi Sea former for 25ecs
'Rita Rec. Com for 10ecs
Liar's Lair Col Pod 41ecs

'Little Accident' Col pod en route to 36.70 and former close behind

Sea former near Alexandria what next ? stay and produce solar
Former near Rita ? forest/solar on solar bonus tile?.

Sea Lurk scout and transport?

Temp Net Node at boot but what next, before crawler in 2/3 turns

[Hercules]

Sorry Roze 'wouldn't' talk

[johndmuller]

Cuspidore's Turn 2129 suggestions

Tripoli:
-IFormer@(54,70) - If you're feeling brave, go to (54,72), then next turn to (56,72) and plant Forest
-('Rita's)IFormer@(56,66) - See 'Rita
-(Maybe) rush SeaFormer for 25 ec's (Thinking of Crawler to mine as next build)

Margaritaville:
-IFormer@(56,66) - Move to (55,67), build Road, Forest & Sensor there
(Would have to level (56,66) to do what you said (8 turn) maybe later)
-Rush 3 mins of the RecComm for 6ec's (that will let it produce its own way up to 10 the following turn - or rush more if thinking more about it suggests something else)
-Build TPort, IFormer, Crawlers next?

Liar's Lair:
-(a) Rush (10 mins worth to finish) ColonyPod for 28 ec's
-(or) (b) wait till next turn, also rushing 10 for 25 (3ec's + 1 extra carryforward + 1 extra turn versus above)
-(or) (c) rush (full 15 mins worth of) ColonyPod for 41 ec's

SeaLurk Channel:
-Set Build (temporarily) to EBank, NetNode or SeaColonyPod (I would vote for EBank or NetNode)
+- Take Scout to Islet and pop pod @(53,59)
(+- leave boat at (54,58) to return scout to base next turn and get started to Tripoli)
+- Reset Base Production unless got free build (don't forget Stockpile Energy)

(Henry) Morgan's Boot:
-IFormer@(38,68) - I'd just road-forest the tile it's on (could have been half done already)
-At the base, I'd first build a former - xfer the 1st to HMB(AI)IDT - then a crawler or two

Alexandria:
-SFormer@(60,70) - start Solar (When that's done, move to nut special to do the same)
(-Were you taking it to (36,68) for some particular reason, or is it the Western Lurch striking again?)
-Starting next turn, you can produce from the Min Special @(60,70)
-Starting next turn, you can partiallly rush the Rec Comm too

HMB(AI)IDT {HMB's (AI) Institute of Dysfunctional Terraforming} (New Base on HMB at(36,70)):
-Cap'n Herc is Professor Emeritus here.

Schooner Santiago @ (38,24) - It might have been better to have left the boat next to the pod so that you would be better able to deal with a possible IoD pop, but perhaps it would be better to pop it when new base on Bull Island is ready to build something (assumling the benefits will go to there - I don't know for sure, but probably the olde x squared + y squared = z squared thing will tell you). If it is a faction, I'm betting on the Drones, as the Hive seems to have contact with the DJ's.

We trust that the gunship Farragut @(92,60) will finally get it's R&R this time.
-------------------

[Hercules]

As emailed to Cuspidore, I just missed this post and completed turn Some of the excellent suggestions implementated, as it happened and the others I will do next turn.

And PMS Farragut crew get some R&R next turn.

[Hercules]

Well we have received the turn and we have received Ind. Auto. We have now switched to researching tech Doc. Init. ( 10 years to go ).

PMS Santiago moved 2 north and has 2 moves left
PMS Revenge retraced sea path
PMS Farragut R&R
PMS King Lear northish ( revealed a bit more of Roze territory)

Party boat revealed some more sea in the south: nothing exciting

Sea Lurk scout popped MW on islet near Sea lurk base. Oh Oh So might have to build new scout.

So lots to decide

Rush Col Pod at LL ? Yes
New builds? especially next turn

I intend to follow (in my usual way) Cuspidore's recommendations.
Col pod on HMB heading for 36,70

More time available than before.