Contact with the Hive

[Flubber]

Latest from the HIve

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Ambassador Flubber,

I finally got around to looking at your techs. The hive has some
interest
in the planetary energy grid, would you like to name a price you would
be
willing to part with it for?

Kody



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Calling adaptive economics " the Planetary Energy grid" makes it pretty obvious what they are looking to get

[Hercules]

That tech to trade is of course a no no until we are virtually certain of building PEG with crawlers, rushes etc. Let's re visit or remind ourselves of our strategy in the Chart room and Strategy thread.

[Flubber]

IMHO we do not trade this tech until we get the PEG-- have we started crawlers to accomplish this

2 crawlers fully upgraded should be sufficient to get us close enough that we can use cash the rest of the way--- Is anyone else even CLOSE to adaptive econ ??

[Hercules]

To echo Cuspidore BB we have nothing to upgrade to in the crawler department.

Second there is no faction anywhere close to Adaptive Econ.

Third we have started crawlers on HMB and l'il Accident, but no site here or elsewhere designated yet as SP central.

[Makahlua]

Latest Hive message:

Greetings Captain Makahlua,

I would like to congratulate your on your democratic ascension to the leadership of PEACE. The Central Continuing Committee has high hopes for replenishing relations with PEACE and entering into a new era of prosperity for both our factions.

In order to usher in this new era of relations the Human Hive wishes to propose a trade offer to PEACE. We wish to acquire Adaptive Economic, in order to construct the Planetary Energy Grid, in exchange we offer you Environmental Engineering. The reason for this trade would be that it benefits both factions by amalgamating our research efforts. Furthermore it weakens the grip on technological advance that the University holds, and would allow both our factions (through tech trade) to become less dependant on research factions.

May the Human Hive and PEACE exist in friendship and brotherhood for a thousand years!

Voltaire,
Chairman of the Central Continuing Committee

My reply:

Many thanks, the 'hot seat' maybe our highest office, but it's not without both perks and perils I've passed your note on to the Captain's Council and either I or Ambassador Flubber will let you know if that deal is agreeable to the fleet

-Seraph Makhalua
PEACE Head of Fleet Ops

[johndmuller]

They make it pretty clear that they are interested in the PEG, even going so far as to use that as the name for the tech; I suspect that they are not so interested in the tech itself minus the SP.

They are clearly organized to build SP's efficiently (while we are not presently at all close in that department). Thus, if we were to trade them the tech without having first completed the PEG, there is every likelihood that they would beat us to it. They might have a base producing an SP that has been done already (or one that they want less than the PEG) and could switch to the PEG with little or nothing left to add in order to finish it; such sleepers don't show up on the Global SP screen (F5 orF6?), they only show up if you have infiltration and look at their F4 screen or at the base it is being built in - so we would have to look at that closely. Even if they didn't have one already ready to go, with a bunch of Hive land bases near each other, they might be able to churn out crawlers 2, 3 or 4 times faster than us. As a frequent Hive player, I know that energy is very important to them - the minus 1 energy at each base thing is like growing up in a depression, it leds to a certain thrifty attitude, in this case w/r energy and econ and the PEG seems like going to heaven.

If we really are going to build it ourselves (and I would recommend it over the MCC), then we should just tell them that instead of dancing around the issue (unless we are going to try to sell the tech to them on the same turn that we finish the PEG, which could be irritating to them if it came out of the blue, even more so if we had been otherwise leading them down the garden path by engaging in a conversation about it withour revealing our own interest in the PEG). If we nix the deal flatly on those grounds, then maybe we can get on to negotiating something we don't mind trading so much.

[Hercules]

I think the Hive have started the Command Nexus. And I agree we should say what our ambitions are for the PEG.

Also re Ecol Eng the UNI are closer to finishing it than the Hive. Note also the Hive and Uni have met. I suggest we get trading agreements Eth Calc to the Hive for re Doc Loyalty and then Doc Loyalty to the UNI for SoHB or they will exchange it themselves.

[foolish_icarus]

It might be advantageous to string them mildly along for just a few more turns, as if we were debating it or something, nothing obvious, but the longer they are in doubt the better our chances of completing it first are.

[Kody]

I was surprised because the drones walked halfway across our continent without us knowing. So the first thing I thought how much of our map do the peace have. Also later on the university managed to walk several squares across our continent too.

When that happened the homeland starting feeling like a bar.

[Kody]

Oh yeah, we purposeful said we want the PEG rather than saying we want adaptive economics. It wasn't a slip of the tongue at all.

Judging from the way my own faction approached the SP issue I realised that if we said we were after adaptive economics there would be alot of manevouring on both sides which would hurt the relations.

My thinking was only manevour diplomantically when you absolutely have to. That's because it generates bad will and makes manevouring for the things you really need that much harder.

Looking at the trading going on with other factions, I realised that's exactly what happened. By trying to be too sneaky it caused fewer trades to go through and less cooperation in the long run.