2126 Update

[Mr. President]

I got the same one. It sounds like a fine deal to me, but I defer to the judgment of the more experienced players.

[Archaic]

Obviously they're one turn away from getting Ind. Base, and they need it so they'll get a double tech discovery next turn.

I say....why don't we try to wring a concession from them? Specifically, the Cyborg frequency.

[GeneralTacticus]

I've indicated to Herc that we'd like the CyCon frequency thrown in an as well; waiting for a reply currently.

[GeneralTacticus]

I've recieved the following reply:

Hello there esteemed and learned Dons, Deans and Professors,

It seems to us that you may have misunderstood our request. Pending the
thorough, detailed and more lengthy negotiations between our two
Ambassadors, which would involve ratification of a deal, by our Council
of Pirate captains and your equivalent university council chamber, we
thought you would be attracted by a simple tech exchange, Ind Base for
Doc: Mob, without prejudice.

Instead, it seems you wish to launch into a full blown treaty like
negotiation.
We Pirates can appreciate a good bit of offer, counter offer, tactics
and bargaining with the best of ye, but that is not how we wished to
approach it on this occasion. From our point of view (due to the time
constraint), this was to be a straight forward, no conditions exchange.
And as a signal of cooperation.

We all had a good belly laugh (spilt some Xenorum) at you thinking we
had the CyCon Comm channel, we reckoned you must have the Hive Comm. So
if you trade us the Hive Comm link sure we'll have a think about passing
over an ehh comm link.

Anyways back to the trade issue. We thought you would be interested in a
straight forward exchange at this time as a way of demonstrating good
intentions in advance of those more detailed discussions.

No big deal if your council does not wish to trade, sure we'll pursue
our second line of enquiry. no harm done, and don't let this sour our
future negotiations, as we sprung it on you rather suddenly.

If we don't hear rather soon, then we'll proceed on the understanding
that no arrangement is on at this time.

yours
Cap'n Calico Hercules

Personally, I think we should just take the deal as is. With their time constraints, we can't really go into drawn-out negotiations, and as they claim to have a second avenue to pursue, we might as well take them up on their original offer (which, IMO, was quite fair).

[Archaic]

We can agree to the deal, but we really should see if we can continue these negociations. There's no doubt in my mind with those power graph positions that they have the CyCon frequency, and from one of their lines there ("we'll have a think about passing
over an ehh comm link."), it seems like the bluff has worked. That's basically an acknowledgement that they have it.

[GeneralTacticus]

Oh yes, we should certainly negotiate to gain their comm frequency, but I don't think we should push for it to be included in this deal. We can persuade them to hand it over another day, when we can both negotiate at our leisure.

[GeneralTacticus]

So... I assume there's no objection to just taking the deal as is?

[Mr. President]

I guess not.

[GeneralTacticus]

Ok, I"ve indicated as much to Herc...

[GeneralTacticus]

Well, apparently they aren't too pleased about the delay that this whole thing caused. Next time someone wants to make a time-critical deal, I suggest we come to a decision promptly, rather than trying to "wring concessions from them".

[Googlie]

Don't forget to insert stockpile energy in the build queues in bases where units are being built - you're passing up valuable ec's if you don't