Turn Planning/Reports

[Minute Mirage]

Originally posted by Archaic
I think I'll trust your judgement here. Did you test out the GA in your SP game though? I'd be interested in the results.

The only base I could get into a GA was Uni Base, when it had growed into size 4. I just don't know how to get the size 3 bases into a GA without the HGP.

Originally posted by Archaic
In any case, if I don't recieve any word on how to respond to the Hive offer before 6pm tonight (It's currently 2:16pm for me) I'll play the turn and send it on.

What is your opinion on the matter? AdamTG02 and I have already voiced our opinions, so we're only missing yours, GeneralTacticus's and Crimson Sunrise's opinions, unless someone else suddenly decides to become active. On a very much related matter, what is your opinion on our technology beelines (see the technology thread)?

[GeneralTacticus]

Originally posted by Minute Mirage

What is your opinion on the matter? AdamTG02 and I have already voiced our opinions, so we're only missing yours, GeneralTacticus's and Crimson Sunrise's opinions, unless someone else suddenly decides to become active. On a very much related matter, what is your opinion on our technology beelines (see the technology thread)?

I'll go with what the majority decides, but I think it's a good deal, as long as we can get them to agree not to trade those techs to anyone else for a set period (they didn't indicate that the trade was especially urgent, so we can probably draw things out to negotiate that).

[Minute Mirage]

Originally posted by GeneralTacticus


I'll go with what the majority decides, but I think it's a good deal, as long as we can get them to agree not to trade those techs to anyone else for a set period (they didn't indicate that the trade was especially urgent, so we can probably draw things out to negotiate that).

Since there's no huge rush with the deal (we don't even have Ecological Engineering yet), I'd like to see if we can negotiate a better deal before accepting this. I'd much rather trade some of our less useful techs with two factions rather than give our newest technology to our most dangerous rival. If we give the Hive Ecological Engineering, they are able to switch to Environmental Economics (if that's their target) while retaining all the accumulated research points and the tech cost stays the same too. If we trade them something like SotHB, they have to finish researching Ecological Engineering, and start from scratch with the next tech. Now their next tech is a lot more expensive too, by a factor of two techs.

Also note that the commlinks aren't going to be secret for long. The Hive has all the commlinks already, meaning that they can call the council anytime they want to. Perhaps their offering us the two commlinks as advanced payment is a signal that they want to call the council ASAP?

What I'd like to do is to send a message to the Hive saying that we're a bit hesitant to make such a large trade, and ask if they would be willing for a simpler trade: D:L for SotHB. I'd also contact the PEACE and try to get them to trade Applied Physics and possibly the Cyborg commlink, if we can get it cheap. If things don't work out, we can always accept the Hive's deal later.

[Archaic]

Okay, it's a little later than I said, but I'm playing the turn now and sending it on. As with GT, I'll go with the majority on the Diplomatic situation.

[Archaic]

The only change I've made to MM's save has been to move the worker on the Borehole to a Forest, giving us an extra Nut at no loss of Minerals or Energy. The former went to the rainy rolling tile to the north west of that base, to farm it. Now that we have GS, we could use all the growth we can get, especially when we're going to need the +2 Nuts in the bases for the boom

[Minute Mirage]

Originally posted by Archaic
The only change I've made to MM's save has been to move the worker on the Borehole to a Forest, giving us an extra Nut at no loss of Minerals or Energy. The former went to the rainy rolling tile to the north west of that base, to farm it. Now that we have GS, we could use all the growth we can get, especially when we're going to need the +2 Nuts in the bases for the boom

The change was a good one and that farm sounds good. I already made a suggestion for the next turn, but I may need to revise it in case of forest growth or fungal blooms. I also don't know where the new b-drones will appear, so that may change plans.

2144:


Formers:

Move former in (81,31) via (80,30) to (82,30) and start building a sensor.
Former in (83,29) starts building a road.
Move both formers from (78,40) via (79,41) to (79,39) and start building a solar collector.



Crawlers:

Move crawler in (76,42) back to (76,40) and resume convoying minerals.
Move crawler in (82,30) to Mendelev College, rehome it there, move it to (85,31) and start crawling minerals.
Move crawler in (80,32) to Otkrietia-Discovery, rehome it there, move it to (82,30) and start convoying minerals.
Move crawler in (80,34) to Koppernigk Observatory, rehome it there, move it to (83,33) and start convoying minerals.
Move crawler in (79,39) to (80,34) and start convoying minerals.
Move crawler in (79,41) to (80,36) and start convoying minerals.
Move crawler in (79,43) to (79,39) and start convoying minerals.

Other units:

Colony pod in (73,31) founds a base.
Colony pod in Mendelev College moves along the road to (88,32).
Scout in (13,27) goes to (14,28).
Unity foil in (15,29) explores as approriate, but is ready to pick up scout next turn.

Koppernigk Observatory:
Change worker from (82,36) to (81,33). Change production to crawler and insert stockpile energy into queue.

Mendelev College:
Change production to crawler and insert stockpile energy into queue.

Mir Lab:
Change production to crawler, insert stockpile energy into queue. Change worker from (80,36) to (82,36). Change worker from (80,40) to (79,41).

Monitoring Station:
Change worker from (77,45) to (76,42). Hurry crawler for 15 ECs.

University Base:
Hurry research hospital for 70 ECs.

New base in (73,31):
If there's a b-drone in base, change production to recreation commons. Otherwise change it to former.

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

Some of my orders for the crawlers might seem a bit odd, such as the sensor and solar collector building. The idea is that they start to build something this turn and when they move into position next turn, they switch production to what we really want build and get to carry on the production of this turn. We just have to be careful that when we move the formers next turn, we only do so after they have had their turn, i.e. the icon has dimmed. This method is probably known to everyone, but I just wanted to point it out.

Concerning the second colony pod produced in Mendelev College; I'd rather build the base a bit further away in (87,33) instead of (88,30). It takes one turn longer to build the base if we go further, but the base then has a monolith in its radius. Additionally, the base is not next to water, so we don't have to garrison it with defensive probes.

I've also uploaded the finished turn (played in the simulator) here. Feel free to comment.

[Minute Mirage]

Crimson Sunrise, have we been in any contact with the Hive (through you that is), and when was the last time we were in contact with the PEACE?

[Archaic]

MM, can I please leave the turn up to you today? The computer's been acting up all day, and it's already crashed SMAX twice.

[Minute Mirage]

Originally posted by Archaic
MM, can I please leave the turn up to you today? The computer's been acting up all day, and it's already crashed SMAX twice.

OK, I'll play it soon.

[Minute Mirage]

I played the turn, here are the changes to the plan:

We got our first pop, fungus was grown in place of the just finished forest in (78,40). While this is somewhat annoying, it means that the tree farms we'll build will now lift our clean minerals limit. Thanks to this pop, I couldn't rush the crawler in Monitoring Station, and changed production there to Children's Creche instead (no mineral loss). I also started to remove the fungus in (78,40) with the formers that were in that square. Additionally, I moved the crawler away from (78,40) to (79,39).

I changed the worker in Climactic Research from (74,32) to the forest in (77,33).

I founded a new base called Gagarin Memorial, and it caused no b-drones this turn. I rushed a former there for 15 ECs. I put the worker in square (74,32).

In Mendelev College, I changed the worker from the rolling rainy tile in (83,29) to a forest in (83,31). I also changed the production to a librarian. The librarian will be finished in two turns, since we'll get the 6 minerals from the borehole next turn.

I think we should protect our coastal bases with librarians as soon as possible. Everyone except the Drones has had Doctrine: Flexibility for a while now. It's better to play it safe than get infiltrated, IMO.

[Archaic]

Agreed there with the Librarians. The pirates don't have any probe foils, but the others will likely be getting them in place soon I'd assume.

[Minute Mirage]

Originally posted by Archaic
Agreed there with the Librarians. The pirates don't have any probe foils, but the others will likely be getting them in place soon I'd assume.

What I'd like to do is to build two librarians in Uni Base starting next turn (I just rushed the research hospital). We'll build one librarian per turn, which means we'll have Uni Base and Monitoring Station quickly covered. This also means, if we place stockpile energy into the build queue, that we'll 12 ECs from each librarian.

I'd also like to rush the crawler in Otkrietia-Discovery next turn and build two librarians there as well, one for itself and one for the new Gagarin Memorial. We should get 6 ECs from each librarian thanks to the stockpile energy bug.

[Googlie]

Your 2145 turn is here

G.

[Minute Mirage]

I made some suggestions for the new turn, but since I don't have the time to write them down, I played the turn and uploaded the save file here. You can decide whether you want to use it or play the turn from scratch.

In my save, we got lucky and got the two patches of fungus south of University Base replaced by forest. This saves us some terraforming time. I rushed the crawler in Budushii Dvor for 25 ECs, and changed the production in University Base to librarian. I also founded a new base called Academgorowhatever. The only unit I didn't move was the unity foil. Oh, we also discovered Ecological Engineering and I started to research Environmental Economics.


Speaking of Ecological Engineering, what are we going to do about the Hive's offer? I still think we shouldn't accept it as such, and I think we will get the comm links pretty soon anyway. But we need to make a decision soon. Btw, it seems that Crimson Sunrise is missing, so we might need to have someone take his place temporarily.

[AdamTG02]

Okay. Both Archaic and GT have said they'll go with the majority on the tech trading topic. I've suggested accepting the Hive offer (Doc Loyalty, the Cyborg and Drone commlinks, and Applied Physics for Ecological Engineering). MM would rather keep EE out of the hands of the Hive and trade for Doc Loyalty only. Crimson Sunrise seems to be absent for the moment, which leaves the deciding vote with either archaic or GeneralTacticus, should they wish to use it.

However, I think Minute Mirage's plan is a beneficial one -- if it'll work. We have a while before we research Environmental Economics, though, as he points out. So let's go with his idea -- tell the Hive we're reluctant to make a large trade, offer Secrets of the Human Brain for Doctrine: Loyalty, and enter negotiations with the Pirates for Applied Physics and the Cyborg commlink. In these negotiations, I think we should initially offer Biogenetics, but failing that should be prepared to offer Secrets of the Human Brain. Hint that we might be willing to negotiate with the Cyborgs to rebuild their Pact with the Pirates -- something we might want to do anyway, to build a coalition against the Hive.

GT mentions restrictions on trading of techs... should we insist on no further trading of the techs we trade for 10 years? That might be prudent, although it would be one more thing discouraging acceptance.

I endorse the above plan, with the trading stipulation. Let's be conservative at first, and then if either party balks, we can proceed to sweeten the deal.