Drone Diplomatic Exchanges

[Maniac]

I haven't got a clue. The Drones aren't exactly the most communicative faction. Eg they ignored our communiqué regarding their "trespassing" scout patrol.

Btw, recently I realized something. Though we signed an agreement with the Drones not to trade the technology of HEC, nothing was mentioned about trading prototypes of Plasma armour units. Since the Hive and Drones probably have a history of exchanging prototypes, isn't it possible that the Drones might still give the Hive plasma armour indirectly without us knowing, thus breaking not the letter, but more or less the spirit of the agreement?
Should we ask the Hive whether the Drones have contacted them about plasma armour trading, and if they have, make a counteroffer?

[Drogue]

I'd say no, it will antagonise the Drones. If they did that, they would probably be doing it knowing it goes against the spirit of the agreement. When we have pacted the Hive, they will see we have HEC. We can say we have a no trade agreement with the Drones, when we discuss tech trading. I think we'll find out either way.

[Maniac]

For other cyborgs: in a MSN chat HongHu mentioned the Hive knows about the no-HEC trade agreement with the Drones. She also mentioned something about trading prototypes with the Drones, but when I further asked about it, she didn't answer.

Anyway, the drone scout patrol is blocking the return home of the eastern Unity rover. Should I once again (they ignored the previous PM about this subject ) send them a PM, this time asking to move their scout patrol to (93.51)?

Impaler says we should offer a pact to the Drones. Do others think this as well? Personally I wouldn't mind a pact with the Drones at all, as they or the Hive as planetary governor will gain infiltrator info on us and probably give it to the other, so we aren't losing anything. However the Drones haven't been very communicative to us up until now, and they have less to gain with a pact than us, so I doubt they would accept it. In fact we offering it could be seen as rather weird.

[Drogue]

Ask the Hive. We could do Impaler's suggestion of telling the world that we intend to pact all factions, while telling PUT that's just for show to the Hive to ease suspicion of our PUT pact. That way we can ask teh Drones too. I have no reason not to Pact them, so I'd say go for it.

Send a PM to buster asking him to move it so we can get our rover home. Do not state to where, just ask him to move it. We don't want to tell them where to put it, but we do want to get it out of the way.

[Maniac]

Buster says he'll move the scout.

[Impaler[WrG]]

Looks like the Drones won the Govenorship, this is good, the Hive would have been too powerfull with it and it likly sours their relationship which is good for our long term strategy.

We should extend the Drones a PACT offer soon, though admitedly they have less incentive to accept because they will already have the valuable info on us.

[Impaler[WrG]]

We should compose another message to the drones. I have consernes that PEACE may wish to conduct trades with the Drones. They give the Drones some of their valuable tecs (most especialy Adaptive Econ) and Drones give them infiltrator info on us now that their the govenor.

We dont want to overtly threaten the Drones but we should comunicate to them that it will be woth it to stay out of our confilct and turn a cold shoulder to any comunications from PEACE. So I propose we offer them a Pact with a tec they desire (NLM, Doc Init, Gene Splicing, what ever they lack or desire) and inexchange they shall promise not to accept any deals from PEACE and we shall consider them friendly and gift them additional tecnology once PEACE is eliminated (or along the way if they remain loyal). When we see more of what the drones have this turn due to the Hive Pact we can see how they are doing tecnologicaly. My #1 concern is that they recive Adaptive Econ and steal the PEG, which we need to stop at ALL costs. If we can get an agreement to non proliferation and to not build the PEG then we could gift them Adaptive Econ so as to prevent PEACE from doing it first.

[Maniac]

How about this? First we tell them we'll get D:AP soon anyway, so they'll only gain by trading to us. Also by trading it to us, they can prevent PUT gaining the tech, which is a good argument if they have plans to attack them.

Greetings Foremen of the Free Drones,

As you are planetary governor, you will no doubt see next turn that we will have assimilated data on Ethical Calculus, and will have switched research to Synthetic Fossil Fuels. We will finish that research in MY 2154 by increasing our labs energy allocation to 70%. Our plans are then to switch next to Doctrine : Air Power. As our empire will double in size by assimilating PEACE, and as we plan to switch to FM and +4 efficiency in a few years, even further allowing to increase labs energy allocation, it should only take us a few more years to acquire Doctrine: Air Power. Other plans we were pondering was to give Synthetic Fossil Fuels to PUT, so they can research Doctrine: Air Power for us.

However this year we have learned that you already have knowledge of Synthetic Fossil Fuels, and are even researching Doctrine: Air Power as we speak. We cyborgs, always having efficiency in mind, find it a terrible waste to duplicate unnecessary efforts. Therefore we were wondering if you would be interested in a trade for SFF or even a leapfrog to D:AP? If you would give us SFF now, we could research D:AP in MY 2154 and offer it to you. Or if you will have researched D:AP yourself already by that time, there are plenty of other ways we can compensate you. For example in a few years we'll have plenty of techs and knowledge you don't have and can give to you.

If you trade us Synthetic Fossil Fuels, we will of course promise not to trade that tech to other factions such as the Hive or PUT. And we can naturally agree to do the same thing for Doctrine: Air Power. This would give you a significant military advantage over your neighbours, leaving you free to do anything you want without us interfering.

Btw, we of the Consciousness were wondering, in order to improve CyCon-Drone relations, what would you think about creating a CyCon-Drone embassy on CGN such as you have for the Hive? The Consciousness is most interested in improving relations with you and getting to know the Drones better. In fact we were wondering: do you believe there is a possibility for pact between us?

I hope to hear soon from you!

Friendly greetings,

Mani Alpha-3
External Affairs Function of the Cybernetic Consciousness

[Drogue]

Looks good

[Maniac]

Not so cooperative answer. I'll tell them that we pacted with the Hive, and this gained indirect infiltration.

Dear Maniac,

we are puzzled as to how you mean to have information on what techs we posses that you do not since we are positive we have not been subjected to infiltration by any team. The foundation of any relationship is trust and with you having a hidden source of information such a relation is not really possible.

I will not confirm or unconfirm your suppositions about how far our research has brought us and likewise not speculate on possible trades unless you reveal to us where the information above comes from.

Once you have done so we will take a positive look at what trades can be made including possibly "advances on credit". Should you choose to protect the source or give us false information as to what the source is expect no assistance from us.

regards
buster

Answer:

Hi buster,

Shortly after meeting the Hive about a decade ago, we agreed to pact with the Hive, but not until the war with PEACE started, as we did not want them to gain indirect infiltration on us (PEACE is pacted with the Hive) and learn of our military technology. Now the war has started and PEACE can observe our weaponry in live action anyway, we finally signed the long expected pact this year. Did they not tell you about this?

Anyway, since we are pacted with the Hive and the Hive is pacted with you, we can see your faction profile in the commlink menu from the perspective of the Hive, telling us things such as your base list, technology list, credit reserve, tech under research, foreign relations etc... If you didn't know about this, I can forward you the short "Graphic Guide to Gaining Indirect Infiltration Information" I made for other cyborgs to explaing things better.

Friendly greetings,

Maniac

[Drogue]

Nicely handled. Looks like buster is like Kody, in that he is very suspicious and always believes he knows when people have got information neferiously.

[Maniac]

His answer.

Never heard of this before and yes I would like to see the guide.

regards
buster

I sent back this:

Hi buster,

I've made a new screenshot guide about the Drones:

First select the faction profile of the Drones in the commlink menu.

(I hope image tags work in PMs. Otherwise just copy the url in the address bar.)


After clicking on "faction profile" you get the CyCon standard information screen. As you can see the CyCon icon is highlighted and in colour in that center bottom box. However as we are now pacted with the Hive, we can select the Hive icon in our faction profile screens. Click on the icon indicated by the red arrows:



Now you should see the faction profile of the Drones, this time viewed from the perspective of the Hive. We can now see some more information regarding your techs, bases, energy reserves etc, as the Hive is pacted with the Drones.



And thus ends the tutorial. I hope it was of use.


Greetings,

Maniac

[Drogue]

The Drones have declared Vendetta on PUT, after stealing a tech. Do we take sides, and if so, which? If we want to Pact both, we could try doing it in the same turn, so neither knows. Or tell PUT that we will pact the Drones too, and give them infiltration? Pact Drones first, and then Pact PUT?

Just some ideas, we need to discuss this.

[Maniac]

Let's first find out what exactly is happening. I asked a similar question in the VoyForum.

Hi buster,

I was wondering, could you please tell us what tech(s) you have stolen from PUT? I can probably see it myself in a few days, but I don't feel like waiting that long.

Also, what international implications does this have? Was this just a one-time raid to get some crucial technology, or will you pursue your vendetta with PUT?

As a last point, have you succesfully assimilated the Guide to Indirect Infiltration I sent you? And is there any news on the tech trade / leapfrog I proposed?

Friendly greetings,

Mani Alpha-3
External Affairs Function of the Cybernetic Consciousness

[Impaler[WrG]]

My guess is SotHB its the only tec that the Drones lack and could not get from the Hive. As I discused earlier with Maniac this will greatly accelerate them on their way to MMI, If Drones give this tec to the Hive then Hive can switch imediatly to Nural G (lossing a bit of reserch) and have NuralG in about 3 turns. Then they send that to the Drones who switch to MMI and complete it in a few years.

This is a very bad development for UNI and by extention us as the chance that Uni could be Chop/Droped into oblivion in about 10-15 or so years is very high if the Hive/Drones agressivly persue it.