Diplomatic Contact with the Spartans

[Chaos Theory]

The Spartans have found our northwestern mind worm with one of their rovers. As we are both in Hive territory, hostilities seem unlikely, but we have diplomatic contact nonetheless.

From Googlie:

CT:

Our wandering rover has met your damaged mindworm at co-ordinates 40:50 (ours) and 41:51 (yours)

I have asked Drogue/Method for a time extension to allow us to exchange ambassadorial accreditations, etc

I have also set up a private forum for our 2 factions at:

http://www.aimoo.com/forum/passwordprotectboard/passwordprotectboard.cfm?id=617927

and the password is:

warlock

Cheers

G

[Chaos Theory]

Circumstances of the meeting:

[Illuminatus]

Spartans? They must have popped a pod wich misplaced the rover. I have no idea how else could it spawn there, given that they are most likely on opposite side of the world.
This is a great chance for us! We should determine if they've met Angels - I hope not, since we should exploit contact with them. I suggest tech trade for Doctrine Mobility - we can then redirect to Social Psych and fulfill our end of deal with Angels.

[Illuminatus]

We note that you (Gaians) are currently in vendetta with our dear Chairman Yang.

We have a certain "clout" with him and could be persuaded to intervene and ask him to call off his vendetta with you (assuming that you would welcome peace with the Hive for the time being)

Any interest?

Major Googlie

Hmmm, interesting proposal. I would welcome it, but they might request a counterfavour.

One thing: Could we this time be careful and not slip out the fact we met the Spartans? It would be very useful if they haven't met Angels (which we will find out when we receive the turn).

[Chaos Theory]

It would be a huge boon to get Doc: Mobility and redirect research to Social Psych. We can't tell what techs we have that they don't until our turn comes around, however. I would pay quite a high price for this boost.

I don't think peace with Yang would be much benefit right now. I advocate infiltrating him and stealing some tech, and perhaps even conquering a base or two, which is quite the opposite of peace.

The Spartans might not be as distant as we thought, though a pod teleport is entirely plausible. Also bear in mind that rovers move fast.

[Illuminatus]

Well, they would have to cross entire Yang teritory. If we assume that they are on NE part of X-continent there is no way that they could travel all this way without help of pod teleportation. I shall inquire what would they wish for Doctrine: Mobility. Could we perhaps discourage them of moving SW if they haven't met Angels? Either by blocking their MW or diplomaticaly telling them that.

[Chaos Theory]

I think it's futile to try to tell the Spartans where not to go, especially if they actually have enough power to influence Yang. Besides, they've looked at the map, too, and probably know someone is on each corner. If we feel like lying, we could tell them (indirectly) that we are where the Angels actually are. They may or may not know enough to see through our lie, but if they do, our diplomatic relations will be poor.

[Illuminatus]

Well it is a thought. The later they discover Angels, the better for us.

[Chaos Theory]

I remembered that we can contact human faction leaders before actual contact, and offer tech, even though we aren't allowed to make such offers in the official game. So I pulled up our last turn, and we have the following techs they do not:

Biogenetics
Industrial Base
Industrial Economics
Industrial Automation

They also have not contacted the Angels as of our last turn.

I would be willing to trade any one of our techs for Doc: Mobility, and I would not be put off by demands for 2 techs. In particular IA, though still powerful, is much less powerful for Santiago since she can't run Wealth.

[Ouro_827]

If we get mobility, what do we do with regards to the Angels? Tell them of contact, and trade?

[Chaos Theory]

We are bound by treaty to tell the Angels of all tech we obtain. We may not be bound to tell them how we got the tech, as an artifact, pod, or perhaps random event is a plausible source. If we are bound to tell them how, we still don't have to give them contact information for free.

As far as trading, we would be able to trade them Doc: Mobility for future Doc: Flexibility.

[Illuminatus]

Originally posted by Chaos Theory
Biogenetics
Industrial Base
Industrial Economics
Industrial Automation

Well it seems that Spartans are following a military beeline since they went for formers and probes only. We should negotiate a research treaty in future to get techs they don't have. The question is, who are they thinking of storming? Perhaps they intend to storm one of AIs, or Morgans. This is not important now. I offered one of level one techs for Doctrine Mobility - if they want more we can easily double the stakes and get Mobility for Angels.

[Chaos Theory]

Even if they're going military, they need defense, and so need Industrial Base. Impact rovers only go so far...

Given that they should have approximately as many techs as we do (7, IIRC), how about we start guessing what they might have?

The Spartans definitely have these technologies:
Doc: Mobility
Centauri Ecology
Information Networks
Planetary Networks

They probably have these technologies:
Applied Physics
Nonlinear Mathematics

They may not have any more techs, but if they do, they might include:
Doctrine: Loyalty
Social Psych
Doctrine: Flexibility
or possibly something extorted from Yang

[Illuminatus]

Well they certainly have or are researching Nonlinear Mathematics. We should ask them for a full list of technologies somehow, after trade for Mobility.

[binTravkin]

We should try signing the same "research treaty" with them and if they are suspicious of it, we can sign it for say 20 yrs..

At least we must trade the techs we need soon, because the chance that Angels will get that contact rises with each turn passing

The techs we need (in order of importance,but it could be discussed) are:

Doc:Mob
Doc:Flex
Doc:Loy
Nonl Math
App Phys

The techs we have are:

Biogenetics
Industrial Base
Industrial Economics
Industrial Automation

So deals should sound:

1.BioGen for Doc:Mob (should be proposed ASAP!)
Reason: I doubt they will want IB.. and that will also be sign of our fairness and friendship
Proposal draft:
"Biogen will offset all your troubles with poor industry blahblah... And if you ask us where can you get the credits for building those RecTanx, we say - hey, youre Spartans, so go out and do the things in which you are the most skilled - pop pods and kill MWs!"

2.Industrial Economics for Doc:Flex
Reason: we really need those foils and if they will actually use FM, they will weaken their Spartan side..

3.Industrial Base for App Phys
Reason: techs quite equal - one gives 2 defense, other - 2 offense (not mentioning the techs it allows.. )

4.Industrial Automation for Doc:Loy + Nonl Math
Reason: IA is much more than those 2 together as you'll never be able to win only by producing 4-1-2 rovers on -INDUSTRY!

If you question why App Phys goes before the IA deal - I don't know, maybe they can be reversed, but I generally think that we really do not want to give them IA and that IB tech will slow their research additionally

We can become a tech broker if we seize the opportunity and make those deals ASAP!