Sparta-Gaian relations

[Googlie]

(but I'm not sure if he's even visiting the site now)

I got an intersting PM from Chaos Theory to the effect that some Gaian lurkers had come out of the woodwork as a result of our stories about Embassy closure and the Sparta power struggles

[Kassiopeia]

Maniac We're coming off as the rational ones here, definitely, should a third party ever read this.

And Googlie: that certainly sounds great, if it enticed people to appear. Most reassuring that it was in the spirit of the game.

Me? I'm at 18600 words currently.

[Snowflake]

Originally posted by Kassiopeia
should a third party ever read this.

Me? I'm at 18600 words currently.

Wow, not bad! Looking forward to see your product!

[Googlie]

I see that Illuminatus has responded.

I'd like to reply:

Without further adding to the "you did - you didn't" debate, I'd like to share with the Gaian Union some of our initial internal strategy discussions that certainly shape our decisions re trade offers, etc.

The commlinks

Very early on we decided to pursue a Doctrine Flexibility >> Planetary Networks research path so that we could get our exploration frigates and probes out and about.

This was clearly at the expense of beelining for Ind Auto - usually considered an early "must have tech" in PBEMs (in fact, our first crawler just came off the production line this year, 2146)

As a result, we fell significantly behind the other factions in our ability to crawl minerals - or nuts - and even more significantly, to rush any of the SP's we want. This strategy, though, led us to meeting the University, Peacekeepers, Morgan, and the Gaian Union, and we were able to purchase, trade, and probe vital technologies from these meetings. (as well as buying the Angels commnlink from you - while you simulataneously sold ours to the Angels for Applied Physics - neat coup)

Now, when we are asked to trade those commlinks - that represent the investment we have made as a result of a strategic research choice, what might they be worth? Perhaps 5 crawlers each, delivered to our nearest base? That's probably how far we are behind in crawler production as a result of the choices we made. But clearly we'd be laughed at if we suggested that. And we never did receive anything offered that we felt would be commensurate recompense for the industrial losses we had sustained while going about our chosen research path.

The Special Projects

We have made no secret of our desire to build the Citizens Defense Force. When trading any techs that are on Intelletual Integrity's prerequisite path, we have made its build-denial a key component of such trades.

Doc Loyalty is on Int Int's path, and while we could extract that from Yang with probes, almost certainly it would spark vendetta, which we are not yet ready for as we share a fairly long border with the Hive. If you recall, until quite recently we believed that the Gaian Union was researching Doc Flex after we sent you Doc Mobility (based on your comments at the beginning of this decade that you could deliver both Flex and Social Psych to Sparta by decade's end.

A couple of turns ago you told Kassiopeia that you were not researching Flex. So by a process of elimination we deduced that you were researching Social Psych, and that sent us into internal discussions that eventually produced the Maniac Manifesto, whereby Sparta would give the Gaians 2 technologies in exchange for 1. A by-product was that the Hive could be beaten to the Command Nexus. I know that you will dismiss this out of hand, but intil that moment Sparta had never considered building the CN - it just wasn't one of the SP's we deemed essential to our faction.

Indeed, as we said to the Angels, if the Gaians or the Angels managed to build it, that's fine with us too, except - in the context of a deep, lenghty reserach and co-operation pact - it seemed to make more sense for Sparta, already with a faction morale bonus, to get boosted to Veteran or Commando than Gaians to move from Very Green to Disciplined or Angels from Green to Hardened.

General Technolgy Trading

Right now we have a fairly substantial technology lead over the Gaians, Angels and Morgan, derived through the strategic research and build choices we have made in the early game. But we are behind industrially.

The Maniac Manifesto essentially would have closed that gap over the period to 2160 where the only advantage we then might have had would have been through probe actions against the AI (such as getting Environmental Economics from the University and High Energy Chemistry from the Peacekeepers) - and these would have been passed on to both the Gaian Union and Data Angels for an appropriate payment that would have reflected that we had made a substantial investment in our covert operations activities.

Would Sparta be that much stronger in 2160? Absolutely. Would the Gaian Uniion and the Data Angels likewise be that much stronger in 2160? Equally absolutely. Might Sparta still have a research edge and a military edge by 2160? Very probably - but no different than we have now, where we have impact weapons and synthmetal armor.

So everyone would gain through the Manifesto.

It's unfortunate that it wasn't pursued.

[Maniac]

They seem to be contemplating war by the way. I guess they aren't aware of our SCC Invincible just itching to start bombarding their terraformation. In any case, perhaps we should prepare for losing the CRV-112 next turn?

[Maniac]

Originally posted by Maniac

They seem to be contemplating war by the way. I guess they aren't aware of our SCC Invincible just itching to start bombarding their terraformation. In any case, perhaps we should prepare for losing the CRV-112 one of the next turns? Or if they haven't wasted it already, get it out the neighbourhood of that worm as soon as possible?

Originally posted by Kassiopeia
Me? I'm at 18600 words currently.

Over one third. How many days have you still left?

[Googlie]

Originally posted by Maniac
In any case, perhaps we should prepare for losing the CRV-112 one of the next turns? Or if they haven't wasted it already, get it out the neighbourhood of that worm as soon as possible?

Trouble is, it's hemmed in by the Hive base to the NW, the hive scout to the south and the Gaian mindworm to the east (not sure that it could take out the R-112 in any event - last time we saw it 'twas a 30% damaged pre-boil, versus our veteran 100% rover

(I figured that if we just sit on the monolith, denying Yang its use, he'll eventually demand its withdrawal)

[Kassiopeia]

Originally posted by Maniac
Over one third. How many days have you still left?

We must send the thing in for a word count, and the deadline for that is November 30th (EST, probably, so I have 'til December technically). So I have ~18 days. 50000/30 = ~1667, and I've tried to write AT LEAST 1700 per day, so I'm pretty optimistic.

It's looking like it'll be longer than 50 000, but it's not a problem if the novel isn't finished by Nov 30, as long as you have 50 000 words. I've found myself implementing thriller-like elements out of sheer necessity, I've just written a few action scenes where a guy who avoids killing people like the plague has to negotiate through a dragnet organized by a military-like organization which wouldn't mind killing him should the need arise. Calls for a lot of creativity from the character, and thus from me as well.

I'll start to consider the English translation too (something to do while suffering writer's block); however the thing is, I think I'd rather do a preliminary edit of the Finnish one, fiddle around a bit with it for some weeks, and then start translating it when the Finnish version is starting to look good/better.

[Maniac]

Originally posted by Googlie
Trouble is, it's hemmed in by the Hive base to the NW, the hive scout to the south and the Gaian mindworm to the east

I see. Let's hope the Hive scout moves away then.

(I figured that if we just sit on the monolith, denying Yang its use, he'll eventually demand its withdrawal)

Whenever I play a simulation, Yang always asks a withdrawal. So I've started wondering, would it be possible Yang still hasn't threatened us with "retreat or you'll have vendetta" because we have a loan we still have to pay him back?

Originally posted by Kassiopeia
It's looking like it'll be longer than 50 000, but it's not a problem if the novel isn't finished by Nov 30, as long as you have 50 000 words. I've found myself implementing thriller-like elements out of sheer necessity, I've just written a few action scenes where a guy who avoids killing people like the plague has to negotiate through a dragnet organized by a military-like organization which wouldn't mind killing him should the need arise. Calls for a lot of creativity from the character, and thus from me as well.

Sounds interesting.

military-like organization

Influenced by Sparta by any chance?

[Kassiopeia]

Not really, it's more like NATO. The story takes place in 2036 after all, it's like an extended version of it formed to deal with the Legion menace. Most nations have their own military and police, but the Protection Forces run everything inter- or multinational (which also includes stuff like airport security and counterterrorism).

[Snoddasmannen]

Relations with the Gaians seem to be breaking down rapidly. I don't recall seeing any ideal scenarios described which feature us at war with the Gaians this early. So if the Gaians are considering declaring war with us, this sounds like a bad thing to me. I think we need to call for a high level summit between top leaders of our factions. We don't want a war breaking out because of misunderstandings.

If I were at the summit I would call for a new ambassadeur to us appointed from Gaia. I am not sure that Mr. Illuminatis is ideally suited to deal with such a rough faction as ourselves.

[Googlie]

Maybe as many of us as can attend to go into the Embassy chat room? Or maybe an ICQ chat?

Maybe Maniac should try to set that up (as the leader iof the "pro-Gaian wing")

[Kassiopeia]

Or maybe IRC?

[Snoddasmannen]

I think we should suggest either an IRC or an Embassy Chat Room summit, and let them choose the arena. We should also suggest a time when at least 2 senior members of the Junta can be present. I also think we should suggest it as soon as possible.

What is standard procedure btw, will we know if they have declared war before we open the turn? Will we get reports from the Gaians about any attacks they have performed on us?

[Kassiopeia]

They can decide to declare and only let us know through the game itself. IT's up to them to decide whether they'll want to set the precedent as that of no formal declaration beforehand.