ACT003 turn update part 2

[Misotu]

Splendid.

2173 sent to Paul.

[Enigma]

Allrighty the moment I have finished the ascent I will give you all of my techs and energy!

[Paul]

2173 sent.

"Where do you want your node today?" University Base completes the Network Backbone.

[Paul]

2172 sent

[Enigma]

2173 -> Mis

CEO Morgan is rather frustrated with his current labs situation. Having the highest research output on planet by a significant margin is nice, but he is quite frustrated with the technology choices his research assistants have been giving him.
"CEO Morgan we can focus our research for our next tech on singularity mechanics or frictionless surfaces"
"But I don't want those techs! I want matter editation! Give me more choices!"
"Well that is all we can research CEO. We are baffled but for the past 2 years the moment anyone mentions matter editation our researcher's minds go completely blank! It is as if some foul mind control device is preventing us from researching matter editation and giving us horrible choices like frictionless surfaces and singularity mechanics!"
CEO Morgan frowns. "Well our only hope is that this mind control device will affect the other factions too once they reach the same level in tech as we are currently. You are dismissed."

So which one of you is destroying my beeline ?

Also I have a question. Is the network backbone's research bonus affected by network nodes and research hospitals and other infrastructure? It was only recently I realized that energy from specialists went through the modifying gauntlet. I always thought that it would give you the same energy with or without infrastructure. So does the network backbone research bonus get modified by lab facilities?
[This message has been edited by Enigma (edited June 11, 2000).]

[Paul]

I hadn't paid attention to that yet, so I reloaded my last two saves. 2172 had 46+94=140 research. 2173 had 46+190=236 research (in this reload I did not switch to Eudaimonia to keep other influences the same). This means that I had 96 extra research from the Backbone. With 46 income from commerce and a total of 50 Network Nodes on Planet we can conclude that it is not modified by base facilities.
[This message has been edited by Paul (edited June 11, 2000).]

[Misotu]

Interesting ... I didn't know exactly how the Backbone worked, although I assumed it was just a straight addition onto the total, rather than being multiplied up ...

2174 sent to Paul (finally). Sorry for the delay.

[Paul]

2174 sent

[Enigma]

WOW! Amazing Mis, almost 3 techs per turn. We Morganites are rather astounded, and our much higher tech cost does not help.

I am seeing my planned position in this game change completely. First of all I have no idea why Mis is able to just not research so many basic techs while she is researching advanced techs like quantum power. Second I have never paid much attention to the transcendental area of techs cause they matter so little in most SP games. But we are evenly enough balanced that they do matter here. I did not think that there would be so many times where I am not given a tech choice and am forced to research a tech that is not on the transcendence beeline. I would be building the ascent right now if it were not for the dang useless discover techs that keep on getting in my way.

Just thought I might say that I really am not so sure again who is going to win this game. We can all build the ascent in 1-2 turns easily so it all depends on who gets there. I am happy to see that Mis FINALLY allocated her labs to 100%- at this point in the game building an extra net node at some outpost base will not make much of a big difference in your overall labs output, and right now labs are god. But now I see you are going to- give me a run for my money (which I have none for running 100% labs for such a long time)

Also Mis I am really glad to see that you are finally building an ODP, I saw that you did not have one and it was very tempting to destroy 2/3 of your main productive cities in a single blast and not have to worry about retaliation since I am (was) the only faction with ODP's. This is a big relief to me now that you have it up, I can stop thinking about the horrible deed, and we can preserve our happy mood since planetbusting death is now obsolete.

Great game guys!

[Misotu]

On the techs question, I've just been lucky so far. I obtained a few techs that were in advance of where I was, enabling me to "skip" a few and keep my tech cost down. I was interested to see whether I could ignore them altogether, but don't worry, the game keeps wanting me to research the gaps. I'm absolutely certain that I will have to do the whole tree before I can hit the transcendence stuff I *really* want

I built an ODP as soon as I had the tech, in a single turn, to spare you the temptation Although figuring on destroying 2/3 of my productive cities with one blast is a little, er, optimistic

Delaying switching to 100% labs was not, I can assure you, to enable me to build a few extra net nodes in trivial outposts . I wouldn't say I'm the greatest SMAC player in the world, but I have more sense than that, trust me

Your tech cost is not so much higher than mine - around 2200 vs 2000 last time I looked. And by next turn, there'll be no difference, so my advantage there will disappear too ...

I'm still behind you both on techs of course, my efficiency handicap doesn't help me here ... but this game is certainly the tightest-run I've played so far. So close, in fact, that just for once it is really going to matter that I am the third player of three. Any of us can take it - and it could so easily just fall to the lucky one who gets the right research options. The tree almost always favours the controlled singularity route in the later stages of the game, but there's always that random chance ...

All I can say is, if one of us gets lucky, I hope it's me

Turn sent to Paul.

[Paul]

2175 sent.

And you're right, the winner will probably be the lucky one that gets the right research options.

Anyway, I don't really see the need for an ODP. None of us are building PBs yet, so unless one of us suddenly switches all his/her production to them it is unlikely that there will be any mass destruction.

[Enigma]

75 -> Mis

Researching temporal mechanics now (I think.. i think i have matter transmission already) and if the game is nice to me I will build the voice next turn (disbanding facilities as needed) and the Ascent next turn, switching to 100% econ giving me more than enough cash to upgrade crawlers. Of course I am completely at the mercy of the tree. My current 2 techs per turn rate is going to slow down very quickly if I keep on getting bogged down with worthless techs, and then the game goes to the next closest player.

And do not forget that I have singularity techs Mis! I would not be using some puny fusion buster, I would be using a singularity reactor buster on the city SW of your HQ base that is right in the middle of your little energy park. I think that would take out 6 cities right there, including your HQ. But then again you have an ODP up so we needn't worry about that now.

[Misotu]

Turn not received I'm afraid. Emailed Buddha to ask for a resend.

[Misotu]

Well ... I wish I could see my way to winning this game, but unfortunately I think I'm one turn too late

I am now researching Threshold and will have it next turn but it won't be in time. Paul has a very good chance of building Voice next turn - he has cunningly kept two artifacts in hand and will gain two other techs besides. I'm not sure Buddha's research rate is quite sufficient to give him the two techs he needs this turn.

What a game!

[Paul]

2176 sent.

Unfortunately I must have miscalculated my science progress. I thought I had set it high enough to discover two techs this turn, but I came a bit short of discovering Threshold of Transcendance. Unfortunately my artefacts were not near my bases, so I could cash only one of them by building an emergency base with the colony pod that happened to be right next to it, but I got the wrong tech.

If I had thought of this before I would have built a needlejet colony pod to build a base next to the other artefact, but I only just thought of it and it was pure luck that the first artefact was right next to my pod. In this case being the University with a free network node would have paid paid off if I had only thought of it earlier.

Well, I guess it's going to be one of you guys now. If I remember correctly Buddha won't accumulate enough research for a second tech this turn, so it will be Mis. By the way, why are you prototyping a Planet Buster and building all those choppers? I bought an orbital pod just to be on the safe side.