Turns of Democracy in Peril

[Googlie]

Re: Dumb Question

Originally posted by Darius
There's a TechLeader penalty for tech cost?
How does that work?

The tech formula (actually the formula for research cost) is:

Research cost = {11 + (DIFF x 4) + [(YOURTECHS x 6)/5] - (TURNS/8) - (MOSTTECHS/5)} x YOURTECHS x WORLDSIZE

where:

DIFF = difficulty level (citizen = 0 to transcend = 5)
YOURTECHS = # techs you have already discovered
MOSTTECHS = the greates # techs discovered by any one player
WORLDSIZE = the usual 0.6 for a tiny worls up to 1.6 for a huge one

As DIFF, MOSTTECHS and WORLDSIZE are the same for everybody, the most important differential thus is YOURTECHS - the more you have, the higher the cost.

Players with an equal # techs would have the same cost

# turns to go till next tech would obviously then depend on your research Social Modifier, efficiency, etc., impacting on lab points accruing per turn, which divided into research cost, voila, gives you # turns till next tech

G.

G.

[Darius]

Thanks, G. That agrees with my basic understanding that the more techs you have, the more the next one will cost, and there is not a penalty applied just to the one player with the most techs.

[johndmuller]

2220.

Finished Advanced Spaceflight. Now researching Adaptive Economics, due in '26 (it only offered me that and the techs that you two are researching). I am offering the Adv. S'Flight to each of you as it yields Plasma Shard (13) weapons and Orbital Power stations, both of which I would assume you all want. Knowhow2, Once again it turns out that you have it already, what's going on? Hopefully, it just means that my discovering it was the trigger that gave it to you, but if you already had it and didn't notice, it could cost us a whole new tech. We should all three of us be checking each turn to see if you have gotten anything from the datalinks, especially when one of us is about to discover something. To the extent that we have infiltration, we can also see if a datalinks tech would be imminent and possibly take that into account. BTW, at the moment, I don't believe that I want Homo Superior, but if you get something interesting, I would appreciate learning of it in case I don't notice.

We destroyed the Spartan's 'Fleet Base' (3 whole energy credits !)

Knowhow2, what are your plans for that at sea Colony Pod at (65,45)? If you are going to establish a colony nearby, we should talk about exactly where so we don't get in each other's way.

Knowhow2, my (University-bound) ProbeShip is now at (85,75); as it is only one turn from its goal, I would appreciate it if you parked an interceptor over it if you could to give it a chance to survive. If you need another excuse, there is a big Fungal Tower sucker right down below at (85,77) that would be worth a good sum of EC if taken out because it's DemonBoil/Elite. Of course, because it's DemonBoil/Elite, it's probably not worth the risk of taking it out unless you've got a ship to bombard it first or an aircraft that is elite or has empath (or unless you've got that SP).

Darius/Googlie, that's quite an interesting formula; I'll have to look at it more closely. Does this formula come from the game's datalinks or one of those guidebooks? It certainly looks as if there is nothing to distinguish two players who have the same # techs and who switch techs at the same time (effect of the TURNS variable, assuming that it means the # of turns played so far or something equivalent). Even with that 'TURNS' effect, which looks to be small and possibly lost in integerizing/rounding most of the time, it seems to leave unexplained some seemingly quite noticable discrepancies I think I've seen . Maybe I'll start a thread about it and see if anyone has any additional insight; maybe there are some global handicapping routines that modify things like this?

[johndmuller]

[knowhow2]

turn 2220 to darius

john, couldn't find your probe....

I usually offer all techs at the end of each my turn and so far I haven't kept anything you didn't know that I had.

All my aircraft will be upgraded into shard weapon shortly.

the colony pod is not going to be build next to any of you.

[Darius]

Turn to John last night. Nothing to report.

John, your MSN address has been undeliverable every time for the last few days. You should demand your money back from those boneheads.

[johndmuller]

2221.

Darius please use your former at (37,11) to join in the land raising party there. Hopefully it will jostle up the borehole tile (although I don't think it will); in any event, raising that tile should keep at least a 3x3 square of tiles above water, even if the borehole gets 'washed'. As for the one at (43,25), when it is finished please move it to (42,22) for another borehole.

Aaaggghhhh! RZ-113Q Hunter-Seeker Algorithm 12342424AQ Q34FIRAXIS2 111-QZAAWXX Aaaggghhhh!

So much for infiltrating the University; I seem to recall that Darius said something about that many turns ago. Knowhow2, you wouldn't have seen my probe unless you tried to move into that tile, but if you did try to see it in there, something is funny with the numbering system or some such, because it was there, until Aaaggghhhh!

Nothing special going on; I'm trying to deal with the floods and various misc stuff like upgrading some aircraft to hard and getting a bit of a navy together so I can visit Santi without having to 'drop' in.

Darius, if you want some extra people, I can give you drop colony pods from time to time which you could use to flesh out some of your smaller bases - the cloning vats will replace them right away - I'm mostly maxed out 'til hab domes or ascetic virtues (is there another one?) and I can't keep up with more than a few new ones at a time on account of terraforming and rushed facilities and the rest of the stuff that goes with new colonies. That goes for you too knowhow2, although you seem to have pop-boomed more of yours already.

[knowhow2]

turn 2221 to darius


forgot about the rising sea..... haven't build any pressure dome.. lately..... ops!

[Darius]

Sorry about the delay in getting to my turn, because when I opened it just now, I found that knowhow2 had sent me the wrong turn. I have requested a resend.

Darius, if you want some extra people, I can give you drop colony pods from time to time

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. You bring up a good point. Earier in the game I was setting up for a pop boom, then when the Hive started harrassing me I changed over to a military focus. Now I'm struggling because I didn't expand and grow enough. Partly that's because there is not much useful land left on this continent (which is another reason I want to invade the Hive continent). But I'm considering a pause to execute a pop boom for a few turns. I'll check out the situation when I get the turn.

John, sorry about your running into the HSA with your probe. If I'd been paying more attention, I could have warned you. But then again, I usually fall into that trap myself in my own games.

[knowhow2]

resent ..... the same turn I think.... when I start it up it saids Foreman Darius... so has to be the right one....or?

[Darius]

Yup, the second one was the right one. (Also the third one ) Thanks.

I couldn't post here after my turn last night because I couldn't get in.

I had to replay my entire turn last night due to a scramble crash after I was done and the AI was playing, even though I had turned off my virus program before playing. Yang attacked a colony pod which was enroute to its destination, and my nearby interceptor scrambled, causing the crash. When I replayed, I kept the CP home so as not to invite a similar outcome.

I'm adopting a more balanced approach to this game, slowing down my military builds in favor of more infrastructure and working toward a pop boom. I'm very anxious to give Yang a good pounding but I think this will pay off in the end.

Turn to John last night.

[johndmuller]

2222 to knowhow2.

Nothing much; I picked off a Yang interceptor with one of mine (just barely, despite morale advantage - need to shell out to upgrade and/or improve roads for SAM rovers to get around); Santi foolishly parked her only missile in her little base across from 3rd World where my Air Force gets its target practice, so I got rid of that too. Still, Yang probably has a dozen or two by now.

Darius please use your former on Key Morgan (Island) to go to (37,11) to join in the land raising party there; I'm pretty sure those coordinates are right, but in any event it is the tile in the middle of that island with the sensor array and two other valiant Dutch formers trying to plug the ****s. Hopefully it will jostle up the borehole tile (although I don't think it will); in any event, raising that tile should keep at least a 3x3 square of tiles above water, even if the borehole gets 'washed'. As for the former at (43,25), as it is now finished please move it to (42,22) for another borehole

[Darius]

Darius please use your former on Key Morgan (Island) to go to (37,11) to join in the land raising party there

I tried. It won't let me. The game considers that to be a hostile act against you and says I can't do it unless I explicitly declare vendetta first. So I moved the former one square away, hoping it would let me do it outside your base radius (although I don't have much hope of it working).

On the other hand, I could declare vendetta on you and issue the order to the former, then try to go back to a pact. Does anyone know if the former would then continue raising land?

[johndmuller]

Darius, if it doesn't/didn't let you help me raise it, I suppose it isn't worth it to lose a turn or two's trade just for that, so I guess you might as well do something else - go SW to the lower left of the fungus area ?(35,11)? and make another Borehole (future sea base next door); I can raise the sensor plot myself, albeit slower.

As for the "quality" of the MSN email system, apparently they suck. What p****s me off more is that I seem to be getting worse service from the MSN email "service" that I'm paying for than than the free MSN (Hotmail) service.

Knowhow2, are you getting my emails in a reasonable time when I send them with MSN? I can send them from my Hotmail account instead if it makes a significant difference; I think I've sent them both ways on occasion, so maybe you've already had a test case.

[knowhow2]

turn to darius

captured Buran Prospect from UoP and it contained HSA!!! So no more probing from Hive or anybody else and also UoP is probeable now

(come to think it I don't even have to rush a probe) assuming Hive won't missile the base to death that is.

nothing much.... remember that sealevel is rising (vote for sealevel drop?)