Turns of Democracy in Peril

[johndmuller]

2132 to TMS

[johndmuller]

2133 to TMS
Gee, the unity foil went thru a dimensional gate, but fortunately it didn't go too far (east) and I haaven't been forced to meet anyone yet, but it was close.

[johndmuller]

MY 2134 to Tai Mai Shu - Peacekeepers

[Tai Mai Shu]

MY 2134 to Darius

Btw, I'm getting Ethical Calculus next turn. So you might want to get ready to recieve EC on MY 2136 and swapping to something else immediately. I'm planning on getting the restriction lifting techs after EC, starting with Gene splicing.

[Darius]

I was just thinking that it was about time to start on some secret projects, when I noticed that the Consciousness has started on the Weather Paradigm. We MUST get this project!

As far as I can tell, the WP would not benefit any one of us more than any other. Therefore, whoever can build it the fastest should go for it. My best mineral base is producing 6 minerals per turn right now. I can build the WP there in 24 turns, not counting crawlers. John, you have a base with 8 minerals. Would you check how long to build the WP at that base? I think you could do it more quickly there, because IIRC my industry bonus is only 10% and your extra minerals are more than 10%. (TMS's best mineral base is 5, IIRC.)

Other random thoughts and observations:

The Consciousness is somewhat ideally located between the three of us making them an attractive target for a three-way coordinated attack when we get ready to strike. In fact, regarding the Weather Paradigm, we might even consider letting the Consciousness build it, while we build up our forces, and then take it from them.

The AI factions are techsharing, as we are. They will therefore be relatively rich in techs considering the mission year. We must make sure to build and use plenty of probe teams to steal their techs before actively attacking them.

2135 to John.

Darius

[johndmuller]

2135 to TMS.

Its interesting that the lab screen shows me that TMS will finish EC in 2136, but the details down below would indicate that it will be this year. I would imagine that TMS & I would be both confused by Darius' info in our lab screens. It looks like it calculates the number of years on the assumption that it has already produced the techpoints this year while that is only true for the info seen re the active player and those earlier in the turn, not those whose techpoints have not yet been produced. Thus my confusion over when you two are going to have breakthroughs.

Anyway, if that is the way things are, TMS will be producing EC this turn. It will be important for TMS to offer EC to me at least, so that I don't end up also discovering it and wasting the techpoints. I may have offered a tech to you, TMS this time, in addition to the maps. If you don't want it, make sure that you delete it from the trade before you put your stuff in there and accept it, otherwise you will get it when I accept your trade (I inadvertently ended up with mobility that way earlier). I still think that we should deviate from Air Power and Fusion only to the extent that we don't cause delays in those two, but I'm not going to make a career out of talking that up, so research what you think best.

Re the WP, I have 3 AA's which could probably be decisive in getting one SP; two of them are near my HQ, where Darius was noting the min production but the 3rd is way over on my west coast and would take a while to get over there. If you 2 both think that is more important than any of the other techs we might be able to get, let me know. I would think that the PDL would be more important as it would let us keep up with the AIs in tech without doing much work. We would also have more time to get my 3rd AA (and perhaps even Darius' AA) into position to cash in all at once to that end. (Cyberethics, the prereq for the PDL, is by the way one of the stops on the way to Fusion. ) If you want to go forward with the WP, we might be able to get the it with only the 2 AAs; I could maybe get the Merchantile Exchange or one of the drone things instead if we miss out on the WP. Let me know how you all want to proceed; I may want to build another crawler there first though.

[Tai Mai Shu]

MY 2135 to Darius.

I just discovered EC, and am going for gene splicing now. I'm not sure if Darius would like any of my techs that he's missing. I have Ethical Calculus, Information Networks, and Planetary networks. If you would like any of these just post and I'll offer them to you.

As for building the WP, we could probably get it before the AI does if we upgrade crawlers. But I'm not sure just how much time we have so it's really up to you two if you want to cash in the AA's instead.

[Darius]

I've started building the WP. I'll feed it crawlers until it is done.

I'm getting the feeling that we are nearing the end of our isolation. The other factions are going to start showing up soon. I want to start getting some probes out there. But we've got to get some weapons techs first.

Turn to JDM.

[johndmuller]

What a F%$#%^$G nice efficiently run faction, TMS.

I hope you don't run into too many of those nasty things while you are so light on the muscle though.

[johndmuller]

2136 to TMS

I'm now researching Applied Physics and will need 10 or 11 years, instead of having it already .

You'll presumably get a reload message on my account. I saw a rather wierd graphic for the Foil Supply and thought that maybe I had loaded the game with SMAC by mistake and didn't want to save it if that was the case - the the only other time I'd seen that graphic was when I'd loaded a SMAX game with SMAC or vice versa - so I reloaded it (also - vainly - hoped that maybe Ethical Calc was not offered only for that reason). Still got the strange graphic (looks like a city skyline) and still didn't get offered EC, grrr.

[Darius]

I've seen that weird graphic in pne of my other SMAX games. I thought the other player had created a custom graphic. And by the way, a SMAC game won't load at all under SMAX, and vice versa.

I guess I don't understand the point of two players researching the same tech simultaneously, except if the second player, when receiving that tech from the first, switches to a higher level tech for which the first tech was a prerequisite.

[Tai Mai Shu]

Sorry, didn't realize I didn't send it. I thought I did. Anyways, what do you two think about reloading back that turn and doing it again?

TMS

[Darius]

OK by me. Nothing interesting happened to me last turn. John?

[johndmuller]

A reload is OK by me too (if it works right this time, I might even turn some of my 's into 's). Sorry for the flame, I was a bit exasperated.

I'm nearly certain that I had loaded with the wrong game when I got that funky graphic; it was SP, I think it was a SMAC game loaded with SMAX, but I'll see if I have a remnant and/or can repeat it. In any event, the graphic appeared as a unit where a pod had been (I don't think that the AI popped it either) and it was a native-faction unit, but was some kind of low powered non-native-life; it had combat parameters like a conventional combat unit sort of like a laser rover - it didn't have a name. I remembered reading a post about something that sounded like that graphic too. Did either or you see it? We'll see if it is there this time around. I don't recall accepting Doc Flex either, but I guess I must have had it if it showed me a naval unit in the unit selection screen; I definitely didn't design a supply foil though, but I am in a (SMAC) game that did have the Auto Designer on yesterday, so ... ???

[Darius]

2135 replayed and 2136 sent to John.

The only place I've ever seen that weird graphic is in the design workshop.

Darius