Blundering through space

[Slinky]

I woke up one night feeling a bit strange. I went over to the porthole and gazed at my home planet. I started to relax. I watched my reflection being caught by the sun gliding past. A doubt crept into my tranquil thoughts. A feeling of something just not right. When I looked at the window again seeing my reflection staring back at me I suddenly realised: MY SHIP IS BIGGER THAN THE SUN!

Being a red haired woman all of a sudden didn't worry me too much. I have had similar dreams in the past, but usually they were a bit more detailed. I would have been able to look at my feet for example. A bit depressed because I couldn't see any of my fun parts I took stock of my surroundings

They were a lot bigger than I thought.

I still couldn't make much sense of the situation. Wishing I had some more information I immediately regretted the thought.

Apparently the economy of our space going civilization was completely depending on our farming and mining community. Trying to figure out how that was even possible I let my eye wander over the rest of the data. Expenditures: check. Morale: check. Government: ch..uh! How did we get an Interstellar Federation going when we are still confined to one system? Not only do I find myself in the future. It's also a future being ahead of it's time. Utterly confused I went to look for someone to explain everything to me. The next thing I know I am in this room with three lovely students. My favourite was without a doubt Claire Valencia, she has a wonderful personality.

The others were certainly not bad either, but I couldn't see why I was restricted to having only three. My suspicions that this was not a normal dream were confirmed when the usual bubblebath cutscene didn't assert itself. Oh well, I would certainly be able to find something else to keep myself busy.

What does this button do?

[Slinky]

The title of this AAR says it all really, I have no idea what I am doing. This is the first time I play this game and I have deliberately not read the manual or any helpful forum posts. Neither have I done the tutorial. This will be my first run and I will be slowly stumbling through the game. The concept of this AAR will be me making mistakes and when I finally know what I am doing, trying the rest of the game to undo the damage. For that reason I will ask the reader not to give too much advice. I don't know what I am doing and I want to keep it that way for as long as possible

For those interested, here is the set-up screen.

Table of contents:
Introduction
Getting started
First contact
Is this yours?
Extraterrestrial trouble
Big ships are slow
Where did you come from?
Annoying scout
More extraterrestrial trouble
The matrix
Happy times
Nobody likes me
Diplomacy, a crash course
Not again!
Medic .... ... anyone?
Oops, forgot the title
Can I have some more of that peace please?
Colonization
Falling short
If only I was prepared
Tiny oversight
Fight! Fight! Fight! Stare! Sit! Wait!

[JosunUrashima]

never heard of this game till today.

I hope you update soon.

[Slinky]

@JosunUrashima: Well I have never played the game until yesterday. Hope you like the update

---- ---- ----

Getting started

Leaving my leaders studying, I go find something to do. It seems I have this one solar system at my control and two enormous ships in it. I send both ships to the nearest star systems looking for new colonies. When the scout finds a habitable world, the colony ship will claim it for me. Eager to expand I order some more colony ships. My upcoming fleet of colonists will need more resources so I focus the research on better mining tools.

So far things look good. I am steadily increasing my food and mineral supplies and not making a huge loss. This emboldens me to increase science spending. Speaking about science, I still have three leaders getting a bit old to pretend they are students. I give them jobs in farming, mining and science. Three areas I think will help me get a strong start. The first reports from the scout ship start coming in, but no promising systems are found.

I make my first breakthrough in science and now my people mine better. I notice that despite this new technology, my mining revenue seems to have dropped. A quick search points my fleet as the culprit. Apparently a fleet costs maintenance. I need to find some colonizable planets fast to reduce my colony ships and free up resources for more, you guessed it, colony ships. I also notice that after only seven years I am dead last in score compared to five unknown races. Although I never met them they are making me look bad. I do a pretty good job of it myself, since I gave my colony and scout ship each others orders. This promises something for when I have a big empire, assuming I get that far. It did gave me a valuable new insight, turns out colony ships can also scan planets. Good news, since my second colony ship just got launched.

An overview of the scouted planets so far. Finally my scout spots good locations for a colony and two next to each other. I rush my colony ships to the location. I was quite picky in choosing the colony sites. The colony ships don't grow on trees and I get extra corruption do to my current government type. I want colonies able to fend for themselves if needed. That means supporting a sizable settlement and contributing either resources or production to my empire. The first two sites up for colonization are Nencus, with it's furtile farmlands and Ausestil with it's nice weather.

After founding the colonies I double my score, but my rivals stay far out of my reach. Perhaps I should not have been so picky. I am now well stocked on food, but my mineral supply is running low. When I colonize another food rich system, my second scout ship finds the perfect system to remedy my problem.

Senym, a system consisting of three planets, but more importantly, huge mineral supplies. Combined with the nice weather, it's just perfect. It's even close to another one of my colonies. I am at this point recieving reports from my scout ships about archeological findings. This comes combined with funny figures on my maps. This is thanks to the better scanners my scientists managed to construct. An archeological finding gives me extra science points and some story points. It must be that finding old objects gives rise to the imagination.

I decide to start researching weapons, concentrating on rockets since they are cheaper for humans, or so I have been told. I notice that my increased science spending isn´t good for my account balance and I lower it slightly. The news must have been too much for poor Effie. She dies, along with one of my other leaders. My favourite is still alive, but she is getting old too. Hopefully she´ll have a couple of more years left in her.

[Slinky]

First contact

Out of the blue I am contacted by an alien race. It's the Crystal Spirits. They are the number one race in the galaxy, if the scores are anything to go by, and they are right on our doorstep. They tell us we are interesting and that it's not too late yet to become friends. I had this whole speech prepared for just such on occasion. It tells about mutual friendship and respect. Explaining how we could work together to explore the rest of the universe and achieve new breakthroughs in technology and rubbish like that, but on this pivocal moment in human history all I can utter is farewell.

I quickly order up an analysis of these Crystal Spirits.

It seems they do not like our government, well neither do I. It is a hotbed of corruption and I might have to change it later. They also think we are tiny, weak and dumb and that must be why we have no friends. The good thing is they think us interesting, so I propose a trade agreement.

They refuse and want more minerals before they will trade with us. I offer half of what they want and hope they will accept. Our scientists help out by researching new weapons. I have no warships at all and no planetary defences. This contact spurred some frantic researching in that department. We still have some time before they will reach our planets, I think, because I can't see their ships. I have scouts who can only scan planets. Some days it's just not worth getting out of bed.

They accept our trade proposal. Hopefully this will keep them friendly, they surely wouldn't attack their new business partner would they?

In another part of the galaxy my colony ship finally reaches Senym. I increase the rate of planetary development and give priority to Senym to make full use of it's mineral deposits.

Some more good news. A new leader has appeared, I send her back to study some more. She has good stats in organization and connections so she will probably make a good diplomat.



A good diplomat is sorely needed. The Crystals refuse our proposal of a non-aggression pact in no uncertain terms. That doesn't mean anything surely, they will not attack their only business partner.

Even if they are planning it, I still have some time. I met them around Kakorth in the upper right region of the map. It looks like the planets they visit have a small color change in their icon. Their progress is still far from my capital. Just to be sure I do order some newly designed patrol ships.

I designed them myself and I just put some things on it. I have no idea if it's a strong ship or weak. Only a comparison will tell. To that end I equipped my patrols with scanners that can scan ships. I hope scanning them will tell me how strong they are, but I have no idea if that is how it works. It could also be that I am getting worked up about a small scout coming my way, but I am not taking any chances.

My current empire. Corruption is a tad high, perhaps a change of goverment is in order. Things have sure grown since I started, but not enough. I am still dead last in the ranking and my neighbor, who thinks of humans as we think of ants, is first.

[.Iceman]

Sorry to break your no-feedback rule, but if you don't change your systems' types from Outpost (default) to something else (Mining, etc), you're never going to take off. Lower right, system panel, click on the system type button to change it.

[the_hdk]

subscribed... I'll catch up tomorrow

[AVN]

Just subscribed. It will be interesting to follow this AAR.

IMO if a player is able to win a strategy game, without reading the manual, doing tutorials and receiving advise from outsiders, the first time he's playing this game then it showes me that the game is too simple (or at least the AI is too weak) and in fact the game doesn't deserve the title strategy game.

So if the game wants to get some credit from me, it's better that Slinky will lose

(Of course if Slinky is able to win this game than he gets some credit points from me as a great strategy player).

Anyway an interesting contest.

[Slinky]

Sorry to break your no-feedback rule, but if you don't change your systems' types from Outpost (default) to something else (Mining, etc), you're never going to take off. Lower right, system panel, click on the system type button to change it.

I don't mind feedback. I just don't want players to give me the game winning strategy, since that would defeat the whole goal of this AAR. Your tip is very much appreciated however. I was already beginning to wonder why all my systems stayed outposts, I thought they would grow automatically in status, but I was getting a bit suspicious. I already played the next update, so you will still see plenty of outposts.

It's also good you put the location of the system panel in your post, since I have no idea which screen is the system panel.

subscribed... I'll catch up tomorrow

Welcome, there will be more catching up to do shortly

Just subscribed. It will be interesting to follow this AAR.

IMO if a player is able to win a strategy game, without reading the manual, doing tutorials and receiving advise from outsiders, the first time he's playing this game then it showes me that the game is too simple (or at least the AI is too weak) and in fact the game doesn't deserve the title strategy game.

So if the game wants to get some credit from me, it's better that Slinky will lose

(Of course if Slinky is able to win this game than he gets some credit points from me as a great strategy player).

Anyway an interesting contest.

It's always nice when your readers want you to lose. At the moment I am seriously getting my butt kicked score wise and next update isn't going to change that. Though there is some huge news that might just upset the balance in the game.

[Slinky]

Is this yours?

An overview from the empire that is going to rule the galaxy.... eventually.

It´s not much yet. Only six planets and three ships (the little wings), but it is steadily growing.

At the moment I am still well on the bottom of the rankings, with my crystallic neighbours sitting well at the top.

To help me a bit and to intercept that enemy ship that's coming my way, my first warship is finished.

It's immediately send to the last known location of the enemy vessel (the big red circle). It's dangerously close to my capital. I am guessing it's just a scout, but I can't be sure, since I still can't see the darn thing.

My trade pact with the Crystals has expired and renewing it is just too expensive. Especially since I didn't notice any increase in revenue from it. Before I try this again, it's probably useful to first establish a trade route to the empire I want to trade with.

It's a sad day. My favourite leader died. A plucky one she was, she was still mining at the age of 92. That's the kind of spirit we need to get this empire of the ground.

Since I am already acting as an emperor, I might as well make it official. I change the government type to Galactic Empire. It does lead to a small decrease in minerals, but with less corruption I will earn it back soon. This government type is also very much like by the Crystal Spirits. Apparently they have an empire too.

And here is the first view of our enem... friend. I meant to say friend, honest. The good news is that the ship is indeed some sort of scout, or else a very low armored warship. The bad news is that I can't assess it's real strenght. I need some better scanners, since this is getting quite frustrating.

Today when I was making a stroll around my imperial palace, I found some promising leader material. Diane Stanton was eager to serve her empress (I allmost forgot I am technically a redhaired woman). After some time well spend daydreaming, I begin to wonder how my empire is ever supposed to grow when all it's inhabitants are female. It seems to work okay, so I better not break the system by asking questions.

My second patrol ship is ready. This boosts my fleet strength to a whopping 14. One such ship is worth 6 to 7 points. I guess I made them powerful enough for the early game. This ship will be used to scout a bit, the other patrol is still parked in the same system with my neigbours ship. It is probably to afraid to move.

I make a major archeological discovery. This boosts my research and gives me an unique technology. I now have hull gaurdians, every new ship of mine of sufficient size will get a free batch of drones. Only seven years later I make another major archeological discovery.

Apparently I had misplaced some ships. Luckily they have now been found and my scientists eagerly research these vessels equipped with thusfar unknown technology.

I found one cruiser, one frigate and one battleship. The power of the battleship alone is bigger than twenty of my patrols (yellow square) put together. This is certainly a welcome addition to my fleet. It's also doing nice things for my score.

My fleet strength increased by a factor of 24. I am curious what my neighbours think of my new toys.

They are ... not impressed. I have established an embassy. This will increase my diplomats influence. With this influence I will be able to do all kinds of things. Slowly I am establishing myself in their government. Mhuhahahaha!

My current empire. Even with my increased fleet, my score is not even a third of that of the Crystals. Finally their ship has seen enough of that one planet and it's finally leaving, escorted by my patrol.

For those unfamiliar with the map, the outer (green line) is the distance the currently selected fleet can travel. The middle (blue) circle is my distance I am capable of detecting ships and the inner (yellow) circles are the planet scanning distances.

[.Iceman]

Before I try this again, it's probably useful to first establish a trade route to the empire I want to trade with.

Correct.

I change the government type to Galactic Empire. It does lead to a small decrease in minerals, but with less corruption I will earn it back soon.

Examine the mods for each gov type closely. Just hover the mouse over each one. Empire is good for conflict, but Federation was actually getting you research bonuses (Empire's -30% Archeology also hurts in the expansion phase).
Gov types are not very well balanced IMO. That was one of the first aspects I modded.

The bad news is that I can't assess it's real strenght.

Select that ship, and look at the lower right panel (fleet/system panel ). Gives you an idea, and identifies ship types and numbers.

I have established an embassy.

I don't think this has ever worked. Diplomacy needs fixing.


The difference in scores is mostly due to difficulty level. The AIs get bonuses to production (food, minerals, credits, construction) and scanner ranges.
(I see the Megalanians are trailing in your game. I get that a lot)

[LordSlowpoke]

Didn't hear of that game before. Seems good.
Subscribed.

[the_hdk]

Well you do have an Amazon Empire

You're doing pretty well so far!

[AVN]

Well you do have an Amazon Empire

You're doing pretty well so far!

Hmm, so do you think Slinky will win this game ?

Anyway, .Iceman has already given so many tips to Slinky that I think that Slinky can't claim anymore that he has won this game by playing this game as a virgin (by not reading the manual, not using tutorials and not getting advise from others). The last part is clearly violated

Sorry Slinky, but sometimes I can be harsh in my opinions.
And I don't blame you for not fulfilling the conditions, you have set yourself, for this game

And of course it's my own opinion. Maybe other readers of this thread disagree with me

[Singleton Mosby]

Interesting, when will we see more of this?

[Slinky]

Examine the mods for each gov type closely. Just hover the mouse over each one. Empire is good for conflict, but Federation was actually getting you research bonuses (Empire's -30% Archeology also hurts in the expansion phase).
Gov types are not very well balanced IMO. That was one of the first aspects I modded.

Well I wanted more minerals and Empire gave me an income bonus as opposed to Federation. So I keep running my empire for now

Select that ship, and look at the lower right panel (fleet/system panel ). Gives you an idea, and identifies ship types and numbers.

Yes, but I really wanted to know the type of weaponry/engines/shields it had. I now figured out that you can see that in battle. (yes that's right, the next installment will see some action )

Didn't hear of that game before. Seems good.
Subscribed.

Welcome, hope you enjoy this AAR

Well you do have an Amazon Empire

You're doing pretty well so far!

I have bad news on both accounts in the next few updates

Anyway, .Iceman has already given so many tips to Slinky that I think that Slinky can't claim anymore that he has won this game by playing this game as a virgin (by not reading the manual, not using tutorials and not getting advise from others). The last part is clearly violated

You are welcome to your opinion, but the only thing that he told me that I didn't know was that systems could be assigned specific roles, but since I was already starting to become curious about that I don't think it would have taking me long to realise it. I am now playing with planets in different roles, but it is slow to take effect, since I have to spend recourses to develop all those planets. I think I have put myself far enough behind to make this interesting for all parties involved.

Interesting, when will we see more of this?

I am playing the game right now, but it's too interesting for me to stop. I already have enough for probably two updates. Be assured, it will become a bit more interesting in the next few installments.

[Slinky]

Extraterrestrial trouble

Technically we are still called an empire

though we are severely trailing on the other great powers. So awesome is their power that we don't have to have met them to know they are better than us

However I just found something which will help us defeat them. Just look at all those ships, we have a massive hidden fleet.

On closer inspection it turns out to be just civilian and corporate traffic. Nothing I will be able to bring to use on our foes. At least it will increase the cashflow. Some bad news, another leader just died. Claudette Stanton lived till the age of 76. She had a great career with her final posting as a diplomat to the Crystal Sprites. It turns out to be a bad year. One of our scouts dissappeared.

I can't make out much from the cryptic report. Were we involved in a planet, in orbit or the battle? And who is Cysi? I need more information!

The additional information doesn't improve my mood. An unarmed scout on a mission of peace was ambushed by four military vessels and blasted apart. The battle reply shows it was a short battle.

The last desperate act of the scout was to send crucial information, about our new enemy's military power, home.

The enemy vessel on the left, the specifications of our patrol class vessel on the right. Even this puny civilization has more firepower than we do. Hah, just wait till they get a taste of the ancient fleet I found. Now let's see where this soon to be hunk of spacedust they call a planet really is.

Wait what's this? They just want to talk! No excuses. No, sorry we shot down your scout. Not even a declaration of war. With the explosions from our destroyed scout still visible from their planet they ask how they can serve me. That's more like it. Bow down and give me all your stuff.

...

No such option is open to me, so I just ask them after their racial history.

They sound like a jolly bunch, for sure. I try to squeeze some minerals out of them, but no such luck.

[Slinky]

Big ships are slow

I find one of the Crystal Spirits planets. This one is being developed for mining. I have already started to slowly convert my planets from outposts to more specialised planets. This has been a severe drain on recourses and isn't having much effect yet.

Another minor race has been found. This time my ship manages to detect the aliens before being blown to bits. Eager to know more about my ene.. new friends, I ask them how they would describe themselves.

Their whole civilization is based on one ancient saying and they call themselves logical
Luckily these loons are not close to any of my planets.

A new addition to my leader corps! A few years of education should definately beneft her.

This confederation is a lot more sensible than I thought. Unlike those others who refused to give me anything. I decide that my fleet could use some combat experience. The ancient fleet that I had spread out over my domain I now recall to a central location. Let's teach those insolent aliens how to behave properly!

My miners don't seem to live that long. Hmmm, perhaps something to keep an eye on. Still, I make my other leader a miner. I need those minerals!

Briana is a brilliant scientist who doesn't need any further education. She can go right to work. Look wha't she came up with.

I like those photon beams. Their long range and high damage profile will certainly benefit my fleet. Though they will be weak against smaller vessels.

My marine assault modules are ready. This should make it possible for me to conquer planets. Aliens beware!

You can also see the confederation (upper right) in relation to my empire. The planets I designated for mining are now almost fully developed. I can now divert recourses to my other planet types.

Another one of my scouts is destroyed. It was completely unprovoked.

I will get them though. My ancient fleet, which I have renamed is fully operational.

Now if only they would move a bit faster. I wan't to conquer something.

And succes.

O wait, someone else destroyed a civilization I never heard about and I couldn't care less. I wan't to wreak havoc on my own. Ships move FASTER!

[AVN]

It's nice to see you are still playing this game
Great updates

[.Iceman]

Technically we are still called an empire

-25% Developed Worlds Modifier also means a bit less food production, minerals production, and ship construction in every system with 400+ mines/farms/yards.

So awesome is their power that we don't have to have met them to know they are better than us

The intro movie actually shows all races in council with the Immortals