Galactic Dreams(Stellaris, Interactive/Community)

[Brian Swartz]

That was quick. I meant to advance a few more months to Engineering's next completion date, but I added Sentient AI in right away. Advanced Strike Craft was concluded four months later.

Research Director's Briefing: Dr. Deacon Palmieri III

** Teldar Crystal Mining(Materials, 9 mo.) -- Teldar Ammunition Factory increases the damage of irrelevant kinetic weapons by 10%.

** Synapse Interceptors(Voidcraft, 36 mo.) -- +5% to strike craft damage

** Orillium Mining(Materials, 9 mo.) -- Orillium Plants increase the also-irrelevant damage of explosive weapons by 10%.

** Kinetic Artillery(Materials, 4/71 mo.)

** Stormfire Cannon(Materials, 20/71 mo.)

Dr. Deacon Palmieri III, the prolonged peace prompted by the recently-stabilized economy has afforded you another chance to put in your two cents. The Collective awaits your instructions.

[Brian Swartz]

Moving on with Stormfire Cannons.

[Brian Swartz]

2413-17

2413.09.02 -- Final terraforming effort on Subra II is finished. It's the latest colony set to be established in the current queue.

2414.01.01 -- We're now finally in a position to start investing in 'faction control' again. The Bhenn'Thell Repatriarchs have 70% support(38 members), the Gwesiboran Xenos United 50%(13 members). Both have had stable numbers for years. More integration campaigns will eventually be needed. Media suppression is only a bandaid(the support eventually rebounds), so we'll wait for enough influence to do the integration work and see how that goes.

05.01 -- Subra colony established.

06.01 -- Mineral supplies are maxed out, but we really don't have anything to spend them on right now. Gwesiboran integration campaign authorized. A small but significant reduction in the movement's popularity results. It looks like that is the best option available to us for dealing with these dissenters; the influence cost escalates with each campaign though, so it will take a significant amount of time before we can make further progress.

2415.01.01 -- Energy is peaked again, which means it's time for a fairly extended time of peace to end. The Scyldari Confederacy will bear the brunt this time.




Seen here, the outposts in Damiun and Ereness will go, along with the Obnoll system. The psi jump drives rendered this crossing irrelevant, but it's still useful to clean up the border here a bit.

06.02 -- A quick end to the war has been achieved, good for everyone. Dr. Tarcis will be responsible for cleanup and survey efforts in the aftermath.

11.07 -- The Gwesibor inform us that we 'seem to be growing more and more disgusting with each passing day'. How interesting, since eliminating the remnants of their territory is next on our list. Perhaps they are getting what last flailing insults they can.

2416.02.02 -- Capacity Boosters research finalized. Propaganda Transmissions will next seek to expand our borders. Always a good thing to get more territory without having to fight for it.

11.13 -- The Confederation of Ir-Vol-Ta has entered a Defensive Pact with the Gwesibor Regime. That certainly alters our plans; the Gwesibor are no longer low-hanging fruit to be plucked at our whim. In less than a month it would have been too late for them ...

12.01 -- Time for our next conflict, and the only easy-pickings left for us to continue to proceed through former QSC territory. The Qravadox Republic is the last of the three splinters. They have 10 planets, and this will be a fairly significant land grab as we'll be seizing seven of them.

2417.01.01 -- Neutronium Forges replace Engineering Bays at the Humboldt and Bakangi Spaceports. That still leaves four ore deposits remaining, and we might as well build Fission Plants to use those elsewhere. Those will provide a boost to our economy, possibly enough to allow us to expand our fleet a bit. Not that we don't have enough ships already, but more is always better and it gives us something to do with our minerals temporarily ...

A couple of the planets will have to expand their spaceports first, so we'll only get two of them up and running this year.

06.02 -- Sentient AI research finished. The war goes smoothly so far; the first planet has been occupied, and we'll need to take a few more I'm sure before they capitulate.

[Brian Swartz]

Research Director's Briefing: Dr. JIMGA Jr.

** Dark Matter Drawing(Field Manipulation, 49 mo.) -- The rare Dark Matter Reactor produces energy and physics research.

** Flash Coolant II(Particles, 43 mo.) -- 5% increase in the rate of fire of our energy weapons.

** Focused Arc Emitters(Particles, 67 mo.) -- Like our current Arc Emitters, only with about 15% more damage.

** Sentient Combat Simulations(Computing, 49 mo.) -- Here's the RARE for this selection, and it's a new one. The Sentient Combat AI is a combat computer that 'optimizes risk-evaluation techniques'. Compared to our current Precognitive Interface, it doesn't give us the 15% range increase, and evasion and speed aren't quite as good. Accuracy bonus, rate of fire, and damage bonus are slightly higher. It's probably better, but only by a hair.

Dr. JIMGA Jr., speak your immortal words of random incoher ... I mean, wisdom.

[chesapeake]

With sentient AI in production, should we be preparing for an invasion from our know-it-all neighbors?

[JonInMiddleGA]

Focused Arc Emitters

[Brian Swartz]

Originally Posted by Chesapeake

should we be preparing for an invasion from our know-it-all neighbors?

I don't think there's anything useful to be done preparation-wise. We can get to anywhere they might attack before they'd be able to do all that much damage.

[Brian Swartz]

2418-21

2418.10.19 -- Bronze to Iron Age advancement for one of the races we are studying. This kind of thing used to be quite momentous; now it gathers a collective 'so what'.

10.24 -- First contact with the Larongo Star Hegemony. They are a new, tiny empire on the edges of Ir-Vol-Ta space on the other side of the galaxy, and not worthy of our notice.

12.02 -- Propaganda Transmissions research finished. Society Dept. moves on to Nerve Dampeners, which will increase army health by 10% by allowing them to fight through more serious injuries.

2419.06.20 -- The [Qravadox Republic surrenders after the fifth of the seven planets is taken. As expected, they were unable to put up any significant resistance. We did use up most of our energy reserve, so the peace will probably last a while now.

2420.01.01 -- Shipbuilding resumes as we now have a considerable monthly surplus after our new acquisitions.

2421.06.01 -- Election time.

There are three worthy candidates:

Dr. JIMGA Jr. -- The Ageless One has refused to be considered in the past. I'll throw details up here if he changes his mind, but otherwhise he'll not be on the ballot.

Patriarch Roe Clark -- Our leader these past few decades. 113 years old. Now for some reason our life expectancy 'chance of death' stuff is now missing. I don't know if that means everyone is immortal or what, but we definitely should have enough time for at least most of another term here. Champion of the People(+10% happiness), Architectural Sense(-15% building cost for planetary buildings). 4-star ability.

Agenda: Scientific Leap(+10% research speed), same as before.

Garma -- Governor of the Perj Sector, a sizable area of space with 15 planets and 243 population. At 79, he's much younger. Also 4-star skill, Expansionist(-15% frontier outpost costs), Battleship focus(-20% battleship build cost).

Agenda: A New Generation(+25% population growth).

Leaders of the Collective, cast your ballots. That is unless your name is listed above, in which case you don't get one(unless JIMGA doesn't want to be considered again, then he can vote for one of the others). Re-election of the Patriarch, or a new direction with a younger leader -- what say you?

[tarcone]

I vote Roe Clark.

Also, I have a thought. With our new propulsion system, why dont we jump into the Larongo Star Hegemony space and take there planet. Sort of a beach head on the other side of the big system? We can spread out some on that side of the universe and sandwich many empires. And we are rich enough to do it.

[SirFozzie]

Stay with Roe Clark, although the reincarnation of the old admiral in me wants to go with Garma just because "MOAR BIGGER SHIPS" is still a thing

[chesapeake]

I'd be worried about something happening to the bug keeping Jon alive if he changed jobs.

OR, maybe he invented some kind of android version of himself and transferred his consciousness to it long ago. Sort of a Heechee thing.

[ntndeacon]

i vote Roe Clark!

[Brian Swartz]

Clark it is. I'll have a review of the situation for our re-elected Patriarch after the next update

[Brian Swartz]

2421.09.02 -- Nerve Dampeners research finished. Society selects Hostile Environment Adaption next, giving us a small boost to habitability.

It's also clear that we aren't going to make it to the completion of any new research before energy hits the limit again. So I might as well do an updated briefing now. This is mostly for our Patriarch but anyone can put in their two cents. I'll let it percolate over the weekend and resume on Monday.




Angled the map enough to easily fit it all in one shot. A little harder to read but you can still get the overview and see all of the major powers. At this point we have a significant chunk of the galaxy, maybe a fourth or fifth of it at first glance. The numbers say 105 planets, 1524 population.

Other Powers

** Buhavilaa Ascendancy -- Nothing has changed here. 5 planets, 125 pops, Equivalent in fleet power/naval capacity, Superior technology

** Bhenn'Thell Imperium -- 75 planets, 889 pops. Equivalent/Equivalent/Superior, they have apparently rebuilt their fleet.

** Uri Hegemony -- They aided the Imperium against the Ir-Vol-Ta and got a share of the territory gained. 76 planets, 1081 population. They are now #2 in size behind us, and clearly a rising power. Our influence gain is also better; we are getting 0.2 instead of 0.1 from the rivalry. Not really exciting, but it's something. Inferior/Equivalent/Equivalent; they do not appear to be as advanced or well-developed as the Bhenn'Thell.

And that's it. The Confederation of Ir-Vol-Ta, being unable to stop the powers that were arrayed against them, has shrunk to 43 planets. They are small enough not to register here, though still bigger than most empires. There are quite a few 'mid-size' empires in the 20-30 planet range, about a quarter of our size.

Economy

** Energy -- 4411 balance, +167 per month. We aim to maintain about 125-150 surplus in peacetime in order to support war needs, so we're pretty close to that right now. Monthly income of about 1.35k is spent as follows: 35% for ships, 19% for armies(and growing, gene warriors aren't cheap but they kick arse), 16% for buildings, 14.4% orbital stations, 2.9% spaceshipo modules, and the remaining 12.7% is our operational surplus.

** Minerals -- Constantly running into the cap now. 1.34k per month, almost the same amount. 35%, just over a third goes to the fleet; the remaining 65%, or almost 900 now, is available to build things. That's almost half the cost of a battleship per month. We can't spend it that fast. Mining raw materials is basically a non-issue at this point.

** Research -- 1045 physics, 1074 society, 1044 engineering. Dips somewhat(maybe 50 or so each) during wartime. Growing slowly but steadily.

** Influence -- This has become the new big one. 97 out of 1k maximum, +4.3 per month. We use 1.4 for edicts(Encourage Free Thought and Master's Teachings), and 2.0 for frontier outposts. One is in Talan, in the outer arm to allow us access to areas that uninhabitable due to the devastation caused by the Scourge; the other is in Lyctabon, on the Anathurian border.

Factions

Some of this is previously-covered territory, and it's pretty long, but I understand more completely how it works now so I thought it was worth going into it. This is the source of our biggest issues lately. We've made some inroads, but the separatists have had greater and greater power as we've grown in size and expanded more quickly. It appears that we've reached a tipping point at which we cannot pacify them, at least not quickly enough to prevent all problems.

Note: where I make mention of the attractiveness of a faction, that means the likelihood for population to join them. 100 is average(loyalists). Below that is relatively unattractive, above that is relatively more so.

** Loyalists -- 35%

** Docile Slaves -- 21.7%

** Malcontent Slaves -- 12.6%. The balance is definitely going back towards the 'good' slave faction, which is quite positive news. The occasional smuggling of a pop out of the empire ever few years is all we've seen. However, right now, the Malcontents are more attractive(221 to 182) which suggests things will probably swing back their way a bit. There's been a tug-of-war here for centuries that will probably never end, but in general they don't cause any major problems.

** Emancipation Movement -- 19.8%. Still not very attractive, and causing no problems.

** Sector Separatists -- 3.9%. Relatively small in number, quite unattractive to the general citizenry, and causing no issues whatsoever, these are not worthy of any concern.

** Imperial Separatists -- 5.8%. This is my name for the group of factions that are causing us trouble. Not all of them are causing trouble, at least not yet. It seems that taking over a large chunk of territory belonging to a foreign power is the biggest catalyst; those that live there want to return to their former masters, and get all hot and bothered when they aren't allowed to.

Not all of them are trouble. For example, the Scyldari Homelanders(6 pops, 54 attraction) are not numerous enough to really matter and can be safely ignored, at least by comparison. Then there are two that have been consistently causing us problems; the Bhenn'Thell Repatriarchs(33 pops, 38 attraction) and the Gwesiboran Xenos United(12 pops, 33 attraction). We've taken action against both of them to limit their ability to attract new members, and have had some very limited success in lowering their numbers. Possibly causing problems in the future are a couple of Qravadox-based factions, who have a total of 37 pops between them and higher attraction but not as much support.

More on support for a moment because it's key right now. It takes a significant amount of time for a faction to build support, but once it does they become a royal pain. The Gwesibor and Bhenn'Thell factions have had enough support for a decade or so to cause problems(mostly corruption, stinging the economy). The Bhenn'Thell are becoming particularly problematic right now because they are almost maxed-out on support, meaning that outright rebellion is becoming a possibility(essentially each pop involved would spawn an army and attempt to take control of the planet by force). I think our gene warriors in place would handle them, and if not the Imperial Army would soon be able to pacify the situation, but it's far from a preferable result. The Qravadox factions I mentioned have not yet built up enough support to do anything more but stand in the corner and bleat plaintively. However, that could change.

That brings us to our choices in dealing with them. Having had more experience with the possibilities, I understand the results better. There are basically three options.

1. Give them what they want. This means handing the systems over to whoever we took them from. Obviously not going to happen.

2. Bribe Leaders and/or Suppress Media. The costs are different in influence and energy but these lower support. With any sizable faction such as the Gwesibor or Bhenn'Thell this has proven ineffective. It's basically a band-aid; they grow support faster than we can reasonably have the resources to remove it. Might be enough if we only had one of them to deal with, and that did happen earlier in our journey, but with this many different groups it's just too slow and there aren't enough resources.

3. Integration Campaigns. This has seemed to do the best. Each appears to lower attraction by 5, attacking the problem at it's root, or at least keeping the cancer from spreading. Each one costs more than the last. I don't know how many in a series are possible or how expensive they can get, but even the cheapest one(already used for the Gwesibor and Bhenn'Thell) is 100 influence; a little over two years' worth. So we can't just spam them. Another couple of years and we can use another one against the Repatriarchs. Complicating the situation is that we were using some for colonizing/outpost-building, and then needed 200 influence for the election, which put efforts here on hold.

Military Synopsis

The buildup of the army is probably two-thirds finished; the core and most of the middle arm have their full complements. Another decade or so and that will be finished. Beyond that, the navy will continue to receive new battleships as energy supplies permit. Every indication continues to be that we can defeat with ease any enemy we have yet seen.

Patriarch's Decisions

This is where we stand then. Two matters stand out as needing attention:

** Current policy calls for wars of expansion when energy reserves max out so as to avoid waste. We're at the point where we can no longer merely nibble on small(10-12 planets or less) neighbors. A suggestion was made to strike out across the galaxy against small foes like the Larongo. This is indeed possible with our psi jump drives. We could continue hunting whatever small, unprotected empires we find, but this would result in a more fragmented territory that would not be contiguous as it now is almost completely. Alternatively, we could seek mid-sized opposition and take bigger bites. For example, the purple in the lower middle arm, the Anathurian Alliance of whatevers, have low-20s number of planets. Past the Qravadox in the outer arm is the alliance of the Haddam Mandate and the Vun-Okon Dominion, numbering about the same combined. The remnants of the Gwesibor Regime, allied with the Confederation of Ir-Vol-Ta would be about 50 altogether. And of course we could just decide that everyone must bow before Boojie now and launch another strike at the Bhenn'Thell Imperium, or a first one at either the Uri Hegemony or the Buhavilaa Ascendancy. Allowing the energy to simply percolate in our reserves and not expanding at all is also a possible approach. Some voices might find limiting our expansion in light of the factions to be useful.

That's a lot of word salad to basically say that we need to decide whether to keep fighting, and if so, how to prioritize who to fight.

** Secondly, there is the question of influence. We have quite a few 'decent' planets, by which I mean those in the 15-19 range that aren't big but can be fully developed(below 15 you can't get the better buildings). So far we've done very little to colonize these. We can do so at 30 influence a pop, or we can save all our influence for dealing with the faction problems. This is sort of a sliding-scale thing; how much influence do we devote to factions vs. colonization.

Patriarch Roe Clark, and anyone who wishes to put in their two cents as well, you are on the clock. I'll wait to proceed until Monday evening, barring a strong consensus prior to that.

[tarcone]

Im in favor of striking out across the galaxy and creating a beach head. The expanding there.
I see a lot of unexplored territory. There might be something out there we are not prepared for.

[chesapeake]

Are the Uri and Bhenn'thell allied? If not, I think the Uri make the best target. If they are allied and we'd have to take both on at once, I may be inclined to select that route anyway. I think we can make a modest push to take some BT territory while making the stronger assault against the weaker Uri.

[Brian Swartz]

No they aren't, they just joined together for the one war.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Pudding !

[ntndeacon]

Going against the rising Uri sounds like a way to help us take away pretenders!

[Brian Swartz]

Also, I'm wondering if the Patriarch wishes to make a broader statement in terms of medium-range priorities. Targeting the Uri means we aren't overly considered with maintaining contiguous borders and are willing to target larger fish, but is this to be considered a one-off or a general plan of action? And what does he have to say about influence investment?

[chesapeake]

It is decided. Boojie calls upon His children to enlighten the Uri Hegemony. It is a truly great day in the history of that race--to have wandered so long in darkness, finally to see the light of His truth and love.

[chesapeake]

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

Also, I'm wondering if the Patriarch wishes to make a broader statement in terms of medium-range priorities. Targeting the Uri means we aren't overly considered with maintaining contiguous borders and are willing to target larger fish, but is this to be considered a one-off or a general plan of action? And what does he have to say about influence investment?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but with the ability to conduct psi jumps, contiguous borders are now more of a psychological concept than a strategic issue. We can resupply and defend non-contiguous sectors just as we can contiguous ones.

I wouldn't call this a "one-off" attack; I think it more of attacking a target of opportunity at the right time. The Uri Hegemony is large enough to make trouble for us at some point, but does not appear to be a real threat at present. This strategy is a way of ensuring that they do not become a real threat anytime soon.

If I had to formulate a strategy now, I would say that we will war on larger powers as they show the potential to emerge or are particularly vulnerable. We can bring the light of Boojie to the smaller powers when it makes strategic sense to do so or if we have nothing better to do.

[Brian Swartz]

Originally Posted by Chesapeake

It is a truly great day in the history of that race--to have wandered so long in darkness, finally to see the light of His truth and love.

The indoctrination is strong with this one.

[Brian Swartz]

Originally Posted by Chesapeake

Correct me if I'm wrong, but with the ability to conduct psi jumps, contiguous borders are now more of a psychological concept than a strategic issue. We can resupply and defend non-contiguous sectors just as we can contiguous ones.

It is not quite as simple as that. We have much longer range(but not infinite) on our jumps and can ignore the hyperlanes. However, other empires still can close their borders to us. We can't jump into Imperium or Buhavilaa space for example. To get to the Uri Hegemony, we have to take a trip around their territory. I'm estimating roughly 6-9 months for that. This trip will take us through several other empires. If some of them closed their borders in the future, we could find ourselves cut off from being able to travel between the two parts of our empire. It's not likely, but it is a possibility.

[chesapeake]

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

It is not quite as simple as that. We have much longer range(but not infinite) on our jumps and can ignore the hyperlanes. However, other empires still can close their borders to us. We can't jump into Imperium or Buhavilaa space for example. To get to the Uri Hegemony, we have to take a trip around their territory. I'm estimating roughly 6-9 months for that. This trip will take us through several other empires. If some of them closed their borders in the future, we could find ourselves cut off from being able to travel between the two parts of our empire. It's not likely, but it is a possibility.

Seems like an arbitrary issue where the game parameters are governed by semantics and some 2D rationalization. So, to be clear, when we crush the Uri and take several systems in what is currently their space (we'll call it the Uri Sector for the sake of argument), we may find a situation where we cannot jump from our space into the Uri Sector is we don't have a 2D line of sight through which we have all the travel rights? Even though we are jumping from one sector of our space to another sector of our space? If this is the case, Boojie needs to visit His wrath upon Paradox for thinking inside the box on this.

So, if I am correct here, rather than set up a situation where we may have a sector of our space cut off from the rest of our space, I guess Boojie's love must again visit the Bhenn'Thell. Focus on the section of Bhenn'Thell space that is closest to the Uri. We understand now that Boojie's tender mercies will require a corridor through which to visit the Uri. Let's start building it.

[Brian Swartz]

Originally Posted by Chesapeake

we may find a situation where we cannot jump from our space into the Uri Sector is we don't have a 2D line of sight through which we have all the travel rights? Even though we are jumping from one sector of our space to another sector of our space?

Not quite, but pretty close. Clearly VIR is not properly explaining the situation. But questions are of course good; a misinformed Patriarch cannot possibly be expected to make good decisions.

We don't need '2D line of sight'. What we need is for any system we are going to jump into to be part of an empire that hasn't closed it's border to us, if we don't have control of it ourselves. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here are the jumps the Fist of Boojie has plotted for an as-yet hypothetical journey to the 'Uri Sector'.




We have to go 'leapfrogging' or 'system-hopping' or whatever term you desire here, because the Bhenn'Thell in particular are too big for us to 'leap over' in a single jump and we can't land in their territory as they've closed borders with us. A war with them to get closer to the Uri would still work, if desired, as it would get our territory closer and make the distance we need to traverse in order to jump over them so to speak smaller.

[tarcone]

Interesting. I thought the psi drives were like a wormhole but without the hole.

Why dont we clean up our arm? Or is that Ascendency too powerful? Then attack Uri?

[chesapeake]

Thanks for the explanation.

The Fist of Boojie is ordered to bring new illumination to the Bhenn'Thell. In addition to enlightenment, the Collective must secure systems that will allow us to go from our space into the Uri Hegemony in a single jump.

The Buhavlaa are a fixed entity, if I understand them correctly. Their entire advantage is based on being more technologically advanced than us. As long as we continue to grow and develop, our capabilities become more of an equivalent to theirs. I have no doubt that Boojie would guide us to victory if we were forced to fight them. But by delaying, every technological advance we develop makes the outcome of a 1 on 1 war more cost effective.

[Brian Swartz]

Yep that's correct. In later patches incompatible with our game, fallen empires can 'wake up' under certain circumstances, but not in this story.

[Brian Swartz]

Having finally a plan, we proceed ...

2421-23

2422.05.01 -- Several months later the time was right to attack. Bypassing the denser regions of Imperium space, the Fist of Boojie would cross into the galactic core and push towards the Uri Hegemony. This would not be a short endeavor; 14 planets and several systems in a substantial space-grab.

06.08 -- Two substantial Imperium fleets arrive in our systems in the Core Sector. Though only about a quarter the size of our main fleet each, they are bigger than our border guards in the area. Whatever rampage they have in mind, I doubt it will last long once we start pillaging their systems.

07.11 -- Our border fleet is annihilated(six battleships), having taken out one batteship and a cruiser. The Imperium are using lances more, and we definitely need to have appropriate numbers to beat them now.

08.02 -- Stormfire Cannons research finished. We'll store up knowledge for the moment, awaiting another project.

08.15 -- We've got the attention of one of the invading fleets in Jompron, where we've taken out a wormhole station. They've also sent a few other ships in.

09.23 -- More are joining the party. No indication they will be able to threaten our overwhelming force, but Jompron has become a target-rich environment ...




2423.02.02 -- Focused Arc Emitters research completed. Fighting in Jompron is wrapping up. 6 battleships were lost, a number of others badly damaged, but we still have 41 operational. That's in addition to the three spaceports and a few stations they destroyed in our territory. The Imperium fared worse, losing 15 battleships, a couple dozen cruisers, and numerous smaller vessels. They coordinated their fleets much better this time, and put up a disturbingly competent resistance. Still, there seems to be no stopping us. The amount of debris strewn around the system is reminiscent of some of battles with the Scourge long ago. This should be decisive though; opposition is expected to be a lot lighter from here on.

New spaceports and replacement ships are already being built, but that's a process that will take years to finish.


Research Director's Briefing: Dr. JIMGA Jr.

At 244, your odds of perishing have been reduced by the recent research developments to only 62% monthly(or just over 99.9% annually). You continue to laugh at the odds; you've faced much worse(about 80% monthly before the research).

** Applied Superconductivity II(Materials, 43 mo.) -- +5% energy

** Phase Disruptors(Particles, 68 mo.)

** Focusing Arrays II(Particles, 43 mo.) -- +5% energy weapon damage

** Shield Harmonics(Field Manipulation, 34 mo.) -- +5% shield hit points.

Nothing that exciting, but you must choose regardless.


Research Director's Briefing: Dr. Deacon Palmieri III

** Loader Efficiency(Materials, 35 mo.) -- +5% firing rate for unused kinetic weapons.

** Deep Space Stations(Voidcraft, 16 mo.) -- Next stage in large, static defenses.

** Synthetics(Industry, 50 mo.) -- Unlocks the Android Army, upgrade to a Droid Army but still not as good as our Gene Warriors. Unlocks Synthetic buildable population, also an upgrade to our Robots/Droids. This is a DANGEROUS and RARE tech. For Mass Effect fans, think Geth here; they are self-aware on a limited level, also very productive and efficient, and a policy giving them Citizen Rights(immunity form slavery/dissassembly) can be had. Of course we would never enact such a thing, being slaving, authoritarian overlords, but its there.

** Hull Integrity II(Voidcraft, 43 mo.) -- Another 5% increase to hull points on our ships.

** Kinetic Artillery(Materials, 4/68 mo.)

Dr. Deacon Palmieri III, you are on the clock as well.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Shield Harmonics

[ntndeacon]

Deep Space Stations

it's pretty quick, so well worth the time investment

[Brian Swartz]

I'll have another update up by tomorrow night. There was a bug(in our favor, but still) that I was trying to work my around, unsuccessfully. Also had a power outage briefly in this neck of the woods.

[Brian Swartz]

2423-25

Lost a couple of things due to a power issue, but here's the main thing that happened in the first few months:

** Pacified Jompron, and the fleet moved in to start occupying the first planet. It appears we've broken resistance. There was a small counterattack in Pithria, on the the Buhavilaa border, but the task force in place there smashed it easily.

** A very weird faction bug that unfortunately is repeateable. It's in our favor, but it removes some of what little drama remains in this game. A rebellion featuring the Bhenn'Thell Repatriarch occurred. Instead of doing what the game states(creating a defense army for each member pop), I was spammed with about 20 notices that a vassal of ours had joined the war. We don't have any vassals and we're the only attacking party in the war. Then the Repatriarchs faction disappeared completely, and we got a few new systems in our territory spread out in different locations. We didn't lose any population, not sure what factions they joined, but yeah. Problem 'solved'.

I'm thinking they tried to divide by zero and were punished by Boojie. Makes as much sense as anything.

** Sent a few battleships back for repairs and Gabbog Spaceport becomes our third dedicated to rebuilding our losses. Energy is maxed out and the usual two at Humboldt and Bakangi aren't enough to keep up with our mining income.

** Another primitive race has developed gunpowder. Still not advanced enough for us to do anything with.

So in theory, the path forward from here was to gradually take over Bhenn'Thell planets until they give up; having smashed their fleet in Jompron, it should just be a matter of time.

2423.08.28 -- The planet in Jompron is secured, and we can finally move on.

2424.02.02 -- Hostile Environment Adaption research finished. Given the number of planets we have, we should see a small bump in our economy from this. A couple of army techs were the main options next, and we'll go with Aggressive Conditioning, affording a 10% increase in the destructiveness of our ground troops.

04.01 -- We've lost another battleship and have had to send a few back to Jompron to safeguard it, as enemy ships keep trickling in. Looks like the Imperium is determined to bog us down here.

04.24 -- The redeployment wasn't fast enough, and they've retaken Pomic Krac, the one planet we've occupied. Now we're aggravated.

06.20 -- The 'relief force' of six battleships is eliminated by a trio of enemy fleets, all from Bhenn'Thell vassals. This is starting to get a little too real.

07.23 -- With a new planet secured, it's back to Jompron in full force now, with that system a hotbed of enemy activity again. It appears reports that we had smashed the opposition already were somewhat exaggerated ...

2425.01.01 -- By year's end, we've made little progress. We're eventually going to wear them down, but they've got enough ships to make a hit-and-run style campaign annoyingly successful. They are advanced enough to make us vulnerable if we divide the fleet, and wherever the Fist of Boojie shows up they scatter.

12.02 -- Shield Harmonics research finished. The war continues much as it has. We've caused some more damage to the Imperium, but not gained any more territory. They continue to frustrate our efforts for another decisive battle. We're still winning ... but at a painfully slow rate.

[Brian Swartz]

Research Director's Briefing: Dr. JIMGA Jr.

** Planetary Signal Boosters II(Voidcraft, 42 mo.) -- Another 10% increase in planetary sensor range.

** Dark Matter Drawing(Field Manipulation, 48 mo.)

** Sentient Combat Simulations(Computing, 48 mo.) -- RARE. Unlocks Sentient Combat AI, which we've seen once before. Overall this is probably a very, very slight improvement over our existing battle computers. Better in some ways, not as good in others.

** Assembly Algorithms(Computing, 34 mo.) -- -5% construction time.

Dr. JIMGA Jr., have at it.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Assembly Algorithms

[Brian Swartz]

Had an unexpectedly short two months here; did take out some more Imperium ships and there are indications we are finally wearing them down. We'll see how it goes the next year or so. Then Deep Space Stations research completed.

Research Director's Briefing: Dr. Deacon Palmieri III

** Teldar Crystal Mining(Materials, 8 mo.) -- Improvements to unused kinetic weapons.

** Deep Space Installations(Voidcraft, 40 mo.) -- Third and I think final tier of static defenses.

** High-Density Munitions(Materials, 34 mo.) -- +5% kinetic weapon damage.

** Orillum Mining(Materials, 8 mo.) -- Improvements to explosive weapons(missiles/torps) that we also don't use.

** Kinetic Artillery(Materials, 4/67 mo.)

Dr. Deacon Palmieri, you've got mostly low-level crap to choose from. Pick something anyway.

[ntndeacon]

I guess Orillum Mining

[Brian Swartz]

2426

The main thing that happened this year was knocking out some more Imperium ships. Still haven't managed to expand the war further but we are still headed in the right direction. The continued losses have things enough in our favor that they are willing to hand over four planets right now. No partial victory for us is acceptable, but it's progress anyway.

10.02 -- Aggressive Condition research finished, making our armies more lethal. Frontier Commissars will be next, a RARE that we've passed over many times. There isn't anything better basically.

11.02 -- Orillium Mining research completed.


Research Director's Briefing: Dr. Deacon Palmieri III

** Antimatter Missiles(Rocketry, 15 mo.) -- A weapons system that is hideously obsolete, but could possibly yield better possibilities down the road.

** Corps of Engineers(Voidcraft, 26 mo.) -- A new RARE. This makes military stations somewhat cheaper(15%) and more durable(25%).

** Loader Efficiency(Materials, 34 mo.) -- 5% increase in kinetic weapons firing rate.

** Synthetics(Industry, 48 mo.) -- Both RARE and DANGEROUS. The Android Army and Synthetic Pops are the new toys here.

** Kinetic Artillery(Materials, 4/66 mo.)

This would seem to be at least a somewhat more interesting variety of selections.

[ntndeacon]

Corps of Engineers

[Brian Swartz]

Updates will probably be sporadic for the next week or so. Got myself a good, healthy sinus infection that has me down for the count so it'll be based on how I'm feeling.

[SirFozzie]

Boojie bless you

[Brian Swartz]

Thanks. Twas a fun week both in terms of work and health -- I actually felt better for most of it than expected. Either way, I'm ready to get this show back on the road. Per usual an extra day will be granted if needed for responses given my hiatus, but the active leaders right now have been doing a great job of chiming in quickly which I appreciate so perhaps not. In any event ...

[Brian Swartz]

2426-28

2426.12.21 -- After dispatching another small Bhenn'Thell task force, a battleship, a few cruisers, and smattering of smaller ships, Admiral Shugglerm thinks enough damage has been done to their fleet to spread our net a little wider, dividing the fleet to leave a few battleships in multiple systems and ensure no planets are retaken. This proved costly years ago in the early stages of the war, but it is believed they no longer have the force to pose as much of a threat.

With a detachment left in Jompron and Gindix, where the fighting has taken place exclusively so far, he'll move on to Endirlang and hopefully then Vana, with the goal of broadening the conflict and forcing a surrender.

2428.10.02 -- Assembly Algorithms research completed. The Imperium war is, finally, drawing to a close. They've tried to feint some attacks to stop our progress, but almost all of them have been ineffective. A few more battleships have been lost, but fewer than we are building, while their navy continues to take the brunt. All the previously mentioned systems have been pacified, and Xu-Nur is being wrapped up at this moment. Probably about another year, maybe a little more, but the end is near.

It's easy to see how the Bhenn'Thell came to dominate the core though. They definitely held us off better than anyone else(save of course for the Scourge) and have been a rare worthy opponent. They also have other problems, as the Uri Hegemony chose a fortuitous moment to stab them in the back a year or so ago. One of their vassals rather, but the details matter little. The Imperium is losing on that front as well ...




The Uri are basically not far above and to the left of this screenshot, provided for a basic sense of where these systems are.

Research Director's Briefing: Dr. JIMGA Jr.

** Gravitational Analysis II(Computing, 41 mo.) -- -5% Building Costs

** Phase Disruptors(Particles, 65 mo.)

** Shield Harmonics II(Field Manipulation, 41 mo.) -- +5% shield hitpoints

** Focusing Arrays II(Particles, 41 mo.) -- +5% Energy Weapons damage

Dr. JIMGA Jr., you are up next.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Not a particularly exciting set of choices to find after my lengthy nap. Let's go with Gravitational Analysis II

[Brian Swartz]

Yeah we're largely playing out the string here, not that much left to research.

[Brian Swartz]

Just a heads-up: I'm mostly done with the next update, should be finished today or tomorrow. Won't be superlong but it's ended up being quite time-consuming on my end. The war is over and probably the biggest cleanup operation since the Scourge is underway.

[Brian Swartz]

2428-2432: The War Finally Ends

2429.11.24 -- I lost a couple of things from the writeup here, but this was the date when the war ended. Basically we just took a couple more systems and eventually they got the message. A month or two earlier, Society finished it's research, and began a new project which will increase our leader capacity by 1. We can always use new administrators. The new task is called Sentient Resource Management.




We cut a swath through Bhenn'Thell territory here and the Perj Sector was the closest one so they absorbed the new holdings. They are also gradually losing against the Uri. We've got a lot of consolidating work to do and it'll be years before Dr. Deacon Palmieri III has waded through the debris work. It'd be longer if it wasn't for the 5-year statute of limitations on those studies, which we've already lost a number of them to and will lose more. Also, one of many lessons learned in the war is that with our new drives there really isn't any need for having 'border guard' task forces anymore; we can split of ships and get them anywhere they are needed before serious damage can be done. All combat vessels head back to Impal Tov to regroup.

The usual plan is in place for the post-war period:

** Army recruitment will be shifted to supply our new territory. The outer arm will need more troops eventually; we've supplied about half of our systems there so far. These new systems are at more risk though, so they'll receive priority attention.

** Ship construction is suspended until we get the entire Fist of Boojie consolidated and have a handle on how the economy will look. We should definitely be able to expand the navy considerably with the new resources though.

** Spaceport construction on all of the acquired worlds will be prioritized over other spending.

** Debris work first, then we'll have a lot of surveying and almost certainly at least some colonizing and possibly station construction to do in our newly expanded borders.

2430.06.05 -- Fleet repairs have been finished. We have 68 battleships at the moment, which puts us at 544 out of the 1k maximum in fleet capacity. Still lots of room to grow. At the moment there are insane surpluses of about 500(!) energy and over 1.4k(!!) minerals. Put another way, it now only takes us just over a year to go from empty to full in the mineral reserve, and just 10 months in energy.

We'll make sure to keep enough in the reserve for our annual army and spaceport investments, but there's no reason not to keep shipbuilding right on trucking and enlarge the fleet to a truly ridiculous size. I also checked in with our design specs; there is one upgrade to do, involving replacing our Arc Emitters with the new Focused Arc Emitters, which do even more damage. We don't even know of any weapon right now which could improve on this arrangement. As always, we had to take out a system on each class to add a new power plant to satisfy the demands, but it seems to be well worth it, along with the slight increase in expense.

For now, we'll have Humboldt and Bakangi pump out new battleships, and may expand that again to three or even more spaceports depending on how things go the next year or two. Bottom line here is it's full steam ahead on re-arming the Collective. The Patriarch's wish is to bring Boojie's justice to the potential threat from the rising Uri Hegemony, and every effort is to be made to prepare for that ASAP.

Meanwhile, with energy maxed, this is always a good time for more colonizing. Two planets per year are authorized, so as not to completely overrun the efforts of our research teams to keep up. VIR makes a routine database query(aka, I went around to our entire freaking empire and looked) to ascertain the whereabouts of all habitable worlds of decent size(15+, below that they can't be fully developed). Even the automated beauracratic intelligence was surprised to discover that there were 13, headlined by a recent available size-22 tropical on the Buhavilaa border. There are a couple that we can't colonize due to primitive life overrunning them, but most are available. We do finally have a minor species that likes Continental worlds, the weird-looking Shabtak.




Several continentals are available and rather than go through the time of terraforming them, we'll send these 'assistants' out to ensure the wealth of these locations comes under the dominion of the Collective. As good miners, they will make profitable slaves. Well, they already do, but now in greater numbers. We also have developed the ability to colonize so-called 'tomb' worlds, and have a couple of big ones available, but will save those for last; even with our best available tools, they could be problematic and would not be expected to produce much(habitability is only starting at 10%).



2432.03.05 -- It seems the Uri and we are of one mind on where the future leads, as they finally have declared us rivals now. It also appears they have finally won the war against the Imperium ...




05.02 -- Both Sentient Resource Management and Gravitional Analysis II are finished.

[Brian Swartz]

Somebody seriously needs to slap me next time I do this(post the update but not the research option that goes with it).

[Brian Swartz]

Research Director's Briefing: Dr. JIMGA Jr.

** Dark Matter Drawing(Field Manipulation, 57 mo.) -- Just as a reminder, the Dark Matter Reactor produces energy and physics research, but the resource is rare.

** Flash Coolant II(Particles, 40 mo.) -- +5% energy weapon firing rate.

** Sentient Combat Simulations(Computing, 57 mo.) -- Sentient Combat AI, basically a wash with what we have now, or a hair better. Also RARE.

** Assembly Algorithms II(Computing, 40 mo.) -- -5% Construction Time. If we do enough of these, do build times become virtually instantaneous?

Dr. JIMGA Jr., don't waste as much time as I just did. Kthxbye.