Empire of the Noobs - Learning to be Human

[silvaril]

Heya

..but a year! Wow!

Just another Turn really...

[Buatha]

Well, I tried to perform captures using Snagit 10, but it keeps minimizing my game as if I Alt-Tabbed, then let's me capture my desktop The previous version obviously did not do this. It's as if Windows 7 is sensing that active program has shifted and assumes I need to go to it.

For all of you Windows 7 gurus, is there something I need to set to stop this from occurring? Their Helpless Desk recommended that I run in Windowed mode which sucks as I'm normally running at 1920 X 1080.

It's bumming me out since I had set aside time yesterday to get this T.A.R. started up!

[silvaril]

Heya

It's more an application problem, possibly offset by new options in the configuration menus.

[Buatha]

Turns 103-104


Apparently, Sgt. Rico's latest diplomatic blunder has lead to the Liir downgrading our Alliance to a Non-Aggression Pact. It was probably due to his comment that we had to be responsible for dolphin-safe space after their Alliance with the Hivers didn't turn out so well:


The Noobs continue pounding Pacem after conquering the Zuul homeworld. For both turns, they've barely been able to touch the fleet as our HCL Cruisers continue to ginsu their token attacks. The next turn should be the last battle for Pacem as it's a small world and they only have a few satellites. Sensors don't show any incoming fleets there, but we did pick up a fleet of thirteen ships headed for Noob space. Our blockade fleet is ready, but depending on what they have in that fleet, it could get dicey.

On the Tarka front, we have decimated Ko'Velan (see Pg 13 for Tarka Invasion Plan map). While we could have waited for some Assault Shuttles, we decided to glass the planet to continue our Phear Me! strategy as they are now left with their homeworld, Kao'Lolto, and the neighboring Ko'Rorko. Since we are about to upgrade our aging fleets, we send our blue book value ships at their homeworld to see what weaponry they possess.


Their homeworld provides no asteroid fields for cover, so our fleet was at the mercy of a constant string of planetary missiles. Rather than approach the planet, we hung back and pretty much traded the same number of ships. We saw nothing more than missiles and ballistic weapons. No satellites either.

Finally, we finish research on Plasma Focusing, so we can hopefully start getting our ships from our distant colonies to the front lines more quickly.

[Buatha]

Turns 105-106

Suprisingly, the Zuul throw up two Cruisers and, for some reason, two CnC Cruisers as a last ditch effort to save Pacem. While they do pound our ships with a cornucopia of missiles, they are no match for the awesome power of our fully-functional HCLs:


The Zuul incursion fleet mentioned previously is similarly decimated and we lose no ships.
Note: They were "runners", so I just Auto-Resolved since I had to chase them all over the map. "Why do they always run?"

The Tarka have some problems. I invaded their only remaining colony next to their homeworld to discover one ship orbiting a hazardous planet (495) with 20 Infrastructure, and a smattering of population. Once they lose the planet, they must have watched too many Superman movies, because they launch one ship toward their hope for a new life on a distant planet:


Unfortunately for them, it's a lifeless rock, but they don't know that.

And, just when you think all insects belong to a Band of Buggers, the Hivers discover that there are more unpleasant versions of themselves. I sent a small fleet to stop an incursion of Hivers when the Swarm did the work for me. I guess Gate Ships taste pretty good:


To end the turn, Node Focusing research completes and we have maxed out our home sector with 45 freighters.

Question: Do I have to research Subjugate Race to ask for surrender? I don't really feel like having to wear down the Tarka homeworld since they are defeated as far as I'm concerned. The Zuul are still kicking, but I'm slowly wearing them down as we push further into their territory.

I'm also open to new technology recommendations.

[ZedF]

You'd have to research their level 3 language tech to ask individual worlds to surrender and subjugate to ask for their entire empire to surrender.

[Buatha]

So, my plan is to research the race languages to see if I can get the Tarka homeworld to surrender if that's possible and get some allies. Now that Plasma and Node Focusing is complete, I plan to let all of the colonies closer to the Zuul take care of themselves since ships can move faster now and start focusing on allying with the Morrigi and Liir (well, returning to full ally status with the fishies).

The economy is humming along nicely, so I'm wondering what I should do now. There are many techs I haven't touched due to my 2.4-front war like Jammers, Deep Scan, or Integrated Sensors. Shields have opened up as well. Is it too early to start Antimatter or should I just keep building the economy/colonization further with Mega-Freighters and Atmospheric Processors?

As this is the longest game I've ever played, I'm in all new territory.

[Quester]

I vote for anything that makes your economy better and terraforming and population better. Your trade routes are based on population and your industrial output is based on population, terraforming, infrastructure and resources. So IMHO population is a all around good thing to boost and is more easily accomplished by terraforming faster. Also if you research accomadate and profilerate you can increase your civilian population with other races to increase all above issues.

[ZedF]

I personally like to fill in on cheap stuff that could be important like deep scan and jammers at this point in the game. Fusion warheads and microfusion drives for your planet defenses are a good idea too if you don't have them. For not-so-cheap stuff, I would 90+% of the time go for megafreighters before antimatter; it just takes too long otherwise and more $ will help with more than just antimatter.

It sounds like you don't feel like pushing hard for victory just yet, despite being in a pretty good position to do so. Nevertheless you have passed the era where survival is your focus; you way want to start thinking about how you want to win. If you follow up megafreighters with stations and more xenotech to further buff your economy, that suggests you're on the path of sitting back and taking things easy. Obviously you don't plan to crush em all under your heel straightaway or you'd be talking more about assembling warfleets and less about whether to research megafreighters or antimatter yet. But after megafreighters it would probably be good to think about making a move of some sort. Diplomacy in SotS can be finnicky and unreliable; unless you are prepared to commit serious effort to it over the long term, don't count on it to succeed. (See my Who Let the Bugs Out game for an example.)

[Buatha]

Thanks, Quester and ZedF, for the advice.

Zed is right that I'm not out to immediately crush everyone since this is more of a learning experience for me. I wanted to play nice if possible with races who are endangered/threatened by the Zuul/Hivers. I also normally don't attack someone unless they initiate or there's no other way around them. As I said, this is the longest game I ever played of SotS.

Is it even possible to win the game diplomatically? If I can get rid of the Tarka, Zuul, and eventually Hivers, does that mean I have go after the Morrigi and Liir to "win"?

[ZedF]

It is possible to win an alliance victory if you are allied with X race(s) and eliminate everyone else. However, maintaining alliances that long is rarely a guaranteed thing; other races get nervous about you being bigger than them, settling stuff they would like to settle, etc. Even if you leave them strictly alone, if they have another friend they also like (maybe better!) and/or are feeling pinched for expansion room, or lack a convenient nearby enemy to vent their aggression on, your relations can quickly cool. I would suggest it might be simplest to pick one friend to share the galaxy with, and to first make sure they don't have any other friends themselves.

[ivra]

Excellent TAR and a fun read. But is this the end of it? Hopefully there will be more.

[Buatha]

Greetings, my fellow Noobians! It's a sad state of affairs that led me to abandon my T.A.R., but after two years, I should really have finished by now.

So, if you have patience, and can stand slow, yet progressive movement, I think I can swing a Turn or so every few days. So, who's with me?!

[ivra]

Greetings, my fellow Noobians! It's a sad state of affairs that led me to abandon my T.A.R., but after two years, I should really have finished by now.

So, if you have patience, and can stand slow, yet progressive movement, I think I can swing a Turn or so every few days. So, who's with me?!

I'm in! I'll promise to read your TAR and probably throw in a comment here and there.

[marshb]

Me Too! The TAR section of the forums is my personal fave.