fredNN wrote:> - DATarka may only use weapons that employ burst fire or submunitions.
If I understand correct this do not exclude Plasma Projector and Heavy Plasma Cannon ... if your Tarka have them.
Correct. Right now I can see heavy plasma cannon is available but not plasma projector. OTOH, I would rather get fusion first, in part to see if the fusion-era equivalents are available. Still, by my calculations, I am better off investing in Antimatter warheads than I am in getting eligible fusion-era energy weapons, so it may be moot unless I start facing really heavily armoured and hence reflective enemies.
> - May not research xenotech above level 1 or negotiate treaties with other races or factions.
Why not research? Just do not communicate. If you do not research more xenotech, you will have very very bad chance (instead just bad) to salvage tech other races have.
Then I would be able to trade with independents of that race. In this game, the Tarka are a bit too racist and view everyone else with a bit too much contempt for that.


- I agree with your thought on Stormers. If I compare its stats to standard Mass Driver, are better in just one way - DPS is better. But add simple PollySilicate armor and they lose half firepower.I think for your game you would need to modify them more: add 0.1 penetration, decrease dispersion by 1 and add some serious mass to them. Just Gauss bullet has 100 mass, but Stormer bullet has 18.
Do same with Heavy Stormers and you can use them much longer, if not to kill enemys, then to push them away and kill with Sniper gun support.
An interesting idea, though I usually try to minimize the amount of modding I do in any given game. For this game, I wanted stormers to have as much operational lifespan as possible without actually changing the weapon characteristics, so I would have a reasonable window of opportunity to try them out but still have them go obsolete about at the same tech level they normally would. That was why I changed their research cost and gave out pre-requisite techs for free, without modifying the weapon itself.
- You settled lots of planets without researching very basic tech Atmospheric Adaptation. I think you did lose more money on terraforming with worse tech than you would lose if research Atmospheric Adaptation before you start serious colonizing.
Perhaps, but there always seemed to be something else more pressing to research. I usually like to get Atmospheric Adaptation immediately after Biomes. I find you don't really need it for worlds under half your max hazard rating and you want to get those settled ASAP anyway, before you can get AA quickly enough to be worth it. But about the time you get biomes you can usually get AA quite quickly and it can help a lot with mass settlement of a lot of worlds at once, as Biomes enables.
However, this game I got Biomes much earlier than I normally do (I usually get trade first), such that I hadn't even gotten Expert Systems yet, which was a higher priority. After that, I really did need to get moving on the next stage of critical cruiser-era military technologies, as evidenced by the pink Zuul beating me to Data Synergy -- I would not have wanted to put that off any longer than I did and risk maybe losing worlds if they hit me somewhere other than my main fleet staging ground at Shoni. Nor would I have wanted the Hivers to get more of a foothold than they did. Besides, faster conquest = enemy worlds colonized sooner = more income as well, and long-term income at that, not just cost savings on terraforming, which takes a finite amount of time to start with. I'll agree that Atmospheric Adaptation is nice when you can get to it, but you do have to consider the opportunity costs of delaying something else you also need, and perhaps need more urgently.
- Congratulation on good battle tactics.
Danke.

Warcat wrote:Hi ZedF, very nice readings indeed.
Glad you appreciated it.

Just to keep the discussion open, I think that focusing on improving rockets and getting some EW tech would be a bad choice, at least at this stage. The efforts to get these techs (Integrated Sensors - Advanced Sensors and Gamma warheads, to add some real punch) cost roughly the same to get Fusion into the early breakthrought area. So I'd rather go to Fusion and then SH asap, to keep the initiative, get nice strategical and tactical flexibility and open new techs and trade lines.
At this point, Gamma Warhead, Integrated Sensors, and Advanced Sensors are water under the bridge.
I picked up Gamma Warhead because I was actively using rocket-based cruisers to bombard and finish off the pink Zuul, and to fight off a sizeable Hiver gate fleet with relatively heavy armour. Especially for the latter, I wanted my point cruisers to be contributing as much damage as possible to the fight; stormer cruisers were not going to cut it, and I was finding shaped warheads to be too weak in ship-ship combat. I agree that, in hindsight, this tech was a somewhat iffy choice, but I think it's defensible under the circumstances, and it was cheap in any case. At the time I was researching this tech, I couldn't really afford to punch my research budget high enough to sprint all the way to 50% on Fusion; I was building too many ships for that and needed the cash in hand. This includes freighters; I am still filling the routes I have with just Pulsed Fission, so while the improvement from Fusion in trade route range is valuable, it isn't really needed just yet.
Regarding Integrated Sensors and Advanced Sensors before Fusion -- here I think these techs were justified by my continuing need for cash in hand (via sprint-n-drift on relatively inexpensive techs) to build ships and fill freighter networks, as well as by my need to get pickets out into the gulfs between the clusters so I can avoid being surprised by an extra-cluster enemy. Having the ability to act and react with speed 6 fleets is indeed a great leap forward, but it's going to be a while before I can first research the two techs I need and then rebuild a new set of speed 6 fleets to take advantage of that tech. Recall the restricted economic settings for this game; prioritizing economic growth so that I can research fusion-era techs at a reasonable clip and generate the capital required to rebuild fleets in a timely manner is going to be key -- even moreso than getting Fusion in the first place.
The sensor coverage issue is also significant, though. I have a pretty extensive border region with 3-4 other clusters possibly able to take shots in my direction; covering this border region with just regular scouts lacking wide-area sensors would not be very cost-effective, because I would not only need to cover a very broad area but also layer it with multiple scout layers. This would not only be expensive and time-consuming, it would also be a micromanagement pain because I don't have Hyperlink Communications yet, and would have to do it with manually refuelled tankers rather than just ERs. While I already plan to do just that for my new Deep Scan pickets, at least I only need a relative handful of those.
I am not really super-worried about the possibility of a surprise attack by the Morrigi or the red Zuul, but at the same time it is going to take me a good while to get into a position where I have not only got fusion and shaped hyperfields researched but also speed 6 fleets built and in position to combat any threat. Until then I do need to continue to rely on old speed 2 fleets, and those need warning time to be effective in a defensive role -- especially when both the red Zuul and the Morrigi could easily have Fusion fleets ready to pay a visit right now. Getting Advanced Sensors earlier rather than later puts me in a much better defensive position so I can afford the time I need to research and build more modern fleets.
All that said, now that I have clear scopes for the moment, plans in place to improve my sensor network against future needs, and am beginning to run low on trade routes that need filling, this seems like the right time to push for Fusion.