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SotS ANY empire building


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I was thinking about starting a game that I'd give you reports about. Story+pics, naturally.

 

So if there are any special wishes based on reviews, do tell. My idea was to start with a Morrigi empire on normal AI and some role-playing (concentrating on drones and other long-range weaponry). Like... 50 star galaxy.

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Ok, your enthusiasm is overwhelming. On your very explicit demand I created a starter for ya.

 

51 star galaxy, 4 normal AI players. I play as Morrigi.

 

Galaxy'n'players setup;

https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/SotS%20TAR/screen0001.jpg

 

Personalisation setup;

https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/SotS%20TAR/screen0002.jpg

 

The game is on! I went for rift galaxy because it lets you breathe a bit easier from the start.

https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/SotS%20TAR/screen0004.jpg

 

The start - creating thy ships.

https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/SotS%20TAR/screen0006.jpg

I always delete the initial designs and create my own. In SP it is beneficial if you start the name of the ship with the possible battle use; A for battleships, B for specialized battleships... Z for colonizers etc, so you can order a fleet alphabetically and only do minor adjustments. Usually I go for more RP Slovenian names, but those would mean little to you. We'll start with more generic, self explanatory ship names. When you learn Slovenian, we can move on. ;)

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I must remember not to make the pics this small... But there are more already made, so I'm sorry for that. Ship names and details are not easily recognizable.

 

I've sent my scouts far and wide to search for suitable colonies. And enemies.

https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/SotS%20TAR/screen0007.jpg

 

Do not forget to set up research. More or less an obligatory starter; Waldo units. An industrial tech and it brings heavily armed and armoured ship command section - Hammerhead.

https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/SotS%20TAR/screen0008.jpg

This is (also usually) followed by basic biotech(s) to make your colony development cheaper. It can be REALLY taxiing. Only choose the most suitable colonies in the start or you will perish.

 

First encounter is a flyby.

https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/SotS%20TAR/screen0010.jpg

Also Morrigi! Won't be able to have great relations with him though as I have already pinned and taken most good colonies on this side of the rift. He won't be happy... and I like his colonies. ;)

 

Initial scouting can be hugely rewarding... Not only can you get to better colonies faster but you can also get fully developed independent worlds - if you have sufficient level of their Xenotech (language and racial stuff research). I got TWO, which can be deciding in a galaxy this small! Naturally I only got them because their population is Morrigi. I think this has a lot to do with empires nearby and both empires on this side of the rift are Morrigi.

https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/SotS%20TAR/screen0011.jpg

 

What will happen in the future is unclear, but for now we can get along.

https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/SotS%20TAR/screen0014.jpg

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I'm planning on taking a head start on trading (RP and profitable!) But I need at least one good small weapon for a start.

https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/SotS%20TAR/screen0015.jpg

Emitter is great. Really. It can not miss and it arcs to multiple targets. It is useful both as a weapon and as point-defence against missiles. Micro intensive in that role, sure, but it gets the job done.

EDIT: Forgot; AND it can (as a small weapon) be mounted onto drones!!! When they attack an enemy ship they can automatically destroy their missiles because of emitter arcing. Morrigi with their insta-drone tech are pretty happy if they get emitters, I tell ya.

 

Finding another's homeword is always good.

https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/SotS%20TAR/screen0016.jpg

 

Aaaah, it is getting crowded. A Tarka ship is coming over the rift.

https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/SotS%20TAR/screen0017.jpg

Next report may just include some nice pics of battles, so stay tuned. They will also be a bit bigger for a clearer picture. Literally.

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"Ok, your enthusiasm is overwhelming."

Don't take it the wrong way :)

 

You're just really much more qualified to make the best decision on what scenario to set up for demonstration purposes, SV (not to mention your own enjoyment as the campaign develops).

 

Which area do you control, blue or yellow on this latest screenshot?

 

::

 

Also, I think I shall lobby for a video clip of your first interesting battle - is it possible?

 

That sort of showcase will easily garner you a much larger audience to this thread, I believe. ;)

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Blue. I forgot to change he colour to something more visible...

 

Anyway, I still had the original screens, so I changed the posted ones for larger pics.

 

As far as a video goes, I'll try. I'll install fraps or something. Emitter carrying drones should make for a NICE vid.

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The meeting with Tarka started pretty friendly...

https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/SotS%20TAR/screen0019.jpg

 

But ended in the destruction of my colony!!!

https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/SotS%20TAR/screen0023.jpg

Baby colonies are very vulnerable. Perhaps I did a mistake to get too friendly with Tarka scout. Sometimes you can avoid combat and get better relations if you just go away. The battle actually went peaceful for 3minutes and a half, than suddenly they opened fire. ;) The colony was destroyed instantly.

 

This can happen because they can change their mind at any time and they do it too often. There are more autoresolve options planned in this direction for the last update as far as I can remember.

 

My research is overbudget... How... unusual. :)

https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/SotS%20TAR/screen0020.jpg

 

Next turn I got it and went on to trading! This may prove very beneficial.

https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/SotS%20TAR/screen0021.jpg

 

Naturally I immediately equipped all my ships, likely to see combat, with emitters. Drones especially!

https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/SotS%20TAR/screen0022.jpg

I forgot to name the drones to a generic name, so their Slovenian name Sokol remains for now. That means Hawk and this is your first lesson in Slovenian language. :) For RP purposes I tend to come up with bird names for Morrigi, bugs for Hivers etc.

 

I decided that Tarka will be a nice target and a friendly neighbour can be a nice boost for trading, so I invited the other Morrigi empire to form an alliance.

https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/SotS%20TAR/screen0024.jpg

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Next Tarka visit is greeted somewhat differently

https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/SotS%20TAR/screen0026.jpg

 

These are my emitter carrying drones on the destroyer-class carrier. Two on each. Each armed with three emitters.

 

Sadly the result was filmed. I'll have to find a way to downgrade the movies or upload them somewhere else than Photobucket. I'll try Youtube I guess.

 

But you know, the Tarka scout didn't make it. He didn't survive the first drone flyby. We didn't weep. Not even a squeak came from our beaks.

 

We have researched trading and are moving to expert systems. The tech I sometimes forget about and pay dearly for it.

https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/SotS%20TAR/screen0028.jpg

 

First view of trade sectors.

https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/SotS%20TAR/screen0029.jpg

My construction of traders has begun. Slowly my income will rise.

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Sniper Cannon? I'm intrigued. Does such a thing translate into 100% hit ratios?

 

I'm also curious about another thing, SV: how many billions of turns does "Translate Female Dialect" _actually_ take? :)

 

::

 

Looking forward to the drones' debut battle clip. :)

HE HE HE, it is just a dialect, not the whole meaning. ;)

 

Sniper canon is a long range low damage weapon, best used en masse. It does not have 100% hit ratio, but it is pretty precise.

 

 

I don't have the first damn clue about embedding, so

is a short clip.
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I don't have the first damn clue about embedding, so HERE is a short clip.

 

Bit of a one-sided battle that, chap. ;)

 

Go ahead and use Slovenian names for stuff, just give us a translation in brackets the first time you use each term.

 

It's unusual that you can have rival empires of the same race, I don't think I've seen that in 4x games before.

 

Do different races use different types of planets, or is it just competing for Earth-type planets?

 

Sorry to interrupt, but what version of SOTS is ANY? I don't know any besides "Born of Blood", "A Murder of Crows" or "Argos Naval Shipyard", which I think I read it's just a ships+weapons expansion rather than a more "complete" expansion?

 

ANY is the latest expansion. You've got SOTS, the game, then BOB, AMOC and ANY as the three different expansions.

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Sorry to interrupt, but what version of SOTS is ANY? I don't know any besides "Born of Blood", "A Murder of Crows" or "Argos Naval Shipyard", which I think I read it's just a ships+weapons expansion rather than a more "complete" expansion?

;)I'm slightly insulted. :) It is Argos Naval Yard. I guess that explains it.

 

Bit of a one-sided battle that, chap. :)

I wasn't sorry for the bastard. They killed several thousands of my birds, dammit. :)

 

It's unusual that you can have rival empires of the same race, I don't think I've seen that in 4x games before.

Yes, 4x games mostly have races limited to one empire. SotS lets you create empires all of the same race if you want to (in this game I used random races except for my own), which makes for a COMPLETELY different game altogether. Most of all much less complicated as you don't need to adjust your strategy to each race because of their different ways of travel and/or technological differences. I guess such games are good for special-purpose RP and for getting to know a race better.

 

Do different races use different types of planets, or is it just competing for Earth-type planets?

Each race (not empire, race) gets a climate hazard roll in each game, so they may be WAY off, (not) fighting for completely different planets or they can be very close, all wanting the same planets. And everything in between, naturally.

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EDIT

Show us a few examples of your ship designs then SV, and tell us what's so great about them.

Will do. Wait for cruisers, though.

 

With all the failed (well, unworthy) video capture attempts game time did go on and I forgot to take pics more often. So, an update on the situation.

 

https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/SotS%20TAR/screen0030.jpg

 

We went past Orbital foundries and finally got to cruiser research.

 

https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/SotS%20TAR/screen0032.jpg

 

Why is this exciting? Except the ship size, naturally? Well, Morrigi have paper-thin destroyers, but cruisers can hold their ground. Also we get speed boost with mixed ship size fleets. Up to 10 ships of each size counts for speed boost, along with grav ships. With high-end tech this number is doubled. So we are looking at a faster future, he he he!

 

Ok, so what is the "state of the empire"?

https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/SotS%20TAR/screen0033.jpg

 

We're doing fine, but there is one problem that happens to me when playing SotS. You need to expand, meaning scout and colonize, until the galaxy is full of you. As you can see...

https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/SotS%20TAR/screen0035.jpg

 

...half of the galaxy is unknown to me even though I have a flourishing empire. You also see the first wave of the belated new exploration. And you see trade sectors, too. More of them than before and there are traders in them, bringing me mo dough.

 

In the research screen you also see the research history, where a CnC tech is listed. This will make invasions much easier to do since we can start with battleships than move on to assault shuttles to take out the population without destroying the environment. Production has already commenced...

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Also we get speed boost with mixed ship size fleets. Up to 10 ships of each size counts for speed boost, along with grav ships.

 

Is that to prevent you just making fleets consisting of only your very heaviest hitters? So I take it you can still do that, but the fleet will be much slower as a result?

 

Is exploration costly? Thinking back to MoO2, it was quite cheap to explore, but costlier to colonise, and even more expensive to defend and expand. I'm wondering if you can just knock off a dozen cheap ships quickly and send them whipping around the galaxy.

 

Looking at the graphics, they've got the idea perfect AFAI can see, the 'bubble' of territory etc. Is the star map in 3D? Combat's just 2D IIRC?

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Is that to prevent you just making fleets consisting of only your very heaviest hitters? So I take it you can still do that, but the fleet will be much slower as a result?

It is simply their propulsion. The effects match the lore. Otherwise every race would need it. I had a suggestion LONG ago to make varying size fleets pay off but for SotS1 that was far too late.

 

 

Is exploration costly? Thinking back to MoO2, it was quite cheap to explore, but costlier to colonise, and even more expensive to defend and expand. I'm wondering if you can just knock off a dozen cheap ships quickly and send them whipping around the galaxy.

Exploration is cheap, ER ships are the cheapest. Colonizing is expensive though. It takes quite a long time before a colony is making any money, before that it is drawing on your budget. The higher the climate hazard difference from your optimal, the more costly and the longer it takes.

 

Looking at the graphics, they've got the idea perfect AFAI can see, the 'bubble' of territory etc. Is the star map in 3D? Combat's just 2D IIRC?

Everything is 3D, but commands in the battle are only possible on 2D battleplane - or directly at a target.

 

I'll try to come up with a short clip of the map and all.

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Yeeeees, the plan is working, my preccccciousssssss. ;)

 

I haven't been able to get to know video creation as much as I'd have liked so more pics.

 

https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/SotS%20TAR/screen0036.jpg

What this loading screen says is that my empire is the biggest and my allied empire is second... This is a minor spoiler I guess but this game is most likely already won. Never mind though, I will get to know some video software and you WILL get to see some more nice pics before the end.

 

Aaaaaahhhh... We got CRUISERS!

https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/SotS%20TAR/screen0038.jpg

 

Frankly what I should do now is go for cruiser CnC technology and overrun the lot. That is however NOT what I will do... I'm not even going for Repair and salvage tech just yet which I should do if I am not going for CnC... I'm going for some heavy role playing and will research Drone squadrons.

https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/SotS%20TAR/screen0039.jpg

My plan is to build drone and missile cruisers and research missile techs on the fly - those upgrade missiles without the need for new ships.

THAN I'll overrun the enemies.

 

My first invasion fleet is ready. No cruisers built yet.

https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/SotS%20TAR/screen0041.jpg

The fleet consists of drones to remove the enemy combatants and assault shuttles to clean the planet.

People like ZedF (Kerberos' forums) are probably smiling right now because the result is predictable. If you take the time to think about it. You'll see what I mean.

 

So the fleets is sent to an enemy planet and

https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/SotS%20TAR/screen0045.jpg

arrives.

 

I've put a grav ship to the front to slow down the enemy ships that would happen to get near us and because it can take a lot more pounding.

https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/SotS%20TAR/screen0046.jpg

Drones are already airborne...

 

After dealing with enemy missiles drones chew on their ships.

https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/SotS%20TAR/screen0048.jpg

 

The beauty of drones and the wish of Morrigi - action takes place far away from my ships.

https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/SotS%20TAR/screen0049.jpg

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After sending some drone carriers to the reserves I call upon assault shuttles!

https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/SotS%20TAR/screen0051.jpg

Not a nice realization for the planet.

 

While emitters do short work of any incoming missiles

https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/SotS%20TAR/screen0052.jpg

 

the shuttles are on their way.

https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/SotS%20TAR/screen0053.jpg

 

The planet is being torn by their strafe runs.

https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/SotS%20TAR/screen0054.jpg

 

Ships join the fun, although they can't do much damage with their emitters. Lightings are something planets see all the time.

https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/SotS%20TAR/screen0055.jpg

 

Now the not so cool part of the battle. It went very well and all, BUT due to my drone-assault shuttles reserves management the drones and the shuttles on the carriers that were sent into reserves were destroyed!!! I should have been much more careful and wait for the shuttles and drones to dock back!

 

I'm only left with a handful of drones and 1!!! Assault shuttle. This is where my lack of repair cruisers is becoming painful. Ok, the ships are still there and at full health, but emitters will have a hard time to do a dent. One shuttle... It will have to do the trick. Will report.

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Now I remember why I haven't played this game much, it gives a LOT of problems, both on my Windows Vista months ago, and on my Windows 7.

Just installed SOTS and BOB, first error was an immediate crash upon launch, google provided a solution which was to create a display.cfg with a default screen resolution as the game didn't seem to be able to detect it automagically. Now second problem is a crash to desktop when trying to access the game settings (I want to change the display settings ingame to get higher quality) ;)

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