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Winter is Coming: Angry Birds


silencer_pl

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Hello.

 

I've been waiting to finally do some Sword of the Stars 2 AAR. I was constantly prevented by big buginnes of the game. Still the game ain't what it should be but it is now in a form that at least allows to play normally (except if a patch comes that screws the saves). My plan is to do a whole series of AAR for SotS2 with all the playable races. It may take very long since I will take brakes from it at some points, there might be more patches that change things and I am not guaranteeing a successful ending (most probably because of some game breaking bug or save destroying patch). The game is quite bit slower than the SotS prime, so there are sometimes those games where things come to a stall, because of bad CH spawning on planets. Sometimes you can get plenty of low CH planets, sometimes you are surrounded by planets witch CH 300+ or systems without planets. Not only this but in SotS2 we start on Cruiser class ships that are very expensive at the beginning in comparing to SotS Prime where a destroyer cost 10-20k in credits while cruisers cost 100-200k credits - see the difference? Plus there are other changes that you will notice during the gameplay.

 

Now onwards. The map for this AAR is custom generated by galaxy generator version 1.9. The game itself doesn't have a starmap generator like in prime so it was up to brave modders to the job.

 

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The map is of clusters type with 5 clusters, 100 systems and 4 players. Why 4 players? Because of the performance. The waiting time at later stages becomes very long, so I am minimizing it. Maybe in a year Kerberos will improve it (and it was improved few times too).

 

If you didn't guess, I'll be playing as Morrigi Confederation. Though they are feathered dragons most of us call the birds - go figure smile.png

 

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My opponents will be Tarkasian Empire, Zuul/Suul'ka Horde and Hiver Imperium. Why no LOA? Well because I don't believe that AI is good enough to play it yet. Plus they are relatively new race and there still are a lot of bugs about them. Why no Liir? Well - other that I bloody hate them, they simply didn't rolled high enough dice to get in tongue.png Because the AI is still in the woodwork - sure it can play ok - I will give it a small advantage of starting credits at 1 million, 3 additional techs and make it HARD so it will get additional bonuses.

 

So let's press that start button and let the sadomizer raping begins.

 

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Here is our home system and our homeworld and how it looks in the global galaxy view.

 

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Although our main system has 4 planets, 2 of them aren't in our range of climat and the third has climate that is too expensive for us. But on the other system we have a starting point.

 

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In this game we start with 4 fleets. 2 Survey fleets, 1 colonization fleet and 1 Construction fleet that can build stations. So let's make use of that colonization fleet.

 

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Now let's use those Survey fleets and scout some systems. It's best to start with the systems that have the most planets in them. Only SolForce can't be picky about expansion.

 

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Next thing let's look at our empire more closely. First we need more money - increasing the tax rate to 6 is all we can do to get more money out of our people and not get in trouble of rebellion. Also at start the security slider is way too high so it needs adjustment.

 

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Next research. Morrigi have slight boost in research department 20 or 25%, so we should get things much faster. The only exception are Liir that have even more boost in research. Our first research I think should go for better growth and terraforming. I adjust the slider slightly so it should take 15 turns to do it. Could add more but Morrigi ships are quite expensive (if not the most) and some money in treasury are needed.

 

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Each race has their own predefined starting ship designs. Any new design is a prototype - a ship that is more expensive to build and it takes bit longer. The only exception is retrofitting (changing the tier of the gun of same kind for example: green laser to uv laser). But because we are on turn 1 any new design is free of charge so we use it to make our own designs that will serve our mighty empire.

 

First comes the vanguard of our fleet - The Raven.

 

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Our second design is The Crow. It will server as Survey class ship.

 

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Third design is The Flying Nest. It will be a supply ship. (At the point of writing this AAR I've found a better name for supply ship so if I create at some point upgraded design I will switch to better name).

 

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Next design - Light of Hope. Our colonization ship.

 

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We can't forget about CnC ship - The Flock Leader. (As you can see my naming ain't that great so if you have better names you might just pass along (and please no corny names like 'Here fishyfishyfishy' tongue.png))

 

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A 'Flock Boat' (Gravboat type tongue.png)

 

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And I couldn't left the constructor type unchanged, so here is The Crane.

 

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That's all what we need now in design department. So let's create some new ships. A second colonization fleet would be nice if we run into plenty of good planets.

 

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There is nothing more to do except well maybe send that construction fleet to survey that planetless system. They'll get plenty of work later.

 

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We now have another colony in the Baltar system.

 

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On the Majipoor system we found a pirate base. Pirate base is a new addition that came with End of Flesh add-on. It is a place where pirates call home and a very bad neighborhood for trade. I don't remember the details but system within 10-15 LY from this system will be constantly raided and not even police cutters will prevent from such attack, so before you start invest in trade - make sure that this is out of the way. But wait, there is more. The pirate base if very fortified, you can have a chance to fight with 15 or so enemy ships. Most of them have boarding pods so without good PD, your fleet will be lost. So let's mark this system as "DANGEROUS" and retreat from the battle ASAP.

 

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One of the survey fleet has arrived and are sent to another system.

 

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Our colonization fleet arrives and state that the colony can develop on it's own now. Fine by me, there are other places to go.

 

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Since the ordered invoice for new ships is finished, let's create a new fleet. Good Shepard trait gives a small bonus to population increase when fleet makes a supply delivery (or establishes new colony). The other is Green Thumb which gives bonus to terraforming. There are of course the opposites that give negative impact, so you might check those colonization fleets when Admiral retires if you want to keep everything optimal.

 

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So let's send those 2 colony fleets to Sera system. As you can see, there are two different mission times. Why? Because we are Morrigi. One of the fleets has 2 more ships and one of them is Gravboat which adds additional speed to the flock effect.

 

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At Slyggia our Survery fleets encounters Protean Pods - or Gardeners if I remember correctly. Those things according to the lore prepare planets for their masters. The planets that are tended by those things have very high amount of Biosphere and all planets in that system have equal Hazard rating. If the hazard rating will be close to our own it will be gold mine. They aren't tough but a fair ammount of firepower is needed.

 

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A closeup on the Protean.

 

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As you can see they did fairly good amount of damage to me.

 

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Our first colony on Sera is established.

 

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Also more scouting.

 

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It's time to change our scouting fleets with proper ships.

 

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And the mission on Sera has come to an end.

 

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But there is the second one.

 

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The report of Shandor system. As you can see - plenty of Bioshpere and CH is identical in every planet. But unfortunately is too high for us right now. You are probably asking right now - what is Biosphere and why it is so important. This game adds something that is called psionics. When researching psionics a ship can carry a module with specially trained staff that can do many different things, like inspire own troops to fire better, faster, or make enemy fear you. Liir, Morrigi, Zuul (and of course Suul'ka) are potent PSI races, that means they have a high chance at various projects in psionics department. Using psionics drain PSI points that are accumulated throughout the game. The higher the total sum of biosphere from all planets the more psi points you can accumulate. Although I might mixed something up, so your best bet is to go to SotS2 wiki. LOA on the other hand despite everything biological and each planet they occupy loses biosphere, so it might be that if you are using plenty of Psionic skills invading LOA may not be that good in the first place.

 

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Although empty systems are useless in the long run, with deep construction you can place naval yards and make those systems as some kind of fuel/transit stations. Pretty nifty although I've never tried this. Only Hivers and at some degree LOA may use empty system to it's fullest.

 

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Gotham is green and good to go. Let's find some Batmans there ;)

 

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At some point Kerberos gave more freedom in space exploration. Surveying fleet when having enough supplies can Survey another system in range without returning to base. Pretty cool, but sometimes I'll keep forgetting about it. There are other options that can be used with this. For example there is auto option that orders fleet to patrol surveyed area. Of course you can do it manually to (me thinks).

 

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At Zoroaster we found Asteroid Monitor - or monitors to be precise.

 

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Those things differ completely from SotS prime. They only may spawn on system with asteroid belts, there are more than 1 asteroid monitor (number depends on size of the belt) and there is a command centre that rules them all. In prime you only needed to encounter the monitor and then start the special project and pray that it will be done soon. Here you must find a monitor command and destroy the satellite relay dish (do not destroy the command centre). Then there will be special project to take control of those monitors (but that I might show later).

 

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Mini monitor in the battle screen.

 

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Those little buggers are easy to shoot but for your own good - better focus on that command centre satellite dish.

 

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Sera 1 is Self-Sufficient now.

 

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And we can afford the upgrade of second survey fleet.

 

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Enviromental Tailoring delivered on time.

 

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Now for Materials Application. Cheaper ships are good.

 

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No good planets on the horizon, so let's focus on that planet in our home system.

 

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Gotham although ready costs us plenty, so I'll continue resupplying it for a while.

 

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Our next discovery will be Vela system.

 

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Which is protected by another Asteroid Monitor.

 

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This is the command centre. See the dish? Focus fire on it. And don't be a noob like me in this situation and don't destroy the command ;)

 

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Research done in time.

 

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Next orbital drydocks. Even more cheaper ships. Also retrofitting can occur only on systems with level 4 Naval Station. Your homeworld starts with one.

 

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Zoon system discovered. Even though you see the appropriate CH don't be a noob like me and check the developement cost.

 

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Vela system also not good.

 

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Because I was a noob, I've sent a colony there.

 

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We are running low on the big systems.

 

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And of course HIM had to show up.... If I had a station there the planet would be safe. The Ghost Ship has strange kink on the stations. Unfortunately the planet was lost.

 

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Oh well time for re-population.

 

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And more scouting.

 

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The Sphinx planet at least kept it's infrastructure so it's only a matter of few turns.

 

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At this point I saw the mistake I did when the pie chart was covered in light blue.

 

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Lucky for Panic Button.

 

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Flinx has good planet.

 

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Colonization fleets get some additional units.

 

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Talos is the last of bigger systems that we can currently survey (the others are out of range for now).

 

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As you see - not so lucky in the free worlds department.

 

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Orbital Dry-docks are done.

 

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It's time for some firepower improvement and of course that pirate base. X-Ray lasers are now a path to the laser point defense. In Prime X-Ray lasers were very rare and almost useless at the time they showed. Here they are still not so useful because of high power consumption.

 

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Next stop, the Gamma system.

 

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woot.gifyahoo.gif Yey, SOTS 2 AAR. :)

 

Don't you have your own to finish ? :P

 

::

 

Anyway, since we will do some research in Energy Weapons, maybe we should build a science station that will help a bit.

 

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On Talos station we found another Protean s.

 

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The stations is built and to keep track what is what, we name the station after the field they will help.

 

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Gamma system holds no secrets.

 

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So we take advantage and full speed ahead.

 

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Eh, the cost of development... I think I'll let private sector to do the job.

 

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Yey, for this system.

 

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Gamma 1 and 2 are ours now.

 

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And Gamma 1 reports that they can handle themselves now although still we need to dump money there.

 

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Ultara is no good for us.

 

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Mu someday later.

 

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Felix 3, you're next.

 

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Gamma 2 reports in.

 

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X-Rays are done. It's time to see those Laser PD's.

 

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Flinx is ours.

 

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And just for the sake of doing it.

 

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In all the places... We are the verge of the galaxy yet they come as the please...

 

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I would be really surprised if Morrigi couldn't get laser PD. Here in SotS2 there is no best PD system, though you could argue about it. Laser PD has the weakest damage, the fastest RoF and big range, low-medium accuracy. Gauss defense called Phalanx has everything at medium, Interceptor missiles have very long range, the longest reload, and take plenty of supply. The last of course Phaser PD, shortest range, the most damage, super accurate, but energy consumption is big - and you get this in Anti-Matter Era, providing you roll good luck with Phasors tree.

 

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Freud surveyed.

 

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We have more money now in our stockpile so we can afford those more expensive planets. It's back to Zoon.

 

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And it went quite fast, but we will support it furhter.

 

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Iszim is ready for colonization.

 

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And Flinx colonized second time is also green.

 

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Musca is bad place for now.

 

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More colonies will make more money.

 

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Don't you have your own to finish ? tongue.png

Yes I do. I haven't forgotten about it. Problem is to find time for that. :(

I have a lot of work to do as deadline is getting closer and closer.

 

I see that systems now have more than 1 planet. What is the max number of planets a system can have?

Can you colonize one planet and another player colonize other planes in a system?

What can you do with gas giants and asteroid belts?

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Yes I do. I haven't forgotten about it. Problem is to find time for that. sad.png

I have a lot of work to do as deadline is getting closer and closer.

 

Same thing you said a year ago tongue.png But I am fooling around.

 

I see that systems now have more than 1 planet. What is the max number of planets a system can have?

Can you colonize one planet and another player colonize other planes in a system?

What can you do with gas giants and asteroid belts?

 

6 I believe (maybe 8 but can't remember seeing that). As for the rest - in time.

 

::

 

Tiamat system discovered (isn't there a band of such a name?)

 

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Furuud is full of lfe again.

 

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Meh...

 

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We return to Zoraster sector to take care of that asteroid monitor.

 

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This time PROPERLY

 

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In comparison to SotS Prime, here special projects are done bit differently. You need to divert some money from overall research budget to special projects and/or salvage projects. The good side is you know exactly when the project will finish. The bad side is, that the main research may be delayed.

 

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Right after we establish colony, someone throws rocks...

 

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PD Lasers are finished, let's upgrade our biggest gun.

 

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Unicorn ain't that magical...

 

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It seems that we can proceed - would be surprised if 95% chance would fail... A side note - I don't know their algorithm but anything from 50-99% chance in feasibility guarantees a success. Anything below 40% is a failure.

 

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Back to Iszim.

 

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Phi... ('Phi' in Polish is equivalent of English 'Hmpf' ;) )

 

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Bronson Alpha... good thing not Charles eh ? ;)

 

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To increase our scouting territory we need a naval station that can supply our fleets. Each planet can sustain up to 6 CE of ships. Naval Yards can increase that. With Level 5 Naval Yard you can pretty much bunker down.

 

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Kanjar Ro.

 

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Neutron beams are done, we can upgrade our ships now with new guns and PD defense. Next is the advanced sensor which will give us deep scan.

 

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So let's see our next generation cruisers: Raven Mk2, Crow Mk2, Flock Dome (a drone cruiser), Wing Protector (Point Defence Cruiser)

 

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Slavers struck again. This time this planet is well populated so they only manage to land only 1 Wraith Abductor.

In SotS2, Zuul have 2 slave ships: Wraith Abductor which is little ship and normal slave ship as was in SotS Prime.

 

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Having done our prototypes, I've ordered rest of the ships to form the fleet that will attack that Pirate base.

 

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More scouting done. Let's find some virgins ;)

 

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Also Trantor. I wonder if it is named after that game (a cookie for the person who guesses what game I am talking about)

 

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That done. Now to something that will boost our production.

 

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And that Monitor should be at our disposal, though it is in the system with only asteroid belt.

 

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Since we have that deep scan, let's update our CnC ship.

 

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Plenty of Virgins for everyone.

 

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And the anti-pirate fleet is assembled.

 

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Expert systems are done. Now for heavy platforms that further will boost our production (also before Expert Systems, Heavy Platforms were supposed to take 17 turns so it saved me 5 turns). Also some races have some natural talents and for some techs they don't need feasibility. For example LOA which can have Expert Systems very fast and too boot they could go straight for AI and don't fear rebellion, but still AI would be long to get on the start even for them.

 

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We will take Ilona later.

 

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Our fleet has arrived it's time to butcher those filthy pirates.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIZE1ahpZFw

 

Well that didn't go quite well... so many pirate ships and that one PD cruiser did not help in stopping boarding pods. Clearly I was outnumbered in this fight greatly...

 

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But I will not rest. Next fleet is being assembled.

 

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Same thing you said a year ago tongue.png But I am fooling around.

 

Has a year already passed? Time flies soo fast. sad.png

 

As for the rest - in time.

Such a tease. tongue.png

 

It seems that we can proceed - would be surprised if 95% chance would fail... A side note - I don't know their algorithm but anything from 50-99% chance in feasibility guarantees a success. Anything below 40% is a failure.

 

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What happens when you fail at research? Can you restart? Or you can't research it at all? Can you salvage a tech that you failed to research?

 

Now for heavy platforms that further will boost our production (also before Expert Systems, Heavy Platforms were supposed to take 17 turns so it saved me 5 turns). Also some races have some natural talents and for some techs they don't need feasibility. For example LOA which can have Expert Systems very fast and too boot they could go straight for AI and don't fear rebellion, but still AI would be long to get on the start even for them.

So because you researched Expert system time to research Heavy Platforms was lowered?

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1. Yes it does :P

2. Yes I know

3. If your feasibility is low and you will insist in doing so, after the research reaches 200% it goes as fail and vanishes for 1 turn from the tree (well it did few patches back then) and after that you can do feasibility again but wouldn't count on luck. Tried this once and never had a success ever.

 

And yes you can salvage the tech. That is the point of salvage right ? Salvaging is bypassing feasibility. After salvage research is done you can then research that tech.

 

4. Well Expert System boost IO, which increases income, which leads to more money to research department. You're getting the picture ?

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4. Well Expert System boost IO, which increases income, which leads to more money to research department. You're getting the picture?

Yes, but from your comment before I got the impression that because you researching Expert System decreased time needed to research Heavy Platforms directly.

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Yes, but from your comment before I got the impression that because you researching Expert System decreased time needed to research Heavy Platforms directly.

 

A misinterpretation of a thought. It happens.

 

Alright we are 100 turns into the game. Let's see how we are doing.

 

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We are earning 2 millions per turn. It's ok I guess, we don't have any powerful fleets. Just 2 scouting, 2 colonization and 1 construction. We've surveyed 2 clusters. It so happens that the one additional was in my back yard. Unfortunately most of the planets are of high CH. But it so happens that we didn't see any AI yet so that means they aren't doing that much themselves.

So what can we do now to expand. We can't colonize those planets because they will eat our money. We either invest some research time for better bio techs and then build better colonization fleet, or invest some money in private sector. Though the first option is cheaper in the long run, we can't spare the time nor money for such things. We need more defensive fleets for planets that are sure to be near the borders of AI and after that Pirate Base will be gone we can spent money on trade. So we will spend some money to allow our citizens to form colonization parties and settle those planets.

This is a bit risky operation since, you can't say how much money you need to throw in order for said planet will be colonized. Plus you can't chose the planet and the planet will be independent so in order to get money out if it we will need to either conquer it or incorporate. The first option is simple the other requires some techs and diplomacy. So for now we will be spending 100k per turn for those civies to get to work.

Stimulus ain't the greatest option but it helps you solve some problems when you lack the means.

 

Here is the look of our galaxy.

 

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We get the colony at Draco

 

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Got attacked by slavers.

 

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Surveyed Xanthu and Talok

 

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Heavy Platforms are done. More IO is good. Now to even the odds in our fleet department. Combat algorithms will allow us to field 2 more Cruisers, which will make our fleet of total 11 ships (including CnC). Cruiser CnC generaters 54 command points with this it will be 66 points and cruiser takes 6 Command Points.

 

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Crysta is out of our reach.

 

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And it is time to face those pirates again.

 

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UYkchzv63A

 

Well that went quite unexpected. Guess they fled before our might fleet or I caught them flat footed. Oh well at least they are gone.

 

During the battle our new CnC ship performed less then desired. Yes in this game some designs may take some vices or virtues. At first you need to bring the first prototype to battle, later some prototyping techs will tell before combat and even leave only the positive effects.

 

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Ymar, Prism, Majipoor, and Barret holds no secrets.

 

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Barret will make a fine colony.

 

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We have 2 new clusters to scout so I guess another scouting fleet is in order.

 

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Aditi and Andor.

 

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We can field more ships in fleets. Last part of weapons update then we can take care of other problems.

 

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New colony established.

 

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Out of all things that could go wrong, this must have happened. 90% chance of acquiring this tech and I've found myself in those 10% :/

 

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It sucks because there is no other path to this and my only hope now is salvage. Ok let's try something else. This upgrade will give us more range. Morrigi are one of those races that bring plenty of supplies and this upgrade give less in comparison to for example Sol Force.

 

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It's time for those economics.

 

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And to crank up those defensive fleets.

 

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Looks like have found the Zuul.

 

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This is done, but we are far from establishing any trades yet.

 

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Since we are sponsoring new colonies and will be encountering aliens, it's good to invest in good ol diplomacy. Though I am not the fan of peace and quiet, I must go through it to get the incorporation of independent colonies.

 

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Well diplomacy ain't quite that ready yet in this game and Mecron did say that they will overhaul it eventually. When? I don't know - my guess is with second expansion. So it happens that Zuul are offering alliance... well in Prime that would be unthinkable. Because we are not war capable yet it doesn't hurt to accept it.

 

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Oh and in the mean time our first private colony and they already want a trade treaty.

 

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It's time to slowly prepare for trade - few of those fleets will be created to build civilian stations (and in some places diplomacy).

 

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Kaprica is free and close to probably other AI, so a fast grab is required.

 

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That is finished. Let's try some phasors. Phasors in general are better than fusion cannons.

 

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They also want a system information. Well fine by me.

 

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And by the way - that is how they span.

 

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Well damn. I can't even have phasors? Grrr.... well there is a second route to them but can't waste time right now.

 

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Looks like we need something certain.

 

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Because our sensor range is quite small, the Swarm surprised me quite bit. Lucky at the first attack they didn't want to attack the planet, so a few turns later a debugging squad arrived.

 

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Kaprica is ours.

 

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And because something bad must sometimes happen... In Prime it did minor damage. They only stole 500 resources... now they can steal ALL the resources from planet if not defended properly (which this is the case). I don't know if it is intentional but planet without resources still can produce something so this planet ain't that royally screwed and it was at the very end of the back yard, but still it hurts.

 

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Investigating the path of the swarm queen, I've found the potential infestation.

 

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Not really a lot of tries, once...

 

Once as once upon a time... not once as only one time after feasibility fail. In that case I did try 10-15 attempts.

 

 

(I've just tried to find other word but everything I tried to convert to slovenian was word 'enkrat'. God damn you languages)

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Ok, hope there will be no language mix-ups or else I will be writing in Esperanto or Latin :P

 

::

 

Here we have found those rocks from Tunguska

 

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And some Garnet rocks

 

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We are pouring plenty of cash on stations and some science labs

 

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Naltor

 

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Fusion cannon complete

 

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Now those heavy freighters. Why straight to heavy freighters? You'll find out soon enough.

 

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So with the new guns we can make new ships:

 

-Peace Keeper will be our police unit that will scare off potential pirates.

 

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Raven Mk3 and updated supply ship - The Holy Feeder :P

 

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We have found another infested system.

 

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Abd Zoon gets attacke by specters. These are fairly common now and only humans have the tech to be shielded against them. In Prime I was visited by specters 2 or 3 times. Here in every game there will be haunt of specters.

 

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Heegarra nothing special.

 

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They want money, well sorry I am investing my money to have more money.

 

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Dorsai system. This is one of the weirdest game I had. Sooooo many high CH planets. Should have made larger galaxy.

 

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Alliance you say... am I that superior? Or because I am Morrigi?

 

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Braal is ours - need to make fast naval yard - this system is in proximity of zuul and who knows when they betray us.

 

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Caladan is super nice, strange that hivers didn't took it. Well I need to hurry and grab it.

 

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I don't know what happened with AI but they didn't take any extra systems.

 

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Star Haven ain't that heavenly.

 

Another private colony.

 

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Vazn. And so many empty ones as if System Killer was here but if it was I would have know probably.

 

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Braal is all ours now.

 

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Heavy freighters are done.

 

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It's time to think about those new colonies. But that is not the ultimate tech.

 

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And Psius system that we can also steal from Zuul

 

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Ok gents it's time for another lesson: Trade.

 

Trade is much more complicated than in Prime. The only common thing is that you need that FTL Economics tech and design some freighters.

 

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When you've done that you need to build some Civilain Stations. Those stations handle everything important with trade: housing goods, handling freighters and so on. In order to export some goods first you need to have some free docks (triangles). Each station starts with 1 dock and you can add additional docks. Upgrading station adds more places for docks. The second thing is of course divert that industrial output towards the trade. There are three type of freighters: normal, mega and Q. Each freighter use 1 dock space and take 1 goods point. The exception are mega freighters which can take 2 goods. When the goods are loaded into the freighter it looks for a system within the trade range from that station where the goods can be delivered (import) thus creating trade route. There are 3 types of trade routes: inter provintional, outer provintional and those between empires. The first one yelds 15k of credits per goods, the second 25k per goods and the last one 35k per goods and of course any other tech bonuses.

 

In following example you can see that in Sera system there is a civilian station and one mega freighter assigned to it. Mega freighters are recognized by additional rhombus - the blue colour means it was built by my empire so I am paying any maintenance for it.

 

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Here you can see that some goods are delivered to Draco system. Draco system doesn't need to have civilian station to accept trade goods.

 

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Of course where there is trade there are pirates and we don't like pirates. How to deal with pirates? Currently the wiki states that base chance of pirate attack is 2% - was 5% last I watched. Now if the system doesn't have Naval base (even level 1) the chance rises by 2%. Even more rises when there are Zuul within 10LY. Also systems that don't belong to any province also suffer in increased pirate activity. To reduce the chance of pirates you need to create police cutters. Each cutter reduces the chance by 1%. The catch is that each system can support only 3 CE ships and police cutter is cruiser sized ship. So if you add things in order to reduce piracy you need to put naval yard too. There are of course some techs that further reduce the chance or making system closed for the outside (it also reduces tax income and stuff - think as open/closed borders).

 

I've also said previously that normal freighters ain't that good. Well if you look it now the mega freighters can take more cargo using the same amount of docks so that means less investment in civilian station. Second thing is that if you build the freighter the maintenance of normal and mega freighter is the same. The third thing is that if you have mega freighters - you can add some money to trade stimulus and civilians will build them and you will not pay the upkeep but gaining full profit from trade and by my tests it takes the same amount of cash to make those civis make some freighters. So because our shipyards will be doing something else we will divert some funds to private sector in trade department.

 

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I've also said a magic word: Province. What are they? In short they are group of systems that are more united and better governed. When you start the game you have 3 systems under your control (default settings) that are gathered as province. Each province can be created with 3 systems at start and up to 5 (with techs or 6 with special government type bonus but about that in another lesson) and within close distance to each other (again techs can increase that).

In this picture you can see me creating a province. For better understanding the province please visit the wiki.

 

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There is one more thing. Now I can answer one of your questions Veki. Can you colonize planet if someone else is there? Yes and No. If it is another empire then No. However you can research Trade Enclaves and with trade treaty you can make a trade colony there. You can only colonize the system if the system is occupied by no one or only independent colonies.

 

For more detailed info please visit the wiki.

 

And I would also forgot about the trade range. Here is the picture of how much range with trade I have. Morrigi now instead of better deals have know increased trade range. Don't forget that drive/energy tech also upgrades the range for trade.

 

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Ok returning to the regular program. We spot some nice place at Manticore system.

 

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Protectorate is finished. Now to upgrade the province mechanics

 

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Oh come on! Visit the Wiki? When have you turned into Mecron?! ;)

 

Kidding, kidding!

 

The game looks much better than no. 1. What would you say about gameplay comparison? Better, worse, just different?

 

Well I don't have to remember every detail so visiting wiki is your best option if you want to know more.

 

About the gameplay comparison - it's the question about what area. Overall SotS2 is better.

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Let's continue our story. Next lesson diplomacy or quoting certain someone from certain video game "political shitstorm".

 

Diplomacy ain't very well done. In fact diplomacy someday will receive total overhaul. When ? I don't know, though I am foreseeing in next expansion.

 

The diplomacy is divided into two sections: Empire and Independents.

 

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Here was the screen for independents that I am aware of. As you can see, the screen ain't that perfect and it has been for many many patches. So how do you do diplomacy. Well in Prime you just issued a proposal and that was it. Now things are bit more complicated. Diplomacy has it's own currency. It's called Diplomacy Points that divide into 2 section. Racial and Generic. To perform any action you need Racial Diplomacy Points (RDP) if you don't have those then Generic Diplomacy Points (GDP) are used in ratio 2:1 so if something costs 100 RDP you need 200 GDP. Unfortunately you don't know how many points you have. How do you earn points? Well it's simple every province you have generates some GDP, every diplomacy station, generates GDP (the better the station the more points) and on each diplomacy station you can build Alien Habitats that generate RDP. For detailed information see wiki.

 

So what we now want to do is to sign a Protectorate treaty with one of the independents that were created out of our private sector funding. Forget about the Duration option. Setting to 0 is setting like permanent. As you can see that this operation will cost us 200 RDP. Additionally we can add incentives like for example money to improve the chance.

 

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Here is the Empire screen of diplomacy. You can see the races that I've contact with, their drive/power tech that I am aware of, the difference in climate, current diplomatic status and their disposition towards me represented as a graph.

 

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The disposition thing is a bit miss and hit thing. There are many effects that can rise it or lower it. Like for example if your empire is bigger, has more colonies the AI will less like you, but if you are smaller they may like you. But here is the catch, the bonus is applied every turn. So for example if you are smaller than in 20 turns the disposition will rise to the point they will love you and probably most diplomatic proposals will be accepted. On the other hand if you are bigger, then AI will soon hate you. There is also hidden factor, like for example if AI knows you have no power in fleets he might as well sneak attack you even if you are his ally. But if you do sneak attack or even declare war on ally, you will receive a hidden diplomatic penalty in the eyes of other AIs. So yeah that is the diplomacy for you.

 

Here is a example picture. I wanted to give a trade treaty to hivers, but I don't have the points to do so. So that is why I am building few diplomacy stations and build those hive habitats.

 

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After the turn we get response from that colony. They say that we can go blow ourselves.

 

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They rejected the offer because they sort of don't like us. I didn't show but the disposition graph was almost at the button. I've asked a bit on the forums and Mecron gave a hint that the closer the colony to our province the higher the chance, also some taxation might change their attitude, current government status, and your diplomatic skills. The other forumer gave a graph that I approve:

 

https://i.imgur.com/pbayG31.png

 

So yeah that is diplomacy for you. Also I've mentioned something about government status. Every action you do shifts your government behavior toward something. You start at center (thus centrism). Each of the alignment has it's pros and cons. For example currently I am at socialism because I've tended to those new colonies. A side note: Socializm in this game is presented too optimistic as comparing what communists gave us.

The government types that are in this game are: Centrism, Socialism, Cooperative, Anarchism, Liberationism, Mercantilism, Plutocracy, Junta, Comunalizm.

 

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Back to the regular schedule. We finish of colonizing the leftovers from free worlds.

 

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We discover another Swarm Queen. But think we will manage to get on time.

 

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Meanwhile the Zuul are asking, but we can't spare - we invested 20 million in our trade system so we are slowly re-gaining money.

 

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Just in time.

 

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And strangely Zuul are sending invasion force... hmm....

 

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We get another planet on Psius.

 

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We finally can "afford" that treaty. Signing peacful treaties should increase the disposition towards you.

 

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That is done. Now for commercial riding. Not because we could create pirate raids, but there is a tech after that, that bolsters our defense of trade routes.

 

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Hivers accept our generous offer. Because they like us and it will benefit them too, though we don't have them in range in our trade routes.

 

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And another colony spawned.

 

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We can also create a new province.

 

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More colonies.

 

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Now Hivers are asking. I don't how this money for research works. Probably something like project booster but without any negative aspect. But sorry I don't have spare money.

 

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Sphinx is attacked by those bastards. But the planet defense is big enough to pass through their PhD (Phaser Defence).

 

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And Phi is bombed by meteors.

 

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This is done. And our next goal will be Convoy Systems. What basically it does it reduces the chance of pirates, 5% reduction in trade income and if by chance pirates show, the freighters will be near the planet where defense is way stronger.

 

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