Kindeloids: Blow-byBlow AAR (Full Version)

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rk0123msp@mindspring -> Kindeloids: Blow-byBlow AAR (8/4/2010 1:03:00 AM)

Decided to try my hand at an AAR here, see if I can get some analysis going and improve my game play for higher levels of difficulty. This is only about the 11th game I’ve played, so I’m not an expert and there are a lot of things I haven’t figured out yet about this game. This is going to be a very detailed & in-depth blow-by-blow and I’ll probably still be adding to it a year from now, since my game-playing pace is slow & I’m taking notes as I go along for this AAR. But, it’ll be worth it in the long run so I can look back and see what I did wrong & what I did right.

Firstly, I’ll summarize my initial settings. This is newest version as of 7/31/10, version 1.6.0:
Planet quality: normal, Independent alien life: normal, Expansion: starting, Aggression: restless, Research speed: very slow, Space creatures & pirates: normal, Irregular galaxy with 700 stars
Home system: normal, Size: starting, Tech level: basic, Corruption: normal, Democratic & Human
15 empires at start (maximum is 17 I think), independent aliens can start new colonies is checked
Victory: 50% colonies, 50% galaxy pop, 50% galaxy total economy, game finishes after 100 years, 10 years before start applying VCs

I prefer very slow research development for three reasons:
1) I hate maxing out on tech advances halfway through the game which happens (unfortunately) too much in 4x games for my liking,
2) I like my new designs to last more than 2 months before they’re obsolete,
3) I don’t want to have to upgrade my ships every other month. Ship designs that have a longer lifetime before becoming obsolete are more desirable.

Aggression on “restless” is equivalent to hard, which is one tick above “normal” difficulty. Eventually, I want to beat the AI on the most difficult settings. I also prefer starting at very basic level, if I could I’d start the game with no ships & only one planet at the lowest starting tech levels, but at this time that option is not available.

My basic strategy is to win through military conquest. How I plan to do this is as follows: start building a lot of exploration ships in order to find the valuable continental worlds to colonize and especially the “rare” luxury items (Loros fruit, Kaladian spice, and Zentabian Fluid). I don’t expect to find these at start. But, probably toward mid game once I’ve explored 40% or so of the stars, I should stumble on the first of these essential planets. I also plan on switching to “way of the ancients” government type as soon as I find it, as well as rapid construction of “world destroyers” using c-ships once I find them. I plan on destroying any AIs without hesitation, regardless of friend or foe or current relationship if they occupy the “rare” spice planets or are working on the “world destroyers”. Short-term finances will be improved through colonization of continental worlds, the more the better. Many exploration & colony ships will be needed to support this plan. I don’t plan on paying off pirates with money, rather with bullets. I plan on destroying them, their bases, and assimilating their fleets & deconstructing their ships to get the tech advances in research from so doing. As a result of my “anti” pirate strategy, I’m going to need more combat ships at start. I’m not liberal, so I’m not going to be open to a “friendly” coexistence approach to the galaxy and its peoples, but rather speak softly and carry a big stick of combat ships that cuts a wide swathe of pain.

As far as finance goes, I’m not looking to completely maximize profits. I just want to stay in the green while supporting as many ships as I can, and also minimize taxation (no more than 15% on non-homeworlds) in order to keep my population happy and avoid revolts. I plan on using transports and invasion troops instead of nuking populations from orbit in order to prevent planetary revolts. The very last thing I want to happen is for my empire to split due to revolt. This is the worst possible thing that could happen in terms of victory conditions, not to mention everything else. Hence, I plan on using a “Frederick the Great” as opposed to “Hitler” method of warfare: i.e. I’ll take advantage of alliances to declare war on enemy AIs & take some of their planets through invasion, but I don’t plan on exterminating them (via orbital nuking) or “completely” conquering them, as making peace gives me the opportunity to offend my previous “allies” and make war on them. Theoretically, I’ll only be involved in small regional wars against 1 to 4 AIs (at most) at any one time. It doesn’t matter to me who my friends & enemies are. As peace & war shifts, so will my friends and my fleets (aka Fredrick the Great) to different areas and new enemies, each time giving me the opportunity to conquer new worlds through invasion.

The keystone to keeping my fleets big will be the rare luxuries. Each time I find one, my plan is to triple my fleet size at that time while still maintaining no more than 15% colony tax rate. Once I have enough excess cash (early mid-game), I’ll build 10 secret agents and put them on defense to prevent revolt. Cornerstone of my plan is to expand slowly, maximally, prevent revolt (reduce revolt-risk as much as is possible), and lastly keep my enemies (all other AIs) weak.

The first print screen below shows my starting positions, key points: I started with 2 construction ships, which I think is important, 3 military ships, 8 freighters, 1 explorer, 8 mining & gas ships/bases, and 1 medium spaceport, for a total of 23 ships.
I also had the following resources at start (* asterisk is luxury item: 12 of the 14 are available at my home system, two [krypton & argon] come from the nearby Yaga system where a couple mining ships were deployed at game start by the computer):

1 argon
2 steel
1 irridium
1 gold
1 chromium
1 lead
1 emeros crystal
1 nekron stone
1 hydrogen
2 helium
1 krypton
1 *yarros marble
1 *megallos nut
2 carbon fibre

(Figure 1) at start


[image]local://upfiles/35683/4AB1251FA1D6477FB9BAB475D9983363.gif[/image]



rk0123msp@mindspring -> RE: Kindeloids: Blow-byBlow AAR (8/4/2010 1:05:17 AM)


Figure 2 below shows a print screen of an asteroid field approximately 10 months after the at-start view above. My first construction builds were: 2 escorts, 2 frigates, 2 destroyers, three colony ships, 4 exploration ships. One of my mining ships in an asteroid field in the nearby Yaga star system was immediately attacked from the getgo by a Kaltor. I dispatched my fleet (combined the three combat ships into fleet #1) to deal with it, unfortunately I was halfway there before pirates attacked another gas mining base in my home system. I did not redirect the fleet since it most of the way to the Yaga asteroid field. I killed the Kaltor but not before it killed my mining ship. I then redirected my fleet to the gas-mining ship which was being attacked by pirates, unfortunately they got there too late and my gas ship was KIA’d by the pirates. I killed the pirate ship, but it was able to kill my (damaged) escort before dying. First 10 months were not very good for the Kindeloids: lost 1 mining ship, 1gas mining ship, and one escort and only killed one Kaltor and one pirate frigate (I think it was) in return.

I have my two construction ships set to “auto” (i.e. the two blue arced-arrows are showing). What I thought interesting, shown in figure 2 below, is that one of the construction ships is building a mining base. Notice that the screen shown is ships & bases-> all ships and bases -> “nimble smuggler” and the “cargo” tab is open showing 6 components in the cargo bay (mining engine, luxury resource extractor, energy collector, corvidian(shields), standard hab module, and basic life support). I don’t have a colony in this system, so the construction ship must’ve loaded these components from my space port (I’m assuming) in Thanta Zelbra and brought them here to build the mining base. As you can see, in the lower left display screen it says MS1 mining station with “11 components unbuilt”. I did a little survey of this asteroid field and it seems to be full of “frozen asteroids” with no economic value (no strategic resources), so I’m not exactly sure what I’m going to get from this MS1 asteroid field mining station?

I rechecked my resources (from the expansion planner screen with resource summary) and I now have:

1 argon
4 steel
1 irridium
1 gold
1 chromium
2 lead
1 emeros crystal
1 nekron stone
1 helium
1 krypton
1 *yarros marble
1 *megallos nut
2 carbon fibre

The pirate attack cost me my gas resources of hydrogen & one helium, while I gained a lead and a couple of steel. I’m gonna have to build another gas mine if my construction ship doesn’t do it on “auto”. A couple of my builds completed (exploration ships & colony ships and I dispatched them to habitable worlds found from expansion planner). At this point, my ship summary is showing 37 ships (up from the 23 I started with). I now have 8 combat (2esc, 3frig, 3 DD), 3colony, 2 c-ship, 5exp ships, 9 freighters and passenger (pvt sector built a large freighter), 9 mining station ships/bases (I lost a gas mining station and a mining ship but my c-ships built or are in process of building 3 more mining ships), and 1 medium starbase.

(Figure 2) 2754.10.13




[image]local://upfiles/35683/F6D14C12FD1C45E4A119D650A86A61A2.gif[/image]



rk0123msp@mindspring -> RE: Kindeloids: Blow-byBlow AAR (8/4/2010 1:07:22 AM)


My last comment above alluded to the fact that I found three habitable continental planets, one was in my home system (Thanta Zelbra 1), and I successfully colonized it. The other two colony ships were dispatched to Ilyseom which has two great planets (continental and marsh) occupied by independents. At this point my finances are in shambles. I have 2404k cash on hand but –3648k is showing in red on the upper right part of the screen (the finances indicator). Clicking on my empire summary I see that I have +27k from tax, -29k ship upkeep and –5 troop upkeep for a net –7k cash flow. This could be a problem! I’m hoping that my two colony ships en-route to Ilyseom will come through for me and successfully colonize it. If they do, there is already a good size independent colony and I should be able to get a fair amount of taxes from it. If this doesn’t work, I’m gonna have to jack up my taxes on the two TZ (Thanta Zelbra) home planets. In fact, I just went ahead an jacked TZ-1 to 25% and TZ-2 to 10% just in case my Ilyseom colonization attempt fails. I obviously overbuilt a bit on my ships: my ship summary is now showing 40 ships, the extra three (over the 37 mentioned above in my last save game) are a fourth colony ship and 2 new pvt sector ships (a passenger and a small freighter).

I created a second military fleet of 4 ships and deployed it to Ilyseom to support my colonization efforts there. If my efforts to colonize Ilyseom are successful, I plan on making a major strongpoint for empire, with two already populated planets the growth of the planets should get huge in no time and become heavy hitters for me. Ilyseom also has 3 new resources (Aculon, Osalia, and Caslon) available that are not present in my home system or Yaga (note the system view shown in lower left of figure 3). With this view you can see that I’m positioned near the lower left of the screen in quadrant B-8, Ilyseom is in A-8. The Tanab system in B-9 also has resources (Polymer, Caslon, Argon, and Helium): Polymer is one I don’t have. And, you can see one of my C-ships has been dispatched there automatically (the small green square a third of the way there), however I am going to override the “auto” feature temporarily and build a gas mining station on my gas giant in TZ-3 (where I originally lost my gas mining station to the pirates) because I don’t want to be without hydrogen. Then, I will reset the c-ship back to “auto” afterwards and let it do its thing. Also note, there is a pirate base in quadrant B-7 which I plan on flattening as soon as I have the resources to do so; also it looks like there might be a neutron star in quadrant A-7 which would be a good spot for both research stations and tourist attractions.

(Figure 3) 2755.01.22



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rk0123msp@mindspring -> RE: Kindeloids: Blow-byBlow AAR (8/4/2010 1:09:25 AM)


Unbelievable, both the colonies I wanted to get successfully joined my empire! Now I have 4 well-established colonies of humans! This more than made for the bad luck I had in combat during the 1st year. Screenshot in figure 4 shows the two planets, not only are they great moons, but they’re moons of the same planet making their mutual defense much easier. You can see two of my combat ships from fleet 2 which I dispatched to cover the Ilyseom colonization attempt. Not only did I get lucky with the colonization attempt, but as you can see from the screen-shot one of the colonies offered me 15,551 credits, given my current financial status, a great boon. I attempted to “override” the action of my C-ship previously, but the game would not allow me to do so for some reason. I think it might’ve been because the cost of the gas mine I wanted to build was more than I had .. oh well, makes no difference. I’ll go ahead and let the C-ship build a mining station on Tanab because I’m going to need the Polymer anyway. By the way, there was a “Nexus of the Humans” relic on one of the Ilyseom planets, I investigated it but found nothing.

Now to cover my finances: My empire summary is showing 25,143 available and +2,190, underneath that in the detailed breakdown it says I have +29k tax, and -24k ship maintenance & -6k troop maintenance for a total of -1k in the red. Despite my big colonization success, I’m still in the red some. I went ahead and jacked up the taxes on my two new colonies to 8%. Hopefully, that will be enough to get me out of the red. I expect to find more colonizable worlds, so I’m going to lay down two more colony ships at a cost of about 12k total. This should leave me with 13k bucks in the bank. I don’t plan on expanding my fleets any more until I get more income from new colonies. The next ships though will definitely be a couple more exploration ships. The more planets I find sooner the better.

Defense wise, at this point, I have 2 four-ship fleets: one to cover Ilyseom and the other to cover everything else! It’s a bit slim for my liking, but due to my current finances I’m gonna have to live with it until I can get my finances more in the black.

(Figure 4) 2755.01.28



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rk0123msp@mindspring -> RE: Kindeloids: Blow-byBlow AAR (8/4/2010 1:12:05 AM)


The following figure shows the situation about 7 months after the previous screenshot. A series of major battles took place! First of all, the Kal Nattu Marauders offered their “protection”. Of course, I refused but not before offering them the end of my plasma rifle (or whatever we have these days). Apparently, the marauders were upset. They dispatched two separate attacks on my home system (Thanta Zelba). The first of these attacks was a suicidal frigate attack on my homeworld TZ-2, where I had most of the 1st fleet (1 esc, 1 FF, 1 DD) positioned, the remaining esc of 1st fleet (victory 3) was orbiting TZ-3 where I had a gas mining station: this is where the second marauder attack (also a frigate) fell. It was able to massively damage my gas mining station before the rest of the 1st fleet arrived to bolster the defense (after killing the other frigate). I was unable to watch the battle because a third battle simultaneously took place at the Ilukas (remember the pirate base I mentioned two posts ago). Anyway, I was able to deduce afterwards that my gas mining station was barely saved (it’s defense life-bar is completely red and the image is that of the “beehive” damage that ships get just before they blow up), my victory 3 escort was heavily damaged and was some distance away from the TZ system (apparently it was able to successfully run & escape before getting blown up). I did not see the marauder frigate, more than likely it was blown up (fighting the whole first fleet which included a destroyer), but it’s possible that it might’ve escaped also. I’ll count is as KIA since I think that is the most likely case.

I had earlier dispatched some colony ships based on the basis of the expansion planner alone. Unfortunately, I did not check exactly where these colonizable worlds were, and before I knew it one of my colony ships was being attacked in the Ilukas system (I did not look closely enough at the name of the planet). Needless to say, my colony ship was flattened by a pirate frigate. I tried to manually order it to escape but was unsuccessful. Of course, this pissed me off. Pirates attacking unarmed civilians is an unacceptable state of affairs (especially when they’re my civilians). I immediately decided to send the entire 2nd fleet (which I had positioned in the Ilyseom system to cover the colonization attempts there) to Ilukas to flatten these stinking thugs. Of course, my second fleet arrived at Ilukas at exactly the same time the marauder attacked TZ-3 which I mentioned in the preceding paragraph. Since the 2nd fleet battle was larger and a little more “iffy” I decided to watch it instead. Note that my 2nd fleet is a little stronger than the 1st fleet (2nd: 2DD and 2FF), (1st: 2esc, 1FF, and 1DD). Both have 4 ships. I was able to blast both the pirate base and the frigate shown in the printscreen which had previously killed my colony ship. There’s a price to be paid for being a pirate, and that price is a head on a spit! Very satisfying, I avenged my colony ship and killed 3 pirate frigates and one pirate base. Of course, several of my ships are heavily damaged and my mining base is barely standing with a couple of two-by-fours to hold the walls up. I can only hope that I can repair my stuff before additional attacks take place.

At this point it would be a good thing to go over my empire summary and see what’s up. I have 45,702 bucks in the bank, +2,363 according to the upper right financial indicator. Empire summary says I’m getting 29k from tax and 16k “space port income” wow, that’s new! My state costs are the same 24k ship maintenance and 6k for troops. I have a net +15k cashflow. I can expand my ships a little now, but I want to check my ships screen first. I now have 8 combat ships (unchanged), only 1colony ship (three were “consumed” two in colonizing the 2 Illyseom planets and one got killed in Ilukas), 2 c-ships, 5explorer, 15 freighter/passenger ships now (4passenger, 6 small f, 5 medium f, and 3 large f). This was a pretty large expansion in the private sector and I’m assuming this is what accounts for that 16k “space port income” I noticed in the empire summary above. Also, I now have 15 mining ships (another large expansion here in pvt sector, this must be what my c-ships on “auto” have built), and my medium space port at TZ-2. Let’s see what these extra mining ships are getting for me from the expansion planner:

2 argon
4 steel
1 irridium
2 gold
2 chromium
2 lead
1 emeros crystal
1 nekron stone
1 helium
2 krypton
1 *yarros marble
1 *megallos nut
4 carbon fibre
2 caslon

Those whopping 6 extra mining ships got me 7 more resources than I had before (1 more argon, 1 more chromium, 1 more krypton, 2 more carbon fiber, and 2 caslon). At least these mining ship types are part of private sector costs, so it makes no difference how many of them I have. The big jump here is the 2 caslon, which is a strategic resource I did not have before (no doubt this was the doing of that c-ship that went to the Tanab system noted two posts up). What I really need is more luxury resources; I have the same 2 that I started the game with and it’s a year & half later. I definitely need to build now, but how much and what? I can’t go crazy because the “space port income” is only there while new private sector ships are being built, there’s no guarantee that this same rate of construction will be maintained there for long. Also, I need a minimum of 3 new colony ships as I now have 4 colonizable worlds available in my expansion planner, that’s about 18k right there. I’m going to need more military ships because one of the colonizable worlds is in Ilukas (site of the now-dead pirate base) which is fairly distant and needs to be covered. Hmmm .. what I’ll need is 4 colony ships (about 24k), two exploration ships (about 3k) and 2 more frigates (about 9k).


(Figure 5) 2755.07.13



[image]local://upfiles/35683/64B56810E08D4CB589DF69C3FAE09241.gif[/image]



rk0123msp@mindspring -> RE: Kindeloids: Blow-byBlow AAR (8/4/2010 1:13:58 AM)


I sent a second colony ship to Ilukas-1 (now cleared of pirates and guarded by most of 2nd fleet). Ilukas-1 has silicon and Natarran Incense which will get me my third luxury resource. As far as my fleet combat-aftermath from the previous save, 2ships of 1st fleet were sent to repair at TZ-2, the other two hold at TZ-3 gas mining station. One DD from 2nd fleet was sent to TZ-2 to repair, the other 3ships of 2nd fleet hold at Ilukas to cover the second colonization attempt. I also “manually overrode” the automatic setting of one of my c-ships and sent it to repair the TZ-3 gas mine which is barely alive from the earlier attack.

2755.09.24 I discovered the Hall of Lulnar, investigated it, but it was a pirate ambush! 4 pirate frigates were unleashed at a continental moon with 4 resources (chromium, polymer, iridium, and carbon fibre), although the system had in addition to this: steel, argon, hydrogen, aculon, and otandium opal. Otandium opal is another luxury resource that I could definitely use, and it would give me my fourth one.

2755.10.20 A pirate (destroyer!!) of the KTM (Kal Nattu Marauders) attack my main homeworld at TZ-2 which has several of my combat ships there for repair (of course!). At this time, three of my new colony ships are completed and I dispatch them to colonize: Sol-2 (with Quantha fur, silicon, wiconium), Vintiuueni--3 (Lead, Nekros stone, Polymer, Emeros Crystal, and Steel), and Epaunank (Chromium, polymer, iridium, carbon fibre). Most of this stuff on these colonization attempts I have except for the resources on Ilukas-1 and Sol-2. Unfortunately, I don’t have any extra combat ships to cover these colonization attempts at the moment, so I’m just going to take my chances (none of these places are known pirate-bases; I checked this time).

2755.12.12 The battle at TZ-2 is still raging! This is one tough destroyer! I had to dispatch the two ships from 1st fleet that were guarding TZ-3 gas mine to the fray. Also, one of my exploration ships (Feeble Memory) gets attacked out in space by a pirate FF of the KTM. These guys need to be wasted badly!! Ilukas-1 is successfully colonized, but my economy goes into the red! My escort (Victory 2) is destroyed at TZ-2 by that damn destroyer. “Growing Twilight” exploration ship is attacked out in space by a frigate of the KTM. Suddenly, the three ships I left to cover the Ilukas-1 colony are attacked by two pirate FFs of another pirate group, the dark storm invaders. I am able to KIA one frigate but the other escapes with heavy damage.

2756.03.03 Both my colony attempts at Sol-2 and Virtuueni-3 are successful. The battle at TZ-2 finally ends, but the KTM DD successfully escapes. The screen shot is taken with my remaining fleet ships running down the heavily damaged KTM DD, but it is able to warp away before I could destroy it. Unfortunately, the KTM pirates in this case were able to take advantage of the fact that I had battle-damaged ships from the last battle, and were able to hit me with a strong ship (a destroyer this time) before I could get enough un-damaged forces to bear on it. My next short-term strategic goal is to eradicate these stinking KTM pirates no matter what it takes. They really pissed me off this turn. Once I’ve repaired my ships, I’ll combine my two fleets and send them to Kal Nattu and flatten these jerks once and for all with a combined fleet attack. I figure it will take 6 to 8 combat ships at least to accomplish this. Notice that the size of the KTM destroyer is 229, which is larger than my own DD at 224. I wish there was some way to scan its components, so I know exactly what I’m up against. Hopefully, they don’t have more than one of these things.

(Figure 6) 2756.03.23


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rk0123msp@mindspring -> RE: Kindeloids: Blow-byBlow AAR (8/4/2010 1:17:17 AM)

2756.03.24 Three of the new FFs are completed. I decide to add two of them to 1st fleet (which had previously lost its escort), and I created a 3rd fleet with the remaining two FFs (one of which is still under construction). I set the home colony to Ilukas-1 for the 3rd fleet and dispatch the one completed ship of this fleet there. I also move the rest of the 2nd fleet from Ilukas-1 to TZ-2 in preparation for my combined attack on the KTM pirates.

2756.05.04 The exploration ship Fortunate Culprit is attacked by a pirate FF

2756.05.17 The exploration ship Glowing Twilight is attacked by a pirate FF of the KTM

2756.06.18 The exploration ship Humble Nova is attacked by a KTM FF. I decide to lay down another DD in the construction queue. I switched the c-ship “Nimble Smuggler” back to “auto” after it successfully repairs the gas mine at TZ-3.

2756.07.08 Both 1st and 2nd fleet finally rendezvous at TZ-1 (9 combat ships total). I order both fleets to refuel for the upcoming battle as there are many nearly-empty ships.

2756.08.30 The exploration ship Humble Nova is attacked by KTM pirates.

2756.09.30 Fleets 1 and 2 have completed refueling. They are ordered to attack the KTM pirate base at Kal Nattu 9; there is also a colonizable world at Kal Nattu 6, but I will hold off sending a colony ship there until the battle there is over.

2756.10.13 I encountered my first new AI empire in the Abunshi system, the Kiaden Federation.

2756.11.08 The gas mining station at Ilyseom 4 is under attack, unfortunately I have no extra ships as 90% of my military is en-route to the KTM pirate base. Only 3rd fleet (its second FF is now complete & both are positioned at Ilukas) can do anything about it. There just happens to be a pirate ship floating near 3rd fleet and I order the two FFs of 3rd fleet to attack it. They attack & KIA the frigate, and are immediately sent to Ilyseom-4 mining station (later investigation shows my station was destroyed before my FFs could arrive).

2757.01.08 Battle is joined !! My fleets arrive at Kal Nattu 9. I successfully flatten the pirate base at Kal Nattu 9 with the combined weight of 1st and 2nd fleet. The pirate faction “Dark Storm Invaders” join my empire. The funny thing is, these are not the KTM pirates which were based in the KTM system and who had been plaguing my existence so far. These are the pirates who had been hitting me in the Ilukas system as of recently. The screen shot shown in figure 7 is shown just about 1 second after the pirate base was smashed. There is still a significant pirate fleet here, 5 ships (1 DD, 3 FF, and 1 Esc). I’m not sure what the final cost will be at this point as I’ve game-saved at this point.

This would be a good time to assess my empire, a year & three months since the last assessment. At this point I have 7 colonies in 5 systems, my on-hand cash is 47k, ship expenses are –34k and troop expenses are –7k, cashflow is –9k. I now have 81 ships: 13 combat ships (2esc, 7FF, 4DD), 2 colony ships, 2 c-ships, 7 exploration ships, 32 passenger/freighters, 23 mining ships/stations, 1 medium space port, and 1 starbase. I gained a starbase in the Ussil system along with a pirate escort when the Dark Storm Invaders defected. I now have the following resources from the expansion planner:

2 argon
6 steel
1 irridium
2 gold
2 chromium
4 lead
2 emeros crystal
2 nekron stone
2 hydrogen
3 helium
2 krypton
1 *yarros marble
1 *megallos nut
4 carbon fibre
3 caslon
1 polymer
2 silicon
1 *Natarran Incense
1 *Dantha Fur
1 *Wiconium

Major gains in the luxury resources area, I now have 5 luxury resources as well as gaining 3 industrial resources (Polymer, silicon, and Hydrogen). Hydrogen I had at the very start of the game, but it was lost almost from the outset by a pirate attack, at least I’ve regained access to it now.

(Figure 7) 2757.01.08



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rk0123msp@mindspring -> RE: Kindeloids: Blow-byBlow AAR (8/4/2010 1:21:47 AM)

2757.01.08 Built two more exploration ships, 4 colony ships, and 1 DD. I increased taxes to 10% on all non-homeworld colonies.

2757.02.23 Battle at Kal Nattu 9 finally ends, pirates lose ! 4 pirate ships (out of the 5 noted in last post) are KIA, unfortunately “Big Mama” the pirate DD escapes with massive damage. Several of my ships are hit, one (frigate from fleet 2) is hit badly. I dispatch 4 colony ships (now that the pirates are cleaned out) to 4 different planets in four different systems including Kal Nattu-6. All these planets have resources that I already have (nothing new).

2757.04.12 Another pirate ship, the “External Fugitive”, a frigate appears near Kal Nattu-6 and it is promptly wasted. 3rd fleet (two frigates) which I had previously dispatched to Ilyseom to cover the pirate attack there appear in Kal Nattu system for reasons unknown to me. They are ordered to refuel as their fuel is low. 1st fleet is sent back to TZ-2 (all 5 of its ships). One of 2nd fleet frigates (the one heavily damaged mentioned above) decides to go repair at TZ-2 without my input. All my combat ships are set on “manual” and not “auto”. I let this frigate go repair, since it needs to. The “forgotten archives” are found at Kal Nattu-6. Investigation reveals galactic history: the Shakturi are attempting to overthrow the galaxy.

2757.04.20 Another pirate FF appears at Kal Nattu-6, 2nd fleet (at Kal Nattu-9) is sent to intercept (minus the FF en-route to repair at TZ-2). The FF is KIAd. The two new DDs I previously laid down (one on 257.01.08 the other on 2756.06.18) are completed and I combine them along with the pirate escort Invincible Doom (which defected earlier) into a 4th fleet. My 4 fleets are now composed as follows: 1) 1DD, 3FF, 1esc 2) 2DD, 2FF, 3) 2FF, 4) 2DD, 1esc. So far, my military record is:
Killed: Kaltor, 1esc, 10FFs, 2 pirate bases … 14 total various “things”
Lost: 1mining ship, 1gas mining ship, 2 esc, 1 colony ship, 1 gas mining station … 6 various “things”
I’ve killed about 2.3 times more than I’ve lost, so it appears that I’m on top of the military situation so far.

2757.05.19 A trade agreement is offered to the Kiadian Federation by my advisors, it’s accepted.

2757.07.08 Kal Nattu-6 is successfully colonized. The existing population joins my empire & they give me 15,894 bucks. I encounter a new empire in the Arba system, the Tuydara Sovereignty. 4th fleet is sent to refuel, so are three ships of 2nd fleet (the fourth ship was damaged and “auto”-ordered itself to repair at TZ-2)

2757.09.14 Abrigadu-Fos-3 successfully colonized.

2757.09.15 Weyms successfully colonized.

2757.09.20 Epaunank successfully colonized. The following list is cargo listed under cargo(39) of my medium spaceport at TZ-2, also the “construction summary” (print screen shown below) is opened for the “Resolute Pearl” which is the 4th ship under construction at TZ-2. The first four ship types under construction are: Mining ship, Gas mining ship, Gas mining ship, Mining ship. The next 5 ships in the queue are Large freighter, Medium freighter x 2, Small freighter, Passenger ship. Cargo list mentioned above:

TYPE........................................ AMOUNT.........RESERVE
Caslon ……………………………............ 9289..............0
Hydrogen…………………………........... 20088............0
Steel………………………………............. 6101..............267
Carbon fibre………………………......... 20000............38
Helium……………………………............. 4741..............78
Lead……………………………….............. 20000............80
Gold……………………………….............. 4646.............84
Polymer…………………………............. 2370.............148
Silicon……………………………............. 5025.............66
&Aculon……………………………........... 5889.............9
Iridium……………………………............ 2165.............24
Chromium………………………….......... 9830.............30
Nekros Stone…………………….......... 1860.............0
*Megallos Nut…………………….......... 1766.............0
*Yarros Marble……………………........ 15085...........717
Emeros Crystal……………………........10641...........0
Argon……………………………...............2749.............0
*Dantha Fur……………………….......... 3813.............762
Std. Fuel Cell FS_100……………...... 13................13
Std. Hab Module HM-100………...... 16................16
Basic Life Support LS-100……….... 19................19
*Wiconium…………………………..........894..............972
*Natarran Incense…………………......729..............1075
**Ucanthium Pearl……………………...0 .................897
**Terrallion Down…………………....…0..................897
+Hydrogen…………………………..........1500............1500
**Rephidium Ale…………………....…..0..................999
Basic Command Center CC-100…5.................5
Luxury Resource Extractor L100…1.................1
Standard Cargo Bay CS-100……… 23...............23
Standard Armor…………………….......5.................5
Maxos Blaster……………………..........4................4
Corvidian HX100…………………........ 4................4
Mining Engine M100………………...... 1................1
Proton Thruster Zx3………………......8................8
Fission Reactor FS100……………......2................2
Gerax Hyperdrive………………….......3................3
Thrust Vector J3………………….........4................4
Std. Passenger Comp. PC100......6................6

NOTES: * star are luxury resources I have from sources in my empire, ** are luxury resources I do not have in my empire, but apparently I’ve acquired somehow, + all these item show my empire flag to the extreme left except this one item, I don’t know why? & is a strategic resource I do not have in my empire at this point, but I’ve somehow acquired it (it’s present in one of my systems, Lulnar, but not at a colonized planet nor a mining base.. though I suppose a mining ship might’ve went there & now has flown away after mining a full load).

There are several interesting things here. Firstly, I’ve only recently made a formal trade agreement (2757.05.19) with an opponent AI, and as of the date of this snapshot (2757.09.20 .. about 4 months later almost to the day), I have made no money in foreign trade; as my empire summary shows 0k in foreign trade. Yet, I clearly have items that are not produced in my empire, as the notes above indicate. I have no sources of the strategic resource Aculon, yet my medium starbase has 5889 tons available and 9 on “reserve”. I assume this means it has reserved “cargo space” for it after having “ordered” it from a foreign AI (as the discussion in the very good thread “private economy questions” leads me to believe). Two-asterisk (**) luxury items are not available in my empire and must have been imported, as are my one-asterisk luxury exports, yet I have no foreign trade revenue? All the items in the snapshot above show my empire’ flag except Hydrogen which has no flag at all, though I have 3 production sites for it as shown in the resource planner below. Trying to figure out exactly how this works, is interesting & daunting. At this point in my game, this is my only spaceport, hence the only ships I can build are being built here. There are many strategic resources on “reserve”. I’m assuming that these are all on reserve in amounts needed to produce the “components” listed in the bottom 12 or so slots. It seems that the program “shifts” resources from used to “reserved” then these are “converted” to spaceship components, then these components are “installed” on the ships under construction (in the construction arm slots). In this case, I have 9 private sector ships being constructed. Why I have Ok foreign trade, when there is clearly a lot of foreign trade going on, I have no idea? It could be that the net profit after buying & selling resulted in 0k revenue, but this seems extremely unlikely to me.

Other finances: 46,313 cash available with (+13,601) in top right of screen. Empire finances are: 46k cash, +39k tax, +13k space port income (9 private sector ships under construction at TZ-2 spaceport), -38k ship/base maintenance, -1k fuel cost, -8k troop costs, net cashflow +5k (barely in the black here).. My fleet size is now 95 ships: 14 combat (2esc, 7FF, 5DD), 2colony ships, 2 c-ships, 9 exploration ships, 37 freighter/passenger(8/12/10/7), 29 mining ships (9/9/5/6), 1 medium space port and 1 starbase. My resources from the expansion planner are as follows:

3 argon
6 steel
2 irridium
2 gold
4 chromium
5 lead
3 emeros crystal
2 nekron stone
3 hydrogen
4 helium
2 krypton
1 *yarros marble
1 *megallos nut
5 carbon fibre
4 caslon
2 polymer
3 silicon
1 *Natarran Incense
1 *Dantha Fur
1 *Wiconium
1 Osalia

I gained Osalia which is a strategic resource from somewhere (Ilyseom system I think), a few of the others increased.

(Figure 8) 2757.09.20


[image]local://upfiles/35683/6762F3888DC94D1F8A2179AEC8C7E3F0.gif[/image]



Brazouck -> RE: Kindeloids: Blow-byBlow AAR (8/5/2010 12:41:46 PM)

Great AAR, thanks ! 



rk0123msp@mindspring -> RE: Kindeloids: Blow-byBlow AAR (8/11/2010 1:46:16 AM)

Thanks Brazouck!

2757.10.26 I modified the RB-1 resort base design to have 3 less shields and 4 less Maxos blasters, and added two of each of the 4 science research labs, as follows:

1 Basic cmd center
3 fission reactor Fs100
4 std. Fuel cell Fs100
8 std. Docking bay DB100
8 std. Cargo bay Cs100
10 std. Passenger compartment PC100
5 energy collector ECL100
1 enhanced commerce center Cx200
1 std. Medical center Cx200
1 basic recreation center Rc100
1 basic proximity array PA100
1 basic combat targeting CTS100
6 std armor
10 corvidian Hx100
6 maxos blaster
4 std hab module HM100
4 basic life support Ls100
2 weapons lab WL100
2 industrial lab IL100
2 energy lab El200
2 high tech lab HL100

I countermanded C-ship “Celestial Profit” and ordered it to construct RB-1 at the HP345 Neutron star (system). Even if my passenger ships don’t use the new recreational base, I should get my money’s worth from the 200% research boost, which is why I added the research labs to the basic design.

2757.11.13 I decided to lay down 6 more exploration ships. Right now, there are no colonizable worlds in my expansions planner, and I need to keep finding new worlds.

2758.01.07 I encountered a new race in the Dila system, the Kurba Industries.

2758.04.21 Something strange happened. My C-ship “Celestial Profit” arrived at the HP345 Neutron star. Apparently, it got to the coordinates where it was to build the RB1 resort base, but then a “lightning bolt” seemed to strike my ship and a news result/report said “construction ship Celestial Profit has completed its mission,” but no base was constructed?? I tried to manually do the exact same construction again about 3 inches away, and the exact same thing happened: lightning bolt and construction completed news report. Apparently, the game won’t allow me to build a resort base here. I don’t understand why? The figure below is the screenshot and also shows my c-ship’s cargo hold. You can see the Neutron star at the top of the screenshot, and my c-ship is off to the left.

(Figure 9) 2758.04.21



[image]local://upfiles/35683/39C3D4E31FA14875A0E5D8FD33144F7B.gif[/image]



rk0123msp@mindspring -> RE: Kindeloids: Blow-byBlow AAR (8/11/2010 1:48:09 AM)

2758.04.23 I redirected “Celestial Profit” to build an RB-1 at the OK842 Neutron star, which is probably too far from the homeworld to be useful for resort income. I also decided to lay down two new small space ports at Abrigadu-Fos and SOL. I encountered a new species in the NAR Shaddos system, the Ackdaran Territory.

2758.09.22 I encountered another new empire in the Rallteer system, the Barunda Ascendency. I also decided to lay down a 3rd C-ship.

2758.11.09 I sent a colony ship to colonize Kantras Gula-1, which was just discovered and appeared in my expansion planner. I also decided to send 4th fleet to cover the colonization attempt, lastly I laid down 4 more colony ships.

2759.04.07 Unfortunately, a colony ship from the Kurbus Industries (the red guys at top of screenshot) appeared and colonized Kantras Gula-1 before I could get there, as shown in the screenshot. Needless to say, this pissed me off. My colony ship (previously dispatched there) had its orders overturned automatically by the game program. 4th fleet had almost arrived at the Kantras Gula system as shown in the screenshot. The Kurbus jerks just barely edged out my fleet to the planet. I have not been able to colonize a planet not in over a year (since 2757.09.20); that’s almost 19 months without a new planet. Although I have not gotten attacked, this doesn’t make up for the lack of new-colony-expansion which is crucial if I’m going to meet the victory conditions. I’m thinking about laying down some transports & ground troops …

(Figure 10) 2759.04.07



[image]local://upfiles/35683/5D47471AFB104CDB8EA1728BA709D9EA.gif[/image]



rk0123msp@mindspring -> RE: Kindeloids: Blow-byBlow AAR (8/11/2010 1:52:27 AM)

2759.04.09 “Humble Nova” is under attack by a Kaltor. I decided to lay down 7 new troops and 2 troop transports. Since I’ve been having a serious dry run on new colonies, I’m going to have to take militarily what I can’t get peacefully. I raised taxes on all colonies to 10% and 23% on the homeworld.

2759.09.19 Starbase SOL (laid down in 2758.04.23) is completed. I encounter a new race, the Heakonish Industries. “Splendor of Thanta Zelbra” is under attack by a Kaltor.

2759.10.17 The two TTs complete their construction. They are ordered to load troops, and they are combined into a 5th fleet. They are ordered to move to Kantras Gula for invasion (the system with the planet that taken out from under me on 2759.04.07 .. Kurba will pay a steep price for that insolence).

2760.05.03 5th fleet arrives at target system and is ordered to attack (as in invasion) Kantros Gula-4 which is a swampy marsh planet. You can see the alien red ring around the planet. Hopefully, I’ll be able to build colony ships from here and open up more worlds for colonization. 4th fleet (which had been moved to this system on 2758.11.09 to cover the original colonization attempt) is ordered to support the invasion of Kantros Gula-4. Screen shot is taken at this time showing planet just prior to invasion with my empire summary showing “respectable” reputation and –23k cashflow. I’ve taken a major hit financially after laying down 7 troops and 2 TTs, but I had no choice given the lack of colonization opportunities (since 2757.09.20: or 2yrs, 7months, and 14days) is killing me. Hence, I’m gambling on getting some financial boon here through war spoils.

(Figure 11) 2760.05.03



[image]local://upfiles/35683/8A476FE36E0A45D4AB8750D97EE9CCC5.gif[/image]



rk0123msp@mindspring -> RE: Kindeloids: Blow-byBlow AAR (8/11/2010 1:53:40 AM)

2760.05.24 New report: an independent colony is found of Boskaras at the desert planet Nobea 1 in the Nobea System; they are good ground troops and tenacious fighters, but I’m warned that a colonization attempt will most likely fail.

2760.05.25 I took Kantros Gula-4 & sent a colony ship to Nobea-1 despite the warning. The planet of Nobea-1 also has another luxury item, wiconium which would help immensely. Screen shot shown is taken immediately after the successful invasion of Kantros Gula-4; you can see the green ring around the planet now (not red) which is the Kindeloids color. 4 troops were all it took, as you can see in the lower left detail screen. My reputation took a hit, and I now have “satisfactory” reputation. Funny thing is, I’m at war with 0 empires J explain that to me someone? I went up to –20k cashflow, so I’m not as bad off as I was, but it’s surely not what I’d hoped for .. guess I’m gonna have to take another planet since my second TT is still full and there are enemy planets in the system just asking to be plucked like ripe tomatoes. I’m roughly 6 years into the game at this point.

(Figure 12) 2760.05.25



[image]local://upfiles/35683/EFFD4F818A6E482B8A1C4F52F96FF0D5.gif[/image]



rk0123msp@mindspring -> RE: Kindeloids: Blow-byBlow AAR (8/15/2010 1:30:58 AM)


2760.05.24 4th and 5th fleets are ordered to attack Kantras Gula-1. “Praetor 2” TT of 5th fleet only has two troops, but the planet has no military defense, so that should be enough.

2760.06.16 Advisor suggestion pops up: Our diplomats and military advisors are concerned about our rival the Kurbus Industries. They recommend that we undertake pre-emptive action against them. If you agree, we will notify all of our military ships to raid any targets of opportunity they encounter. These attacks may harm our reputation a little, and the Kurbus Industries probably won’t like it much. But we will have taught them a good lesson! Should we commence the raids against the Kurbus Industries? Yes .. sure why not, I’ve pretty much all but declared war on them formally at this point anyway.

2760.06.27 We encountered a new empire in the Lyras system, The Combined Baskar Alliance.

2760.07.02 The Kurbus Industries declare war on me !!

2760.07.12 We successfully invade and take over Kantras Gula-1. News report: New ability for our empire: our recent conquest of the planet Kantras Gula-1 has brought the Haakonish race into our empire, imparting new special abilities to our empire: master engineers: ship maintenance –2%. My TTs of 5th fleet are now out of invasion troops, they are sent back to TZ-2 to reload. More news: Military advisors recommend we attack the smugglers Hideaway, owned by our enemy the Kurbus Industries in the Lenos system. The 4th fleet is waiting in the Kantras Gula system, ready to attack, should we initiate the attack? .. sure, why not.

2760.10.26 4th fleet arrives in the Lenos system to initiate its attack, about 5 seconds later a large fleet of Kurbus Industries appears out of warp all around me, shown in the snapshot below … Grrrr …. I’m going to have my military advisor’s head on a plate. From now on, all military actions of the Kindeloids will be under imperial control only. It’s just a question of how much I’m going to lose after this debacle. Game saved at this point.

(Figure 13) 2760.10.26



[image]local://upfiles/35683/C431E8EEA86D4DC2B5C5FA28C7001568.gif[/image]



rk0123msp@mindspring -> RE: Kindeloids: Blow-byBlow AAR (8/15/2010 1:32:32 AM)

2760.10.26 I ordered 4th fleet to repair & refuel and thus exit from this one sided battle, 2xDDs are lost before they can escape (90% of the fleet), Grrrr, I’m gonna have that @$%$%$ advisor’s head on a stick for this! I order 2nd and 3rd fleet to Kantras Gula. By the way, that Kurbus fleet which hit me was composed of 8ships: 5DD, 2FF, and 1TT. A significantly sized fleet at this point in the game.

2761.02.17 Reshe-3 GMS (gas mining station) is under attack from DD Andaman 005; it KIAs my GMS (too far away from reinforcements for me to help)

2761.03.06 We encounter a new empire in the Nobea System, the imperial Phendar Supremacy.

2761.04.08 Colonization attempt at Nobea-1 fails; I’ll have to send in troops sometime later when I have a chance. 4th fleet (now just one Esc) is sent to Abrigadu-Fos-3.

2761.05.14 TZ-4 GMS is under attack from the pirate ship “Intrepid Eminence” of the Bloody Claw Intruders, 1st fleet at TZ-2 is sent to intercept.

2761.06.07 That large Kurbus fleet from before appears at Kantros Gula-1, no doubt intent on invasion. My colony has 4 troops on defense on planet. 2nd and 3rd fleet, which are now available in the Kantras Gula system (positioned near the sun) are ordered to intercept. Screenshot shows the Kurbus invasion fleet just before invasion.

(Figure 14) 2761.06.07



[image]local://upfiles/35683/202B3D6D62804819831A51152D2DB30A.gif[/image]



rk0123msp@mindspring -> RE: Kindeloids: Blow-byBlow AAR (8/15/2010 1:35:02 AM)

2761.06.09 TTs of 5th fleet are ordered to load troops, 5th fleet is now at TZ-2. 1st fleet is able to destroy the pirate escort at TZ-4 saving the GMS in the process.

2761.07.08 Combat is joined at Kantras Gula-1, Kurbus takes my planet despite the 4troops defending it, as shown in the screenshot below:

(Figure 15) 2761.07.08



[image]local://upfiles/35683/B49648A2398842808774DD500E8EBFA6.gif[/image]



rk0123msp@mindspring -> RE: Kindeloids: Blow-byBlow AAR (8/15/2010 1:36:47 AM)

2761.09.03 Battle at Kantras Gula-1 is lost! what a bummer. Kurbus loses 2FF kia and 1DD heavy damage, plus 1TT heavy damage. Kindeloids lose 2DD kia, 1FF kia, and 1FF heavy damage, plus the loss of Kantras Gula-1 to invasion. Screenshot shows the situation at the end of the battle. I lay down 3 new DDs for construction at SOL starbase. The cruddy money situation is killing me this game.

(Figure 16) 2761.09.03



[image]local://upfiles/35683/6EC9DDA79EFA446AB47982B31A331C66.gif[/image]



rk0123msp@mindspring -> RE: Kindeloids: Blow-byBlow AAR (8/15/2010 1:40:29 AM)

2761.09.19 “Resolute Peril” is under attack by a space slug. I raise tax rate to 15% on all happy face worlds (yellow faces). 1st fleet (at TZ-2) is sent to Kantras Gula-1. I send nearest C-ship “Roaming Victory” to repair Minotaur-6 which is dead-in-the-water at Kantras Gula-1. Unfortunately, soon after sending it minotaur-6 is finished off by a Kurbus ship.

2761.11.16 1 passenger and 2 explorer ships are attacked by Kurbus ships in three separate areas of the galaxy. One of the attacking ships is a Kurbus cruiser!! How the hell they got this, I don’t know: Remember I set research speed to slow as a pre-game setting. 5th fleet finally loads 5 troops at TZ-2 and is sent to Kantras Gula system to retake what I’ve lost (this fleet is right behind 1st fleet which was dispatched earlier). 2nd fleet (now just 1FF) is sent to SOL to recombine with the three new DDs once they’re completed (the new 2nd fleet will thus have 3xDD and 1FF).

2761.12.17 I got a report of a ship attacking Striker-1 (DD of 1st fleet) out in deep space (en-route to Kantras Gula system), but going to event location with pause & zoom shows no enemy ships at all ?? I have no idea what’s going on here, maybe they’re cloaked?

2762.01.03 A free trade agreement is accepted with the Ackadarian Territory (whew, needed this, maybe my finances will start moving into the black).

2762.06.05 1st fleet arrives in Kantras Gula system. Kantras Gula-1 now has 8 enemy troops on defense (more than my 5 attack troops in 5th fleet). 5th fleet arrives shortly thereafter and is ordered to invade Kantras Gula-5 which only has one defense troop; 1st fleet is ordered to cover the invasion.

2762.07.13 Kantras Gula-5 is successfully invaded, shown in the screenshot. Note, 2ships from 1st fleet decided to automatically refuel on their own accord and are seen leaving the system (green triangles near the bottom of the screen). This leaves only 3combat ships in the system, which is not enough to deal with that large Kurbus fleet which flattened me earlier.

Tally of combat losses so far (since last military record is):
Lost: CS (Nobea colony attempt which failed), 2xDD, GMS, 4 Troops & KG-1 (unknown attacker troop looses?), 2DD, 2FF.
Killed/Taken: KG-1, KG-4 (planets), Esc, 2xFF, KG-5 & 2troops.

I lost 13 things and only killed/took 8 in return, not good. I definitely lost this round militarily. Adding my previous record of Killed 14 & lost 6: that puts me overall: Lost 19, killed 22: that’s almost a 50/50, split and I don’t like breaking even when it comes to military kill/loss ratios.

This lack of finding new habitable worlds (THE major contributor to my bad financial situation) is killing me: It’s been 2757.09.20 since I last colonized a new world, that’s 5years, 2months, and 1week .. more than half the game without finding a new world even though I have 15 exploration ships out & about; what the hell is going on here !! This has never happened to me before, but this is the first game I’m playing with version 1.6.0. I wonder if that has anything to do with it? Looking at my empire summary shows I have 8k of resort income, that’s a first for me but doesn’t make up for my lack of foreign-trade-income which has always been a major contributor for me in prior games.

(Figure 17) 2762.07.13



[image]local://upfiles/35683/89B16E21BA2A440BAEE78B0C5AE50657.gif[/image]



rk0123msp@mindspring -> RE: Kindeloids: Blow-byBlow AAR (8/15/2010 1:45:23 AM)

2762.07.19 1st fleet is ordered to refuel at nearest refuel point (which should be planet Kantras Gula-5), 5th fleet is ordered same. Tax is raised on both Kantras Gula 4 & 5 to 5%. After refueling, 1st fleet is ordered to attack Kurbus GMs on Kantros Gula 9 and 11 (which appeared in the system while I was watching the game). I split 1st fleet to do this.

2762.10.19 Both GMs are KIA’d

2762.12.16 A Kurbus DD appears at Kantras Gula-11 right as I destroy the ship, a battle ensues, my ships take damage and are unable to kill it before it warps out. I order 1st fleet back to Kantras Gula-5. The newly refurbished 2nd fleet (in SOL: 3DD and 1FF) is ordered to move to Kantras Gula-5, quite a distance away.

2763.02.08 My finances have moved into the black again and 2xDDs are laid down at the Abrigu-FOS small space port, one of each is earmarked for 3rd & 4th fleet (which only have 1FF and 1Esc respectively at this time).

2763.07.11 A Kurbus fleet of 3DD appears out of warp at Kantras Gula-5. 1st fleet (1DD, 3FF, and 1Esc) attacks and is able to KIA two DDs fairly quickly. A fourth Kurbus DD appears and things are looking really grim. 2nd fleet is about 20 seconds out by my estimation … the suspense is killing me .. 2nd fleet arrives and is able to kill the last two Kurbus DDs but two ships of first fleet are critically damaged and several have struck out (outside my orders, no combat ships are set to “auto”) either to retreat or refuel. It would be nice if they actually refueled at the Kantras Gula-5 colony which is right in front of them instead of trying to fly back to a spaceport or nearest starbase, better yet, it would be nice if they just followed my orders and stayed put right where I wanted them to begin with.

2763.09.02. Unbelievable! My 5th fleet (of two TTs) decided to launch an attack of its own on a nearby Kurbus system defended by a small spaceport. In watching the Kantras battle, I was unable to follow what stupidity the 5th fleet was up to, and it just decided to do whatever it wanted (the ships are set to manual not “auto”). Is there someway to insure that ships on manual control actually stay on manual and do not switch to “auto,” this is extremely irritating.

(Figure 18) 2763.09.02








[image]local://upfiles/35683/E10F1DD7C44F4B2E8C99F763FCA7C893.gif[/image]



Grotius -> RE: Kindeloids: Blow-byBlow AAR (8/19/2010 3:39:34 AM)

Great AAR! I'm new, so I have no idea how to make sure that ships stay on "manual." I'm going to subscribe to this thread, so I hope we find out!



Baleur -> RE: Kindeloids: Blow-byBlow AAR (8/21/2010 7:32:21 PM)

1991 called, they want their .gif's back [:D]
Nah sorry, cool AAR [:)]



rk0123msp@mindspring -> RE: Kindeloids: Blow-byBlow AAR (8/25/2010 2:13:02 AM)

Thanks for the replies, I was beginning to think I was the only one here.

2763.09.11 I manually ordered the 2nd, 5th, and 1st fleet to return to the Kantras Gula system (I’ll call it KG from now on).

2763.11.09 A large Kurbus fleet warps into the KG system (screenshot). They have 2 cruisers (CA) and 3 DDs!! 1st fleet loses 3 ships as I get flattened. I raise taxes on all my planets to 25%. It’s going to take extreme measures to deal with this, and I need serious financial gains now or this game is a done deal.

(Figure 19) 2763.09.11



[image]local://upfiles/35683/102D7AE72B704BA19DE5A3EBF1189A73.gif[/image]



rk0123msp@mindspring -> RE: Kindeloids: Blow-byBlow AAR (8/25/2010 2:14:48 AM)

2763.12.04 I decide to lay down a small space port at KG-5. I had to re-order 1st (what was left of it, which is one ship), 2nd, and 5th fleets to KG-5. They retreated before (after the last battle), and seem to want to refuel elsewhere instead of using the two planets I already own in the KG system. Why on earth they would do this I have no idea?? I went into the options tab and made sure “attacks against enemy” is set to “control manually”. I also made sure “empire settings” are all set to “engage nearby targets” only -> I hope these settings will keep my fleets at the planets I position them at & not engage anything beyond the planet they’re stationed at (what I interpret as “nearby targets”). Fleet control is becoming a problem as far as my inability to override “auto” on “manual”.

2764.04.11 .. No matter what I do, I cannot seem to keep my ships in the KG system, even at planets I own (which are refuel points) .. The large Kurbus fleet re-appeared at KG-5, killed my spaceport which was under construction and one ship from 2nd fleet. I might as well sacrifice the KG system, as I cannot keep my combat ships there on manual control. I send what’s left of 1st, 2nd, and 5th fleets to Abrigadu FOS. My exploration ships have done nothing for me this game from year 3ish on.

2764.06.14 I had previously jacked my tax rate to +60% what it was previously, but so far I’m only seeing a 2k increase in tax revenue. My ship maintenance dropped to 56k given my previous losses, but I’m still in the red. Unless something big happens soon (financially) as far as tax income, I’m going to concede. I’m expecting, after moving 12 colony’s tax rates from 15% to 25%, something on the order of: 15/25 = .6. Thus, I should get an increase of something like 160% of 62k (what I was getting from the old tax rate) or about 99k (1.6 x 62k = 99k). It’s essential that I have this large increase in funding to build a large enough fleet to destroy Kurbus, who are much stronger than I’d anticipated. Screenshot is taken on this date, as you can see my 5th fleet is being chased from the KG system to ab-FOS (Kurbus is the red dashed arrow).

(Figure 20) 2764.06.14



[image]local://upfiles/35683/B4892CDA8C48462F87F5C9704055DD1F.gif[/image]



Erik Rutins -> RE: Kindeloids: Blow-byBlow AAR (8/25/2010 2:25:43 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: rk0123msp@mindspring
2763.12.04 I decide to lay down a small space port at KG-5. I had to re-order 1st (what was left of it, which is one ship), 2nd, and 5th fleets to KG-5. They retreated before (after the last battle), and seem to want to refuel elsewhere instead of using the two planets I already own in the KG system. Why on earth they would do this I have no idea?? I went into the options tab and made sure “attacks against enemy” is set to “control manually”. I also made sure “empire settings” are all set to “engage nearby targets” only -> I hope these settings will keep my fleets at the planets I position them at & not engage anything beyond the planet they’re stationed at (what I interpret as “nearby targets”). Fleet control is becoming a problem as far as my inability to override “auto” on “manual”.

2764.04.11 .. No matter what I do, I cannot seem to keep my ships in the KG system, even at planets I own (which are refuel points) .. The large Kurbus fleet re-appeared at KG-5, killed my spaceport which was under construction and one ship from 2nd fleet. I might as well sacrifice the KG system, as I cannot keep my combat ships there on manual control. I send what’s left of 1st, 2nd, and 5th fleets to Abrigadu FOS. My exploration ships have done nothing for me this game from year 3ish on.


I haven't seen similar issues - could you e-mail me a save file to erikr@matrixgames.com please? Only thing I can think of is that you did not in fact have the fuel they needed in that system.

quote:

2764.06.14 I had previously jacked my tax rate to +60% what it was previously, but so far I’m only seeing a 2k increase in tax revenue. My ship maintenance dropped to 56k given my previous losses, but I’m still in the red. Unless something big happens soon (financially) as far as tax income, I’m going to concede. I’m expecting, after moving 12 colony’s tax rates from 15% to 25%, something on the order of: 15/25 = .6. Thus, I should get an increase of something like 160% of 62k (what I was getting from the old tax rate) or about 99k (1.6 x 62k = 99k). It’s essential that I have this large increase in funding to build a large enough fleet to destroy Kurbus, who are much stronger than I’d anticipated. Screenshot is taken on this date, as you can see my 5th fleet is being chased from the KG system to ab-FOS (Kurbus is the red dashed arrow).


The tax rate reaches a point of diminishing returns - you can check this for each colony. If you put it too high, you can actually end up with less money, you need to find the sweet spot. It's generally possible to raise it from "peacetime" levels that are optimal for growth to "wartime" levels that bring you more income without going too far to where compliance and happiness drop through the floor.

Regards,

- Erik



rk0123msp@mindspring -> RE: Kindeloids: Blow-byBlow AAR (8/25/2010 2:50:02 AM)

Thanks for the info; I'm not sure what file the saved games are in?

I found the matrix, distant worlds file on my C drive, but where is the saved games file? I'm sure I have a saved game at each of my gif images, as I had to exit to save the image.

There's a lot I don't know about this game yet, and I seem to get a lot more questions than I can get answers for them.



rk0123msp@mindspring -> RE: Kindeloids: Blow-byBlow AAR (8/25/2010 2:55:09 AM)

2764.07.09 I lose a medium freighter at KG-4 to a Kurbus DD. KG-5 is under attack by two troop transports, I have 2 defending troops on planet.

2764.08.22 KG-5 falls to Kurbus.

2764.11.30 My tax income is a whopping 64k, a whole 2k increase in taxes from the massive tax increase to 25%. This is not going to cut it for me, and I’ll concede at this point. I needed more finances and 2k over what I had before is simply not going to do it. From my colony screen, I had 2 yellow faces, 8 white, and 2 purple. Only one colony, Nobea 1 is in my expansion planner as a colonizable world, that’s seven years, 2months and 10 days (2757.09.20 was the last year I actually found a new colonizeble world) without any new colonies for income generation, three-quarters of the entire game without one new world.

2764.12.01 This is the Kurbus diplomacy screen. I tried a last ditch effort to end the war with diplomacy. They would not accept (neither would I if I was them). As you can see, they have 4 advanced weapons tech over me in addition to cruiser level design. How in the hell they got that, I have no idea? I set the pregame tech advances to very slow, and I haven’t got one single tech advance this whole game, though I have my research maxed out, plus a 10% science bonus for democracy & human. I have no idea what’s going on here, how they got so far ahead of me is beyond me? They only have 4 star systems.

(Figure 21) 2764.12.01



[image]local://upfiles/35683/C78A545DB3C54AA0BFDECD56B5AAAA7C.gif[/image]



rk0123msp@mindspring -> RE: Kindeloids: Blow-byBlow AAR (8/25/2010 2:57:05 AM)

2764.12.01 My final empire summary screen, you can see the piddling tax income of 65k after that massive increase of 60% tax rate in 11 of 12 planets. I have no idea why the tax increased so little given the whopping increase? A 3k increase in tax income for a 60% tax increase just seems wrong, what is it that I am not getting here? I calculate I should have 99k taxes: 1.6 (160%) x 62k (old pre tax income) = 99k … why is my income not going up reasonably close to this amount?? 65k simply does not cut it.

I also decided to look closely at my closing resources to see if there was anything else I lacked financially. I know that I did not find the rare resources, but why was my income so darn low? I know the lack of new colonizable worlds was the main factor.

4 argon (+1)
6 steel
2 irridium
2 gold
5 chromium (+1)
5 lead
4 emeros crystal (+1)
2 nekron stone
6 hydrogen (+3)
4 helium
4 krypton (+2)
1 *yarros marble
1 *megallos nut
6 carbon fibre (+1)
6 caslon (+2)
5 polymer (+3)
3 silicon
1 *Natarran Incense
1 *Dantha Fur
1 *Wiconium
2 Osalia (+1)
3 *Aquasian incense
1 *Vodkol
1 *Terallion down
3 Aculon
1 *Questrion skin
2 *Otandium opal
2 *Jakanta ivory
3 Dilithium crystal
2 Tyderios

Amazing!! Major gains made in my resources since the last time I checked on 2757.09.20 .. I guess I should expect a significant increase here given it’s 7 years and 3 months later. Everything below Osalia is bran new, that’s 9 new resources 6 of which are luxury. That gives me a total of 11 luxury resources, why this is not being translated into tax income I have no idea? Screenshot shows my final empire summary screen.

(Figure 22) 2764.12.01_es



[image]local://upfiles/35683/874FA544A96042FC9497C999DCF9C932.gif[/image]



rk0123msp@mindspring -> RE: Kindeloids: Blow-byBlow AAR (8/25/2010 3:00:23 AM)

Lastly, I thought I’d take a screenshot showing the galaxy screen, in order to determine where my 15 exploration ships were. I think the dominant reason I lost this game was the 7 years (out of 10) that my exploration ships failed to find any new colonizable worlds, hence the lack of income, and hence my decision to start a war with Kurbus (who were much stronger than I anticipated) in an attempt to gain new worlds that I wasn’t getting elsewhere. As you can see from the screenshot, there are two groups of 5 exp ships clustered tightly, the other 5 are spread out, either exploring or en-route to refuel. Why the “auto” control of my exp ships decided to cluster this way I have no idea? In retrospect, I should have taken manual control of my exp ships to make sure they explored optimally, but as I was involved in conflict most of the game, either against pirates early on or Kurbus later on, it was a challenge just to reel in my combat ships and get them to do what I wanted them to.

In a way, I’m glad I lost. It keeps up my interest in a game. I lose interest in PC games once I can beat them easily. I’m also not one of those who like to “cheat” by saving before a battle and only accepting good results .. if I lose, I lose, simple as that. I did no “editing” during the game, so what my AI opponents had was what they had. Basically, I like a game more when I lose, if that makes any sense?

In summary, I think the reasons I lost (some of which were under my control, some weren’t) were as follows in order of priority:

1) Definitely the lack of finding new worlds: from year 3 on to game-end. I did not find one single new colonizable world that could add to my tax base this whole period. This was partially my fault & partially not. My fault being the lack of manual control of my exploration ships (to provide the most optimal search patterns), and not my fault in the sense that if there’s no new worlds then there’s no new worlds (I can’t do anything about that).

2) The decision to make war on Kurbus. This AI had cruisers and 4 military tech advances over me at the time I attacked (unknown to me at that time). My military losses & gains are as follows (since the last time I evaluated them): Killed: 5 Kurbus DD, Lost: 3DD, 1FF,1TT, 1 med freighter, 1 planet (KG-5). Final military kill/loss ratio adding to my previous 19/22: Lost 26, Killed 27, almost a 50/50 split which stinks from my personal POV. This was what I was mainly concerned with in the game, given that I consider myself more of a military strategist & tactician than anything else.

3) The tax increase failure: why I only got a 3k increase in taxes for a whopping 60% increase in taxes over all 11 of my colonies but one is completely beyond me? If I was even able to get a reasonable increase (even 80k/90k out of the calculated 99k), I could’ve laid down 10+ new DDs, troop ships, and troops and waged an all-out war on Kurbus, but the lack of income is completely pigeonholing me & making it impossible to build the size military I need to wage an effective war. I also had 11 luxury items at game end, why did this not positively effect my income?

4) The lack of manual control. My troop ships doing a suicidal attack on a well defended colony is unbelievable, the ships were definitely set to “manual” and I have no clue as to why they did what they did? The KG system was a bit overstretched from my nearest colony at Abrigadu FOS, but the ships of the three fleets I had posted there should have been able to refuel at KG-4 and KG-5 while these planets were still under my control instead of trying to go to other systems for fuel, systems which were significant distances away. This caused dispersion amongst my fleets, and Kurbus was able to flatten me easily with their last two attack .. though it would’ve made no difference given their fleet strength (2 CA and 3DD) was far ahead of anything I had at this point .. which begs the question, how were they able to obtain cruiser tech this early in the game? Did my “slow research speed” pregame setting affect them at all?

So many questions, so few answers. [:(]

(Figure 23) 2764.12.01_ex





[image]local://upfiles/35683/3D00B80BC05C45F9934ADD748544D6E9.gif[/image]



Grotius -> RE: Kindeloids: Blow-byBlow AAR (8/25/2010 3:24:43 AM)

Tough loss, but as you say, games are more fun if they're challenging. I thoroughly enjoyed your account. A couple thoughts.

1. On exploration, I pause and make sure I send each explorer ship to a different sector; I give them orders to explore all stars in that sector. Eventually each comes back home to refuel, and when I see the "explorer ship has completed its mission" scroll-message, I know it's time to send it back on station. It would be nice if there were a command saying "explore sector A4, refueling as necessary." Maybe there is and I don't know it? Anyway, my method works OK for me -- I use about a half-dozen explorers, so I don't have to tend to them that often.

2. On taxes, my experience echoes what Erik says: if you raise taxes too drastically, you can actually lose money because of backlash. I raise them gradually and see what happens. Also, I try to rely on other sources of income: starbases, resorts, trade.

3. On manual control, I also sometimes wonder why a ship I gave ordered to is back under auto control. This seems to happen most often with construction ships. But when it comes to fleets and military ships, I don't seem to have as much trouble as you did. I assume you're using the latest version of the game, as it supposedly patched some of this behavior. Are you sure your fueling station in that sector actually had enough fuel to feed the ships in question? I find that if I order a military ship to patrol a particular sector or star, it stays there until it needs to refuel. But I haven't really done a full-scale offensive operation yet, so my experience here is limited. Maybe others can weigh in.



rk0123msp@mindspring -> RE: Kindeloids: Blow-byBlow AAR (8/25/2010 4:03:52 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Grotius

Tough loss, but as you say, games are more fun if they're challenging. I thoroughly enjoyed your account. A couple thoughts.

1. On exploration, I pause and make sure I send each explorer ship to a different sector; I give them orders to explore all stars in that sector. Eventually each comes back home to refuel, and when I see the "explorer ship has completed its mission" scroll-message, I know it's time to send it back on station. It would be nice if there were a command saying "explore sector A4, refueling as necessary." Maybe there is and I don't know it? Anyway, my method works OK for me -- I use about a half-dozen explorers, so I don't have to tend to them that often.

2. On taxes, my experience echoes what Erik says: if you raise taxes too drastically, you can actually lose money because of backlash. I raise them gradually and see what happens. Also, I try to rely on other sources of income: starbases, resorts, trade.

3. On manual control, I also sometimes wonder why a ship I gave ordered to is back under auto control. This seems to happen most often with construction ships. But when it comes to fleets and military ships, I don't seem to have as much trouble as you did. I assume you're using the latest version of the game, as it supposedly patched some of this behavior. Are you sure your fueling station in that sector actually had enough fuel to feed the ships in question? I find that if I order a military ship to patrol a particular sector or star, it stays there until it needs to refuel. But I haven't really done a full-scale offensive operation yet, so my experience here is limited. Maybe others can weigh in.



This was the first game I played using the newest version, 1.6.0. You're right, I'm definitely going to have to order my exp ships to explore by sector. This was the first game I've played that I went 7 years without finding one new world, which is an anomaly for me. But you're right, I need to insure this doesn't happen again by manually sending my exp ships to explore by sectors in the future.

I've ran into financial problems in past games, but this was the first game I was unable to get out of the tank. Prior games, I've never went higher than 15% on non-homeworlds. Raising to 25% basically did nothing for me this game. Somehow, I don't think 20% tax raise would've made much of a difference either. I think part of my financial woes (in adddition to the lack of new colonies) was the lack of foreign trade revanue. I had one foreign trade-route set up in this game, but it seemed to have little effect. This might've been because I raised the bar on the difficulty setting at pre game, and thus AIs were more hesitant to do a trade route (I'm hypothesizing there). In prievious games, I've always gained significant foreign trade revenue.

I have no idea how to determine how much fuel is present at a new colony? I just assumed new planets are unlimited fuel sources. How do I determine what the fuel supply is on a planet?

I did have a resort, but it was too far and brought in little to no income. I had no adequete resort sites near enough to my large colonies to make use of this (which pretty much happens to me in every game). This is actually the first game I've even gotten a small amount of resort income.

I don't know why my transports decided to attack a nearby heavily defended world? It makes no sense, given that they were on manual. This happened shortly after my second attack on the KG system (after I reloaded my transports a second time) .. after I took the second Kurbus planet, I was shortly thereafter attacked by a significant Kurbus fleet (I think this was the one big battle I won against Kurbus). After the battle, I checked where my fleets were and the 5th fleet (of transports), was in the Abset system trying to invade a planet defended by a small spaceport. One of the transports was lost here.

I know that Rutkins mentioned that there is a "diminishing returns" as far as taxes go. Is there some way to exactly determine how much a tax raise will give you & affect you? As of now, I have absolutely no clue: I got 3k worth of increased income for 25% tax rate (raising up from 15%), this just seems very small to me. At minimum, I'd expect to see 25k to 30k increased income. My thinking now, based on what I saw this game, is: If you need more taxes & your tax rate is 15% already, you might as well forget it & search elsewhere for income.



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