Turn 13Something interesting indeed. The system on the Martynov's scanners is inhabited by the Betazoids. They are telepathic and
extremely friendly, they must have read our benevolent intentions during first contact. Their telepathy could be a huge asset in internal security, plus their system is quite large.
Also, we made a breakthrough in energy research just as expected. Together with our recent advances in construction and propulsion we can now construct a dedicated warship: the Miranda class destroyer.
Back on the diplomatic front, the Bolians accepted our trade agreement. We may hold off trading with them to speed relations with the Betazoids.
On Sol we've finally ordered the upgrading of our mass replicators. This will take a quite a while to complete.
The minor race building for the Betazoids provides a +50% bonus to intelligence point spent on internal security. This will help mitigate the covert operations of other empires. Frankly it's the only useful thing I find in intelligence operations in this game. Their system has a maximum population of 270, which is quite good, plus it has a +35% food bonus and a +225% energy bonus. The bad news is all that energy is on very large Y-class planets, so it will take ages to terraform.
The Martynov scouted the Zadar system. Another uninteresting collection of barren and desert planets.
Turn 15More news on the diplomatic front! We've encountered the Selay. The seem to have a great dislike for a race called the Anticans. Perhaps we'll meet them one day. One wonders why they would be so upset at these people when they have no ships with which to visit them? The Selay are neutral toward us, an unusual quality considering the other species we've encountered, but it had to be expected. It can't hurt to ask them to be friends can it? Also the Betazoids have accepted our offer of friendship. Let the trading begin!
You can see that I had the Betazed system selected in this shot. Note how much of a pain in the ass it will be to terraform
More success with our research, advances in computers will allow us to build a scanner array. We don't have any neighbors right now, but it has to be better than sitting blind in space while the Martynov is away.
Next it's on to weapons research and upgrading our universities.
Also, the Martynov scouted the Catullan system. Yet another uninteresting group of rocks spinning around a star. However
this uninteresting group of rocks has dilithium, which makes it somewhat more valuable.
Turn 17We had a close encounter of the "this is a video game" kind! The Martynov has detected an alien craft. Officially we don't know who or what the ship might be. But through the magic of tooltips we can see that our nearest galactic neighbors are the Ferengi.
I've also included as much of the newly discovered galaxy as possible in this shot to give you an idea of where our exploration has taken us.
This has been an eventful turn. The Selay turned down our offer, but perhaps they will accept a "different but functionally identical" treaty this time around. Malurian has finally reached 19 population, so we're shelling out 70 credits to speed up the completion of their first factory.
Finally, we won't be sending the Martynov on a journey of diplomacy to the Ferengi quite yet. Scans indicated no stars in that direction, and at the moment new colonies or potential member races are much more important. We'll get to the Ferengi soon enough.
Turn 18We've queued up another factory and a farm in Malurian. Now that we have an actual factory the construction of these buildings will proceed much faster. Strictly speaking the extra farm is unnecessary, as we can't staff it. But with nothing better to do we're being a little forward-thinking.
Sirus has been quite content lately. He made first contact lately. He found a new system recently. He has not visited his home in far too long. He saw an alien ship recently. He saw a nebula today.
Turn 19Our trading with the Mintakans has paid off. They made us an offer of military affiliation. There's no practical change to our relationship, but it's nice to hear that we're making a good impression. Naturally we've accepted. Our relationship status with the Betazoids is even better than the Mintakans... I wonder if they would be willing to accept an affiliation treaty?
Speaking of treaties. The Selay said no again. I guess we'll need to wait a bit and bribe them later.
Finally, the Martynov identified another system, but this time scanners in the system are being disrupted. We can't be sure the system doesn't contain something nasty, let's try our luck anyway, shall we?
Turn 20Well our luck held. The Martynov isn't dead, in fact admiral Sirus has a fourth first contact under his belt.
In this image I included a glimpse of the Selay system. It looks promising with a maximum population of 320, plus +50% energy and food bonus.
The bad news is that apparently they've already met the Ferengi. They tell us they've already signed a friendship treaty. Perhaps they'll accept one from us as well. But since we have to keep our two trade routes focused on the Mintakans and the Betazoids, it's unlikely we'll be able to woo them before they join the Ferengi.
At least we can bribe them later.
We'll be sending the Martynov back towards the galactic edge for the sake of thorough scouting. Then back to what will undoubtedly be a hotly contested border.
For realsA lot has happened with this update. 3 first contacts, 2 research breakthroughs (and we're expecting the weapons research to complete in the next turn, so basically 3 there as well) and a glimpse of our first major race is quite a lot for just a few turns.
The Betazoids are by far more valuable to us than the Bolians for a couple of reasons. First, they start off cordial, which means they're that much closer to joining us as members. For context, it's taken the Mintakans this long to warm up to us, and they're only just getting to where the Betazoids start. Second, Betazed is located farther away from Sol, so a shipyard built there will have a greater impact on our maximum range and scouting. Third, they have a better system in terms of bonuses and maximum population. Fourth, a boost to internal security is much more useful than a boost to espionage. I've found that espionage and sabotage in BOTF is anemic at best, so I don't bother overmuch. But preventing others from doing the same is useful. Fifth, since Bolarus is closer to Sol, there's a smaller chance a rival major race will meet them and make friends before we can. This is why I held off trading with the Bolians until later.
Regarding the Ferengi, for now we'll ignore them, and use slightly cheaty methods to learn as much about them as possible before we make any moves. There are a couple of ways to do this. First, by checking the Bandi we can see that they are friends, we could have also identified if they simply knew each other. Second, by referencing where we saw their scout and the location the Bandi system we can get an idea of where Ferenginar is located.
Once we meet them, diplomacy can begin and we have a whole new set of decisions. I'm going to tell you about one semi-cheaty bug/feature I've found in my experience:
Traditionally, you meet minor races by visiting their home system. Doing so gives you the screen you've been seeing and allows diplomatic negotiations. Strange things can happen if the minor race in question has been absorbed into a major race through membership or subjugation. In those events, going and visiting the system will still give you the "first contact" screen unless you have already revealed the system by signing a friendship or alliance with that major race. In that case, the game treats them as colony systems and you never get the chance to interact with them independently.
The extreme effectiveness of Federation diplomacybribes means that you can actually bribe minor races away from other major races. It costs a fortune, and is most definitely a late-game option. However, it's much better than being forced to kill off or invade a minor race allied with your enemy.
This creates an unusual motivation to sign nothing more binding than non-aggression pacts with major races. This will reveal the location of their territory (ours is revealed to them as well, any squares shaded blue), but not provide any information about the systems themselves. Then you can send a scout in later to "meet" any minor races that are part of their empire and open negotiations. And open negotiations will allow us to make bribes and literally buy minor race systems off our enemies. This does work even when you are actively at war with the empire in question.
We can make our own decisions when the time comes. But this is a trick I learned after 10 years of playing this game.
This is all I'll put in the "For Reals" section for now. It's mostly upgrades in Sol for now, and Biotech 3 will follow Weapons 2. Next turn post I'll provide you with more information regarding what future technologies will unlock.
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Topic: Lets Play: Star Trek TNG Birth of the Federation: Turns 173-175 *WE'RE BACK* (Read 58456 times)