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[hermes]

Sword of the Stars II: End of Flesh

Nice title.  This is a game I daydream about playing when in the bath, but cannot get into for some reason.  I hope I/we can get around this as it should work well in the forum/asynchronous play style, so let's do this!

CURRENT GOAL:  Survive first contact.

SETUP:  Disc galaxy, 6 players.  Standard options, no starting tech.

Spoiler: Setup Screen (click to show/hide)

Like a mini Milky Way

OUR EMPIRE: 
EMPIRE NAME: 

Spoiler: Starting Empire? (click to show/hide)

This game is pretty dark.  Both on screen and in story.

The game has dealt us the Loa Collective to start with.  I've only ever played as Sol Force.  Let me know what faction you want to play, and what our faction name should be.

[C-SH4M4N]

Mandatory information to the uninitiated:

http://lparchive.org/Sword-of-the-Stars-1-2/
http://lparchive.org/Sword-of-the-Stars-2/

[USEC_OFFICER]

Oh boy, Sword of the Stars II. I'm in the exact same boat as you. I love the idea of the game, but I cannot play it for any length of time for the life of me. The fact that it loves to crash every so often doesn't help too.

No idea about what our faction should be though.

[GentlemanRaptor]

Oh boy, Sword of the Stars II. I'm in the exact same boat as you. I love the idea of the game, but I cannot play it for any length of time for the life of me. The fact that it loves to crash every so often doesn't help too.

No idea about what our faction should be though.

Suul'ka Horde. Fits the Bay12 Official Theme^TM of sociopathy, and their method of travel is similar enough to SolForce that you will probably be comfortable.

[C-SH4M4N]

Oh boy, Sword of the Stars II. I'm in the exact same boat as you. I love the idea of the game, but I cannot play it for any length of time for the life of me. The fact that it loves to crash every so often doesn't help too.

No idea about what our faction should be though.

Can we copy+paste the idea of being THE INTERNET (Loa Collective)? The idea of sentient programs based on Haiti mythology/spirituality/superstition/WHATEVER! intrigues me to no end!

Failing that, Humans ... because payback is a BITCH!.

[hermes]

So here is what the Zuul are...

Born of blood, driven by hunger and launched on a relentless search for the Gods that made them, these brutal warriors will stop at nothing to find "The Great Masters". As they tear the galaxy apart, a dark new chapter in the annals of interstellar conquest will begin, bringing with it new strategies, new weapons, and a new view of "resources".

Which I thought sounded pretty dwarfy until the next bit...

They are a violent, telepathic, pack hunter race that have been genetically modified for war. They are slavers and scavengers and their ships are rough, random things made of chunks of other races ships and technology. They are masters of back engineering and can learn much from the ships they destroy and the slaves they capture.

Which sounds like a bunch of pumped up gobbos to me.

However, this info seems to suggest we could role play summoning Kurtlemak (a Suul'Ka) to destroy the galaxy.  Soo... Sounds pretty good.  The Loa does look good, but the hoard has this great late game goal.

[JackOSpades]

aren't the Loa bugged with both their ship costs and their movement tech making them mostly unplayable?

I'd say Tarkas or Morrigi because that's the only races I haven't already seen a LP of.

[hermes]

TURN 1

The Hairless-One, Toady the Great, decides to lead his fellow marsupials towards galactic victory.  With a toady-green Empire colour and the Cautionsaurus emblem adorning the flanks of their Cautionsaurus-yellow craft, the citizens and thralls of the Bay12 Horde feel good about their chances on the galactic stage.


The Cautionsaurus indicates parts of the ship which the enemy should be wary of.


Size 10 homeworld, nice.


Our dominion as it stands.  Not Great Enough.


Talos looks like the best early target, almost all other systems house single planets only


SYSTEMS

Spoiler: Regis (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Shamballa (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Theta (click to show/hide)

Theta 4 is a size 12 gas giant

FINANCES

Spoiler: Finances (click to show/hide)

Not broke yet!

TECH STATUS

Spoiler: Technology Possessed (click to show/hide)

Energy Weapons - Particle Beam, Plasma Cannon
Ballistic Weapons - Gauss Cannon, Mass Driver, Heavy Driver

Spoiler: Feasible Tech (click to show/hide)

Energy Weapons - Heavy Combat Lasers (83 turns), Fusion Cannon (96 turns)
Torpedos - Disruptor (14 turns)
Energy Technology - Plasma Focusing (21 turns), Reinforced Containment (76 turns)
Warhead Technology - Heavy Planet Missiles (28 turns)
Ballistic Weapons - Grapplers (28 turns)
Biotech - Environmental Tailoring (21 turns)
Industrial Technology - MagnoCeramic Lattices (42 turns), Materials Applications (14 turns)
C3 Technology - Sub-Space SpyBeams (55 turns), Advanced Sensors (48 turns), Combat Algorithms (69 turns), Commerce Raiding (83 turns)
Political Science - Tribute Systems (14 turns), Xeno-Analysis (42 turns), FTL Economics (14 turns), Enhanced Jurisdiction (69 turns)
Engineering - Orbital Dry-docks (21 turns)
Rider Technology - Drone Satellites (21 turns), BattleRiders (83 turns), Advanced Drones (55 turns)
Psionics - Clairvoyance (69 turns), Empathy (35 turns)
Drive Technology - Radiant Drive (206 turns)

Other tech not listed would require a Feasibility Study to first determine whether we may research it or not.

We need... to pick a tech course.  Now I have no idea what's best here.  Weapons?  New combat tech?  Infrastructure and economy?  Gah.

Ship design.  Build now, or save 'til we know what we're facing?

Colonize as quickly as possible, within current systems?  Terraforming an issue?  Or go to Talos or a quieter place?

Basically the Hairless One is running this empire blind at the moment.   

[GentlemanRaptor]

IIRC, Zuul absolutely suck at researching stuff, especially in the early game. Let's get a few colonies up and running, with max terraforming on 'em.

[C-SH4M4N]

Our marsupial brethren are terrible at turtle defense, they don't like reinforcing and building and staying put in the same place for too long ... WE NEED ENEMIES TO FLING OURSELVES AT IN OVERWHELMING AND DROWNING WAVES!!!

Plus, Zuul needs slaves badly.

Torpedos - Disruptor (14 turns)
Ballistic Weapons - Grapplers (28 turns)
Political Science - Tribute Systems (14 turns)
Engineering - Orbital Dry-docks (21 turns)
Rider Technology - Drone Satellites (21 turns)

Easiest and quickest techs to research. Grapplers are needed for boarding pods. Tribute will allow us to build Tribute Stations.

[EuchreJack]

Tribute Systems, colonize other planets in Home System, send out max explorer/colonization fleets.  Find us some prey!

[JackOSpades]

Yea gawd look at those research times!!!

you need to spend a few turns adjusting and fixing the economy to get those down before you do any research.
it's not wasting turns you could be using researching like it would be in other games, your research points are based on how much of your budget you put towards science if you can double your income you will halve those research times.

drop the research budget to 0 and and grow your economy if you can get your income to double in under 7 turns you are actually ahead of the curve because those 14turn techs should only take 7turns with 2x the budget.

you can also increase the percentage spent towards science to get the same effect but that will cost you in the long run because your savings accumulate interest. besides you'll need that money to actually buy the things you research and prototype costs are a *not nice word for female dogs.

[hermes]

Good advice all, thanks.  We'll implement the scout & economic strategy first, and then switch to research.

TURN 1

The ships leave to check out the neighbourhood.

Father USEC_OFFICER the Furious is leading a Survey fleet to the Alpha system.
Imperator GentlemanRaptor the Mad is leading the Construction fleet on a Survey mission to the Orando system.
Imperator JackOSpades the Ominous is taking the Colonization fleet to Shambala 3.
Other admirals will appear when we get new fleets.

drop the research budget to 0 and and grow your economy

Research and ship construction is ignored for the moment, all funds are put towards Stimulus and Trade.  Let's see if this pays off...

TURN 2/3


We smacked down the native animals of Shamballa 3 and begin breeding like rabbits to usurp them, naming it Cavyworld.

I think the economies of our planets are improving slowly...

The Survey fleets are boring new paths directly to the new systems, creating a hub-effect with Shamballa at the centre of the half-wheel (because we're on the edge of the map).  The construction fleet didn't go anywhere.  Apparently someone forgot to actually place an order for a bore ship so nothing happened.  They decided to cancel that order and continue sitting in the Shamballa system.

TURN 4

The economies... are improving??  Toady Prime's economic rating is up from 50 to 54, income is slightly up.  The Colonization fleet is supporting Cavyworld, in a few turns we'll send them to colonize Shamballa 1, a poxy little planet.


Woot!

TURN 5

Encounter the United Consortia of Earth Empire.  Gulp.  They have a Survey fleet at Talos, where we are just about to arrive at.  The fleet's commander is Adams.  *Cough*  Their home-system, "Beezaro", *cough* is just one jump away from Talos.  They don't look friendly, but then again I guess we're not about being friendly either.  Strategy time; duke it out now, or cancel the mission before we arrive and return with greater numbers like Tuscan raiders?




Ear?


Their "Beezaro" homeworld.

The survey of the Alpha system reveals a solitary reasonably hospitable planet.  Colonize Alpha before Shamballa 1?

Spoiler: Survey Alpha (click to show/hide)

Economically things are improving slowly, total colony income is only about 13k better a turn than before.  But better, so that's good.

[USEC_OFFICER]

Protip: It's going to be, like, 20 or 30 turns before you can actually do anything amazing. Like research a technology. Or build more military ships. Until then it'll just be a lot of expanding and expanding and expanding.

[hermes]

Yes, I'll speed things up when things are settled, but I've had a terrible time in the early game personally.  My instinct is always to fight, but I end up losing a lot of ships, so I wanna check with you guys before I do anything suicidal.