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[Il Palazzo]

4k? I've lost 30k across two events these past few turns. It's like you're not even trying

[E. Albright]

Oh, trust me, I am. I have a sneaking suspicion I committed suicide on turn 35 and my body (politic) just hasn't noticed yet.

ICU, BTW...

[Il Palazzo]

You know, not having played this in MP before, I'm a bit worried. That we'll spend 100 turns conquering indies, only to finally clash and immediately find out one of us is hopelessly behind the other and the eventual victory is a foregone conclusion.

[E. Albright]

It's possible. Even if we have rough tech parity, the random discovery part of the tech system means one of us could get unlucky and just not be able to compete with the other. I've had games where I lacked some random important tech around turn 60 or 80 and was comparatively crude because of it - although starting at tech 4 makes that much less of a risk. The tech 3 games where I've had infantry running around with Gauss rifles and heavy armor but don't have any power plants or solar power were just not fun.

(The more common "No Heavy Industry for you!" games can still hit us here, though.)

[Il Palazzo]

(The more common "No Heavy Industry for you!" games can still hit us here, though.)

You don't say.

[E. Albright]

It's too early for either of us to be complaining we're suffering that plague, not properly. Now, if and when one of us has High Tech Industry but not Heavy, THEN we'll know we've arrived.

[E. Albright]

On a positive note, it appears I'm not going to die of my own hubris, though not for lack of trying. It would have been embarrassing if you'd've won b/c I got greedy, played a Rebellion card, and had the resulting 10-15k rebels in my capital zone destroy me. Especially since I immediately burnt through the Fate Points I got from it on such fine purchases as a Sentinel to help defend me against said rebels (which was killed immediately) and an Archive stratagem that gave me the leet, game-breaking tech of Power Banks...

[Il Palazzo]

I feel you, man. My Archive gave me Volcanic Energy Tapping. Tell me if you ever see a volcano.

[E. Albright]

I've see one whole volcano, and it's so far from anything that I shudder at the thought of how much administrative strain it'd require to tap it.

[Il Palazzo]

I have to say, I completely don't understand the economy. I thought I did. Roughly, vaguely, approximately, words like that. But these past three turns (at least) I've been receiving income from 'forced sales' of water. Like, 1-2k per turn. Who's buying all this water? On this water-heavy world? Why now and not earlier? Is it going to continue? Are you getting this as well? I've seen this in earlier games when my food stocks would hit the ceiling, but it was at best modest.
It kinda solved all my monetary problems, and feels like an exploit I'm unwittingly using.

[EuchreJack]

This is quite hilarious to read.

Best Bronemies Brawl.

[E. Albright]

Why now and not earlier? Is it going to continue? Are you getting this as well?

Given that this coincides with your big jumps in territory the last several turns, I'd assume you suddenly abut some zones where the merchants are willing to buy water. There are definitely some very dry parts of the planet. I haven't enjoyed any such windfalls - waterfalls? - myself, but I will say that I also didn't have the woes you did with price recovery after hocking various things. I've never had a market for water, though.

[Il Palazzo]

While there might be some correlation with territorial gains, it still feels like a bug. 3.5k in sales this turn.

Speaking of territorial gains, looks like I've started snowballing, and we're getting closer to confrontation (hello, protectorate), while you appear to still be stuck with your starting cities - judging by the population. Do you think you can catch up with vengeance any time soon, or should we maybe start considering this a dud of a test run, what with the (imo) game-breaking bug and all.

[Karlito]

Water suddenly having a price has often been the savior of my economy as well.

[E. Albright]

For now, I'm willing to keep going, but I'm suspicious that you're right it may be doomed to duddom.

I'm more concerned by the water sales than I am by the pop disparity - though I am concerned by both. I've actually been at 3 cities for the past 23 turns, but to capture that third city I destroyed all its private infrastructure and killed 60-100k population, so it didn't really show up in the victory numbers. The main reason I'm languishing is the rebellion I brought upon myself - it put me back 10 turns when I was closing in on both of my other two starting neighbors, and tied up 1-3 BDEs for that entire period when they should have been cracking those cities. However, when my spies looked at your capital, what I saw suggested I have a slight tech edge and a slightly more significant infrastructure edge. That suggests I have a narrow window to catch up WRT population and cities, and I am verging on assaulting the two cities I would have liked to have captured 4-8 turns ago. If they fall smoothly (and my tech has improved over those 10 turns, so they might) there's a third that could also fall quickly, so I'm not out of it yet.

The money for nothing, OTOH, sounds a bit more insurmountable. Based on what you said here and in your bug report, it does sound like a bug. If I had to guess, I'd say that a zone you just captured/annexed/whatever is for some reason not collecting water itself like it should (hence why it just started on turn 40), so its private economy buys up whatever water you have on hand. If that's the case, you'll keep getting that cash indefinitely, and that'd be game breaking. If you could, I'd say to have a look at the zone-by-zone economy and trade reports - there's almost certainly information about exactly where that water is going and hence where the money is coming from. The amount of information this game gives you access to is kinda ridiculous.

[Edit: Okay, my blitz-sieges this turn worked. I'm at 5 cities. The water issue may make this untenable, but I've probably counter-snowballed enough that there's some value in keeping going.]