hi hi

I'm keeping a log of my thoughts as they happen, while I'm playing my first play through. I don't know if anyone will find this to be interesting or just unbearably incoherent. This is just my first impressions as they happen.

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Alright, I am starting up my first game, here we go!

Stage one, reaching the main screen. I notice the disco ball, but after a quick search of the forums, it turns out that it is a known issue. Alright, we'll take a screenshot anyway and keep going.

Stage two, starting a new game. The race selection screen pops up and there is nothing immediately amis. There does appear to be two boxes on the right hand side of the screen that I cannot figure out what their purpose is.

Reading about the race, reading... huh, the text cuts off before the end. Could this be a resolution problem? No... the text seems to scale up and down with the resolution. (Something you may want to consider adjusting for people with small resolutions, just as an accessibility thing.)

Oh wait! I can scroll down with the mouse wheel. The scroll bar on the right side looks exactly like the Not-Scroll-Bar on the right side of the races list though. I am not sure which is a scroll bar and which is not, just by looking at them. (Perhaps an illuminated strip to go with any scroll bar elements that are interactable would help?)

I'm not sure what the mechanical bonuses or penalties are for any of these guys, but I'm going to take Arioch's advice and try an Ashdar faction for my first play. The representative from the Ashdar Imperials looks kind of sad... I think I will pick them, and hopefully lead them to happier days.

I am given the option to close or dismiss a welcoming message. I think I will opt to close it for now. It is my hope that I will be able to return to it later, which I suspect may not be an option if I click dismiss. (But I am not sure...)

I notice that the sun in the mini window is not a disco ball, interesting. Also, I am given an iceball world and an arid world in my home system.

I am not sure the statement about iceball worlds often being airless is entirely accurate from a perspective of reality, since colder temperatures actually reduce the amount of atmosphere that will escape by Jeans escape. But no matter, it seems I cannot colonize it either way.


After inspecting the mini screen with planets and such, I now find myself searching for a way to act.

Clicking on my homeworld brings up another screen, but before I investigate it further, I find myself drawn to the icons in the upper left side of the screen. Clicking on the money icon does nothing. Clicking on the wrench icon does nothing. I don't expect the test tube icon to do anything at this point, but when I click on it... it does! It brings up a research screen. Hooray!

Now I try to decipher what the screen is telling me... Some of the research options have white text and a checkmark by them. Does this mean I have already researched them? There are some options near the bottom that have green text and no checkmarks. My initial assumption is that these are the technologies that I have not yet researched, but are available.

As I start reading the descriptions, I notice a flaw in my original assumption. Advanced metallurgy has a checkmark, but it tells me that Titanium construction is a prerequisite. Do I have this backwards? I'm gonna have to try double clicking on something to find out.

Double clicking on a check marked option does nothing... Double clicking on a green option does nothing. Perhaps there is nothing I can do in this screen.

Leaving the research screen, I notice that the UI elements for the next turn, speech bubble and ship button are overlapping the colonist numbers screen, so that they are appearing in the same space. (This may be somewhat confusing to others.)

Next I go and click the three buttons on the upper right that correspond to a wrench, coin, and test tube. I notice that although they are the same icons as the ones in the upper left, their behavior is different.

The OCD in me finds it odd that the order in which the three icons are displayed is different between left and right hand. On the left, it goes coin, wrench, test tube; while on the right, it goes wrench, coin, test tube. Strange...

After clicking on the icons and reading about them. I find it odd that there is a single "And" at the end of the middle tier factory description.

I also notice that for the research description, the first tier icon is used twice in the place where it is describing how many research points are generated per turn.

I think I am done exploring the homeworld panel, so next up is trying to colonize my arid world. Clicking the "colonize" button seems effective.

Next up is moving out from my home system and investigating my small fleet. Following Arioch's advice, I will send my transport to the Trade Pool. But first, a moment to sit back and watch the mechanical arm move back and forth. (Ahh... sometimes it is the little things that make all the difference.)

Aww sweet! I've got a scout cruiser. Doesn't seem to have any weapons, but I still would totally dig zipping around with an explosive nuclear reactor strapped to my rear end. Time to see what this baby can do.

There is a nearby orange star and a few red dwarfs. While I personally dig red dwarf stars, I must concede the probability of finding a habitable world may be higher at the K-type star. A part of me worries that a K-type star will also be more likely to host pirates and mauraders... but the Ashdar are brave, and so I feel the reward is worth the risk. (Getting my ship to move to the other planet is easy enough, although I wonder how intuitive it will be to split fleets up.)

Going back to the homeworld screen, I check to make sure there isn't anything I missed before I click next turn. (Suddenly, I realize that there was a scroll bar on the side of the planet description window. Why does it look different from the scroll bar in the faction select menu?)

Oh hey! Double clicking on random things worked! Huzzah for discovery. I found out that by double clicking on the picture of the factory, I can change what I'm building. I am slightly tempted to switch production from a factory to a research lab, but I still my beating heart. Now is not the time to change horses mid stream.

One last look at the research screen to make sure I didn't miss anything there. Time to click on all the things! Oh hey, clicking a checkmark did a thing. Not exactly sure what, but maybe I selected what I want to research. As much as I want to immediately switch to Self Organizing Networks, I figure it might be best to start with advanced metallurgy, just in case I need to defend myself. But as soon as I figure out how to get that 60 turn research cost down, I am going for it as soon as I can.

And with that, I think I am done with my first turn.

icekatze wrote:
I'm keeping a log of my thoughts as they happen, while I'm playing my first play through. I don't know if anyone will find this to be interesting or just unbearably incoherent. This is just my first impressions as they happen.

that's quite the epic. be assured that while we may not respond to all the points raised in posts like this, we do read them with great interest the research screen UI, clearly, remains the most confusing initial element. we have plans to fix it.

you may also notice that the scroll bar and frame styles vary depending on which screen you have up -- this is because we're in the process of upgrading most of the UI assets.

i fear for your scout -- there are many important balance changes scheduled to go in soon -- and the galaxy, right now, is far more dangerous for unarmed scout ships than should perhaps be the case...

hi hi

I have full confidence that you'll be able to make the UI really shine before too long. Those sorts of things are always touchy.

Alas, your fears for my scout turned out to be well placed. As we'll soon find out in the next part of my log. (Wordy as they may be, I suspect they will slim down as things fall into a rhythm.)

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Turn Two:
This does not seem to be as difficult as the first. Now I am just waiting for the things I set in motion on the first turn to complete.

Turn Three:
Uh oh, my scout arrived at a new system and there are Gremak Marauders present. Ravin the Unrelenting gives me a most generous offer... but when I look at the options, I am not certain they are truly options.

Ravin asks for regular tribute, but when I look at the option to accept, it says -50 coins. Holy smokes, is that minus fifty every turn? My income is only +12 right now. I'll be broke within four turns if I accept.

I suppose Ravin knew it was an offer I could not accept, and so I must oblige the Unrelenting greed and declare war.

Then, after declaring war, my brave scout cruiser bravely turns tail and runs away. Bravely.

I notice that there is an animated bubble thing, so I decide that I should probably click that and possibly enter into a battle, rather than clicking next turn and hoping that the Mauraders forget to attack me.

Enter combat! I turn my ship around and move the opposite direction, but uh oh, it seems like that was a mistake. Now my retreat button is greyed out. Will I survive until my next turn? Maybe pressing the cloak button will save me, it is lit up after all...

Second round. Cloaking didn't seem to do anything, but I am still alive. They didn't get a shot off yet. This time I hit the retreat button immediately. I take some hits, but thankfully manage to slip away un-killed.

Once out of combat, I tell my scout to go investigate one of the red dwarfs. Perhaps I will have better luck there?

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By stardate 1106, my scout arrives, my research is complete, and my first factory is built all at once. Now it is time to mix things up. I notice that my homeworld has automatically decided to start building a research lab. That's what I was going to do!

Well you know what homeworld? I'm just going to have to try moving some colonists then. I'll show you who the boss is... As soon as I look up Arioch's explanation on how to do that.

After moving a million of my Teros minions to my little arid world, I nod in satisfaction that the research lab still has only 6 turns left to build.

Now comes the hard part... Self Organizing Networks still seems too long of a research time, and I may need something to shoot those mauraders in the face with. Judgement call time, do we go with laser boats, missile boats, or aim for the coil gun? The coil gun may be more reliable, and those Mauraders seemed to be all about getting right up in my face... Missiles look like they deal the most damage, but I have a feeling that there is going to be a catch.

But in the end, I must go with the noble Laser. After all, my Ashdar warriors are brave and daring. Lasers may have the most variable damage output, but I will believe in their luck, their guts and passion to win the day. Yes, nothing can possibly go wrong with this.

---

Before I can start my next turn though, I've got a whole slew of icons on the right that I need to go through. I see a grey ship icon next to the new star. In spite of the skull and lightning icon that has appeared. I hold out hope that instead pirates, I have found a world weary band of merchant traders who will want to exchange tales of bravery under fire and loneliness in the vast wastes of space, all while sipping a freshly opened bottle of... whatever it is the Ashdar like to drink.

... Nope. My hopes for peaceful relations are dashed, like a porceline cup against the icy shores surrounding King Haakon Bay. Nix, Herald of Death, I look into your heart and I find it as empty as your words.

Combat, first round. Missiles kick the holy living daylights out of me, and I find myself regretting my decision not to research missiles first. However, my ship is still functional, so I bravely invoke the new mantra of the exploration corps. "Not in the face!" (Then I click retreat immediately, and hope it is enough.)

Alas, my brave scout gets hit in the face by a third missile barrage and explodes anyways. But before I go to write some heartfelt letters to the families of the deceased crew, I intend to experiment with the replay button.

I hit replay, then revert to the beginning of the fight, and I find myself now in control of the enemy ships. I suppose I could cheat and have them end their turn without attacking, but while I agree that Utilitarianism is a fine starting point for moral behavior, I cannot take away another sapient being's agency. No. As vile as these pirates are, I decide not to exploit a quirk of the universe to deprive them of their free will. Should they refuse to see reason, and continue to demand a fight, I will teach them the error of their ways with a barrage of laser cannon!

Unfortunately, I cannot seem to get the turn to end on its own, or by pressing the end turn button. Now it is time to try pressing all the buttons!

In the end, I hit "escape," then "close" to exit the combat and go back to the galaxy map. Then I re-enter combat and the enemy ships seem to have regained their free will. I will endeavor not to mess with that quite so much in the future.

After the crushing defeat at Alphard, I think it may be time to re-think my tactical doctrine. Seeing the way those pirates burned through their missile reserves, I think I may be able to defeat them with a few destroyers, and something to draw their fire for a turn and then retreat.

icekatze wrote: Ravin asks for regular tribute, but when I look at the option to accept, it says -50 coins. Holy smokes, is that minus fifty every turn? My income is only +12 right now. I'll be broke within four turns if I accept.

It's actually a 1 time cost at the moment -- so Ravin is actually being fairly reasonable here. In future, it will be a true recurring tribute. Nix should also have more options -- though there an immediate declaration of war in more or less in character. If you're *human* Nix certainly ought to offer more choices than she currently does. That's one of the reasons we're asking people to start as Ashdar. There are more glaring pieces missing for the other races.

icekatze wrote:Clicking on the wrench icon does nothing.

This was a bug. On the build you're currently testing, it looks like it can happen when the game is played inside a 4x3 window. Said bug is fixed on 'dev', and will probably be moved to 'stable' by the end of the night. Which is to say, in the not too distant future, you should find yourself automatically downloading a patch, one that ensures that clicking on the wrench does indeed do something.

hi hi

I've been alternating between full screen and windowed mode (for when I am writing my thoughts in a word pad) on a 1920x1080 display. I tried clicking on the wrench again and it seemed to work. It may be that I simply clicked too far off to one side without looking too carefully the first time I tried it. If the tip of the cursor is a few pixels to the left, it is outside of the target box, even if the body of the cursor is right over the icon.

Now for a long, not particularly action packed tale of woe... and also trying to build a transport.

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After a short break, I'm back in the planetary governor's office and ready to try planning my new starship production. I use the recommendation from the forums of going straight to ship design from the popup menu.

Looking over the options that a destroyer has, I feel like I have some understanding of what I am getting myself into, even though my laser research hasn't finished yet. Overall, I find that the few options available to me are straightforward. However, I am not quite certain what the forward and backward arrows near the bottom middle are scrolling through. I appreciate the information the text box provides, but is it given in the order I selected things, or maybe the order they were placed on the ship?

Now I just have to hope that the pirates or mauraders won't come knocking on my planets while my scientists do their thing.

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Stardate 1108

I have earned enough money to buy the factory on my little arid world outright. I think. Seeing as how it is taking forever to build, I decide to help it along. The "Buy" button does not distinguish itself very much as an interactable button, sitting right next to other text fields like the time remaining to build. But I click on the word "buy" anyways and the order goes through immediately. (If only buying stuff online were that painless! I didn't need to enter the imperial credit card number or anything. )

Perhaps once the factory is finished I can start building another transport. (If I am reading the information that pops up from the spaceship icon on the top of the screen correctly, I have 2 trade routes left unused. I am not certain how many trade routes a single transport can cover, but I guess we'll find out.)

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Stardate 1109:

My factory on the little arid world of Kisk is finished, but it would seem that I cannot build another transport there. It says "Requires Additional Orbital Infrastructure," but it does not tell me what infrastructure that might be. I am guessing I need to build a Space Station, but I'm not 100% on that. (Also, I am realizing that the semi-transparent background works fine when used behind production options that are available, but when used behind unavailable production options that are also semi-transparent, it becomes difficult to read the text. Especially if one of your planets is behind it.)

Checking my homeworld to see if they can build a Transport instead, I find that they can't. I'm not entirely sure how they got the first one, but I suppose it could have been an ancient relic, left over from the great war. I'm not sure if building a Space Station is a good idea, but perhaps when the Lab is finished, I'll try building one anyways, to see if it will allow me to make a transport.

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Stardate 1112:

My research lab and my laser technology is finished. Checking my research options, I find that Self Organizing Networks is getting closer to being reasonable. 38 turns is still a little on the long side though. I aim to research "Small Craft" next, not because I think I can use them specifically, but because they supposedly lead to "Orbital Construction," which I hope may let me build a new Transport, maybe. I don't know if I will be able to deploy Recon Fighters in combat, but if I can, that will be a bonus.

The vizier of planetary production decided to build another factory after building the first lab, but I find myself skeptical of his plan. I may have lasers now, but I can't build transports. In fact, I'm not sure what I can actually build with those factories, except more factories. I better double check that...

Looks like I could build another Scout Cruiser, or maybe even a Destroyer. But look at those construction costs! I could build two whole factories for the price of one Destroyer. I can almost hear my vizier laughing and saying "who thinks building a factory is dumb now?"

I'm going to stick to my guns though. With the extra research, I should have something worth building when my production ramps up.

Before I move on to my next turn though, a sudden inspiration hits me. I have laser tech now, perhaps I can create a scout cruiser with some point defense to help against those pesky missiles. When I start to make a new cruiser from scratch, I realize I don't remember what my old cruiser had. Back at the planet's production menu, I'm a little bit disappointed that I can't see any of the craft's systems that I might be building, but going into the edit menu isn't too difficult to manage. (The real question that I struggle with is: do I put extra maneuvering engines or Marine Quarters in the System (15) slot. ((What does the 15 stand for? I don't know!))

By the end of the year, we have two new starship designs ready for production. A laser destroyer, and a new Scout Cruiser with extra engines named "Decoy Cruiser."

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Stardate 1116:

I have saved up enough money to buy the lab at Kisk, but I decide to hold and wait. I may need to build a fleet soon, and I hope having some funds in reserve will help with that. Also, I need to find a way to increase my income. Every building I construct seems to be decreasing my tax income. But how? Perhaps colonizing new worlds is the only way to slow the inevitable.

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Stardate 1120:

Research on Small Craft has been completed. I had wondered if orbital construction would allow me to build transports, and now I think I know the answer. (The answer being "no.") Rather than waste any more time, I'm diving right into Self Organizing Networks. It might take a while, but I am confident that it will pay for itself in the long run.

Compact Conductors also looks promising. I'm sure the citizenry are happy that our planet hasn't come under attack yet, but with every passing year, my apprehension grows. Should some hostile fleet appear on the scanners, will we have enough time to react? Or will they arrive in orbit while our destroyers are still sitting in boxes labelled "Some assembly required?"

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Stardate 1123:

Two new labs have finished construction, and it looks like this will bump up the completion date of my research considerably. I'm giving the vizier the go ahead to start building another factory... don't want him to feel like his advice isn't appreciated. (Last thing I need is some attempt to seize the throne, but I remind myself, when has a vizier ever done that?)

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Stardate 1130:

One factory finished, and the vizier of planetary development suggested another one immediately. Could he be obsessed with factories? Would it be better to start building starships now? Deep Space telescopes still show no signs of incoming invaders, so for now I'm going to stick with building infrastructure. And I hope that will not be regarded someday as the last mistake I ever made.

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Stardate 1140:

One last factory completed. I hope my citizens don't think my rule is boring, and I hope they aren't getting restless. Watching the orbital imagery pass by on the left hand window, I am starting to notice a significant increase in the size and number of cities on the surface. I'm not sure how long it will be until our homeworld starts to strain the limits of its population capacity, but I need to start thinking of finding new colony worlds.

The vizier suggested another lab, but I am forced to disagree with that course of action. Assuming that I am already at my maximum suggested factory output, I'm going to start building stuff. First on the list, a Space Station! Do I really know if it will help me? Nope!

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Stardate 1142:

Self Organizing Networks is finally finished, yay! Next on the list for research is Compact Conductors.

However, I am beginning to think that I may have made an error in my spending decisions. I could have bought a factory or two, but now I find that the 892 coins I've saved up isn't enough to buy a simple space station. I suppose time will tell if those reserves will be able to save the day, or if they are simply a great big pile of wasted potential.

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Stardate 1148:

Break out the bottles of... whatever it is the Ashdar drink. Where the light craft gambit failed, the space station gambit succeeded! I can build Transports and even colony ships now. I wasn't even thinking about colony ships yet, but there they are.

It has been... 39 years since I first set out to build a Transport, and now I can. So that's exactly what we're going to do.

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Stardate 1152-1154:

Compact Conductors is finished, and now I'm getting so close to building a new transport, I can almost taste it. Oh, I guess I should also tell my scientists to research something else. I guess missiles will only take a couple years. After that, I'm thinking Defense Grids. Don't want to be caught napping when the horrors from beyond the stars arrive.

Stardate 1158:

Success! After 49 years of blood, sweat, tears and toil, I finally produced another Transport. I'm going to take a moment to savor the victory by watching the little mechanical arm go back and forth a bit, before I click the button to "Start Trading."

Then I suppose I should relent and build the suggested research lab. But after that, we are going on the warpath. I'm never going to forget Scout Cruiser #1... Mark my words, Nix, Herald of Death; you are going to face a reckoning. One probably consisting of large quantities of coherent light focused on to a very small area.

icekatze wrote: Checking my homeworld to see if they can build a Transport instead, I find that they can't. I'm not entirely sure how they got the first one, but I suppose it could have been an ancient relic, left over from the great war.

This is interesting. Your homeworld should start out with a Space Station in orbit, and, thus, the ability to build Transports and Colony Ships. That you can't build a transport suggests that something happened to it... the most likely scenario is a budget-overrun that caused the station to be scrapped for lack of maintenance. If that happened, you should have been notified by an appropriately alarmed lieutenant -- but, the event notification system is not really as intuitive as we'd like it to be -- so, it's not unlikely that you missed the notification.

Payback for Scout Cruiser One is long overdue, but it looks like it will need to wait a little bit longer before it can be payed in full. First we need to build a fleet. Perhaps I shall call it the "Hawk Fleet," yes, that has a nice ring to it.

Stardate 1164-1165:

Research on Star Gates begins. I have no idea what this will do, but Lieutenant Gitak assures me that it will be tremendously helpful. He may be gravely mistaken, but I figure he can't be more wrong than I was about those small craft.

My final Research Lab, which is also the last planetary infrastructure slot that I had available to fill. I don't know if there are any other things besides Factories and Labs out there, but I can't worry about that now.

Now it is time to build a fleet. I'm starting with one decoy cruiser and three laser destroyers. I have high hopes that this will prove to be enough firepower. After setting up my production at my homeworld, I go and check on the production at my small arid colony.

It is currently producing research, and while I am a big fan of research, I figure I should look at my options. Research, Stockpile, and Trade are all available, but I am surprised to see that Stockpiling is the only one of the three that tells me how much I am getting each turn on the lower right production box. It would seem that in order to figure out how much Research or Trade I am getting, I need to compare the values in the upper left, or the upper right, both before and after I select the option. (I think it would be nice if all three of them declared how much they were giving me for that specific option.)

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Stardate 1173+

Now that I've got some momentum, I'm going to clean up some of the lower level techs that I skipped. Coil guns, and Tachyon physics. I don't have anything that can use a heavy mount yet, so I'm skipping things like Heavy Lasers. Molecular Manipulation seems like a good way to open up new possibilities, so while my fleet is under construction, I'll give that a shot too.

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Stardate 1197

I just finished Molecular Manipulation the year prior, and set my scientists working on shield technology. However, my fleet is already built, and I will not be waiting around for shields before making my move. They call me reckless, but much must be risked in matters of love and war.

If my fleet survives the confrontation, I will have the opportunity to colonize a new planet. And by counting my chickens before they've hatched, I am already instructing my homeworld to build a colony ship.

Telling all four ships to move as one unit on the galactic screen seems to be easy enough...

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Stardate 1199

Vengeance or ruin! Now is the time, now is the hour. Those pirates got the jump on us again, but this time I hope my point defense lasers prove to be the bigger surprise.

Round one, fight! The pirates close in and fire missiles, just like last time. I was expecting this, but for some reason my scout cruiser was positioned in the back row. No point defense for the poor destroyer on the port flank that ate two missile barrages.

While I decide whether or not to withdraw my damaged destroyer, I charge straight in with the rest of my forces, hoping to ram those laser cannons up their noses. I get my first chance to attack... and there is some sort of targeting mechanic? Can I target specific subsystems? I try to aim for what looks like a missile, but it doesn't seem to work at first glance. The first two destroyers deal moderate damage to one pirate, so far they have dealt significantly more damage with their missiles.

Once again hoping that point defense will help intercept the missiles, I withdraw my damaged destroyer, turning and running. The ship is very badly damaged, but if it can escape, the other three may yet stand a chance with the pirate's missiles depleted.

Round two, pain! Rather than going after the injured destroyer, the two pirates focus their fire on one of the untouched ships. The concentrated fire is just too much, and the ship winks out of the night sky in one final burst of light. I am now seriously worried. It seems my point defense weapons cannot be used to cover my allies, and the enemy is too smart to fire their missiles at a ship that has only defensive weapons.

I don't actually know how badly damaged my ships are, but I know it is bad. There are bars of yellow, red, grey and green, and they are falling fast. Meanwhile the one pirate I have managed to hit seems to have much more of its own bars remaining. It is probably best to retreat for now, and I would but for one thing... I have to know how many rounds of missiles they have.

Round three, break! It looks like two rounds of missiles was all they had. I may still be able to win this! I have the wounded destroyer turn around and boost in behind my other ships, while all ships focus on one target.

Round four... what just happened? The pirates fired at my decoy cruiser, it turned from purple to green, and it is now immobilized. I was able to pull up a diagram of my ship somehow... Not exactly sure how. It looks like they were down to three crew. Maybe they don't have enough crew to man the stations anymore?

Round five. Oh. They captured the ship. I guess that makes sense, and the obvious answer is to capture it right back. If they only have 3 crew defending it, it should be easy.

Aaand it worked! Although, I am in much worse shape than I was a couple of turns ago. Move the damaged ship in from the rear flank and take aim... Boom! One pirate down, and the reactor detonated. (OUCH!) Everyone is in bad shape now. I'm guessing that my decoy cruiser cant fire this turn because it fired on the turn it was captured.

Round six. Discovery! I can click on the picture of my ship and see its status. Now I know what the different colored bars mean. Mostly, I think. One of my destroyers has no weapons left, but the crew has their orders and I am proud to say they are staying in the fight to screen for their combat capable comrades, in spite of their own slim chances of survival.

Round seven. The last remaining pirate is badly damaged, several of their laser weapons are destroyed, and their crew injured. I'm going to attempt to capture their ship with my toothless destroyer, since they declined the opportunity to destroy it...

...Victory!

There will undoubtedly be parades in the narrow, polluted streets of Ashdar Prime, somewhere between the towering sky scrapers, celebrating our triumph over those nihilistic pirates. I am sure the military bean counters will applaud the capture of a destroyer to account for the one destroyer we lost. However, I cannot help but think of the price at which such a victory was won. Once the celebrations are over, I'll mandate the construction of a memorial for those brave Ashdarnauts who perished when Laser Destroyer 2 foundered, and those who met their end in close quarters combat with the sinister humans.

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I am not certain that I can actually colonize the glacier world that I now have access to. Maybe. I'm pretty sure I can't colonize the small barren world though. Perhaps the best strategy is to see if my ships need to return home and repair, then try exploring a little more. If I can't find a better spot, I might need to return and fight the Marauders that are guarding a garden world and a paradise world.

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As much fun as I'm having, I may need to call it a night for tonight and actually get some work done. Hopefully I can pick things back up tomorrow. I'll try to send the action log, in case that helps explain why I didn't have a Space Station. ((I don't remember ever having a negative budget...))

Overall, I am finding this asymmetrical gameplay to be quite pleasant. I know fighting symmetrically balanced opponents is a staple of the genre, and something that would definitely be a multiplayer requirement, but it does have me thinking about various, perhaps optional, single player possibilities.

icekatze wrote:
Hopefully I can pick things back up tomorrow. I'll try to send the action log, in case that helps explain why I didn't have a Space Station. ((I don't remember ever having a negative budget...))

Oh -- you were playing as Haduir -- when you said the leader looked "kindof sad", I assumed you'd gone with Praetor Yunki (Teros). Yes -- they appear to be missing a starting space station. At some point, in my highly-debatable wisdom, I was looking for various ways of compensating for the Haduir's awesome starting world. Removing the space station may have made sense to me. But, it's clearly not a great plan; as at this stage of the beta, at least, balance is less important than minimizing player confusion. Um, in future, new Haduir games should include a Space Station around Ashdar Prime.

hi hi

I'm not really sure if they need to have a space station to start with, just a little bit more precise tool-tips might make a big difference. Like "You need a space station or better to build this."

I also noticed that in the main menu, the K-type star looks normal, and in game, it seems that only the G-type star suffers from the disco ball phenomenon.

Anyways, here we go for round five.
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Stardate 1200:

My homeworld has reached the limits of its ability to sustain population growth, and my small arid colony is almost in the same predicament. Work is progressing on the new colony ship, but it will still be some time before it is finished. I realize that I've saved up enough money to buy it immediately, but I intend to scout the surrounding areas more, to see if there is a better place to colonize.

Regardless of what the planetary production vizier thinks, I have a feeling I may be producing colony ships for the foreseeable future. If that is the case, I may end up spending my reserves to upgrade new colonies and buy replacement warships. (In case I run into trouble during my scouting expeditions.)

---
Stardate 1201:

My fleet has returned home! The mission went as well as I could have possibly hoped. That they survived at all seems a miracle, especially after the vicious opening volleys. And while the glow of celebration fades, I find myself wondering what it will take to fix the damage. Some of the ships limped back with badly damaged reactors, weapon mounts sheared clear off, and gaping holes in their armor plating.

I hope my military advisers have the repairs covered, but if they don't get things moving on their own after a year, I'm going to have to find a way to take matters into my own hands.

---
Stardate 1202:

It turns out my faith in my military advisers was well placed. They managed to fix up the fleet before the year was out, and I am not turning my attention to their next destination.

On a side note, my next research opportunity came up, and I am looking into Targeting Heuristics. I am uncertain if it is something useful to me, but my scientists think it will not be a difficult challenge, and it may open up new possibilities.

---
Stardate 1205:

My scouts have stumbled upon a world already colonized by a splinter of the Ashdar. My military advisers are suggesting I attack them, but they do not seem hostile, and I do not intend to be the one who fires first. I admit I am worried though. Should they prove hostile in the future, I could be passing up an opportunity to stop a threat before it begins.

Unable to even make contact with our wayward brethren, and with a heavy heart, I order my fleet to break orbit and head for another nearby star.

---
Stardate 1206-1208:

I'm putting a heavy emphasis on faster research, so as soon as Quantum Computing became available, I went right for it.

The grand colony ship is finished, but I decide to wait a little longer for my fleet to scout out the last star in range.

---
Stardate 1211:

More Gremak Marauders! Their offer of tribute for the privilege of freedom is an insult, and this time I aim to not back down from the fight. My crews have valuable experience, and I am confident in their abilities.


Time to fight!
First round, I discover the value of point defense, as the marauders make short work of my first missile barrage. I'm not about to throw in the towel yet.

Second round, they do significantly more damage to me than I deal to them, but I still outnumber them. This is looking like it will be a real brawl.

Oh snap. They managed to completely knock out the weapons on one of my destroyers with their first strike. I still have three functional ships to their two though.

The second missile salvo gets through! One enemy ship down.

Round three and beyond. Once again it seems that while the enemy got lucky at the start, they could hold out against superior numbers. It only took a few more rounds to finish off the last marauder. Thankfully.

Now I find myself struck with a horrible decision. How do I deal with the slavers on the planet? I have the option to bombard them, and I do not know how to invade in order to capture them alive. Do they all deserve a fiery end? Surely there are some slaves on the planet as well...

After some checking, I find out that the empire does not yet have the means to launch a ground invasion, and there is no telling how long preparations may take. In that time, they may be able to rebuild their fleet, and so I close my eyes and give the order... "Give no quarter."

---
Stardate 1212:

After a long but ultimately successful bombing campaign, I order the fleet to return home for repairs, and I send the order to the colony ship to move out and land on the island world. There may not be much open land, but it is a warm, beautiful world, and I am confident that the Ashdar will prove adaptable.

---
Stardate 1216:

My fleet has returned home and repaired, and my new colony is growing well. I tried to send colonists from my homeworld to the new colony but was not able to do so on the first try. It took me a little bit of trying to figure out what I was doing wrong.

With the planet screen closed, the only type of colonists I could transfer were the Haduir, but I wanted to make sure that some of my Teros citizens had an opportunity for a new start on a new world as well. I do strive to treat all my subjects with equality, after all.

But with the planet screen open, I seemed unable to click on the target system, since it was hidden behind the planet information panels. It took me a little while to realize that when I hovered my cursor over target system in the faded background, that the bottom row of planets changed to match. Multi-tasking... It is something I will need to improve upon.

I'm now sending my fleet to explore a promising G-type star. I know that there are worthwhile planets at the first K-type star I explored, but even with my recent victory, I find myself hesitant to charge headlong into battle again.

Also, whoa! The star gate did something. My colonists reached the new colony using it, and I didn't have to waste a transport ship. If serendipity was more than a metaphysical concept, I would give it a hug.

---
Stardate 1219:

Colony Ship 2 is ready, and I am sending it to the glacier world. Another one is already under construction, and now that we have proven the concept works, I am more comfortable with waiting until I have finished exploring to send out more.

---
Stardate 1221:
The G-type star was a bust. Small barren or iceball worlds, a gas giant, and a small arid chunk of rock. I order the fleet to set a course for the marauders. They're sitting on habitable worlds, and their foul deeds must come to an end eventually. (But mostly, they're sitting on some really nice worlds.)

I'm also buying some factories outright on my new glacier world. That should help kickstart the rest of their production.

---
Stardate 1225:

The Marauders get the jump on us again. This time I'm going to try holding my missiles back until I'm right on top of them, perhaps that is what allowed them to slip past the point defense last time?

This time the battle goes smoothly. My crews know what to expect, and perform flawlessly. By holding fire on my missile destroyer for the first turn, I was able to move in behind one of their destroyers and fire the missiles at point blank range. I am still not sure if it was luck on my side, but every missile found its mark.

I have a colony ship already half finished at the homeworld, but I choose to rush it to completion before someone else has a chance to move in on the paradise world.

Giving the order was easier the second time... I wonder what I have become.

icekatze wrote:I also noticed that in the main menu, the K-type star looks normal, and in game, it seems that only the G-type star suffers from the disco ball phenomenon.

Interesting. The K-type and G-type shaders are very similar -- but I tweaked the K-type for better compatibly with 4000 series Radeons, as there, I had a bug I could replicate. I've now made a similar tweak to the G-type shader. (It's posted to the 'dev' distro: r11996.) Let me know if it fixes the glitch you're seeing.

(In related news -- I just spent the morning chasing down various oldish AMD cards. Disappointingly, I was unable to replicate the disco-light bug on either the 6000 series or the 5000 series card I borrowed from my neighbor. Something odd is going on here. But, if there's any easy fix -- I'll be happy to end the investigation there )

hi hi

Whatever you did in "r11996" it worked for me. The disco ball effect appears to be gone now, at least for every type of star that I've come across. I'll let you know if it ever crops up again though.

---
And now for some more adventures.

Confidence is at an all time high. My citizens have been listening to the news broadcasts of our victories, and are eager to see the recently annexed worlds. In the back of my mind though, lurks paranoia and worry. I fear we are letting our successes make us overconfident.

After that first burst of expansion, I've decided to slow my pace and consolidate what I have before blundering into unseen dangers. While homeworld continues to pump out colony ships, I have no means of reinforcing my fleet. I would like to establish at least one other production center before I start expanding again.

---

Stardate 1234:

I am moving away from researching weapon technology for the time being, and sticking to technologies that look like they might open up promising options in the future. But I admit I am still shooting from the hip here. It is my hope that being able to construct a larger vessel, perhaps the promised battle-cruiser, will allow me to use the heavy weapons that currently seem to serve no purpose.

Two more prime worlds are waiting for colony ships in my most recently annexed system. A garden world and a large arid world, and I expect that each will eventually be very productive.

---
Stardate 1243:

Time is passing quickly as I build up planetary infrastructure. My island world is already finished, and I am looking into building planetary defenses. I can build them easily enough, but I am not sure if I should try to change their loadout. Tons of missiles sound good, but once I build it, will I be able to upgrade it? I would assume so, but I guess I'll just have to try and find out.

---
Stardate 1254 - 1266:

I've finished colonizing my available worlds, and I also have the ability to construct an escort cruiser. Once it is ready, I think it will be time to continue exploring the galaxy.

While our very first combat cruiser was being built, I tasked the scientists with rushing through all of the basic weapon technologies that had been sitting on the drawing board for ages. I remain skeptical that any of them will be used in the field, but Lieutenant Gitak assures me that they could lead to even more advanced fields. We already have working fusion reactors, no small feat, but before we can weaponize them, we needed to first practice with less cutting edge designs. Or so I am told.

---
Stardate 1268:

After exploring a new K-type star, get the frantic reports appearing on the right hand side of my console. Not only is my fleet picking up radio transmissions from the second planet in the system, but there appear to be ships in orbit as well. Four of them. By far the largest fleet we've encountered.

They're hailing us, so I open the worryingly familiar skull and lightning bold icon on my display. Nix, Herald of Death is staring me down with those cold, heartless eyes. My hands tremble, she survived Alphard? Was she ever there in the first place?

Our fleet has stumbled right into one of their raiding outposts! Nix is saying something, but I don't hear half of it. I'm too busy looking at the tactical data on her fleet. Four destroyers. If we hadn't sent the escort cruiser, I know in my heart we wouldn't stand a chance. Their destroyers outmatched ours ton for ton. But now? It was a gamble.

I finally turn my attention back to Nix, who seems to be waiting with unnerving patience for my reply. The translation of her human speak is still sitting in my display. She's asking for a bribe? Could it be hubris or fear that drives her to bargain? No, not fear. There is no fear in those eyes.

I glance out the window of the imperial palace, and I see the memorial for Scout Cruiser One, glinting in the daylight. I can practically hear the shouts of the crew, the anticipation of battle.

"We're not afraid of you!" I lie through my teeth. I am terrified.

Quickly I close the channel and give the command to the fleet. "Damn the missiles, full speed ahead."

---

Round one, the opening missile barrage ends one of my destroyers before they have a chance to react, and I take some cold comfort in knowing it was quick.

My Escort Cruiser charges straight in and fires off a salvo, but the enemy point defense chews it to pieces. Not even a single kill. This is not good. My captured destroyer fares better, each missile hits home and one of their ships is almost gone.

Laser Destroyer 3 is already damaged from the explosion from LD1, and is missing one of her three lasers. That ship has had bad luck from day one, and I make a note to decommission her... if she survives.

Round two, we outnumbered them, but they've already turned the tables. we haven't taken out a single ship, and they've already destroyed two of ours.

One of their destroyers is low on crew and drifting steady off my escort's starboard aft. Out of missiles and slowly turning for another pass with their lasers, I have the escort deploy boarding parties. A gentle nudge is all it takes.

Round three, the tables have turned again. They're out of missiles, but my escort cruiser still has reserves. One more enemy destroyer blanks out the screens in its final moment. It had been in the middle of my formation, and now all of my ships are damaged. LD3 has lost all of her laser cannons again, but I am able to maneuver the Decoy Cruiser in close for another boarding action. They manage to take control of a second pirate ship.

Stealing from pirates, how apropos. Only one hostile ship left, and my toothless LD3 is jockeying for position to initiate a third boarding operation.

End of round three. Victory. I lost two destroyers, but I captured three more. The bean counters will be pleased, but it is only a faint silver lining.

---

With the enemy fleet destroyed, and my own in orbit of their planet, my military adviser is expecting the order now. I look over the reports one last time. Three billion people.

No, not this time. Nix may believe the universe is a cold an uncaring place, but I am not the universe. And I am not going to become death. "No bombardment," I say.

I may take a hit in the polls from certain segments of the population, for granting mercy to those who have none, but my order stands. And my fleet crews have the discipline not to take matters into their own hands, even suffering from loss as they are.

Our scientists are only a few years away from finishing designs on an interstellar troop transport. Until then, I'm going to establish a blockade of the planet.

---
Stardate 1269 - 1271:

I pulled the fleet back for repairs and resupply, which undoubtedly will give Nix another chance to escape, but the reality of the situation was a cold equation. The fleet simply did not have the capacity to enforce the blockade in its damaged state.

As soon as repairs were completed, I sent them back. Laser Destroyer 3's decommissioning will have to wait.

hi hi

Another log, in which planetary invasions take place, and foreign powers attack from all sides.

---

Stardate 1274:
While enforcing the blockade around the pirate base at Adhara, an unidentified vessel suddenly appeared on our scanners. Configuration unknown, purpose unknown. All we do know is that it came from a G-type star a moderate distance away. Estimated arrival, two years.

Are they allies of the pirates, coming to the aid of their friends, could they be friendly themselves, or will they simply be another flavor of villain? Without any clue as to the capabilities of their vessel, I cannot say whether our fleet will be able to stand against it if push comes to shove. Already, I know that we need to push. Push them out of the system, and if necessary, shove.

Construction is already underway on new military transport ships, but they are massive things, and I fear it will be a long time before our force is sufficient to capture the pirate base. I will need to start looking to expand elsewhere, away from the direction of this new potential threat.

---
Stardate 1276:

Now we have a name, The Orthin. As soon as they entered the system, their ship boosted towards the pirate base. Their communications were short and terse, they said their name, and stated their intent to wipe the humans off the face of the planet.

I wish we had met under more hospitable conditions, but I find myself already set on my course. I will no longer entertain extermination of a species, and I cannot allow another power to do the same. Yet it is still a hard decision. Have these Orthin been wronged by the pirates themselves? Are they demanding vengeance as I had in the past?

I order the fleet to hold the blockade. No one goes out, and no one gets in.


Round one, fight. This time, I have the initiative, but I order the fleet to form an inverted wedge, and to hold their fire. I will give the invaders the opportunity to retreat, even if such mercy ends up costing us in the long run.

Round two. It was as I feared. The intruder declined the opportunity to flee, and boosted to run the blockade. They fired a salvo of missiles, at one of my captured pirate destroyers, but their point defense lasers greatly lessened the damage.

I ordered the fleet to move in and engage, and they made short work of the intruder. Analysis of the wreckage (by clicking on the ship's icon in the victory window) indicates that it was a scout vessel of some kind. Armed with missiles, mind you, but only a scout.


I hope that our future encounters with the Orthin prove less hostile, but I know it is merely a fool's hope.

---
Stardate 1277:

One of my advisors mysteriously tells me that "We have lost contact with the Orthin Empire." I'm not sure what to make of this statement... I didn't know we had any sustained contact, save for the exchange of missile fire.

---
Stardate 1281:

The paradise world that I captured from the Marauders is finally finished with building its basic infrastructure. Rather than devote their energy to extra research, I order them to build a Star Base. I have no idea what this will do, but I hope it will fill the role of a Space Station as well as whatever else it does.

I'm going to need to expand both my military fleet and my civilian fleet. And as diligent as my people on the homeworld are, one planet cannot produce enough for the whole empire. To hopefully speed things up, I move another two billion citizens to the new paradise world.

Thankfully, it requires little persuasion. I don't even need to extend a tax credit to the families, they're practically begging for the chance to leave the sprawling hive cities.

---
Stardate 1286:

My first military transport is ready and underway, and my researchers have perfected Duranium Construction. Now I can start designing my second generation of destroyers. For the first time having access to all new technologies.

---
Stardate 1288-1289:

Military Transport One reaches the pirate base, but it seems that they don't have enough resources to secure the planet on their own. I anticipated that this might be a problem, and I already building a second. (Which I would have held in reserve if I ended up not needing it.)

The Orthin look like they are making another attempt at the pirate base, as a very similar looking vessel just appeared on the scanners. I don't know if they are trying the same thing twice, they aim to negotiate this time, or if they have some fiendish trick up their sleeves. However, I am obliged to respond just as I had before.

---
Stardate 1291

Once again the Orthin boost straight for the blockade line with only minimal communication. This time, however, I have a vulnerable military transport and one partially damaged destroyer in my lines.

Seizing the initiative, I charge ahead with my undamaged combat ships, while leaving my wounded destroyer back as an escort for the transport ship.

Wait... my transport ship has missiles and recon fighters? Who authorized this? Oh wait... I guess I should have read those design documents that they put on my desk before I signed off on them.

I'm giving the intruder the opportunity to retreat by holding my fire on the first turn again, but if they insist on fighting, we'll see how well these fighters handle.

Second turn. They engage, and once more one of my captured pirate destroyers intercepts part of a volley of missiles before taking some minor damage.

I try attacking with recon fighters, and wow, they are fast. (However, it looks kind of like the exploded when they returned back to their carrier. I admit I am a little worried, and I hope they're alright.)

The rest of my fleet mops up what is left of their exploration vessel. What a waste.

---
Stardate 1295:

I feel like my worst fears are coming to life before my eyes. An unknown fleet just arrived in orbit of a planet I explored long ago. The one with the Ashdar colony already in place. I say unknown, because we've never seen a ship exactly like it before, but I can't help but notice how eerily close it resembles a Marauder destroyer.

If this is a slaver ship, I cannot allow them to wipe out the Ashdar colony on Alpheratz, even if they do not owe me any allegiance. I am already constructing a new fleet, but it isn't ready yet. I make the decision to split my blockade fleet up and send help immediately. (I'm also spending a thousand coins to rush the construction of one of my first ion cannon destroyers. I hope it will make the difference.)

---
Stardate 1296-1297:

Failure... It is never an easy thing to admit, but I have failed. The unknown vessels have wiped out the Ashdar colony on Alpheratz. Was there anything I could have done about it? I suppose I'll never know.

But I do know that such an act demands a response. I'm sending my new destroyer to join the fight, but even more of their ships have appeared on the scanners, and I fear my fleet is warping towards its doom.

To make matters worse, one of my scouts has encountered another band of Gremak Marauders in orbit of a habitable planet. I am going to have to flee for now, and hope that I can muster a fleet to take the planet later, while being assailed from two sides.

---
Stardate 1298:

The ships that I branched off the main fleet, which I will be calling Falcon Fleet, arrived at the devastated colony on Alpheratz. The reports from the surface are chilling... could this be revenge for what I did on Bellatrix and Rasalgethi?

I'm afraid I may never know. The unknown ships fled the moment Falcon Fleet entered the system, never transmitting any communications or identifications. They remain entirely unknown.

Now that I have secured the system, I am building another colony ship to go and re-establish an Ashdar presence on the world... but I have a feeling I will have a harder time convincing the populous to relocate to what is undoubtedly being called a cursed world. Perhaps tax incentives will work.

---
Stardate 1299:

Not marauders, but the Gremak Empire. One of my new scout ships encountered one of theirs at a K-type star, and they at least identified themselves before moving in to attack. My orders are to flee. There is nothing worthwhile in that system anyways.

My ship was devastated by their opening missile volleys, but somehow managed to hold together long enough to charge up their warp drive. While it limps back home to repair, I am going to be in meetings with my defense advisers on how to counter this new threat.

However, there is one small piece of good news. My second wave of troops arrived at the pirate base and were able to swiftly capture it. To our surprise, the human inhabitants seem almost grateful to be freed from Nix's rule. This will certainly challenge many of the assumptions our citizens have held back home about the supposedly sinister humans.

---
Stardate 1300:

The Gremak Empire is making another move on Alpheratz. This time it looks like it will come to blows. I am taking the initiative, trying to push them out of the system.

Sending my captured pirate destroyers in first, I hope that they will catch the enemy's attention, and with their point defense weapons, will be able to withstand the opening missile barrage.

The plan works like a charm, and the enemy's scout force is destroyed without serious casualties.

It seems that my empire will need to weather continued attacks from all sides for the foreseeable future.

hi hi

As this gets longer and longer, I'm going to keep trying to find ways to cut down the length and size of the posts. But it is hard to do. This game continues to demand I take another turn. For now though, I am out of time for the day. Gotta do some work, real life responsibilities and all that.

---

Tensions are rising amongst the citizenry, but outlooks remain generally hopeful. Worries of a long, hard war agains barely understood powers are starting to take root, but we remain determined to push forward.

---

Stardate 1304:

Once more the Orthin are up to their old tricks. They're sending another ship after our annexed human colony on Adhara II. (I also realize that when a ship icon is passing over a planet icon on the galaxy map, it is really hard to click on the planet icon.)

---
Stardate 1306:

The Orthin arrive at the human colony on Adhara. My advisers are not saying anything about an imminant attack, so I am going to see what happens if I avoid confronting their ship.

(I'm going to hit end turn, and see if the ship is attacked or not. I don't know what will happen.)

---
Stardate 1307:

Apparently my fleet was able to convince the Orthin that the humans weren't pirates, and the Orthin scout vessel departed in peace. Much to my relief.

One of my scouts encountered more Gremak Marauders though, apparently under the banner of Ravin the Unrelenting. This time they didn't even bother offering us the chance for tribute. Perhaps there is now, as the humans say, bad blood between us?

By now, my scouts are easily able to slip away though.

---
Stardate 1309:

I built a brand new escort cruiser using our latest weapons and armor, but I appear to have made a critical error. It does not have the range to reach the Marauder colony. But I have already finalized the invasion plans and I feel like I cannot back down now.

I still have three military transports though, and with their armament of missiles and recon fighters, I am gambling that they will be able to deal with the two Gremak Marauders without any other escorts.

As I give the orders to leave orbit, I am keeping my fingers crossed.

---
Stardate 1312 - 1313:

One of my scouts has arrived in orbit around a planet belonging to the Orthin. It seems that they don't mind icy worlds. Since they didn't have a fleet in orbit, I decided to quickly be on my way before they changed their minds.

Unfortunately, as soon as I sent another of my escort cruisers to explore a nearby system, a huge Gremak fleet appeared on the scopes. Those ships apparently have better warp drives than my own. There's no way I will be able to get reinforcements to the planet in time, and I'm afraid my fleet isn't big enough to stop them. ... but they're going to have to try. With no way to get another ship there in time, I am rushing the construction of some planetary defenses. I have no idea if they'll be sufficient, but I hope they can make the difference.

Thankfully, my Military Transports made short work of the two Gremak Marauders, sustaining only minor damage. The successful invasion led to the discovery of a previously unknown race, who call themselves Threshers. They seem to be living on the planet along with the Gremak.

I've told the colonial administrators not to interfere with the Gremak society, but they are absolutely keeping a close eye on any heavy industry production.

---
Stardate 1314:

A massive fleet is now approaching my colony. The odds are seven to four, not counting my ground based defenses. Will the defenses work?

Round one, the enemy ships move up and fire a volley of missiles. My Ion Destroyer's new Duranium armor lives up to its name, and absorbs the attack. However, after the first strike said armor is almost completely gone.

I try to split up the missiles from the planet so that they don't all go after one ship, and it turns out that I don't know how to do this properly. At least I am able to split it up into two groups. Plus two lone missiles that were left to their own devices somehow. (I clicked on one of the missile bundles until it was down to 1/22, assuming that I would end up firing 23 missiles on the first volley, and 21 missiles on the second.)

I order the rest of my ships to break to starboard, hoping that the ships on the far side of the enemy formation will have to scramble to get within weapon's range.

Round two, the missiles from the planet do their job. Two enemy ships down, one moderately damaged. In return, they destroyed Laser Destroyer 3. I should have scrapped that ship when I had the chance, everyone knew it was a flying death trap.

I think I know how to split up missile stacks now, and I send four volleys of 11 missiles each at the enemy ranks. Then I charge straight in with my destroyers, hoping to deal as much damage as I can. The enemy ships still have some missiles, so I hold back with my point defense lasers.

Round three, Boom! All of the enemy destroyer are gone, and I fire off my last 11 missiles from the planet at one of their remaining undamaged cruisers. They manage to capture one of my pirate destroyers, but I'm able to capture it right back.

Round four. They attempt a capture raid on Ion Destroyer One, but it fails. The planetary missiles wreck their undamaged ship, and my destroyers are able to mop up the remaining one.

Somehow, I managed to pull victory out of thin air. If I didn't have the money to buy that planetary defense base outright, I would never have survived.

---
Stardate 1317-1319:

My next wave of trade transport ships reached completion. I'm not sure how many more I will need to build, but it seems that I have a lot of untapped trade lanes available. I'm going to see if my new production facilities can help fix that oversight.

Also, in spite of my misgivings about the universe being a cold and uncaring place, my scouts have just discovered a paradise world around a red giant star. I'm scrambling to get a colony ship there, assuming my scientists are correct about the Star's lifespan. Even a few million years left to burn is still enough for me.

And now that I have the Habitat Domes necessary to colonize airless worlds, I'm going to need a lot more colony ships.

---
Stardate 1322:

Without warning, an Orthin ship attacked my colony at Bellatrix. Perhaps I was not paying close enough attention, but I didn't see it coming. Luckily, I had built planetary defenses there in advance, knowing that I would not have a fleet nearby to defend it. Their expedition vessel fired missiles at the surface, but was overwhelmed only moments later by the defenses.

---
Stardate 1328:

The galaxy seems to have quieted down as of late. No major movements from other powers, no probing attacks. One of my scouts arrived at an uncharted planet only to find it held by a group of pirates we have never encountered before. Moros, Hand of Death sounds much the same as Nix did, but perhaps she was disposed of by her own comrades after her defeat at Adhara? It would be a fitting end.

They offer us no mercy, and I expect none. Will my decoy cruiser be able to flee before it is destroyed? It all depends on the point defense systems...

The point defense systems performed admirably, but Unfortunately, four volleys was just too much. There lies Decoy Cruiser Two.

---
Stardate 1331:

My efforts to ensure that both Haduir and Teros are represented on all of my colonies has run into a snag. Since Teros were the only ones who ever needed to be transported via stargate, I inadvertantly decimated the Teros population on Ashdar Prime.

I've had to designate two worlds as Haduir and Teros only in response to this, although it pains me to do so. I need to have a population of Teros colonists to draw from, if I am going to continue colonizing new worlds. At least, if I want to continue my equal representation mandate.

---
Stardate 1335:

The Orthin made another move on Bellatrix. Again, only a single exploration cruiser. They apparenly never learn from their past mistakes. That, or they're trying to lull me into a false sense of security.

Also, I find out that trying to refit an old decoy cruiser to the updated version, I cannot simply use the template I have on file. And when I try to use the same name as the template file, it adds an asterisk on the end. That's a little bit odd, but oh well.


Also, while I was re-fitting my Star Base design, I noticed a small bug involving the PD Ion Beams. The icon used in the "Available" slot is not the same icon that is desplayed when it is moved over to the "Hardpoints" slot. I'm guessin that there is some weirdness happening because there are different types of mounts being used, but it did make me blink and do a double take.

---
Stardate 1343:

My internal reorganization of the fleet is almost finished. Old designs have been cycled out and new designs are coming into service. One of my scouts has found another pirate base in the Toliman system. Again, Moros, Hand of Death is promising my destruction.

I'm going to see if my scout can run away... But this group of planets is clearly a pirate stronghold. I'm going to have to assemble a fleet to clear it out as soon as I can.

Nope... Even with deflector screens and duranium armor, four destroyers was still too much for my poor scout.

---
Stardate 1346:

I've launched my attack on the enclave of pirate held space, but I have to travel a long distance to reach it. The bases are out of range for my warships, so I have a plan to cut a swath through Marauder territory.

I sent a Colony ship one year behind the fleet, hoping to keep it out of the fighting, but if the fleet cannot win against the defenders, then I'm afraid the colony ship will arrive and find itself completely defenseless.

Perhaps I worry too much. My fleet dealt with the marauders handily. A little banged up when the enemy's reactor detonated at close range, but nothing fatal.

Meanwhile, the Orthin continue to send exploration cruisers into my territory seemingly at random, only to turn around and head back once they see my planets defended by planetary defenses. Their intentions and methods remain mysterious.

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Stardate 1351:

I am putting a moratorium on exploration by any type of Scout Cruiser. I sent a brief expeditionary mission to a nearby star along the war path, and my scout ship was captured by the pirates.

Whatever plans I had are now thrown into disarray. I can't let them maintain control of my scout ship and the advanced technology onboard. If they were able to reverse engineer it, it may spell doom for my invasion.

I'm sending my entire invasion force to Enif now. Either they capture the ship back, or they'll destroy it. Anything to keep it from falling into pirate hands.

hi hi

I've got a little bit more time to play, so here we go for another round.

---

I've been careless. I don't think my citizens know, and my advisers certainly haven't said anything about it, but I know it. I've lost four scout cruisers by sending them alone into uncharted territory, and I say no more.

I'm disbanding the scout corps, and turning over all of exploration duties to the fleet. I don't expect either of them to put up more than a token fight about it. From now on, when we explore a new system, we are going in force.

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Stardate 1352:

The fleet reaches Enif, and we get our first glimpse of our proud scout cruiser painted with the pirate's harsh green and yellow. That ship, plus four destroyers is arrayed against one heavy cruiser, three military transports and a captured pirate destroyer. I don't expect to lose, but will I be able to win without losses?

Round one. One of my military transports takes heavy damage in the opening volleys. I doubt it can survive another. I am going to try to pull it back and bring my heavy cruiser up.

(It was not my call to place the heavy cruiser in the back of the formation. Somewhere along the line, someone must have read an order wrong or something.)

I should have opened with my nuclear missile equipped destroyer and used those to eat up their point defense. The fusion missiles from my cruiser barely did any damage, but my transports were able to overpower two of their ships.

I see that my interceptors are much slower than the recon fighters... they're stuck in the open after being launched.

Round two. They capture my captured destroyer. I want to capture it back, but I can't get into position. A volley of missiles at the other two pirate ships causes one to detonate though, and by the time the smoke clears, all of the pirate destroyers are no more. All that is left is the still badly damaged scout cruiser. Will I be able to attempt capture through her shields?

Looks like the answer is yes. Victory, but not without losses. I regained my scout cruiser, but I lost the destroyer. I will have to halt my advance until I can bring up reinforcements.

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Stardate 1359:

My fleet is almost ready to move on, but I've decided to wait until I can move a colony ship up as well. Now that the pirates are gone in that one system, I don't want to let someone else slip in and claim it first.

Also, now that I'm disbanding the scout corps, I need some long range heavies to pick up the slack. While I am designing a long range Missile Cruiser, I can't help but wonder what the numbers in parenthesis are, next to each slot. System (20) it says. Does that mean there are 20 of that item? Does that mean it adds a flat +20 to the item's attributes? It remains a mystery...

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Stardate 1363:

Oooh! My first bug report! Woohoo! I was wondering if I would ever find a bug, and was starting to think this might turn into a snipe hunt. Looks like I was trying to push a state that didn't have a valid reference. Whatever that means, Bug Report Sent! Now to see if we can ignore the bug and keep going.

First try ignoring the bug didn't work, but I was still able to act behind the scenes, so I finished the fight and sent the bug report off one last time. (Since it popped back up) Once out of combat, the bug didn't complain again.

Alas, in the process, the Orthin destroyed my shipyards at Bellatrix with a single volley of missiles. My planetary defenses chewed them to shreds only seconds later, but the damage was already done. (I had an Ion destroyer parked in the shipyard when it blew up, but apparently it survived ok, and is still being built.)

If the Orthin keep sending these random attacks, I may be forced to respond. The citizens are already demanding action, even though in the long run, the damages were minimal, and I assume we were able to evacuate the shipyards since we knew they were coming.

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Stardate 1365:

This time when the Orthin came knocking, I didn't give them the chance to flee. A full spread of missiles took them out in one go.

I also got a chance to colonize my first iceball. This was an experiment to see how well my habitats and atmosphere generation technologies worked. I'm not sure how to use them.

After scrolling through my list of planetary production, and clicking on my planetary improvement slots, I still don't know how to use them.

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Stardate 1367:

I finished my terraforming research, and now it looks like can at least terraform arid worlds into garden worlds using the production menu. I guess iceball worlds weren't inhospitable enough for atmosphere generation tech? Or do I need orbital facilities to make it work? No... that's not right. I can terraform an island world that doesn't have a starbase.

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Stardate 1369:

Whoa! Suddenly my basic ship range improved from 3 to 7 spaces. All from a single research tech. I had spent all that effort making new long range warships, and now I don't need them. Ha! I'm not going to complain... But first, my fleet has finally arrived at Moros' base.

Once again, I question the wisdom of putting the military transports in the front line. But I guess it survived, soaking the initial barrage. Now my cruisers can move up and do their thing.

Their destroyers just can't punch through the extra shields and armor that my Heavy Cruisers have. Although they severely damaged one of my transports, the fight is over for the pirates shortly after that.

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Stardate 1375:

My fleets appear to be sweeping through the stars unchecked. Will I become a victim of my own success, or is this truly the manifest destiny of the Ashdar? Pirates which once made even the most seasoned Ashdarnauts tremble in fear are now being brushed away. Once more I find a cluster of the Hand of Death's warships, but even though they must realize they are no match, they appear eager to embrace death. Perhaps it is fitting.

I am starting to worry that I won't be able to produce colony ships and Teros colonists fast enough to keep up with the pace of exploration.

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Stardate 1376-1377:

Shock and surprise! I discovered that a colony ship built on a human world would establish a new human colony. I hadn't expected that, but I wish the poor humans well on their new arid home.

I wonder why colony ships sent from worlds with a mixed population never produced a colony of Teros? I will have to try building a colony ship from my Teros only world and see if that works.

Also, I'm not sure how to tell if an arid planet has enough atmosphere to support terraforming. There does not seem to be an atmosphere density meter. I have a couple of potions to choose from at a new system, but I'm just going to have to take a shot in the dark and hope for the best.

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Stardate 1390:

I had sent a small detachment of cruisers along the southern edge of known space, hoping to find another Orthin colony, or perhaps even their homeworld. Instead, I found a wolfpack of pirate destroyers. But what was more surprising was who was leading them.

Nix, she is still alive! She seems to think that she can pose a threat to my advanced warships, but whatever fear I once had has long since been burned away. I wonder if she continues to fight out of desperation or perhaps some ingrained madness. It is as if she is following some self fulfilling prophecy. And while I don't like being forced to do anything, I feel I am forced to oblige her with battle.

Nix's destroyers are still able to burn their way through my cruiser's shields, but all I need to do is shift my facing and dump my all aspect missiles overboard.

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Stardate 1394:

An incredible discovery... one for the history books, no doubt. A detachment from my anti-pirate fleet stumbled across a colony inhabited by our wayward Teros brethren. They seem to have established their own successful interplanetary government, but for some reason they seem openly hostile. I doubt the Teros colony that the Gremek wiped out on Alpheratz was part of their empire, so I don't think they're angry about that. Whatever it is, it looks like their fleet will intercept mine before our warp drives finish recharging... We'll have no choice but to fight.

Round one... Six destroyers and one Scout Cruiser, all armed with nuclear missiles. They tear through the shields on my heavy cruiser and deal critical damage to the structure. The ship is still in the fight, but I don't know if it will be able to survive another round. I'm going to be forced to retaliate now. Pulling back my wounded heavy cruiser, I order Battle Cruiser One to boost forward and engage.

It burns through two destroyers in a matter of seconds before its heavy ion batteries start to overheat and require cool-down time.

Round two. The hostile ships move in on my battle cruiser, but they can't punch through its shields. I already have my heavy cruiser retreating, but I still need to cover its escape, so I open fire again. Three more destroyers founder under the battle cruiser's impressive firepower.

Round three. My heavy cruiser escapes, and since I have no real grudge against the Teros, contrary to what they apparently think of me, I don't need to destroy any more of their ships. They're all out of missiles by this point, and are attempting to board my battle cruiser. I decide it is time for the rest of my forces to break off and get away.

---

Also, I just now realized that when I have too many notification icons on the side of my console, there is no way to scroll through them all. I hope I don't miss anything.

Going through my list of notifications, I also see that my fleet on the galactic south has come across another wolfpack of pirates. Moros, Hand of Death is up to his old tricks, it seems. It is almost ironic, if they were more organized and better at working together, they might pose a serious threat. But I suppose if they were any better at working together, they wouldn't be lowlife pirates, would they? They'd have their own empire.

Going into battle with them, I notice some of their ships already have damage. My guess is the Orthin did indeed come across them in the past.

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Stardate 1395:

It looks like building a colony ship at a Teros only world will indeed produce a Teros colony. This will greatly help with my equal representation problem.

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Stardate 1399:

My second scout fleet has encountered a new species at Astir. They apparently call themselves the Yoral, and they are none too happy to see me. In spite of my promises to leave them alone, they've launched four advanced destroyers at me. I'm hoping I can escape the system in time.

It was a close call! My long range Missile Cruiser weathered a seemingly endless torrent of nuclear missiles, but only just... The ship is down to its last 29 points of armor.

I noticed that their destroyers also had nuclear torpedoes equipped. Lucky for me, they must have suffered some sort of malfunction, otherwise I don't think my cruiser would be limping back home for repairs at all.

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Stardate 1400:

A quiet year. I take a moment to sit back and enjoy my recent successes, browsing through the satellite imagery of the various planets in my domain. Watching my cities shine in the night...

little stars glimmer
light revealed by darkness
as sleep reveals dreams


Slow and steady wins the race, or so the humans say. No more being careless with my scout cruisers, my empire's expansion is progressing smoothly now.