>>107828The first decision we have is the race we want to choose. We have Anonymous, simply the human faction from the base game, Changeling, Dragon, Germane, Griffon, Hippogriff, Pony, and Zebra. There are a few other aliens from the base game, but I want to stick with these choices. This will impact who we handle future interactions with certain empires as they have natual liking or disliking to other races.
>>107830I thought I was missing one... Changeling picture.
>>107830I Say we should Be Anonymous.
>>107863And so we shall be. I have continued with the standard options, set our colors to green and white as black isn't an option... I'll look into that later. We also need more flag options, but we will take the least gay looking one that sort of resembles a swastika crossed with a square.
With that, all we need to do is come up with an empire name and government form. The government types give different bonuses and debuffs, but we can change them later at any time, we just have to make sure it is popular to do so or there will be rebellions. The governments are Despotism, Feudalism, Monarchy, Republic, Democracy, Military Dictatorship, Way of the Gay, Corperate Nationalism, Tribalism, and Communism.
If the name of the empire stumps you, we can just go with /mlpol/. Most names can be changed later.
>>107883Should i make the next choice or should we wait for more anons?
>>107887I'm not sure. I want plenty more to participate, but I'm not sure if we should wait long. This is just the set up after all.
>>107891Let's give it an hour. if no one else reply's i'll pick the government type.
>>107949Feudalism gives our empire:
-10% approval
-25% research speed
-10% maintenance cost
+40% troop recruitment
-20% war weariness
And the other factors such as corruption levels, growth rate, and colony income remain unaffected.
Our empire name remains /mlpol/ unless someone wants to switch it. We will have a completely random spawn in the galaxy, but there are options to narrow down where you wind up. I have also set the game up to spawn an additional 7 random empires all starting as we are, with no tech. It will be a race for power and control over the galaxy. I also turned on victory conditions. The game will declare a winner if you have enough of the following: control of the most territory, the most population, the biggest economy, and the most progress toward your race’s goals.
>>107961Sounds good.
Onward our feudalistic states! Find the ponies to
turn their planets into giant harems better understand their culture!
>>107968And so our galaxy map is set up and the world we have been spawned on is a nice moon called Etoost, orbiting a gas giant which also has a volcanic moon. Other than that, we don't know too much else about where we are in the grand scheme of things. This seems like a kind of empty solar system. Let's hope we don't run into trouble...
>>107968If that doesn't work use the orbital friendship laser.
>>107949nooooo. I actually am not sure about the government types, but there are better ones than feudalism
>>107979Don't worry. We can initiate a change soon. We are just getting started.
>>107976Can we mine any minerals from the solar system?
>>107982First, we got to build a ship to leave the planet to go building mines. We will queue that up right away.
>>107986Focus on industry, and only when we reach German levels of engineering should we focus on military.
>>107988I like that plan, which our citizens will help us accomplish on their own as well. The game features an AI within your own empire that represents your own private sector investing in different areas and launching their own ships to make money on their own. We get a portion of those earnings in taxes. Currently we are are 3% tax both on goods and annual.
>>107986Fantastic. how long should that take?
>>107993>>107988i third this action.
>>107982The first constrution ship is build and is headed to the gas giant to build a mining station... well, of sorts. Gas collector really.
>>107995Just finished. The game doesn't have a formal way of telling me the progress of construction, at least not that I have found.
Constuction of the mining station is now underway. The game offers us a suggestion of building 2 more constuction ships and 2 exploration ships.
We now can see a mysterious ship closing in on our base. Visitors?
>>108004"AAAAHHHH! EVERYPONY PANIC THEY ARE GOING TO PROBE US!"
>>108008>>108010They came charging at our construction ship, making our crew flee from construction. However, the strange visitor didn't pursue once we fleed and turned right around and hyperspaced away. Perhaps it was a scout? Perhaps a message to not expand out too far? We don't know yet.
>>108013>>108010>>107988Maybe we should build a fleet?
>>108017Maybe not a whole fleet. But something to show a bit of muscle might not hurt.
We have constructed a spaceport. We can now build exploration ships to discover secrets of the universe. The game recommends our empire build two of these and two more constructors, costing a total of 6,000 of our 11,000 credits.
>>108017>>108021We can certainly make some combat ships as listed in this build menu. I added 1 of each to the queue to show their costs and I will remove any that we don't deem to need. Their effectiveness is ordered from least to greatest.
How many do you suggest should be made of each type? Keep in mind we are currently losing money because our private sector hasn't made it to space yet to start the economy. We need to choose wisely.
>>108023Any objections to a frigate and an escort?
>>108023I Think we should make a destroyer.
>>108027>>108028We can do both suggestions and skip on the eploration/construction ships if we want.
>>108031I'd rather ceed my idea in favor of keeping the exploration and construction ships.
>>108031Never skip on construction and exploration
>>108032>>108033Got it. We start with an exploration ship in the queue, followed by the destroyer, then a second constuction ship, that way we can get to finding secrets, have some defense for the construction ship we have already, and then speed up the constuction of various miners.
We received communication with another ship. This time they have announced the intent of their approach. They are pirate smugglers and want to trade goods to get great deals as they continue their operations across the galaxy. This will help our resource shortage that is making everything build so slowly.
>>108039I'll go ahead and say why not?
Resources are helpful.
>>108036Perfect!
And just like that, our economy is surging. The market has exploded, giving us a much needed revenue boost. The private sector is now investing in spacecraft to expand to the stars with us. Our spacecraft are also done building.
The exploration ship as picked something up on our scanners and is headed to investigate. Who knows what we will find.
>>108045Putting my 2 bits on ancient technology for 500 points.
We have another decision. Our advisors suggest we should hire the smuggler to deliver more resources to our planet. Should we enlist their help?
>>108047I don't know enough about this game in general to know the long term consequences if there are any.
>>108049Alrighty.
>>108050Neither do I, that's the fun part. Let's just have fun with it.
>>108049Done, and just in time for our exploration ship to discover something.
They have found a strange obelisk on a desert planet called Oppeemav. They land and investigate.
They find hieroglyphs that depict a civilization that could appear to bend space-time to their will. They also handily outline how to build certain components as they found it a sacred ritual. It isn't the whole thing, but give us the needed scientific knowledge to begin studying warpfield tech.
>>108051Nice, let's get studying.
>>108051Nice! That should help us in the future.
Seems like exploration could really benefit beyond more territory.
>>108052>>108053Indeed, but our exploration might just get sidetracked. Our fleet only contains one ship and the pirates that we have been trading with have suddenly grown a bit greedy...
They have messaged us they they are owed "protection money" and that we better pay up if we know what is good for us. The fee is 93 credits every ingame month.
>>108054how many creds do we have?
>>108054>>108055A better question might be how many credits are we making a month?
>>10805513,000. It isn't very much actually, but we do have a negative cashflow at the moment. Our economy is keeping that at just a few hundred credits lost every month. Not too shabby actually, we can bounce back to positive flow with a little more work.
It is up to you if we want to pay up or not. Just remember, they have hyperspace and we don't.
>>108058Shit. how can we get more money a month? more mines?
>>108056Should we pay?
>>108058>It is up to you if we want to pay up or not. Just remember, they have hyperspace and we don't.This... Is a very good point
>>108059I think we might want to
>>108058>It is up to you if we want to pay up or not. Just remember, they have hyperspace and we don't.This... Is a very good point
>>108059I think we might want to
>>108060>>108061Yea i was thinking the same.
>>108059That is something that is a hard balance as we don't have much trade with other empires yet. Simply building things only increases the amount of stuff we have, which isn't bad, but it can harm the economy of the private sector when they were the only ones making mines and now the government is dishing it out cheap. Early game economy has eluded my understanding.
>>108061>>108062I agree. And if there are no objections to avoiding a pirate war, then we shall continue.
In a cruel turn of events, the pirates took their trade elsewhere, causing our private sector economy to tank, we are now making 21 credits a month while our cashflow has reached a negative 7,000. We need to strike back at this scum after we build up our forces.
>>108065they fucked us, this cannot go unpunished. we need to make as many creds as possible.
>>108067This marks the beginning the the holy /mlpol/ crusade.
>>108065Well this sucks.
>>108067Agreed, focus on making credits and then striking back.
>>108067>>108068>>108069This is hard to do as you can't make anything while your balance is negative. I have to guide the private sector to bounce back out of this depression.
Meanwhile our advisors recommend we cancel the treaty with the pirates and stop giving them money. Do we accept?
>>108070if we stop giving them money they will attack right?
>>108070Yes, they fucked us over, so why give them more money?
>>108071Highly likely, but I'm assuming the game is telling us this because they are getting weak. If we can get positive cashflow again, we should be able to build a fleet to take them.
>>108072I like your spirit. I just hope they don't have amazing tech.
>>108073>Amazing techThat wouldn't be the most ideal of situations I have to admit.
>>108073Fuck it, tell them to pound sand. lets get back in the positive.
>>108073All the better to get new research from their dead hulls.
>>108074>>108075Alright. Treaty over.
>>108076This is true, but salavging is rare in early game because you need to board and capture the ship before it is fully decimated in battle. Unfortunately the ships don't leave anything behind when fully destroyed by our current tech level. Later we can get ion weapons that make salvage much easier.
>>108077Drat. Hope for the best, and expect the worst?
>>108078Well, currently there is no invasion or ships in sight. We also got a few credits built up before they were spent to our debt, so I queued up another destroyer and a frigate.
>>108079Not so far. Perhaps the game was right to suggest this. They are a bunch of bitches.
I think our troubles might soon be over. We have unlocked warpfield precursors. This will give us limited warp travel! Now our trade will be more profitable because it won't take so damn long.
>>108082Fuck yea. how much more profitable?
>>108083Cashflow is finally out of the red, but only a couple of hundred. I predict it will go back south soon due to upgrading ships and other costs... again, I wish I understood the private sector better as it is diving again.
But in other news, we have researched shield generators. Now our ships have a chance of warping out of danger as it pounds the shields.
How many economic ships do we have, private or government owned? What other economic indicators exist? I elect we try to maximize our economy until it starts to be a liability, then build a stronger fleet.
>>108084Do all of our ships have them now?
>>108085All the money (trade) all the time sounds good.
>>108085>>108086>>108087Well... some bad news...
One of our military ships flew out into an asteroid field for some reason, I swear I had him ordered to stay at the planet. The idiot got himself killed by a space slug. And now a new pirate faction wants us to pay over 500 credits a month. They look serious. I don't know how to handle this situation other than deny them and build up ships like there is no tomorrow.
>>108088what are the odds of being wiped by them?
>>108089I would guess extremely high. Our reports on them through diplomats guess they have 14 ships designed for combat.
>>108088Looks like there is only one option.
The application of the friendship stick of ultra-violence.
>>108090That's not good... I highly recommend personally naming a few ships before combat to increase their odds of survival.
>>108090If we die what do we do? restart?
>>108091Alright.
>>108092We will find out together.
First wave of ships inbound. We successfully destroyed 1 on them and one is slowly retreating as the starbase has unleashed starfighters to strike the incoming ships. Our two remaining ships are coming in to help the defense.
>>108095Second wave destroyed our space station, making it impossible to make more ships until we make another. It will take some time. They landed a pathetic invasion force on the planet which was easily wiped. Our fucking ships never made it to the battle. We need to upgrade their engines badly.
Well, I'm going to save the game there. We got a pirate war, but we help up decently well. We destroyed 3 of their ships before 3 more destroyied our star base, and they couldn't even raid the planet and had to retreat. Our cash is no longer negative and we can rebuild the star base soon.
I'll try to pick back up tomorrow. See you guys next time.
>>108098Nice, we'll push the Barbary pirates (or whatever they're called) back.
>>108276Sorry I didn't get around to the game. I have been a bit busy. I'll try my best to get back to it tomorrow.
We return to the devistating inconvience of losing our space station. We have to wait for enough funs to get that thing back or else we won't be sending out ships any time soon. Our cashflow is finally positive, but the private sector is still frozen from the loss of trade.
>>108381Soon we will use friendship on everyone!
But first a moment of silence for the brave space warriors of friendship.
>>108403Bamp for destroying pirates.