/vx/ - Videogames and Paranormal

First things first, there's some administrative tasks to take care of. By default, it seems that our authoritarian ethics placed humanity into a caste system where some pops were working as slaves. That just won't do. Full citizenship rights are granted for the citizens of MLPOL.

Our ruler, Princess Aryanne Hoofler, is supporting the nation with her two ruler traits. "Fertility preacher" which increases food production by 10%, and "Architectural sense" which reduces building costs by 10%. Her agenda, "Secure the borders" provides bonuses to oribtal defense platforms, which regrettably I don't find to be that beneficial of a buff. Her heir, Prince Vladimir Hoofler has been designated as the heir apparent but does not provide any benefit to our nation at this time.

From the galaxy view, we can see that our star nation is located within the southwest corner of our galaxy. It is nestled in the middle of three arms branching out from the core. We are also fairly close to a few hyperlands that bridge the gaps between the arms.

Planetside we can see that we have a bit of a problem. Our population currently doesn't have any surplus food production. If our population grows at all from its current state, then we will be operating in a deficit and will be forced to dip into our meager reserves. To remedy this problem, I have earmarked half of our starting minerals to replace the extra crew quarters of our starbase with a hyrdoponics lab. Of the remaining 100 starting resources, I spend the remaining 90 ordering our construction ship to build a mining station over one of the smaller planets within our home system.

Things look quite a bit better on the research front. Our physics department has been tasked with developing more efficient power plants to power our industry. Our society department is working on planetary unification, which will increase our monthly unity rate by +2 in addition to unlocking some additional edicts. In time, that unity will be used to unlock some potent buffs known as "traditions." Finally, our engineering department is working on developing powered exoskeletons. This will increase our mineral output by 5%. Powered exoskeletons are especially important since they are a stepping stone to the robotic workers that will be a great boon to our economy.

Finally, as the last order of business, our science ship is sent north to start searching for the best route of expansion. To support that effort, 80 of our starting influence was spent to trigger the "map the stars" edict. This edict increases the rate that our science ship can survey star systems and increases the rate that it identifies anomalies. Anomalies are local research opportunities that provide a variety of potential boons like research point rewards, the creation of permanent resource nodes within the system, and the salvaging of alien technologies or even derelict warships. The edict will remain in effect for 11 years.

This looks cool

>>59959
>>59998
I concur this looks fun

>>60017
>>59998
I'm glad that you think that it looks neat. I didn't have time to do much more than start the game last night, but tonight I'm going to try and advance us through part of the early game.

Initial goals are to expand our exploration fleet to at least three research vessels, identify and colonize a new world, expand our fledgling navy to maintain order within our territory, and establish first contact with any neighbors.

Over the course of the game, I'll reach out to receive feedback about assorted policies. One major example will stem from that "unity" resource. Eventually we will unlock the ability to purchase powerful "ascension" buffs that symbolize our civilization's advancement. One late game possibility that we can pursue is the ability to construct fantastic feats of engineering like the creation of Ringworlds or Dyson spheres. However there are three special sets of ascension perks that can allow us to change and enhance our people forever on a fundamental level. The rewards are quite potent, but we may want to forego them due to ethical concerns.

>>59959
Ok. I'm back, but before I start the clock again, let's first take a moment to introduce the other more minor leaders within our civilization and overview the assorted resources at our disposal.

We currently have five minor leaders within our kingdom that rank below our ruler and heir. At present we have one governor and four scientists. The mean lifespan of a leader is 88 years of age, however we can expect our leaders to live until approximately 98 thanks to the extra 10 years of life expectancy granted by our survivor trait.

Governors provide bonuses to almost every aspect of living of the colonies within their domain. Our governor, Ricardo Ortega additionally has a trait that improves the construction rate and reduces the construction cost of new buildings. As the governor of our homeworld, his buffs affect all of our core planets.

Our scientists lead our exploration and research projects. Each scientist has a trait that influences their performance. For example Eva Gomez, the commander of the HMS Diligent, has the "careful" trait which reduces the chance of failure when studying an anomaly by 10%. The rest of our science staff are boosting the speed that our research divisions develop new technologies. Christel Bauer has the "Expertise: Industry" trait, which magnifies her bonuses when researching technologies that fall within the industrial sub-category of engineering research. Furthermore once our current research project is complete, her expertise will bias the proposed selection of further research projects to be technologies that fall within her area of expertise. Likewise, Fanny Renard also has an expertise as her trait. Her expertise is the field of bio-engineering. Lorena Gomez, the head of our physics department, does not have an expertise. Instead her trait boosts her experience rate by 25%.

We do not currently have any admirals or generals within our command staff. I will hire some once we have something to fight.

The top bar depicts our current resource supply. From left to right, the resources are the following.

The yellow lightning bolt is our energy supply. Energy production fulfills the role of currency within this game. It is used predominately for paying upkeep costs on assorted assets, but it is also used as currency when trading with other factions.

The red gemstone represents our mineral supply. It is an abstraction for all types of metals and other materials that we would mine out of the ground. It is used predominately as the upfront cost of building just about everything from structures to starships.

The green apple represents our food supply. If it drops to zero, then starvation spreads throughout our territory with disastrous results. Riots will break out in the streets, production will drop, and potentially we even risk civil war and a splinter state seceding from our kingdom. On the other end of the spectrum, if our food supply fully fills our storage capacity, then our people will receive a population growth rate bonus. Our current food stockpile policy is minimal storage, which is 200 food. Eventually I will opt to increase that to 1000 or 5000 unit reserves, but first I want to hit 200 food and benefit from that population growth rate boost.

The purple icon represents our influence. It is used for triggering edicts, claiming new territory, and contesting enemy claims to territory. At present it is growing at our base flat rate, but we can increase it by interacting with internal and external political rivals.

Cyan clover-looking icon represents our unity. It is generated by assorted buildings within our empire like local capitals or monuments. Overtime we unlock assorted buffs with it. If you've played the Civilization games, it is very analogous to the "culture" resource.

The atom, sphere, and gear represent our physics, society, and engineering research output.

The green globe represents the number of core colonies that we can posses. It is a soft cap, but we suffer dramatically increasing penalties for breaching it. To continue our expansion after hitting the cap, we need to either find ways to increase the cap or redistrict our colonies into sectors.

The Spaceship represents the upper limit of the size of our navy. It is also a soft cap with rapidly increasing penalties for breaching it.

The "cloud-city" icon represents the number of starports that we can support within our nation.

The white diamond represents our supply of special strategic resources. These resources are rare and provide assorted buffs. At present we do not have any.

Finally the date is depicted at the far right. The game started at the year 2200.

The second picture depicts my planned exploration path for the HMS Diligent. Our local neighborhood is blessed with a few special stellar bodies. To our direct east, a neutron star. To the west are two black holes. North of the black holes is a pulsar. These stellar bodies are ideal sites for orbital research stations. However, they generally do not host habitable worlds. With that in mind, I am avoiding those systems for the time being. Eventually a second science ship will be deployed to explore to our south.

*ALARM SOUNDS* Umm, wow. That was fast. RED ALERT.

After completing her maiden hyperspace jump, the HMS Diligent's cursory scan of the star system detected an unknown alien contact orbiting the star. A very rough estimation of the contact's combat strength is approximately "1000." At present the combined might of our navy is a little over 100 combat strength...

Fortunately the Diligent was able to make a return jump back to the homeworld safely. Additionally the contact appears content to remain orbiting the star. A research project has been proposed to remotely study the contact, but at present I don't want to divert our society research away from the planetary unification tech.

Also of note, the cursory scan revealed a planet capable of supporting life. Due to the hostile contact, a comprehensive scan of the planet was not able to be performed. But we do know that it is a size 25 world. Its size makes it a jewel in its own right since 25 is the largest possible size world that we may encounter within the game. However it has an arid climate, which is a mismatch for our people. Eventually we will be able to put that soil to good use, but not until we can overcome both the alien menance and the environmental hurdle.

Third time's the charm. The Diligent has identified a colonization candidate at the site of her third star-system.

While the world has an arctic climate, an ideal match for us, the rest of the planet leaves much to be desired. It is relatively small as a size 16 world. Worse still, a full 50% of its tiles are obstructed by tile blockers that we currently do not have the technology to remove. It would allow us the option to nearly double our food output, but hopefully we can find a more appealing world for our first colony.

In other news, we've just completed construction of our second science vessel, the HMS Vagabond. We've hired Luciano Costa as a new scientist and have placed him in command of the Vagabond. The Vagabond has been dispatched to survey the planets en-route to the bridge to the outer arm of the galaxy. As a choke point between the two arms, this system is of strategic interest.

>>60108
By decree of the Princess, we are to undertake two new research initiatives. One to study life, and the other to study death.

The first is the Habitable Worlds Survey. The HMS Diligent's survey of a colonizable world was the first time that we've been able to examine primitive alien life up close. To better understand our galaxy, we have been tasked with surveying 8 new worlds that are capable of supporting life.

The second project concerns the well being of Earth. Our planet is still reeling from the aftermath of the HAPPENING. While we have perservered through the ordeal, other species on the planet are still struggling to survive. Scientists fear that the loss of some species may lead to to cascading damage within the biosphere that may culminate in mass extinction. We have been tasked with studying dead worlds that once supported life. By learning the history of these dead worlds, we may be able to prevent Earth from sharing the same fate.

Five worlds in four star systems have been identified by long range scanners as candidates for the study of mass extinction events. Three of those systems are very close to us and will assuredly be within our expanding sphere of influence. In the coming years, orbital research stations will be constructed over the worlds so that extensive study can be conducted. However the fourth system, which contains two dead worlds, is far to our south and within the outer arm. It will be some time before we can secure that territory.

>>60109
The Diligent has uncovered alien artifacts that are extraordinarily old. These artifacts came from a machine race that called themselves "The Cybrex." From what little we can glean from the artifacts, the Cybrex once launched a crusade against sapient organic life within the galaxy. We don't know much else, and all science teams are under orders to learn whatever we can about this precursor race.

Meanwhile the Vagabond has made contact with what appears to be an alien exploration vessel of similar capabilities to itself. I do not like seeing this ship so close to Sol. It suggests that another empire is extremely close to us. Our society research division has postponed its Planetary Unification project and has made studying what we know of this alien vessel its top priority. At this moment we are analyzing its communications in an attempt to learn their language and identify the location of its home base.

Conflict with an alien empire that is this close to our borders is inevitable. Rather than pretending to play nice, we're going to do everything in our power to disrupt their exploration efforts. To that end, Strike Force Pegasus has been deployed from the homeworld with orders to repulse the alien vessel.

>>60110
Strike Force Pegasus was successful in its task of engaging the alien research vessel, however the alien ship managed to make an emergency leap into hyperspace before it was destroyed. There exists a chance that such a hasty jump could have destroyed the ship in-transit, but odds are good that it survived.

With the xeno repulsed, the Vagabond was able to complete its survey of the system. It contains a size 15 arctic world with only 5 tile blockers. It is also home to a strategic resource known as Betharian Stone. These stones have impressive energy density that we will eventually be able to tap into with some future research.

A few months later, our analysts were able to decipher the alien language. With this linguistic advantage, we hailed the aliens. They call themselves the Jubaran Alliance. They are a Science Directorate with a tendency towards fanatic militarism. Their homeworld is a tundra world. While not a perfect match, it is close enough for our people to thrive on if we were to liberate the world from their control.

At present they have more territorial claims than us since they have built an outpost over a nearby star. However, in that regard, we are not far behind them. In preparation for establishing a colony in the Usksion system, our construction ship is nearing completion of a border outpost of our own.

Now that the location of the alien civilization is known, it is time to begin taking actions to stifle their expansion. The Vagabond is being recalled from its initial mission to survey the bridge to the outer rim. Its new task is to study the worlds nearest to the alien empire. Once surveyed, our construction ships will construct a chain of outposts to claim the territory along their likely routes of expansion. Our initial goals are circled in red. If we can claim those systems, then we will restrict their routes of potential expansion in all directions except the south. Celestia willing, we may be able to tighten our stranglehold further along their eastern flank.

As an aside, successfully researching the alien language and establishing first contact ourselves was a feat that rewarded us with 40 influence. This boon will be invaluable when choking them off since each system that we claim costs us 60*X influence where X is how many jumps the system is from out existing borders.

As for the state of our remaining resource reserves, the completed hydroponics lab has resolved the impending food shortage for now. Over time it has filled up our small food reserves to our current maximum. As I stated earlier, I want to leave our max food reserves where they are so that our people can benefit from a bolstered population growth rate.

Our energy income is a bit spartan. At present we are operating on +8 surplus. I want to hire a another scientist to command a third research ship, but that costs 200 energy. Another concern is that each border outpost has a monthly upkeep cost of 1 energy. That means that the proposed chain of border outposts would cost us -5 energy a month. Finally, a colony ship and a fledgling colony will place a drain of -8 energy per month for many months until it finishes becoming self sufficient. If luck is on our side, then the systems along the outpost chain will be rich in energy nodes that our construction ship can harvest as it expands our reach.

This game looks like fun.

https://youtu.be/O1CQ7Vwz8Eo

https://youtu.be/ayPCOCLXV9E

REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE my pc is broken.

Looking forward to the continued saga.

>>60133
Sorry to hear.

>>59959
What's your music mod?

>>60137
"Ace Combat Music." As the name implies, it adds some music from the Ace Combat games to the background music rotation.

The other mods that I have active are:
*Astronomical Emblem pack
*Diverse Rooms
*European Phenotypes
*Human Imperial Uniforms
*The "Strike craft fix" authored by "Dampfnudel"
*A modified copy of the "Anime robot species" mod to replace one of the robot portrait sets with waifubots.
*A custom flag mod that I made that adds the MLPOL flag to the game.

Now, before I begin the game again, I'd like to share some of the current policy settings of our government to see if anyone has any objections to how we handle our society. This is not an exhaustive list, but it includes what I think are some of the more important policies.

Government policies
---------------------
*Our policy on "War Philosophy" is currently set to "unrestricted warfare." This policy allows us to contest territory and wage wars of conquest. Alternative settings are to restrict ourselves to "Wars of Liberation" or "Defensive Wars only."

*Our stance on Orbital Bombardment is a policy of "indiscriminate bombardment." Under this policy we do not deliberately target civilian infrastructure, but we will not pull our punches for fear of collateral damage. The other alternative stance available to us is "selective bombardment" where we will only bombard verified military targets and will do everything in our power to mitigate civilian casualties.

*Land appropriation: Currently, when we conquer a world, if there is not enough room for 5 tiles worth of our citizens, then we will evict up to 5 tiles worth of aliens. The alternative option is to not do this.

*Core world population: Currently we allow humans and enslaved xenos within the core systems. Alternative options are humans only, or all species.

*Refugees: We currently will accept human refugees. Technically we're accepting refugees of any species that has been granted citizenship rights within our society. In order for human refugees to even exist, a subset of humanity will somehow need to break away from us. This could be possible by the occupation of one of our worlds and the subsequent eviction of that world's citizens, the abduction of citizens from our worlds, or a rogue sect seceding from our territory. The alternative stance that we can take is "FUCK OFF, WE'RE FULL!"

*Slavery: We currently allow the enslavement of aliens. The alternative is banning slavery.

*Purging: We currently allow the purging of species from our empire. The alternative is banning purging.

Alien rights (can be individual defined on a per-species basis)
------------
Citizenship status: Any aliens within our territory will be slaves. Alternative options are to grant them full citizenship, limited citizenship, or purge them as undesirables.

*Population controls: Alien species within our empire will be placed under population controls so that their population remains at a static level. This reduces their happiness. The alternative is to remove population controls.

*Military service: Aliens may currently be conscripted as footsoldiers. They may not serve in an officer position. Alternatives are to forbid the use of alien soldiers of any kind.

*Slavery type: Chattel slavery. Stereotypical "work in the fields and mines" slaves. Alternative options are domestic servitude, battle thralls, and livestock.

*Purging methods: We are not currently purging anyone, but the following options are available if we choose to do so. Extermination (GAS!), Neutering, Displacement, Forced Labor (Worked to death), and Processing (Soylent Green)

Ethical Research questions
---------------------------
As we progress in the game, the following options will become available.

*Bio-engineering: Overtime, we will gain access to assorted bio-engineering upgrades. The most mundane are simple improvements to life quality like the extension of the average lifespan or bolstering our immune systems to better deal with more challenging environments. However the potential exists for radical changes to our species at a genetic level. Changes so drastic that we could transform anything from a subset or the entirety of our civilization to what essentially amounts to another species. Forced evolution. Do we dare evolve ourselves or do we remain as we are? Do we restrict our forced evolution to alien subjects, or should we avoid the technology that would allow us to create such monsters?

*Synthetic evolution: As our skills with robotics grows, we can gain the ability to augment our people with cybernetic implants that will increase strength, habitability range, and life expectancy of our people. This change will be global and will affect the entirety of our population from that day forward. If we choose to continue down this path, it may be possible to abandon our bodies entirely by uploading our minds to robotic constructs. Should we pursue digital immortality or retain our mortal humanity? Will cybernetic augmentation enhance humanity or corrupt it?

AI: We are currently working towards developing rudimentary AI. Basic drones that are capable of carrying out simple instructions but aren't capable of higher though. Eventually we may have an opportunity to develop sapient AI. Should we pursue such a goal? If we achieve it, will we continue to treat our robots as our servants or should they be granted citizenship?

>>60172
The good news is that we've collected enough unity to purchase our first "Tradition" buff. For that buff, I opted to take the opening tradition of the "Discovery" tree. This tradition increases our odds of finding anomalies by 15% and decreases the chance of failure when studying anomalies by 10%. The hope is that finding more anomalies now will provide us with a mix of some immediate boons in addition to permanently enriching star systems by identifying hidden resource pockets.

Now for the bad news. The HMS Vagabond arrived in the first target system of our planned containment chain. The aliens were already constructing a border outpost over the star. Worse still, the system contains a size 16 tundra world that the aliens were likely planning to colonize.

With our people's lower population growth rate and our less resource rich homeworld, I don't think that we can risk allowing them to take this world and gain strength. So desperate times call for desperate measures. We've used some of our influence to make a claim on the alien controlled "Jabbah" system and have used that claim as our casus belli for a war of conquest.

Strike Force Pegasus was in range to repulse the construction ship. They arrived without a minute to spare. The xeno ship was approximately 80% done with its task when they chased it off.

Meanwhile, back at the homeworld, we've modified the design of our corvettes to be better at fighting off other corvettes. We're doing this by replacing two of the weapon turrets with a missile battery. We do not have time to refit our existing ships with this design, but a few new ships will be constructed and reinforce our fleet. We've also exhausted our energy reserves to hire an admiral for the fleet. Admiral Angeline Renard has the "Adaptable" trait, which boosts her experience rate by 25%. She was also the youngest candidate at 34. The alternatives were approximately 50, so by hiring her we will get approximately two more decades worth of service out of our admiral.

We do not have the firepower to contest the Jabbah system. Their navy is approximately equal to our own, and the border outpost in the system has a missile defense turret that would provide enough firepower to tip the scales in their favor. My goal is simply to maintain control of the Raltry system with the hope that my reinforcements and admiral are enough to tip the scales if they come to me. The fleet is to stall until we can build an outpost of our own over the star, at which point they likely won't have enough firepower to defeat both our fleet and the outposts defense battery. Once the outpost is in place, we will continue with the original plan of extending our territory towards the second target system. Eventually we will forfeit the claim on the Jabbah system and try to negotiate a cessation of hostilities. The hope is that by denying that colony to the enemy, we can build up a resource advantage and eventually conquer them fully.

The final bit of bad news is that, shortly after the declaration of war, the HMS Diligent detected an alien vessel of an unknown design and origin. This vessel was accompanied within the system by alien space stations. Our linguistics team is currently attempting to decipher their language. The tentative plan going forward is to continue our conflict against the Jabarians and to stall for time by fostering less aggressive relations with the second xeno.

>>60204
Well so much for getting on peaceful terms with the new aliens. Once again, we were awarded the influence prize for being the ones to establish first contact with them. This new alien nation calls themselves the "Democratic Hahn-Mur Nation." They are fanatic egalitarian xenophiles. As a xenophobic monarchy, friendship was never on the table between us. Of note, their homeworld is a Savannah planet.

They currently have claim over three star systems, and they escorted the HMS Diligent to the borders of their territory after they closed their borders to us. However, before eviction, Science officer Eva Gomez was able to complete the study of the dead world known tat was code named the "Icy planet." Her quick thinking made the report that is before us possible.

News from the war front is that our construction ship is 80% of the way through completing the border outpost that this war was declared over. The HMS Vagabond has scouted the Neutron star to our north so that the hyperlanes are properly charted for use by our warships if necessary*, however a full survey of the system is not being conducted at this time. With the hyperlanes mapped, the Vagabond is continuing with the task of surveying the systems towards the second target of our containment chain.

*I forgot to mention that only research vessels are allowed to blindly jump down hyperlanes to unexplored systems. The rest of our ships may only jump to systems that we have explored or that are controlled by another nation.

>>60211
We've completed researching level 2 power plants and exoskeletons. Our next research projects are improved compact fusion reactors for our starships and geothermal fracking techniques for our planet based mines.

We've also collected enough unity to collect our second tradition buff. This time I'm taking the opener for the Expansion tree. It reduces the colony development time by 50%. I'm intending to heavily invest in the expansion tree for our next few traditions.

The HMS Vagabond is continuing to explore along the proposed containment chain, and has pushed one world further than the initial target. That one jump beyond contains a size 22 alpine world with the "Wild Storms" modifier. That modifier unfortunately takes the world just outside of our "Goldilocks" zone, but it provides a huge +20% bonus to the planet's physics output. The world is also very rich in mineral deposits and would be a superb colony for our enemy. If we could block it off, that would be ideal. However I don't know if we'll be able to. It would take us approximately 30 months to accumulate enough influence to claim that system.

There are a lot of concerns weighing on my mind and I'm hoping that this gambit pays off. As far as we can tell, the aliens are focusing on building up their navy. Our current estimation of their naval strength is that it is now larger than ours (AI players get a substantial discount on ship upkeep, so it's much easier for them to build up a large standing navy without crippling their economy). However our fleet is supported by the border outpost. Hopefully they are not able to build up enough to overwhelm us and force a surrender. If things go to plan, their military buildup will have only stalled out their expansion even further and the war will end with them holding a pile of ships that they can't utilize until the end of the armistice and us with largely increased territory.

Minerals are very tight right now and there are a lot of things that I want to buy. Namely I really want to get that colony going. The sooner that we can get that snowball rolling, the better. However the colony ship will cost 300 minerals. I want to upgrade the outpost in the center of this war into a fully fledged starport. That will dramatically increase the station's firepower in addition to allowing me to construct additional facilities on the station such as a shipyard that can be used to build reinforcements and refit Strike Force Pegasus with our most current designs. That starbase would also be the perfect location to use as a staging ground for the eventual invasion of the enemy homeworld. However that ALSO costs 300 minerals.

To save on some minerals, I think that I will forego building a complete chain of border outposts to the target world and simply build an outpost directly over the original containment target or the newly identified size 22 world. The advantage is that we will save hundreds of minerals and a few units of monthly energy upkeep, but the disadvantage is that it will be very influence inefficient.

Oh yes, one more thing. The HMS Diligent scouted one of the black holes near us and found these floating energy clouds with a combined fleet power of nearly 8000. We're not going back there for awhile.

>>60212
So far the war has stayed cold since the opening shots when we scared off the Jubaran construction ship. After a few months of saving, we have enough minerals to begin construction of our first colony ship. I've decided to colonize the arctic world to our immediate south due to its ideal climate.

Let's take a moment to discuss planetary climates and habitability ranges.

Most planets fall within three climate categories. Dry worlds, wet worlds, and frozen worlds. Within each category there are three types of worlds. The types of dry worlds are arid, desert, and savanna. The wet worlds are continental, ocean, and tropical. The frozen worlds are arctic, alpine, and tundra.

The more similar a world is to the species' homeworld, the easier time they will have living on the world. The habitability rating of a world dictates how uncomfortable a member of that species would be living on that planet. If the habitability rating is in the green zone if it is 70% or above. Colonists on green zone planets will live very comfortably. The yellow zone is 40% and above. Colonists on these types of worlds will receive a penalty to population growth rate and happiness that becomes more severe the closer that the rating drops towards 40%. The red zone is 20% and above. Red zone worlds are extremely hostile to our people, and any colonists will suffer extreme penalties to happiness and growth rate. Worlds with a habitability below 20% are too hostile to colonize.

For a species with no habitability modifiers, the homeworld of a species is considered to have 100% habitability. Other worlds that are the exact same type of world are considered to have 80% habitability. EX: an alien arctic world will have 80% habitability for a race whose homeworld is an arctic planet. Other worlds within the same climate type as the homeworld are considered to have 60% habitability. For example, tundra and alpine worlds will have 60% habitability for a species with an arctic homeworld. Planets from mismatched climate types are considered to have 20% habitability.

There are also special cases on both ends of the spectrum. Artifical living spaces such as Ringworlds/Habitats or the extremely rare class of planet known as a "gaia" worlds have 100% habitability for all races simultaneously. Tomb worlds have a habitability of 0%.

Our people have two advantages when it comes to colonization. First, we have the "adaptable" trait that grants a +10% boost to our habitability. This is very useful since it boosts all worlds within our homeworld's climate type up to the 70%+ green zone. Secondly, we have the "survivor" trait which grants +70% habitability to tomb worlds. Survivor stacks with adaptability, so any tomb worlds that we find will have a habitability rating of 80%. This means that there over a third of all habitable systems will look like attractive colonization prospects.

After choosing the origin and species of the citizen used to seed the colony, we need to pick a landing site for the colony ship. There are two considerations to keep in mind when placing a colony ship. First, the colony ship is capable of harvesting any local energy resources within its tile, but other resources will be wasted. Secondly, the colony ship will provide an adjacency bonus to any farm, power plant, or mine that is built next to it. I'm opting to place the colony ship in the tile that is located in column 1, row 3. In this position it will be able to immediately harvest the local energy resource. The tile to its right is free for the construction of a mine, farm, or power plant. To the south is an energy tile with the batharian stone resource, however it is locked behind a tile blocker. Tile blockers are environmental obstacles that can be eventually removed through advancements in world-shaping technologies. Someday we'll clear out that volcano, but not today.

At this very moment we're just starting construction of the colony ship. We're still many months away from the colony becoming self sufficient.

>>60373
This is interesting. During a cursory survey of a star system, the HMS Diligent discovered an abandoned alien vault. Upon further analysis by Science Officer Eva Gomez, it appears that the vault contains the digitized neural images of a dead alien civilization. She has theorized that some catastrophe befell their world and that this digital backup was their final gambit at surviving past the death of their home.

We have collected the databanks and will archive them in a secure research facility on Earth. They may prove useful to us someday.

>>60377
We've been in a state of war for approximately seven years now. Our containment efforts are going better than expected. We are currently saving up enough influence to build another outpost in the Owhziea system. If successful, we will succeed in completely encapsulating the Jubaran Alliance. But there is a reason that they haven't been expanding. Our intelligence division estimates that the Jubarans have been throwing the entire weight of their economy into military buildup The strength of the Jubaran navy is currently estimated as "overwhelming" compared to our squadron. While alarming, the border in the Raltry system will soon be further fortified by upgrading its outpost into a full starport. To assess how we are truly performing in this war, let's contemplate the three possible outcomes of the conflict.

The first is total accomplishment of our stated wargoal, which is the conquest of the Jabbah system. We've never had the firepower to do that, and we won't have that firepower for the immediate future. Our casus belli was always just an excuse to block the construction of the alien border outpost in the Raltry system. In that regard, we achieved our true goal in the opening hours of the war.

My desired resolution to the war is to negotiate a peace and cessation of hostilities. While officially a draw, we will be the real winner since we will have dramatically increased our territory over the course of the campaign while the Jubarans will be trapped in their own very homeworld with no room to grow.

The final option would be to surrender and capitulate to their wargoal. Unlike our goal of conquest, their only goal is to humiliate us. Such an outcome would reward them with 100 influence while we would be penalized with having our influence income halved and a -10% happiness penalty will be applied to our entire empire for 10 years. This insult cannot be allowed to come to pass, but even then we will emerge from the war with all of our territory intact while the Jubarans will still be trapped.

All possible outcomes of the war are advantageous to us in the long term. If our final outpost can be erected, I will consider the Jubarans to be living on borrowed time.

In assorted other news:
Our society research teams have completed their planetary unifcation project. Their new project is developing more efficient farming techniques to better support our population in our planned expansion to multiple new worlds.

*Within the same star system as the alien vault, the HMS Diligent discovered an ancient yet well preserved mural. It tells a tale of the extermination of the people that once lived within this system. Apparently their exterminators came to regret their actions and erected this monument to the memory of the slain.

*Our first colony is halfway to becoming self sufficient. Its task will be complete in august of 2211.

>>60384
Unfortunately we were not able to completely encapsulate the Jubaran Alliance. They established control of the last hyperlane out of their empire a few months before we were able to accumulate enough influence to fully entrap them.

We have succeeded in blocking off several highly valuable worlds from them. The lane that they secured does have a colonization candidate, but it would be an absolutely terrible colony for them. It is an arctic world compared to their Tundra preference, it is a tiny size 12 world with only 4 tiles free of tile blockers, and the entire world is afflicted with "poor quality minerals" that reduce mineral output by 25%.

A new development on Earth was the creation of a new political party. The "Whetstone Initiative" is a pro-imperialism party that is led by our Science Officer Eva Gomez. They have a variety of issues that they want us to fulfill. If we can fulfill their goals, then our influence rate will increase and the citizens that have aligned themselves with the party will receive a happiness bonus. Their goals mostly center on conquering and subjugating foreign nations.

Our exploration ships have made a few discoveries recently. We've discovered another Cybrex artifact and have studied more of the dead worlds. The research logs are posted here.

*In other news, we've completed our improved mining project and have begun research of basic robotic workers.
*We've constructed an Autocthon Monument on Earth to celebrate the achievements of our first explorers. It increases our unity gain by 2.

>>60386
Traitors have taken up space piracy and have begun disrupting civilian shipping lanes. Task Force Pegasus is being deployed from the front line of the war to extinguish the pirate base.

Also, our "Map the Stars" edict has expired.

>>60387
We've destroyed the pirate base. We recovered the raw materials that were stored in their base's strongroom and have used them to fund the construction of a second colony ship. Strike Force Pegasus is taking advantage of its presence in the Sol system to refit the rest of the fleet with our latest design.

Elsewhere the HMS Vagabond encountered a drifting starship. The crew was alive but afflicted by a brain parasite. Once saved, the crew sent word of our assistance to their government. Contact has now been established with the Megacorporation "Chinoor Stellar Union" and they are grateful to use for our assistance. They also alerted us to the identity of one of their neighbors, the Martial Dictatorship of the "Adeex Hierarchy"

>>60388
I love the updates you post as you expand across the galaxy. Hopefully you become friends with the Chinoor, they look to be Hoppean ancaps or at least neo-reactionaries.

>>60402
I'm glad that you're enjoying the story. I actually am planning to pursue improved relations with the Chinorr. It is beneficial to have some friends in the galaxy. Saving their starship has granted us a temporary bonus to diplomatic relations with them. I'm going to further improve our optics by opening our borders to them. To be clear, "opening our borders" means that we will grant safe passage of their ships through our territory. Something crazy like allowing immigration into our homes is most decidedly not on the table. Also, given the vast gulf of space between us, it should be a rare occasion for them to even take us up on our hospitality.

I'll next try to organize a mutual research agreement with them. That will assist us in developing technologies that the Chinorr know, and they will receive bonuses developing technology that we know.

I am also interested in hearing opinions from the audience for how we should approach some upcoming ethical decisions.

The most pressing is how we should deal with the alien population of conquered worlds. Our current policy is to enslave them. This will provide a near immediate boon to our economy as they are put to work in the mines and work camps.

Alternatively we can purge them from our territory. Genocide is the quickest way to expel them from our territory, but it will inflict extremely severe diplomatic opinion modifiers when we interact with almost everyone else. It will basically torpedo opportunities for friendships and has a decent chance of coercing nations to rally together against us. Genocide via sterilization will also piss people off, but it is viewed as more humane.

An alternative is to exile them from our territory. I don't think that foreign empires care so much about us exiling pops, but we will be granting free warm bodies to whichever nation accepts them as refugees.

I'm game for any approach, but I think that jumping straight to gassing them would lead to the most challenging future for us.

>>60172
Also, we need to decide how we want to approach the issues of extensive gene modding, cybernetic advancement, or developing true AI.

There is additionally the matter of those alien brain scans that we recovered. As our skill in robotics increases, we may get an opportunity to attempt to try our hand at uploading the xeno minds into robotic shells. Should we pursue that opportunity if it presents itself?

>>60430
/mlpol/ is for humans and ponies only, you should evict pops.

Go for gene modding only if it will give you actual ponies. Otherwise, avoid it and cybernetic enhancement. Develop true AI and let the dead sexnos earn their keep as honorary Aryans.

>>60511
Uh, I actually meant xenos and misspelled it. I guess we know what their purpose is now, I guess.

>>60430
We have completed our "Dead Planets" research project. From what we've discovered, life is far more resilient than we had given it credit for. The events that led to the demise of these five worlds were more cataclysmic on a scale that makes the HAPPENING appear benign. We can breath a sigh of relief. It appears as though Earth is most likely not in danger of imminent death, and in fact will most likely heal over time.

For years it has been like a dark cloud was hanging over our people. It was as if every citizen had received notice that a loved one was diagnosed with a terminal illness. Our space program and colonization initiative were driven on in part by a sense that it was our last chance to avoid extinction with a dying world. The news that Earth will live was met with celebration by our people. We still have much work ahead of us to mend the scars of the HAPPENING, but it feels like the dawn of a new day.

*A reward of ~300 unity was granted for completing the dead worlds research project.
*In other news, a third research vessel has been added to our exploration fleet. Science Officer Julieta Garcia was hired to command the HMS Pilgrim.

>>60707
The war with the Jubaran Alliance has come to an end. A truce has been signed where we have both agreed to cease hostilities for 10 years.

After 13 years of fighting, the territory of the Jubaran Alliance is nearly unchanged whereas we have grown, succeeded at establishing one colony, and are in the process of establishing a second colony.

To our North, the Democratic Han-Mur Nation has made significant land grabs. Within that territory they only have one colony that is still in the process of being established. One priority of ours is to extend our territory to the bridge to the outer rim so that we can guarantee ourselves a route of passage into that region of space. Aside from that strategic location, I think that it is time to slow the expansion of our territory and invest into tapping the resources within our domain.

We've also completed our habitable worlds research project. A museum of exobiology has been established on Earth,and donations have come pouring in from patrons who want to encourage further research. Those donations have been earmarked for hiring a new science officer once our shipyards can complete construction of a fourth research vessel.

>>60773
We've finished developing basic robotic drones. We can now build these robots on our worlds in parallel with the growth of our population.

The robotic workers are 10% more efficient than a human at the task of mining minerals, and are a man's equal at the task of harvesting food. They are capable of operating in any environmental condition and they are unaffected by happiness. However their downside is that they are inferior to men at any other task and they are not able to reap the efficiency bonuses of a very happy citizen.

>>60778
The HMS Vagabond has made an interesting discovery within the outer rim. A massive abandoned station is floating in the void. Its technology is far beyond our present comprehension, but our current hypothesis is that this structure once acted as some sort of subspace gateway. Presumably, at one point, this gate would have allowed instantaneous travel to another similar gate elsewhere in the galaxy.

Today the gate is inoperable. Perhaps someday we may be able to repair the gate and put this ancient network to use for our own benefit.

>>60779
A few perplexing events have taken place. The HMS Pilgrim found an object orbiting unusually close to a star. Upon closer inspection the object was a teapot. Upon even closer inspection the teapot was actually the three dimensional shadow of a four dimensional object. When examined from that perspective, it was found that the "teapot" contained a message. That message was a set of instructions on how to streamline our research efforts across the board. But who was phone?

Two local hazards required Strikeforce Pegasus to scramble to intercept. First, a new pirate base was discovered at the edge of our territory. The pirates had managed to accumulate a larger fleet than before, and this time Strikeforce Pegasus suffered a casualty during the policing effort. Meanwhile, on the other side of our territory, a large asteroid was detected on a collision course with the colony that we established on Unuk III. Unexpectedly, before Strikeforce Pegasus could arrive to intercept the asteroid, the Jabaran fleet made an incursion into our territory and destroyed the asteroid themselves. I don't know what possessed them to take such an action, but we now have a much more accurate idea of the size and composition of their battlegroup. Our shipwrights are now adjusting the specifications of our corvettes to better defend against their weapons, and our physics division is developing a higher power laser weapon to deploy.

The Democratic Hahn-Mur Nation has signed a NAP with the Jubaran Alliance, and they've grown their territory to our doorstep.

Now that more infrastructue is being established to increase our mineral income, we can finally start diverting more assets towards increasing the size of our navy.

Our exploration force has been bolstered by a fourth research vessel. The HMS Paragon and her commanding officer Maria Perez.

>>60780
A new faction has risen up within our nation. The Terran Ascendancy Party, led by Princess Aryanne Hoofler herself, pursues an agenda of asserting the supremacy of humanity.

We've received contact with a nation that calls themselves the Union of Fara. They learned of us through interaction with the Democratic Hahn-Mur Nation. Their territory lies to the north of the Hahn-Mur.

Our exploration teams have discovered more about the Cybrex precursor race. Luciano Costa and the crew of the HMS Vagabond have reached the necessary level of expertise to fully investigate these leads. While investigating the wrecks of two Cybrex warforms that were in orbit over Segathia II, it became apparent that the warforms were not destroyed by an outside party and that instead they were fighting each other for some unknown reason. On our other frontier, the HMS Paragon and HMS Diligent have identified two more sites of interest. One appears to be the shattered remains of a Cybrex base, and the other is some sort of massive ancient graveyard of preserved corpses. Arrangements are being made to allow for Science Officer Costa to remotely assist the Paragon and Diligent analyze the new Cybrex sites.

>>60780
Ah, classic Russell's Teapot!

>>60781
The Jubarans surrounded you, now you've surrounded their ally. I wonder if this on-upmanship will continue.

>>60781
Fantastic updates. Fantastic Read.
I'd vote for Aryanne, can we "take care of" those who don't vote for her?

>>60790
Damn...

>>60791
It’s ok little Norway I know you aren’t a real monarchy any more. :(

>>60792
That is true. I miss King Olav V
>last good king we had, man of the people
>smoked on an airplane, was told to put it out, said I am the king I do as I like

>>60793
How did he feel about Jews?

>>60796
Not sure, he was the high protector of the Church so I guess he saw them as Murders of Christ.
>also image of King Olav V riding the tram during the oil crisis in '73.

>>60798
What a man of the people...

>>60782
I wouldn't call us surrounded. We are starting to feel a lot of border friction from the expanse of the Hahn-Mur to our north. To our south, the Jubarans are trying to make up for lost time with their growth, but the whole region of space that they're growing into is severely lacking colonizable worlds that match their climate preference.

We retain access to hyperlanes that allow transit to both the outer and inner arms of our galaxy. We also have room to expand counter-clockwise around our own arm. While we haven't officially claimed the southern transit point, there is a mass of approximately 8k worth of space monsters standing between the Hahn-Mur and the bridge. At present, I'd estimate that their military strength is in the upper hundreds and below 1000.

We've also established a forward starbase that is only a single jump from the Jubaran homeworld. It will be used as a staging ground for our eventual assault. If we can get the first tier of sensor upgrades researched, then that starbase is in a perfect position to provide real time intel on the Jubaran homeworld, their shipyards, and the exact composition of the fleet defending their homeworld.

Our biggest disadvantage right now is that our standing military is weaker than both the Hahn-Mur and the Jubarans. I'm doing my best to grow our navy, but I need to pace myself. Each corvette that I produce has a monthly maintenance fee of 0.74 energy and 1.48 minerals. If I expand our navy too quickly, then I will cripple our monthly income and our ability to invest in growing our economy. The AI opponents receive substantial discounts on all upkeep costs, so it's to be expected that their military has an easier time growing in these early stages of the game

As far as economic prospects are concerned, we have two self-sufficient colonies, the Hahn-Mur have one self-sufficient colony and two new colonies in the process of being developed, and the Jubarans have no colonies. We should be able to outgrow the Jubarans and capture their homeworld. Once they've been dispatched in our little operation Space-Sea Lion, then we can focus our efforts on pushing back the Hahn-Mur.

>>59959
Keep em coming!

>>60862
We've now collected enough unity to finish unlocking the remainder of the tradition buffs in the "Expansion" tree. These traditions have granted us the following boons:

*Colony development rate increased by 50%
*The capital building on each world grants +1 additional unity per month
*Colonies are founded with two pops instead of one
*The effect of increased tradition cost due to the number of colonies that we control is lessened by 20%
*The influence cost to build a border outpost is reduced by 10%
*The upkeep of starbases is reduced by 20%
*Our "core worlds" limit has increased by two.
*We have received one ascension point that is redeemable for an ascension perk. This point was spent to unlock the "Executive Vigor" perk. It increases the duration of any edicts that we decree by 50%.

I like to imagine that the buffs from the edicts are meme magic taking hold on reality. The first edict that we're instating after adopting "Executive Vigor" is a "Healthcare Campaign." At the cost of 800 energy, our population will receive a +20% growth rate boost for the next 17 years.

----------

Research teams have completed the study of the identified Cybrex sites. The Cybrex base appears to have been destroyed when someone crashed a starship into it. The aliens in the "graveyard" were all marked by barcodes. The cause of death was universally vacuum exposure.

----------

The HMS Pilgrim identified a massive space station orbiting Qirbus. After a short time, the station hailed us. They've identified themselves as the "Artisan Troupe" and have offered their services in the arts in exchange for a hefty fee. We declined since we have more pressing priorities for our money.

>>61038
A third political faction has been founded within our nation. The "Strength Through Unity Initiative", led by Science Officer Julieta Garcia, has an agenda centered around the centralization of political and military power. One of their goals is for us to force an alien nation to bend the knee by submitting to us as a vassal state or tributary.

---------

We've received notice that the Hahn-Mur and the Jubarans have entered into a mutual defensive pact.

It'sAfraid.png

---------

Our engineering directorate has finished developing the "Machine Template System." We can now design robots that have been specialized for a specific task by assigning them traits. We have one trait point for unlocking a positive trait, but we can budget for more points by adopting negative traits into the design.

Two new robots types have been designed.

The first is the Minerbot. This robot was designed to be mass produced in parallel across our worlds and then shipped in bulk to new worlds. The minerbot has power drills that increase its mineral harvesting output by an additional 10%. Additionally it has efficient power cells that reduce its upkeep cost by 10%. Bulk shipment is facilitated by the incorporation of double-jointed limbs that allows the robot to collapse itself into a compact state that is ideal for shipping. The cost to ship a minerbot between planets is 50% cheaper than shipping a standard robot. It only costs 50 energy to move these minerbots between worlds. These upgrades do not come without cost. The minerbot costs 20% more to produce than a standard robot. 120 minerals to the normal 100.

The second design is the Agribot. It has the a suite of farming equipment that allows it to harvest food 10% more efficiently than a human pop. Like the minerbot, the agribot is equipped with efficient power cells. The downside of these bots is that they are large bulky machines that are intended to be built on site and never moved. If we were to try and move them, it would cost us 150 power to transport one between planets.

From this point forward, we will be building only these specialized models of robots. We can begin an engineering program to retrofit our existing robots into one of the newer designs, but I believe that the efforts of our engineers are better spent developing new technologies than upgrading the few robots already in use within our kingdom.

>>61047
Well this is unsettling. While surveying the Osmadin system, the HMS Pilgrim located a research outpost. A TERRAN research outpost...

The outpost was manned by a single soul. We have been unable to match this individual to anyone within state records and he refuses to identify himself. All that he will say is that he is "an exile."

This "exile" expressed a great interest in returning to our Star Kingdom, but on the condition that the Pilgrim leave the planet immediately and that no Terran ship ever return.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. NO.

The Pilgrim was ordered take this "exile" into custody and to conduct an exhaustive search of the research outpost. Ultimately the outpost was mundane and contained nothing of note. Scans of the surrounding area indicated that the mountain that the research outpost was built on was hollow, however the Pilgrim was unable to identify a route into the interior.

Distressingly, the "exile" has vanished from custody. After having done everything in their power to locate the missing fugitive, the HMS Pilgrim was forced to leave this mystery unsolved.

>>61048
We've found a Terran message buoy that was relaying an SOS signal. It appears that the crew of a civilian ship was captured by pirates and that they are being held hostage. We've estimated the location of the pirate base and Strike Force Pegasus is preparing to deploy on a rescue mission once the fleet has finished being refit with our latest equipment.

------
Current intelligence reports indicate that our growing navy has reached approximate parity with the Jubaran's. Continued growth is still underway. The Hahn-Mur/Jubaran defensive pact means that simply securing a minor advantage over the Jubarans isn't enough. We must thoroughly defeat Jubarans in our initial strike so that we can turn the conflict into a one front war.

>>61060
To further our military buildup, our engineering teams are developing the techniques necessary to build larger starships. Soon destroyer class vessels will join our corvettes.

------------

The Museum of Exobiology is preparing a new exhibit, and they want us to procure a variety of live specimens from various worlds. Our exploration fleet has higher priorities right now, but we'll begin collecting the specimens as the opportunity presents itself.

----------

The HMS Pilgrim completed her most recent jump to find herself surrounded by a force over a dozen times more powerful than our entire navy. This fleet was already quite knowledgeable of our language, knew exactly who we were, and delivered the following message: They are the Knatza Conservers and the Pilgrim had infringed upon their territory. Leave immediately or be destroyed.

The Knatza Conservers are a "Fallen Empire." They are a galactic super power whose society has fallen into lethargy. To say that their technology far exceeds our own would be an extreme understatement. The reception that met the Pilgrim was only a small fragment of their navy. Our best estimate places their standing navy at a strength in excess of 100k while our navy barely breaks 800.

They are a sleeping giant and are content to remain within their borders so long as nothing awakens them and draws their ire. They describe themselves as "Keepers of Knowledge" and view it as their responsibility to forcibly prevent any of the younger races from developing technology they deem to be "too dangerous."

While they still view us as being beneath their notice, our aspirations to develop true AI may eventually draw their attention...