/vx/ - Videogames and Paranormal

>>61142
The HMS Diligent has been destroyed. We received a short panicked transmission from Science Officer Eva Gomez before the signal cut out. There were no survivors.

The following image is all that we know about her assailants.

>>61152
After some effort, we have established contact with Eva Gomez's murderers. They are a clan of marauders known as the Connisthians. These despicable xenos are comprised of many disparate warring tribes, although they've advertised that they're willing to fight as mercenaries if the price is right.

That price seems to be 3000 energy, a bit beyond our reach for now.

>>61158
What does the map look like now?

>>61159
Sorry, I should have included a map update when I encountered the Fallen Empire and Marauders. It slipped my mind since I haven't really advanced the clock that much tonight.

Our territorial bounds haven't increased that much since the last update. In addition to the influence cost, it costs ~100 minerals and 1 energy per month to claim a star. Since there are obstacles preventing the enemy from cutting off our potential routes of expansion, I don't want to grow our borders until we've finished establishing the infrastructure to tap into the resources within our existing sphere of influence.

The Jubaran's growth looks more impressive than it is. Their blob is pretty big since the stars are far apart, and there aren't many notable resource deposits within that territory. They do presently control that derelict gate, but I highly doubt that they'll retain their sovereignty long enough to do anything about it.

If we zoom the camera in a bit, then we can see the location of various colonies. Our star kingdom has recently started establishing a third colony in the Raltry system.

The Jubarans have established their first colony on Owhziea. That world is utter shit though. It's a size 16 with 8 tile blockers blocking access to half of the territory. On top of that, it has a "poor quality minerals" modifier that hurts the world even further.

The Hahn-Mur are in a much stronger position. They're setting up a fourth colony on our doorstep right now. That said, two of the Hahn-Mur colonies are very suspect. Their species has a savanna preference and they have a negative trait of -5% happiness as baseline. Mesarthim is an Arid world, so it's in the yellow zone for them by default. That problem is compounded by the "wild storms" modifier on the planet that hampers them with an additional -5% habitability and -5% happiness. Productivity on that world is certainly low due to the angry citizens. As for the aforementioned colony on our doorstep, it's an ARCTIC world. That's completely out of their desired climate range. Citizens of their own species will likely openly revolt on that world. However they have just recently signed a joint immigration deal with the Jubarans, so they might be hoping to populate that world with the Alpine preference Jubarans.

Those are the suspect worlds. The Hahn-Mur did luck into a gorgeous size 21 savanna world with the "High Quality Minerals" modifier. Combined with their specie's "Very strong" trait, they're likely getting a lot of minerals thanks to that world.

I've always been more fond of population as an indicator of industrial output, and in that regard we are pulling ahead thanks to the introduction of robots into our workforce. We currently have 33 pops (35 in a month or two once the Raltry colony comes online), the Hahn-Mur have 30 pops, and the Jubarans have 17.

As far as military plans are concerned, our physics department is 13 months away from developing gravitic sensors. Currently our ships can only see contacts within the same system as them. Any ship equipped with Gravitic sensors will be able to see ships within systems that are one jump away. That technology also unlocks a "listening post" starbase upgrade that grants that starbase the ability to peer down an additional +2 jumps away.

The starbase in Unuk is already perfectly positioned to observe the Jubaran colonies. I'm also going to try to sneak a construction ship over to Lambda Serpentis to setup a starbase within observation range of the Hahn-Mur core worlds. That intel will give me an idea of when is the perfect time to strike.

There will be at least two distinct wars. The first one will have the objective of dissolving the Jubaran alliance. I will levy a claim against their colonies and then wage a war of conquest against them. The overall plan is that I want to build up our navy to its fleet cap, marshal a handful of ground armies, and setup some orbital defenses of earth to deter an attack against the Sol system while Strikeforce Pegasus is attacking the Jubarans.

I'm actually not sure how the Hahn-Mur will respond to an attack against the Jubarans. With luck they won't be willing to die for the lives of the Jubarans. But if they do attack me, Earth is the only system that I consider truly irreplaceable in the short term. If necessary, Strikeforce Pegasus can reverse the temporary occupation of our systems once we have occupied the Jubaran worlds.

Once the Jubarans are removed from the equation, I'll declare a second war against the Hahn-Mur as soon as we've finished likcing our wounds from the first war. Taking their worlds will be MUCH tougher though. Their species has the "very strong" trait, which boosts the strength of their ground troops by a whopping 40%. Barring a numerical advantage from our own ground armies, we'll simply need to wait until orbital bombardment has pounded their surface defenses to a pulp before we land our troops. That could take awhile if they've built any fortifications on their worlds.

>>61162
Do you have space torpedoes yet? They’re a huge damage bomus to corvettes and can really tip the early game.

>>61207
Torpedoes haven't shown up as a research option yet, and I don't have a rocketry scientist available to bias the odds of it showing up.

The ship upgrades that we do have are blue lasers, level 2 reactors, level 2 shields, and afterburners. We're also using nuclear missiles. They're not as good as torpedoes, but they're still pretty solid against corvettes.

The fleet just completed combat trials rescuing the hostages from the ransomers. Our combat strength is now at ~1k, which is rated as "equivalent" to both the Hahn-Mur and Jubarans.

Gravitic sensors research is complete. While I've established an outpost to spy on the Hahn-Mur, it's going to be about a year and a half before it upgrades to a starport and I can equip it with a listening outpost. Until then it can't quite spy on the Hahn-Mur navy.

Surprisingly, the Jubaran navy is AWOL. I'm sorely tempted to start the war now and knock out their starports while their fleet is absent. The only thing giving me pause is that I don't have ground troops marshaled yet. I was expecting another year to rally the troops and fortify Earth's starport with missile batteries.

We've also discovered a new nation. The "Usanace Harmonious Sovereignty." That's them in the lower right of the galaxy. Judging by all of the stuff that they have, I'm fairly confident that they are an advanced start empire.

>>61216
Screw it. Fortune favors the bold. I'm abandoning the project to establish the Hahn-Mur observation post to free up minerals to begin retrofitting Earth's starport with missile batteries.

We've initiated a war of conquest with both of the Jubaran's worlds as the prize.

The first battle of the war was a flawless victory. With a fleet to supplement it, the Jubaran starport fell to Strikeforce Pegasus without inflicting any casualties. We are now working to repair the starport so that it can be used to repair the wounds inflicted to our fleet, and so that its defensive batteries can be turned against the Jubaran's own fleet. Speaking of their fleet, it has been sighted over their colony and it is en-route to attack Strikeforce Pegasus.

While we control orbit in the Jubaran home system, we have not yet invaded the planet itself.

There has been no sign of the Hahn-Mur navy.
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We've established contact with the "Regime of Neboria." They are Evangelizing Zealots whose territory is far to our north.

>>61225
We've engaged the Jubaran navy, a fleet that they refer to as "Hurricane", over their homeworld's star.

Long range scanners have detected Hahn-Mur naval groups. Two distinct formations have been identified. Intercepted communications suggest that the size 800 force is en-route to reinforce "Hurricane" while the other is maintaining position in their territory.

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We've established contact with another enclave. They call themselves the "Curators." They are an ancient order of scientists.

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Destroyer technology is complete, and speak of the devil, torpedo technology is available as our next project.

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We've identified another Cybrex artifact site. It appears to have been the site of a massive battle between the Cybrex and a coalition of four empires that stood against them. Things did not appear to end well for the coalition.

>>61226
>torps soon
Niiiiiiiice, keep us posted my man and Godspeed for your war.

>>61227
>>61226
So far so good, but we always knew that dealing with the Jubarans would be the easy part of the war.

"Hurricane" was handily repulsed by the combined might of Strikeforce Pegasus and the captured starbase. Only one casualty was sustained during the engagement.

Pegasus took a few days to patch the most egregious holes in their armor plating, but then began their pursuit of Hurricane to the Jubaran shipyard facilities in the Owhziea system. The Jubaran forces were still badly damaged from their first sortie, and the shipyard itself wasn't heavily armed. It was a bloodbath. Once again we only lost a single ship.

With this sortie complete, the Jubaran navy is in tatters and all known Jubaran shipyard facilities are under our control. A small force of Jubaran ships retreated from the battle and returned to their homeworld. This smaller force, known as "White Crush" is too weak to recapture the starbase within the Jubaran home system.

Pegasus is beginning field repairs, while General Priscilla Goodwin is leading the assault against the Jubaran colony at Owhziea. KlendathuDrop.mp3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIGHCoVzqtk

Two additional armies are being marshaled before we make planetfall on the more heavily defended Jubaran homeworld.
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The Hahn-Mur naval groups have moved out of range of our long range sensors. Their present whereabouts are currently unknown, but I suspect that they will attempt to break the siege of the Jubaran homeworld.

>>61230
The Jubaran colony has fallen, and "White Crush" has been destroyed. We are not aware of any remaining Jubaran fleet elements. Strikeforce Pegasus has repaired her damaged and has begun orbital bombardment of the Jubaran homeworld. Army groups are waiting in orbit to begin their assault once enemy defensive emplacements have been flattened.

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The Connisthian Marauders, the spineless cowards that they are, are threatening to pillage our territory if we do not send them tribute. We cannot afford to have our back line ravaged by their forces, so regrettably we parted with 500 energy.

This affront will not be forgotten.

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

The Hahn-Mur navy is still AWOL.

---------

Our energy coffers were quickly replenished from the result of a failed attempt to extract a "thinking rock" from an asteroid.

>>61231
I need put the war on pause for tonight, but the invasion of the Jubaran homeworld was successful. Every world in their empire is now under our occupation. With the Jubaran fleet shattered, their shipyards captured, and their worlds under occupation, Strikeforce Pegasus is now free head to the northern front.

So far the Hahn-Mur have made only a few minor incursions into our territory, but they haven't captured anything really important. Just the outposts at Lambda Serpentis and the XT-81 Singularity.

Our influence reserves were getting bloated, so I've raised the stakes a bit by making claims against the Hahn-Mur systems of Tyastedore, Roganoin, and Qastan.

In addition to the ongoing Torpedo research, we're working on developing UV laser weapons. Our research teams have a head start due to some samples recovered from the wreckage of Jubaran starships that were sent to our reverse engineering teams.

>>61232
Here's the map at the end of the evening.

At some point during the war, we made contact with the "Prossnakan Democratic Commonwealth" to our east.

>>61233
is OP ded?

>>61467
This, I've been wait for updates

>>61467
>>61468
I haven't had much time to play last night or tonight. You'll have to bear with me as I give you the quick rundown of recent events from this picture. I didn't want to make a bunch of posts about us kicking the snot out of defenseless starbases, so I planned on making the next update be in response to the first major fleet engagement with the Hahn-Mur navy. However their navy was suspiciously absent. One thing led to another and before I knew it we had made some significant headway into their territory.

After occupying Jubaran territory, the following events happened:

1: Fearing a retaliatory strike from the Hahn-Mur, Strikeforce Pegasus was recalled to Earth. This strike never came.

2: One of the missile batteries on Earth's starbase was converted back into a shipyard so that it could provide a stream of fresh reinforcements to the frontline. A steady stream of new ships was sent to Pegasus from that point forward.

3: Once Strikeforce Pegasus was repaired, I wanted to repeat the same style of conflict that we executed against the Jubarans. Namely capturing an undefended starport and using their defenses against them. To accomplish this, we avoided the enemy fleet stationed at Tyastedore by taking a detour through Edor Vang (slaying the space monster energy cloud thing), plowed right through the occupied outpost at Lambda Serpentis, and then captured the enemy starbase in the Roganoin system. Pegasus conducted repairs at the captured starbase while expecting an attack from the Hahn-Mur navy. That attack never came.

4: Troop transports were deployed to Roganoin. After bombardment slaughtered one of the three defending armies, our troops landed and took the colony with no casualties. Still no sign of enemy fleet movements.

5: I wasn't expecting to get this far without retaliation, but from Roganoin we were able to see that the Hahn-Mur had left their homeworld only lightly defended by a small group of 2-3 corvettes and a defense platform. Strikeforce Pegasus defeated the orbital defenses of the Hahn-Mur homeworld and began bombardment of the planet. By this point, Strikeforce Pegasus had grown to 1.5k combat strength and our ground assault force had grown to 8 armies.

6: Attacking their homeworld prompted the Hahn-Mur battlegroups to finally start to moving in retaliation to us. Strikeforce Pegasus returned to Roganoin to defend against an 770 strength fleet while the troop transports were left to themselves to attack the Hahn-Mur homeworld without the assistance of orbital support. Our invasion force took some casualties but was enough to secure the planet. The defense at Roganoin was a cleansweep, and we struck a massive blow against their navy.

Their war exhaustion level is near the point where they should submit to our war demands after one or two more good sorties.

-----------
Unrelated to the war effort, we made contact with the Xuracorp trading enclave. They opened their markets to us. We can exchange energy for minerals or vice versa at a rate of 2:1. This is a pretty garbage exchange rate, but we can adopt or abandon the trade deals at a moment's notice.

>>61471
Whoops, hit submit too soon. Other minor events that took place were the discover of the Havarigga Protectors, another fallen Empire. They are "Holy Guardians" who watch over their holy worlds. Colonizing those holy worlds would draw their wrath. Their territory is the upper leftmost known nation. The red territory with the blue border.

Also the Union of Fara started insulting us.

>>61472
Pegasus and our army group were able to defeat the orbital defenses and occupy the colony at Qastan. The enemy is on their last legs as far as their war exhaustion level is concerned.

What's left of their navy is moving to attack the starport in the Roganoin system. Pegasus is en-route to intercept. This should break their backs.

>>61473
Their war exhaustion has risen to 100%, but they're still hanging on like tenacious bastards. We'll just have to occupy the last of their colonies. With their fleets beaten, this shouldn't take more than a few months.

We've established contact with the "Maweer Shard", a third fallen empire of xenophobic Militant Isolationists. Their territory is on the southern edge of the galactic core.

>>61474
The war is over. The Jubaran Alliance no longer exists as a state. The Democratic Hahn-Mur nation is a crippled shell of their former self. The main reason that I refrained from extending my claims to eliminate them as well is because I wanted what's left of their state to act as a temporary buffer between our territory and that of Union of Fara.

Speaking of our territory, there is a lot of work left to be done to fully secure it for the benefit of our people. Overnight our territory swelled from four inhabited planets to nine. The conquered worlds are still full of partisans and resistance cells that are causing absolute chaos on the ground. It will take time to establish garrisons on each world to quell the unrest.

The priority is securing the colder worlds such as the two former Jubaran worlds and the former Hahn-Mur colony of Tyastedore. Once the unrest is suppressed, human colonists will be transferred to the fresh territory. The savanna colonies captured from the Hahn-Mur are not suitable for human colonization at this time, so we'll be sending a few robots to oversee control of the planets.

>>61475
After queuing up a few garrisons on the most tumultuous worlds, the first order of business is to divide my territory up into sectors.

A nation may only have a select few number of worlds under direct control of the crown. In our case, that limit is 5. It is a soft limit, but massive penalties are incurred if we breach it.

Colonies that are within a sector do not directly deposit the fruits of their labor into our coffers. Instead we tax them at rates up to 75%, and the remainder go into their own reserves for building local upgrades. Those reserves may be commandeered by us at the cost of some influence. That influence fee is reduced in the event of a defensive war.

Additionally, planets within sectors do not benefit from the bonuses of our Homeworld's governor. However we have the option of hiring more governors and assigning one to the sector.

Now that we have some breathing space, I want to start tackling the problem of our poor research rates. Within our territory is a size 22 world with the "wild storms" modifier that grants an amazing +20% physics research output at the cost of some habitability and happiness. I'm going to spam research labs on this world in order to turn it into a major research and development center.

To fix the happiness problem, I'm going to start taking a detour down another tradition path. Branching out into so many different trees is slowing down our acquisition of ascension perks, but it is my belief that the early buffs within the trees are well worth the delay.

As a recap of our traditions, the discovery opener grants increased odds at finding anomalies and reduce the chance of failure when studying them. We have been receiving many small boons from assorted anomalies, and approximately 1800 minerals were added to our war chest during the recent war as the result of successful anomalies. The expansion tree dramatically improves our colonization efficiency and decreases the upkeep cost of the many outposts and starbases that we need to maintain to control large swathes of territory. Starting the supremacy tree granted us an increase to the number of starbases that we may control and decreased the hefty cost to upgrade starbases, while the "warrior mindset" trait that we adopted increases the firepower of our ground armies by a substantial 25%.

My next goal is to adopt the harmony tree so that we may better hasten our ability to assume control of alien worlds. Adoption of this tree will result in boons such a +25% increase of pop growth rate, reduced unrest, improved governing ethics attraction, and +15% happiness to our citizens. That happiness is key and will help our people stomach living on xeno worlds whose habitability range falls within the yellow zone.

When we do finally unlock our second ascension perk, I'm leaning heavily towards adopting "Enigmatic Engineering." That perk imbues our technology with the essence of kraut space magic, rendering our equipment impossible to reverse engineer. It will also grant +2 to our sensor range. Since each boost increases the number of jumps away that we can peer ahead, each increases is exponentially more valuable than the last.

>>61602
Further on the topic of happiness, most of our population is currently very happy. Everyone is receiving a temporary +5% boost to happiness from one of the anomalies that were identified by our exploration fleet. In this case, the fleet discovered a deposit of a rare type of salt that has kicked off a sort of culinary Renaissance within our lands.

The rest of the happiness bonuses are coming from the political parties within our realm. Our approval ratings are extremely high. All three parties approve of our progress, the Strength Through Unity Initiative has a few issues that they are upset on. Princess Aryanne Hoofler's Terran Ascendancy Party is outright ecstatic after the conclusion of our most recent war. Citizens who are members of these parties are all receiving bonuses to their happiness.

>>61603
I imagine that the next several updates will be rather mundane. I don't expect any major happenings to take place for a few decades. Our navy has been recalled to its base in the Unuk system. The upkeep cost of our ships is be reduced while they rest at ease at port.

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We've brought unrest down to manageable levels by using some of our influence to institute martial law on our freshly conquered worlds. Before we could do so, local resistance groups began more overt activity within the Tyastedore system. As a precaution, our ground armies have been stationed in Tyastedore to put down any potential uprisings.

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At this time, I do not think that it is viable to begin our final solution of exiling these vile xenos from our territory. They are relatively content working as slaves so long as they can continue living in their homes. Expulsion would raise unrest again and undo what work has been done to bring peace to the colonies.

I also know that if no nation will readily accept the refugees, then the expulsion process can be a very lengthy one that can last decades. I do not wish to begin such a process until we have established a more firm grip on the territory. Furthermore, exiling our Hahn-Mur captives would be counter-productive since the Democratic Hahn-Mur Nation would readily accept the refugees and put them to work as colonists once they claim a few more worlds. By exiling them, we would provide the Democratic Hahn-Mur nation with an influx of manpower that would undo much of the damage that we have inflicted upon them. For that reason I wish to postpone exiling the Hahn-Mur until there is no longer a Hahn-Mur nation for them to return to.

To further the goal of maintaining long term rest until conditions are ripe for exile, we're developing neural implants that will be administered at slave processing facilities. These implants will help pacify our captives.

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

We have identified and studied a Cybrex research facility that was within the territory that was annexed from the Hahn-Mur. This was our fifth artifact. The Cybrex homeworld, if we can find it, will likely be a treasure trove of new discoveries. Our researchers are attempting to identify the location of the Cybrex homeworld and they think that they might be able to do it if we can locate one more major Cybrex artifact site.

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

We have a new political party within our nation. The "Committee of Research Efficiency" desires that we improve our research efforts. The main goal that they want us to accomplish right now is to establish mutual research pacts with three nations. Most nations do not like us, so that's not likely to happen for awhile.

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Attached is a map of current known stellar borders and our current research projects. The Starhold project in engineering will allow us to further upgrade our starports. The added space will present an opportunity to greatly increase our energy income by allowing us to establish trading ports and interstellar trading companies on our stations. Once fully outfitted, each starhold should produce 24 energy.

The Self-Evolving Logic project will increase the number of research options that we have by one. At present, once we complete a research project, we are offered three random new projects to pursue as our next technology in that field. This technology will greatly improve the odds of us receiving a desirable project choice by increasing our choices to four potential projects.

>>61611
We are in a relatively quiet period of history. Here are some events that have taken place over the past decade:

WAR:

The Adeex Hierarchy has declared war on our friends the Chinorr Stellar Union. We have no observers near that edge of the galaxy and have no means to provide direct aid. We can only wish them luck in their conflict.

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New contacts:

We've made contact with a handful of new empires within the unknown reaches of the galaxy's northern fringe. Most distressing are the Zuifvan Swarm. Less of an empire and more of a devouring swarm of locusts. They are a hive mind with the sole intent to swallowing everything in their path. They do not pose any threat to our own territory at this time. The swarm's location is just north of the Adeex Hierarchy's territory. If the Adeex cannot contain them, then the swarm may threaten Chinorr space.

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Local diplomatic concerns:

The Union of Fara has been sending diplomatic insults at us. If it weren't for the remains of the Hahn-Murr standing between us and them, then I think that immediate conflict would be on the horizon.

The Hahn-Murr have signed a NAP with the Usanace Harmonious Sovereignty (teal empire at that 4 o'clock position of the outer rim. Pyramid emblem). The UHS are stronger than us by most metrics, but their worlds are quite far from our territory. For those familiar with the game's mechanics, I'm fairly confident that the UHS are an "advanced start" empire.

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Exploration:

Baring a few unexplored systems mostly concentrated near UHS space, we have explored everything that we can counter-clockwise of our territory. The HMS Pilgrim continues her search through the unknown reaches clockwise and far north of our territory, but it appears that the Union of Fara has expanded their territory sufficiently to block the passage of any further research vessels joining her. For that matter, there is no way for the Pilgrim to return home. She'll need to continue her exploration on her own for now.

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Expansion:

We have been heavily investing in expanding our territory and improving our local infrastructure. While we've been expanding in all directions, particular interests have led to us extending tendrils towards the galactic core and to the outer rim. The core contains two worlds of interest for colonization. The first is a size 23 arctic world and the second is a size 21 tomb world. Claiming this territory has fulfilled the secondary goal of encapsulating the remnants of the Hahn-Murr, and has stifled their attempts to make up for the ground that they lost to use in our conflict. The primary goal of the southern expansion is to claim the derelict subspace gateway. While the gate is the main prize, controlling that territory will grant us a monopoly to the hyperlanes within the tip of the southernmost arm of our galaxy. We will be able to claim 100% of those worlds for ourselves, and that region of space is rich in blackholes, neutron stars, and pulsars that are all valuable sites for orbital research facilities.

With the exception of the research and development facility on Jundius II, our core colonies are nearing total development. As these core world projects reach completion, further expenses will be made to improve the territory within our fringe sectors. Additionally we will continue to establish an ever growing array of orbital facilities around points of interest within our territory.

With Starhold technology complete, we are beginning to upgrade all of our starports to starholds. This will improve their defensive capability and expand their energy production capability.

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Research:

Lorena Gomez, the head of our physics research division, has died of old age. Marcel Lavoie has been hired to take her place as head of the division. Our current physics research project is Lythuric Gas refining. This technology will allow us to identify rich deposits of the resource within the galaxy. If any exist within our territory, and if we're able to secure such deposits, then we'll be able to harvest it. This gas will provide a 20% boost to the effectiveness of our shields. As a secondary boon, strategic resources are highly valued by the other empires. We may be able to use the resource as a bartering tool to negotiate profitable trade deals for us.

Our society division is working on optimizing our army's central command structure. This will expand the local planetary defense militias and unlock the ability to create Military Academies for training elite troops.

Our engineering teams are researching efficient ways to make use of Betharian stone. Once complete, we will be able to produce highly efficient reactors on worlds where betharian stone is present.

>>62125
Attached are the first contact messages within the past 10 years.

None of them particularly care for us, although the "Photecian Hegemony" is most inclined towards furthering positive diplomatic relations. I haven't been paying much attention to them because they're on the other side of the galaxy.

Also, yes that purple spec at the 6 o'clock position is a tiny single world star nation. They're the disgusting bug people of the "Combine of Itil-Sa-Domb."

In the short term, I'm planning on trying to pursue mutual research programs with the Photecian's to help appease the goals of the "Committee of Research Efficiency." If I can secure a strategic resource site, then I'll start looking for prospective friends if for no other reason than to discourage entire regions of space from unifying against us as we grow in strength.

I'm going through withdrawals. WHERE ARE MY STELLARIS UPDATES!

>>62130
this! OP, we don't care if it's nothing interesting; the game itself is interesting!

>>62130
This, Granted I have some catching up to do with reading, but you write the story of what is happening really good OP. It is a delight to read.

Anyone have any thoughts on how to best do a genuine NatSoc or, alternatively, Folkish (as in if America never imported any Jews) Stellaris?

>>62130
>>62131
>>62132
I'm sorry!

A close friend of mine who joined the navy returned from sea last week, so I spent the weeknights catching up with him instead of advancing the game. Then I spent the weekend out of town visiting family for Easter.

I'm going to get some updates this week in. I should be able to get us into the 2300's, which is the start of the "midgame" portion of the game where most of the important territory will have been claimed and further expansion generally requires war.

>>62135
It really depends on what kind of traits that you want to focus on to exemplify your race.

I don't know what you think most embodies a NatSoc/Folkish people, but at the very least I would imagine that you would want the "Traditional" trait for your species to boost your unity output. That leaves you with one additional trait point left to purchase additional positive traits to define the capabilities of your people, and four additional choices left if you wanted to adopt some negative traits to increase your budget for more positive traits.

The "nationalistic zeal" civic trait might also be an auto-include as one of your two civic perks for your government. That trait provides you with a 10% reduction in war exhausting accumulation rate, and a 10% reduction in claim costs. That should expedite your ability to enact your Lebensraum. Adopting "nationalistic zeal" requires you to adopt some level of militarist as one of your government's core ethics. That leaves you with two ethics points left to distribute and one additional choice for a civic trait. Note: It is possible to change your civic traits during the game via an expenditure of influence points if you want to represent your nation's goals changing as you transition between a fledgling and mature nation. You'll also be able to adopt a third civic trait late in the game once you've researched the appropriate society techs.

>>62136
>>62126
I don't have much time tonight, but I'm going to try to squeeze in an hour or so of gameplay. The write of the session's events probably won't come until tomorrow.

To start things off, here's a picture of the galaxy map with the "opinion" filter set. Each nation is color coded on a spectrum of red to green based on their opinion of us, where red is they HATE us and green is a very positive opinion of us.

As a whole, most people don't like us. However most of the dislike is a mild dislike that can be patched up if we made efforts to butter them up.

The Chinorr Stellar Union is the one exception. They're the only ones with a positive opinion of us. They trust us because we've been true to our word with assisting them with our research programs. Unfortunately it has been a one sided exchange. They're more technologically advanced than us, and they don't like us enough to accept an agreement that would be lopsided in our favor. So for the past few decades we've been gifting them knowledge about the few fields where we are more proficient than them in exchange for nothing more than further goodwill. If we can find a strategic resource, the chinorr may be convinced to open up their archives in exchange for access to our excess resources.

The Phoetician Hegemony, surrounded on all sides by the devouring swarm, are desperate for friends. I'm beginning to open relations with them, but the swarm might eat them before either of us can benefit from a mutual friendship.

Also worth mentioning, is the tiny spec of yellow within the Hahn-Mur territory to our north. They're the Hijannarthi Imperium. They're a young race that just achieved interstellar spaceflight a few years ago. They like us enough to have a neutral opinion of us because they're a monarchy like us, but they're also a protectorate of the Hahn-Mur... So that's kind of an awkward political situation. I haven't decided if it's worth attempting to befriend such a minor power or just steamroll over them in our next wave of expansion.

>>62225
Our scouts have encountered concentrations of autonomous drones in a handful of systems. After some study, it appears that they are part of an automated system of mining drones. We've identified a star system that these drones appear to be phoning home to. Our nearest research ship is only a handful of jumps away from taking a look to see what's there.

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We've completed studying Lythuric Gas Refining. With this new technology, we are able to better seek out and identify harvestable deposits of this strategic resource. Unfortunately no deposits that are large enough to profitably harvest exist within our borders.

How can you play this? It's essentially a beta version of a functional game, or at best, nothing more than an engine with a few assets for others to work with. You know, like any game by Paradox that hasn't been out for a minimum of five years.

>>62235
(you)

>>62227
A private collector has managed to get their hands on a Cybrex artifact. It cost us a king's ransom, but we managed to persuade the collector to part with the treasure.

This artifact was the final piece of the puzzle to discern the location of the Cybrex homeworld. As it turns out, it was right under our noses this entire time. "Cybrex Alpha" resides within our own borders and can be accessed via a previously unknown hyperlane through the Jabbah system.

Since our research vessels are all deployed to the fringes of known space, a new vessel is being christened specifically to explore Cybrex Alpha.

>>62238
Our fastest courier delivered Luciano Costa, our premier expert on the Cybrex, from the edge of the outer rim to the bridge of our newest research vessel. With her crew complete, the HMS Challenger began her short journey to the hidden system.

Our explorers have become adept at exploring alien planets over the decades. Well practiced orbital surveying techniques combined with firsthand exploration by away teams have allowed us to efficiently map a sizable portion of the galaxy. But, to the Challenger's surprise, those techniques would not be quite so applicable for surveying Cybrex Alpha. Cybrex Alpha is not home to any planets at all; at least not anymore. Instead they found a marvelous feat of engineering on an near unimaginable scale. The only object in the system is a massive ring around the star. A mega-structure known to our theorists as a "Ringworld." The possibility of such a structure had been theorized long before we had achieved interstellar travel, but the immense task of assembling such a structure or even amassing enough raw materials for the job had kept the concept of a ringworld solidly in the realm of fiction. But the structure before us is very real...and now it's ours.

Unfortunately the ringworld lies in ruins and is not in a colonizable state. Dr. Costa was able to access ancient Cybrex archives to learn the history of the ringworld's final days. It seems that, for reasons unknown, the Cybrex abandoned their campaign to extinguish all life in the galaxy. The entirety of their civilization returned here to their hidden home. Eventually, by chance, an explorer found the system. With news that the Cybrex had resurfaced, the nations of the galaxy put aside their differences to mount a massive combined assault on Cybrex Alpha. The combined might of the galaxy bore down on this one system and destroyed the Cybrex utterly. Oddly, it seems that the Cybrex made no attempt to fend off the attack.

A construction ship is en-route to construct a starbase in the system. Even in its ruined state, the ringworld is a priceless wonder. News of the discovery is spreading like wildfire through our territory. Surely this marvel will inspire the young minds of the next generation to accomplish wondrous feats. Perhaps one day we will restore the ringworld to its former glory.

---------------------------
Discovering the ringworld provided us with over a year's worth of engineering research data, a large 2000 unit cache of energy credits, and a massive supply of Unity. That Unity surge was enough to purchase two tradition buffs outright. To better improve the quality of life of our people, two new traditions were adopted from the Harmony tree.

The first is the "Paradise Domes" tradition. Paradise domes are a special variant of our farming structures. In addition to food, they produce unity and apply a planetwide boost to the happiness of our citizens.

The second tradition is "Mind and body." By embracing healthier living habits, the average lifespan of our species has been increased by 20 years.

>>62239
Ever since the end of the war, our expansion and economic buildup has mostly been limited by our energy supply. As new facilities are constructed, the demand for energy grows nearly as fast as we can produce new reactors. The energy cache recovered from Cybrex Alpha has provided a windfall that will allow the for a new wave of colonization. There are three candidate worlds that will be colonized in the coming years. These colony sites are circled in blue on the starmap. The first to be colonized is the size 21 tomb world of Suter III. This colony represents a unique situation since the world is host to the artifacts of a dead civilization. Who knows what mysteries await us amidst the ruins?

The second candidate is deep near the galactic core. Schinik III is a size 23 arctic world. This system also contains a second colonizable world, but it's a size 11 desert planet. That sandball is inhospitable to our people at this time. Eventually we may be able to establish an automated mining complex on the planet, but we'd need to make some advances in robotics first. Our current generation of robotic workers are too dependent on maintenance and supervision by human specialists to be able to operate an entire colony by themselves.

The third and final candidate is a located in the reaches of the outer rim. Polystea IIa is a small habitable arctic moon. The moon itself isn't that attractive, but you may recall that the Polystea system is the home of the derelict subspace gateway. Establishing a colony within the system will solidify our grip on the strategic site.

Finally, now that our grip on conquered worlds has solidified, we've begun the process of exiling the Jubarans from our territory so that more space is available for our citizens.

-------------------------
We've received contact from a new empire. The Vurxac League is a Totalitarian Regime of fanatic xenophobes that is located at the far north of the galaxy. Their territory has been marked with green on the starmap and they are located at the 12 o'clock position.

>>62545
I apologize for the lack of updates. Work this past month been leaving me feeling mentally drained in the evenings.

I am looking forward to getting a larger play session in this weekend, and I'll start the session with detailing the current state of the galaxy as well as the estimated strength of our closest rivals.

There is one topic for the future that I'd like to bring up now: Super weapons.

I fully intend to build a super weapon at some point in this game. From past experience, I suspect that we are still at least a century away from being able to seriously think about starting a super weapon program. We're probably closer to approximately 150 years from completing construction of a super-weapon, give or take a few decades depending on what happens.

There are two key decisions that we will have to make when designing our super weapon. The first decision is to decide what type of weapon to outfit our battle-station with. The second is to decide on a name for our super weapon.

There are a variety of different doomsday devices that we can equip the super weapon with, and their availability is restricted by a nation's primary species and governing ethics. For example, since we're not a race of assimilating cyborgs, we won't have access to the nano-bot diffuser device that is capable of assimilating an entire planet's population.

Given our nation's governing ethics, I believe that the following three doomsday devices will be available for use:

*Planet Cracker laser: This is a deathstar style laser that completely destroys a target planet. There is a chance that destroying the planet will expose valuable mineral deposits from within the planet's core. That potential to expose minerals grants the weapon some limited peacetime application by allowing it to crack open uninhabited worlds in search of new resource deposits.

*Neutron Sweep: This weapon is embraces the same concept of a neutron bomb but on a planetary scale. It bathes the planet in neutron radiation to kill off all organic life while leaving all of the world's infrastructure intact. The disadvantage is that the weapon is useless against inorganic lifeforms.

*The Global Pacifier: This weapon encapsulates the world in an impregnable bubble shield, permanently isolating it from the rest of the galaxy. The shield is "transparent" enough to allow observation of the world's inhabitants. A research outpost can be built over the captive world to produce society research.

I welcome any suggestions for what to name the super-weapon, but right now I'm kind of leaning towards naming it the Nightmare Moon.

>>62879
What exactly is the limit of the global pacifier? Is it still possible to get communications through it?

>>62880
As far as gameplay mechanics are concerned, the encapsulated planet is essentially destroyed and is replaced with a resource node that can be harvested for society research.

Lore-wise, since we can observe the populace and the planet doesn't freeze over from lack of sunlight, I think that it is safe to assume radio communication is possible through the field. The people on the planet are simply forever trapped within a cell that has no key.

>>62883
Ah. The reason I asked was because I was wondering if encasing Earth would make us pretty much unkillable as a species, even if we would only be occupying one planet at worst.

>>62879
Here's how things stand at present:

Our nation solidified itself as a major local power after the conclusion of the last war. While compared to some other nations, we are lacking in military strength or military advancement, we have a measurable advantage of in growth. With 10 worlds under our control, and three more scheudled for colonization, we currently control more habitable worlds than any other known nation. The runner up is the Usanace Harmonious Soverignty (UHS) with a total of 9 worlds. We also are leading the pack in population size, with a total of 101 pops currently within our jurisdiction. Of those pops, a little over 50% of them humans, a bit over 25% are robots, ~14% are Hahn-mur slaves, and ~9% are Jubaran slaves that are in the process of being exiled from our territory. Runner up is again the UHS with 92 pops. The UHS by and large stands out as the most powerful active nation that we're currently aware of. Their technological level, standing military, and potential military size are all listed as "superior" to us and they are overall rated as "overwhelming" to us in terms of relative strength.

To refresh your memory, the UHS's territory is marked in teal with the Pyramid emblem. Their territory is located at approximately the 5 o'clock position of the map. Their region of space was blessed with many rich resource deposits and multiple high quality worlds that matched their climate preferenc. While their pacificstic disposition and the empty expanse of space between us should delay any hostile action against us, ultimately our nations are guranteed to clash.

Our current plan for expansion is to wage a series of wars of conquest to annex territory clockwise around the galaxy. Our immediate neighbor, the remnants of the Democratic Hahn-mur nation, stands no serious threat to us. They control only three worlds and 28 pops. Their continued soverighty is owed to our desire to use them as a buffer against the Union of Fara while we are busy building up our economy. There does exist a risk that the Hahn-mur might be saved by the UHS guranteeing their soverignty, but we'll deal with that if it happens. Once the Hahn-mur fall, our next target will be the Union of Fara (6 worlds, 75 pops).

There are two regretable downsides to the plans to expand through these wars of conquest. The first is that none of those worlds are agreeable with our population's climate preferences, so we'll have to make due with working the land via robots. The second is that our projected territory will be surrouned by four sleeping giants. The most immediately threatening are the Connisthian Marauders (circled in red). Their military far surpasses our own (~50k vs our 1.7k fleet strength), however their forces are too disorganized to perform any offensive acts beyond raids into our territory. The other potential threats are the three fallen empires, circled in yellow, who surround that region of space on all sides. They're currently passive, but I'd prefer some more breathing room.

>>63568
It just occurred to me that I've never stated the potential victory conditions for the game. There are three victory conditions:

*Domination Victory: Colonize 40% of all colonization sites in the galaxy. This number shifts if sites are created or destroyed over the course of the game, but currently 80 colonies are needed to win.

*Conquest Victory: Conquer or subjugate all other empires.

*Federation Victory: Create a federation whose member states have colonized 60% of all potential colony sites in the galaxy.

>>63568
Wonderful. Remember how I said that the UHS's pacifist tendencies would stand in the way of them being overtly aggressive against us? Apparently there has been a shift of power within their government. They seem to be abandoning pacifism for militarism.

>>63568
Why are you ignoring that vast swath of space counter-clockwise on the Galaxy, which has not been colonized? I know there are modifiers that make colonization slower than normal, but if this were a civilization game taking up that land would be the first thing I'd do

>>63580
>>63580
Please circle the location that you're referring too and I'll try to explain and provide some zoomed in pictures to depict the resource nodes at the section of space in question. But it

Extending our borders to encapsulate a new star system has the following costs:
* 52*X influence (the purple resource), where X is the number of jumps that the system is from out border. I think that it's 75*X by default, but we have some bonuses giving us a discount.
* 100 minerals
* An upkeep cost of 1 energy per month (We've got this reduced to 0.8 per month thanks to one of our tradition bonuses).

Influence is also spent to activate edicts, which are planet or empire wide buffs. At the time that this map picture was taken, I was saving up for the 240 influence necessary to secure our nation a 20% boost to energy production for the next 17 years.

Additionally, once the territory is within our borders, its resources are not worked automatically like territory in CIV. We need to make additional expenditures to build mining/research stations to harvest each resource node within the star system. Each of those orbital facilities has a base cost of 100 minerals and a monthly upkeep cost of 1 energy. Our little corner of space has been plagued by very small resource deposits. For example, I might see that a star system has mineral deposits in it equal to 6 minerals per month. However upon closer inspection, those 6 minerals are split between three distinct 2 mineral nodes. So it costs us 300 minerals and 3 energy per month to harvest that system's minerals. It takes awhile for that kind of mineral investment to pay off, and the energy cost for those minerals is pretty steep. Meanwhile, over in UHS space, I've been pretty jelly of all of the 4-5 mineral deposits that were within their reach. The bastards even have a 7 mineral node.

Those orbital facilities are very fragile, and tend to get blown up in the event that hostilities break out. Planet based resources are more hardy since it takes a long time for them to be lost. Generally the enemy needs to capture the world or spend a long time bombarding it to destroy any buildings that we create. To that end, my expansion efforts have been centered on securing large habitable worlds for us, witch a secondary consideration towards attempting to capture key nodes that will secure other areas of space for expansion at our leisure. I've also been shying away from areas of space that I think that there are under high risk of attack and that I don't have the force projection capability to keep secure.

I've circle a few areas on this map and I'll explain my expansion goals.

Orange: This area of space contains three habitable worlds accross two star systems, and two of those worlds are size 20+ with a compatibale climate for our people. Such worlds are jewels, so I expedited our expansion by skipping paying a premium to build outposts over those stars rather than taking the influence efficient route of expanding star by star. That expenditure let us beat the Hahn-Muur from claiming the territory, and we only beat their expansion by a few months. Now the Hahn-muur are completely boxed in with nowhere to colonize.

Blue: I think might be the area of space that you're asking about, is pretty isolated from the rest of the galaxy and there isn't much competition for expansion into it. The grey nation adjacent to that area is a fallen empire, so they don't have any intention of doing anything other than securing their current borders. The Union of Fara has the capability to expand into that territory, but they'll need to snake their control far away from the safety of their core colonies. I'm planning to expand into it, since clay is clay, but there's nothing really that amazing in that area of space. There are a bunch of low value resource nodes, and a few tiny planets that are clogged with lots of tile blockers.

Lime Green: This area of space is completely inaccessible to anyone other than us, so there is no big race to formally encapsulate it in our borders. I'm currently working on pushing our borders into this tendril of the galaxy since it contains a high concentration of black holes/neutron stars/etc that are potent resource nodes for harvesting different types of beakers.

Pink: This are of space is uncomfortably close to the Marauder territory, which is the small grey nation at the six o'clock position of the core. They periodically send fleets out to attack people and they kinda blow up everything in their path. I don't really want to put fragile orbital infrastructre in their path, and there aren't anything juicy enough for me to take the risk.

The two brown circles: With a bit of metagame knowledge, I know that there is a risk of the marauder nation's disparate factions unifying under a Great Khan. If that happens, they'll immediately start expanding in every direction with huge fleets. The Orange and Pink areas are pretty much fucked if that happens. To protect our core worlds, I'm planning to build orbital fortresses in the two choke point systems circled in brown. The home base where our navy rests in drydock is near that edge of our territory, and will be able to reinforce that front if need be. There are still a few decades left before it's possible for a Great Khan event. Even with these planned preparations, a Great Khan would be VERY BAD. Many players struggle to ammass a military capable of maintaining soverignty in the face of a Great Khan, and resort to subjugating themselves to the Khan until such a point that the Khan dies of old age or an assassin's blade. Then they reclaim their sovereighty as the marauder's factions go back to tearing at each other's throats. I'm going to do everything in my power to maintain our soverignty in the event of a Great Khan.

>>63830
I forgot to save the circled map after adding all of the circles.

Here's the circled map that I was referencing with the other colors beyond blue and lime green.

>>63831
>>63830
>He said COUNTER-clockwise you idiot
I feel dumb.

You're probably talking about this red area? There were no desirable colonizable planets within that territory to make that area of space a priority. There is the site of the automated mining hub (an orange hexagon surrounds it on this map), but it's really close to UHS space and I wouldn't be able to hold onto such a claim against them.

As a reminder, the UHS is by far (BY FAR, I feel that I need to emphasize this) the most powerful nation that is currently actively expanding their borders. I'm a bit afraid of getting into a war with them at this point, especially if another party attacks me on another front. Normally relative power indicators of "Overwhelming" are reserved for describing fallen empires, but in this case it's because they have "superior" in each sub category. They are without a doubt the most powerful expanding military force in this galaxy. The fallen empries and marauders dwarf the UHS military, but they're not expanding their borders.

So I honestly just want a big buffer between me and them so that the UHS's attention isn't sent my way for awhile. I want that purple nation to fatten up a bit and grow into that territory so that it can be a more substantial speedbump to UHS expansion. Purple will never be a significant threat to me or the UHS, but I want them to grow big enough so that I'll get some warning when the UHS starts deploying significant military assets to that area of space. I might ultimately decide to gurantee purple's indepenence, in which case they'd become essentially North Korea to my China and the UHS's American posturing.

The people clockwise of me are either weaker or comparable to my strength. I think that I'm already economically stronger than those clockwise of me, and my three planned new colonies will cicnh that. I intend to conquer them and add the infrastrucutre that they've built to my own strength. After those wars of conquest, I should be able to stand against the UHS on more even footing.

>>63845
I love this thread.

>>63845
OP are you ded?

>>64451
This

Is OP kill?