Part 2: Opening, Part II
Opening, Part IIWARNING: This update ended being rather longer than I expected. That'll probably happen for a couple more after this as well, and then they'll get smaller once all of the game-concepts explaining crap is out of the way.
This is the map screen again, to show a couple things. After clicking around on the various stars, we determine our next course of action in terms of scouting. It's time to get some more of them out there, but that won't do any good until we decide where. The only system within our 3-parsec colonization range is the green one above Tyr; the yellow one to the right is still 4 parsecs out. So we're really hoping right now that green one can be colonized. The range is calculated from the closest planet we own or are allied with, so we've extended our reach by settling Tyr; we can refuel there.
The badly-drawn lavender line masquerading as a circle here is my fault. I put that in to show our current sphere of influence. Everything inside it can be reached by our 6-parsec range scouts. A total of ten systems, over a third of the galaxy, and we'll want scouts out to these planets ASAP.
ProTip: This brings us to our first bug. Supposedly because of the way tech levels are calculated in Master of Orion, the starting ships are actually too expensive. Redesigning the exact same ship will give us an identical, but cheaper version.
This is the Fleet screen, accessed by another of the bottom menu buttons. Here we can see where our various ships are headed, and the list can get very long indeed later in the game. Also note the ship maintenance in the lower left, currently at 0. We can scrap any of our designs, which is necessary from time to time as we are limited to six active; to make a seventh you have to get rid of one of the current ones. For our purposes right now though, we'll select the Specs button on the bottom.
The Specs screen you'll be seeing a fair amount of in this LP. This is where we see all the details for all of our ships, at once. We'll revisit this later to explain what all of this stuff means, when it's time to build serious warships. Right now it's enough to know that it's here, and can tells us all of the combat characteristics, special systems, costs, and on the left by each ship's portrait, current # of ships in each class. Right now we want to scrap everything we aren't using; fighter, destroyer, and bomber, since even if we wanted those designs(we don't), because of the previously mentioned bug it's better to re-design them. I'd scrap the colony ship too, but I'm leaving it for comparison purposes at the moment. All we have right now in service are the two scouts; that's a total of 20 BC build cost, * 2% gives us 0.4 BC maintenance. So basically nothing, as mentioned.
Then I threw together a couple of basic designs, a new scout(which I named simply the 'recon' class as is my custom) and a new colony ship 'colonizer'. Designing these is trivial, and we'll look at the ship design screen in more detail later. The new designs were made with exactly the same specifications as our existing ones, leading to the Specs display looking like this:
The Recon is 8 BC compared to the Scout at 10; Colonizer costs 570 BC instead of 591. No reason to pay more than we absolutely have to. The ship models are different because you can't have more than one design using the same model at a time. I'll scrap the original colony ship design now, and we'll be able to use that one again any time we wish.
We need to build some Recons now, but we don't want more than we absolutely need. We'll want them at all planets eventually, but the less we can divert Mentar from factory-building, the better off our growth curve will be. We need at least four more to cover the six systems on the 'outer edge' of our sphere of influence, and one more to scout a couple planets close by. That's the minimum here, five Recons. That # will obviously vary from game to game. There is just enough production to do that in one year if we divert everything not needed for waste cleanup to the job.
Here the spending has been changed to do precisely that. Note how Eco and it's spending bar are now red. By clicking on the word Eco, Tech, or whatever category, you can 'lock' them in place, so that the amount will stay constant no matter what changes you make to the other ones. That makes it a lot easier to make the desired adjustments at times. Below that, we can see the Recon ship portrait and the 5 there indicates how many will be built this year. Changing from one ship class to another is done by the SHIPS button or by clicking the image. Being able to get more ships out on scout/picket duty for just one year's delay in factory-building is a much better trade than if we'd done so before; can't afford to wait any longer, because as mentioned, each turn we wait means more chances for our rivals to get there first.
As the next year arrives, we're greeted with the Fleet Production Report for the first time. This shows up anytime you build a ship, and is quite useful. If you've screwed up and built something you didn't want to, quite easy to do with a large empire, you'll probably notice it here and then have a chance to rectify the situation. In this case it's obviously just telling us that our five recons are finished.
Here we can see our lone colony transport on it's way to Tyr. The scouts are also nearing their destinations. The five new Recons are dispatched, and will take as much as nine years to arrive at the furthest star systems we can reach. Mentar also goes back to industrial spending, and sends another 1M people on to Tyr. The next few years we will be focused on building up our two systems and watching for the reports from our scouts. What they tell us will determine much.
The next year, 2305, the system of Willow is scouted and the report is not good. Toxic is second-hardest class of planet to settle. We won't have any chance of getting anything done here for quite some time. You can also see our recon ships fanning out from Mentar to their various destinations. Also, if you look near our uppermost scout, you'll see something else ...
That didn't take long! Things move quickly in small galaxies. An Alkari scout. I'd bet dollars to donuts based on the distance and timing that the yellow star midway up the right edge of the galaxy is Altair, the Alkari homeworld. That means we're going to be pretty hemmed in here out that way. It looks like both their scout and ours will arrive at the green star next year. This will serve as a good example of the importance of getting scout ships out early -- even a year later would have been too late. Also shows how close they have to be to us before we can spot them at starting tech. That green star is our only chance at another planet within our current range, so what happens next year in that encounter is absolutely vital.
Short video shows what happened next: explanation to follow.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCqYhJJPpAw
Unless there is a treaty preventing it, whenever ships from two different races are at the same planet, an engagement of some kind will occur. Battles can occur only at planets; you won't run into ships halfway between or whatever. Every fleet battle begins with the players ships on the left edge, AI ships on the right. There's no planet visible here because nobody controls this system. If they did, the planet would be shown near their ships. Also note the red crossed-out circle as I moved the cursor around; that means I can't move to that location. The arrow/ship icon seen later appears when you move it close enough to be in range. Starting retro engines can only move one space per turn in combat, aka they are slow as dirt.
The buttons along the bottom of the screen will matter in real battles, but for a meeting of two scouts it's not real important to go into those.
As soon as we move, it's the Alkari's turn and they warp out. Enemy ships will always retreat if they have no weapons. This is an important advantage early in the game, because the winner gets to scout the planet here; the loser does not.
A tiny radiated planet. It's rich, and could be quite a good planet ... at least a century from now. But that's the absolute worst class of planet, the only one worse than toxic. With the Alkari scout retreating, we got there just in the nick of time. They weren't able to scout Arietis, and their scout has wasted valuable time. They can afford it more than us, and it's only a small victory but it's an important one nonethless.
However we now have a bigger problem. We have to improve our range before we can expand further. It is possible to build a colony ship with reserve fuel tanks like the scouts have ... but it's not worth it. It would require a bigger hull and would be prohibitively expensive. Being stuck with only two planets right now, one colony and not a very good one at that, is a poor start. The Psilon Empire appears to be up against it here. This is an instructive moment in game design theory IMO. Modern games ensure fairly equivalent starts, but MOO has a bigger box when it comes to that. The preeminence of multiplayer concerns is the main reason for the change, and from that perspective it's quite sensible: I like the old way shown here when you can have a pretty crappy start(and so can other races, they aren't even protected as much as the player is in galaxy generation) because of variability and degree of unpredictability it adds to the experience.
It's inefficient to try to do anything about that yet though; once we've got Mentar up to full capacity we can deal with that situation.
2308, two years later, and we get some good news: Imra is a terran planet able to support nearly as many Psilons as Mentar itself! We could fit every currently living Psilon on this planet. It's four parsecs away, so any range increase would bring it within our grasp. And look who is coming to check it out also; if you look closely, you'll see another Alkari fleet, another scout. The fact that they can make it this far means they have almost certainly colonized that blue planet a few parsecs directly above this. We'll have to disappoint them again; oh what a shame! Imra is definitely a very strong candidate for our next colony.
Meanwhile, Mentar has shipped it's last colonists off to Tyr. There are 7M there already and 5M more on the way: that'll get them to the desired one-third level, 12M or more by the time they all arrive. Mentar has 54M and that will climb steadily now; 55 factories is nearly double the initial level with 5+ being added annually.
The next year we chase the incoming Alkari scout away from Imra as expected.
ProTip: Notice that I've selected Arietis here. We have a scout in orbit, and another incoming. I'm going to send on the orbiting scout to the yellow system above and to the left, and since the new scout will replace it next year, we won't lose picket coverage at Arietis. In this case that yellow star is at enough of an angle from the vector of the incoming scout that we would have done just as well, no better and no worse, to have it simply head straight there initially. When stars are 'lined up' though you can often save a little time; and as we've seen already that time can be invaluable. I call this the Relay Technique. Just make sure the incoming scout is only one turn away when doing this.
2311, two years later. Let's say hello to another rival. Didn't see them coming. They just brought a scout, and they retreat as well. Also ...
Spica is a fairly good planet. Unless you are looking for it, you probably won't notice right away the bluish dome in the graphic there, indicating there's already a colony here.
Spica belongs to the Darloks, so that's where the came from. They are white in this game. It's worth noting at this point how first contact works: we will automatically establish relations once either side has the range to reach one of the other empire's planets. From this we can conclude that neither side has range tech as high as six parsecs right now(reserve fuel tanks are not factored in for this purpose).
We'll reroute our recon ship at this point, as it's considered bad form to just hang out with your ships in orbit of another empire's planets and it will antagonize them. Don't need that. Retreating to Tyr in case somebody tries to scout that seems the best option here.
We'll build one more recon at Mentar now as well. Spica is close enough that Darlok scouts could reach our homeworld, and we don't want them getting any such ideas. A 'defensive' scout ship over even our own occupied planets is a good idea, because if they do scout it, they might decide it's a ripe target and send troops here. We don't want them getting any such ideas.
It takes only a fraction of our production to accomplish this. Tyr only has a couple of factories right now and needs a lot more work before it can contribute, otherwhise we'd do the construction there.
Well this is a surprise. I expected to find an Alkari colony in Ukko ... but instead we have nothing. They must have advanced range tech already. Jerks.
It appears the Alkari have sent another scout to Arietis. Perhaps they think we've left? Looks like they are quite interested in the system. They'll probably eventually send armed ships to chase us away, but the more time and effort they waste in the meantime the better.
2313 has three encounters for us. Two of them involve chasing scouts away again, one Darlok and one Alkari. The third was different though ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEm_ZrM2ReY
Our first run-in with warships. This is of course the Alkari homeworld of Altair, as I expected it would be. Should have used the Planet button on the bottom to show population and factories, but it didn't occur to me at the time. As our scout is not armed though, there's nothing for it here but to retreat.
This is the planet we chased a Darlok scout away from. Barren is the easiest type of hostile system to colonize, but still well beyond our capabilities, and Kronos is too distant anyway. Still, I don't mind chasing the Darloks away, though I don't know if they got there before we did or at the same time. Going to guess the former based on the location, but who knows. The ship that went to Altair will now retreat all the way to the red star in the extreme lower right of the map. That's the only system left in range that we haven't scouted. It's clear that Imra is not only our best bet; it's our only way to expand further.
Here we see our Recon ship heading back to Tyr. That's because the pathfinding attempts to find the closest system to go to whenever you retreat. As default behaviors go, that's not at all a bad thing. But until it actually leaves, which it can't do until a turn has passed, we can redirect anywhere within range ...
Better. So in 7 years, at the beginning of the next decade, we'll have the last piece of our scouting puzzle.
The next year is 2314, and we receive the news bulletin in the following super-short video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNszIHlV93c
Good old GNN, aka the Galactic News Network. One wonders where they get their info ... and why a droid/robot serves as the anchor. Didn't manage to activate the video recording in time to catch the intro beat, but you are always informed this way once an empire reaches a certain threshold in terms of planets. GNN will have other things to say from time to time as well. The threshold is based on the galaxy size: 1/8th, 1/4th, 3/8ths, and 1/2 of total stars colonized. I've seen the 3 planets in a small galaxy notification as quickly as 2305(!!), so it's actually a mild surprise that it took this long. And the Darloks potentially being a power is a real shocker. It seems fairly probable that the Silicoids had a poor starting situation. If so, that would be good news as they are the best bet to run away with a bunch of systems early. The too-soon, quite dubious projection right now is that the Humans or ... can't believe I'm saying this ... Darloks figure to be the best competition.
Planets screen, same year. Best one-stop shopping spot to see what's going on with our systems, and we've reached a new phase in the buildup. Tyr has passed the halfway point in population(19 out of 35 max) and has only a few factories. It won't miss a few colonists much, and we'll start shipping them back to Mentar until our homeworld maxes out. There's nothing for us to do at the moment other than wait for that last scout to arrive and get Mentar up to it's capacity as soon as we can. It's the same idea as before; keep Tyr at 50% and send any surplus in transports.
It's 2320, six years later. The gradual movement of Psilons back to Mentar continues from Tyr. There have been no sightings of any other ships, Alkari, Darlock, or otherwhise. It's quiet. Denubius is another unimpressive planet, though a little better than Tyr, but it's something. If we snag Imra, this system will fall within range. Scouting, for the moment, is now complete.
Another three years, now 2323. Here's how the map looks right now as we begin to shift from the opening into the next phase of the game. Hasn't changed; we're still cut off from the rest of the galaxy for the forseeable future by those hostile planets. We'll be isolated for longer than usual, especially for a small galaxy, due to this. That could be good ... or bad. Colonizing Imra and then Denubius in the lower right is an obvious next step.
The homeworld is only 5M away from maxing out, and has a couple more transports incoming from Tyr, which is done sending colonists back now. In less than a quarter-century, production has increased almost 5-fold from 51 to 238. Importantly, the industry slider now reads MAX, meaning that we've reached the maximum number of factories that can be operated by the current population. That defines the ending point of the opening; reaching full productivity on the homeworld.
To expand further we must turn our attention to advanced technology. That, along with a profile on our civilization, will be the first subjects of the next update, which will cover the years 2323-2350. It is also likely that the two other remaining support screens, Design(of starships) and Races(interactions with them once first contact is achieved) will be delved into as well. The journey of the Psilon people has begun, but many challenges remain.