Part 100: Episode X: Opening

I had some sound difficulties in the first couple episodes here. I'll probably do the future videos at a more appropriate resolution instead of widescreen -- definitely still working out some technical issues here.

Episode X: Sakkra Opening


https://youtu.be/rNtG6JUJ5Eg





We start in the upper-left corner. A very promising selection of rivals, nearly optimal. No Psilons, Klackons, or Humans. Silicoids, Meklars, and the military races to deal with. At least some will be on the other side, but there's a band of yellow stars not far away. A lot will depend on how many homeworlds are hosted there.




The green and red stars to the right are the options for our first colony. I go for extending to the middle of the galaxy here; the red one's more likely to be hostilke but better for that purpose.




Looks like I may have chosen ... poorly ...




Yes, indeed I did. Calculated risk fail here. So now the colony ship will lose a few years re-routing to Zoctan, which will at least be a good first colony. And having a rich world nearby could be good, if we eventually get the tech for it.

Still having the colony ship maintenance as overhead slowed down the initial recon rush, but we didn't need to build many of them. That's not actually a good thing, as it limits our reach.




No problems yet as we arrive a few years later, 2306, to Zoctan. Growth on the homeworld is high enough that I send an unusually high first wave of colonists: 19M. In this kind of situation you can also make an argument for just sending 2-3M per year so that you don't have that many idle at once(obviously while in transport they don't produce anything), but I prefer to just get them moving and bootstrap the second colony faster.




The birds are nearby, but we run them off; just a scout run-in.




Another radiated system. Beyond the two red radiateds, you can see that there's a significant 'dark space' gap. Expanding that way is very unlikely now , which is one reason why it's unfortunate that we had to start with Zoctan heading out that way.




Yet another hostile system. I'm not getting a good vibe from this game either -- for the second galaxy in a row, the Sakkra desire to spread our wings quickly is(aside from Zoctan being a nice-sized world) being stifled.




More evidence of the negative kind. The Bulrathi are spotted here soon, which means there are two rival homeworlds nearby; probably both in that upper-left band of yellow stars. If so, we could be cut off quite quickly.




Another scout is sent on it's way, and we have another rich, hostile planet here. That seals it; nothing remotely near us remains that we can land on. We'll need both range and environment techs just to expand beyond our initial pair of systems.

The first tech pull comes our way in about 2322.

** Computers -- ECM Jammer I
** Construction -- Industrial Tech 9 and Reduced Waste 80%.
** Force Fields -- Class II Shields
** Planetology -- Controlled Barren Environments, Improved Eco Restoration
** Propulsion -- Hydrogen Fuel Cells
** Weapons -- Hyper-V Rockets, Gatling Laser


For the choices here, I opt for Reduced Waste 80%, then Barren landings in Planetology. There is little choice; it's the only way to expand. I also invariably select the rockets over the Gatling laser.

Sssla is maxed out, so the opening ends in 2323. The fuel cells and barren landings, when acquired, will allow us to get to Hyades. That's the next goal, but so far the galaxy is not being very hospitable.