Part 5: Episode I, Part V (2350 - 2370)

Episode I, Part V(2350-2370)

When last seen, the Psilon Empire had expanded to four planets and was potentially eyeing a 5th in Kronos on the off-chance nobody beat them to it, though much research needed to be done first. The rest of the galaxy it seems is looking at Arietis, so imperial Starfighters were constructed and sent there as a pre-emptive move to keep the system unoccupied by the bizarre space rocks known as Silicoids. On the home front, we were still secure, too far for any enemy ships to reach, and investments into the Planetary Reserve to bootstrap growth on the most recent colonial acquisitions were just beginning.




Here's the Reserve in action. After clicking on transfer and then the destination planet, this slider comes up to determine how much to send. Imra will get the bulk of it as Denubius is smaller and less developed; we can only double the production of a planet remember. With 80 BC from the first year of reserve investments, there's almost enough to do that; the two planets combine for 97 in annual production. The growth rate will accelerate greatly with this re-routing. And it better, given the sacrifice being made in research potential to make it possible.




Also in 2350, Tyr began building Starfighters at the rate of 3 per year. It shouldn't take long to boost the flotilla at Arietis. Zygot still isn't certain this is actually going to do any good, but the plan is still to boost their numbers there to 50 before going back into research.




Two years pass, and our first Weapons advance is finished. The most important part about this is not the ECM Jammer itself, but access to Tier-II possibilities ...




We can upgrade to the next level of ECM tech ... but we aren't going to. This choice makes itself. The Robotic Controls chain of techs increase the number of factories that can be operated. This will increase that limit from 2 to 3 per 1M population. That works out to a 40% production increase once they are all built(2.5 to 3.5 BC per 1M pop). Gee, let me think .... yeah we want that. It's good enough to probably refocus our research even more in favor of Computing for the time being. Note the refit cost mentioned though; we are still paying 10 BC per factory, which means that just to refit our existing factories on Mentar, without building any new ones, would cost considerably. It's ok for now, but it'll be more expensive the further we go in improving the robotics.

Right now we're going after the Duralloy Armor in Construction though, which may or may not have been a mistake. I felt it was a needed military upgrade despite our situation, and it may well have been ... but we're very unlikely to get one of the cheaper factory advances before we get the Robotic Controls. For now I'll keep research where it is. We're at a point now where in every single field, there's something going on that we need; even force fields and weapons, because we don't have a single upgrade there yet and we need better toys.




That, ladies and gentlemen, is what success looks like. In just four short years, Imra has advanced to the point where it has more factories than population, and has completed terraforming. It would have done some of that on it's own, but this kind of investment in growing planets well more than doubles the rate of economic growth there. The exact math is complicated and I've never bothered. Further investment in Imra isn't really worth it now as the system is kicking out 10 factories a turn and can finish up on it's own. Mentar will now dump everything back into research, while Denubius will get a couple more years of assistance as it begins terraforming, the last planet to do so.




Class II Deflectors have come in, and we're on to Tier II of Force Fields. We can apply our basic knowledge to protection for ground troops ...




Or take the more expensive option, which will make our ships all but impervious to baseline laser weapons. The regular and gatling Lasers do a max. of 4 damage, so they'd have to effectively score a 'bullseye' to do even 1 point here. I'm picking this option. One reason I feel safe in doing that is the fact that we are already working on armor that will help our ground troops. It's important to keep in mind the balance and synergy between the different choices as you progress.

It's now 2358, and it's been a heck of a decade already. We're up to our pretty arbitrary goal of 50 Starfighters now, so let's check out the fleet.




Technology has its benefits. Look at the Colonizer price; already down more than 100 BC to 466 from the original tag of 570! That's a beautiful thing for the Imperial Treasury of Mentar, let me assure you.




The picture is good on the domestic side as well. Tyr is now able to contribute most of it's output to research, and Imra will be able to begin doing that in a few years also. Even Denubius is well on its way, almost halfway industrialized. At this point we can switch to a Psilons' dream; an almost completely research-focused economy. I never dreamed we'd stay isolated this long. There's a real opportunity here to get some better toys, and we're not going to miss it. Of course we could always come out the other side of it with a rude awakening, but that seems less and less likely with each passing year.




Hyper-V Rockets are here! If we need a missile ship, or more likely missile bases to defend our planets, we can now do better than shooting nuke rockets at the enemy. Now we have some cool new toys to look at. Anti-Missile Rockets are quite nice for the opposite role. Practically speaking, by the time they are deployed we'll be fortunate to get a 30% success rate, but that's still quite significant. At this point we haven't the first foggy notion what kind of ships our enemies will be building, but invading their planets will at some point involve taking out missile bases, and these are a key early tool in those battles.




The Neutron Pellet Gun is a new variant of beam weapon. Particle weapons are notable for their ability to halve the effects of shielding. A nice tool to have if we come up against enemies with good force-fields. Like say, the Humans.




Hyper-X Rockets are a perfectly solid missile improvement. They're faster and do a third more damage than the Hyper-Vs we just researched. Comparatively though, they are not as important as the more revolutionary advances in this tier.

Both the pellet gun and the anti-missile rockets are attractive options. I'll almost always take the rockets though, and I'm doing that here.




It's 2361, and research efforts grow by the year. We've made some progress in all of our current projects, and it's time to make an adjustment here. Propulsion is set to finish before Planetology, and that's not what I want. These two are extending range to six parsecs and Dead Colonization. We need the colonization tech first, so we can design and build a ship and get it headed toward Kronos. I'm starting to think that plan might actually happen given how unaccountably quiet things are. The optimal situation would be having it reach Arietis, three parsecs away, when we get the range boost. To do that, we need about a decade head-start, so planetology needs to get ahead here. I didn't take any funding from other departments, just shifted the balance between the two.

By 2365, it's still quiet. Haven't seen an enemy ship in almost two decades. That's just crazy. I've literally never seen a game like this on a small galaxy, though I don't usually play at this size so maybe it's not that rare. Tyr has maxed out and even Denubius is getting close and contributing to the tech push. So far as that growth curve is concerned, we're at the business end of it now, and another round of tech is approaching.




The very next year, and this is spectacular news. That's a big RP hit for this point in the game, more than 4x our annual output for all fields combined! Couldn't happen to a better race either. For whatever reason, this is really looking to be an Easy Mode game so far.




Another year, and we've got our first hostile environment breakthrough.




The list is growing as you can see; we've reached Tier III here. Enhanced Eco Restoration would slash our waste-cleanup spending by another 40%. Of course, everything here is a lot more expensive as well. We're researching quickly right now but even under optimal conditions it'll start slowing down. That's why it's rare to reach the top-level techs in a small galaxy.




More terraforming to get more out of our planets. Always a quality option.




Toxic colonization would leave only radiated worlds beyond our grasp. And there is that toxic world over by the Darloks, goes without saying we want to get that before they can.

Really can't go wrong here. Any of these would have a big, immediate positive impact on our empire. I can't turn down the improved efficiency with Enchanced Eco Restoration though, esp. when it's the quickest option to unlock yet another tier. Until we get the range upgraded, we'll switch around the research balance to favor propulsion over planetology. And of course we need a new ship design ...




Using a different ship icon just to show off different ones. And check out the price: this is the most expensive ship so far. The Dead Colony Base is more than twice as costly as the standard one at this point. Get what you pay for, as they say. Mentar has a new job now; get this thing to Kronos on the double. Even at this price, it's only a 3-year task.

Still not done though. When we get the new range tech, we're going to expand our travel abilities by two parsecs in all directions. If we do get Kronos, we'll be able to reach further in that direction -- combined that would bring a majority of the galaxy within reach of our Recon ships. We're going to need more, and it's time to get them in position now. Might even be a little late. This is a job for Tyr.




Our worst planet, and it can knock them out at a rate of a dozen per year! That's how far we've come. Honestly that's about the right amount. Maybe a bit high, but not much -- and we can afford a couple extra floating around if need be.




Well now. 2370, and it would seem it's time for research to take a back seat. There's the good old option to increase industry ratios by 25/50/75/etc. % but we refuse for reasons previously stated.




Significantly longer range, and determining enemy course and speed? Very nice.




On the other hand, that'd be really nice too. We haven't been able to upgrade our combat computers yet, proof that even Psilons get holes in the tech tree from time to time. Honestly we need both. I'm a sucker for better intelligence though, knowledge is power and all that. We're getting the Improved Space Scanner, but if we don't get a better Battle Computer soon we may well come back for this.




And there's our new product, headed for Kronos by way of Tyr. The new Recons are already outbound. So a priority shift here with all this going on:

** Get the Colonizer D to Kronos.
** Get the new range tech by the time it reaches Arietis so it isn't delayed.
** Shift most of our resources into industry, with just a basic skeleton investment staying in research, to upgrade all our factories with the new robotic controls and build new ones.

The last two there are in conflict a bit, but fortunately the new fuel cells could finish up at any time and we have five years yet on the clock for those, so we should do both. Timing working out great for us again.




Could have used any planet, but here's Tyr, showing that it's working on the REFIT process. Also, notice the max. pop; this year, somehow, I screwed up the spending the previous turn and Imra and Tyr both have a bunch of waste to clean up, and some people are going to die while I do it. Could well be my first notable screw-up of this game. I don't know how I did it, but it's totally avoidable if you are paying attention -- must have not had eco high enough previously. Don't do this, it's not good.

In terms of research, having my planets at this minimal level knocks us down to just over 100 RP total; it was at over 800 before. But we need the factory work in the long-term.

Putting a break in here as some stuff really hits the fan in the next update. No, I'm not going to say anything more about that since I'm a bastard who likes cliffhangers.