Part 172: Episode XVII: 2324

Episode XVII: 2324 -

It's quiet for a while as we get that first Colonizer out. Then in 2333 Endoria has reached enough factories for the half-full point that it will be maintaining, and so I divert enough production for our tech pull.




Wow, we get all three! The Darlok researcher is my favorite of them all. Multicolored, and really fits the 'truly and unmistakably evil' vibe of the race. This isn't your generic baddie, but a fully committed villain. Of course I go Deep Space Scanner here. For the others:

** Construction -- Improved Industrial Tech 9
** Force Fields -- Class II Deflectors
** Planetology -- Controlled Barren Environ/Improved Eco Restoration
** Propulsion -- Hydrogen Fuel Cells(Range 4)
** Weapons -- Hand Lasers/Hyper-V Rockets/Gatling Laser

This is all quite good. I go with Improved Eco instead of the barren landings because we haven't found any of those; only one Tundra among the hostile, non-Radiated class. So let's boost the early economy. Hydrogen is what I wanted for range, and I select Hand Lasers. Usually I'll go with the Rockets, but I'm just trying to advance things here, give us something to barter if we need to, and banking on the size of our playing field here to keep us safe a bit longer than usual.

I'll divide our meager early efforts between boosting the range and getting the better waste cleanup.




We have yet to see any enemy ships(2334), which is not surprising. The psychology of a Huge galaxy is different. We aren't going to get clues as to the disposition of the other races nearly as early on as we normally would. By the time we find out where they are, it may be too late to take decisive action. So all we can really do is look to our own development. Obviously this system will really help with that. Endoria can't send enough to get a planet this size going, but it will send what it can.

Unfortunately Arietis is still a 'short 4' and not a 'long 3', as I expected, parsecs away. So we'll need to shift gears a bit and crash that range research.




This completes the first 'wave' and gets us to four systems. In 2343, two years later than I wanted thanks to bad luck in prototyping, we got our new fuel cells. Inertial Stabilizer, always a premium bargaining chip, was next up and research efforts shift to Improved Eco Restoration.

Four more systems are now within scouting range.




Clearly Radiated Rich is the order of the day. Or to put it another way; 'He who researches Controlled Radiated Environ rules the galaxy'. And, if at all possible, gets it stolen by us .




We may well be returning here in centuries to come. As it happens, Orion is strategically positioned to block a dark-space crossing. It's looking very much like our best avenue of expansion by far is going to be moving across the top of the galaxy to the left.




Our first Inferno I do believe.

Screwed up the screenshot, but we get Arietis(the 50M minimal ultra-rich) in 2347. We'll be sending population from Tao(just about up to half it's max right on cue) here. Once Arietis maxes out, which won't take long, it'll fund all the other growing worlds with transfers. Meanwhile I continue to trickle out Recons. We'll need them.




Huge, huge find. That line of stars just left of here, five of them starting with the white one in the nebula and going straight down, is vital to expanding in this our most promising direction. Gorra could be the linchpin ... but it's a long ways off.




Recons can now head across the dark space gap and see what's on the other side. Gorra is 7 parsecs distant ... but that red star at the bottom of the line I mentioned is just four now. If we can get a colony there, it would help tremendously.

I've got enough Recons to cover most of the systems we can reach, but I am starting to run out now. It's going to be an increasing struggle to get as many of them as we need where we need them, as well as moving population around, for a while here.

Diagonal movement from Arietis to the other corner of the galaxy is over 30 parsecs. That's a bit more than a hop, skip, and jump.




This ends our first 50 years. We began with a lot of positives, but things are starting to stall with dark-space gaps, the Guardian, and a band of hostile systems conspiring to make it difficult for us to expand further. This might be one of those times when extreme measures are necessary to break out again.