Part 2: Turns 21-41

An endless sea of bugs (spawning inside the sun) Lets Play Sword of the Stars 2: Hiver Imperium

Update 2. Turns 21-41

It's not just the game itself that is poorly coded...

Every time you start the game this comes up. I guess they wanted to be REALLY sure?

I do have to issue a correction too. You CAN measure range on the starmap. You left click and select the planet you want to leave from, then can right click on the starmap to find the range. Still not ideal for getting travel times as Hivers because of gates, but it's there.


Also now that it's past turn 20, we can expect to start seeing random events. Since all my fleets are busy, I'd kind of like at least some advanced warning before galactic horrors come to ruin my stuff. So I'm going to start erecting science stations, since they are the only station that can detect approaching special events. Even then, they give you a total of 1 turn's advanced warning, so for everyone not Hivers, it's not much help.


The Star Haven colony only needed the one trip to become self sufficient. I could leave it to slowly terraform itself, but I want to support it. So that I don't have to keep telling the fleet what to do, I end its mission, then give the colony fleet the Support mission command.


I'd love to actually give it orders to do multiple runs. But apparently that feature is just for test at the moment. I rename the fleet appropriately. (Previously it'd had a counter there. That didn't work. I guess they patched that out.)



My science station is also done. I could cancel the mission now, but I kind of want to only slowly build science bases, so I let my construction fleet waste a turn in administrative hell. I'm actually going to wait longer because I want a million spacebux.

Adjusting the research budget also requires me to fix the security slider.
Obviously.


We also continue to find and colonise new systems. This one is nice enough I'll be able to set up easily on both worlds. Trade and ship production is system wide, so a system with a bunch of planets can be super effective.


Also, lets talk about ship production in SOTS2!


On the left, we have our available designs. You change which hull class you're looking at with arrows beside Cruiser. Since we only have Cruisers at the moment, they're not shown.

Rather than ordering each ship individually, you order them as part of an invoice. What you've ordered for this invoice is shown in the Brown box. You can also assign them random names here if you want to. It shows the total cost, but note - in SOTS2 costs are deducted when you complete a vessel, not when you order it. The right of the screen is where all the interesting bits happen.


At the top, we have the savings and production costs of the current design. We can also see upkeep, and how many we've made. Gateships get produced a lot, and have been most of the ships we've built since the game started.
There's also engine details here, to tell us how it moves (We're Hivers, so SLOWLY is the answer).

Next up, we have the somewhat less useful Financial details section. Apparently adding 5,000 to our 305,000 will make our costs 466,360????
I have no idea how they arrived at that figure either.
The only other USEFUL figures here are the system's production value, and the % of production dedicated to ship construction - currently 100%. The Production value is what's used to pay off the Construction Cost. Since a single gateship costs 6,700, and Cargg produces 10,698 production, we can build the ship in a single turn.
Of course, there's no way to CHANGE the Construction Percentage here, because :mercon:

Also, normally you might not bother with a planetless system like this, but since we're Hivers, and we need to feed our gate habit, it's worth sending a fleet to set one up.

(I of course forgot to screenshot the system window)

Coming into Beta, our long range sensors pick up an alien fleet. I've got a fleet idle, so I'll wait a few turns and go say hi once we have a gate set up. It's turn 30 now, if you were curious.


Oh look who it is. It is our favourite enemy!

I like how I can everything about the fleet from here.
Everything. Hiver sensors are obviously really good.

We also find another nice system. Yes, that's 5 colonisable worlds.


Since we've found some aliens, lets look at the diplomacy screen.


Clearly no expense was spared. Hazard rating refers to their ideal colony conditions. So it looks like we're not going to be able to colonise their worlds if we remove them at the moment. They haven't had time to move their government significantly. And we have 0 diplomatic points with them, as shown by RDP.

These are all the options we get to interact with our neighbours.


These are some of the treaties we can propose. I have no idea if they are bilateral or not.


It even includes ALL factions. I doubt they've met everyone. WE certainly haven't. Of course we have no points so we can't even ask. But the option exists.


And glitches out, naturally.


We have no history at present.


And we only just met, so we don't have any intel points.


Our fleet arrives, sets up a gate, and finds out the system can support Hiver life.

There's no Beta place to be.

Also due to the range of the next systems, I have to start juggling armours out for supply ships.


We now have A TECHNOLOGY!
Maybe with trade we'll be able to get some money. So I'll start setting up trade stations with haste.


Since we have enemies now, I'll tell our scientists to investigate VRF systems. On turn 32. When we start in the cruiser/Fusion Age.


Thankfully, it only takes us 2 turns to get a good chance of VRF.

Now just 13 turns more to actually get the technology. This is WITH a level 1 science station helping too.


Somehow the Zuul get enough Diplomacy points to make a request.

Yeah right.

Also - I'm sure I sent a fleet to Shoni...where did it go? (Also shown - the lack of planets)


In a twist that will surprise no-one, it was inside the sun all the while.


Two freighters built. 30k trade income. I can live with that.


I also ordered a naval base at Beta.


To upgrade a station to something resembling usefulness, you have to construct specific modules to reach the req numbers on the right. In this case, it's one of each. Modules cost nothing to maintain, and each take a turn to build, so it's 5 turns before I can expand the base here.

Once that's complete, I start rebasing fleets to there. Exciting stuff, I know!

Now that we're starting to get trade established, we'll talk about the Trade view. You access it by going to the little star next to the turn number, and clicking trade. Then when we zoom in, we can grab a few details.


So what can we see. We can see that Cargg has two stations, a Naval (anchor) and a Science (beaker), and can support two more (the empty circles). It could also produce 11 goods, and import 12. It has no capacity to service freighters at present though.
Bismol, on the other hand, has a civilian station. It produces 3 goods, and has 3 government freighters using 3 docks.
Alversi, on the side, produces 1 goods, has 1 dock, imports 1 goods, but currently has no freighters, as its dock triangle is empty.
Rilled Goods pips show current trade production. Empty pips show potential.
Empty Freighter triangles show available docks. Filled ones show docks in use. The colour indicates who is using them (Government, Civilian, or Alien). There can also be small solid triangles, which indicate freighters without an related dock.
Imports works just like goods. I have no idea what actual effect it has on trade income though.

Also, Kerberos Interactive are mad at the size of The Bugs.


Turn 41. Still 3 turns to go on VRF.


So by the end of the next update I might be ready to redesign ships? Maybe?