Part 11: Turns 181-200

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

Update 11. Turns 181-200

In which I should really complain about the UI more.

Now, when we last left off, what were we.

Oh right. Dolphins.


Anyhow, we have dolphins incoming both on our world, and on some of the Morrigi worlds.


Every update should start with Dolphin murder.


My point defense ship forgets how to wipe out torpedo volleys.


Their fleet tries to get range on my ships, but in SOTS2 all fusion ships are about the same speed in battle, aside from design variations.


It goes poorly for them.


We even take out their command ship. Command ships serve a different role in SOTS2 as compared to SOTS1. In 2, they are necessary for the fleet to operate. If you kill the command ship, at the end of the turn, the surviving ships in the fleet are forced to retreat.
In SOTS1, they operate as a reinforcement point, and boost the number of ships you can bring in to battle. Ships in SOTS2 can't operate without a command ship at all, while in SOTS1 command ships are only required to form larger fleets. The change is not great.

It amuses me that I don't think I've compared these and we're approaching turn 200.


Also, I finally research this to get access to point defense lasers. And can salvage them for a decent chance at it. I've noticed that lasers seem better at sweeping missiles out of the 'sky'.


My cruisers team up with their grapplers.


On multiple occasions.


Next up! Maximum machine guns on starships.


I offer the Tarkas a Cease Fire to try and properly keep me from having a 3 front war. Plus there's a bit of overlap between our empires.


Another turn, another Dolphin fleet to murder. Also, I have to issue a correction. Ships DO use their Goop modules. Just maybe not as aggressively as I'd like. Still, I haven't lost many ships lately.


On Turn 184, we get a cease fire with the Tarka.


One turn later, we complete researching Heavy Stormers, which cause Heavy Damages! I'm going to start refitting some ships for closer combat.


Also, here's a new interface. If you actually select one of your colony fleets, right click it, and select colonise, you can actually go through a list of colonisable worlds. You still can't sort the list by anything. So it is not much more useful than the previously mentioned screen. In Mecron's world, no-one can arrange information in different ways.


I retrofit my point cruisers with X-ray lasers and stormers. I keep one HEAP driver to keep some longer ranged firepower.


I do the same with my Armours, and replace their HEAP Heavy Driver with a Heavy Stormer.


We get another salvage project done. That reminds me, I should work on unlocking Anti-matter at some point.


I've also adopted new tactics that I'm going have to retrofit for eventually. To get my cruisers to close as possible, I order them to close to point defense range.


After kicking the Retailers out, we get another sweet industrial system.


Just in case someone starts fielding cloaked ships, and to boost my sensor range for REASONS, I grab Advanced Sensors.


Oh by the way, the Liir have Anti-matter torpedoes as well as their fusion torps.


I finally get bigger freighters!


The prototype for them is kind of pricy. Given that a lot of my worlds are near the trade cap, I'll actually be building my heavy freighters at my shipyards then shipping them out


The first demonstration of my stormers, filling space with red murderballs.


I also upgrade my drones. I have a bit of a plan involving carriers, even if it's going to take until next update to start showing it. And of course, whether the 'feature' works, I don't know.


I start working on this tech, which is a pre-cursor to grabbing Anti-matter.


Now that I have a few, lets talk about how the larger freighters work. While our old model light freighters took 1 dock for 1 goods, our new freighters can haul 2 goods from 1 dock. So I don't need to upgrade my civilian stations as far to haul all the goods I can produce. So when Pavarati finishes building its two freighters next turn, it will be able to move every good it is producing.


Both ourselves, and the Liir, are attacking Cetus. It is not a good day to be a dragon.


Apparently the Liir have jellyfish on the bottom of their ships.


I can also now research Anti-matter technology.


That's not what I'm researching though.


I finally get around to starting work on my carriers. To make them, I design a new class of Heavy Dron. This UI is SO GOOD YOU GUYS.


I finally get a shot of my heavy stormer rounds flying accurately at a target. They put a lot of fire on their target. They are pretty neat. I haven't noticed too many deflections with them, but I'd still like the upgraded version of them.


Also, I may have over-spent a little. I stop ordering new starbases until my treasury catches up. One of the hazards in SOTS2 station management is that you order ~10 turns worth of upgrades each time you upgrade a starbase. So you can outspend your saving generation, and it can take a while to recover.


To stop it being an issue, I just generally let my construction fleets sit idle. I have a few of them.


Feasibility studies, pfft.


One nice change to the tech tree was that Hivers actually have access to casting in the fusion era. This tech means both that my fleets are faster, and that I need less supply ships to establish new gates.


Now instead of 10 turns, it takes about 4 turns to deploy a new gate.


Sadly, I won't be getting Armour piercing Stormers.


This is what the constant casting notifications are MEANT to be for. When a fleet gets farcast, it can, and usually does, miss. Sensors on Gate stations can improve the accuracy. It is with casting that Hivers gain the ability to 1 turn attack, like Humans and Tarka, and maybe Morrigi.


Casting is AMAZING.