Let's Play GalCiv2: ToTA

[JonB]

I would like to join this; hrm... Can I be in charge of our spies / counter spies? Someone has to catch those who would subvert our glorious Voice of God and bring them to light!

[SylasGaunt]

Oh mighty voice from the heavens! The death of the xenos is written! It was written long ago, in fire, and thunder! We shall paint their walls in fear! Trample them with rampaging pachyderms and attach our holy words to their ruined superstructures! I just need a ship oh great voice of the sky! A ship with eyes like eagles, and then I shall look out into the expanse of the maker and find all of their SOULS!"


((Translated from crazy speak: If I get a ship I wanna go poke about and make sure we've found all their puny xenos colonies for when we start raining fire on everything.))

[doom3607]

Spoiler

To everyone requesting I colonize the class 28- I already did. It's called His Mighty Fortress.

[Darkevilme]

Prophet Kadrass speaks: "Knowledge is power, guard it wisely. This Mighty fortress must become a bastion of our search to understand the dark."

[HMS Sophia]

Just out of curiosity...
How is a class 28 better than another planet? How is it so game breaking?

[Darkevilme]

As i remember the class is an exact measure of how many spaces it has for construction. That means the planet can have 28 buildings. As compared to 10 or 11 for our usual planets. 28 is more than most of our empire combined. It's like our empire doubled in size with one colonization mission.

[Vehrec]

The economy is tanking, our colonial costs are rising, and our approval is at 27%.

Clearly, now is the time to cut taxes to zero, raise our popularity to maximum, and grow our population of taxpayers. So says economist Vehrec Maynard Keynes.

[The Vortex Empire]

A class 28?! A true blessing from the Great One! Those resources will be invaluable in spreading the Great One's divine message.

[Darkevilme]

Prophet Kadrass speaks: "Advisor Vehrec must be heeded and our military production curbed, lest our eagerness to cleanse the galaxy lead us to stumble with the first step."

[Eternal_Freedom]

"Regretfully I must agree with the good Prophet and the Advisor. Let us hold our positions and consolidate what we have gained, we would not want to push too far out and be caught with unprepared defences if more xeno scum are out there."

[doom3607]

Spoiler

Damn. Well, the four warships we have now should be enough for a bit. I'll slash military production to 0 but leave everything else. Particularly since, apparently, we still have a monopoly on armed starships... Fortunately the humans have basically expanded as far as they can. Forgot to mention, we also met the Torians and the Yor. The Torians are blocking Terran expansion in the other direction, so the few worlds they have are all they're getting short of invasion. And they don't even have warships...

Very well, Supreme Economist of God the Cosmos Vehrec Maynard Keynes.
Spoiler

Like the title?

[doom3607]

Update time!

---

Transcript of Speech, Made by the Voice of God, New Year's Day 2229

My fellow Faithful of the Order of the Void, it's been two years since we first went to the stars. Almost a year since we first commenced pest control operations against the species called 'human'. We are obliterating their asteroid mining facilities, one bit at a time, in a wave of holy nuclear flame, the very fire of the birth of God.

Recently, our economy has begun to suffer. We stodd, two years ago, with three trillion credits in our coffers, and our souls full of dreams.

But dreams cost. Our economy plunged downwards, to a hundred billion into debt within a year and a half. But we have clawed our way back out of that abyss. I am aware many, if not most, of you are discontent with this. But we have learned. We are improving our economic practices as we speak.



As you can see, we have already climbed back into the black, and continue to climb. I thank you all, Chosen of God, for standing with me in this time of crisis. Our enemy is at our mercy, our position in this new and hostile universe is assured.

Thank you all, and may the new year be better than the old.

---

OOC, a few notes and questions. Vehrec, how much do you know about economics? Just wondering, I'll call you an economist however much you actually know. JonB, how good are you at lies and trickery? I guarantee you- if you treat the computer as you would treat a human player, it'll work fine. SO how good are you at tricking a human? Again, just asking- you're spymaster in any case. Eternal_Freedom, I'm reaserching to be able to arm your ship as we speak- you'll be able to start bombing the Solar System within a few months. SylasGrunt, you'll get the EoJ as soon as the economy recovers, at which point you'll be sent off to scout out the neighborhood. And RecklessPrudence, Sword of Inevitable Justice goes over the max name length- is Sword of Justice OK?

[OmegaChief]

I see sveral habitable planets that we've not jumped on yet, hitting them will mena a higher population and so more tax revinue.

Also I see a new xeno filth on our border, we should send a ship to check this out.

[JonB]

JonB, how good are you at lies and trickery? I guarantee you- if you treat the computer as you would treat a human player, it'll work fine. SO how good are you at tricking a human? Again, just asking- you're spymaster in any case.

Know, know, if people thought they couldn't trust me, what would be the point of lying? Just because I personally conduct... Tourist Interviews, does not mean I'm some sort of secret agent. That's just absurd.

[doom3607]

OOC: No, I'm seriously asking- how good are you at tricking other human players in strategy games into reacting the way you want them to?

And, OOC, we simply do not have the money to develop the admitedly numerous rather marginal worlds around us. The class 28 is pushing it, I just went for it anyway because it'll make us insanely rich and powerful fast.

[JonB]

For the purposes of this game, Above Average but not spectacular. I do prefer to let people go about their own thing and impose the gentle touch when needed.

[RecklessPrudence]

Sword of Justice is fine. It's certainly better than Sword of Inevitable Justice Again.

And Captain OmegaChief? Those habitable planets really have to be above a certain threshold to be suitable for colonisation - I forget what, exactly our research says the threshold is, but certain parts of our Lord are not meant for our people until we are worthy of them, lest He punish us for our hubris.

OOC: In other words, a class 3 or 4, barring some other resource or strategic concerns, is often not worth colonising until you have a fair amount of the terraforming tree. If you have a role in mind and it has bonuses relevant to that role, like a pure research planet with +100% research in a buildsquare, it can be worth it, or if you just need a refueling depot for your fleets, but otherwise it's often a matter of guarding it until it's worth putting first-wave colonists (ie. criminals, shmucks who won 'holidays', and so forth) down on it.

[doom3607]

OOC, exactly- I'm ignoring the hell out of them because they, under more-or-less all circumstances are a net loss, cash-wise. Sometimes you need 'em for some reason or another, like expanding your range or something, but usually it's a better idea to wait for the occasional good world.

[Samuel]

What appears top be the population comparison shows that we are far behind all of our foes. If we have 19 billion, I estimate the Humans and purple have 30 and the Super Breeders have 100 billion. This is bad. I second our estimed economists plan to try to improve our growth rate.

Come to think of it, isn't that the optimal strategy? Reduce taxes to increases population growth rate so that you can tax people more latter?

The only difficulty is the takeoff- if you have a spare colnizer you could shuffle people from populated worlds to empty ones to help deal with that, but at this point simply filling up new worlds tends to be a better choice.

[doom3607]

OOC: We will go bankrupt long before any new world even begins to turn a profit if I do that. I tried. Went bankrupt, got a major rebellion because I had to raise taxes to like 70% or we'd have kept on losing cash.

[Lord Relvenous]

I, Lord Persecutor Kravian, have been summoned by God the Cosmos and all his great glory to the immeasurable expanse that is his form. It is desecrated and mocked by the presence of filthy and sacrilegious scum such as these humans. From my ship, the Hammer of Contempt, I shall teach them of their wickedness with the fires of clensing. To their cities I will be a shining light, just one dot among the innumerable stars of God the Cosmos, but upon these cities will I unleash a holy fire which burns with the strength of the righteous. Against their heretical and hated ships will I stand as an incorruptible servant of His will! Their end shall be meted out by my hand, for the glory of God the Cosmos! Their worlds will burn, their cries for mercy or peace unanswered as I cleanse them from the Holy stars! For God the Cosmos, my faith is relentless, my wrath unbound, and I will not rest until our God is free of these despicable usurpers and weaklings!

OOC: I'd love to join under the name Lord Persecutor Kravian and ship name Hammer of Contempt. I hope that little bit gave you a good idea of Kravian's personality. Think fire and brimstone pastor.

[Eternal_Freedom]

It would seem my influence on the fleet academy has not been wasted...Excellent, more Holy Crusaders to purge the Holy Cosmos of the Unlean Ones...

[Crossroads Inc.]

Dictatorial Capitalist Tyler Xyroadia of the Infamous Coporated Starship Studibaker Reporting for duty!!! Let this great crusade ride forth across the stars from now until the end of time! Let us spread out like a great SPIRAL forever increasing in size as we bring the Galaxy into our great order!

[Raesene]

Captain Raesene reporting - I'd like to join with a ship called 'Provider of Salvation' whenever the economy allows for ship construction again.

[doom3607]

OOC: As soon as I have completed a leetle bit of ship tech I'll go back to improving econ tech. Our economy'll keep going down anyway for a bit until His Mighty Fortress starts work on its economic structures. Then it'll take an extremely sharp turn upwards. At which time our new 'holy crusaders' get to start burninating planets.