LenWho has six pincers, two cyber-claws, and just accidentally unsealed the nanite menace waiting beyond the L-gate because they forgot to switch off their science vessel automation? This guy! 🤦♂️
Noooo they killed the Tiyanki :(
It looks like my fleets have the right composition to defeat them, but they were drastically out of position. I've lost one inhabited world, and the Artisan Troupe report they lost a station. And the Tiyanki are going to go extinct.
Fuuuuck me. Also don't forget to set Terminal Egress to a "restricted" system, or your damn fleets will path through it on their way back for repairs! 🤦♂️
There goes XuraCorp.
Okay. All fleets are in position.
We're lower in raw power score than their fleets, but our composition should be better.
It's now or never. To Terminal Egress! Death or glory!
Great. And now one of my neighbours has swooped in and claimed Terminal Egress themselves.
Not like I need that system to have a starbase so I can refit the ships I'm using to save the galaxy!... ...from a problem I unleashed, yes, but still.
Cheeky little bastards also took over one of my systems, where the starbase was destroyed by the nanites!
And they've turned down my pointed request for these systems. You would think my overwhelming firepower would be more persuasive. Oh well, I think I can spare one of my fleets to do the persuading in person.
So, the situation is now stable.
Funny thing, though, I noticed I'm not coming first in the rankings (even though I'm really playing this on easy mode), despite second place being rated "pathetic" compared to my tech, economy and military. I also notice that the game can't end in victory for anyone while the nanite crisis is still in progress.
So, I find it politically expedient to just keep my fleets parked in Terminal Egress, for the time being, and not wipe the nanites from the rest of the L-Cluster.
Once I've fortified Terminal Egress itself so that it can look after itself with minimal support from my fleets, I can send those fleets elsewhere to work on getting the top spot. Seems number one has a bunch of vassals...
Right, okay. Another reason why they're ranked number one is that their federation is perhaps a quarter of the galaxy, and apparently now they have fleet strength equal to mine. Nowhere near the economy, of course.
But I have just four fleets, with a fifth in production. I can't fight them all simply because my ships can't be everywhere at once. I need another solution...
Well, for starters, I guess I can start crash-building habitats, for fortress and forge worlds, to get that fleet cap higher. And more matter decompressors.
It seems like a bit of a liability that the matter decompressors have to be around black holes, and most of the black holes are L-Gate systems. But then again, I do control Terminal Egress, and the station there is 70k by itself (a nanite fleet is 40k).
Hm. I want vassals, both for score and because they're annoying me. But if I vassalise them they become protectorates, which means they get a boost to tech, and I do not want anyone getting a leg up in tech.
Then again, if it's only a few hundred tech points maybe it doesn't matter, given I'm on more than a thousand?
rastilinPersonally I was considering the mod that just disables federations outright. Because, inevitably, all the AI empires merge into an UR-federation, seemingly regardless of their ethics, government type, or anything, purely so they can't then be vassalized or conquered.
@rastilin well, I did just wrap up a war on my northern border to gain a vassal, and it was against a small federation.
But yeah, I see what you mean. If I go after this other federation, it will be a hell of a lot of work!
Funnily enough, I did start up a federation myself, with a tiny neighbour that likes me, but they voted no for war, so I was like "well bugger this federation business, then!"...
Yes, exactly, and that's the other problem in that you're chained to the AI and AI decision making. That's also why I avoid defence pacts and alliances, because once you do, your partner will inevitably decide to antagonize a fallen empire or something.
@rastilin I really ought to try playing it with humans again.
I played a few years ago, only it didn't really go well. I just got so utterly left behind in tech. Well, and one guy went way too hard as an evil robot and took fully half the galaxy...
My current game has crises and fallen empires switched off. Both just as a mechanics learning exercise and because, well, I do enjoy winning 😅
That's fair. I like turning off Wormholes for that same reason, it massively complicates the map and just makes life harder. I also used to run with the "no-pirates" mod as well, as they were basically just a random annoyance that you couldn't do anything to stop.
I think they've been bumping fallen empire strength with every single expansion, and I'm not sure if you've seen their ship designs, but even their corvettes are absolutely brutal.
@rastilin last game I played, the crisis happened. I was by far the strongest empire outside of fallen empires and I couldn't deal with it. So that one robo saviour fallen empire woke up and took care of the crisis, and I was like "great, I'm just watching the game play itself, what is the point in this?"
Yeah, there's a lot of luck to the crises. I've had some that were super easy, but, if they spawn on top of a critical planet, in a game that encourages specialization, you can just lose. Or if they spawn on the far opposite edge of the map and just snowball until you can get to them.
I like to play on "Ironman", because it completely changes the strategy you have to use to be a super-defensive play. For example, I know all the meta build guides about how to properly set up corvettes, but I still end up doing a 50/50 on lasers and kinetics so they're fairly ok against everything. That or full autocannon builds and maximum speed so they hunt down and shred anything at close range. Except for bases, those get as many hangars as I can put into them.
Did they fix the bug where fleets with different compositions used to just pick incorrect ranges for their weapons?