Law&Faith - TTT

[Misotu]

Dee has begun building the Merchant Exchange.

And we see from reports that the Believers have kicked off The Planetary Transit System, which is a disaster for UN aspirations to benign dictatorship of all Planet. Someone round here got one *lucky* break. Forget bananas. This is real evidence   

So Brother Kirov, can *you* sell *me* anything?   

[Kirov]

Oh, I don't think you're gonna like it. Since I secured the IA, I got as many as five instabuilds of enhanced crawlers (*-2-2), worth 135 mins each. The PTS is pending completion and I'm afraid you've got only one turn to build the VW.

Now, I wouldn't say it's just dumb luck, I fielded a number of foils and popped numerous pods, many of which brought me IoDs (among other things, with a spore launcher which bombed 2 out of 3 boreholes at my Borehole Cluster... you can imagine my face). Apart from that, I also found 3 or 4 techs and a commlink to Dee, which brought me a cascade of commlinks and techs. But I must confirm that the recent few turns were exceptionally good for me in terms of pods and fruitful exchanges.

What can I sell? IA and Optical Computers are on the table. You understand the price of the former...

[Misotu]

I'm toast      

[Kirov]

The Drones are completing the ME and the Believers are completing the VW.

I'm thinking if I should exchange IA for your NLM and HEC. I guess we both have reasons to be reluctant about it. On the one hand - I still feel I'm giving more here. On the other - that sweet sweet Defence 3 I longed for so much...

[Misotu]

The Peacekeepers announce that they have (finally!) unlocked the secrets of IA ... but report continuing disappointing results from pods. The blindfolds just aren't working well for us at the moment. But apparently there's no way of taking them off   

We'll have to decline your kind offer for the moment. But given current trends, we expect you to have defence 3 any minute 

[Kirov]

So we both have IA but you also have NLM and HEC... Hm... Who should be afraid of whom in this case?

[Kirov]

As far as blind is concerned, really the only stroke of luck I had was Doc:Flexibility. Literally everything good apart from that comes from the pods and AI. But right now something red is coming my way, we'll see if it's Loyalty, or something more useful in defending our borders.

[Misotu]

Sonar data, tidal wave, 25 credits ....  It is rumoured that a number of transport captains have been demoted. Although Noble Leader Misotu was considerably amused by the idea that the Believers have security concerns regarding the UN ...   

[Kirov]

I've got a deal of IoDs, waves and maps as well, but a huge chunk of sea pods is definitely instabuilds. As for the money - it's Yabcok who told me that the cash yield is related to your bank, which is why he doesn't spend anything when popping. I must it worked for me, I get 50/75 ec in my pods.

You use transports for popping? I was never convinced about that. Yeah I know they can get AA and even Ogres, however they're dead whenever an IoD is encountered. And loaded with AAs, they still need to bring them back home.

And coming back to our relations - why don't we sign a Treaty, Sister?

[Misotu]

I didn't know about the credits being related to bank balance! That's interesting.

Now you are offering me a treaty with an innocent expression. But I just don't believe you'd do that unless it would benefit you more than me     Let us not forget, Brother Kirov, that despite being my BFF you voted for the ungodly Zak in the elections! We are bound to be a little circumspect ....


Also, the site internet is rubbish at the moment, I had to download the file quite a few times before I could get it to load. We're going out for dinner in a little while, so I hope that this upload works for you and just to say that I won't be checking in again now until tomorrow. Not that I'm trying to put off the inevitable you understand   

[Misotu]

PS   And yes, I do use transports but it may not be that brilliant an idea - in the old days, as long as you didn't end up right next to them, the IoDs used to ignore you more often than not. Just nip into the fungus and you would rarely die. But that doesn't seem to be the case now 

I have had a few instabuilds, but before it was really worth it sadly.

[Kirov]

Hm, I don't get it, we both run FM/Wealth, why can't we have a Treaty? It came to me earlier but I was just forgetting about it when it was my turn. But our commerce level is equal, amirite? And it's gonna be some time before either of us gets EnvEcon (I hope so).

I'd wish you trusted me more, Sis. I don't know what I did to deserve this distance... 

EDIT: the problem with instabuilds is that they're just okayish before the IA. What really shouldn't have happened in this game is me getting IA before you, that's randomness at work.

[Misotu]

I do trust you Bro, but at the same time I kinda don't. If you know what I mean   

I messed around with blind research before we started playing this but completely forgot all the things I wouldn't be able to do when playing with a human player in the mix. Big mistake 

I don't expect to get env eco in this life the way things are going. My next tech will definitely be no help ...

[Kirov]

I think trust is very important if we are to rule the world together! I have no foul intentions and no means to follow them, if I had any, which I don't. I'm like, Switzerland of the Planet - just minding my own business.

As for blind research, I'm thinking about the way randomness affect gameplay vis a vis the importance of IA. I didn't get IA by research but I bought commlinks to Morgan and was able to do tech exchange. And since AI is stupid, it will buy all your useless techs acquirde via random in exchange for the techs we go for under directed research. So there is that. Still, the time difference between IA acquisition by various factions may be much more severe than under directed research and IA is the "to be or not to be" tech, the one when your game really starts.

Of course, one solution is just to get rid of those crawlers, the most powerful unit in the game. Once I wanted to start a 'no crawlers and choppers' game, but nobody wanted to hop in. People tend to be conservative when it comes to rules.

[Misotu]

It's funny you should say that, I was thinking about a game without crawlers this morning. The problem with crawlers is that everyone beelines them and then just builds a zillion, but on blind failing to get that tech at the right time is pretty fatal. They are fun in some ways, but massively overpowered and they distort the game in both SP and MP. The AI has no idea what to do with crawlers.

I'd definitely be up for trying a game without crawlers and choppers at some point. I find the focus on IA quite dispiriting really and I don't play it well because it's just so dull constantly building them and working out where to put them ...

You did me a favour building the PTS in one way - it meant that Morgan would finally trade with me once that was built   

I'm very fond of Switzerland.